Ouch. Romans 3:23 has got to be one of the bluntest, harshest, and coldest examples of plain, unsweetened law I've got in my toolbox of Holy Scripture.
I was at FISH (Concordia University Saint Paul's Wednesday night contemporary worship service) when I first encountered this verse, and let me tell you, it was like getting thrown in an ice bath. I had come to FISH that night with a desperate need to hear some gospel, but when the first set of music was finished, the band stepped down, and the speaker flashed those words on her first slide, it seemed as if I was just going to get slapped in the face with the law.
That's the thing about the law. It's painful. It stings. And it's scary. So scary, that some Christians refuse to acknowledge it's existence. I've lost count of how many times Christians, and even entire congregations, have used Jesus as an excuse to continue sinning, and/or ignoring the law, focusing only on grace. The cold hard truth? Yes, the grace of God through the death of His blameless, perfect, holy son Jesus saves us from eternal damnation, but I encourage you to read chapter 6 of Romans and hear God speak through Paul on this matter:
Dead to Sin, Alive to God
1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.14For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Slaves to Righteousness
15What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 20For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
From this passage, we learn that although by grace, through faith:
"This is the true freedom from sin and from the law. ... it is a freedom only to do good with pleasure and to live well without the compulsion of the law. Therefore this freedom is a spiritual freedom, which does not overthrow the law but presents what the law demands, namely, pleasure [in the law] and love [for it] whereby the law is quieted and no longer drives men or makes demands of them. ... Our freedom is, therefore, no carefree fleshly freedom which is not obligated to do anything, but a freedom that does many works of all kinds, and is free of the demands and obligations of the law." (Luther's Works, 35:375-76)
Christ's death and resurrection, and our faith in Him as our savior certainly makes us free, but that freedom doesn't mean our original sin ("Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." -Psalm 51:5) simply vanishes into thin air. Being or becoming a Christian doesn't mean all of our problems go away. Christ has ultimately won the battle against death and the devil, but we will still have daily struggles between our sinful nature and our faith.
This is why the law is so important! The law shows us our sinful nature, even when we don't want to see it, and shows us how desperately we need Jesus. When we stray from the path of righteousness and fall into the temptation of sin, the law serves as a flashing sign to remind us that what we're doing is not okay, to remind us that Christ didn't die so we could continue to live a sinful life, He died so that we can be forgiven, spread His love to the world, and spend eternity with Him in paradise!
When we avoid the law, we begin to cut out pieces of our relationship with the Lord. Without the law, what need is there for gospel? If we aren't going to be punished for our sins, why would we need Jesus? As painful as it may be to hear about our sins and the consequences for them, when we look at the law as an arrow pointing to Christ, we can cling to Him and our faith tighter with the realization that it is only through Him that we can be saved from the "wages of sin"...death.
My prayer is that we all can begin to see the law as more than just a list of guidelines and punishments (don't make me write another entry on ontology and teleology...no matter how happy Dr. Trapp would be :) ), and definitely not just something we fear, but as a reminder that we can never be perfect, we can never fully escape our original sin (no matter how hard we try), and that's why we need Jesus so desperately. I pray that when the law strikes fear in you, when you feel alone, unloved, and too sinful for redemption, that you use the law to find the grace of God, and run into His loving, forgiving arms.
Love Always,
-ellie*
