Is It Actually Possible to Keep God’s Law?

If our Creator demands perfection from human beings, has anyone managed to live up to that standard? Is it even possible?

And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he [Jesus] said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 22, verses 35 to 40

In a sense the Bible is a record of humanity’s failure to keep God’s rules. Character after character strides onto the stage of history and from Joseph to Judas, Moses to Mary, they have to all admit they have failed to live up to God’s standard. The human race is made up of sinners.

This isn’t because the rulebook is unreasonable or unfair. The problem is the internal conflict each and every person faces. We know the Law is right. We know we should obey – perhaps we wish we did. But when push comes to shove, so often we choose to fail. And so it is proven time and time again that we have no hope of ever earning heaven from God.

Yet there has always been a group of sinners who live in hope. They hope based on a promise given by the Creator on the day when the first human beings rebelled. Someone would come one day who would hit God’s target dead centre. Someone who would keep the Maker’s rules perfectly and deal with our sin which is so offensive to Him. A Saviour who would take away the sin of the world.

The Bible builds on this promise. From the lamb who is killed in the place of the sinner, to Noah’s Ark which was the only way to escape the destruction of the deadly flood, each book reveals more of what this Saviour was going to be like and what they would accomplish.

As centuries ran into millennia, this group of people were looking forward to the time when their sin would be dealt with, meanwhile they lived on the credit of the Saviour’s future work.

the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..

Paul the Apostle (The Letter to the Romans, chapter 3, verses 22 & 23

Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

King David of Israel (The Book of Psalms, chapter 51, verses 6 & 7)

Your thoughts are welcome! Please feel free to leave some feedback, questions or even disagreements.