CHRIST DID FOR US WHAT WE FAILED TO DO
“For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom.8:3). According to our text there is something the law “could not do.” In the Roman epistle the Apostle Paul deals at length with the issue of law. He reminds his readers that the thing the law “could not do” was justify any flesh (Jesus excepted) – “…by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight…” (Rom.3:20). But someone would ask Paul, “If no one could be justified by law, why then did God give a law for justification?” Paul answers that question. First, he told his readers that the law was given to identify sin. In stating this truth to the Romans he wrote, “…for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Rom.3:20). Second, Paul told his readers that the law was given to make man aware of his sinfulness. He expressed this truth to the Romans in the following words - “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound…” (Rom.5:20). And third, a system of law justification was given to make man long for another way to be justified. Failure to keep law perfectly left man condemned and in need of someone to help him to be justified. In the Roman epistle Paul expressed this need in the form of a question - “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom.7:24). Paul’s need has been true of all mankind since the days of Adam and Eve. Thankfully, after the sin in Eden God promised a Deliverer and prophesied that He would come and do for mankind what the law “could not do”- JUSTIFY. Approximately two millennia ago Jesus came to earth and “…was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification” (Rom.4:25). As a result of this Paul could joyfully tell the Romans that those who believed in God were “being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood…” (Rom.3:24,25). Dear friend, since we in our weakness fail to justify ourselves by law, let us thank God that Jesus kept the law perfectly and offers His righteousness for our justification.