“Do Ye Not Hear The Law?”

Galatians 4:21

            The law of God is that which we ought to dread above all things, for the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law. The law condemns us and demands our execution. In solemn terms, it appoints for us a place among the damned. “For it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Gal. 3:10).

Yet, man has a strange infatuation with the law. Like the gnat that is drawn to the candle that will destroy it, man by nature is drawn to the law for salvation, when all the law can give is destruction. The law can do nothing else but reveal sin and pronounce condemnation on the sinner (Rom. 3:19-20). It has no other purpose.

Yet, we cannot get men to flee from the law. Foolish men are so enamored with their own self- righteousness and their own self-worth that they will cling to the law with a death-grip, though there is nothing to cling to. They prefer Sinai to Calvary, though Sinai offers them nothing but death. Listen to the Word of God. If the opinions of men, or your own opinions contradict the Word of God, “Let God be true and every man a liar.”

Here are four facts stated so plainly in Holy Scripture that error regarding them is utterly inexcusable.

1.      The law was never given to save sinners; and it can never serve that purpose (Gal. 2:16).

2.      The law was never given to motivate the people of God to holiness and service; and it cannot serve that purpose. The one thing that God requires is a willing heart (2 Cor. 8:12; 1 Cor. 6:19-20; Rom. 12:1-2).

3.      The law was never given as a rule of life, or standard of conduct for the believer; and it cannot serve that purpose (Rom. 3:28, 31; 1 John 3:23).

4.      The law was not given to produce sanctification in the believer; or even to be a measure of sanctification, and it cannot serve such purposes (Gal. 3:1-3). Christ is our sanctification!

            The law was given to point men to Christ for salvation. The law was given to show man his guilt, his sin, and his need of a Substitute. This is the law’s only purpose; and it serves that purpose very well (Rom. 3:19-22).

            The thunders of Sinai drive us away from the mountain of darkness and death and point us with its lightening bolts to Calvary and to Christ who is the end of the law. In the language of Inspiration, “The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster” (Gal. 5:24-25).

Don Fortner