The problem today is that we cannot keep the law. The law of God requires that we be righteous. If we are not righteous, then we fail. Only by being righteous can we live. But no man of the flesh is able to keep the law. None among us can have righteousness before God through keeping the law. Once man touches God's law, he will fail. Paul said in Romans 7:7 that even if God has only one law, man is not able to keep it. Paul did not transgress all the laws. He mentioned only one law, the one concerning covetousness. In the original language, covetousness is lust. Paul said, "I am helpless. The lust keeps coming back again and again. It is impossible for me not to have lust." He could not get the light of his bicycle to work, yet he had to travel in the city. For some, the problem is not that the light does not work. For them, they simply do not want to have the light. These people do not even want to light the lamp. What is annulling the law? It is when someone pleads with God saying, "O God, I cannot keep Your law today. Please let me go on account of the Lord Jesus. I have done my best. Please do not punish me." All who plead for the Lord Jesus to be lenient or for God to have mercy on them are annulling the law. On the one hand, they do not want to keep the law. On the other hand, they do not want the punishment of the law. They do not want to have a light. Yet at the same time, they want to avoid the fine of sixty cents. What about us today? Do we have our lights today? If we have the lights, then we can travel peacefully in the city. But none of us are able to have the light. Hence, the only way is to pay the sixty cents. This is what the Lord Jesus has done for us. This is the judgment that we have borne in Christ. We have to say, "Praise and thank the Lord that we are already judged in Christ!" We have been punished in Christ. God has punished us in Christ. Since the Lord Jesus has died, resurrected, and ascended, the salvation we receive now is equivalent to what we would obtain if we keep the law. The ones who have the light are free. The ones who have been punished are also free. Today if a man keeps all the laws, he will be justified and will be saved in the same way that we who have believed in Jesus are saved and justified. Of course, we are not just saved when we believe in Jesus; in saving us, the Lord Jesus grants us many other things apart from the law as well.

Paul said in Romans 3:31, "Do we then make the law of no effect through faith? Absolutely not! Rather, we establish the law." Hence, when we are saved through faith in Jesus, we have not made the law of no effect. Since we have met the requirement of the law in us, the law has nothing to say. Never think that we should add the work of the law to our faith. For us to believe is like paying the sixty cents. For us to keep the law is like having the light. No one in the whole world would have the light and pay sixty cents at the same time. This is unreasonable. Why does one have to pay sixty cents and at the same time have the light? If he is able to have the light, then he does not have to pay the sixty cents. If there is the word of faith, then there cannot be the law. If there is the law, there cannot be the word of faith. No one can have faith and keep the law at the same time, for to do so would be to despise the Lord Jesus. It would mean that one fails to see his utter weakness and filthiness.