Galatians 2:20: The Faith of the Son of God
I would like this morning to share from Galatians 2:20 concerning a particular aspect of
Christ’s substitution of Himself on our behalf. Paul writes, I have been crucified with
Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives 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 delivered
Himself up for me. Galatians 2:20 NAS/KJV
Please pray with me. “Father, the natural mind does not understand the things of the
Spirit. We pray, therefore, that Your Spirit will illumine our understanding, even as you
did for the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, in a way that will engender deeper faith
within us as well as a greater desire to pursue you,. We pray this in Christ. Amen.”
I have spoken considerably in recent years concerning the Incarnation and, more
specifically, Christ substituting Himself on our behalf before God. As the author of
Hebrews writes, since the children share in flesh and blood (our humanity), He
Himself (God) likewise also partook of the same … that by the grace of God He
might taste death for everyone … that through death He might render powerless
him who had the power of death, that is, the devil … therefore, He had to be made
like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high
priest in all things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people
… . Hebrews 2:14, 9, 17 Christ has taken on our sinful human nature and carried it to
the cross in our place.
Thus, Paul writes, I am crucified with Christ – He has taken my life into His – and
when Christ died on the cross, I died with Him. Furthermore, the life that I now
live is equally in Christ – that is, I not only died to sin in Him, but I also now live to
God through Him. Gal 2:20 Paraphrase Or, as Paul writes to the Colossians, For you
have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is
revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Col 3:3-4 This is the
substitutionary nature of Christ in terms of taking our humanity into Himself and
standing in our place before God. As Katie Grow shared last week, this love of God is
offered as a gift through Christ to all men and women, without exception.
But I want us this morning to consider just how radical Christ’s substitution of Himself in
our place is by looking at a very interesting phrase in Galatians 2:20, something that I
have never heard emphasized in our teaching. Chances are, if you look at your Bible
translation, it reads something like this: … I live by faith in the Son of God … Gal 2:20
NIV
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… I live by faith in the Son of God … NAS
… [this life] is lived by faith in the Son of God … Message
… the real life I now have within this body is a result of my trusting in the
Son of God … TLB
This last rendering by the Living Bible represents what is probably the most common
understanding of this verse: “it is my faith in Christ that links me to eternal life in God.”
But I want us to consider a significantly different rendering of this phrase. If one looks at
the Greek/English Interlinear Bible, the literal translation is I live by the faith of the Son
of God … . Gal 2:20 Interlinear Bible So, the King James Version seems the most
literal of our English translations when it states “I live by the faith of the Son of God,”
rather than, as the other translations imply, living by my own faith in the Son of God. Is
this an important distinction between the faith of Jesus Christ, on the one hand, and my
own faith, on the other hand?
As we address this question, let me emphasize that, in our doctrine of Christ’s
substitutionary work, we bring nothing to the plate in terms of our own merit or
worthiness. In one of our most popularly quoted New Testament verses, Paul writes: For
by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift
of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. Eph 2:8-9 We usually
take this verse to mean that our salvation is purely a gift of God, quite apart from
anything we can contribute. But, wait! Doesn’t Paul here say that we have been saved
through faith, and [even such faith] is not of yourselves? Is it possible that faith also is as
much a part of the gift of grace as is any other aspect of our salvation? If faith is not a
gift, but something that I contribute, do I then have something potentially about which I
can boast or for which I can take credit?
In answering this further question, let us consider Hebrews 12, where the author states
that we are to [fix] our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith … . Heb 12:2
By describing Jesus as the author of faith, the writer means that Jesus is the source and
originator of faith. This is quite important, for it means that faith does not begin with
you or me. Faith is not something that, if I try hard enough, I can pump up within
myself. According to this verse, it is only in Jesus Christ that we see authentic faith, and
it is only as He authors and perfects such faith us that we can truly believe.
