Reader, before I take my leave of you, may I address you personally?1 You are either an unbeliever or a believer. My book has been written with the believer in mind, and most of my remarks have been made on that basis. It is, after all, a book on the believer and the law. But what if you are an unbeliever? You do not need the law. You need Christ. You need to be right with God – to be justified. The law will never justify you. Never! It can only condemn you. ‘But’, do I hear you say, ‘I have no thought of being right with God by keeping his law. None whatsoever!’ No? Perhaps not. But when I began this book, I used the word ‘incipient’. I come back to it now. Many are incipiently seeking justification by the law. What do I mean? While some do overtly argue for justification by law-keeping, many more, who might not mention the law of God, nevertheless still hope to be right with God through their works – ‘incipiently’ seeking justification by law. Indeed, I know that every unbeliever is bent on a course of getting right with God, and this by works or self-effort. We meet examples of it in Scripture, and daily experience confirms it. I notice that the Jews who addressed Christ, and the Philippian jailer who addressed Paul and Silas, all had the same thing in mind: they wanted to know what they could do to be saved, to be right with God (John 6:28; Acts 16:30). ‘Do’! It is ingrained in us, this love of trying to earn our way to God. Ask any man in the street, and it will not be long before he is telling you: ‘I do my best!’ ‘Do’! In other words, works! Yes, even professed atheists, for all their confident talk, still base their hopes upon their doings and their deservings. |
