1 Timothy 1:8-11 but we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. Knowing this: that the law was not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and the sinners, for the unholy and profane, for the murderers of fathers and murder of mothers, for fornicators, sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.

The law was made for man to recognize exactly how much we need God and His grace.

We can’t earn our way to salvation through good works. People would like to think that life is a series of checks and balances; a scale of sorts. For every bad thing a person does they can counteract it with something good. But it doesn’t work that way. Even if it did, we’d still end up in hell. Because we still mess up and it is impossible to be perfect. Even when we do good things, we do them for selfish motives. Whether it’s the desire to look good in front of others or just to feel good about ourselves, it still turns into self. I don’t think that humans as people are inherently good. I don’t think we’re necessarily evil, but we live for self. For survival. Our natural instinct is to please ourselves, to satisfy.

We can’t work for our faith and I think that makes it all the more hard. Because we’d be admitting our unworthiness. We’d stare up at the cross, the most selfless act ever committed here on earth and we are stripped. Laid bare are all of our imperfections, selfish hearts, our pride, of any sort of illusion of worthiness and the idea that we’re good people. Jesus then cloaks our insolence, and our selfish flesh. His blood cleanses us from our flesh, sin and unworthiness. He makes us worthy, and it is only through his grace.