Galatians 2:17-21

And we are. We just read that in Romans 3, that there are none righteous, no not one. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

If you remember the sermon on the "Justice of God," it showed that justification is clearly an act of God's grace, because what we deserve from what we have earned—that is, what we have done, the conduct of our lives, is death. There is none righteous, no not one. Since justification then cannot be claimed as a right because we have sinned, it must be received as a gift. It is its given-ness that makes it an act of grace.

Let me rephrase that and put it into a simple illustration. It is not our hanging on to Christ—that is, the keeping of the law—that saves us, but rather Christ hanging on to us. That is, it is not what we do, but it is what He does continuously as acts of grace, because we deserve death. If we can earn salvation through law keeping, Paul is saying in verse 21—let me read this again, "I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain." If we can earn salvation through law keeping, then Christ's sinless life and agonizing death were not necessary, because we can do it ourselves.