Word, faith, and love

Meaning

Word, faith and love are the three pure parts required for receiving Christ’s saving benefit. The passage begins by saying his obedience has already perfectly redeemed humanity; the difficulty lies in human weakness and inability to grasp and appropriate the gift, not a defect in Christ.

The Word is pure and tested, faith comes through the Word as a gift of God, and unfeigned love towards God and neighbour is also a divine gift. Their order and proper use allow the text’s saving-tincture analogy to concern reception. The English keeps these relations and avoids making love an independently earned supplement that perfects an unfinished saviour.