The Purpose Of The Law
THE PURPOSE OF THE LAW
ROMANS 3:19-20
How is the Law useful?
These two verses round off a section of the letter which began at 1:18. We shall take them in turn. 3:19: Paul has been quoting from the Psalms and Isaiah. His reference to “the Law” obviously refers to these passages. It follows that he is using the term in a special sense. The Law is referred to some seventy times in the letter, and is used in four different senses (ie the Pentateuch, 3:21, where it is distinguished from the prophets; a principle, 3:27; 7:21,23,25; 8:2; the law of God, 2:17ff.,23ff.; and in the present passage, where it obviously refers to the Old Testament in its entirety). The meaning of this verse is that, if those who have God’s revelation are condemned by that very revelation, how can anyone else claim righteousness?
Verse 20 brings a daunting thought. Of what use is the Law? The question opens up a whole important facet of Pauline and Christian thinking. The Jews believed they were just in God’s eyes if they kept the Law. That was the position of the rich young man who came to Christ with a vital question (Luke 18:18-27). His shallow thinking imagined that he had actually kept the Law, until Christ’s probing showed how imperfect he was. The disciples’ question and Christ’s obscure answer were a foreshadowing of what Paul is to make clear in this letter—the true purpose of the Law, the dilemma of conviction of sin, and God’s remedy—justification by faith.
Paul had pondered long over the meaning of it all. As a Pharisee he had dedicated his life to the keeping of the Law (Philippians 3:4-6), and yet had no peace nor satisfaction (the theme closes chapter 7). But the Law was not without purpose, impossible though it was meticulously to keep it. In a flash of revelation Paul saw the truth. The Law revealed man to himself, showed him the righteousness of God, and how far short he fell of its demands, set before him the nature and the seriousness of sin, and therefore, by immediate implication, his dire need of a Savior. The first necessity if a man is to come as a penitent to God must be a deep realization of his natural helplessness. This, Paul saw, was the prime function of the Law.