Inquiry:
Does righteousness come from following the Law? Luke 1:6 says that Zecharias and Elizabeth were righteous because they followed all of God’s commandments, but Galatians 2:21 indicates that righteousness does not come from the Law. Is there a contradiction?
Response:
The Bible contains two major divisions, the Old and New Testaments. Each is established as a covenant – the Old for the people of Israel (Exodus 34:27), the New would replace the Old (Hebrews 8:13), and would be unto all people (Mark 16:15). Whether keeping the Law of Moses would make one righteous or not depends upon one’s relationship to the Law.
If someone was subject to the Old Covenant, then to walk righteously before God, keeping the Law was necessary. Zecharias was of the tribe of Levi, and served as a priest in the temple. He and his wife, Elizabeth, lived before the death of Christ, and thus before the Old Covenant was done away with (Ephesians 2:15-16; Colossians 2:14).
The people Paul wrote to in Galatia were not under the Law. Paul explained to them that the Law was a tutor to bring the Jews to faith in Christ, but now that faith had come, the tutor was no longer necessary (Galatians 3:23-27). He would later tell them that to seek justification by the Law was to depart from Christ; righteousness was now by faith, not by the Law (Galatians 5:4-5).
If Zecharias and Elizabeth were still alive after the death of Christ, they too would need to seek righteousness by faith in Christ rather than through the Law of Moses.
There is no contradiction.
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