+I. The law renders no help in fulfilling its requirements but
curses the incompetent+ (ver. 10).
+II. The law, though strictly observed, is powerless to justify+
(ver. 11).
+III. The law does not admit of faith; it offers life only to the
doer+ (ver. 12).
Ver. 11. _Man is justified by Faith alone._--One day wishing to
obtain an indulgence promised by the Pope to all who should ascend on
their knees what is called Pilate's Staircase, the poor Saxon monk,
Luther, was humbly creeping up those steps when he thought he heard a
voice of thunder crying from the bottom of his heart, as at
Wittenberg and Bologna, "The just shall live by faith!" He rises in
amazement, he shudders at himself, he is ashamed of seeing to what a
depth superstition had plunged him. He flies from the scene of his
folly. It was in these words God then said, "Let there be light, and
there was light" (Gen. i. 3).--_D'Aubigné._