Cursed are the Attempted Law Keepers

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Rome. He explained the wrath of God and how God deals with the objects of God’s wrath (Rom 1:18–32). Next, he wrote of the impartial judgment of God (Rom 2:1–16). The basis for the righteous judgment and wrath of God is the Law of God. It was the Law of God that was received by Moses at Mount Sinai in 1446 B.C. To keep the Law meant blessing; while disobedience invited the curses of God (Dt 27–28).

Sin is lawlessness (1 Jn 3:4); and all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23); and it is appointed for a man to die, once, and then comes the judgment (Heb 9:27). All judgment has been handed over to Jesus Christ, the righteous (Jn 5:22; 2 Cor 5:10; 1 Jn 2:1; Rev 20:11). It was Jesus who taught that the sentence for unredeemed sinners is eternal punishment in the fiery hell of the lake of fire (Mt 25:41, 46; Jude 7; Rev 20:14–15).

The Law of God was given to the Hebrew people, not as a means for their salvation; but that they might have the knowledge of sin (Rom 3:20). The Law of God also gave the Jews a view to the holiness of God. Ethnic Israel’s failure to keep the Law was obvious. All through the Old Testament record of Scripture, God’s chosen people were cursed for their unbelief and disobedience to Yahweh’s commandments…save for a remnant. In fact, the giving of the Law only increased sinning (Rom 5:20).

The Jews received the Law from Moses; and they became judges of others (Rom 2:11). Hypocrisy ensued as their failure to keep the Law became evident (Rom 2:17–24). Instead of being humbled by their poor performance, the so-called circumcision doubled-down with showy displays of presumed superiority…drawing Jesus’ ire (Mt 23).

Jesus repeatedly called out the visibly religious for their hypocrisy. The Scribes and Pharisees thought more highly of themselves than they ought. It is a sin for anyone to break God’s Law. That sin is multiplied when pride of performance results in external exhibition of religion.

Circumcision was the outward sign of one who was under the Law and a child of Abraham. Abraham (2000 B.C.) circumcised the male members of his household to set them apart from those who were not brought into the covenant with him. Further, God had made promises to the head patriarch that would only be realized in his seed (singular — Galatians 3:16).

The seed of Abraham is Jesus the Messiah who alone is the faithful covenant keeper with Yahweh (“God His Father”). Jesus of Nazareth’s conception was of the Holy Spirit, divine, in the womb of the Virgin Mary (Mt 1:18, 20; Lk 1:35). In this way, Jesus avoided the inherited original sin of Adam that implanted each person with a sin nature (Rom 5:12; Eph 2:3). The natural man’s propensity to sin against God is far worse than he himself imagines (Gen 6:5; Jer 17:9; Is 64:6; Rom 3:10–12; Eph 2:1–3, 12).

The Apostle Paul emphasized that the receipt of the Law was a blessing for the Jews (Rom 3:1–2). Their being cursed was the result of attempting to keep the Law of God apart from Christ Jesus (Jn 15:5). This is true, today, for the Jew who presumes Judaism is the right way to a right standing before Yahweh. It is the same error of all religionists of every conceivable kind (man has no end to his religious inventions). Simply put, no work of unrighteous sinners, Jew or Gentile, can justify a man before God because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight (Rom 3:20).

One’s trust and confidence must be placed in Jesus Christ, the Just, who alone justifies the ungodly (Rom 4:5), not by works of the Law, but a righteousness derived from faith in the faithful God, who sent His only begotten Son, our Lord, into the world to save His people from their sins (Mt 1:21). It is His people who have received the grace unto salvation (Eph 2:8–9), who manifest their salvation by their faith in the one and only Savior of sinners.

It was our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who was like us, yet without sin (2 Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15). Jesus kept the Law of God because He was God (Mt 5:17), who took on flesh (Jn 1:14; Rom 8:3), and who could not sin because of His divine nature. God cannot be tempted by evil (Jas 1:13); yet in His human nature, Jesus was tempted, even by the devil himself in the wilderness of Judea (Mt 4; Lk 4).

Jesus Christ always did what was right in thought, word, and deed. God His Father was well-pleased with Jesus, as with no one else. The meritorious work of Jesus, to fulfill all righteous demands of the Law is our only hope (1 Tim 1:1; Col 1:27). There is salvation in no one else (Acts 4:12); for Jesus, alone bore our sins in His body on the cross (Lev 16; 1 Pet 2:24). In Him, we have redemption (Col 1:14), the purchase of His precious blood (1 Pet 1:19) — a penal, substitutionary atonement for the forgiveness of our sins. The believer in Jesus is released from his or her sins by His blood shed for the remission of our sins (Rev 1:5).

By way of application, the just shall live by faith in the Son of God (Gal 3:11), who gave Himself for us at the cruel cross of Calvary (Gal 1:4), where He suffered and died as the Lamb of God (Jn 1:29), in our place and for our benefit as God’s chosen, redeemed, regenerated people who are “in Him” by way of transfer (Col 1:13).

The Christian never boasts in his or her performance of “good works” under the now obsolete Law of God (Rom 7:6; Heb 8:13). The old way has passed away, in favor of the new and living way (Heb 10:19–20). Jesus said, “I am the way…” (Jn 14:6). He is the way of reconciliation for sinners to be right with God, apart from the Law. Being filled with Spirit of Christ, we have a ministry of reconciliation entrusted to us (2 Cor 5:18–20), whereby we persuade men not to trust in religion, nor the Law of God, nor their perceived performance before the Holy God. We trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, His Person and work, with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Finally, salvation in Christ, alone, is never a license to sin. Instead, we walk humbly with our God and boast in Christ, alone, in the power and wisdom of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Jn 14:17; Rom 8:9, 11), our Teacher (Jn 14:26), who is guiding us into all truth (Jn 16:13), as it is in Jesus (Eph 4:21), our Redeemer and Lord, in whom are all the blessings of God (2 Cor 1:20).

David Norczyk

Spokane Valley, Washington

December 13, 2024

Romans 2:17–3:1–8