The Just Shall Live By Faith

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written,  
The just shall live by faith. 

Romans 1:17 

Our text is the heart of the gospel.  Justification by faith is the articulation of how God accepts us. It is the most liberating of doctrines. Once we understand it, we see how it has always been the foundation of our acceptance with God. We can go back in history to the first articulation of it where we read in the narrative of Abraham, ‘and he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.’ Justification is at the foundation of free grace. If God has made Christ, Who knew no sin, to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, then all the righteousness we have is of God by Christ. This is the knife in the heart of all works-righteousness. When Martin Luther had exhausted himself with all forms of works to attempt to alleviate his guilt, it was this truth of justification by faith that liberated him. Once he understood it, he began to take on the religio-political business firm in Rome. People who understand justification by faith become exceedingly hard to manipulate. Unpleasantly in our day this truth has become obfuscated by performance-based religion. Thus, as people have not understood justification, they have become subject to religious manipulation from Christless, man-centered guilt theology. The truth remains and we declare it as we preach Christ. The just shall live by faith. 

Our Glorious, Living God. 
We rejoice in the gospel of free grace. 
We praise You that we are justified 
through Christ alone. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning