Galatians 3:22

But the Scripture shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

As rendered here, this verse makes no sense whatever, for the paraphrase of the latter part of it is, "that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that have faith! What then, is the true rendition? The Authorized Version gave the correct translation thus: "That the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe." Even without the authority of the KJV, however, it is absolutely clear that sinner's faith is in the last clause of this verse, and it has to be the "faith of Christ" in the preceding clause. The faith that saves is never that of the sinner, but that of Christ. Only his faith was perfect, and only his faith was perfectly obedient. In the ultimate sense, there is nothing that any sinner can either believe or perform that is capable of justifying him in the eyes of Almighty God, except in the limited and secondary sense of his "obedience of faith" upon his believing and being baptized, these being prerequisites of his salvation, and thus, in that lower sense, justifying him. See note 3, at the end of this chapter.

Thus, the full meaning of Galatians 3:22 is that the "promise of sharing in the perfect faith and obedience of Christ (called the faith of Christ) might be given to them that believe." Thus, the faith only concept is wrong on two counts: (1) the notion that it is the sinner's imperfect faith that saves, and (2) the proposition that faith should be understood as meaning "faith only." Not even Christ's faith was "faith only," for he was obedient in all things, becoming "unto all them that obey him, the author of eternal salvation" (Hebrews 5:9).

Shut up all things under sin ... One great purpose of the Law of Moses was to convict Israel of sin and make the nation conscious of their need of salvation from it. As used by them, however, it became a source of greater pride than ever on their part. The Law's holy commandments were nullified, expanded, contradicted and perverted in countless ways; as Jesus himself revealed to them, "(You) make void the word of God by your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things ye do" (Mark 7:13). If Israel had properly responded to the Law by realizing and confessing their inability to keep it, and the crying need of their souls for redemption from sin, there would have been a far different attitude on their part when the true Messiah came. That favorable attitude looking to the coming of the Redeemer, however, did not develop in Israel to any great extent, thus frustrating the purpose of the Law to prepare people for Christ.