Paul’s puts it like this in Romans 10: faith comes by hearing [what is told], and what is
heard comes by the preaching [of the message that came from the lips] of Christ (the
Messiah Himself). Rom 10:17 AMP/NAS Please note carefully that this verse
emphasizes that we are not talking merely of reading the logos word of the Bible or
sitting through a sermon listening to an exposition of God’s word. Rather, it is as Christ
Himself speaks His word to us through His Spirit – the rhema word of God – that faith is
actually birthed within us. I believe this is Paul’s meaning in Galatians, when he asks:
This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the
works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Gal 3:2 There is this interplay between
our hearing the Spirit-inspired word of God, which generates faith within us, and in the
same breath our being filled with God’s Spirit, which also generates faith. As God
speaks His word to us through His Spirit, it engenders faith, and as faith is engendered,
we are able to receive the things of the Spirit through that same faith. Thus it is that the
author of Hebrews can write: [Jesus Himself is] the Source of our faith (giving the
first [spark] for our belief) … . Heb 12:2 AMP
Paul speaks further in Galatians of this living breath of Christ working within us when he
states: Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts,
crying, “Abba! Father!” Gal. 4:6 It is the Holy Spirit who breathes such life into us.
So, in speaking of faith, let us understand that faith does not begin with you or me
purposing that I will believe and then seeking to pump it up within myself. Rather, real
faith can only come as we are in personal interaction with Christ, and as we are hearing
His word spoken to our mind and spirit through the Holy Spirit. Thus it is that Jesus is
the author and originator of our faith. For apart from such grace and inspiration, as one
who is absolutely dead in my sin, I am utterly incapable of authentic faith unless it is
breathed into me from the Lord Himself.
Thus, we must better appreciate just how radical is the nature of Christ standing as our
substitute before God. It is the faith of the Son of God, as Paul states in Galatians 2:20,
rather than my own, human-generated attempt at faith, that gives me standing through
Christ before the Father. Of this reality, Torrance writes: We need to learn and learn
again and again that salvation by grace alone is so radical that we have to rely upon
Christ Jesus entirely in everything, and that it is only when we rely on Him alone
that we are really free to believe: “Not I but Christ” and “Christ in Me.” This
applies even to “my” faith in God.
But we come to a another question: “Doesn’t the Bible command you and me to believe?
Doesn’t Jesus say, ‘All things are possible to him who believes?’ And doesn’t the author
of Hebrews say, ‘Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for He who comes to God
must believe that He is?’” Indeed, over the years, I have read verses such as these, and I
have purposed that I will believe, and that I will have faith. And that I will exercise
positive confession, and that I will choose to confess faith in response to God’s promises,
even when I do not see evidence of their fulfillment. But here we must recognize that
there is a very subtle principle of looking to oneself, and to one’s own resources to
produce a kind of belief that is really a human product based on one’s own ability rather
than the grace of God. Torrance observes: There is a kind of subtle Pelagianism in
preaching and teaching which has the effect of throwing people back in the last
resort on their own act of faith, so that in the last analysis responsibility for their
salvation rests upon themselves, rather than Christ.
Let me explain Torrance’s reference to Pelagius. Pelagius was a heretical opponent of
Augustine and taught that while Christ has made a way for our salvation, it then depends
upon our own faith in receiving Christ through the exercise of our free will. That is, I
have something to contribute to my salvation, and that “something” is my own faith that
comes out of my own nature of free will. And here is where we meet a very subtle, but
vital distinction. That is, if it is my own faith, and my own free will, then my salvation is
not based entirely upon the grace of God, and I do have something to contribute to my
salvation. Dear brethren, we cannot and must not accept this position. And though we
give lip service to salvation entirely by grace, I fear that in principle we often are relying
far more on our own human resources in attempting to pump up faith and belief.
In stark contrast, let us see the beauty of Christ penetrating into our humanity and
carrying each one of us within Himself as He represents us to God by His faith: … the
life we now live … we live by the faith of the Son of God. That is, there is only one
faith that is worthy to stand before God, and that is the faith of God Himself as expressed
through Son of God. It is ultimately His faith, and not my own, that can be counted by
God as legitimate.
So, you might ask me, “John, after all these years of emphasizing free will and human
responsibility, are you now taking the position that free will and our own expression of
faith is unimportant or nullified?” By no means! For when I hear the word of Christ as
He speaks it to me through His Spirit, it engenders faith – His faith – at work in me. And
for the first time in my existence, it enables true human freedom where I may, through
that same grace, freely respond to and obey Him. That is, my freedom and human
responsibility is not cancelled out, but, for the first time, it is enabled that I might be truly
free to say “Yes” to God and cooperate with His work in me. Indeed, I can work out my
salvation in fear and trembling because He has set me free from my bondage to sin and is
at work within me, as we recently shared in Philippians 2, both to will and to work for
His good pleasure (Phil 2:12-13).
