Paul's meaning—and nowhere is his thinking more clearly presented than in the Book of Galatians—is that we cannot be saved by the works of the Law of Moses. Now that Christ has been offered on the cross, the Law of Moses has been fulfilled. We are not to add circumcision, dietary laws, and the observance of days to our redemption. We have been redeemed by receiving God's offering, the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is true also that an individual of virtuous behavior cannot excuse himself from the cross of Calvary on the basis of his own goodness. The only righteousness God will finally accept, whether imputed (assigned by faith) or demonstrated by righteous behavior on our part, is the righteousness that flows directly from the Virtue of the Lord Jesus Christ.

All of our lasting righteousness comes from Christ.

This is correct thus far.

However, the common understanding of today has gone far beyond the above statement. The meaning today of "we are not saved by works but by grace" is that there is no critical necessity for attempting to serve the Lord. It is held that the laws of the Kingdom, such as the Sermon on the Mount, were only given to show us we cannot save ourselves but must have a Savior. (Now it is being claimed that the Sermon on the Mount and the other commandments of the Lord were addressed only to Jews, so great is the current deception!)

Paul was speaking about freedom from the works of the Law; but we have included freedom from godly behavior.

The current teaching is that Christ came to forgive our sins and bring us to Heaven. We ought to try to behave in a godly manner "because we love Jesus," but we are "saved by faith alone" and our behavior cannot affect our standing with God.

This is an incorrect interpretation of the meaning of Divine grace. Such an abomination never entered the imagination of Paul or any other man of God. We believe that this error of interpretation has rendered the New Testament writings, including the four Gospels, irrelevant as well as incomprehensible. It has destroyed the testimony of the Christian Church.

We can quickly show from the Book of Galatians that Paul never taught that the only purpose of the laws of righteousness present in the Scriptures, the rules of godly behavior, is to show us our need of a Savior. The laws of righteousness, of the Kingdom of God, are to be kept. If we do not keep them we will not enter the Kingdom of God. The keeping of them is the Kingdom of God.

Notice carefully:

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness [immorality], idolatry, sorcery, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21).

Consider the above passage.

Is the passage speaking to unsaved people or saved people?

Obviously it is speaking to saved people, to those who have received the Lord Jesus Christ. Unsaved people cannot inherit the Kingdom of God by refraining from the works of the flesh, so the passage has no meaning to the unsaved. The unsaved need to hear only of the redemption that is by faith in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

To be continued.