Open Theism Discussion Board

Homily on the topic from the Editor of Touchstone Mag...

Check out the homily for Friday, November 5, 2004 http://www.touchstonemag.com/frpat/2004_10_31_frpatarchive.html

Galatians 2:11-21 -- The KJV got it correctly.

...new translators are unable to look upon Jesus as a man of faith. They think of faith as something that Christians have, but somehow Jesus had no need for.

This is clearly not view of St. Paul, according to whom we are justified before God by the faith of Jesus Himself. What Paul affirms here is not that we are justified by our own faith. We are justified by Jesus’ faith. Jesus’ faith was the source of His redemptive obedience to the Father. Our faith comes from Jesus’ faith, and this is what renders us just. Thus, the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks of Jesus as "the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the Cross, despising the shame . . . who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself." (12:2,3). This is the faith that justifies us, the faith of Jesus in all His service to God and man, but especially His endurance of the Cross. This is what we see when we behold the wondrous Cross, where the young Prince of glory died. The crucifixion is the supreme symbol of the faith of Jesus.

. . .

In the NT most statements about redemption tend to lay emphasis on the universality of what God has done in Jesus; the terms tend to be plural and collective: "God so loved the world," says John 3:16. Similarly Paul wrote that God "spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all" (Romans 8:32). Paul also so wrote, "There is one God, and there is one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all" (1 Tim 2:6). The words of Jesus over the covenant-cup also stress a universal perspective: "This is My blood of the new covenant which will be shed for you and for the many." Earlier the Lord had said that "the Son of man came not to served but to serve and to give His life for the many" (Mark 10:45). Texts of this sort abound in early Christian literature, all insisting that the blood of Jesus was shed for all of mankind. That is to say, the New Testament teaches universal, not limited atonement.

(Yet) ...

More rarely does the NT speak of Jesus’ love for each person. ... Paul, like John, knew the love of Christ to be directed as him personally.

. . .

A third feature of this passage is its inclusion of our identification with Christ: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." The acceptance of the crucifixion on Jesus Christ into our hearts places there a new source of life and identity. I must die, in order for Christ to live in me. That is the hardest of messages—I must die. Not "I must be fulfilled." Not "I must be satisfied." Not "I must reach my full potential." No, very simply "I must die."

Christ’s own faith is the model, exemplar, and source of my own. These are hard words: "It is not longer I who live." The self must go. In the pursuit of Christ, selfishness, self-centeredness, self-preoccupation, and self-absorption are the enemy. The destruction of these things in our hearts is what Paul calls a crucifixion: "I have been crucified with Christ."

. . .

We Christians have no hope but in Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. He is our one confidence in life and in death. We place all our faith in Jesus’ faith. We cling to His cross as our strength and solace. For His sake we put to death the ways of the flesh and of the world, in order to conform our live to the pattern of His cross. In doing all of this, we are justified. Jesus has replaced the Law. He is our only Law. We Christians, once and for all, have placed all our eggs in one basket. It is the Easter basket.

(APOLOGIES TO COREY AND TOM FOR LENGTH -- THIS WON'T BE COMMON.)

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And mentioned, not as much, here (Monday, January 26, 2004): http://www.touchstonemag.com/frpat/2004_01_25_frpatarchive.html

According to biblical thought, "the life is in the blood." Therefore, the pouring out of Jesus’ blood in His sacrifice on the Cross is the pouring out of His life in love for the Father and for each of us. By this pouring out of His life, Jesus cleanses away our sins. By His death He defeats sin, and by His resurrection He defeats death.
The righteousness of man, received in faith, comes from the righteousness of God manifested in the expiatory mystery of the Cross. Through the death of Jesus, God both manifests Himself as righteous and makes believers righteous "by the faith of Christ" (verse 26).

HOPE THIS HELPS!