Breaking the Law
Comments on Galatians with an ear to Luther’s commentary
Scripture Text: Galatians 2:16 and Hebrews 10:11-18
Series: Comments on Galatians
Keeping the law meant that when you broke it, you still kept it by making the due sacrifice for your sin. So, even when you sinned, or broke the law, you could keep the law, as long as you paid the fine. To use a modern example, when you drive from one city to the next, you will very likely break some traffic law. Perhaps you will edge over the speed limit to pass a slow-moving vehicle or fail to signal a turn. Maybe you will even break God’s law, by not loving your neighbor and his lousy driving skills. If the traffic laws were synonymous with the Mosaic Law, you would be required to pay the fine for your driving sins whether or not you were stopped by an officer of the law. If you do so, you would be said to have kept the law — even though you violated one of the conditions of the law.
When you have paid your earthly fine, however, it does not justify the fact that you broke the law. It just means you paid the penalty. Just so, if you pay the penalty of God’s law, it does not justify the fact that you sinned. To make matters worse, there is no method by which you can pay the penalty of breaking God’s Law. There is no temple in Jerusalem for your sacrifice, and if there were, God would not accept it because there is no longer a need to pay for your crimes. God no longer requires sacrifices because the ultimate sacrifice has been made (Psalm 40:6; Hebrews 10:5-6).
Because of forgiveness, there is no longer a need for any offering for sin (Hebrews 10:18). You are forgiven because your fines have all been paid. The law has been satisfied in the one payment of Christ on the cross. There is no longer the need for paying fines because God no longer remembers your lawless deeds (Hebrews 10:17).
The result is that you are not, and cannot, be justified by keeping the law but by believing that Christ satisfied the demands of the law on the cross. The one and only sacrifice for your sin has been accomplished. This alone is what justifies you with God. Believe.
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Rev. Dr. Mark E. Ryman has served as Pastor for St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Salisbury, NC, since 2021. Previously, Pastor Ryman served congregations in North Carolina and Ohio, as well as a call to specialized ministry with Sola Publishing.
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