No justification by works

knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. – Galatians 2.16

Why is it that man always thinks he can do something to placate God? It happens all the time in every culture. Man has tried everything to do it, all kinds of works. Nearly every culture ever encountered has tried to find some way to placate their god or concept of Him and it always involves some kind of works.

The concept of grace is hard for some to swallow. We figure that there must be something we can do to save ourselves. Our our human pride compels us that we have to do something about our situation  so we come up with religious practices that we think will do just that.

But every work ever devised by our best efforts always falls short because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All of our works are like filthy rags. If we violate even one point of the Law the entire Law is broken.

So no man can ever be justified by being holy or religious or good or pious kind or generous or sharing or compassionate or anything because every single one of us will fall short or perfection.

Our only hope of being brought into line with God’s standard of perfection is through faith in Christ. He was perfect. He could pay the penalty. He works we do are the result of salvation, not the other way around. All the works the grace robbers were demanded could never do anything for their eternity.