Romans 3 & 4
Faith and Law – There is a huge perception in the wider community that the Christian faith is about Law – i.e. what we should and shouldn’t do. And this lie becomes then a barrier because of the justifiable criticism of christians that they/we are hypocrites. Now, the criticism is fair but the perspective is false…if we believe what the Bible says about faith. In Romans 3 Paul outlines clearly that all the Law can do, by itself, is show us that the criticism is fair. All of us, Christians included, stuff up. We stuff up truth, integrity, compassion, justice, mercy, forgiveness and love. We do this because naturally we put ourselves at the centre of life. Romans speaks of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as being the alternative to self, when the writer speaks about having faith in Jesus. Faith alone saves. Faith alone overcomes condemnation. Faith does this because it is a gift. Faith is received not because of anything we do but is received because God is love and offers this love to us freely.
The Law still is helpful but only in as much as it is powered by faith. So we do not dismiss the Law, but we recognise its limits and how the power of the Holy Spirit works to help us enact the Law. This means that we do not judge each other by the Law because only God can do this, but that we encourage one another in faith to power up (Romans 3:31) the Law – which is fully revealed and to be understood in and through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The Law without Christ is condemnation and death but the Law through Christ is life and Spirit.
What I mean by this is that we need to know and follow Jesus’ way through the Law. We need to know that Jesus said to “love God and love one another just as I have loved you” Jesus often said, “you have heard it said….now I say to you….” This was part of the process of the Law being understood through Jesus. And also how the LAw was to be encated was re-imagined and re-formed through Jesus. e.g. when the woman was caught in adultery the religious leaders brought her to Jesus to be stoned…according to the Law. But Jesus re-formed the process through love and forgiveness and challenged the leaders both in their intentions as well as their own qulaifications to enact the Law – “you without sin cast the first stone”. Jesus empowered the Law through love – “no-one condemns you woman…go and sin no more”
The focus of the Christian is to receive this gift of faith from God which means to begin the journey of turning to God and placing Jesus Christ at the centre of our lives instead of self. Know Jesus and be empowered by His Holy Spirit to live a powered up life of witness, worship and service. [Prayer - LORD I keep wanting to sneak back into the centre of my life. Thank you that your Spirit and your Law reminds me that to do this is death, but to know you and be connected to you is life. Spirit help me be obedient to God's call and Christ's way... and it will be good! AMEN]
