“Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20).
The passage quoted above states the second objective of the Old Testament Law from Romans 3:19-20: “…through the law we become conscious of sin” (AMP). A modern paraphrase of this text communicates this idea in the following manner…
“Now do you see it? No one can ever be made right in God’s sight by doing what the law commands. For the more we know of God’s laws, the clearer it becomes that we aren’t obeying them; his laws serve only to make us see that we are sinners” (TLB).
Paul the Apostle expanded on this message in his epistle to the churches of Galatia when he said…
“…we know that people don’t receive God’s approval by any effort to follow the laws in the Scriptures, but only by believing in Jesus Christ. So we also believed in Jesus Christ in order to receive God’s approval by faith in Christ and not by our own efforts. People won’t receive God’s approval by their own efforts” (Galatians 2:16 GW).
He continued with a similar theme in the letter we know today as the Biblical book of 1 Timothy…
“We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers– and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine” (1 Timothy 1:8-10 NIV).
Since the Old Testament Law provides us with the knowledge of sin (as we see here in Romans 3:20), it offers valuable guidance with respect to the general principles of God-honoring behavior.
However, the Law also shows us how we have fallen from God’s standards. Much like a signpost that directs us to the proper destination, the Law directs us to our need for a Savior who can deliver us from our failure to fulfill that very same Law.
Paul will revisit this topic again in Romans chapter ten, but we will conclude our look at this passage with his summary of this concept from Galatians 3:24…
“Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”
Image Attribution : Signpost Blank by Karen Arnold, CC BY-SA 1.0 via Public Domain Pictures.net