Question 81 – Is it possible to fulfil God's requirements?
When we acquaint ourselves with Jesus' teachings and His demands of love, we rightfully ask—can all these commands be fulfilled? My answer may surprise you, but it is: no. It is not possible to be perfect in this human body and fully meet all of God's demands and standards!
God's Law and Salvation
Essentially, the entire law, which was a set of hundreds of commands under the old covenant, aimed to lead God's people to one of the main conclusions—to highlight the reality that on our own, we cannot fulfill this law. And since we cannot meet God's demands to be righteous before Him, we need someone who can help us.
Apostle Paul describes it thus:
"Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith." (Galatians 3:23–26)
And elsewhere, "I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose." (Galatians 2:21)
As we have discussed before, nothing we do can "earn us heaven." Precisely because we are unable to fully meet God's will and principles. Therefore, we need the Lord Jesus and His purifying sacrifice.
God's Law and the Life of Christians
One matter is the attempt "to get to heaven," and another is to live in the light of God's requirements when we are aware of our shortcomings and rely on the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. In other words—I know that on my own, I cannot; I accept God's offer of forgiveness, yet I still face many of Jesus' challenges, such as:
"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." (Matthew 5:44)
"You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48)
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." (Luke 10:27)
I confess that I do not fulfill any of these demands as I should. Does this mean I should give up on Christianity and turn my back on God? Of course not! God knows our corrupt and twisted hearts. He understands that we do not become perfect with the snap of a finger. However, He desires that we do not remain in this state but that we transform our hearts. Even Apostle Paul described his struggle to fulfill God's demands as follows:
"For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! " (Romans 7:15–25)
Becoming a Christian does not mean you will meet all God's demands. You will be imperfect; you will often fail. But God wants you to get back up after each fall and move forward. When we fall short, God gives us "the means" for our re-cleansing. Apostle John writes,
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)
God acknowledges our weakness and realizes that should He insist on perfectly fulfilling all standards, none would stand, and He would have to destroy us all. Jesus is the solution to this demand. He is our ransom on the way to God, but He is also the one who continually cleanses us during our imperfect Christian life.
Summation
God's demands for humanity can be expressed as dauntingly simple—selfless love and devotion to God and people. It is the core of all other commandments. And precisely because none of us can perfectly fulfill these demands, we need to live "under God's grace" through the Lord Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit.