Justified By Faithfulness (part 8 of 9)

This belief, of course, in a crucified and resurrected messiah, here in the middle of history, was contrary to any and all expectations of the day.  Not only was the crucifixion of the messiah a completely unexpected development, as such would be evidence that said person was in fact not the messiah, but the idea that somebody would be physically raised from the dead was completely ludicrous.  Quite simply, people did not come back from the dead.  This was common knowledge and well understood.  However, the weight of evidence that this is exactly what had occurred (including the language that was used---of a person coming back to life, rather than being a phantom or a ghost, as language was available to describe such things), and that it had happened to an individual that had lived and been looked to as a potential messiah for Israel, stirred a convicting belief that that is exactly what had taken place. 

Because of that conviction concerning the Resurrection, this belief, as Paul would routinely point out, could only be brought about by a faith that was granted by the Creator God---a faith somehow and mysteriously implanted and made operational by the Holy Spirit through the gracious activity of the covenant God, with this conveyed primarily through the medium of the preaching of the Gospel (Jesus is Lord), the hearing of that preaching of the message of Jesus as Lord (the Gospel), and the actively living out of that message in one’s daily life.

Repeating himself, because of the supreme importance of this principle, and because this examination of works and justification and faith, as presented in the letter to the church of Galatia, is made possible by a recounting of Peter’s retreat into the old covenant markers in Antioch, Paul goes on to write, “because by the works of the law no one will be justified” (2:16c).  Again, the old basis for the understood covenant blessings has been replaced. 

The markers that had previously been used to identify a member of the covenant family, and which had largely been used to wall off the covenant blessings from the world (non-Jews and those that did not adopt the covenant markers) had been set aside.  Now, belief in Jesus is what would matter.  Holding to the works of the law (covenant markers), and the exclusivity and isolation that came to be associated with it, now stood contrary to what it was that the Creator God had done and was doing through Jesus.  Unfortunately, as Paul would make clear, the works of the law would now serve as a reminder of Israel’s failure and cursing. 

The faithfulness of the Creator God, as manifested in the person and actions of the Christ, would stand as a witness to the victory over death, through the Resurrection, that the God of Israel had wrought for His people.  Just as Abraham had been justified by believing in the power and promise of that God, prior to anything that could be pointed to or understood as a work of the law, so now would those that would come to be identified as Abraham’s descendants also be justified (made righteous, saved, covenant-ed) by believing in the power and promise of that same God.  The setting aside of the Jewish covenant markers signaled, among other things, the extension of His blessings of justification, as it can now be seen that the Creator God had always intended, with this evidenced by the covenant with Abraham, to and for all peoples.