You are right. If you seek justification through the works of the Law (if you try and make it to Heaven by your works), then you are obligated to keep the whole Law. In Galatians 3:10 Scripture warns "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them."
So if you try and seek justification through keeping God’s Law rather than trusting in His mercy, you are obligated to keep all of its 613 precepts. Then if you violate even one of its points, you are pronounced guilty. The Law is like a mirror. If you hit the mirror at one point, you don’t break that area, you break the whole thing.
This is what the Bible says: "For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, 'Do not commit adultery,' also said, 'Do not murder.' Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law"(James 2:10-11).
However, it is the moral Law that will be your judge on Judgment Day (see Romans 2:12 and James 2:12). So whatever you do, don’t follow the millions of people who think that they are going to get to Heaven by keeping the Ten Commandments because you are then obligated to keep the whole 613. The Law was given to show us our sins, in the same way a mirror shows us that we need cleansing.
They only way to be cleansed of sin and saved from Hell is to trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. His death and resurrection satisfied the demands of a holy Law, so that guilty sinners could be justified (proclaimed innocent) and have everlasting life.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
