The Law of Faith

Last week I spoke at ENCM on “The Law of Faith,” and I wanted to clarify two of the central themes of what we were studying.

We started our journey in Romans 1 and explored alternatives to living by faith in God, namely living by instinct and common sense.  From there we briefly reasoned that people must also not attempt to be righteous by keeping all the “laws” of our religion. Law can only prick the conscience, bring awareness of wrong doing, but it can never liberate you. On the contrary, it actually condemns you for being a law-breaker.

Consequently, God established a new kind of righteousness, apart from the law, to which the Law testifies.

God sent Jesus to live a righteous life, then die as a substitution for us, an atoning sacrifice. He took the written code that was against us and nailed it to the cross. By trusting in Jesus’ sacrifice, we can believe that God’s anger and judgement have been satisfied and God will wipe our old sins away as we come under Christ’s salvation and leadership.

Two clarifying points:

1. Paul says in Romans 3 that “there is no difference” between Jews and Gentiles.  ”Everyone has sinned and falls short of God’s glory”. So he poses the question, “Where then is boasting?”  Who can brag about their spiritual maturity or “knowledge”? No one.  Boasting is excluded, Paul says, based on “the law of faith.” (Romans 3:27)

The New International Version translators do not include the words “law of faith” in verse 27 for some reason, but the original Greek text clearly uses the word “nomos” and should read “the law of faith.”

You see, the law of faith existed before the Law of Moses. People have always had to trust in God. Abraham was righteous because he believed. Noah was righteous because he believed. Even Abel, who was slaughtered by his brother, was righteous because he trusted God. Abel’s parents used fig leaves to cover themselves, but God said it wasn’t good enough. God killed an animal and used the skin to cover them. Later, Abel would come to God with the kind of blood sacrifice God wanted, even though no human had ever done that before. Years later, Noah would also offer animal sacrifices, though he was “a man of the soil”. (Genesis 8:20, 9:20).

When people leave their natural/cultural tendencies, and come to God through the way he has prescribed through faith, he counts us as righteous.

2. As we truly believe, we also correspondingly repent (turn from things we know are wrong). There is no believing without repenting. If you are not willing to change, you don’t really understand the message.

 

I hope you are encouraged and growing strong in your faith.  There is no other way to live, for “the righteous will live by faith.”

- Charles Kiefer