Brother Allan F.
Romans 10:5 – For Moses describeth the righteousness, which is of the law. That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.
If you believe that a believer can keep the law then justification is not by faith but by the law. And whoever stand righteous before the law will live, and Christ died in vain.
But Paul said in Galatians that you have quoted “ For if there had been a law which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the Scripture hath conclude all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believeth” (Galatians 3:21,22).
That means, no law keeper will stands righteous before the law, no one could ever be justified by keeping the law and inherit eternal life, as no one can keep the law and fulfil the demands of the law.
Romans 3:20-24 – Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight….But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
The righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ is manifested WITHOUT the law not WITH the law. We will only be justified by faith in Christ if there is no law to keep. If justification by faith goes parallel with keeping the law, then no one will live as all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), all were under dominion of sin (Romans 7:23), condemned to die (Romans 7:24). So, for a believer in Christ there is no law to keep, otherwise he will be always a sinner before the law and under curse (Galatians 3:10). Christ has redeemed us not for to be kept under curse forever, but to give us freedom from it and from the law that keeps us under sin. Sin will have no more dominion over us as we are no longer under the law but under grace (Romans 6:14), which means God has ended the function of the law “in Christ”, that a believer might be justified without the law, but justified by his faith in Christ. And if there is no law, there is no transgression, sin was dead and sin was not imputed (Romans 4:15; 7:8; 5:13). This is the grace of God and the freedom Christ has given us.
Galatians 5:1 – It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery. (NIV)
What is the yoke of slavery? Galatians 4:21 – Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? Galatians 4:24 – These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai, and bears children who are to be slaves. Slaves of what? Slaves of sin and death as we were prisoners by the law (Galatians 3:22,23; Romans 7:23,24).
If God ask us to keep His law (Torah which include the 10 Cs), He put us forever slaves of sin and death as no one can keep the law and satisfied the demands of the law. Why we can’t keep the law? Because the flesh is weak (Romans 8:3) and we might sin from time to time.
So, God must do it for us through Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by our faith in Him and no longer by the law (Philippians 3:9), because there is no more law that will put us under the law. This is righteousness from God without the law that was granted to us, a free gift (Romans 3:22-24). And our faith will lead us to live after the Spirit (Romans 8:4) and bear fruit of the Spirit which is in harmony with the written law (Galatians 5:22,23).
But if the law is still valid and binds a believer in Christ, then Christ died in vain. What He has done for us (redemption, justification by faith and life) become meaningless, as before the law we are still sinners and must die. There could not be “justification by faith” parallel with “condemnation by the law.” The only solution is the law must go.
Romans 10:4 – For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. Or as Paul has said in Romans 3:21 “A righteousness of God without the law.”
In Christ the law ends for a believer, it’s function ended and become meaningless. Righteousness by faith could only be granted to a believer without the present of the law, that is the meaning of righteousness of God without the law. We were dead to the law by the body of Christ (Romans 7:4), we were delivered from the law (v. 6), in Christ there is no condemnation (Romans 8:1) because there is no law that convict us and condemn us if we transgress the law (Romans 4:10; 7:9-11,13).
Believers in Christ have peace with God as the law that is against us and contrary to us (the law revealed the sin in us and condemn us, the law is holy, good and just, but we are carnal and sold under sin) has blotted out and nailed to the cross (Colossians 2:14) together with the carnal mind that made us an enemy of God (Ephesians 2:114-16).
What left for us is the Principe of the law (Love) to keep, which is fruit of the Spirit that comes from a life after the Spirit, serving God in “newness of the Spirit” and not in the “oldness of the letter” (Romans 7:6).
Why should we then, that were sons of God by faith in Christ and suppose to live as heavenly creatures lives, a life ruled by love, need a written law to rule our live? Paul has said in Colossians 2:20-22 “ Wherefore if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances. (Touch not; taste not; handle not; which all are to perish with the using) after the commandments and doctrines of men?” And he continued with – Colossians 3:1,2 – If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on the things above, not on things on the earth.
When love as fruit of the Spirit ruled our heart, we have fulfilled the demands of the law because “love is the fulfillment of the law”
(Romans 10:4).
In His love
James S.