Faith in Christ or Faith of Christ?

The second reading of the Mass of today (23 March 2014) is Paul's letter to the Romans on the nature of justification in Christ (Rom 5:1-2, 5-8).

Paul wrote in his letter to the Galatians, “we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ (The New Oxford Annotated Bible, Gal 2:16). An alternative translation of the last phrase is “through faith of Jesus Christ”. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he wrote, “it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom 3:26). Again, an alternative translation of the last phrase is “he justifies the one who has faith of Jesus”.

A more common interpretation of the Galatian verse is “Faith in Christ”, i.e., an objective genitive meaning Christian’s faith in Christ (Brown 477). When it is read together with the phrase that “a person is justified not by the works of the law”, one may generalize the Biblical passage to the extent that human deeds are unimportant for man’s salvation as it is only through faith (or trust/belief) in Jesus alone that one can be saved (c.f. Romans 3:28 “a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law”).

On the other hand, the translation into “Faith of Christ”, i.e., a subjective genitive, would mean the faith possessed or manifested by Christ. It is sometimes understood as Christ’s fidelity to God’s plan, a fidelity that brought about justification (Brown 478). With this interpretation, it emphasizes on the saving effect of Jesus’ obedience, culminating in his death on the cross (Coogan 2045). This translation is increasingly preferred when used in Rom 3:22, 26 as the translation conforms the biblical phrase to identically structured phrases in Rom 3:3 (“the faithfulness of God) and Rom 4:16 (“the faith of Abraham”) (Coogan 1981).

Indeed, some scholars combine the above two approaches and suggest that Christ’s faith manifested in his death is given to his followers through faith in Christ (Brown 478). Under this interpretation, what Paul is saying is that we are saved by sharing in Christ’s complete faithfulness and obedience in God, to the extent of dying on the cross rather than turning away from His covenant love and faithfulness to mankind. If we take this interpretation, I think we can arrive at a better alignment with the “new commandment” given by Jesus at the last supper, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:34-35). On this understanding, “the works of the law” must involve love and self-sacrifice and not external deeds alone. As followers of Christ, we should resemble the “faith of Christ” in the love for our neighbors and also for our enemies, “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8), which is one of the great New Testament explanations of what is involved in divine love: a willingness to die for sinners who do not deserve such graciousness (Brown 567).

For the Church to grow, the fundamental attributes are faith, hope and love, from within toward the outside in the life of prayer and sacraments. As Christians, we must strive above all so that there may be faith, in order for hope and love to flourish (Ratzinger 15).

Bibliography

Brown, Raymond Edward. An Introduction to the New Testament. New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 2007. Print.

Coogan, Michael D. The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha. N.p.: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.

Ratzinger, Joseph. Church, Ecumenism, and Politics: New Endeavors in Ecclesiology. San Francisco: Ignatius, 2008. Print.