Passage: Romans 3:19-20
The Big Idea
The Old Covenant wasn’t a mistake, but it was never designed to do everything. Its message is simple and impossible: Be holy. Be loving. Be perfect, as God is. And it can’t make anyone holy, loving or perfect. The law can’t justify us or sanctify us. What it can do is stop our mouths, show us our guilt and make us aware of our sin, so that we run to Christ. When you’re convinced of your need for Jesus, the law has done its work perfectly. Then Jesus fulfills the law for us and in us by His Spirit.
What Is the Message of the Law?
God gave Moses the tablets of the covenant (Deuteronomy 9:11).
- The Old Covenant wasn’t a mistake.
- But it isn’t a complete system either.
- It isn’t designed to do everything, but it is designed to do some things.
- So what does it say?
Be holy
“You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). Peter repeats it: “Be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15-16).
- How holy? As holy as God.
- No flexibility. No mercy.
Be loving
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5). “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18).
- Love God perfectly. Love others perfectly.
- How loving? As loving as God.
- Jesus agreed completely. He said these two commands are the greatest, and all the Law and the Prophets hang on them (Matthew 22:36-40).
- And that is not good news for us.
Be perfect
Jesus takes it even further: “Be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).
- How perfect? As perfect as God.
The message of the law: Be holy. Be loving. Be perfect.
What the Law Can’t Do
It makes nothing perfect. The former commandment was set aside because of its weakness and unprofitableness, for the law made nothing perfect; instead a better hope was brought in, through which we draw near to God (Hebrews 7:18-19).
- It demands that we be perfect, but supplies nothing we need, except a measurement of how far short we fall!
It can’t justify. A person is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ (Galatians 2:16).
- Justification is starting out with God, beginning a relationship. It can’t happen through the law.
It can’t sanctify. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? (Galatians 3:2-3).
- The law can’t change us in a practical way.
- It’s “foolish” to think the efforts of the flesh can change us when they could never make us alive in the first place.
- Trying to keep “the” law or “a” law will never change anyone. The law is unable to do that.
What the Law Can Do
Whatever the law says, it says to those under it, so that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. No one will be justified by the works of the law, for by the law is the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:19-20).
- It stops mouths.
- It makes us guilty.
- It makes us aware of sin.
This is why people feel condemned when preaching pushes obedience to law rather than the fruit produced by abiding in Christ. The law can’t enable what it commands. But Jesus can, by His grace.
Paul explains that the law actually aroused sinful passions in us. Is the law sin? Certainly not! But I wouldn’t have known sin except through the law, and through the commandment, sin became exceedingly sinful (Romans 7:5, 7, 13).
- The law makes us see and feel our need, because we’re sinners.
- It does nothing to help with that knowledge. It reaches out no hand to help.
The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, so that we might be justified by faith (Galatians 3:24).
- It pushes us to see our need for a Savior.
- It shows us we need another way to please God and draw near to Him besides effort.
The law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing that the law isn’t made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and ungodly (1 Timothy 1:8-10).
- There is a use for the law, and Paul connects it with the ungodly: showing sinners their need.
- For a believer, the law isn’t the tool for sanctification. Its use for us is to remind us how much we need Jesus.
- When you’re convinced of your need for Jesus, the law has done its work perfectly.
How the Law Is Fulfilled
“Don’t think I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I didn’t come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17).
- Jesus is going to do it, for us and through us.
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (Romans 10:4).
- We don’t have to try to gain righteousness when we simply believe Jesus gives it to us freely.
What the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son… so that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:3-4).
- Jesus provides a new strength: the Holy Spirit.
- The Spirit does all the work of equipping us to keep the law in reality.
- Our only part is to walk in it. How? Humility and faith.
Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not hear what the law says? (Galatians 4:21).
- Really, friends? There’s a New Covenant for a reason. When you really hear what the Old Covenant says, you’ll be sad and disappointed.
- But just wait. The New is so good.
Grace Takeaway
The law is a mirror, not a washcloth. It shows you exactly how far you fall short, and it should, because that’s what sends you running to Jesus. Don’t try to scrub yourself clean with the mirror. Let it do its work, then come to the One who fulfilled every demand of the law for you and now fulfills it in you by His Spirit.
For Discussion
- What is the message of the law?
- What is the law unable to do?
- So what is the law able to do?
- How is the law fulfilled in our lives?
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