The issue at hand
- Jon Cooper
- Dec 1, 2015
- 2 min read
"For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:" - Romans 4:14
Back before the law showed up, there was promise. God gave promises to Abram, "And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness." - Genesis 15:6. Were Abram to be able to "do" something that would give him righteousness, he could say "God, I did it!" However, those four words are not found in the bible via Abram (or Abraham).
Those promises concerning a nation? land? earthly blessings? Is not where this is going. These earthly things are not the issue at hand. "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." - Colossians 3:2 The Body of Christ today (God's heaven-bound agency) has no business setting their affections on the things on the earth. That would include such earthly blessings as land and a nation that was promised to Abraham. Again, those things are not the issue.
"For if they which are of the law be heirs".....when the law came, you don't see anybody in Israel saying "God, I did it!" (Meaning Moses, Aaron, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, etc.) the righteousness the law required was only obtained by the Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone else dropped the ball, which only fits, because "... by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." - Romans 3:20
Were someone to try to be justified by the law, that would be the very means by which they would be condemned (Hence the purpose for the book of Galatians). The law never made anybody an heir. Faith would be made void were it possible to be an heir via the law. Let's take an "off the wall" example.
If Goliath, with all his fleshly strength (and that wicked heart) could find it possible to obey all the 613 laws? (Quite the strange example, I know) Then Goliath could be an heir, based on fleshly strength, and his (lack of) faith wouldn't matter, he could say "God, I did it.". And as the verse continues, then, "the promise made of none effect."
Faith is the issue at hand. Believing what God says. For Abraham then, all the way back in Genesis 15 and for us now. Which lies true most importantly with the gospel found in 1 Corinthians 15.
"For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:" - 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
Believe God. Trust the gospel. Believe the King James Bible rightly divided. You won't find salvation in religion, in the law, in your works, in your imagination, but in what Christ did for us on the cross. Faith is the issue. Faith plus nothing.
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