Expositor's Bible Commentary 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)

One must not think that the law did nothing but condemn during all the centuries between the giving of the law through Moses and the coming of Jesus. On the contrary, the law itself showed the way of salvation. Paul proves this by a quotation of Hab 2:4—“The righteous will live by faith,” one of the few OT verses in which faith is presented as the means of salvation. Paul does not misrepresent Habakkuk’s meaning here, for if, as seems likely, “the righteous” in Hab 2:4 means those who are standing in a right relationship to God rather than those who are literally righteous before the law, then Habakkuk’s view is essentially in accord with Paul’s position here. One stands in a right relationship to God and lives before him by faith.