You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
21 Is the
law [nomos] then [oun] against [kata] the promises [epaggelia] of
God [theos]? God forbid [me]: [ginomai] for [gar] if [ei] there had been [didomi] a law [nomos] given [didomi] which [ho] could [dunamai] have given life, [zoopoieo]
verily [ontos] righteousness [dikaiosune] should [an] have been [en] by [ek] the law. [nomos]
KJV-Interlinear
21 Is the
Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had
been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have
been based on law. NASB
Against, 'kata,' means against, alone, apart, aside, before, beyond, exceeding, more excellent and here the question is asked, 'Is the law better or in addition to the promise?'
And of course Paul states emphatically, 'No.'
Now the Law of Moses is not condemned or even derided as being somehow flawed.
The Law given to Moses is in fact perfect, or an example of a perfect pattern of life.
Note that Adam had a perfect life when he was in the Garden. But Adam and Eve had forever life, not eternal life.
The Law even if someone could live by its standards, cannot produce or provide eternal life.
Adam and Eve could have lived in the Garden forever, and that would have been as good as it would ever get. But of course they faltered. And they faltered with only a subtle suggestion from Satan issued through a talking animal. Something that Eve should have picked up on.
When you talk to your dog or cat or pet bird, they do not engage in conscious conversation with you. If they did you would notice that probably immediately. But Eve did not notice that, and thus was led to her first sin.
It did not take much for both to commit their first sin and as such they lost everything.
The Law is the same. It is a set pattern of perfection of living by means of mans own works and efforts, but man cannot fulfill the Law, because man is weak. Sooner or later everyone will fail, and we all do. The penalty of failure is eternal separation from God. It takes only one single sin to fail permanently.
But again, even if you could live a perfect life, you would never have eternal life, only forever life and forever gives you only more time to eventually fail. Thus failure and the Law go hand and hand in proving that man cannot gain eternal life by his own means.
This also cancels out all religions. They are all false.
There is no system of works, no system of coming back to live a better and better life in order to somehow improve or systematically advance oneself, no system of technology or better genetic engineering, there is nothing by which a person can gain eternal life or equality with God or eternal life for oneself in spite of God or whatever it is that you think is out there.
If there were an alternate system, alternate to faith, then it would or should provide eternal life.
But how many people alive in this world do you know of, that have continued to live ever since they were born? As well as being able to travel back and forth independently between heaven and earth or anywhere else? None.
So, you have but one choice to gain eternal life as well as advance your spiritual life, and both are based on faith. The first is by believing in Christ and the second is by believing in the things you learn on a daily basis, but that assumes that you are indeed pursuing a daily study in order to learn and will continue to do so for the rest of your life.
