By Faith, or by Works of the Law?
Faith is good, works don't matter.
This is the same old message, faith is good, actually doing stuff is irrelevant.
The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
More of the same
The Law and the Promise
The law of Abraham was not annulled by Christ because it was not really referring to us, it was referring to Christ. The law was there and we followed it for 430 years, it was really just a placeholder until Christ got here. We needed the law for a while to take care of some transgressions but the really just there for the interim. We were held captive under the law until the coming of faith was revealed.
This is another one of those sections that I don't think I fully understand. There is a lot of confusing language in there that may in fact be intentionally confusing. It seems to be trying to answer the question of why we don't need to follow the law anymore when we used to have to, and the tactic it takes is that the law was really only there for Jesus and we just following it for a while. It honestly seems a bit clumsy to me, but again I'm not sure I fully understand.
For the overview post (If you think I should add or remove stuff from this list please let me know, I think it would make good conversation)
Bad:
3:2-3 Faith is good, works don't matter
Kind of bummed that from the opening, Paul practically dooms himself to hell fire by calling the Galatians fools.
ReplyDeleteAlso interesting to point out is that while Galatians 3:10 sounds like salvation is through faith alone, James 2:21,24 and Romans 2:13 seem to point toward acts.
As far as the law goes, I am still lost myself. Someone came in and tried to explain it on a previous post, but I still didn't really get it. There are quite a few verses in the OT that point toward the law as being something that can't be changed and is "eternal."
love your link about him calling them fools.
DeleteAs far as the law vs faith thing, I really think there is just no way to reconcile it. They really are 2 contradictory ideas and both seem important to Christians. It reminds me of the mental gymnastics I used to do.
This is a terrible message in my opinion. As long as people continue to think that faith is a virtue, we have a problem. What matters are the actions you take, not whatever you have a childish faith in.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you here.. This is why so many atrocities are committed in the name of god(s) around the world. It takes a lot of faith in the afterlife to strap a bomb to your chest, or to spend the rest of your life in jail/get the death penalty for killing an abortion doctor for example. On the other hand, you don't really need faith to do good things for people.
Deletecouldn't agree more. The very idea that faith is seen as a virtue in this country is something that we need to overcome.
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