A-Z of Paul: Faith

For the Apostle Paul, those who are now baptized into the life of grace in Christ, are freed from a live of observance of the Law of Moses, which has now been subsumed into Christ. Christ is now the law, which is to be “observed” by faith. The basic question that St Paul answers is how God is gracious to humans who stand condemned as sinners. How can we humans, who are sinners, be deserving of salvation, how can we become holy in the sight of God. Under the old covenant we could only be saved by observing the law of Moses, thus in a sense our salvation depended on how capable we ourselves were in following follow that law in our lives. St Paul realised that with the advent of Christ something radical had happened. Jesus Christ himself fulfilled the law for us, and ended the reign of sin, which had begun at Adam’s fall. The crucified Christ is the source of our holiness, which he has given to us as a free gift. We ourselves could never earn salvation through our own efforts; Christ has done it for us in his one eternal sacrifice on the cross. We, by having faith in Christ and what he did for us, are justified in the sight of God. Faith in Christ is what saves us, not our own efforts. For St Paul faith in Christ is what brings us eternal life.