Only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law.  Rom 3:31(b) NLT.

Through faith we establish the law.  Rom.3.31b NASB

And without faith it is impossible to please God.  Heb. 11.6a.

There not just an efficacy of justification by faith which the law could not accomplish.

There is not just a supremacy of faith over the law.

There is actually a fulfillment of the law by the exercise of faith.

The law is not discarded by faith as bad, irrelevant or worthless.  It is fulfilled by faith.

The law alone justifies no one.  Yet the law has its own purpose.  The purpose of the law is fulfilled by faith.

How?  Why?

Why not just discard the law?

The law is God’s expression of His righteousness.  Achieving that high standard is impossible.  Attempting to do so does not accomplish justification.  But it is still His righteous standard.

Living in full compliance with law is impossible.  But fulfilling it is not.  Through faith.

How does faith fulfill the law?

Faith is the full acceptance of both my failures and God’s redemption of me in spite of them.

Faith, and only faith, is the means through which I both enter into God’s favor, and continue to walk in it.  “How foolish can you be?  After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?”  Gal. 3.3.

Faith is not just the first step, it is the only and continuous step.  My walk is not a one-two punch.  I do not and cannot say, thank you, God, for the Cross; now I’ll take it from here.  I say, thank you for the Cross.  Now, keep on taking me from here.

To fulfillment of the law.  To God’s righteous standards.

By faith.

I can add nothing to the Cross.  There is nothing to add.  There is nothing incomplete, lacking or deficient in the work of Christ on the Cross in the first place.

And my efforts, however well-intentioned, do not contribute so much as a drop to the ocean of righteousness Jesus has accomplished.

Sanctification is not Chapter Two.  It is the natural downstream flow and consequence of what God commenced in the first place as I initially and then continuously respond to it with “yes.”  That’s faith.

Abraham believed God and it was counted toward him as righteousness.  Still believing, he obeyed and was circumcised.  Still believing, he obeyed and offered Isaac.  Still believing he accepted the Ram in substitute.

Faith is not just the key to front door.  It is the lifestyle that follows.  A lifestyle where the law is fulfilled.  A continuous lifestyle of faith.

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