Sunday, June 2, 2013

Justified By Faithfulness (part 9 of 9)

Later and finally, in summing up his message, Paul would write, “I do not set aside God’s grace, because if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing!” (2:21)  In Paul’s estimation, and quite rightly it would seem, the grace of the Creator God was paramount in the justification transaction.  From first to last, when it came to covenant, to blessing and cursing, and to resurrection and newness of life, all would be rooted in the grace of the God of Israel.  This grace was extended because of His faithfulness to His plans for this world and His creation. 

The works of the law, as Paul would apparently come to realize and understand, were just far too man-centered.  When they were considered against the backdrop of the all-powerful Creator God, these covenant markers were terribly insufficient to carry out and communicate the weight of His glory and of His intentions for His image-bearers and the creation.  Beyond that, Paul would seem to conclude, if righteousness (justification and the completion of the Creator God’s covenant faithfulness) could come through human effort to hold to a few meager works of the law, then truly, the Christ did not need to die. 

Paul would find it impossible to brook an agreement with this position.  He would encourage people, when it came to these issues, to hold to that to wish they wished to hold, while also insisting that it was presumptuous, and perhaps even a denial of the grace of the covenant God, upon which the covenant people relied, to impose these standards on others.  In the face of the obvious and overwhelming power of the God that was put on display through the Resurrection, as that event served to show forth Jesus as the Messiah---therefore demonstrating that the God of the covenant had indeed faithfully poured out His promised blessings on all those that wished to enter in to those blessings through a belief in Jesus as Messiah in a way that would bring glory to God---it had come to be the case that the works of the law (covenant markers) were no longer needed or useful in identifying the people of the sovereign God of the cosmos. 

Belief in Jesus, and in His faithfulness to His covenant obligations, was now the order of the day, just as belief in the faithfulness of the Creator God had always been necessary, with that faith-based belief always demonstrated by a covenant marker.  The covenant marker, since the time of Moses, had been the works of the law (though morphed over time).  Now though, the covenant marker, as has been said, was belief in Jesus.  This belief, as one is obliged to never forget, is set forth as being a gift of faith---a faith that somehow comes from a faithful God. 

A faithful, outworking believing in Jesus, and in the covenant God that was at work in and through Jesus to reveal Himself and His nature, is now all that mattered.  This had become the basis for all service.  This was the basis for worship.  This was the basis for giving.  Yes, Paul would say, that belief in the covenant God is what would and did deliver from cursing.  That is what would bring exile to an end.  That is what brought blessing.  In the Christ, the Creator God had entered into history and produced its climactic event.  He had indeed been faithful.  Because of the faithful service of a faithful Man, justification (entrance upon the covenant so as to secure its blessings, escaping exile, and experiencing salvation) for all was now available.  This justification was not to be found in a man’s faithfulness to  a specific set of covenant markers and that which divided man from man, but it was to be found in the Creator God’s faithfulness to His work, and that which united a globally sourced people to Him.            


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