The Law of Moses, according to the reasoning of Saint Paul in this passage of the Letter to the Galatians, as well as in many other places in his letters, is provisional by nature, because it had only one purpose: to reveal the righteousness of God. The Law of Moses with its 613 commandments was intended from its revelation to the people of Israel to convince God's people that they could not establish their own righteousness, they could not achieve salvation, an inheritance in the Kingdom of Heaven by their own efforts. No, in terms of the Law itself, the text tells us that those who observe its commands will have life in them. In other words, those who observe the commandments of the Law will be fulfilling the righteousness of God. They will attain to God's standard by which inheritance in the Kingdom is judged. But, God's people were never able to perfectly fulfill the commandments, even as the Lord's own ancestor, King David said under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, "There is no human being that does good, no, not one."
God's purpose in revealing the Law to Moses was to show His people (and thus, all of humanity) that they could not trust in themselves. They would not and could not lift themselves up to God. Only through trust in God could human beings come to fulfill God's perfect justice.
This is the powerful message of the Law and, indeed, of the entire Old Testament. The message is particularly powerful in the Psalms. Nearly every one of these songs, composed mainly by Our Lord's ancestor according to the flesh, King David, expresses trust in God as the only means to attaining perfection as a human being.
Although this is the certain and unwavering message of all of Divine Revelation, nevertheless, due to human sin, we can only come to the conclusion that the message has not been received. If we look around us in the world, we see human beings at large and in many ways trying to establish their own justice apart from God. On the one hand, we clearly observe this in dangerous false religions that teach that the justice of God is fulfilled by believers in God destroying other human beings, who do not believe. This is not the teaching of God, but the teaching of the devil. We need have no doubt concerning this. It is the Lord Jesus Himself Who tells us on His Divine authority. When His disciples, the sons of Zebedee, James and John asked Him if they should ask God to send down fire from Heaven upon the Samaritan village that had shown disrespect for the Lord Jesus, Jesus rebuked them and said, "You do not know of what manner of spirit you are, for the Son of Man came not to destroy men's lives but to save them." On the other hand, we observe this in ideology not overtly religious, like socialism, where the State becomes God. If you worship God, disregarding the contradictory demands of the State, the State will close your places of worship and weld the gates of your cemeteries shut on the pretense of preserving public safety and order.
We should be certain that we reject these false beliefs. It is curious to observe that, even though they contradict one another in substance, they are, nevertheless, allied to one another in contemporary Western politics. They are allied to one another because of their common opposition to the Truth, Who is Jesus Christ and His Church. They are willing to endure nearly every disadvantage to the spread of their own ideology, in order to assist their allies in the destruction of Truth. The Armenian proverb is again shown to be true: "when the wolves are about, even the dogs are friends."
Our rejection of these false beliefs and ideologies is, in essence, a positive turn towards the Living God through a commitment to spiritual disciplines: reading, meditation and prayer. All of these are expressions of trust in God, which grows through practicing them. It is true that we must pray as we can, not as we would like to, but we must stretch ourselves, especially in uncertain and dangerous times, to prioritize our relationship with God through these practices.
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