Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God …
Summary: Reliance on the law is a fantasy whispered in our ear by the same serpent who whispered in Eve’s ear in the Garden of Eden.
“The Message” translation renders this passage this way:
“The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with God that way.” (Galatians 3:11a)
Is it “clear” that relying on the law given by Moses is guaranteed to fail? Do you have any doubts? Is there any hope that by being “good enough,” you will be able to stand before your Creator and avoid the curse of judgment?
I feel like I am back in the Garden of Eden listening to the voice of the serpent say, “Did God really say …?”
“Would God really judge me?”
“Would a Good God really condemn me to hell?”
“How could God not care about me? After all, he made me!”
The serpent is careful to not contradict God directly. He is subtle. He casts doubt where there was no doubt, and sows hope where there is no hope.
Notice the construct of the questions. “Would God really judge me?,” is a statement that presupposes God judges people. The listener knows there is a God and that God has the final say over who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. Satan works to diminish God in our minds by casting doubts of all kinds.
“Does God really exist?”
“Would God really judge?”
“How could a loving God … [fill in the blank]?”
Each question drives a wedge between us and our God. Can God save us from Satan? Yes! (See Psalm 68:20) Is God really our judge? Yes! (See Psalm 75:7) Can a loving God condemn us to hell?
The answer to this last question is more nuanced than the others. Speaking from my own understanding of the Bible, I see a God who allows us to choose. He gives us all the information we need to make the right choice. That is what the Bible is for. He has also shared his own Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to convict us of what is right and wrong.
Does God condemn us to hell? That is what it looks like from the legalistic side of the wall we call the “law.” From the other side, it looks like God is letting us choose where we want to go. People who want to be with God honor God above all else and love their neighbor as themselves (Matthew 22: 37-40). People who want to put themselves first don’t do these things.
God doesn’t come to us on our terms. Instead, he allows us to come to him on his terms, which happens to be trusting in his Son, Jesus Christ (John 14:6). The serpent wants us to believe it is all about “things.” Things like whether or not we can check boxes by doing things the law requires. God reminds us it is all about Jesus.
Application: Live for Jesus.
Food for Thought: Does Paul’s lesson about the law apply to us today? If so, how?
A life “justified by the law” before God is a strange life. I work in compliance and I can tell you that people enter into outrageous mentalities trying to marry together being deemed “compliant” and still get to operate how they want to operate. They lose sight of the intent or “spirit” of the law and focus instead on doing the absolute minimum in order to be classified as “compliant.” They are putting on a “show.” “Compliance theater.”
Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
In this passage the people Jesus spoke about are trying to advocate for themselves. They are trying to “prove” that they are justified by their works. That they did something to justify themselves. Jesus is very clear on who will be in heaven with Him; “the one who does the will of my Father.”
What is the Will of the Father?
Matthew 22:37-40 “And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Isn’t obeying the Law doing God’s Will?
Not without love.
1 Corinthians 13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
You can’t “fake it ’till you make it” on love. The only way to love God as He loves, is to experience His love and give it back. To experience that love we have to recognize how sin has cut us off from experiencing His love, and call on the name of Jesus to redeem us to His love. Christ did this by sacrificing Himself for our sin. Removing that barrier to God’s love. Through Jesus, we are redeemed and we grow in grace and knowledge which enables us to love, and obey, not for justification or “compliance” but out of love for God.
So, yes, Paul’s lesson about the law does apply to us today. The law does not bring us love. Love fulfills the law.
Chris,
I love the phrase “compliance theater”! Well said. You also illustrate the fatal flaw of following the law — trying to “get away with” the minimum. As you point out, love has no “minimum.”
Thank you for the real life example today! 🙂
Thanks for the excellent devotion today. And CH, thank you for the great response.
“Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God.” Does Paul’s lesson about the law apply to us today?
Absolutely. People still try to be justified by God based on their works instead of grace. God’s view on this subject has not changed since the Bible was written. Maybe there are many people not counting on the Mosaic Law to save them, but they are still counting on some sort of works, self righteousness system if they are relying on their works instead of God’s grace.
Ephesians 2: 1 – 9: As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh an and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast.
Thank you, Rich!
You raise an interesting point. Not only do people rely on the law these days, but they have taken it one step further: they claim the right to make the law, too!
The irony is, as pointed out, we end up rationalizing even that.
Blessings!
Does Paul’s lesson about the law apply to us today? If so, how?
Absolutely! God’s word is eternal. Our Bible has one eternal message being conveyed to all mankind. It is inspired and preserved by God as His eternal truths. Each of us contains in our heart, a full record of every thought and action during our life in these bodies of flesh. God will simply remove all barriers we have put into place which resist the conviction of the Holy Spirit as we rationalize sin as acceptable for some foolish reason.
John 16:8, The Holy Spirit is revealing sin, righteousness and the judgement coming of the works of men.
Romans 1:18-19, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
Luke 8:17, For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.
1 Corinthians 4:5, Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.
Luke 12:3, Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.
Romans 2:5, But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.
Ron,
You write, “Each of us contains in our heart, a full record of every thought and action during our life in these bodies of flesh.”
Ouch!
Thank God as believers we can go to Jesus and ask forgiveness NOW! (1 John 1:9 — “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.“)
You Got It!!!
Ron