I know that many people feel uncomfortable with the idea that we do not keep the Law that was written in stone for Moses. It is basically what many of us grew up with: look at the Ten Commandments and keep them. Our salvation depended on how well we did.
What folks envision is a grading system. The better we do with being good and keeping the Laws and Commandments, the higher our score is in God’s sight. The problem with that thinking is that, according to the Bible, any score less than 100 percent derived from keeping the Law is a failing grade.
Anyone who is depending on keeping the Law for salvation is doomed, because only Jesus was able to keep the Law perfectly. No one else ever did. Sounds kind of depressing, doesn’t it? Yes, it does to those who do not understand the New Covenant that Jesus ushered in as He fulfilled the Old Covenant.
Read Romans 7, especially the first four verses or so. Just as a marriage can only be broken by the death of one, so we must die to the Law (for righteousness) to be united with Christ in a New Covenant relationship.
The Law is not sin. In fact, the Law plays a very important function. Romans 7 clearly shows that the Law does an excellent job of bringing us to the end of ourselves. After lamenting how the Law never helps us in doing good,
“For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (Ro 7:19),
the writer then finds the solution that we all need,
“O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Ro 7: 24-25a)
Go right into Romans 8:1.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”
Jesus kept the Law perfectly, and we cannot. God, in His great mercy and goodness, allows us to tap into Jesus’ goodness and perfection. We can be counted perfect and righteous because we have given up (and died to that effort) on OUR righteousness and fully embraced the righteousness that Jesus provided for us. What a deal!
Romans 10:4 says it perfectly.
“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.”
Believing in what Jesus did for us is how we tap into His goodness. If trying to keep the Old Covenant Law and rules brought you to the end of yourself, it did what God intended. The Law’s purpose was only to bring us to Jesus Christ.
When we have finished with our own efforts and rely entirely on the righteousness of Jesus, then we get the power to live above sin. One of my all-time favorite verses in scripture is Romans 6:14.
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”
If we die to the Law and fully embrace a New Covenant relationship with Jesus, then we receive power to live above sin.
Never in the history of the world has such an amazing deal been offered to anyone before. Why would anybody ever say, “Na, I’ll pass. After all, I am not too bad a person. I believe that God will let me into heaven because I am a good person.” That’s how the Pharisees thought, but Jesus said,
“For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:20).
God provided the perfect solution. We must do it God’s way. Amen!
– John Weaver