Grace, faith and good works

21 But now God has revealed a way to remove guilt that’s not by rules—a way that Mosheh (Moses) and the prophets wrote about. 22 We can be made right with God through faith in Yeshua (Jesus; Grk. Yesus) Messiah.[ref] This is for everyone who believes, because there’s no distinction between Yehudim (Jews) and others, 23 because everyone has sinned and is unable to be honoured by God. 24 But even without deserving it, we can be declared guiltless by God’s generosity, by being bought out of slavery to sin by Messiah Yeshua, 25 who God placed on the altar as a sacrifice for sin. This happens through faith in his blood, which was a sign of his sinlessness.

(God hasn’t yet judged those who sinned in the past, 26 because of his patience, waiting for the present time to show his righteousness and to be fair, and to remove the guilt of those with faith in Yeshua.)

27 So where does that leave boasting? It’s not in the picture. How come? Through obeying Mosheh’s laws? No, through a law about faith. 28 So now we should expect that a person will be made guiltless by faith—not by obeying Mosheh’s laws. 29 Or is God only god of the Yehudim? Isn’t he also the god of others? Yes, he is the god of others. 30 Indeed, there’s only one God,[ref] and he declares people guiltless by faith whether they’re circumcised Yehudim, or non-Jews. 31 So does this ‘faith’ cancel the law? Not on your life. In fact, it upholds the law.

4 So what did our physical ancestor, Avraham, discover about all this? 2 Because if Avraham was declared guiltless because of his actions, maybe he could boast? But not towards God, 3 because the scriptures say: ‘Avraham believed in God, so he was considered guiltless.’[ref] 4 Now for someone who’s working, their wages are considered ‘owed’, not a gift. 5 However, someone who’s not working, but having faith that God will declare disobedient people as guiltless, that person’s faith is considered to make them guiltless. 6 It’s just like what David said about blessing a person who God declares as guiltless despite their actions:

7 ‘Those who’ve been forgiven for their lawlessness will be happy,

whose sins have been covered over.

8 Anyone who Yahweh declares to have no sin will be happy.’[ref]

2 You all were dead due to your disobedience and the path of sinning[ref] 2 that you once walked along when you followed the trends of this world which in turn come from the ruler of the invisible powers—he’s the spirit that works in the children of disobedience. 3 In the past, we also lived like them inside our fleshly lusts and then living out those desires and fantasies, and so we were children deserving strong anger just like everyone else.

4 But God was generous with his mercy because of the great love that he loved us with, 5 so although we were dead as a result of our disobedience, he make us alive along with the messiah. Yes, we have been saved by God’s grace. 6 And God lifted us up and sat us together with Yeshua (Jesus; Grk. Yesus) the messiah in the heavenly domains 7 so that for the ages to come, he could display the overflowing riches of his grace through his kindness to us via Yeshua the messiah. 8 It’s God’s grace that allows you all to be saved through faith. That grace doesn’t come from you, but rather it’s a gift from God—9 it doesn’t originate from your actions so no one can brag about it. 10 We are God’s workmanship and he’s created us to do good things by following Yeshua the messiah. God has already planned these things for us to do.

5 The messiah has freed us so we can have freedom, so stand firm and don’t get entangled again in the burden of slavery.

2 What’s more, I, Paulos would add that if you men got circumcised, then the messiah wouldn’t be of any benefit. 3 I’ll say it again clearly: every man who gets himself circumcised has put himself in debt to obeying all of the law. 4 You were released from the messiah when you moved to trusting in the law in order to be right with God—you fell away from grace at that point. 5 We who are in the spirit are eagerly waiting for the righteousness that we’re expecting to receive by faith, 6 because in the messiah Yeshua (Jesus; Grk. Yesus), it’s not circumcision that achieves anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith worked out through love.

14 My fellow believers, what would I gain if I said that someone had faith but it didn’t alter how they live their life? Faith like that wouldn’t be able to save them. 15 If a fellow believer is lacking clothes or food, 16 and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace and be warm and satisfied,’ but don’t help with their physical needs, what use would that be? 17 In other words, faith without the corresponding lifestyle is just dead.

18 No doubt someone will say, ‘Well you have the faith and I do the good deeds.’ So show me your faith without good deeds and I’ll demonstrate my faith by my good deeds. 19 You believe that there’s one God and you’re right, but even the demons believe that and shudder. 20 But the vain person still wants to know if faith without good deeds is wasted? 21 Wasn’t our ancestor Avraham considered right with God due to his actions when he offered up his son Yitshak (Isaac) on the altar?[ref] 22 So his faith was working together with his actions, and it was by his actions that his faith was perfected. 23 This fulfilled the scripture that says, ‘Avraham believed in God and so he was consider to be right with God,[ref] and was called a friend of God.’[ref] 24 So you can see that a person is considered right with God due to his actions, and not just by their ‘faith’. 25 Similarly the prostitute Rahav was made right by her actions when she welcomed the Hebrew messengers and then helped them get away by a different route.[ref] 26 Just like a body is dead once the spirit has departed, so too faith is dead if it’s not demonstrated by good deeds.

12 ⇔So then, my dear friends, work towards your salvation with fear and trembling—you always did this in my presence, so now do it much more in my absence—13 because God is the one who works in you all to both desire and to be living out his good pleasure.

14 Do everything without grumbling and arguing 15 so that you’ll all be blameless and innocent—blameless children of God among a generation that’s crooked and perverted.[ref] Then you’ll shine like lights in the world, 16 as you live out the message of life, and then I’ll be able to boast when Messiah returns because I didn’t waste my time or work for nothing,