Grace in Galatians (Part 82): You Can't Pay For Righteousness That Was Already PAID IN FULL
Today, we continue our series entitled “Living the Grace Life,” where we will learn to embrace and walk in God’s unmerited, unearned, and often undeserved favor throughout 2025.
As part of this series, I am teaching a verse-by-verse exposition of the book of Galatians.
Key scriptures for this year:
(2 Corinthians 9:8 TPT)
"Yes, God is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace, so that you will have more than enough of everything—every moment and in every way. He will make you overflow with abundance in every good thing you do."
(Galatians 5:4 TPT)
"If you want to be made right with God by fulfilling the obligations of the law, you have cut off more than your flesh—you have cut yourselves off from Christ and have fallen away from the revelation of grace!"
(Romans 6:14 ERV)
"Sin will not be your master, because you are not under law. You now live under God's grace."
(1 Corinthians 15:10 CEV)
"But God treated me with undeserved grace! He made me what I am, and his grace wasn't wasted. I worked much harder than any of the other apostles, although it was really God's grace at work and not me."
Scripture we will study today:
(Galatians 3:11 NIV)
“Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because ‘the righteous will live by faith.'”
(Galatians 3:11 MSG)
“The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with God that way. The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you.”
(Hebrews 10:38 KJV)
“Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.”
(Romans 4:4-5 TPT)
“When people work, they earn wages. It can’t be considered a free gift, because they earned it. But no one earns God’s righteousness. It can only be transferred when we no longer rely on our own works, but believe in the one who powerfully declares the ungodly to be righteous in his eyes. It is faith that transfers God’s righteousness into your account!”
Setting the Stage:
Yesterday, we established that no one achieves righteousness by keeping the Law and that faith and Law are two completely different operating systems. Today, I want to dig deeper into this truth from Galatians 3:11.
Think about it: In the natural world, you can’t earn something that has already been paid for, and you can’t pay for something that was given to you as a gift. All you can do with a gift is receive it! In God’s Kingdom, as it relates to righteousness and salvation, it works the same way.
The Judaizers were trying to pay for their sin and earn their way to righteousness by keeping the Law. But Paul says, “Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified.” Why? Because in God’s Kingdom, the payment for sin has already been made, and with Jesus it was PAID IN FULL!
So, what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. God Has Already Done Everything, And Your Job Is To Believe And Receive!
The Message translation captures this beautifully: “Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you.” This completely flips religion on its head!
How this applies to you:
— Stop trying to do FOR God and start receiving what God has done FOR YOU! Religion says, “Do more, try harder, be better.” Grace says, “It’s finished, receive it, rest in it!” The work is complete; your part is to believe!
— Every spiritual blessing is already yours in Christ! Ephesians 1:3 says you’ve been blessed with EVERY spiritual blessing in heavenly places. You don’t work for them; you access them by faith. Faith is the hand that receives what grace has already provided!
— God isn’t waiting for you to qualify, because Jesus qualified FOR you. God is waiting for you to believe, because faith is His requirement OF you! He’s not checking your performance record or your spiritual résumé. He’s looking for faith! The only qualification for God’s blessings is believing you’re unqualified but receiving them anyway!
— Your efforts to earn God’s favor actually insult God and His grace! When you try to pay for a gift, you offend the giver. God’s blessings are gifts, not wages! Stop insulting grace by trying to earn what’s freely given!
— The Christian life isn’t about achieving but receiving! You’re not climbing a ladder to God; you’re resting in the fact that God came down to you! Jesus didn’t say “achieve and you shall receive.” He said, “…whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24).
— What looks like inactivity to religion is actually the highest activity of faith! Resting in God’s finished work requires more faith than religious busyness. It takes more faith to rest than to stress and strive!
— God has already said YES to you in Christ! 2 Corinthians 1:20 says all God’s promises are YES in HIm and He is looking for the AMEN from you. The YES has already been spoken! Your faith is simply agreeing with God’s YES by providing Him your agreement (AMEN)!
2. The Just Live By Faith Because Justice Has Already Been Served!
When Paul quotes “the righteous will live by faith,” he’s making a profound legal statement. In God’s courtroom, justice has been fully satisfied through Christ. You don’t live by faith to obtain justice; you live by faith because justice has already been served!
How this applies to you:
— The verdict is already in, and you’ve been declared NOT GUILTY! Romans 8:1 declares there is NO condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. The gavel has come down, the case is closed! Faith isn’t trying to win your case; faith is celebrating that your case has already been won!
— The Law demanded justice, and grace provided it! The Law said “the soul that sins must die,” and Jesus said “I’ll die in their place.” Faith doesn’t bypass justice; faith receives the justice that Jesus satisfied!
— Jesus took your death sentence so you could receive His life sentence! He didn’t just die for you; He died AS you! When God looks at the cross, He sees justice fully satisfied. The penalty has been PAID IN FULL! Faith simply receives the benefit of that payment!
