Thematic Bible: What is achieved through and by faith


Thematic Bible



And as he still clung to Peter and John, all the people crowded about them in the utmost astonishment in what was known as Solomon's Colonnade. When Peter saw this, he said to the people. "Men of Israel, why are you so surprised at this? Why do you stare so at us, as though it were some power or some piety of ours that had made him able to walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our forefathers, has done this honor to his servant Jesus, whom you betrayed and disowned before Pilate, when he had decided to let him go. read more.
But you disowned the Holy, Righteous One. You asked to have a murderer released for you, and killed the very source of life. But God raised him from the dead, as we can testify. It is by his power and through faith in him that this man whom you see and recognize has been made strong again, and it is faith inspired by him that has given him the perfect health you all see.

For we hold that a man is made upright by faith; the observance of the Law has nothing to do with it. Does God belong to the Jews alone? Does he not belong to the heathen too? Of course he belongs to the heathen too; there is but one God, and he will make the circumcised upright on the ground of their faith and the uncircumcised upright because of theirs." read more.
Is this using faith to overthrow law? Far from it. This confirms the Law.

Then what do we conclude? That heathen who were not striving for uprightness attained it, that is, an uprightness which was produced by faith;

The Scripture foresaw that God would accept the heathen as upright in consequence of their faith, and preached the good news in advance to Abraham in the words, "All the heathen will be blessed through you." So the men of faith share the blessing of Abraham and his faith. For there is a curse upon all who rely on obedience to the Law, for the Scripture says, "Cursed be anyone who does not stand by everything that is written in the Book of the Law and obey it." read more.
That no one is accepted as upright by God for obeying the Law is evident because the upright will have life because of his faith, and the Law has nothing to do with faith; it teaches that it is the man who does these things that will find life by doing them. Christ ransomed us from the Law's curse by taking our curse upon himself (for the Scripture says, "Cursed be anyone who is hung on a tree") in order that the blessing given to Abraham might through Jesus Christ reach the heathen, so that through faith we might receive the promised Spirit.

For it is by his mercy that you have been saved through faith. It is not by your own action, it is the gift of God. It has not been earned, so that no one can boast of it. For he has made us, creating us through our union with Christ Jesus for the life of goodness which God had predestined us to live.

Faith means the assurance of what we hope for; it is our conviction about things that we cannot see. For it was by it that the men of old gained God's approval. It is faith that enables us to see that the universe was created at the command of God, so that the world we see did not simply arise out of matter. read more.
Faith made Abel's sacrifice greater in the sight of God than Cain's; through faith he gained God's approval as an upright man, for God himself approved his offering, and through faith even when he was dead he still spoke. Faith caused Enoch to be taken up from the earth without experiencing death; he could not be found, because God had taken him up. For before he was taken up there is evidence that he pleased God, but without faith it is impossible to please him; for whoever would approach God must have faith in his existence and in his willingness to reward those who try to find him. Faith led Noah, when he was warned by God of things no one then saw, in obedience to the warning to build an ark in which to save his family, and by such faith he condemned the world, and came to possess that uprightness which faith produces. Faith enabled Abraham to obey when God summoned him to leave his home for a region which he was to have for his own, and to leave home without knowing where he was going. Faith led him to make a temporary home as a stranger in the land he had been promised, and to live there in his tents, with Isaac and Jacob, who shared the promise with him. For he was looking forward to that city with the sure foundations, designed and built by God. Faith made even Sarah herself able to have a child, although she was past the time of life for it, because she thought, that he who had made the promise would keep it.