The Law Can Be Kept Only by Faith
This
know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be
lovers of their own selves...having a form of godliness, but denying the
power thereof. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him.
2 Timothy 3:1, 2, 5; Titus 1:16.
The
Jews followed after the law of righteousness, but did not attain to it. Why
not? "Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works
of the law." How forcefully this sets forth that of which the entire
Epistle to the Romans is a demonstration — that faith does not clear one
from transgression, but that by faith alone can the law be kept!
The
Jews are not blamed for following after the law of righteousness, but for
not following after it in the right way. It is not by works, but by faith,
that the works which the law requires can be attained. There is no discount
upon good works. They are the most necessary things in the world. They are
the result of the keeping of the law by faith. But there can not by any
possibility be good works without faith; for "whatsoever is not of
faith is sin." Rom. 14:23.
But
the Jews came miserably short of it. Why? "For they stumbled at that
stumbling-stone." What stumbling-stone? Christ. They were in the very
same condition that so many people are to-day, they would not believe that
the promises of God to Israel were wholly and solely in Christ.
That
very stumbling-stone is a stepping-stone, and a sure foundation. That over
which some fall, is the means of lifting up and building up others. Christ
is a rock of offense to those who disbelieve, but a sure foundation to those
who have faith. He is "the Shepherd of Israel," and at the same
time the fold, and the door into the fold.
Those
who think to claim an inheritance in Israel because of their birth and
without respect to Christ, will be ashamed at the last because whosoever
comes not in at the door, the same will be proved to be "a thief and a
robber." But "whosoever believeth on Him shall not be put to
shame," because his faith will show him to be Abraham's seed, and thus
an heir of God according to the promise.
Waggoner on Romans, pp.
159, 160 |
