The limitation of God’s law

For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did.

He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:3-4)

I’ve been thinking of the story of Jairus’ daughter and the woman with the bleeding problem this week (Mark 5).

And one thing that struck me is that God’s law declared a dead body and a woman with a bleeding problem “unclean.”

Anyone who touched either became “unclean” themselves. (Leviticus 15:25-32; Numbers 19:11-13).

But while the law could declare these things “unclean,” it could not make them clean.

It could not heal the woman. And it certainly could not raise Jairus’ daughter from the dead.

But what the law could not do, Jesus could, healing the woman, raising the girl from the dead, and making both clean.

In the same way, God’s law could declare sin “unclean” and call anyone who touches it “unclean.”

But the law could not make us clean nor could it give us life.

That’s the limitation of the law.

But what the law couldn’t do, Jesus could. By his death on the cross, our sins are cleansed, and we are given life.

All we have to do is what Jairus and the woman did: put our faith in Jesus.

Through their faith both were saved. And so are we.

So let us rejoice with Paul, declaring,

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)