The passage asserts that if works or obedience to the law were the measures of righteousness, then faith would be useless. Because "law brings wrath," or punishment, salvation and/or redemption though works and the law is truly salvation through fear, and this another things this passage sets itself against that might perhaps resonate more with modern readers. This reading of the passage suggests that the route to redemption should not be viewed as a narrow and restrictive path, but that a faith in God is all that is truly necessary for justification.

The debate over the source of justification has been quite prominent at certain points in the development of Christian theology. The Puritans of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had similar beliefs about justification; this passage was key to the concept of the covenant of grace, where Jesus Christ's sacrifice was enough to bring redemption to all of the...
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