Living By Faith In The Son

So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.
Galatians 3:24

Although the Galatians had graduated from “law school,” they were living like undergraduates. But the law’s work as their schoolmaster was finished. Since they had received salvation through faith in Christ, they didn’t need to return to their “alma mater.” Paul reminded them that the law’s chief purpose was to point men and women to faith in Christ.

As Christians, the Galatians were guilty of making the law’s demands their path to perfection. As John Calvin relates, the Christian life is walking in the light of God’s revealed Word.

WALK WITH JOHN CALVIN
“Faith denotes the full revelation of those things which, during the darkness of the shadows of the law, were dimly seen; for Paul does not intend to say that the fathers, who lived under the law, did not possess faith. Those who were under the law were partakers of the same faith as New Testament believers.

“The Old Testament might be said to foreshadow Christ, but to us he is represented as actually being present. They had only the mirror; we have the substance.

“Whatever might be the amount of darkness under the law, the fathers were not ignorant of the road in which they ought to walk. Though the dawn is not equal to the splendor of noon, yet, as far as a trip is concerned, travelers do not wait till the sun is fully risen. Their portion of light resembled the dawn, which was enough to preserve them from all error and guide them to everlasting blessedness.”

WALK CLOSER TO GOD
If the Old Testament people of God possessed light that resembled the dawn, you enjoy the full blaze of the noontime sun.

If they were able to live by faith with only a glimpse of the coming Savior, you can surely live by faith, thanks to the full portrait of his appearing, which you possess in the Word of God.