Nothing could be more clear in the writings of the apostle Paul than his teaching on how to become righteous before God. In this case, his point is that one cannot become righteous by practicing the Law of Moses. He grounds this in OT teaching, in particular Habakkuk 2:4 (which is also quoted in Romans 1:17 and Hebrews 10:38). Equating “live” with “is justified,” he reasons that if a righteous man is to live by faith, then justification cannot possibly come about by the works of the law. This is because keeping the law is not, on the surface of it, a matter of faith. Rather, the law is a matter of simply keeping it, all of it. The contrast is clearly being made, a person either lives by faith or he lives by law. He is either justified by faith or he is justified by law. Paul doesn’t allow for a mixture of the two.

Paul will shortly show the relationship of faith to law, but suffice it to say at this juncture, the two options for justification are all there is and they are diametrically opposite of each other. The term “no one” does not admit any exceptions. “There is no one who does good. The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one” (Psalm 14:1-3).

Some people feel that salvation comes through faith plus law. But the minute one adds law as a requirement for justification, then he must keep all of the law, he must live by it completely – or else be cursed (vs. 10). That is not something Paul invented that is contrary to God’s standards of the OT. Rather he is giving insight to the patent truth of the matter. The Law of Moses was an exacting task-master and as a result, all have fallen short (Rom 3:23)—there has to be a different way. That is Paul’s point. We need to live by faith, because that is how salvation began, namely, by faith.

Living by law is like having a checklist, disassociated from a relationship with God. Living by faith is believing not in the Law, but in the One who gave the Law, trusting in His word. So we live, not to achieve greatness through adherence to strict ordinances, but we live to grow in our relationship with our Maker. We live life trusting Him, rather than our own fallen reason and the inclinations of our hearts.