For although the first man was not impotent, inasmuch grace assisted him, yet God by this commandment shows him clearly enough how impotent he would be without grace. And if he, who had the Spirit, could not with his new will will a good newly proposed (that is, obedience), because the Spirit did not add that to him, what can we, without the Spirit, do about the good that we have lost? By this dreadful example of that first man, it was shown us, with a view to breaking down our pride, what our ‘free-will’ can do if it is left to itself, and is not continually moved and increased more and more by the Spirit of God…that this passage, and others like it (‘if though art willing’. ‘if thou do’) declare, not man’s ability, but his duty. Martin Luther, Bondage of the Will
The soul must be shown how impotent it is without grace. We must also dig a little deeper into what that means. A soul that is impotent is not just impotent or powerless for the most part. It is not 90% powerless, not 80% powerless, not 10% powerless, and it is not even 99.99999% powerless. It is completely and totally powerless to do good. The soul does not just need a little grace and not even a lot of grace, it needs grace to do the work in it.
The Gospel of justification by faith alone had the intent of shining forth the glory of God’s grace in salvation alone. Salvation is by grace alone, not by the power of the human will to a small degree and God’s grace making up the rest. With that in mind, it is clear what the intent of the Law and the commands of God are. It is not that God gives His commands with the expectation that human beings can keep them in accordance with the true intent of the commands. God commands that all of His commandments be kept out of perfect love to Him and to human beings. In one sense all of the commands that God gives are commandments that show His perfections and how human beings are to reflect His glory in the world.
Paul teaches in Galatians 2:19 “For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God.” Sinners must die to the Law in order that they may live to God. But it is through the Law that a person dies to the Law. It is only when the Law is set out in such a way that a person sees that s/he has no ability to keep that Law that the person dies to the Law and to the strength of the self and will to keep that Law. It is not that the Law dies, but that something in the person dies to the Law. The problem is not the Law, but instead it has to do with our proud hearts thinking we can keep the Law in our own strength or perhaps with a little help from grace. No, we are not made sick by the Law to show us that we need some help, but instead we die to the Law. The Law was given in order to show us something about ourselves. We cannot keep it and so we must look to grace alone.
Galatians 3:11 tells us “that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.” No one can be justified by the Law nor can they be justified partially by the Law. The Law tells us that man has no ability to be justified by the Law in any way and in no parts at all. Again, the Law is given in order to teach us that we must have Christ in order to save us from the penalty of the Law as well as be the One in the soul who works in the soul by grace that it may fulfill the Law. Christ fulfilled the Law in one sense while on earth, but He now fulfills the Law in and through His people by keeping it in them. After all, that is at least part of the New Covenant.
Galatians 3:19 and then v. 24 tells us the purpose of the Law. “Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made. 24 Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.” The Law was not given because human beings have the ability to keep the Law, but to show them their sin and their inability to do so. When the Law shows us the depth of our sin and our inability, it shows us our need for Christ as a sacrifice and Christ as our life. The commands of God, therefore, do not show us what we have the ability to do but what is our duty to do. They do not teach us that we are to do the best we can and grace will make up for what we lack, but that we have no ability at all to keep them in any degree as commanded. It teaches the sinner to die to self and the power of self and to look to Christ alone. It is only when the sinner has died to self and its ability to keep the Law that it can look to Christ alone for grace alone. In other words, the Gospel is not preached or heard until sinners see that they must keep the Law but have no ability to do so. This is at the very heart of the Gospel of Christ alone and grace alone to the glory of God alone. Man’s ability is the hallmark of Pelagianism while man’s inability and the ability of Christ by grace are dual hallmarks of Christianity. Other than a little lip-service here and there to these things, we have little of true Christianity in our day.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment