Justified apart from the Law,

I will trust in You alone and Your endless mercies will follow me and lead me home.

“That Is what I desire from you, complete trust. I have put Myself out there and demonstrated My power, wisdom, love and grace in so many ways, even sending My Son to the Earth so you could see and meet Me in the form of a person. Yet all the time My actions and emotions towards you have been unseen – operating in the heavenly realms – so it calls on you to trust – to trust in that which I have told you about in My word and to give yourself completely to Me, in love to serve and follow Me till you join Me in glory. Make the most use of this advent season to share your solid belief in Me with others who will benefit from it.”

We read the short but very important piece in Romans 3:27-31 today. The subject of the law comes up again. Now remember last week we were told that God has given us a righteousness through the work of Jesus on the cross. Vs 24 emphasised that this justification came freely by his grace. Surely then it is obvious that there is no other way to acquire God’s righteousness than to receive it as a gift by faith? So what is the problem?

The Jewish believers had, for centuries believed that they could attain righteousness by following the law. So the law was held up as the means to entry and citizenship of God’s kingdom. We know in retrospect that it is impossible to keep the law to the perfection that Jesus did. The Jewish believers that would receive the letter of Paul in Rome however would still feel that the law plays a vital role in making them righteous.

What is the problem with adding a bit of their ability to keep the law to making or keeping them righteous? The problem lies in the little word boasting. You see obtaining the righteousness God gives focuses on Him and Jesus completely. Any contribution they may have felt they had made by keeping the law makes Jesus work and God’s grace void. If they feel they are succeeding in adding to God’s righteousness by obeying the law it could lead to them boasting that their effort had supplemented His grace, effectively nullifying it. Paul uses the same argument in Ephesians 2:8,9: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is a gift of God – not by works lest we should boast.

But what does this have to do with us, we are not Jews? Our culture is so steeped in God’s law that every one of us is aware of at least certain aspects of it. The older generation was very focused on keeping the law as a way of life. Unfortunately often missing the real point, like focussing on keeping the Sabbath, instead of building relationships based on love. The danger lies in a subtle mindset that says that keeping the law makes us more acceptable to God. If we manage to perform according to the standards we have set for ourselves in our own minds we are ready to pat ourselves on the back, if we fail we feel awful, a failure and condemned by God. It is so important to focus on God and the completely free gift He gives through faith and not to rely on our own performance at all.

Is it not important to keep the law then you may ask? Of course we need to keep God’s law especially as it is redefined by Jesus. But we do that as a response to God’s love and acceptance of us in Jesus, not to try and gain His approval and perhaps make our salvation more certain. The focus should always be on God and His Son Jesus, not ourselves and our ability to keep the law, lest we may boast. We either serve God completely or mammon.

God bless till next week as Christmas approaches expectantly.