A common question many Christians ask is whether Christians need to follow Old Testament laws to spiritually grow in their faith. Does obeying God's law help Christians become more holy?
When the Christians in Galatia heard and accepted the good news about salvation through faith in Christ, they also received the Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit served as proof that they were true believers. God not only gave his Spirit to them but also performed miracles among them (Galatians 3:5). The Christians in Galatia knew from their own experience that the Holy Spirit has the power to transform them into new people. The apostle Paul had taught them to depend on the Spirit for guidance in their lives.
After Paul left Galatia, Jewish-Christian teachers came to the area. These teachers taught something different. They said people needed to follow God's law both to be accepted by God and to become holy and mature. These teachers claimed that Paul's teaching about becoming more holy by the Holy Spirit (instead of carefully obeying God's law) would lead people to break God's laws and commit sins.
Paul answered these teachers by saying God does two important things through faith:
God counts or considers us righteous because of our faith.
God actually makes us righteous through faith by the work of the Holy Spirit(Galatians 5:16–26). Paul explained that people who depend on the Spirit and follow the Spirit's guidance will not sin. This is because God's Spirit will never lead people to do wrong things.
The real problem is not that people do not understand what is right and wrong. Our conscience, which God gave us, tells us when we are doing something wrong. God's law makes his standards for right living even clearer (Romans 7:7–12). The real problem is that our hearts are often stubborn and sinful. We also lack the wisdom to know the right thing to do in different situations. Because of sin's effects on human nature, we struggle to apply God's word in a way that matches what God truly wants.
The law cannot improve our condition. But when the Holy Spirit guides and controls us, he transforms our desires so that we do things that please God (Galatians 5:22–23; Romans 8:5–14). God's Spirit helps his people fulfill the true meaning and purpose of his law. But following the law should not be our main goal or focus. The law is just our "guardian" (Galatians 3:24–25). Instead, we should focus on trusting God, relying on the Spirit, and loving others. God’s Spirit gives us the desire and strength to do these things in a way that pleases God.
Passages for Further Study
Numbers 11:16–17, 24–30; Jeremiah 31:33–34; Ezekiel 36:26–27; Luke 24:49; Acts 5:32; Romans 7:1–8:17; 12:2; 2 Corinthians 3:7–18; Galatians 3:2–5; 5:5, 16–26; Hebrews 12:14–29