Through The Faith In Christ Jesus Series

INTRODUCTION

Outline.

1. Through the Faith In Christ Jesus

Introductory Remarks.

1. This lesson is presented to assure all who seek Christ's salvation can receive it through faith and obedience to the gospel of the Son of God. Paul, the beloved apostle, has assured us of this fact in his Letter to Rome. Let me clarify: I am neither a Greek scholar nor educated in the art and skill of translating the Holy Bible. My work, as presented, is merely my observations and study of the scriptures. This is a lesson of assurance to the believers in Christ!

2. I have no ax to grind, only a desire to "confirm and defend the faith of the gospel of the Son of God," Philippians 1:7; Philippians 1:17. It is always helpful to study the background of the Text of discussion within the context of the scripture where it has been embedded. We will do this in the lesson, not only in our Text of discussion but also in other passages of scripture that appear in the New Testament that present the same truth regarding the doctrine of Christ, 2 John 1:9.

3. We will conclude this lesson by conducting a Greek Parsing Exercise and reviewing and analyzing our findings to settle this doctrinal issue. Our goal is to understand the message of the scripture to the believers in Jesus Christ. Some preliminary work will be done by researching these prepositional phrases in Greek Manuscripts to lay a firm foundation before discussing how the apostle used them in his Letters to the saints regarding their salvation in Christ.

4. We aim to validate this Text with others that this author has written to the churches in the first century. We seek only to discover the author's original message from Greek Manuscripts, textual investigation, and the harmony of the doctrine taught elsewhere in the New Testament. "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding has all them that do His commandments: His praise endureth forever," Psalms 111:10; Proverbs 4:7. With this exhortation, let's go to work!

BODY OF LESSON

I THROUGH THE FAITH IN CHRIST JESUS

A. We will embark on a fascinating study of Paul's use of the prepositional phrase "Through the faith in Christ Jesus and the redemption of sins." Our Text of investigation reads: "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be Just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus," Romans 3:24-26.

1. We will seek to discover the meaning of two prepositional phrases: "Through the faith" and "redemption through His blood." On the surface, they appear to have been reversed in these verses. They do not follow the same writing style as Paul's use of them in other Letters in the New Testament. His customary rendition of these two prepositional phrases is:

a. Through the faith in Christ Jesus rather than through the redemption in Christ Jesus.

b. Through the redemption in His blood, rather than through the faith in his blood.

2. I must admit this has troubled me and spurred this research and investigation to validate the certainty of these prepositional phrases in the book of Romans. I located some Greek manuscripts in the Library of Congress (LOC) that predate all our current Interlinear, from which we could obtain a good picture of Paul's mind in these prepositional phrases.

3. We sought help from ancient Greek Manuscripts. Review similar scriptures containing these phrases: "Through the faith" and "redemption through His blood." Observe,

a. Greek Manuscript 270. New Testament. Saint Catherine (Monastery: Mount Sinai). LOC: Feb 8, 1950. Image 178, page 172, Romans 3:22-26. Bottom of the Page.

1) [dia pistis en iesous christos] - "Through faith in Jesus Christ," Romans 3:22.

2) [dia ho apolytrosis ho en christos iesous] - "Through the redemption in the Christ Jesus," Romans 3:24.

3) [hos protithemi ho theos to hilasterion] - "In whom displayed the God the mercy seat," Romans 3:25a.

4) [dia ho pistis en ho haima autos] - "Through the faith in the blood His," Romans 3:25b.

5) Observe that the Greek Text appears as a "transliteration" in the references above.

NOTE: "The Faith" in this manuscript was readable. Which reads: "Through the faith in the blood His."

6) Conclusion: In this manuscript, these prepositional phrases: "Through faith in Jesus Christ, through the redemption in Christ Jesus, and through the faith in the blood His" appear as presented in 1) to 4) above. Remember, we seek only to see how Paul explained these doctrinal terms to his readers. We will observe later that Paul's teaching was that our redemption was made possible "through His blood" or "through Christ's shed blood" for the remission of sins.