Faith Acts
Comments on Galatians with an ear to Luther’s commentary
Scripture Text: Galatians 3:10 and Genesis 12:10–20
Series: Comments on Galatians
Faith acts. You can tell who the real Christians are by the things they do and say, and if you are really astute, you might tell because of the things they think. Faith does act because the Holy Spirit acts from within the spirit of the one who has faith in him. The person of faith cannot help but do good works. But what does faith do when it does not act right? What does faith do when the person of faith acts wrongly, or speaks or thinks sinfully?
Real faith continues to believe. It trusts in God instead of its own actions — bad or good ones. True faith believes in God if when the person of faith fails to act godly. Faith acts even when it does not act righteously. Take Abraham, the father of faith, for example. Abraham, like all the saints in the Bible, was flawed. He was a sinner. One moment he trusted in God and the next, he was scheming to manufacture a desired outcome. Worse, he did so at his wife’s expense — and Pharaoh’s too.
Instead of trusting God, Abraham lied to protect his own neck. At this point, some would write themselves off as hopeless sinners. Abraham did not, and this is to his credit. If Abraham had not believed God was good for his word because Abraham had lied, that would have been worse than the falsehood. Even after he had sinned, Abraham believed in God. That is the real action of faith: to believe in God even when ones knows he is a helpless sinner.
Share this post
Author
Rev. Dr. Mark E. Ryman has served as Pastor for St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Salisbury, NC, since 2021. Previously, Pastor Ryman served congregations in North Carolina and Ohio, as well as a call to specialized ministry with Sola Publishing.
Click Here For Content Archives