Faith IS the Law

Scripture: Also concerning the foreigner who is not of Your people Israel and comes from a far country for Your name’s sake (for they will hear of Your great name and of Your strong hand and of Your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this house, may You hear in heaven, Your dwelling place, and do all that the foreigner asks of You, so all people of the earth will know Your name. 1 Kings 8:41-43a

This righteousness of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all and upon all who believe, for there is no distinction. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God ... Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, seeing it is one God, who shall justify the circumcised by faith, and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then make the law void through faith? God forbid! Instead, we establish the law. Romans 3:22-23,29-31

Observation: In consecrating the temple in Jerusalem, Solomon claims the mercy of God for the foreigners if they will submit to the power, judgment, and merciful love of Yahweh and pray in his name. Over a thousand years later, Paul explains exactly this same thing to the church in Rome ... that the sacrifice of Jesus is for all people, Jews and Gentiles, if they will only have faith in Jesus Christ.

It is this very last verse of Romans 3 that makes the full connection. In praying over the temple and all Israel, Solomon declared that all the laws, promises, and judgments of God were perfect and fulfilled. Paul connects that law to faith in Jesus, stating that faith doesn't void the law, but establishes it. In other words, it is by faith in Jesus that the promise of the law - the promise of full reconciliation to God and reception of his great love - is fulfilled, and it is fulfilled not only for the Jews (whose chief difference from the Gentiles is that the law was entrusted to them (Romans 3:2)), but for all mankind.

Application: In the end, faith in Jesus is the law of the Old Testament. The Old Testament law was not about rules that proved obedience, but about sanctification and justification in order to align one's self to God. However, all those practices were always about one thing ... no person is "good enough" and thus we require a different medium for engaging with God. Jesus became that medium, but not just for the Jews.

And that was ALWAYS God's intention. In Solomon's time there were non-Israelite believers - in fact, we see them all through the Old Testament - and in his wisdom Solomon understood they had a right and a claim upon God's love, mercy, attention, and aid.

And today, all people have the same right. This includes "non-Christians" ... anyone who at any moment turns to God in faith. This was always the purpose of the "law", that anyone who is humble before God can receive his judgment and mercy.

Prayer: Lord, I ask that you continue to work within my heart. Keep your Holy Spirit upon me as I go forward today. May my compliance with your law, and my faith in Jesus Christ, be interdependent and inseparable, in my deeds and thoughts. Amen.