“For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God it is evident: for, “The just shall live by faith.” And the law is not of faith: but, the man that doeth them shall live in them” (Gal. 3:10-12).
Note the proof that is given that “as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.” It is this: “Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”
Now, since the proposition is that “as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse,” why does not the proof of that proposition read, Cursed is every one that continues in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them? —Well, the simple reason is that the fault, which brings the curse, is not in the law, but in those who would be the doers of the law: not in the law, but in the people.
No curse could ever possibly come to any who really do the law. But all who “are of the works of the law are under the curse” simply because their works are not truly the works of the law, but are their own works, which they themselves have shaped by their own blurred and imperfect conception of what the law really is; and are therefore sin. Therefore the curse is upon all who “are of the works of the law,” simply because they have not continued, “in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them”; but have all sinned.
If they had begun and had continued truly “in all things, which are written in the book of the law to do them,” there never could have been any curse. However, mark this: though they had begun and had continued truly in all things which are written in the book of the law, or in the law, to do them, even then their righteousness would not have been of the law; because they would necessarily have had to be righteous before they could begin in righteousness to do the righteousness of the law. As it is written: “He that doeth righteousness is righteous.”
He has to be righteous, in order to do righteousness. For, in the nature of things, it is impossible for one who is unrighteous to do righteousness: it is impossible for a sinner, while he is a sinner, to do good. The law is perfect with the very perfection of God. Therefore, in the very nature of things, it is impossible for an imperfect person to do the law. Therefore every man must be righteous to begin within order to do righteousness. And he must remain righteous in the same way that he became righteous to begin with, in order to continue to do righteousness. And this righteousness, which every soul must have to begin with in order to do righteousness, is “the righteousness of God without the law” (Rom 3:21); that is, it is a righteousness, which he obtains from God, and not at all from the law. Accordingly, it is written: “He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as HE is righteous.”
Every soul must be righteous to begin with, before he can, by any possibility, do righteousness. There is no true righteousness except the righteousness of God. Therefore every soul must have the righteousness of God to begin with, before he can ever do righteousness; which is simply to say that every soul must have the righteousness of God before he can show it: it must be in him before it can appear.