The Purpose of the Law | GRACE, THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL by Andrew Wommack

The Purpose of the Law

In Romans 2, Paul started going after these Jews who were trusting in all of their goodness, saying, “You’re just as guilty as these other people. In addition to this intuitive knowledge that everyone has, you’ve also been given the law of God. Not only do you have an inner witness, but you also have an outer witness. Therefore, you’re doubly guilty!”

Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbear-ance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

Romans 2:4

God’s goodness is what causes people to repent—not His wrath. God’s wrath may be able to get their attention, but it can’t change their hearts. Only His goodness and mercy can do that.

By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.

Proverbs 16:6

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Salvation is everything you need—forgiveness of sins, healing, deliverance, and prosperity.

The fear of God may cause someone to decrease the amount of their sin, but it can’t purge them from iniquity. Mercy and truth are needed for that. An individual can actu-ally be brought to the point of recognizing their need for salvation through the preaching of God’s wrath and judgment. But it’s powerless to change their life. God’s goodness is what leads people to repentance.

Guilty!

This is what Paul dealt with in Romans 2. These Jews disdained these nonreligious people because they weren’t keeping the rituals and holy standards of the law. They were pointing their fingers and saying, “There’s no way you can be accepted by God!” Paul turned the tables and declared, “You’re just making it worse on yourselves. Since you’ve been given a superior knowledge of God’s right standards through the law in addition to your intuitive knowledge, you’re doubly guilty! You now have a mental understanding of what is demanded of perfection, and you know you’re not keeping it.” The point of this, of course, was to shut their mouths.

Paul summarized all of this in chapter 3, saying, “It doesn’t matter if you’re a Jew or a Gentile, if you’re religious or not—

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THE PURPOSE OF THE LAW

everybody’s guilty before God. The religious person doesn’t really have an inside track. Religion doesn’t make you any closer to God. It actually makes you more accountable—guilty—than the person who hasn’t learned all of these right standards.”

As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

Romans 3:10,11

In context, the point Paul was making is that neither the unreligious nor the religious are able to stand before God. The non-religious can’t claim total ignorance because of their intu-itive knowledge, and the religious person can’t claim acceptance and demand relationship with God because they are falling short of the very things that they know both mentally and intuitively.

The Law Is for Whom?

They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one…. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it

saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

Romans 3:12,19

Paul has already said that it’s the Gospel—the good news

about God’s grace and mercy—that produces salvation.

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Christ—can purge
our Lord Jesus
our sin away.
Only the
Gospel— the grace of
GRACE, THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL

Salvation is everything you need— forgiveness of sins, healing, deliverance, and prosperity. It’s a gift, not something you earn.

He’s also shown that nonreligious people already have a knowledge of the wrath of God and that religious people are doubly guilty. We’re all guilty before God.

That’s the point Paul just made. Then he came back to the religious person, specifi-

cally the Jewish nation, and said some startling things.

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law.

Romans 3:19

What a radical statement! Some people think that the law was given for everyone. No, the law was given to the religious Jew. It was a covenant between God and the Jews. The law was never intended for the Gentiles. The Jewish Christians were saying that the Gentile believers had to convert to Judaism and observe all of these laws before they could become Christians. Paul said that the law wasn’t even given to the Gentiles.

Every Mouth Stopped

So what was the purpose of the law? According to the Apostle Paul, its purpose is completely opposite of what most

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people think. He revealed it to us in Romans 3, 4, and 5. In Romans 3 we’re told that it was given unto those “who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God” (v. 19).

The law was never given for the purpose of justification. That’s what the Jews were saying, and it’s what many people say today: “You must keep all the precepts of the Old Testament law. God judges you based on how well you perform.” Not true! That wasn’t its purpose.

Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Romans 3:20

The law wasn’t given to produce salvation or the forgive-ness of sins. Mercy and truth is what purges iniquity. (Prov. 16:6.) The knowledge of sin and the wrath of God may moti-vate people to limit the amount of their sin through fear, but it’s completely incapable of ever forgiving or wiping that sin away. Only the Gospel—the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ—can purge our sin away.

According to Romans 3:19, the purpose of the law is to shut your mouth. In other words, the law takes away all of your excuses and comparisons. It gives you a knowledge of sin and makes you guilty before God.

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Pointing to the Eternal One

Now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested. Romans 3:21

Here’s another radical statement. Paul was saying that the righteousness of God without the law is now manifested. In other words, you can become righteous, enjoy right standing with God—just as if you’d never sinned—and be completely forgiven, made clean and pure in God’s sight, without keeping the law. This upsets religious people today just as much as it did in Paul’s day.

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets.

Romans 3:21

All the Old Testament—the law and the prophets—pointed forward to this. They foreshadowed and prophesied it. People who take commandments in the Old Testament law and teach that you must do them to be accepted by God totally misunder-stand its purpose. The law and the prophets testify to the coming of the Righteous One—the Lord Jesus Christ—and righteousness given as a free gift through faith in His name. The law was only a temporary thing that projected and prophesied the coming of the Eternal One.

