No Man Can Be Justified By His Own Works

“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” Rom. 3:28.

This Scripture is not teaching that the law is not necessary. It is not teaching that obedience to the law is not important neither. It’s not teaching that the law is done away with and it’s possible for a man to be justified-given righteousness and salvation-without keeping the law.

If this Scripture was teaching this, justification would be impossible for any man because justification and injustice are complete opposites. Websters 1828 dictionary says justification means, “showing to be just or conformable to law.” Therefore injustice would mean, “showing to be unjust or not conforming to law.”

For the law to say that a violator of the law, which is a person who has sinned, is guiltless and innocent would be a lie and therefore an act of injustice. God said that He, “will not at all acquit the wicked, and “will by not means clear the guilty. Nahum 1:3, Exodus 34:7. And those who have sin in their lives are guilty and He cannot and will not acquit or clear a guilty person.

But the sacred blood of Christ cleanses from all sin. “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. 1 John 1:7

When this sacred and precious blood is applied to a sinner, it cleanses him from sin. It removes sin out of his life and frees him from guilt. With sin being removed out of a persons life and them being clean and free from guilt, this makes the person AUTOMATICALLY justified.

AUTOMATICALLY justified means AUTOMATICALLY given righteousness and salvation. Or AUTOMATICALLY made conformable to the law of God. Therefore if the law was ignored how can a person be made justified or made AUTOMATICALLY conformable to it?

This gracious work of justification cannot be accomplished for anyone who does not confess and turn from his sins which is acknowledging the justice of the law. He who confesses his sins and turns from them is saying that the law which condemns his sins is just, holy, and righteous in condemning those sins.

He must confess and turn from his sins and by faith obey the law of God which now reports that he is a righteous man. The law can find no sin in his life because the blood of Christ applied to him cleansed him from sin and this left him a righteous man.

But if the man says, “I was made righteous by faith in the cleansing blood of Christ, so I don’t need to obey the law,” that man would be deceiving himself and making foolish statements. No just governor would pardon a criminal unless he promises to obey the law when he’s released from prison.

If a person was convicted of murder and later asked for a pardon but argues his right to continue to murder and break the law because of the pardon, the governor will not grant the pardon. If he says there is no point of reforming my life because of the pardon, he will not get it.

If he promises to reform and obey the law he will get the pardon. But in this world when a criminal receives a pardon this doesn’t indicate that the person is innocent neither does it wipe out his guilt. But when a sinner is asking God for pardon the same blood that enabled him to be pardoned makes him innocent from sin and frees him from guilt!

The Scripture which says, “a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law” should now start to make sense to us. No matter how much works of obedience to the law a person does, this cannot take away their past sins and secure for them justification. Our sins which we have done in the past cannot be undone by our own works.

No matter what we do in and of ourselves this won’t change the fact that we have broken the law in the past and our sins of the past still remain. Even if we were able to walk in perfect obedience to the law without sinning in the slightest degree, this still will not take away our past sins. Even if you kept the law for the rest of your life perfectly, you would still have to pay the penalty of eternal death for your past sins.

Therefore our works will not help us in the slightest degree. So there must be a way provided for our sins of the past to be cleansed and removed from us so we can be justified WITHOUT OUR OWN WORKS.

The only thing you can do to be justified which means your past sins has been removed is to exercise faith in Jesus Christ. Once you exercise faith in Christ, He will apply His precious blood to you and this alone will cleanse you and take away your past sins. This is justification by faith without your own works.

Your works means absolutely nothing before you come to Christ. Why? Because the works of the flesh are sinful.

“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are [these]; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, 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

These are the works of the flesh that we are all trapped in and the works of the law is so high and holy that no man trapped in sinful flesh can do them apart from Christ. This is why Paul said, “We conclude that a man is justified by faith WITHOUT THE DEEDS (WORKS) OF THE LAW.” Romans 3:28

You are made righteous without doing the works of the law and then Christ empowers you to do the works of the law now that you have been made righteous!