Galatians 2:19 says, “For I through law have died to law that I might live to God.” This verse mentions two goals: one is the law, and the other is God. Philippians 3:6b-8 says, “As to the righteousness which is in the law, become blameless. But what things were gains to me, these I have counted as loss on account of Christ. But moreover I also count all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I may gain Christ.” Here Paul counted the righteousness in the law as loss, and even cast it aside, that he might gain Christ. Then in verses 9 through 11 Paul said that he was found in Christ, not having his own righteousness which is out of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is out of God and based on faith, so that he might know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if perhaps he might attain to the out-resurrection from the dead.
These two portions of the Scriptures refer to the question of the law, and they both point out that the law is versus God. The apostle Paul was previously a keeper of the law; as such, he declared to all that as to the requirements of the law, he was blameless. He served God zealously according to the law, thinking that in this way he could please God. One day, however, while he was zealously serving and doing things for God, the Lord came and shone upon him, saying, “Why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:3-4). Paul was a person who was serving God zealously and keeping the law of God, yet he turned out to be a persecutor of God. Whether or not we are as good as Paul according to the law, we have offended God. Even if we were as good as Paul was, we would still turn out to be persecutors of God.
Because we are all living under the law, whenever we transgress the law and its regulations, we are convicted inwardly. In addition, afterward we may be afraid that we will transgress again, so we confess, make a resolution, and pray to ask for the Lord’s help. Before we were saved, we were loose and careless. However, on the day we were saved, we became religious. In putting ourselves under the law, we daily face the difficulty of being good and moral. We put the Lord aside in order to improve our behavior and to do good. Not only so, we even ask the Lord to strengthen us to do good. In reality, this is a paradox. We ought to take the Lord as our goal by living to Him, yet instead we take goodness, which is outside of the Lord, as our goal by living to the law. We even ask the Lord to help us to attain to goodness and to live in the law.
In the beginning when God created man, He did not designate goodness as man’s goal. Rather, He made Himself the goal of man. We may use a glass as an illustration. A glass is for containing water; thus, the goal of the glass is water. If we put other things in the glass, the glass loses its meaning. Likewise, man was created to contain God; therefore, God is the goal of man. Why is this? It is because God wants man to be mingled with Him, and He also wants to be one with man. We really need the light of the truth to see that man was created not for goodness but for God.
In the garden of Eden after Adam was created, God placed him in front of the tree of life, which denotes God Himself. At that time Adam knew neither good nor evil; to him God was everything. Adam was before God, but God had not yet entered into him. At that time Adam did not have the thought of sin, nor did he have the thought of good. It was not until the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil had entered into Adam that the elements of good and evil entered into man. Thereafter, man began to know love and hate, because good and evil are the two sides of one thing; the two are actually one. We must remember that good and evil are one. They both entered into man at the same time after man had failed, sinned, and fallen. Since then, man has had both good and evil within him.
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