Justification by Faith
“According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 3:10–11
Note to the reader: This is the third installment in the series Back to the Basics which I began in December of 2025 after I heard in the Spirit "Back to the Basics" .
Let me turn to the one foundational truth that has consistently been lost by the church throughout its history. In fact, in every revival since the Reformation, up to Azusa Street, and now what some refer to as the Grace Revolution, there has been a recovery of this truth.
Justification by Faith. This is the foundational truth I believe Paul is talking about in the above verse — one that cannot be laid by anyone else but Jesus. It is the foundation the gospel is built upon and separates us from all other world religions, which offer either a moral code to follow or a spiritual practice to attain — both of which place the burden of reaching God on individual effort.
Christianity is not selling morality; we are messengers of this truth: that mankind cannot save itself through its own moral decisions but is in need of a Savior. The need for justification has implications for all of humanity.
Why is Justification by Faith so important? Because it unlocks all other revelation.
Justification is a legal term meaning to be declared not guilty. In a court of law, when the verdict is not guilty, the one on trial goes free. Under the law we were all declared guilty, but because someone else took our punishment, we were justified under grace. Judgment was satisfied; therefore, we went free.
How does the church lose this one teaching so quickly? If I were the devil, this is the one truth I would continue to try to corrupt or destroy. This truth was in danger of being corrupted soon after the early church began. Look at what Paul says in the first chapter of Galatians:
I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
Here we see the Galatian believers at risk of turning away to a different gospel. Paul goes so far as to say what is being taught by others is a perversion of the Gospel and therefore is not a gospel at all. So what is the perversion he is talking about? We see a fuller explanation from Paul in the third chapter of Galatians.
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
The perversion is the attempt to blend the two covenants: the old, based on works of the law, and the new, based on hearing and believing. Paul qualifies the difference by how we received the Holy Spirit. We did not receive the Spirit under the Old Covenant, nor, now that we have the Spirit, are we trying to fulfill it. Did Jesus not fulfill the requirements of the Old? If so, then why are you trying to do what Jesus already accomplished?
Notice the strong language Paul uses: "Who has bewitched you?" and "Are you so foolish?" Bewitched is a word meaning to cast someone under an evil spell. The implication is that the Galatians have fallen under a false teaching, as if under a spell, believing it to be the Gospel. This is why Paul calls it a different gospel.
The word foolish is used twice by Paul in this passage. It is derived from two Greek words meaning "without thinking" or "unintelligent thinking." In other words, what they were buying into did not even make logical sense. Paul sums up the illogical thought in the last part of the verse: "Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?"
I remember a very well-known mainline evangelist who admitted he thought that if he preached harder on sin, somehow people would try harder not to sin. He admitted this was an erroneous practice and that he had no real victory over sin in his own life by "trying harder."
Trying harder is an attempt to be a better Christian by one's own self-effort, meaning we are still trying to find justification for ourselves through our flesh. The phrase "being made perfect" means you are trying to complete or finish out your salvation by human effort.
In our current day this idea is being sold as consecration or sanctification, but it is a perversion of both. There is no justification under the law, and logically, nor is there any sanctification by keeping it. As Paul would say, if perfection could be attained under the Old, there would be no need for the New. (To be continued...)