Theme: "Faith ____ Works"

Galatians 2: 20-21

June 16 & 17, 2007

 Look at our theme for the day, they blanket works.  By filling the blank with different words, we can use the phrase as a tool to help us expose and understand all that God is saying to us in this passage God had Paul include many points concerning faith in this letter. With the help of this phrase, we will explore several of them.  So we began by taking on one point at a time to understand what is here.

 First, make phrase faith, not works.  This is the main point of the whole reading and indeed the whole letter to the Galatians.  This phrase gives us the foundation for all that Paul's talking about, and indeed for the lessons we have to learn about life as a Christian.

 Faith not works, with this phrase, Paul tells us that the first thing to get straight is justification or how we are saved.  Paul says, right off the bat.  "We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ."  This tells us clearly it's not by works, but why can't one be justified by works?

 We're told that to "cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law."  For John tells us that if we break any part of the law, we break the whole law.  So the standard is perfection.  Not just close enough but absolutely perfect, and only God is perfect.  So only son of God, Jesus can perfectly keep the law.

Salvation was worked for us by Jesus perfect life and sacrificial death.  As Paul writes, I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

 All of this expands on word Paul wrote to the Philippians, "by grace you have been saved through faith in this not of works, it is the gift of God." Paul goes beyond a faith not works to tell us that it is faith versus works.

 Faith versus Works -- we learn here that these two do not work together for salvation.  Indeed, they cannot, it is by faith alone.  For if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.  Keeping faith and works separate leaves the work of salvation Christ's work.

 Works is about the law.  The law versus those who break it.  Christ became cursed for us, taking the whole curse on himself by being hanged on a tree, the tree of the cross.  There he did it all telling us "it is finished."

Leaving all the work to Christ, we have the assurance that all has been done.  To add any need for honest to do will, is to throw doubt on the question.  And indeed to place us back under the law, that is under the curse.  This includes making faith a work that we do.  That puts faith under the law and us under the law and therefore under the curse.  But faith is gospel.  It is given to us by God.  He tells us that in Philippians and tells us more about it here.  So we must keep faith and works in the right relationship.  What is that relationship?  It is our phrase field in this way faith than works, leading to faith that works.

You see it is faith first.  Faith is the gift of God.  It establishes the relationship.  It gives us the gift of salvation and makes us all live in Christ.  Now with Christ alive and eyes, we live in his way.  It is comprised living in us that brings about our good works.

 Faith understands and holds to the fact that Christ has redeemed us and made us in His own.  Realizing all that Christ has done for us, and seeing the price he paid on our behalf faith response living and working his way.  Jesus teaches this in the gospel reading for today, where we also see it played out in a woman's life.

 By teaching the Pharisee, what motivated the woman Jesus teaches us.  What is to motivate our works in his service.  The simple comparison of cats made it clear to Jesus hearers.  To really make the point about what he has forgiven us, Jesus told the parable of the unforgiving servant.  There the man's data is much more representative of what we owe God.  It was not 500 denarii but rather 10,000 talents that were owed.  To try to put that in today's terms I used to a denarius as a day's wage.  The math takes a couple steps, but with a minimum wage of five dollars per hour.  10,000 talents equals $2.6 trillion that is a way of describing the debt our sins have accumulated before God.

 But the parable is gospel, and it focuses on God's forgiving not on our owing.  God releases us from our huge debt because Jesus paid it for us.  The lesson for us is taught by the woman in the gospel reading.  She responds out of gratitude.  She serves the Lord.

 By faith, she knew what Jesus had done for her.  Her faith than works and she serves.  Hers is to say that works.  The work that faith does is twofold.  First faith receives and holds onto the gift of salvation, which God gives.  Second, faith response to this gift by serving the Lord.  So a living faith is a faith that works.  And since faith is Christ living in us faith and works by the power of God.

 By the power of the Holy Spirit, we in faith repent of our sins and seek to live guided by the Spirit.  Now we seek to follow the law, not to earn salvation or to qualify to be God's child.  But because Jesus has saved us and made us children of the heavenly Father it is in response to what God did for us and we try to do what he wants us to and avoid what he prohibits.

 It is because Christ lives in us that we see the world his way.  The word that is gone lives in on us.  So we look to the word that is written, the Bible, to tell us what is true and how to live by it.

 Since the faith we have is the gift of God, and it holds onto Christ as savior by the power of God, it is true of us as the savior said -- your faith has saved you go in peace. 

Amen

SDG