Have you been taught—explicitly or implicitly—that your standing before God hinges on your performance, your law-keeping, your ability to measure up? This is the very ground the Gospel exposes and overturns. The message of Christ is not a call to redouble your efforts or to polish your religious credentials. It is the proclamation that God has revealed a righteousness utterly apart from the law—a righteousness that is His own, given freely to the one who believes.
The Gospel: God’s Power Revealed, Not Human Effort Improved
Paul does not mince words: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes… For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith’” (Romans 1:16-17). The Gospel is not a supplement to your striving. It is not a new ladder for you to climb. It is the unveiling of God’s own righteousness, made available to you—not as a wage, but as a gift.
This righteousness is not accessed by law-keeping, nor is it a reward for religious zeal. Romans 3:21-24 is explicit: “Now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law… the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe… justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” God’s requirement for justification and salvation is not met by your works, but by Christ’s finished work, received by faith.
Christ: The End of the Law for Righteousness
To cling to the law as a means of righteousness is to reject the very purpose for which Christ came. God sent His Son “in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, [to] condemn sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4). The law could only expose your inability; Christ alone fulfills its demand.
Paul draws the line with finality: “We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Romans 3:28). And again: “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4). To attempt a righteousness of your own, derived from the law, is to remain outside the gift God has provided. It is to forfeit the very righteousness that God now offers freely in Christ.
The Fatal Loss If You Cling to Law
Do not be deceived: to insist on a righteousness that comes from the law is not a harmless theological preference. It is a rejection of the righteousness of God. Paul’s testimony in Philippians 3:9 is the dividing line: “not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” If you choose the law, you lose Christ. If you trust your own efforts, you forfeit the gift. The outcome is not merely a diminished Christian experience—it is the collapse of justification, the forfeiture of sonship, and the loss of inheritance. There is no “both/and” here; the two stand in absolute opposition.
The Gift: Justification, Sonship, and a Cleansed Conscience
What then is the result of believing the Gospel? You are justified by God’s grace as a gift. The righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in you, not because you strive, but because you are in Christ and walk according to the Spirit. This is not theoretical; it is the foundation of your assurance, your sonship, your inheritance. You stand before God clothed in a righteousness not your own, but His—unassailable, perfect, and freely given.
To return to law is to return to futility, to a treadmill that never ends and never satisfies. But to receive the righteousness of God by faith is to rest in Christ’s finished work, to walk in the Spirit, and to enjoy the full privileges of a cleansed conscience and an unbreakable relationship with your Father.
The Only Foundation
The Gospel is not a call to try harder. It is the announcement that God has done what you never could. The righteousness of God is revealed apart from the law, and it is yours—now and forever—through faith in Jesus Christ. Anything less is not the Gospel, and anything more is a denial of Christ’s sufficiency. Stand on this foundation, and refuse to be moved.
