+I. The law condemns the least violation of its enactments.+--"Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things . . . in the law to do them" (ver. 10). The law is a unity; to violate a part is to violate the whole. It is like a perfect bell, every stroke resounds through every atom of the metal. If the bell is fractured in the least degree, the dissonance is evident in every part. Law is so all-pervasive and so perfect that to break one law is to be guilty of all. It is intolerant of all imperfection and makes no provision to prevent or repair imperfection except by a rigid obedience to every statute. If obedience could be perfect from this moment onwards, the past disobedience would not be condoned; we should be still liable to its penalties, still be under the curse. To pledge ourselves to unsinning obedience is to pledge ourselves to the impossible. All our efforts to obey law--to conform our life to the law of righteousness, the purity and beauty of which we perceive even while in a state of lawless unnature--are futile. It is like running alongside a parallel pathway into which we are perpetually trying to turn ourselves, but all in vain. We cannot escape the condemnation of the disobedient. +II. The law cannot justify man.+--"But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith" (ver. 11). The law reveals our sin and our utter helplessness to rid ourselves of its misery. The law forces out the disease that is spreading under the skin. Such is its task. But healing it does not bring. "The law," says Luther, "is that which lays down what man is to do; the Gospel reveals whence man is to obtain help. When I place myself in the hands of the physician, one branch of art says where the disease lies, another what course to take to get quit of it. So here. The law discovers our disease, the Gospel supplies the remedy." We become aware in critical moments that our evil desires are more powerful than the prohibition of law and are in truth first stirred up thoroughly by the prohibition. And this disposition of our heart is the decisive point for the question, "Whether then the holy law, the holy, just and good commandment makes us holy, just, and good men?" The answer to this is, and remains a most decided, "No."