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  • From: "John Brand" <jbrand AT gvsd.mb.ca>
  • To: Corpus-Paul <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: [Corpus-Paul] Galatians 2:16: Exploring the Relationship betw een Faith and Works
  • Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 16:51:03 -0500

> Welcome to the list, John.

John:
Good to be here.

Jerry:
I think this is an interesting expression
> in 2:16, though I'm not sure I would want to have it take up those
> categories that Paul did not work with at leasst as understood by the
> Reformers (and perhaps James).

John:
There is distancing of James and Paul from the perspective of the Reformers.
For
example, Luther thought of James' epistle as the 'epistle of straw.' However,
I am not
sure that such a rift would have been the case in view of the agreement of
Acts 15. It is
true that those who 'followed James' may have been at odds with Paul.

If we were to explore possible lines of continuity between James' thought and
Paul's, we
might start by linking Romans 5:3 h qliyis upomonhn katergazetai with James
1:3 to
dokimion umwn ths pistews katergazetai upomonhn so that qliyis would be
synonomous with dokimion umwn ths pistews.

The merit of such an exploration would be then challenge your taking pistews
to be
'faithfulness' rather than 'faith' as elsewhere in Paul. However, it would
yield some
helpful insight into what IMO Calvin more than any of the other Reformers saw
as the
distinguishing quality of the elect: The gift of perseverance. And it would
avoid some of
the hang-ups that we see in the development of English Calvinism because of
the
emphasis of Beza and Perkins.

I would argue that both James and Paul focus on what a believer must do in
order for
his faith to be made perfect since it is faith that is the key to salvation
both in terms of
what God is looking for and the relationship of faith to obedience viz a vis
'obedience of
faith' (Romans 1:5) or an obedience that has its source in faith rather than
in a rite of
some sort.

Jerry:
I have been wondering if it might not
> better be related to understanding the faithfulness of Christ as a
> fulfilling of the Torah. Then the sense of the passage would be
> something such as this: [we] know that no one is justified through
> the works of the Torah, unless it is through the faithfulness of Jesus
> Christ; and we have put our trust in Christ Jesus in order that we
> might be justified by his faithfulness...

John:
This view has the advantage that it accords with the Westminster Confession
of
Faith.X.iv: 'we are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of Our
Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ by faith, and not for our own works or deservings.' It
also echoes
Anselm's syllogism from his Cur Deus Homo viz a vis: Christ satisfaction of
the divine
justice.

However, it does IMO put Paul at odds with the prophets who continually
called into
question the security of the nation's future on the basis that they were not
fulfilling the
justice of God (i.e. Isaiah 1:10ff). If we find acceptable the thesis of C.H.
Dodd
('According to the Scriptures'), we could bring in the dilemma of Habakkuk
into the
discussion of Galatians since Paul quotes Habakkuk 2:4 in Galatians 3:11 'the
just shall
live by faith.' My question would be: Would it make sense that he would take
pistews to
mean 'faithfulness' in 2:16 when Habakkuk clearly meant 'faith' in Habakkuk
2:4?

Further, the hebrew )a+uneh [please correct my spelling if wrong] has the
meaning
'something established or permanent' so that the just (rather than the
'justified') are those
who live by an unseen reality. Habakkuk's dilemma has to do with injustice
(1:3) and
why God has allowed it to be all around him. The answer that upon reflection
gives him
comfort is that the man who lives by his passions (2:4) will eventually be
undone by
those same passions (i.e. 'will not your debtors suddenly arise? 2:7).

Thus, in the deuteronomic ideal, the nation cannot enjoy the salvation or
preserving
power of God unless she is providing salvation and protection for the weak in
her midst
(i.e. she must not show partiality cf. James 2:1 or must fulfill the law of
love in order to
actualize the covenantal promises). Thus, I would argue that Paul also
emphasizes the
necessity of fulfilling the law of love (Romans 13:10 and Galatians 5:22-23)
in order to
actualize the salvation that is promised the believing community.

To get back to Galatians 2:16 the present, passive tense of dikaiow seems to
me to
indicate that the forgiven believer must experience some sort of normalizing
process so
that he can be brought into line with the covenant and have the blessings of
the covenant
actualize themselves. Calvin argues that the elect want to do what pleases
the father and
this is the result of the secret work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts.

These considerations seem to argue for more of an active role of works in
Galatians
2:16. The Jew was never asked to leave his observance of the law (and that
appears to
be the context of Galatians 2) just as the Gentile was not being asked to
become Jewish
(he had his own mores and folkways that he followed). Both groups must come
to Christ
for the inner working of the Holy Spirit that would make them into the kind
of people
who could inherit the kingdom.

This hopefully gives you an idea of the direction my own thoughts have gone
as I have
considered this passage. Of course, I would benefit from any challenges to
what I have
been thinking.

John Brand
BA Bib Stu (Providence College, 1980); MMin (Providence Seminary, 1991)





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