RIGHTEOUSNESS OR RIGHTNESS …Bill Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Galatians 2:16

 

Definitions are the single criteria for understanding a language.  This can also be said to be so of any communication.  It seems as if I remember someone of note saying that if they were allowed to define their terms they could win any debate.

But under any flag, definitions are critical.  This gives rise to dictionaries, glossaries, and translations.  Writers are expected, if writing in a commonly known field to use the commonly agreed definitions of that field.  When a writer changes those definitions he is expected to define his changes.  But the changes really should be limited.  For a writer to redefine the technical terminology of the field of interest is both confusing and disturbing to readers.

The text above has some common technical terms.  They are “justified”, “works”, “law”, “faith”, “believed” and “flesh”.  There might over time have been minor differences but there has been general agreement.

But there has come to popular understanding new definitions and of course these new definitions have given a different understanding.

Tom Wright, in Paul for Everyone, Galatians and Thessalonians, 2002, provides a good illustration of the change.

On page 26 of the book named above, Wright “Who then are we?  We are the Messiah’s people, with His life now at work in us.  And, since the central thing about Him is His loving faithfulness, the central thing about us, the only thing in fact that defines us, is our own loving faithfulness, the glad response of faith….This is the very heart of Christian identity”. 

The subtle change, which may not be so subtle, is that he changed “justified” from a righteousness that is imputed (the acceptable definition among Protestants) to active work because of an imparted energy or desire to please God.

The standard orthodox view is represented by John Eadie, “works are not the source out of which justification springs; or with a slight change of relation, works are not the cause of justification….The phrase “except” has its usual meaning…and refers only to “not justified,” a man is not justified by the works of the law, or a man is not justified except by faith (believing) in Jesus Christ”, Greek Text commentaries, Galatians, John Eadie, pgs 164-165.

This is Paul’s raging dispute with the  Pharisees.  It is always the battle for a true Gospel.  For the Gospel is a statement of the sufficiency of Jesus.  This must be our witness.  For this we must be jealous.

Please read Romans 1:14-16.