The law cannot get us there. It points out that we have not gotten there. The law is a road map that shows us that we are lost. A Jewish friend of mine recently reminded me that her goal is to perform the 613 separate acts of piety identified by rabbinic tradition in the Torah. I find this all very laudable, and indeed my Jewish friend is one of the most powerfully productive human beings I know. She works tirelessly for the needs of the mentally handicapped in our community, campaigning with politicians and other supporters for the needs of those who cannot support or defend themselves (Pro 31:9). She does an enormous amount of good in the world. Lord knows, the world needs it!

Personally, I am exhausted by just considering that there might be 613 separate demands that have been imposed upon me by a God who is alone righteous and holy and who demands righteousness and holiness of me. I have enough to struggle with in the Ten Commandments. They seem a great enough burden to me; without adding another 613 duties on top of them. Now, of course, those 613 duties are just clarifications and expansions of the Decalogue. They make explicit what may be adumbrated in the ten words from Mount Sinai. What that clarifies is that if we expect to become good by doing good we have a mountain of work ahead of us. Beside what is yet to come, we are also burdened on the climb by a crushing weight of past sin. This is why one of my other Jewish friends said, "We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified" (Gal 2:15-16). Paul, the apostle knew how great the burden of the law was. He knew that righteousness in the presence of the holy God lay not that way. But there is another righteousness that is important in this world; the righteousness of my Jewish friends has a powerful effect in the world. Sometimes we Christians become despondent about changing the world because we rightly believe that our work is not meritorious in the sight of God. We forget too easily that God also expects us to be righteous and act righteously, not to merit righteousness in His sight, but to gain earthly blessings for those for whom we labor.

"The law of Moses produces nothing that goes beyond the things of the world; that is, it merely shows both politically and theologically the evils that there are in the world. With its terrors it merely drives the conscience to thirst and yearn for the promise of God and to look at Christ. But for this the Holy Spirit is necessary, to say to the heart: 'After the law has performed its function in you, it is not the will of God that you merely be terrified and killed, but that you recognize your misery and your lost condition through the law and then do not despair but believe in Christ, who is the end of the law, that everyone who has faith may be justified (Rm 10:4).' Clearly there is nothing of the world being granted here; but all the things of the world come to an end here, and so do all the laws, and the divine things begin. So long as we are under the elements of the world, therefore--that is, under the law, which says nothing about Christ but merely discloses and increases sin and works wrath--we are slaves, subject to the law, although we have the promise of future blessing. The law does indeed say (Deut 6:5): 'You shall love the Lord your God,' but it is unable to supply the means by which I do this or acquire Christ."