The Faith of Christ

Galatians 2:16-20

We know that a man is not justified by doing the works of the law, for we can never do them all perfectly. How is a man justified? Paul says, “By the faith of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16), but surely that is a misprint for it says, “the faith of Jesus Christ”, and certainly it should say, “faith in Jesus Christ”. Actually, if we read on, we find that Paul makes a distinction:

“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” (Galatians 2:16)

Paul makes a distinction between the faith of Jesus Christ and faith in Jesus Christ. In Greek, which is the language that the New Testament was written in, there is no phrase for “of”, but there is a phrase for “in”. When you look at this text in Greek, the assumptions must be made for the usage of the word “of”, but there is a distinct Greek word “eis”, meaning “in or into”. It is the same phrase that Jesus used when He told the woman with the issue of blood to “go into peace” (Mark 5:34). Because the text shows where to place the English word “in”, the translators had to assume that in the other places it should be another word.

We take the authority away from this verse when we begin changing the words to suit our modern vernacular. Paul states that we are justified by the faith “of” Jesus Christ and then furthers it by stating that we have placed our faith “in” Jesus Christ. What Jesus did in sacrificing His life on the cross and taking His own blood to the Father in heaven was faith of the highest form. He believed that His sacrifice would be sufficient and He also believed that His Father would be so pleased with this sacrifice that He would raise His Son from the dead, which He did. Christ’s faithfulness is what causes all of us to be justified.

That certainly cannot stand alone, for we need to meet His faith with our faith in His finished work. Paul makes it clear in this verse that our believing in Jesus Christ is what makes us justified “by the faith of Christ”. Christ can have a mountain of faith but if I do not meet Him with my faith, I leave without His justification.

Paul said it this way in Romans, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). It is our faith that brought the justification but it was Jesus’ faithfulness to the cross and its atoning work that brings us peace with God. In other words, without the faithfulness of Jesus, our faith means nothing.

Further, we do not continue to remain righteous based upon the volume or quantity of our faith on a day to day basis. Paul says that the life which we now live in the flesh we “live by the faith of the Son of God” (Galatians 2:20). I live this life, not due to my own faithfulness but due to His faithfulness. It is His faith that never waivers, while mine may shift from time to time. Thank God that Jesus is faithful!

It is "What You Know”

Hosea 4:6

There is an old saying that goes, “It’s not what you know; it’s who you know”. Of course this means that in life, intelligence and education will only take you so far, so you better know someone who can advance you or help you climb the ladder of success. In living for the Lord, who you know is Jesus Christ, so it is obvious that there can be no higher friend. However, what you know is of vital importance for the child of God, so vital in fact that I dare say that in order for you to live free from sin and its slavery it is very much, “What you know” that makes all of the difference.

Hosea tells us that God’s people are “destroyed for lack of knowledge”. Notice that they do not “perish”, as some translations say, indicating that they simply starve to death, or waste away. Rather, they are so weakened by what they do not know that they become easy pickings for their adversary, the roaring lion.

The New Covenant is wonderful and beautiful, providing everything that the believer needs to reign in this life, but all of its wonders are wasted if the individual is ignorant as to who they are in Christ. Jesus said to His disciples, “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31, 32). “And ye shall know” is translated, “come to know” in Greek, meaning that Jesus promises us an ever learning experience as we walk with Him.

Paul stated that our new man is “renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (Colossians 3:10); and that we keep from conforming to this world by being, “transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). Peter stated that if a believer does not have various fruits in their life, such as faith, patience, godliness, etc, it is because he “hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins” (2 Peter 1:9). Again, it all comes back to what the believer knows about what Jesus has done for them.

This is why Satan goes after our thought life with such fervor. He knows that he has been defeated at Calvary, and stripped of all of his power, but he thrives on our ignorance of those facts. If we feel like we must defeat the devil, then he will gladly go to war with us, since he cannot war with Christ. What we do not know about who we are in Jesus equips the devil to play with our lives, trapping us in vice and sin. Paul told Timothy to teach the people in his church who condemn themselves, so that God would help them to change their minds toward the truth (2 Timothy 2:25). This knowledge would “recover them out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will” (verse 26).

What does the Word say about you, the believer? Know these things and hide them in your heart. It says that you are the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21); that you are one of the sons of God (John 1:12); that you are no longer a servant, but a son, and if a son then an heir of God through Christ (Galatians 4:7); that you are complete in Him (Colossians 2:10); that you used to be a sinner, but now you are washed, sanctified and justified (1 Corinthians 6:11), and that because you are sanctified, you are perfect in the eyes of the Father (Hebrews 10:14).

Believer, hold fast to that knowledge and be free in Jesus name!

