To follow up on the last article ‘The Law is a Curse’, I want to point out that we are no longer required to follow the law.
Romans 3:20-24 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather through the law we become conscious of our sin. But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
To me this cannot make it any clearer that trying to keep the ten commandments, doing good works such as church attendance, prayer, bible reading, witnessing to others, helping the poor, tithing, taking part in communion or any other ‘good work’ you can think of, will make a difference in being declared righteous in God’s sight.
Just in the same sense avoiding things we consider wrong or bad does not make us any more righteous either. We are declared righteous by faith in Jesus, the gift of grace freely given by him.
The law only makes us conscious of sin and our need for Christ. Once we believe his righteousness is freely given by grace and the law is no longer needed and actually becomes a curse. Galatians 3:10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” We know that none of us can keep every law that was given by God to the jews, of which there were 613 laws including the first ten which we call the ten commandments.
Good works are not wrong, in fact they will result out of love for God rather than out of obligation for earning his love. Yet because of the grace freely given by God we no longer need to worry about the laws and keeping them to earn the love of God and the forgiveness of sins he provided.
Done with Religion 
I agree with that 100 percent.
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I think, in all fairness, the ministers during that time, did not know any better. They did the best they could. We basically were only taught from the old testament. Grace was never taught. The backside of the cross was never taught. There were also quite a few Pharisees. Scriptures were misinterpreted. We just all thought that at any given time of the day, if we made a mistake, we were hell-bound. How miserable it was asking for forgiveness all throughout the day. It’s so freeing knowing we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
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I’m with you on that Carol. Thanks for the comment.
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I think back on my years of growing up in church and the rules the pastor made in addition to the ten commandments. When I was coming into my teen years, I wanted to wear makeup, earrings and go to the movies. We could not do any of these things. The pastor made sure the parents enforced these rules with their children. We couldn’t wear slacks to church or to school. Some people thought the ten commandments should be posted at our schools, so we wouldn’t forget them. Leaders actually frightened us. I look at organized religion today and all of the manmade rules…..I could not go back into that environment. For those who have not been called out of organized religion, maybe they should stay. Like you said: Good works are not wrong, in fact they will result out of love for God rather than out of obligation for earning his love. I freely enjoy good works today. God’s grace is truly Amazing!
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