In this context, I so appreciate the illustration concerning faith that Christ gives us in
Luke 17: And the apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" And the Lord
said, "If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, 'Be
uprooted and be planted in the sea'; and it would obey you.” Luke 17:5-6 I believe,
in the context of this parable, that the apostles are saying to the Lord, “Help us increase
our own faith.” That is, they are thinking about faith in terms of their own human effort
to generate belief.
In this vein, I remember earlier in my Christian life thinking to myself, if I could just
have more faith when I prayed, this person would be healed, or God would do this or that
in response to my entreaties. And, so, I would follow formulas of positive confession and
denying doubt and doing whatever I could to work up faith. But if this is our approach to
faith, when it comes to faith for our salvation, we can never be sure of our salvation
because we are never sure that our faith is enough. That is, if I don’t have enough faith to
have certain prayers answered the way that I pray them, how can I be sure that I have
enough faith for my salvation? In this context, can we see that this approach to faith is
just another form of human works?
I believe this is what Jesus is getting at in this illustration in Luke 17. A mustard seed is
one of the tiniest of garden seeds. It is really about the size of a grain of sand. But when
we have faith that is imparted from Christ Himself, even if it is as small as a grain of
mustard seed, it is far greater in its effect than buckets and buckets of human-generated
“faith and belief.” It is only this faith that comes from Christ Himself – the faith of the
Son of God – the faith that comes through hearing Him speak to our minds and hearts
through His Spirit – that is real faith. Yes, I am to have faith in God, for without faith it
is impossible to please Him. But it is to be faith that comes from the Author of faith –
rather than human-generated, positive confession and belief.
This is why the Living Bible rendition of Galatians 2:20, and others like it, are, I believe,
theologically incorrect, in stating: the real life I now have within this body is a result of
my trusting in the Son of God … TLB No, it is not me and my trust, ultimately. Rather,
it is the faith of the Son of God who stands before God on my behalf. Indeed, this gives
me great comfort when I am weak and unbelieving, to know that a mighty Savior stands
interceding before the throne of God on my behalf, and that His faith never fails, even
when I am faint and weary.
It is in this context that we can better appreciate the story of the father who brought his
demon possessed child to the disciples of Jesus for deliverance. His disciples failed in
their prayers, but when the father came directly to Jesus, Jesus said unto him, If thou
canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the
father of the child cried out, and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine
unbelief.” Matt 9:22-24 KJV
So it is that this kind of faith, even if it is as small as a grain of mustard seed, is better
than the buckets of positive confession and belief generated through human effort.
Torrance illustrates such faith as follows: I sometimes recall what happened when my
daughter was learning to walk. I took her by the hand to help her, and I can still
feel her little fingers tightly clutching my hand. She was not relying on her feeble
grasp of my hand, but on my strong grasp of her hand, and even my grasping of her
grasping of my hand. So faith, when it is faith that comes in response to hearing
Christ’s word spoken to us, even though as small as a grain of mustard seed, is enough, in
that it reaches out to God through Christ. Such faith, though weak and doubting, is
grasped and held in the mighty hand of God, who loves us so much that He reaches out to
hold us, and to all men and women without exception, unless for some inexplicable
reason we pull our empty hand back from His and refuse His reaching out to us.
Therefore, as Paul writes, I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who
live, but Christ lives 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 delivered Himself up for me. Galatians
2:20 Torrance writes: Substitution understood in this radical way means that Christ
takes our place in all our human life and activity before God, even in our believing,
praying and worshipping of God, for he has yoked himself to us in such a profound
way that he stands in for us, and upholds us at every point in our human relations
before God. Such is the Trinitarian love of God for us, expressed through the Son, and
actualized in our lives through the Holy Spirit.
Please pray with me. Father, we thank you that in the provision of Your Son, we
have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to
the riches of Your grace which You have lavished upon us. We pray that You will
continue to give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the true knowledge of
Yourself, so that we may more completely understand what is the hope of Your
calling and the riches of the glory of Your inheritance in the redeemed as those
called us into the very communion and fellowship of the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit. We pray, according to Your power that works within us by Your Spirit, that
You will do exceeding abundantly more than we can ask or think in bringing us into
a greater knowing of Yourself, that we might be filled up to overflowing with Your
love, and that we might be the radical community of love and grace that will
proclaim Your reality to the world around us. May You be glorified in this church,
and Your purposes for this specific body be fully accomplished. In Christ we pray.
Amen!