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I recognize that I’m covering a lot of ground quickly. For a more in-depth look at this, I encourage you to get hold of my teaching entitled The True Nature of God.1

Most people think that the law was given by God to show us all of the things we had to do to get right with Him. Wrong! That’s not the purpose of the law. Remember, the law shuts our mouths by making us aware of our sin and guilt before God.

The law didn’t strengthen us in our battle against sin. It strengthened sin in its battle against us.

The Strength of Sin

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

Romans 7:7-11

The law made sin come alive. It revived the sin on the inside of us and gave it an opportunity against us.

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The strength of sin is the law.

1 Corinthians 15:56

The law didn’t strengthen us in our battle against sin. It strengthened sin in its battle against us.

This runs contrary to the way most people think of the law. They believe that the law was given to break sin’s dominion over us. Not so!

Sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Romans 6:14

If you’re under the law, then sin has dominion over you. The law strengthens sin in its battle against us, not us in our battle against sin. Why?

Simply put, sin had already defeated us. Even if we kept ninety-nine out of a hundred commandments, that one we broke caused us to become guilty of everything.

Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

James 2:10

In God’s eyes, even the slightest sin contaminates us. He doesn’t grade on a curve. He doesn’t just take the people who are closer to keeping the law as better than others. It’s all or nothing. Either you’re perfect, or you need a Savior. Since no one can

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God raised the bar so high through the
law that no one can measure up.
It was to show us that none of us can save ourselves.
THE PURPOSE OF THE LAW

keep the law, sin had already defeated us. Those who were trying to overcome sin were fighting a losing battle because all have already sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. (Rom. 3:23.) There was no way to eradicate what had been done.

Flat on Your Back

The law was given to bring us out of our deception that we could ever save ourselves. God revealed what real holi-ness is for those who think, I’m close. I’m

a pretty good person. He gave a standard of holiness that was so detailed—step one through ten thousand—that it was impossible for anyone to ever keep it. The purpose of the law was to drive us to our knees, saying, “If this is what God demands, I can never keep it!” The law wasn’t given so we could keep it. It was given to show us that we could never keep it. Once we’re aware of this, we find ourselves shut up to the fact that we need a Savior. We realize that forgiveness and mercy is the only avenue on which we’ll ever have right standing with God. That was the purpose of the law.

Imagine being in a large room with many people. If God walked in and said, “You must all jump up and touch the ceiling or die,” what would you do? If the ceiling was only eight feet

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The righteousness that comes from God is perfect, holy, and infinitely greater than
any righteousness we could ever obtain through our own efforts.
GRACE, THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL

tall, you might be able to jump high enough to save yourself. But what if the ceiling was thirty feet tall? You might be able to jump higher than someone else, but if thirty feet was the minimum, you’d be doomed. All you could do is plead for mercy. Likewise, God raised the bar so high through the law that no one can measure up. It was to show us that none of us can save ourselves. We need a Savior!

The law was given to condemn you— to kill you (2 Cor. 3:6, 9), meaning that it’s supposed to knock you flat on your back so that the only way you can look is up. Sad to say, religion has very subtly turned

it around. It’s encouraged people to embrace the law and try to keep it, thinking they can earn right standing with God. Impossible! That cannot happen. Paul was bringing this out in these passages of scripture.

Now the righteousness of God without the law is mani-fested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference.

Romans 3:21,22

Verse 22 emphasizes the righteousness of God. There are two kinds of righteousness (see Rom. 9:30-10:10). The righteousness

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that comes by living as best you can according to the law may benefit you in your relationships with other people and in limiting Satan’s inroads into your life, but it’s totally ineffective in achieving right standing with God. No matter how well you do, you’re still far short of what the Lord intended and demands. But the righteousness that comes from God—a God-given right-eousness—is perfect, holy, and infinitely greater than any right-eousness we could ever obtain through our own efforts.

We’re All in the Same Boat

All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

Romans 3:23

This scripture is often used to preach guilt and condemna-tion. The goal is to make people feel unworthy and recognize their need for God.

Let’s consider this verse in context. Verse 22 just said that we receive “the righteousness of God which is by faith…unto all and upon all them that believe,” speaking of both the reli-gious and the nonreligious, the holy and the non-holy. It’s a gift to both. In God’s eyes there is no difference. It doesn’t matter how religious or “holy” you are, everyone has sin in their life and comes short of His glory.

God’s standard isn’t me, somebody else, or some religious system. It’s Jesus. And every one of us has come short of that standard. Nobody measures up to Jesus!

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[We are] being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Romans 3:24

The emphasis here is that we’re all in the same boat. We’re all sinners and we’ve all been “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” This is powerful!

Justified by Faith

For the rest of the chapter, Paul summarized by saying, in essence, “It doesn’t matter if you are better than somebody else. We’ve all sinned and come short of God’s glory. Therefore, we all need to be freely justified. You can’t claim that you’re closer to God and need less of His grace than someone out there living a totally reprobate life. We all need the same thing. We all must come to God through the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

Romans 3:28

1. What is the difference between our righteousness and the righteousness of God?
2. In your own terms, how would you describe what the statement “we’re all in the same boat” means regarding the keeping of the law and grace?

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