Thursday, May 29, 2008

Jesus is Promise Covenant (4)

As Paul taught on the life and faith of Abraham in Romans 4, he used a basic concept which is meant to undergird and explain our FAITH - Abraham simply trusted God's Promise. Paul explained that this Promise was not associated with Law but rather the concept of faith. This delineation is pretty important to Paul - because he had introduced an idea back in 3:21 as "a righteousness of God apart from Law" even though not opposed to Law. Let's wrestle with that for awhile. (To understand that better, translate it this way - "God's righteousness has been shown without law" - focus GOD and His showing of His own personal righteousness.)

Principle one - Romans 3:20 - "NO human being will be justified by works of law"

But - does that mean God's "faith concepts" violate law ? Of course not - the concept is explained by a distinct word "apart" - which has a couple facets. First, the word "separate" - from which we get our word "chorus" - the group separated from the crowd which sings to the crowd - so separate. The main part of the concept includes the idea we say as "without" - as the chorus sings without the crowd - therefore we can conclude several things: the activity of the "apart from" thing is in many ways opposite (but not opposed) to what it is separated from - it is just different.

Principle two - Justification comes by faith in/of Jesus Christ. The focus is always Jesus. HE is the power of salvation to everyone - the Jew first and also the Greek, (Romans 1:1-6; 16-17.) Do not forget - this is "apart from or without law" - and therefore we examine the faith in Jesus concept and focus that on Abraham's obtaining of righteousness as a template for us.

That's why Paul had to say "why then even have the law?" or "Is law opposed to God's Promises?" (Galatians 3:21ff.) His answer - of course not - different concept. (Galatians 3:21ff.)

Principle three - a BIGGER concept is at work - which controls all smaller ones: God's plans are to honor Himself as God. Note Romans 2:7; 1:28; 1:24; 1:21-23. So - what does NOT honor God as God is a violation of relationship with God. The plan of salvation is God's righteousness being revealed (Romans 1:17) in the faith concept. Faith means trusting God to keep His Promises - so very basically any breaking of law has to do with not trusting God to keep His promises. Adam and Eve may not have realized all the ramifications of their act of rebellion - but they should have known that God needs to be God and His promises are enough for our lives ! (Their sin amounted to making themselves God in their own lives - "YOU shall be as gods" caused them to act in a dishonoring way to GOD) So - God tells us that our faith in His Promises are what makes us "right" with Him - period. AND - He tells us through Paul that this concept is what was always in place from the beginning - so those who do not trust His promises choose other things to live by and are "without excuse" (Romans 1:18-20). All expressions of "not honoring God as God" Romans 1:21 are rebellion - so many "religions" are in rebellion and all those who focus on something other than God being God are "dishonorable" and "deserve to die" Romans 1:32. Many applications appear in Romans 1-3.

Principle four - FAITH - is simply honoring God as God and any definition which avoids or detours from this concept is not Biblical faith. It may be ignorance and as such, not rebellious - but many times it is a commitment - which is troubling indeed. For our purposes - JESUS is the focus of faith - so we need to honor God's Promise (which is Jesus) - purposefully and specifically. If we do not - then the Romans 4:16 concept is violated - it is by faith and it simply MUST rest on Grace and thereby be guaranteed. That was one benchmark or God's plan. One other was that it was not based on law - and cannot involve law as a means of salvation. ALL are simply saved (counted righteous) just like Abram was - by trusting God's Promise - therefore honoring God's Promise and plan. More on that next.

No comments: