CaseyB-
The laws and commandments of Torah (the first 5 books of the Old Testament), including The Ten Commandments, were never intended to cause anyone to become perfect. Their sole purpose was as a foundation on which the Hebrews could build a strong and cohesive society. Even the promise made as a reward for the Hebrews' keeping of those 613 laws was purely a societal one:
If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your forefathers. He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land - your grain, new wine and oil - the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land that he swore to your forefathers to give you. You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor any of your livestock without young. The Lord will keep you free from every disease. He will not inflict on you the horrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but he will inflict them on all who hate you. (Deuteronomy 7:12-15,NIV)
That's it; there is the contract which God agreed to. It was a very pragmatic, here-and-now agreement, with their loyalty to the laws of Torah causing their society as a whole to grow and prosper. But there it ended. There was to be no thought of there being an afterlife, muchless their earning a place in that afterlife through their keeping of these laws.
So how did laws that were purely societal in the Old Testament get the title of being salvific in the New Testament? It was through other laws being attached to each of the original laws via subsets. The Sabbath commandment alone had over 1,000 laws attached to it via a subset, and the other commandments had similar subsets attached to them. There weren't 613 laws which needed to be followed in order to earn salvation; there were well over 10,000 laws which needed to be followed in order to earn salvation. It was legalism gone berserk.
That is why we read in Scripture that God himself performed all that was necessary in order to provide us with eternal life. The righteousness we need in order to have assurance of eternal life is a righteousness that is equal to God's own. And that righteousness we cannot earn as if it were a salary, nor can we purchase it as if it were an asset. There is only one means of obtaining it, and that is through permitting God himself to give it to us:
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished - he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:19-26,NIV)
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What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. they stumbled over the "stumbling stone." As it is written:
"See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." (Romans 9:30-33,NIV)
We have assurance of salvation not because of what we have done, but rather because of what God himself has done. He has accomplished all that is necessary for our salvation, and now freely offers that salvation to all who will accept it as it is being offered.
And how do we repay this gift of salvation? We don't. In fact, in order to ensure that we live lives worthy of being called 'Christian', God freely gives us another gift, namely, the gift of his Spirit's indwelling within us. And it is through the actions of his Spirit, rather than our own, that we become capable of behaving in the manner that God wants of us:
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. (Galatians 5:16-26,NIV)
The motivations listed as 'the acts of the sinful nature' are the same motivations which we are all born with. They are also the root cause of all sinful acts, but they are as much a part of us as our eye color. So rather than our subduing them (an impossible task), God himself subdues them via his Spirit.
However, God also implants within us a new nature (the fruit of the Spirit). And it is through the motivations contained in this new nature that we become capable of living our lives in the manner that God wants of us. Rather than our attempting to follow a set of laws, the very motivations which need to be the impetus for our actions are implanted within us. And it is through these motivations' being the origin of our actions that those actions have assurance of conforming to God's will.
Laws can be 'danced around'; motivations can't. So it is the motivations which culminate in our actions which confirm our faith. And for both our salvation and these motivations we need to give God the credit, because they are both gifts from him to us. God bless-
