“Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law” (Rom. 3:31).

The trouble is that many people in general have a faulty conception of faith. They imagine that it is mere assent, and that it is only a passive thing, to which active works must be added.

But faith is active, and it is not only the most substantial thing, but the only real foundation. The law is the righteousness of God for which we are commanded to seek, but it cannot be kept except by faith. The only righteousness which will stand in the judgment is “through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith” (Phil. 3:9).

Making void the law of God by man is not abolishing it, for that is an impossibility. No matter how much men may trample upon it and despise it, it remains the same. The only way that people can make void the law of God is by their disobedience. So when the apostle says that we do not make void the law through faith, he means that faith and disobedience are incompatible. No matter how much the law-breaker professes faith, the fact that he is a law-breaker shows that he has no faith. But the possession of faith is shown by the establishment of the law in the heart, so that the man does not sin against God.

Let no one decry faith as of little moment.

Christ does not ask you to put all your sins away before you can come to Him and be wholly His. He asks you to come, sins and all; and He will take away from you all your sins. He gave Himself for you, sins and all. He bought you, sins and all; let Him have what He bought. Let Him have His own. Let Him have you, sins and all.

Waggoner, Bible Echo, August 1, 1890 Jones, Lessons on Faith, p.119