Whatever Happened to the Gospel? by R.T. Kendall

Author:R.T. Kendall [R. T. Kendall]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Charisma House
Published: 2018-01-17T00:00:00+00:00

This verse truly reads by itself and should need no comment. But I will call attention to the obvious: Paul says it twice in Galatians 2:16. The first part of the verse says we are justified “by the faith of Jesus Christ.” He might have stopped there, having stated the meritorious cause for God’s righteousness being imputed to us. But had he stopped there, the Barthians of this world would have seized on it! But Paul is no Barthian! So he says more in the same verse: “Even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ.” In other words, being justified by the faith of Jesus is what is at the bottom of our being saved. We believe in order (Greek: hina—“in order that”) that we might have claim upon the faith of Jesus Christ. I’m sorry, but it is sad to see the way modern versions translate Galatians 2:16. They always make faith in Christ redundant by rejecting the subjective genitive that is meant by pistis christou—saying twice if not thrice in the same verse that we believe in Christ.

The faith of Jesus Christ is Paul’s term for the atoning work of our substitute. By this term Paul means:

1. Christ’s life (Rom. 5:10)

2. Christ’s faith (Gal. 2:20)

3. Christ’s death (Rom. 5:9)

4. Christ’s resurrection (Rom. 3:25)

5. Christ’s intercession (as the writer of Hebrews says in Heb. 7:25)

Then Paul shows in Galatians 2:20 how Christians must apply the faith of Christ to their lives. Galatians 2:20 is one of the most magnificent, glorious, and awesome verses in the Bible. One could write a book on this verse alone. But I am dealing primarily with the Gospel and must draw the line on how much to go into it. In short, here is how the faith of Christ may be applied: “I live by the faith of the Son of God” (KJV, emphasis added). It is a lifestyle. The Greek is probably best translated “I live by faith [or faithfulness], namely, that of the Son of God.” Paul applies Galatians 2:20 in a manner that encompasses at least three things:

1. How he knows he has been justified—he lives not by works but by Christ’s life and death.

2. How Christ lives in him—and how this causes us to make a difference in the world by our lives.

3. He lives by the thrilling knowledge that Christ is praying for us at the right hand of God.

Galatians 2:20 therefore embraces Christ’s priestly work at God’s right hand where He ever lives to make intercession for us (Heb. 7:25). At God’s right hand Jesus intercedes with a perfect faith, and we can live by it!

This instant now I may receive

The answer of His powerful prayer;

This instant now by Him I live,

His prevalence with God declare.

—CHARLES WESLEY (1707–1788)

“ENTERED THE HOLY PLACE ABOVE”5

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