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by BILL PARKER
Believer's are justified by God based on the righteousness
of Christ. The law, therefore, is not our enemy. God's law is our enemy
only when we seek to attain justification and life by our deeds of the
law (Rom. 3:19-20; Gal. 3:10). The law curses every sinner
who seeks salvation or any part of it based on anything other than the
merits of Christ. The same law pronounces all who come to God, "the
Judge of all" (Heb. 12:23), pleading the righteousness of Christ
alone, righteous and holy. Believers are "dead to the law"
in that the law no longer curses them nor pronounces them legally defiled
because their debt has been paid by Christ.
Does the law require anything from a believer? It requires
every justified sinner to love God perfectly and to love our neighbors
as ourselves. It requires obedience and godliness. But it requires none
of these things for the purposes of saving ourselves, keeping ourselves
saved, sanctifying ourselves or making ourselves holier or more qualified
for Heaven, nor does it require obedience aimed at making our salvation
sure, nor for earning any rewards from God. All of these things are
already accomplished by the grace of God based on the righteousness of
Christ. Our works and efforts to obey the law are not good enough to accomplish
any of these things. They are to be attributed to God's grace as the fruit
and effect of Christ's righteousness alone (Eph. 1:3; Col. 2:9-10).
As believers, we are to seek to obey the law out of gratitude and love
for God who has freely given us all these great blessings based
upon what Christ did for us. In this way God is glorified, Christ is exalted,
and we are encouraged in obedience and godliness with no room for boasting
(Phil. 3:3).
