Which Came First: Faith in God's Righteousness or the Law? [Bible Study 2]

12/19/2024

Which came first between faith and the Law?

Before giving the Law, God first gave the righteousness of faith to become children of God through faith.

As recorded in Genesis, Adam and Eve, Abel, Seth and Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his descendants were justified by faith in God’s Word without the Law.

Genesis 15:6
“And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.”

However, during their 400 years of slavery in Egypt, the Israelites lost this righteousness of faith and lost God. Therefore, God gave the Law through Moses to let them know that God exists, and to make them realize their sins and return to the holy God.

And He gave the sacrificial system to the Israelites who were under the curse of the Law (in sin) so that they could receive redemption through the atonement of sins.

Looking at the sacrificial offerings that God established in the Old Testament:

1. There were sin offerings offered by individuals
2. There was the Great Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) once a year to atone for all the sins of Israel for the entire year

On this day, Aaron the high priest, representing Israel, laid his hands on the unblemished sacrifice to impute Israel’s one year of sins to the sacrificial offering, and atonement was made as the sacrificial offering that took on the sins through laying on of hands died in place of the Israelites.

This Old Testament sacrificial law was a shadow of Jesus Christ’s work of salvation that saved us from all sins in the New Testament.

In the New Testament, Jesus Christ who is God came to this earth as the unblemished Lamb and at the age of 30 received baptism from John the Baptist in the same form as laying on of hands. Here, ‘John the Baptist’ was a descendant of High Priest Aaron, and as Jesus testified, he was ‘the greatest among those born of women’ — in other words, the representative of mankind.

Matthew 11:11
“Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist…”

Thus, Jesus took on all the sins of this world by receiving baptism, and eliminated all the sins of this world by shedding His blood and dying on the cross.

Not by our works, but by our faith in Jesus Christ being God and His ministry of water (baptism) and blood, all righteousness of God has been fulfilled in us. We are born again as sinless children of God by believing in this righteousness of God.

Romans 3:21–22
“But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference”

Which came first between faith and the Law?

In conclusion, this question shows that God gave us ‘salvation through faith’ first, and gave the ‘Law’ to complete faith, to bring all believers back to God.

Brothers and sisters, I pray that you will receive salvation and become children of God through the knowledge of God. Rev. Paul C. Jong’s sermon book “Have You Truly Been Born Again of Water and the Spirit?” is a book guided by the Holy Spirit to help the lost achieve the righteousness of faith by leading them to the knowledge of God.