Description
What does Paul mean, in Romans 3:20, when he tells us that the law only leads to sin?
Romans 3:20
For by works of the l… (visit YouTube for more)
Transcript
Today we meditate on Romans chapter 3 verse 20. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
It is very easy as a Christian to fall into the trap of finding out what God wants of us, the right things versus the wrong things, and pursuing the right things in order to be right ourselves, in order to be good, in order to be justified.
That isn’t how we obtain justification, but it is so easy for us to fall into that trap. Because, after all, we’ve been told all our lives, these are the things that you must do in order to be a good boy or a good girl. Do those, and you are good.
No, says Paul. The problem with that is, once you know all of the good that you should do, and all of the evil that you should not do, then that knowledge of sin is the very thing that convicts you, because you can’t do all of these good things, and you can’t avoid doing all of these bad things.
So through those laws comes your knowledge of sin, and your own conscience judges you. The only way to be justified in the sight of God is to accept the sacrifice that covers all of our sin and makes us clean and justified in God’s sight.
Being a Christian is so easy, but also so hard. It’s so easy because we don’t have to try to be good. But it’s so hard because we have to surrender our own will. We have to lay that down.
We will continue to fail because we are flesh. But God will continue to justify us because Christ’s sacrifice is once and for all.
Thank you, Lord and God, our King, for giving us that way to be clean and righteous before you. We had no hope otherwise, but you have been so gracious and generous to us. Amen.
