disparagingly of these ordinances, because the false apostles asserted that
mankind is saved by them without faith. Paul could not let this assertion
stand, for without faith all things are deadly.


VERSE 16. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law,
but by the faith of Jesus Christ.

For the sake of argument let us suppose that you could fulfill the Law in the
spirit of the first commandment of God: "Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God,
with all thy heart." It would do you no good. A person simply is not justified
by the works of the Law.

The works of the Law, according to Paul, include the whole Law, judicial,
ceremonial, moral. Now, if the performance of the moral law cannot justify,
how can circumcision justify, when circumcision is part of the ceremonial
law?

The demands of the Law may be fulfilled before and after justification.
There were many excellent men among the pagans of old, men who never
heard of justification. They lived moral lives. But that fact did not justify
them. Peter, Paul, all Christians, live up to the Law. But that fact does not
justify them. "For I know nothing by myself," says Paul, "yet am I not hereby
justified." (I Cor. 4:4.)

The nefarious opinion of the papists, which attributes the merit of grace and
the remission of sins to works, must here be emphatically rejected. The
papists say that a good work performed before grace has been obtained, is
able to secure grace for a person, because it is no more than right that God
should reward a good deed. When grace has already been obtained, any good