Live by Faith in the Son of God

"Faith goes up the stairs that love has built and looks out the windows which hope has opened."  - Charles Spurgeon

Hacking has become prevalent in our 21st century information age. Sadly, the breaching, corruption, and even theft of supposedly secured data and materials occurs on a fairly regular basis. But "hacking," of sorts, has occurred within the Christian church, too.

Let me point out one big example. Referring back to the days of the apostle Paul, there was a problem with Judaizing teachers that had pervaded the churches of Galatia. These were the same churches that Paul had founded earlier (Acts 16:6).

They were wrongly teaching that along with the requirement of having faith in Jesus Christ, a Christian was expected to observe the Mosaic law, as well. However, Paul reiterated that an individual "is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ" (Galatians 2:16).

Those who were led astray were probably not totally clear on the justification by faith alone doctrine that Paul had taught them. To be honest, it was probably hard for some of them to come around. After all, the old, tried and true ways were familiar and comfortable to them.

A little background information might prove most helpful at this juncture. The Mosaic law was specifically given to the  nation of Israel from God through Moses after God had freed them from Egyptian slavery (Exodus 19; Leviticus 26:46; Romans 9:4).

The Mosaic law consisted of laws that included the Ten Commandments, various societal mandates, and directives for worship (specifications for priests, sacrifices, feasts, the temple, etc.). God had a purpose for providing these laws to His people.

In the Bible itself we may recognize no less than four reasons why the laws were given to the people. They can be condensed as: for their own benefit; so that God can reveal Himself to them;  to set them apart in order to show Himself to others; and to display man's need for a savior.

The law was useful in that it revealed God's will so that we could see our own sins. On the other hand, it could not make one righteous by simply following them. But it was never meant to be permanent. It was a place holder, if I may, until the coming of our Savior "that we might be justified by faith" (Galatians 3:24).

Thus, Paul felt it necessary to perform damage control. That's why he wrote the epistle (Galatians). In it he stressed our deliverance in Christ, and to respond to the distortion of the gospel that was being pushed by the Judaizers.

I must stress that while I'm being very brief on this important topic, I would encourage anyone who is interested to look into this further. I guarantee that It will be well worth your while to do so. But before I end today, I would like to point out a few things to you.

We can't save ourselves by merely following the Law. And thinking that we could renders grace null and void. More importantly, if that were true, then Jesus died for nothing (Galatians 2:21). Without question, we are saved by faith (John 3:16; Ephesians 2:8–9), and as believers in Christ we live our lives through faith, both, in him and by him (Galatians 2:20).

Faith is a gift from God but we mustn't keep it to ourselves. We need to demonstrate our faith and share it with others.  Let them see our example and be inspired to follow. If not, then we run the risk of "hackers" permeating the church body as they did long ago in Galatia.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 2:5; Proverbs 3:5-6; Ephesians 2:8-9; Luke 17:5; 1 John 5:4

Prayer: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope, amen.  - Romans 15:13

Have a blessed day!

Genevieve