It does not provide some foolproof guarantee of protection. Nevertheless, it provides powerful assurance for the person who trusts Christ. Here we see the cooperation of God s Spirit and our faith, God s initiative and our response. We also see how faith has a present and future dimension. Fourthly, freedom is loving and obedient .
Faith working through love sounds a lot like faith working through law.
But Paul knows from his own experience there is a world of difference. Faith working through law and there is a kind of faith that works this way, just not evangelical faith is always focused on the merit that accrues from a particular act. Faith working through love is always looking to the merit of Christ credited to us and seeking to love others because He first loved us. There is spontaneity, an openness to creativity and risk in mature love that is not available to the child who is still under the guardianship of the Law. However, this does not mean that Christians are free to do whatever they like.