Continuing from *Justification: Stephen E. Robinson taught:
Technically, there was nothing wrong with the old covenant and its law. It was the word of God. It was just and fair. If the people had just kept their end of the agreement, they would have been justified by the law. After all, anyone who does absolutely everything God commands is, by even the strictest definition, just.
Unfortunately, it turned out that nobody could do it. Just as telling my daughter Sarah to save her pennies for a bicycle may have been plausible in theory but didn’t really meet her needs in the real world, so justification by law, though it may be valid in theory fails in practice to address our real human needs in our actual predicament. Because of our human weaknesses and our fallen natures, the terms of the law of Moses, the old covenant, are simply beyond our ability and therefore don’t justify us. Theoretically they could, but in actuality they don’t. Justification by obedience to law, or justification by works is an impossibility because all human beings except one have been disobedient at some time or other. And we can’t claim to be justified by obedience if we are occasionally disobedient.
As Paul points out, trying to keep the commandment is a long way from actually keeping them. According to him, anyone stupid enough to trust in his ability to keep all the rules make the atonement of Christ ineffectual in his own life. (see Galatians 5:4.) Moreover, anyone who wants to trust entirely in his own righteousness needs to be reminded that righteousness through the law requires perfect performance: “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that cometh not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.” (Galatians 3:10-13, italics added) Paul points out that any claim to righteousness based on one’s own efforts to keep the commandments requires a perfect record. One slip and you’re no longer perfect, you have become a sinner—and in this sense we are all sinners. “For we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one. . . .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 3:9-10, 20.)
In other words, since everyone has broken the law, no one can claim to be righteous by virtue of having kept the law. To make matters worse, the law itself pronounces the curse on anyone who is not perfect in keeping all the commandments. (See Deut. 27:26.) (see Galatians 2:16 and 2 Nephi 2:5-8.) ~ Stephen E. Robinson, (Believing Christ, Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, 1992) 74-76 (Dwarsligger edition) continued see. . . . * Justification III
