If We Can’t Keep the Law, and Should Not Pursue Law, How Do We Expect to Have Righteousness and Holiness in Our Life?

The question is not a minor one. If righteousness and holiness are necessary, but the law cannot deliver them, what hope do we have? The answer is not found in a new resolve or a subtler form of self-effort, but in a total abandonment of confidence in the flesh. The Scriptures are clear: righteousness and holiness are not achieved by human effort or law-keeping, but are received through faith in Christ, who imputes His righteousness and sanctifies believers by His Spirit.

The Collapse of Law-Based Pursuit

Let’s be direct: every attempt to secure righteousness or holiness by keeping the law ends in failure. This is not a flaw in your discipline—it is the very design of the law. “By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Galatians 2:16). The law exposes our inability and drives us to the end of ourselves. If you are still hoping that greater resolve will finally produce the holiness God requires, you have not yet reckoned with the verdict of Romans: “There is none righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10).

This realization is not a defeat; it is the necessary gateway to grace. Only when you see your utter inability do you become open to receive Christ’s righteousness by faith. This brokenness—this collapse of self-confidence—is God’s tool to prepare you for the only righteousness He accepts: His own, given freely in Christ.

The Gift: Imputed Righteousness and the Spirit

The moment you place your faith in Christ, God imputes Christ’s righteousness to you. This is not a legal fiction or a mere covering; it is a real transfer of standing. You are justified—declared righteous—apart from works. This imputed righteousness is not the end, but the qualification: it is the basis upon which God gives you His Spirit.

• Faith in Christ is the only means by which you receive this righteousness.
• Imputed righteousness is the result that qualifies you for everything else God gives.
• The indwelling Spirit is the gift that makes Christ your very life.

“Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe… Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:22-24).

Christ, Not Law, Is Our Sanctification

Sanctification is not a process of you getting better at law-keeping. It is Christ Himself, by His Spirit, becoming your life. “But of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). The Spirit does not merely help you do better; He manifests Christ in you. He washes and renews you through the Word, not as a reward for your effort, but as the natural outflow of Christ’s life within.

The church is not presented to Christ as holy and without blemish because of her striving, but because Christ Himself cherishes, nourishes, and cleanses her by the washing of water with the Word (Ephesians 5:26-27). To focus on your own efforts is to miss the entire point: Christ is your righteousness, your sanctification, your reward.

The Gospel: Power, Not Program

The Gospel is not a starter kit for self-improvement. It is “the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16), and it reveals a righteousness that is “from faith to faith.” The Spirit is supplied to you, not by works, but by the hearing of faith (Galatians 3:2-5). As you set your eyes on Christ, the Spirit produces His fruit in you—holiness, righteousness, and satisfaction that no law could ever generate.

If you accept the error that righteousness or holiness can be attained by law-keeping or human effort, you lose everything: justification collapses, the inheritance is forfeited, and sonship is denied. You are left with nothing but exhaustion and condemnation, cut off from the very life Christ came to give.

The Only Way Forward

You do not become righteous or holy by struggling under the law. You become righteous by receiving Christ as your righteousness. You become holy by receiving Christ as your sanctification. The Spirit is given, not to those who strive, but to those who believe. The Gospel supplies everything: it is not a message of what you must do, but of what Christ has done and is doing in you.

Rest in the finished work of Christ. Abandon every hope in your own effort. Fix your eyes on Him—your righteousness, your sanctification, your life. Only then will you know the power of the Gospel, and only then will you be presented holy and without blemish before God.

Anything less is not just a lesser path—it is no path at all.