Quote:
Originally Posted by DeadManWalkin
Paul warned constantly against 'law-keeping Jewish believers' (called Judaizers) in almost all his epistles. He was not charitable at all towards them. He even rebuked Peter in such strong terms for living like a Gentile and then pretending to live like a Jew when those from Jerusalem arrived at Antioch (Gal 2: 11-14).
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When I read what aron wrote I interpreted law keeping in a cultural context and not related to justification but I will let him clarify.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. I think the Old Testament saints were actually justified by faith as well and not through law keeping.
Positive Examples of Faith:
Abraham is a famous example who “believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6).
David is another example who murdered, lied, stole, coveted, committed adultery and ate the consecrated showbread yet he was saved through repentance and faith (allegiance) and love to God and did not worship idols. He is who I think of when the verse "love covers a multitude of sins" comes to mind.
Naaman the Syrian was justified by faith (allegiance) to Yahweh who he believed was the one true God. Elisha even gave him permission to bow down to the god of his king because his heart was in the right place. He reminds me of Joseph of Arimathea who had to keep his faith secret until he couldn't anymore.
Negative examples of Faith:
Saul confessed his sins, was anointed, made religious vows and enforced religious laws, but he was likely unsaved since he was not repentant nor obedient nor did he trust or love Yahweh. He is like the Pharisees in the NT who had an outward appearance of being religious but were inwardly evil and killed Jesus out of jealousy, feeling threatened by the people's love for Jesus as Saul felt towards David.
Balaam believed Yahweh was God and was even used by God to speak truth and prophesy but his allegiance was towards himself and money. He was disobedient and 2 Peter 2 says he was unsaved. He may be the OT version of the lawless ministry workers in Matthew 7:21-23.
The Old Testament test for faith seems consistent with this understanding of the Greek word for belief, "pistis" which this blog post says should be understood as "vow to faithful relationship":
https://thelogosofagape.wordpress.co...ek-word-study/
Also think about the saying "
obedience is better than sacrifice" in 1 Samuel 15:22. It's really the OT version of "salvation by faith alone and not works". It doesn't matter how much one sacrifices, if one is not obedient, the sacrifices were in vain. See how well this matches Matthew 7:21-23. The ministry workers sacrificed so much for their ministry, but it was all in vain because they were lawless (disobedient), so they did not have saving faith.
"Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘
Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘
I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"
Obedience and faith are also used interchangeably in the NT in verses like:
John 3:36
Whoever
believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not
obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
Acts 5:32
And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who
obey him.
Saving faith produces obedience, so the two are intertwined. I think God gave us these OT stories as examples of faith so we could get an idea of what saving faith looks like.