For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (Romans 8:3-4).
Notice that there are some things the law cannot do. The law is totally powerless to save, justify, or redeem the sinner. The law knows only justice. Its demands are absolute; it can show no mercy to the transgressor. In II Corinthians 3:6-7, Paul said that the letter of the law “killeth,” and then calls the law, which was written and engraved in stone, “the ministration of death.” The law could never make a sinner a saint, forgive sins, or change the heart. All the law can do is demand punishment for those that break it, and pronounce our sentence, reveal our sin, and curse us with eternal death.
The law was never given for the purpose of saving us from our sins, but rather to reveal our sin and show us our need of a Savior. Paul wrote, “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). Even if the law could save, we would still be lost because of our failure to keep it! Notice that the reason the law cannot save is that “it was weak through the flesh.” We all fall short of its righteous standards.
What then is our hope? What the law could not do, the Lord Jesus Christ did do. First of all, He lived a perfect, sinless life in full and complete obedience to the law in every detail. He thereby provided a positive righteousness to which we could never attain. Then He did a second thing: He paid the death penalty we deserved for our lawlessness by dying on the cross of Calvary, thereby providing a perfect righteousness which is imputed to all those who believe upon Him. II Corinthians 5:21 puts it this way, “For he [God] hath made him [Jesus] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Please notice the statement in Romans 8:4, “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us…” It does NOT say that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled BY us, but rather, IN us. The Lord Jesus Christ does that. The perfect righteousness which God requires and to which we could never attain is provided by Him who bore the punishment for our sins on Calvary as our substitute. That, dear friend, is justification, a truth which few seem to understand.
The law was never intended to save, but rather to show us our need of salvation. The law is like a mirror, which reveals how soiled our face is, but which has no power to cleanse. But below the mirror is a basin, a sink, where we can wash away the stain. The law points us to the only place our sins can be washed away – in the precious blood of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power of Calvary? If so, you can now say:
“Free from the law, O happy condition,
Jesus hath bled, and there is remission;
Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall,
Grace hath redeemed us once for all.“Once for all, O sinner, receive it,
Once for all, O brother, believe it;
Cling to the Cross, the burden will fall,
Christ hath redeemed us once for all.”~ Philip Paul Bliss, 1838-1876