Justification by faith

In Genesis 31, Jacob refers to Isaac’s fear as the LORD Himself, the God who was with him during his sojourn in Syria in his service to his uncle Laban. This way of speaking is equivalent to referring to our faith as the One we believe. Thus, scripture gives the precedence for referring to faith’s object as our faith.

"Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight" (Gen. 31:42).

From Jacob’s confession, we understand that the "fear of Isaac" was not Isaac's attitude of reverence, but the One Isaac believed in reverence and godly fear (Heb. 12:28). Jacob said this One was his fear also. Jacob spoke these words after twenty years of persecution under his uncle Laban (Gal. 4:28-29). From similar circumstances, the Psalmist confessed His hope: “Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of thy word” (Ps. 119:161). As a child reverences his father, and stands in awe of him, so the child of God stands in awe and reverence of God. The fear of God is the reverential awe of a child for His Father. All men ought to fear God their Maker in this way. “Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him” (Ps. 33:8). But no man fears God until God instills his fear in man’s heart. Scripture says of all men, “There is no fear before their eyes” (Rom. 3:18). Until we believe Christ, we will not fear God’s goodness (Hosea 3:5).

But this point about faith can be drawn from Genesis 31:42. Isaac's “fear” was the LORD Himself. His fear was the One he believed, the object of his fear. Just so, the believer's “faith” is the One he believes. All who have been given the gift of faith believe Christ crucified. To believe the Son of God, is to believe that He who is the Son of God in His divine nature, is God’s eternally appointed Christ, and has come in sinless human nature as our Substitute and Mediator. He has fulfilled God’s holy law in precept and in justice. Christ fulfilled the law to honor God’s name and to establish everlasting righteousness for His people (Matt. 5:17; Rom. 10:4; Dan. 9:24). He took the sins of God’s elect and bore them as His own (1 Pet. 2:24; Ps. 40:12). He endured the curse of God’s law that was upon us (Gal. 3:13). He made satisfaction for sins (Rom. 3:25; Isa. 53:11). Christ fulfilled the law in its precept and its penalty in completion and in perfection (John 19:30; Rom. 10:4; Heb. 7:11, 19; 10:14). Love fulfills the law. Christ fulfilled the law by His love to His Father (Deut. 6:5, His God) and by His love for His people (Luke 10:25-37, His neighbor). Christ’s love is the only love that fulfills the law (Mark 12:28-34). His love for His Father moved Him to lay down His life as a sacrifice in obedience because His law is worthy of Christ’s obedience (Heb. 10; Php. 2:6-8; John 10:17-18; 14:31; Ex. 21:2-6; Ps. 40:8; 119:47, 48, 97; Ps. 138:2). His love for His people moved Him to lay down His life for them, though by their sin they made themselves His enemies (Eph. 5:25; Gal. 2:20; 1 John 3:16; Acts 20:28; Rom. 5:10). Therefore, the object of the believer’s faith is Christ crucified. The object of our faith is Christ, who by His fulfillment of God’s law  in His obedience unto death, is the righteousness of God (Jer. 23:6). Only faith’s object fulfilled God’s law in its precept and its penalty (2 Pet. 1:1). Therefore, the faith by which we are justified before God is Christ’s obedience (Rom. 5:17-19, 21). Christ’s obedience is our righteousness (Php. 2:8; 2 Cor. 5:21). God’s declaration to that fact in His resurrection is our justification. By Christ’s resurrection, God declared Him to be righteous (Rom. 4:25). And God declares the believer to be righteous by the righteousness of Christ imputed to him (1 Cor. 1:30; Rom. 4:6-8; Heb. 1:3; 10:14). Therefore, we were justified with Christ in His resurrection (Rom. 4:25). The faith by which God enlightens our understanding to Christ the object of our faith, persuades us that God’s testimony concerning His Son is true. We therefore look to Christ alone as all of our salvation (1 John 5:9-13). Whenever we give a reason for the hope that lies within, we point away from ourselves to the Lamb of God. He is Himself the Way, Truth and Life, our faith and our hope (1 Pet. 3:15; 1 Tim. 1:1). As Jacob confessed when facing the persecution of that deceiving Laban, so do we when our sins and fears persecute us. When accusations from within and from without threaten to rob us of our peace and joy in Christ, our salvation and inheritance, as Jacob confessed, “the fear of Isaac” was his fear, so we join every saint in saying, “our faith is Christ crucified.” We refer to our Savior as our faith because He is the One we believe. The Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil world and redeem us from all iniquity and the curse of God’s holy law is Himself our faith (Gal. 1:4; Titus 2:14; Gal. 2:20). Our Redeemer is our faith. “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law, there shall no flesh be justified” (Gal. 2:16). When Christ is our faith, we believe Him. In believing Him as our righteousness, and not in believing our act of faith, we possess that peace and joy that God gives to everyone who sees Christ as all. He is our faith, the One we believe, the One by whom God delivered us from all our enemies and in whom, God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places (Eph. 1:3-7).

God declares Christ crucified in the Gospel. His testimony concerning Christ is the testimony of Christ’s person and work. His work is the righteousness of God by which we are justified (Rom. 3:21-22, 24-26). This is the Gospel. When He declares it to us by His Spirit, it is the power of God to our salvation, and in which we live (Rom. 1:16-17; 1 Pet. 1:23; James 1:18; John 6:63; 1 John 5:9-13). His command to live breathes His Spirit to us with faith in Christ (Ezek. 37:4-14). The breath of God’s Spirit enables us to believe as breath enables us to live (Gal. 2:20). Faith is identified by its object. It is Christ crucified. Therefore, “the faith of Christ” takes the words from Genesis to throw the weight of faith’s virtue onto Christ where it belongs. When we say, “We are justified by the faith of Christ,” we mean, “we are justified by the One we believe.” We believe in Him our righteousness (2 Pet. 1:1). Christ crucified is our justification. We are justified by His blood (Rom. 5:9). “Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac” (Gen. 31:53). The believer lives and is assured of eternal life by the faith of Christ, the LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS (Jer. 23:5; Isa. 45:24-25). “24 Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. 25 In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory” (Isa. 45:24-25). Christ is the object of our faith. He is our righteousness, our justification, our glory, our all (Col. 2:9-10; 3:10-11).

Rick Warta