“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified” (Gal. 2:16).
Even if men somehow had the ability to achieve God’s perfect righteousness, they would not know what it is or how to go about attaining it. What quality of work must you do? If your acceptance before God and your entrance into heaven depend on anyway upon what you do, or what I do, we will never get there. This is because the Bible says our righteousness is like filthy rags. “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away” (Isa. 64:6).
We talk about our works, but we forget about our sinfulness. We all came into this world with a sinful nature. Because man cannot become righteous on his own, God graciously provided for his redemption through the atoning sacrifice of His own son, Jesus Christ. Something happened to those of us who trusted Christ as our saviour. Our lives were transformed. There’s a change of our attitude to life. We don’t live the same way again because if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature, old things have passed away and everything has become new.
- Thank you for reading our devotional on “Not Justified By The Works Of The Law”.