Living By Faith

© 19 Colin Melbourne

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Gal. 2:20 KJV

What Does It Mean?

What do you understand by the Christian expression to live by faith?

Divine Sponsorship

The first time I came across it, as a new born in Christ, was in relation to those ministers who trusted the LORD to provide all their financial needs: No salary, no patron, no tithes, no appeals for offerings, they simply expected the LORD to meet all their needs as they followed Him in obedience. Just as Christ taught the first Twelve. (Mtt. 6:28-34).

The LORD Jesus Christ still teaches that, and Father still meets all our needs, as we obey Him.

Many Christians assume that is what the phrase means, but that’s a mere fraction of its scope.

Luther’s Revelation

Martin Luther opened the eyes of Europeans to its far greater significance, and continued what the Bohemian Reformer, Jan Huss, had begun a hundred years earlier.

Luther’s refreshing treatise, On Galatians, kick-started the Reformation, by emphasising the central point of the New Covenant; that a sinner is made acceptable to Almighty God through wholehearted faith in the finished work of The LORD Jesus Christ, apart from any deed, rite, or religious ceremony.

This Gospel fact was revolutionary in Roman Catholic Europe, for which Martin Luther was arraigned by his Catholic peers, and threatened with excommunication and violent death as an heretic.

By God’s grace, Luther stood bold and resolute, willing to die for the truth of God’s written word, and overcame all opposition to re-establish the point, thereby undermining Romanist domination, and leading to the sixteenth century Reformations of; Germany, Bohemia, Armenia, Vaud, Netherlands, Scotland, Wales, and England.

Christ’s revelation to Luther laid a foundation of the Protestant siege against the fortress of false-doctrines of Rome: A sinner is saved by the grace of God by faith alone for whosoever believes in the sacrifice and resurrection of The LORD Jesus Christ.

This basic teaching is so self-evident from the Scriptures, that believers today struggle to perceive how anarchic it was to Europeans smothered under centuries of Dark Age Catholic deception.

But That is Not All

Those meanings of ‘live by faith’ are perfectly valid, but barely scratch the surface of this divine expression under the New Covenant.

Are your ears open?

Will you hear Him today?

Continue reading… How To Live By Faith

© 19 Colin Melbourne