Commentary on Galatians (32)
When Scripture says that salvation is by faith and not by works, it is not throwing out works just to make faith a condition that man must fulfill in order to obtain salvation from God, although this is precisely how the doctrine is frequently but mistakenly portrayed, either by explicit statements or by implication. Faith is not a good work or a condition for salvation that God requires from us before he would do anything to save us; instead, God has already decreed and performed all that is necessary to secure the salvation of his chosen ones, and faith in the gospel is precisely one of those things that he has secured for the elect by the work of Christ, and that he sovereignly produces in their minds when he commands them to believe and summons them to himself by the gospel. There is therefore no place for boasting. Salvation comes from God through Christ alone. We cannot even boast about our faith, since it is a sovereign gift of God, merited by Christ for the elect.
Again, when we refer to justification by faith, we are emphasizing the contrast between faith and works. But works do not occur independently of persons – a work is performed by someone. Therefore, to seek to be justified by our works is not to depend on works as such, but it is in fact an attempt to save ourselves by ourselves. Likewise, just as there is no work without a subject, there is no faith without an object. We are not saved by faith as such, as if we can just "believe" with no object in view, or as if we can believe in just anything and be saved, just as long as we believe. No, rather, our faith must be directed to the proper object, and it is this object of faith that saves us.
This object, of course, is Christ. And since faith is intellectual assent to true propositions, when we say we have faith in "Christ," this object is represented by "the gospel," which is a set of propositions about the person and work of Christ. And however simple or limited in its presentation, this is theology. This also means that theology is necessary if we are going to have faith at all. And herein is the relation between salvation and theology – we do not say that one must become a professional or academic theologian to be saved, but we must say that no one can be saved without believing the correct theology, and one believes the correct theology because God causes him to do so by divine grace and power, according to the eternal decree and election.
Our short passage by itself contains and implies several essential things that one must believe about Christ.
Regarding his person, Paul states that Christ is "the Son of God," but he was also "crucified." In these two ideas are contained the doctrines of the divinity and the humanity of Christ. That he is "the Son" assumes the biblical doctrine of the Trinity (although the entire teaching cannot be deduced from this alone), and that there is a filial relationship between the Son and the Father. That he could be crucified assumes that he took upon himself a human body, so that he appeared on the earth not merely as a phantom or apparition. His suffering included genuine physical pain and death.
Because Scripture reveals these two truths concerning Christ's person, it is necessary to understand and affirm both of them. By definition, anyone who rejects either doctrine cannot be a Christian. And by definition, any message that neglects either doctrine cannot be the Christian gospel. Such a man is not saved, and such a message cannot save. Thus the proper objects of faith, in terms of doctrines and propositions to be affirmed, include the Trinity of God, the divinity of Christ, and the humanity of Christ. Even if we go no further, it is obvious that all non-Christian theologies, philosophies, religions (including Hinduism, Buddhism, and so on), and all cults and heresies claiming a Christian basis (such as Catholicism, Islam, Baha'ism, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, and so on) convey no saving message and will doom all its adherents to eternal condemnation in hell.
Regarding his work, Paul writes that Christ "loved me and gave himself for me." In the Gospel of John, we read, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). Likewise, the Son "loved" and therefore "gave himself." Paul does not say Christ "owed me and gave himself for me," but that he "loved me and gave himself for me." The Father decreed redemption out of divine love, and the Son executed the decree also out of love. Man initiated nothing, and nothing depended on his worth or merit. In other words, salvation is of divine decree and grace, not human desire and effort.
Because he "loved me," Paul writes, Christ "gave himself for me." In context, the giving of himself refers to Christ's crucifixion and death, which from the rest of Scripture we understand to be a sacrificial and substitutionary atonement. The contrast between the impossibility of being "justified by observing the law" and the necessity of being "justified…by faith in Jesus Christ" suggests the doctrine of the imputation of righteousness from Christ to the Christians, a teaching even more obviously asserted elsewhere in Scripture. And this doctrine or proposition is also part of the object that true faith affirms.
Our point, then, is that justification by faith stands as a proper contrast against justification by works, and thus the term is accurate and meaningful when the background against which it is used is understood and assumed. Yet faith itself saves no one, but it is the object of faith that saves through the faith that this object generates in the person. And this faith's object is "Christ," which as an object of intellectual assent consists of true propositions regarding his person and his work, including the Trinity of God, the divinity of Christ, the humanity of Christ, sovereign grace, divine election, the substitutionary atonement, and the imputation of righteousness to the chosen ones, whose salvation are revealed through the faith that God provides and generates in them. Justification by faith is an accurate and meaningful term as long as it represents justification by Christ, who saves us apart from our works but by giving us faith in him.