There may not be a more significant word other than the word, “Faith” in Christianity. Our parents taught us about faith in our homes. We heard the children’s Sunday school teacher repeat it Sunday after Sunday. Then, as adults, we heard even more about God’s righteousness that comes through faith. It is not our works that brings righteousness. It is our faith.
And this is why it is surprising to me what happened to the Jewish Christians in the days of Romans. They were taught about God’s righteousness, and that righteousness came through faith, as you and I were taught. But as we see in the Letter to the Romans, Paul let us know the Jewish Christians somehow was able to lose sight of that. The Jewish Christians didn’t become this way overnight. It started in smaller ways. They lost sight of one thing. Then it snowballed into something bigger.
All of us know we are to say that the righteousness of God comes through faith. No one would dare say something else. But if we are not careful, something or someone out there in the world can play with our minds. Under the right circumstances, we may slowly begin to say, and believe, in something entirely different. It usually starts in smaller ways. But in the end, what we have in our hands is a distorted soteriology.
This Sunday, let’s come and think together how the Jewish Christians in the days of Romans came to lose sight of God’s justification, and how Paul responded, and what we can learn from this. The chapter is 4 in Romans. See you Sunday.
Your Friend
Alvin