Law and Order

If there is no law, how do we know what is right?

Obeying a law isn’t enough to make us righteous in God’s sight, because laws only expose our transgressions. They don’t reveal the condition of our hearts. —Romans 3:20

The apostle Paul repeatedly explains that God’s Law is good, holy, and righteous, yet human beings are unable to use it as a means of making themselves righteous before God. The problem isn’t with the Law. The problem is with us.

The Law tells us something about what righteousness looks like, but it doesn’t give sinful people the power to achieve perfect righteousness. In that sense, the Law is much like a mirror, which can reveal the dirt on our face but can’t make us clean. In the same way, God’s Law reveals sin, but it can’t remove our sinful nature.

The Law Reveals the Problem

People sometimes think the purpose of God’s Law was to provide a ladder by which we could climb our way into God’s favor. If we could just obey enough commands, avoid enough sins, and perform enough good deeds, perhaps we could finally become acceptable to God and make it into Heaven.

Paul says otherwise. The Law reveals God’s righteous standard, and in doing so, it exposes how far we fall short. It tells us not to covet, not to lie, not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to worship other gods, and not merely to behave correctly on the outside but to possess hearts that are right before God.

That reveals a problem. A person may say, “I have never murdered anyone,” but Jesus taught that hatred and contempt reveal the same sinful root inside. A person may say, “I have never committed adultery,” yet lust exposes a heart that has already wandered.

The deeper we look at God’s standard, the more obvious our need becomes.

The Law doesn’t simply examine our hands. It exposes the condition of our hearts.

The Problem Isn’t the Law

Paul makes an important distinction.

Being just and beneficial, the laws themselves are good. — Romans 7:12

The Law isn’t defective. God didn’t give Israel a faulty set of commandments. His standard was perfect because it reflected his character. But the transformation of our character was only just beginning.

The weakness was human flesh.

The Law wasn’t enough to change our fleshly desires, so God sent his Son, embodied in human flesh, capable of sin. Living without sin, Jesus exposed the destructive nature of sin and showed how people can walk in the Spirit and not be driven by fleshly needs. — Romans 8:3

Imagine a perfectly accurate measuring tape being used on a crooked board. The measuring tape isn’t the problem. It simply exposes the crookedness. Or imagine a physician giving an accurate diagnosis. The diagnosis may tell you exactly what is wrong, but the diagnosis itself isn’t the cure.

God’s Law helps us recognize our spiritual condition. It tells the truth about us. But telling us what is wrong isn’t the same as making us right.

Perfect Obedience Means Perfect Obedience

Paul makes the difficulty especially clear.

Those who depend on the Law to make them righteous are under God’s curse, for Scripture says, Anyone who fails to obey every part of the Law is cursed. — Galatians 3:10

Notice the words “every part.” If righteousness depends upon Law-keeping, partial obedience isn’t enough. Suppose someone says, “I have obeyed ninety-nine percent of the law.” That might sound impressive in human terms, but God’s higher standard says that isn’t even a passing grade.

[Jesus said,] “Unless your righteousness is greater than the righteousness of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law, there is no way you will enter the Kingdom.” — Matthew 5:20

Imagine driving across a bridge that is ninety-nine percent complete. The missing one percent could be catastrophic. Or imagine a parachute that works ninety-nine percent of the time. Nobody would call it dependable. When righteousness is based upon perfect obedience, one violation exposes the problem.

If someone were to keep the entire Law except for one small point, he is no less a violator than one who is guilty of all. — James 2:10

Stumbling in just one small point makes us lawbreakers. That doesn’t mean every sin has identical earthly consequences. It means that one willful act of disobedience proves we are lawbreakers and have a heart condition that needs healing.

Paul Knew the Struggle Personally

Paul understood the human struggle between flesh and spirit.

When I find myself doing anything other than what would please the Lord, I’m not doing what I really want, but my sinful nature is still at work. Without exception, every time I know to do good, I face an option to go my own self-serving way. But I find greater pleasure in serving God, which satisfies who I really am. I fight against the foolish thinking that there is any real benefit in the selfish pleasures that would make me a slave to sin. — Romans 7:19–23

We often know what our conscience is saying we should do, yet for some reason, we wind up doing something else.

• We decide not to speak harshly, and then irritation takes control.

• We want to be patient and understanding, yet five minutes later, we’re complaining.

• We promise ourselves that we will forgive, but resentment keeps returning.

