THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF FAITH
“For through the Spirit we eagerly wait by faith for the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” Galatians 5:5-6.
“The Christian life,” says Paul, “operates on a completely different principle from the old system of the law.” The law makes us look within and continually evaluate ourselves on our performance. We can never be sure whether we have been obedient enough, attained the standard, and satisfied the demands of the law. We focus on what we have achieved or failed to achieve rather than on the attitudes and motives of our hearts.
We develop an attitude of self-righteous pride, like the Pharisee in the temple whose prayer was nothing more than self-congratulation and contempt for the tax collector whom he despised because he was a sell-out to Rome. Circumcision is the doorway to this way of life. It enhances self-awareness and self-satisfaction which cancels out faith in Jesus and trust in His finished work.
“The Christian life,” said Paul, “is the way of faith in the righteousness of Jesus which He gives to us as a gift, not trust in ourselves to attain the perfection of God which He requires for us to be acceptable to Him.” It does not matter whether we are circumcised or uncircumcised, Jew or Gentile, a member of the covenant people of God or not. What matters is whether we have faith in the death of Jesus to forgive our sin, cleanse us from all unrighteousness and clothe us in His perfect righteousness which He gives freely to those who believe in Him.
Where does circumcision fit in? It doesn’t because new life in Jesus Christ is based on faith, not on performance. Keeping the law does not produce love. It produces pride in myself and contempt for other people who do not do what I do. Even the Law taught God’s people to treat each other with kindness and mercy and not cruelty like the Egyptians had treated them when they were in slavery to them.
Everything God has done for us through Jesus is intended to bring our old selfish sin nature into submission to Him and to nurture our new nature which has been recreated in the image of God.
“Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all.” Colossians 3:9-11.
Paul also spoke about righteousness as something we hope for. Does that mean that, in the end it is possible that we might not receive this gift which is the only thing that makes us acceptable to God? No, because hope in the Bible has a different meaning from the hope we express in our everyday lives.
When we say that we hope that something will happen, there is an element of uncertainty because we have no foundation upon which to base our hope. “I hope it will not rain today,” we say when we need good weather for an outing to the beach, but we cannot be sure because no one can control the weather. In the Bible, our hope is based on what God has promised. He has already declared that it will happen, and we put our confidence and expectation in what He has said. It is a hope until it becomes a reality. Faith in Him is the energy that makes our hope a fact.
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see,” Hebrews 11:1.
God has promised us the gift of righteousness through Christ’s death for us. We do not have to work for it. It is His gift to us now, but we will only experience the full effects of Jesus’ righteousness when He returns to restore everything to perfection. We live now in the hope of His righteousness, and on that basis, we have confidence that everything He has promised will be given to us on that day.
We will always be imperfect as long as we are in this body, but God sees us in Christ as already perfected. We live now in the faith that God accepts us because we are “covered” by the righteousness of Jesus, just as we are “covered” for the repair of our vehicle in the case of an accident, or for the loss of property when something of ours is stolen if we have an insurance policy.
We can love freely because we are not trying to impress God but living out of the confidence that we are who He says we are, His children who resemble Him because we have His Spirit in us.
Acknowledgement
Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.