The Faithfulness of Jesus

Meditations on the Book of Galatians

April 27, 2020

The Faithfulness of Jesus

And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.

Galatians 3:29

Read: Galatians 3: 23-29

In this passage Paul speaks of before and after: “Before the way of faith in Christ, and “now that the way of faith has come” (Galatians 3: 23, 25). However, there is a bit of nuance in the Greek that makes this passage difficult to translate. I believe N. T. Wright comes closest to Paul’s intent when he renders these verses as, “Before this faithfulness arrived” and “now that faithfulness has come.” “The way of faith” can imply that it is our personal way of faith that means “we no longer need the law as our guardian” (v.25). However, in this passage Paul is celebrating the faithfulness of Jesus, not our way of faith. Our salvation is only made possible by the faithfulness of Jesus. Our right-standing with God is initiated and maintained, moment by moment, by the faithfulness of Jesus. It will never be my ambition to be a man of great faith. I will always strive to be a fully- devoted follower of the man of great faith, Christ Jesus. It is not my great faith I am interested in because I am possessed by the great faithfulness of Jesus and his passion for me.

(I love the way Paul puts this thought in Philippians 3:12 (NASB) “. . . but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.”

One of the fruits of my faith in the faithfulness of Jesus is revealed at the end of this chapter. Paul writes that when “you belong to Christ there is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).This is impossible when you live by the law. This is reality when you live by faith in Christ.

My Takeaway: I am convinced that if Paul was writing this letter to the churches in our era, he would write, there is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female, Methodist or Baptist, Presbyterian or Episcopal, Protestant or Catholic. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

God wants unity more than He wants denominations.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2020 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.