24/07/2025
The Law Cannot Make Us Holy: It Only Makes Us Guilty
On our walk of faith, one absolute truth stands out clear: no laws will make us holy. It is not by commands or laws that we become righteous, but by grace and mercy from our Lord. The Bible gives us ample insight into this fact, perhaps nowhere more prominently than within King David's life.
1. Affection for God's Law
David states in Psalm 119:97 (KJV):
“O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.”
David was a man after God's own heart. He made a profession of a love for the law of God. He understood its wisdom. Its beauty was attractive to him. Yet his love for the law does not negate his weaknesses. It does bring out a basic truth, though: knowledge of the law does not make one righteous. It tends to reveal how short we fall.
2. The Role of Law: Uncovering Sin
The law itself, according to Romans 3:20 (KJV), is not a way of getting righteousness:
“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.”
Paul reveals this truth—although the law itself is holy and good, it is most effective for revealing our weaknesses. The law is a high standard that by contrast reveals our guilt.
David himself was most sensitive to his personal failures. In Psalm 51:12 (KJV), after committing both adultery and murder, David exclaims:
“Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.”
His plea for restoration is one that shows a basic understanding: The law exposes our sinfulness yet isn't a means for us to make restoration. It is in our moments of coming up short that we see that we need grace—not more rules.
3. The Law and the Struggle of Human Nature
The Apostle Paul, writing in Romans 7:7,14 (KJV), says:
“What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law... For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.”
That is where tension lies: while drawn by law's attractiveness, our inherent sinfulness makes it so that we cannot be perfectly righteous under it. The law instructs in good, yet in instructing reveals our inability to be holy by our own power. Paul's struggle is a mirror of David's—the law shows our weakness yet cannot make us complete.
4. The Call for Grace and Change
Ultimately, the law is diagnostic. It shows us our disease—our sin—but it cannot be our cure. That's where the good news of Jesus Christ comes in. Jesus gives us in His death what the law was not in a position to give us: forgiveness, reconciliation, and transformative power.
In Ezekiel 36:26-27 (KJV), God promises:
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you... And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”
It is by God's power that believers become holy, not by willpower nor by keeping of law, but by transformation.
5. Conclusion: The Law’s Limitation and the Power of Grace
The law is good but cannot save. David's love for the law as much as his desperation for forgiveness underscores this point. The law only generates conviction, showing us how we fall short of the mark. But grace is what makes us whole.
Thinking about this walk of faith, keep in mind:
The law makes us guilty—but the grace of God makes us holy.
