Galatians 4:3-5, “3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: 4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”
A very short and concise statement of the purpose of the Law follows:
“Judaism was physical, external, and temporal; Christianity is spiritual, internal, and permanent. These externals were a form of bondage to the children.”
[Believer’s Bible Commentary]
As Martin Luther “repeated his prayers on the Lateran staircase, the words of the prophet Habakkuk came suddenly to his mind: ‘The just shall live by faith.’ Thereupon he ceased his prayers, returned to Wittenberg, and took this as the chief foundation of all his doctrine. Luther himself said of this text, ‘Before those words broke upon my mind I hated God and was angry with him because not content with frightening us sinners by the law and by the miseries of life, he still further increased our torture by the gospel. But when, by the Spirit of God, I understood those words – “The just shall live by faith!” “The just shall live by faith!” – then I felt born again like a new man; I entered through the open doors into the very Paradise of God. Habakkuk 2:4, “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.”’
[https://bible.org/seriespage/41-just-shall-live-faith-habakkuk]
Habakkuk 2:4, “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.”
This verse contains an antithesis. Lifted, puffed up, haughty applied to those in power at the time of Habakkuk. The just sought righteousness and to be obedience leading a holy life. Paul used “the just” in three of his epistles.
How are we justified? Romans 1:17, “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”
How shall we live? Galatians 3:11, “But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.”
We stay in faith by not turning away from Christ. Hebrews 10:38, “Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.”
Matthew 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
Jesus had not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfill them. Jesus insisted that not one jot or one tittle would pass from the law until it was completely fulfilled.
Galatians 4:6-7, “6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”
I’m saved by grace and not under the Law, nevertheless, obedience should follow including the Ten Commandments. Further we are to “Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you.”
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