***1 Timothy 1:8 (NLT) We know that the law is…

***1 Timothy 1:8 (NLT) We know that the law is good when used correctly.***

The false teachers wanted to become famous as teachers of God’s law, but they misunderstood the law’s purpose. The law was not meant to give believers a list of commands for every occasion but to show unbelievers their sin and bring them to God. Galatians 2:11-21 shows us that God’s law offers direction, not justification. Paul wrote in Romans 7:12, “The law itself is holy,” but following the law can never make us acceptable to God. The law was given to point people to Christ because they couldn’t keep the Law. Only Christ can keep the law.

Justification is “the act of making someone right with God.” Justification takes place when God declares those who place their faith in Christ to be righteous. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” In other words, Jesus became our substitute on the cross so that we could be made “just” or right with God. We were guilty but God has declared us righteous.

Romans 3:22-24 teaches that “the righteousness of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ for there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Our justification comes to us freely, because of the price that Jesus paid on our behalf. God extends this grace to sinners and is “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (verse 26).

Since we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ and not by obeying the law, we should believe in Christ Jesus. In this way we can be made right with God because of our faith in Christ not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.” (Galatians 2:16)