“…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 can’t a person be justified by the works of the law? Many people are smugly confident of their salvation because they feel they have kept the laws of God. But the Scriptures tell us that they are NOT saved by having kept the laws of God, BECAUSE we live in a fallen human nature and that fallen human nature is not CAPABLE of keeping the laws of God. All human beings sin. Once you sin, the law is broken and you can no longer claim that you’ve kept the law. The law is like a glass – once it’s broken, it’s broken, period.

Does this mean, then, that you simply put your faith in Jesus Christ and then go on to sin freely? Of course not. It means that once you’ve put your faith in him and have been born again by his Spirit, his Spirit within you creates in you a new life, a new mind, a new heart, and a new desire to walk in the Spirit. You are, then, relying on his Spirit to create in you a clean heart and to renew in you a right spirit.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,
he is a new creation;
old things have passed away,
behold, all things have become new.”
2nd Corinthians 5:17

Turn to Jesus Christ and ask him to put his Spirit within you and to give you a new heart, a clean heart that only his Spirit can give.

MORE:
What Does ‘Born Again’ Mean?