• We know generosity is right, yet selfishness whispers that we should hold tightly to what we have.

Knowing the rule isn’t the same as having the desire to be perfectly obedient. The Law can say, “Do not covet.” But that command can’t remove covetous desires. The Law can say, “Love your neighbor.” But the command itself can’t transform a selfish heart. That requires spiritual heart surgery.

The Law Was Never Meant to Be Our Savior

Because we read about sacrifices made to God from the very beginning and know about God’s judgments during the days of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, we know much of the Law had been given for an important purpose, long before Moses received instructions from Mount Sinai.

What was that purpose? To serve as a tutor or guardian leading people toward Christ.

The Law was our supervisor, leading us to right standing with God through faith in Jesus Christ. Now that our faith brings the Holy Spirit to guide us, we no longer need another supervisor. Through our faith in Jesus Christ, we are God’s children. All who have been baptized into Christ are becoming like him, with no distinction of sex, race, or social status. In his family, we are neither male nor female, Jew nor non-Jew, slave nor free. We are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are part of Abraham’s family and heirs of God’s promise. — Galatians 3:24–29

The Law points beyond itself.

Imagine a warning light appearing on your car dashboard. The warning light is extremely valuable because it tells you something is wrong. But nobody would expect the warning light to repair the engine. The Law is like that warning light. It tells us there is a problem. It shows us the seriousness of sin. It destroys the illusion that we can save ourselves by simply trying harder.

And then it points us toward Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit to change us from the inside out.

Trying Harder Can’t Erase Yesterday

One of the greatest weaknesses of Law-based righteousness is that future obedience can’t erase past disobedience. Suppose a man steals money on Monday and then spends the rest of the week behaving honestly. His honesty from Tuesday through Sunday doesn’t erase Monday’s theft.

Or imagine someone breaking a window and then saying, “But look at all the windows I didn’t break.” That doesn’t repair the broken one. Good deeds don’t cancel sin like numbers balancing on a spreadsheet.

We need more than improved behavior. We need more than forgiveness. We need repentance and a change of heart.

Grace Does What the Law Could Never Do

The Law can command righteousness, but Grace provides what sinners need, which is more than “unmerited favor.” It’s God’s presence that changes who we are. As we walk with him, we wouldn’t even think about displeasing him. That’s no longer who we are.

We should live in the freedom that Christ has provided, and not be servants to the laws and traditions that were an impossible burden. Let me make this perfectly clear: if you listen to God’s Spirit within, you will seek to please him and to benefit others, not to satisfy your selfish desires. If your self-serving motives oppose what the Holy Spirit wants to do, you will live in conflict, not fulfilling the purpose you feel called to. When led by the Spirit, you yield to a directive that supersedes the Law. — Galatians 5:1, 5:16–18

The Law says, “You must be righteous.” But we can’t become righteous by human effort alone. Grace says, “God has provided what you could never provide for yourself—to become like him as you continue to walk with him.” The difference is enormous. One depends upon performance. The other depends upon Christ.

Grace Doesn’t Make Obedience Unimportant

If we can’t earn righteousness by keeping the Law, does that mean obedience no longer matters? Of course not.

True faith doesn’t nullify the Law. It confirms the Law by leading us to do what God wants. — Romans 3:31

Grace doesn’t encourage lawlessness. It changes the reason we obey. We don’t obey in order to purchase God’s acceptance. We obey because we choose to love him because he loves us. Christian obedience flows from relationship, not from serving as the price of relationship.

• We obey because we love God.

• We obey because his ways are good.

• We obey because his Spirit is transforming us.

The Law Points Us to Christ

Ultimately, the impossibility of achieving righteousness through Law-keeping isn’t bad news without hope. It prepares us to understand the good news.

If we could save ourselves, we wouldn’t need a Savior. If perfect obedience were within our reach, the cross wouldn’t have been needed. But the Law reveals our condition clearly enough that we can finally stop trusting our own goodness. It shows us our need. Then the Gospel shows us God’s provision.

The Law says, “You can’t make yourself righteous.”

Forgiveness says, “Christ has done for you what you could never do for yourself.”

Grace says, “Choose to walk in God’s presence. Then you’ll naturally do what’s right, not fulfilling the desires of the flesh.”

That’s why Paul didn’t preach salvation through greater effort, stricter discipline, or better rule-keeping. He preached Christ.

The Law shows us why we need him.

Grace teaches us how to live in him.

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