God is Righteous

Romans 3:26

When we were children, we would say a prayer over our food that went, “God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food, Amen”. There is good theology packed into that prayer of thanksgiving, because God truly is good and He is great. Due to the climate of the Old Testament, where God is seen killing those who sin and putting plagues on many others, how can we prove to the world that our God is truly “good” and “great”?

We know that God functioned in the aforementioned capacity in the Old Testament because He was dealing with man through the Covenant of Law, where man was held accountable for his keeping or breaking of God’s perfect law. No man could keep it, so every man was judged for his failures. When Jesus came, He lived that law to perfection and then laid down His life at Calvary so that we could have His goodness. In short, He lived it so that we won’t have to. He died, so that we can live. This changed God’s attitude, for it appeased His wrath (Isaiah 53:11, 1 John 2:2).

If God continues to look upon our sin with anger and then strikes us with cancer and tumors as a way to “keep us in line”, then He was obviously not appeased with Jesus’ sacrifice at the cross. For the church to preach that God is “keeping score” and is ready to pour out His wrath on this earth, shows a fundamental lack of understanding just how finished the finished work of the cross is. Will God show wrath to the earth again? He certainly will, but not while His church is here, for the blood is on the door of our hearts (John 3:36; 1 Thessalonians 5:9).

God declares to the earth just how righteous that He is through one act; bringing complete justification to those who have placed faith in Jesus Christ. Paul said that this one act shows that God is just (Romans 3:26). God being “just” means that God is fair and that He has perfect justice. If He justifies us when we believe in Jesus Christ and that constitutes God being just and fair then that means that all of our sin has been placed in the body of Christ at Calvary, and that God is honoring the price that Jesus paid by forgiving us.

Justification makes us appear before God as if we have never sinned in our life. This act is miraculously done by no effort on our part; it is all a gift of God’s grace through Christ’s finished work. By justifying us upon our faith in Jesus, God proves to the world that He is a righteous God. If He required us to earn our salvation or our blessings by works then He would be guilty of killing His Son for our sins and then holding us accountable for them as well.

It is an insult to Christ’s finished work when someone insinuates that you must pay for your own sins and failures. For you to think that your sin is greater than grace’s ability to save you is to think very highly of your ability to fail. In fact, that attitude thinks more of sin than it does of the Savior. His sacrifice was so all encompassing that you and I will never be able to “out sin” God’s abundant grace, for where our sin abounds, His grace will always super-abound (Romans 5:20).

May you go forward today with the blessed assurance that your Father is righteous for He has declared you justified through the finished work of Jesus Christ His Son!

The Faith of Christ

Galatians 2:16-20

We know that a man is not justified by doing the works of the law, for we can never do them all perfectly. How is a man justified? Paul says, “By the faith of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16), but surely that is a misprint for it says, “the faith of Jesus Christ”, and certainly it should say, “faith in Jesus Christ”. Actually, if we read on, we find that Paul makes a distinction:

“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” (Galatians 2:16)

Paul makes a distinction between the faith of Jesus Christ and faith in Jesus Christ. In Greek, which is the language that the New Testament was written in, there is no phrase for “of”, but there is a phrase for “in”. When you look at this text in Greek, the assumptions must be made for the usage of the word “of”, but there is a distinct Greek word “eis”, meaning “in or into”. It is the same phrase that Jesus used when He told the woman with the issue of blood to “go into peace” (Mark 5:34). Because the text shows where to place the English word “in”, the translators had to assume that in the other places it should be another word.

We take the authority away from this verse when we begin changing the words to suit our modern vernacular. Paul states that we are justified by the faith “of” Jesus Christ and then furthers it by stating that we have placed our faith “in” Jesus Christ. What Jesus did in sacrificing His life on the cross and taking His own blood to the Father in heaven was faith of the highest form. He believed that His sacrifice would be sufficient and He also believed that His Father would be so pleased with this sacrifice that He would raise His Son from the dead, which He did. Christ’s faithfulness is what causes all of us to be justified.

That certainly cannot stand alone, for we need to meet His faith with our faith in His finished work. Paul makes it clear in this verse that our believing in Jesus Christ is what makes us justified “by the faith of Christ”. Christ can have a mountain of faith but if I do not meet Him with my faith, I leave without His justification.

Paul said it this way in Romans, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). It is our faith that brought the justification but it was Jesus’ faithfulness to the cross and its atoning work that brings us peace with God. In other words, without the faithfulness of Jesus, our faith means nothing.

Further, we do not continue to remain righteous based upon the volume or quantity of our faith on a day to day basis. Paul says that the life which we now live in the flesh we “live by the faith of the Son of God” (Galatians 2:20). I live this life, not due to my own faithfulness but due to His faithfulness. It is His faith that never waivers, while mine may shift from time to time. Thank God that Jesus is faithful!

