Faith and Promise

13th Sunday in Trinity 2011
“Faith and Promise”
Rev. Stephen E. Stults
St. Barnabas Anglican Church
September 18th, 2011

Consider these two statements from our Epistle selection for the day: (Galatians 3:16: “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made”, and (Gal 3:26) “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”

These statements deal with two central and critical areas of belief for the Christian. Taken from the 3rd chapter of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, they bring forth his thoughts concerning the dramatic tension between law and promise. One could put it another way: the contrast of works versus faith. You’ll recall that last week’s Epistle for the 12th Sunday in Trinity, from 2 Cor. 3, dealt with the same theme as the Apostle Paul spoke of how the letter of the law kills, but the Spirit brings life.

Today, St. Paul speaks to us again on the “tension” between law and promise. The promise of which he speaks was that which God made with Abram, soon to be Abraham, which means “Father of nations.” In Genesis 22:18, we hear the voice of God telling speaking to Abram: 18 "And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice." Of course, we know this promise to be true, for indeed Abraham did become the Patriarch of Israel, and also of the Arabic peoples through Ishmael. Thus, Islam traces its roots to him as well. What an interesting web of genealogy our world is! As an aside, recall that all the peoples of the earth can be traced in some way to one of the three sons of Noah: Ham, Shem, and Japeth. The Hamites were the forerunners of the African peoples and the Shemites (Semites) settled in the Middle East. According to one source, the son of Japeth became ”the father of the Indo-European peoples, those stretching from India to the shores of Western Europe. They are each linked by linguistic similarities that may seem invisible to the layman but are more obvious to the linguist. He was also the ancestor of much of Asia and the Americas including some of the Pacific.”

Thus, God preserved the people of the earth through Noah, and then made covenant with Abraham to bless all the people upon earth. Of great interest, the promise made to Abraham St. Paul says, was based, not on obedience to the Law of Moses, which came four hundred and thirty years after Abraham, but on faith. In Romans, 4:3, Paul tells us: “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” Similarly, in Gal. 3:18, Paul says: “For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.”

What is St. Paul saying to us? Is it that if we could achieve righteousness by the law, there would be no more need of promise or inheritance? Perhaps. Yet, in verse 19, Paul seems to comment on this quandary by saying:
(Gal 3:19) “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.”

Thus the law was given to man, not to help him achieve righteousness, but because of man’s sinfulness (his transgressions). Perhaps it served as a means to show man’s need for God. But wait, isn’t it possible for man to educate himself into righteous behavior? Isn’t it possible to “learn” to be good? Once again, St. Paul has an answer:
(Gal 3:21-22) “Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.”

What, then is the purpose of the Law? Could it be this:
(Gal 3:23-26) “But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”

Finally, in verse 28, we have that wonderful and hopeful statement:
(Gal 3:28) “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”

By the way, this is a favorite verse of those who favor “inclusion” in the Church for whatever heterodox agenda they are espousing. Unfortunately, this is a grievous abuse of the text, taking it totally out of context. St. Paul is not speaking of inclusion of whatever modernist “axe” we want to grind, but of the glorious inclusion in righteousness and of the imputed justification in Christ Jesus. You see, the glory of Christianity is not that we are all perfect people, following all the rules of our faith and enjoying God’s favor because of our behavior.
Rather, despite of what we are and how we act, God has declared us righteous in His sight through Jesus Christ. This is called forensic justification. The term “forensic”, you will recall, according to Webster, means “belonging to, used in, or suitable to courts of judicature or to public discussion and debate.”

What this means to us is that in the high court of Heaven we have already been declared “not guilty” because of Jesus Christ. In fact, Christ is, at once, our judge and our defense attorney. He is the “mediator” that St. Paul talked about in today’s epistle. This is the promise of which St. Paul speaks.

This is difficult for most of us to accept. The fact that we are to be judged by the very One who died for us is a little bit much for most humans. Somewhere, deep in our souls, we want to cling to a little bit of self justification, just a wee bit of “us” that we can hold up to God and use in our defense.

To this feeble attempt at self-justification, one only has to turn to Christ’s words, out of His own Mouth. Christ’s answer to the rich young ruler is very telling here. Recall this was he who ran to Christ and asked, “Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” Christ said to him:
(Mat 19:17) “Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.”

In light of what we’ve just talked about, this may seem incongruous, but Christ is merely testing the young man, who exclaims that he has kept all of the commandments Jesus quotes from his youth. Then, Christ lays the bombshell, as he tells the rich young ruler that if he will be perfect, all he has to do is to sell all that he has, give it to the poor, and come follow Jesus. At this critical juncture, the young man’s self justification falls apart, as the Scripture says,
(Mat 19:22) “But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.”
Christ then tells his disciples how difficult it will be for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, even as difficult as a camel to go through the eye of a needle.
As his astonished disciples ask, “Who then can be saved”, Matthew tells us,
(Mat 19:26) “But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”

All the time, Christ was leading the discussion back to Himself. The point is clear, men can’t justify themselves before God, because at some point, Man’s own humanity gets in the way. We usually find something to love more than God, and frankly, it is usually ourselves.

Yet, God loves us more than we do. Our love for ourselves is not perfect; rather, it usually takes some sort of “twist”, given our fallen natures. If we are capable of loving ourselves, it is never the perfect, complete love of God, but has some defect in it in some way. You see, perfect love has our best interest in mind, whereas self-love is colored by too many aspects of our fallen-ness. When one can truly love oneself through Christ, then one is growing in the love of God. It is only by loving Christ that we can love ourselves. That is, only by having fellowship with Love itself can we reflect that perfect love back on ourselves, and ultimately to others.

We are Abraham’s spiritual children, forever blessed through Jesus Christ.
In God’s almighty Mercy, it was always His plan to include us Gentiles through Christ.
As the Psalmist says:
(Psa 145:3) “Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.”

I must ask, do you want to the child of promise, or the child of law? Do you want to enjoy the blessed inheritance of Christ Jesus, both as a son (daughter) and heir? Do you want to hear those blessed words, “Come beloved of the Lord; come and enjoy the Kingdom created for you from the foundation of the world?”

Or, do you want to be children of the law, subject to its severity, knowing full well that you cannot meet its impossibly high standards? As St. Paul tells us in:
Rom 2:12: “For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;”

When I hear this fearful statement, all I can exclaim is “Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ!” We, in the Church, will NOT be judged by the law. We, although we have sinned, are sinners, and continue to sin, will be saved by the gracious promise of Christ. As we seek God’s face through humble prayer and repentance, receiving the blessing of absolution through grace, and being fed by His most gracious Body and Blood in holy worship, we will not fail to achieve justification in His Sight. After all, it is not we that do it, but our Blessed Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Through Him and in Him, we have complete confidence in victorious salvation.

This is the blessing of Abraham on us. This is the promise of God through faith in Jesus Christ, now and forever.


(Gal 3:26) For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.