Monday, December 18, 2017

Galatians 3:12 - Two ways of faith...?

"But the law is not out of faith, but rather, 'The [one] doing them will live in them.'"


-Yes, there are essentially two philosophies when it comes to approaching God - one is the law of works, and the other is faith.  And as has already been stated, even the law approach is a form of faith, since faith in its very essence is simply trust, and that which determines its efficacy is the object of faith.  So when Paul is refering here to the law, he is describing those folks who are placing their trust in works of the Mosaic law (including circumcision) to gain right standing with God.  THE Law, that body of some 600+ commands which was given to the Jews through Moses (and this is the way which some people were trying to persuade these Galatians who had begun to follow Christ to go).  And by faith, Paul means that trust which has as its object, Jesus Christ and His work on the Cross.  THE Faith.  And to his point, the very nature of Law-based righteousness is not only antithetical to Faith-in-Christ-based righteousness, but is also such that if you chose to trust in the way of works, you are required to live fully into that - that is the verse which Paul quotes here (Leviticus 18.5).  God says, you WILL do this (like He does in the Ten Commandments and throughout the hundreds of others).  In other words, don’t stop short or bring it in weak.  The expectation is total obedience.  You WILL live in them.  The Law itself states that if you are opting for the way of Law, of trusting in the Law, you are obligated to keep the whole darn thing, all the time.  You WILL never finish - never certain, never perfect, never saved.  Whereas the way of Faith (in Jesus) is entirely different.  I am not trusting in any of my own efforts, not a single one.  I am trusting in Another, in the work of One Who declared, "It is finished"...

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