No Salvation in Pedigree or Culture – The Law of God: Questions and Answers

No Salvation in Pedigree or Culture
The Law of God: Questions and Answers

The grace of salvation transcends ethnicity and culture.

This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Galatians 3:17, 18

In the minds of many Jewish people in Paul’s day, salvation was a privilege only Jews could possess. They were the physical descendants of Abraham, after all, and the heirs of the Law of God given through Moses.

Like the religious leaders who confronted and opposed Jesus, many—perhaps most—Jews in that time were persuaded that they were God’s chosen people by virtue of their ethnic and cultural heritage. They claimed descent from Abraham and stewardship of the Law as their special privileges, and chafed and rebelled at the notion that the gift of God should be extended beyond them to the Gentiles.

This, after all, is why Paul made so many Jewish leaders angry during the course of his ministry. He dared to teach that salvation could be attained apart from the Law and apart from the Jewish nation.

He was, of course, correct. And when Paul taught that we are not under Law but under grace, he meant to say that salvation is by grace, according to the promise of God given to Abram before he was identified as a Jew under the Law, and it is for all people who believe the Gospel (Rom. 1:16, 17). That promise was a promise for all people, all, that is, who share the faith of Abraham, and not simply the physical descent (cf. Rom. 4:13-17). The Law coming under Moses did not nullify the promise, as though God had changed the way salvation was to be obtained. As He explained to the people of Israel to whom the Law was given, His choice of them was entirely of His own determination, and had nothing to do with anything inherent in them (Deut. 7:6-11). He chose them by grace, and He called them to obey His Law.

Human beings are not under the Law as a means of salvation, and those “Judaizers” who followed Paul around, corrupting his teaching and trying to corral his disciples into a salvation dependent upon identity with and submission to the Law of God, were simply trying to keep alive the idea that salvation is only properly from and for the Jews. When Paul said that we are under grace, not Law, he meant emphatically to deny this claim to salvation privilege based on ethnic or cultural descent.

Got a question about the Law of God? Write to T. M. at tmmoore@ailbe.org, and your answer might appear in this series of In the Gates columns.

Visit our website, www.ailbe.org, and sign up to receive our thrice-weekly devotional, Crosfigell, featuring writers from the period of the Celtic Revival and T. M.’s reflections on Scripture and the Celtic Christian tradition. Does the Law of God still apply today? Order a copy of T. M.’s book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, and study the question for yourself.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T. M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.