Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:19-20)

If a man does nothing wrong, yet he fails to do that which is right, he is guilty. Omission is as truly a defect as commission.

If you have omitted, at any time, to love the Lord your God with the whole force and intensity of your nature, if you have omitted in any degree to love your neighbor as thyself, you have committed a breach of the law.

Not to obey is to disobey. Who can plead innocence, if this be so? How cutting is the sentence “Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Galatians 3:10 KJV, emphasis added)!

It is an awful passage. It seems to me to shut up the gate of hope by works, yea, to nail it up. I bless God it does fasten the door effectually, for if there seemed to be half a chance of getting through it, we should find men still struggling for entrance.

Salvation by self is man’s darling hope: salvation by doings, feelings, or something or other of their own is the favorite delusion of sinners. We may bless God that He has rolled a great stone at the mouth of the grave of legal hope.

He has dashed as with a rod of iron the earthen vessel that held the treasures of our conceit. “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified” (Romans 3:20 KJV).[1]

Charles Spurgeon

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End notes:

[1] Charles Spurgeon, At the Master’s Feet [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005], December 14.

See also:

BUT WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED

THE END OF FOOLISH ATTITUDES

PREACHING THE GOSPEL FOR THE CHRISTIAN