Faith and Law according to St. Paul

Questo esercizio si compone di due momenti:  

1. la lettura e la comprensione dei due brani accomunati dal tema "Faith and Law", determinante nella teologia di S. Paolo e per la comprensione del messaggio cristiano 
2. la ricomposizione di testi disordinati per dar loro un senso che rispecchi quanto affermato nelle letture

Buon lavoro.

FAITH AND LAW

(excerpts from letters of St. Paul’s)

For if human beings had received a law that could bring life, then everyone could be put right with God by obeying it. But the scripture says that the whole world is under the power of sin; and so the gift which is promised on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ is given to those who believe. But before the time for faith came, the Law kept us all locked up as prisoners until this coming faith should be revealed. And so the Law was in charge of us until Christ came, in order that we might then be put right with God through faith. Now that the time for faith is here, the Law is no longer in charge of us. It is through faith that all of you are God's children in union with Christ Jesus.

So there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and free people, between men and women; you are all one in union with Christ Jesus.

(Good News Bible - Gal 3, 21b-26. 28)

We do not put any trust in external ceremonies. I could, of course, put my trust in such things. If any of you think you can trust in external ceremonies, I have even more reason to feel that way. I was circumcised when I was a week old. I am an Israelite by birth, of the tribe of Benjamin, a pure-blooded Hebrew. As far as keeping the Jewish Law is concerned, I was a Pharisee, and I was so zealous that I persecuted the church. As far as a person can be righteous by obeying the commands of the Law, I was without fault. But all those things that I might count as profit I now reckon as loss for Christ's sake. Not only those things; I reckon everything as complete loss for the sake of what is so much more valuable, the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have thrown everything away; I consider it all as mere garbage, so that I may gain Christ and be completely united with him. I no longer have a righteousness of my own, the kind that is gained by obeying the Law. I now have the righteousness that is given through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is based on faith.

(Good News Bible - Phil. 3, 4-9)

Paste these sentences together in the right order, to give them sense:

Indeed, we are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, as they are called.Yet we know that a person is put right with God only through faith in Jesus Christ, never by doing what the Law requires.

We have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be put right with God through our faith in Christ, and not by doing what the Law requires. For no one is put right with God by doing what the Law requires.

I died to the Law, so that I could live for God. I live by faith in God’s Son, who loved me and gave himself for me.

But if a person is put right with God through the law, it means that Christ died for nothing

 (Good News Bible - Gal. 2,15-16. 19-21)

Christ has set us free! Stand, then, as free people, and do not allow yourselves to become slaves again.

Those of you who try to be put right with God by obeying the Law have cut yourselves off from Christ.

Our faith is that God put us right with him; and this is what we wait for by the power of God's Spirit working through our faith.

For when we are in union with Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor the lack of it makes any difference at all; what matters is faith that works through love.

(Good News Bible - Gal 5, 1. 4-6)