Charles Ellicott Commentary Galatians 3:11

"Now that no man is justified by the law before God, is evident: for, The righteous shall live by faith;" — Galatians 3:11 (ASV)

In the sight of God.—Standing as a prisoner before His tribunal.

The just shall live by faith.—The stress is on the word “faith.” It is faith (not law) which gives life. In St. Paul's application of the passage, the word “just” must be taken in what is technically termed a slightly proleptic sense.

A man is not just before the exercise of faith, but he becomes just by the exercise of it; and, in another aspect, the state of righteousness upon which he then enters is also a state of life. Strictly speaking, the order is—faith, justification, life.

It would be possible to take the Greek in such a way as to bring out this more distinctly: The just by faith (i.e., he whose righteousness is based on faith) shall live. Some good commentators take the passage thus, but a balance of considerations seems, on the whole, to be in favor of the sense adopted in the Authorized Version.

The quotation is from Habakkuk 2:4, where it refers to the preservation of the righteous Israelite amidst the general ruin caused by the Chaldean invasion. Though the wicked and proud shall be destroyed, the righteous man shall live "by his faith."

There is some division of opinion among commentators as to whether the word translated “faith” means, in the original, faith in the active sense or faith in the passive sense—“fidelity,” “faithfulness,” or “trust in God.” The sense in which the word is used by St. Paul is most nearly related to the latter.

It has the full-developed Christian meaning, which begins in belief, includes trust, and passes on to become an active energy of devotion. (Compare to the Note and Excursus on Romans 1:17, where the same quotation is made.)

On verses 11-12:

The Law could not bring a blessing. It could not justify. For the condition of justification is faith; and the Law has nothing to do with faith. Its standpoint was entirely different—that of works.