It is "What You Know”

Hosea 4:6

There is an old saying that goes, “It’s not what you know; it’s who you know”. Of course this means that in life, intelligence and education will only take you so far, so you better know someone who can advance you or help you climb the ladder of success. In living for the Lord, who you know is Jesus Christ, so it is obvious that there can be no higher friend. However, what you know is of vital importance for the child of God, so vital in fact that I dare say that in order for you to live free from sin and its slavery it is very much, “What you know” that makes all of the difference.

Hosea tells us that God’s people are “destroyed for lack of knowledge”. Notice that they do not “perish”, as some translations say, indicating that they simply starve to death, or waste away. Rather, they are so weakened by what they do not know that they become easy pickings for their adversary, the roaring lion.

The New Covenant is wonderful and beautiful, providing everything that the believer needs to reign in this life, but all of its wonders are wasted if the individual is ignorant as to who they are in Christ. Jesus said to His disciples, “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31, 32). “And ye shall know” is translated, “come to know” in Greek, meaning that Jesus promises us an ever learning experience as we walk with Him.

Paul stated that our new man is “renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (Colossians 3:10); and that we keep from conforming to this world by being, “transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). Peter stated that if a believer does not have various fruits in their life, such as faith, patience, godliness, etc, it is because he “hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins” (2 Peter 1:9). Again, it all comes back to what the believer knows about what Jesus has done for them.

This is why Satan goes after our thought life with such fervor. He knows that he has been defeated at Calvary, and stripped of all of his power, but he thrives on our ignorance of those facts. If we feel like we must defeat the devil, then he will gladly go to war with us, since he cannot war with Christ. What we do not know about who we are in Jesus equips the devil to play with our lives, trapping us in vice and sin. Paul told Timothy to teach the people in his church who condemn themselves, so that God would help them to change their minds toward the truth (2 Timothy 2:25). This knowledge would “recover them out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will” (verse 26).

What does the Word say about you, the believer? Know these things and hide them in your heart. It says that you are the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21); that you are one of the sons of God (John 1:12); that you are no longer a servant, but a son, and if a son then an heir of God through Christ (Galatians 4:7); that you are complete in Him (Colossians 2:10); that you used to be a sinner, but now you are washed, sanctified and justified (1 Corinthians 6:11), and that because you are sanctified, you are perfect in the eyes of the Father (Hebrews 10:14).

Believer, hold fast to that knowledge and be free in Jesus name!

God is Righteous

Romans 3:26

When we were children, we would say a prayer over our food that went, “God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food, Amen”. There is good theology packed into that prayer of thanksgiving, because God truly is good and He is great. Due to the climate of the Old Testament, where God is seen killing those who sin and putting plagues on many others, how can we prove to the world that our God is truly “good” and “great”?

We know that God functioned in the aforementioned capacity in the Old Testament because He was dealing with man through the Covenant of Law, where man was held accountable for his keeping or breaking of God’s perfect law. No man could keep it, so every man was judged for his failures. When Jesus came, He lived that law to perfection and then laid down His life at Calvary so that we could have His goodness. In short, He lived it so that we won’t have to. He died, so that we can live. This changed God’s attitude, for it appeased His wrath (Isaiah 53:11, 1 John 2:2).

If God continues to look upon our sin with anger and then strikes us with cancer and tumors as a way to “keep us in line”, then He was obviously not appeased with Jesus’ sacrifice at the cross. For the church to preach that God is “keeping score” and is ready to pour out His wrath on this earth, shows a fundamental lack of understanding just how finished the finished work of the cross is. Will God show wrath to the earth again? He certainly will, but not while His church is here, for the blood is on the door of our hearts (John 3:36; 1 Thessalonians 5:9).

God declares to the earth just how righteous that He is through one act; bringing complete justification to those who have placed faith in Jesus Christ. Paul said that this one act shows that God is just (Romans 3:26). God being “just” means that God is fair and that He has perfect justice. If He justifies us when we believe in Jesus Christ and that constitutes God being just and fair then that means that all of our sin has been placed in the body of Christ at Calvary, and that God is honoring the price that Jesus paid by forgiving us.

Justification makes us appear before God as if we have never sinned in our life. This act is miraculously done by no effort on our part; it is all a gift of God’s grace through Christ’s finished work. By justifying us upon our faith in Jesus, God proves to the world that He is a righteous God. If He required us to earn our salvation or our blessings by works then He would be guilty of killing His Son for our sins and then holding us accountable for them as well.

It is an insult to Christ’s finished work when someone insinuates that you must pay for your own sins and failures. For you to think that your sin is greater than grace’s ability to save you is to think very highly of your ability to fail. In fact, that attitude thinks more of sin than it does of the Savior. His sacrifice was so all encompassing that you and I will never be able to “out sin” God’s abundant grace, for where our sin abounds, His grace will always super-abound (Romans 5:20).

May you go forward today with the blessed assurance that your Father is righteous for He has declared you justified through the finished work of Jesus Christ His Son!