Whose Faith Do You Have?

Scripture:
"Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." (Galatians 2:16 KJV)

For many years after I received Jesus as my Savior I understood that it was only because of what Jesus did on the Cross were my sins forgiven and that it was a free gift from God because he died for the sins of the whole world. Then I began walking my Christian walk. Everything I learned in the Bible that I was supposed to do, I started doing it. I went to church, I read my Bible, I prayed, I went to Sunday School, I did not hang out with the world, you name it and I tried to do it and I did it to the best of my ability. But being a "christian" is a lot of hard work! I ultimately went to Bible School, married, had a christian family and served the Lord as a missionary for 14 years.

My life verse for all of those years was Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (NIV) I was continually trying to live by the faith I had in Jesus and I was constantly surrendering my life and everything I had to Jesus to serve Him.

Well about the 1990's, my world started coming apart. Ministry as a missionary was hard but we were told that having very little fruit was normal for Spain. Then my family fell apart and we went back to the U.S. for "refreshment" which ended up in divorce and about 10 years of mentoring under pastors trying to "figure out" what went wrong.

From a place of being crumbled to pieces, I "started all over again" so to speak. I reviewed every piece of doctrine I had learned, I persued reconciliation to everyone I had ever hurt, I wept and prayed and prayed and wept, while trying to rebuild my life so that I could just have a career and make a living.

Along this last part of my life's journey I found a two letter word in scripture that epitimizes the way I understand faith now. That two letter word is the word "of". Sounds silly doesn't it. But it is true. Let me explain.

For years I have used most of the contemporary translations of scripture in my reading and study like the NIV or the NASB or the Living Bible. (I have always known that the Living Bible is not a translation but a paraphrase.) I memorized Galations 2:20 and felt a strong foundation in the Word of God for what I believed. Then recently, while studying Galatians chapter 2, I was doing some cross referencing between a few different translations and noticed something very interesting. In the KJV Galatians 2:16 it says that we are "justified by the faith OF Christ" and in the NIV of the same verse it says we are "justifed by faith IN Christ". Now this does not seem significant at first glance but bear with me a moment.

For years I believed that I was "justified by the faith" that I had in Christ. That is, that because I believed and had faith in what Jesus did on the Cross for me, I was saved. Jesus died on the Cross and paid for all my sins but I had to believe that he did it and have the faith to accept him. However, look at how the KJV puts it. It says that we are "justified by the faith" that Jesus has. That is it is not our faith IN Christ that justifies us, it is the faith OF Christ that justifies us.

Two things before I conclude this post. One is that it could be said that this is just the old English way of saying the same thing that is why we needed the new translations. And I thought of that, so I also compared two similar versions but in Spanish and I found the same thing. The Reina Valera Antiquo version (comparable to the KJV but in Spanish), has the Spanish word for OF in that verse and the new translation of Spanish uses the Spanish word for IN. From my studies it would seem to me that a better way to say it that would be consistant across the translations would be we are "justified by the faith that is in Jesus."

The second is more theological in nature, that has to do with the sufficiency of Jesus' death on the Cross. That is, if salvation is for the whole world and Jesus is truly the only way, truth and life, then it must be the faith OF Christ, and not our faith IN Christ that justifies us or else what Jesus did on the Cross was not adequate to give us the free gift of salvation. Another way of saying it would be that I would not have salvation if I had not accepted Jesus but am can only be justified by the faith of my Lord because my personal faith in Jesus is inadequate to justify me.

Having said all this, I would like you to comment on this post. I recognize that this blog has primarily been a place where we share are experiences and thoughts and try to encourage each other. So I am asking for you to encourage me in this post by sharing your thoughts about what you think or have heard or have studied about this verse in Scripture and the difference between being justified by faith IN Christ or being justified by the faith OF Christ.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, we desire to know you more by understanding what you have given to us in your Word. Teach us Holy Spirit what the will of God is through the Word and fill us and bind us together with your peace through this blog. Amen.