J.I. Packer once provocatively wrote, “Law-keeping is that life for which we were fitted by nature, unfitted by sin, and refitted by grace…” [J.I. Packer, Keeping the 10 Commandments, (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2007), p.44]. Is that you? Have you been refitted by grace? Apart from God’s work of grace, we are sure to fail in keeping God’s law. And even having been refitted, we will struggle to keep the commands that Jesus and the New Testament call us to keep. That is the reality and challenge of indwelling sin. However, the challenge of indwelling sin does not mean we should give up the pursuit altogether.

Quite the contrary, for the New Testament and Jesus call us to keep the law of Christ because we’ve been freed from spiritual slavery to sin, just as the people of Israel had been freed from physical slavery in Egypt. The law does not redeem anyone and neither does law-keeping. Jesus redeems sinners like you and me. It is only once we’ve been redeemed, only when we have been awakened to see our sin and to see our Savior, that we will come to see that God’s law teaches us what he is like and how we are to live in light of his love.