as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
Philippians 3:6b (ESV)
Is it possible to live in obedience to all 613 commands of the law? We might say no, because if it were possible, then righteousness could have been achieved through the law, and Jesus would not have had to come as a sacrifice for sin.
Yet Paul claims here to have been faultless in his obedience to the law. He fully obeyed all 613 of them. While it is possible that this was a rhetorical statement on Paul’s part, I think it is likely that what he was saying was true. Or at least that part that applied to him. I believe it is possible to obey the law fully. And that many people did.
So why, then, did Jesus need to come?
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
1 Timothy 1:15 (ESV)
In the passage above, Paul told Timothy that Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And then, surprisingly, this one who had earlier claimed to be blameless under the law, called himself the foremost of sinners. How can he be both blameless and the foremost of sinners?
In 1 Timothy 1:13, Paul claims to have been “a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent.” In 1 Corinthians 15:9, Paul says he was unworthy to be called an apostle because he “persecuted the church of God.” And in Acts 9:4, Jesus asked him, “Why are you persecuting me?”
Paul demonstrates that a person can fully obey the law, even believing they are serving God with a clear conscience (Acts 23:1), yet still be at odds with God. Obeying the law does not make a person right with God. And that is why Jesus came: to make us into a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).
We might be a member or even a leader of a local church. We might be tithing, reading our Bibles regularly, and doing all the “right things.” But if we have not been “born again (John 3:3),” it is all to no avail. We are still, as was Paul, sinful and separated from the life of Christ. We might be legalistically blameless, yet still stand guilty before God.
It’s not a matter of what we do. It’s a matter of whose we are.
