Faith establishes one God; Christ vivifies the dead

“Do we then abolish the law through faith? By no means — rather, we establish the law.” The law through Moses taught those from Israel to worship one God: “For the Lord,” it says, “your God is one Lord.” And God himself addressed them, saying: “You shall have no other gods besides me.”

Did faith toward Christ, then, move those called through it so that they no longer worship the one God by nature? Do we abolish a law that brings offerings to the one true God? “By no means,” he says, “rather, we establish the law.” So we approach Christ as God, lest we be charged with destroying the law — and rather be praised for establishing the law through faith.

About Abraham he says: “Before the God in whom he believed, who makes the dead alive and calls the things that are not as though they are.” So when the power to make the dead alive would fit no one else except the God by nature alone — and Christ also makes the corrupted alive through his own flesh, touching the dead and raising them — how is he not true God, who also gave others authority to raise the dead through his name?

“So, my brothers, you also were put to death to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might belong to another, the one raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.” We are put to death to the law by leaving its worship; we belong to another, the one raised from the dead — that is, to Christ — eager to follow his gospel decrees, so that we may bear fruit for God. The chief of the gospel decrees is faith toward him, and this fruit of ours is offered to Christ as to God.