I have been a believer in Yeshua (Jesus) as the Messiah for nearly 39 years now, so you would think that after all this time my faith would be perfected. I don’t mean that I should be perfect but that my faith would be. One would think that someone who has not only been a believer but also been a teacher for as long as I would have mastered the fine art of faith. Yet there are still days when I have to be reminded what faith is and what it means to trust in what Yeshua provided when he became a substitutionary offering for everyone who would believe.
This is not to say that my faith is not strong nor is it to say that I am in any way to question who and what Yeshua is or how He fulfilled the prophecies, concerning the Messiah of Israel. My faith difficulties like many other people comes not in trusting what Yeshua did but in my putting too much trust in what I do.
It seems that the Galatians had a similar problem as we find in Galatians chapter 3:1-5 we read:
3:1 O foolish Galatians, who cast a spell on you? Before your eyes Yeshua the Messiah was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I want to find out just one thing from you: did you receive the Ruach by deeds based on Torah, or by hearing based on trust? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Ruach, will you now reach the goal in the flesh? 4 Did you endure so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing? 5 So then, the One who gives you the Ruach and works miracles among you—does He do it because of your deeds based on Torah or your hearing based on trust and faithfulness?
The issue the Galatians were having been the same as I have periodically, and I am sure it is the same as many of those reading this today. The issue of knowing that our redemption isn’t the result of our actions or our deeds of Torah, but it is based only on the work of Yeshua. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that because we have found faith in Messiah that we can now live in sin. After all, the same Paul that wrote Galatians also wrote Romans 3:31 where he said:
3:31 Do we then nullify the Torah through faithfulness? May it never be! On the contrary, we uphold the Torah.
So this isn’t a matter of Torah opposing faith as if we have to either have faith, or we can follow Torah. Not at all. It is a matter of knowing that our failure to keep Torah perfectly cannot undo what Yeshua did for us. We only have to look just a few verses farther in Galatian 3 to find where Paul explains:
3:21 Then is the Torah against the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given that could impart life, certainly righteousness would have been based on law.
Paul clearly says Torah isn’t against the promises of G-D. He forcefully says, “May it never be!” But he also says that while Torah isn’t against the promise, Torah isn’t the promise. The promise is imparted life, which only comes through faith and not works. Because if righteousness could have come through the Torah, we would not have needed Yeshua. So if you are like me and periodically (as in sometimes daily) you stumble and fall, or saying a different way you still sin, please know that your righteousness doesn’t come from perfect obedience to the Torah. It comes from the one who was the promise of the Torah, Yeshua.
So the good news is that because our redemption and righteousness aren’t based upon our works, then our redemption and righteousness isn’t based on our works. It works both ways. Today I am once again thankful that my redemption isn’t dependent on my perfection. It is based only and completely on Yeshua’s perfection.