— You’re not on probation; you’re completely pardoned! Some Christians live like they’re out on bail, one mistake away from going back to prison. I know, because I used to be one of them. I used to confess my sins to a Priest on Saturday mornings. During that process, he would assign me a penance (which means punishment or payment). First of all, that process is not Biblical because I cannot pay for sins that Jesus already paid for. But, getting past that, I would then live the rest of the week believing that I was only “good” until I sinned again, and then confessed my sins again. In this way, I was living like someone who was on parole or probation, not someone who had been completely pardoned! To be clear, with Jesus, your record hasn’t just been cleaned; it has been replaced with Christ’s perfect record.
— Stop living like a defendant when you’re now a son or daughter! You’re not in the courtroom anymore; you’re in the Father’s house! The judge has become your Father! Faith moves you from the courtroom to the living room!
— Living by faith is living in the freedom of a paid debt! Imagine if someone paid off your mortgage, but you kept making payments. That’s what living by Law after grace is like! Faith enjoys the freedom that Christ’s payment purchased!
3. Living By Faith Is A Continuous Lifestyle, Not A One-Time Event!
When Paul says “the righteous will LIVE by faith,” he’s talking about an ongoing way of life. The Greek word for “live” means to have life, to be alive, to live life to its fullest!
How this applies to you:
— Faith isn’t just how you GET saved; it’s how you LIVE saved! You don’t graduate from faith to works. You grow from faith to faith! You were saved by faith (Ephesians 2:8-9), you walk by faith (2 Corinthians 5:7), you live by faith (Romans 1:17), you pray by faith (James 5:15), you fight by faith (1 Timothy 6:12), and you overcome by faith (1 John 5:4)!
— Everything in the Kingdom operates by faith! Healing comes by faith. Provision comes by faith. Peace comes by faith. Joy comes by faith. If you want to receive from God, you must use Heaven’s currency: Faith!
— Faith is both the starting line and the finish line! Romans 1:17 says righteousness is revealed “from faith to faith.” You begin with faith, continue with faith, and finish with faith. It’s faith all the way through!
— Living by faith means daily dependence, not just crisis management! Faith isn’t just for emergencies; it’s for everyday life.
— Faith is active rest, not passive laziness! Living by faith doesn’t mean doing nothing. It means doing everything FROM a position of rest in God’s finished work. The highest form of faith is rest!
— Every morning, you choose: Will I live by faith or by sight today? Will I trust God’s Word or my circumstances? Will I operate by faith or by feelings? The righteous CHOOSE to live by faith every single day!
— Living by faith is living by God’s reality, not earth’s reality! Faith sees what God says as more real than what your eyes see. Faith doesn’t deny facts; it just believes God’s truth is greater than facts!
4. The Righteous Live FROM Their Righteousness, Not FOR Their Righteousness!
This is crucial: Paul doesn’t say the righteous will BECOME righteous by faith. He says the righteous (those already made righteous) will LIVE by faith!
How this applies to you:
— You don’t live by faith to become righteous; you live by faith because you ARE righteous! Your righteousness is settled; now live from that reality! Righteousness is your starting point, not your goal!
— Every day you wake up righteous! You don’t lose your righteousness overnight and have to re-earn it each morning. You wake up as righteous as you were when Christ saved you! Your righteousness is as constant as God’s faithfulness!
— Live like who you are, not who you were! You’re not a sinner trying to become righteous; you are a righteous person learning to stop sinning! Identity determines behavior; behavior doesn’t determine identity!
— Your righteousness is the foundation for your faith life! You can pray boldly because you’re righteous. You can resist the devil because you’re righteous. You can expect miracles because you’re righteous! Righteousness gives you confidence in faith!
— Stop trying to maintain your righteousness through performance! Christ maintains your righteousness through His finished work. Your job is to believe it and live from it! Jesus is both the author and maintainer of your righteousness!
— The devil’s greatest weapon is making you doubt your righteousness! If he can make you question your position, he can paralyze your faith. If the devil can get you to question your salvation, you won’t have any confidence in any area of your life. Becuase if you think you are “may” go to hell, then what confidence do you want to lay hands on the sick? Or even to walk into a boardroom with God’s presence? This is why satan wants to get you to question your righteous position in Christ. He knows that if you stand firm in your righteousness, your faith will be unstoppable!
That's enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You that You have already done everything, and my job is simply to believe and receive!
Justice has been fully satisfied through Jesus Christ—the verdict is in and I am NOT GUILTY!
I am not on probation; I am completely pardoned with Christ’s perfect record!
I stop trying to earn what You’ve already freely given as a gift!
Faith isn’t just how I got saved; it’s how I LIVE saved every single day!
I choose to live by faith, walk by faith, pray by faith, fight by faith, and overcome by faith!
I live FROM my righteousness, not FOR my righteousness—I AM righteous RIGHT NOW!
Every morning I wake up as righteous as the day Christ saved me!
I refuse to let the devil make me doubt my righteous position in Christ!
I am Living the Grace Life in 2025, and GREATER IS COMING FOR ME!
I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen!
This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!
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