No, He was pointing this man to the law. The Law was given to bring a person to Christ. Did you know this is the basic reason that God gave the Law? The Bible makes this very clear by using the illustration of a schoolmaster:
Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. (Galatians 3:24, 25)
The Law was given in order that we might see who God is and that we might see ourselves and also see the great chasm between us that we cannot bridge. The Law was a slave, if you please, for that was what the schoolmaster was who is spoken of here.
You know you don’t keep the Law; all you have to do is examine your own heart to know that. When you see your hopeless, helpless condition, the Law then becomes the one who takes you by the hand and brings you to Christ. Christ is the One who kept the Law, and because He died on the cross, paying the penalty for your sin, it is possible for a holy God to accept you without lowering His standard. The penalty is paid, and now He can receive you, a vile sinner, a lawbreaker, a transgressor, and bring you into the presence of God.
Do you think this kind of love is impossible?
No, There was no power to express and realize the love of God in the Old Testament. None whatever. As best I can tell, God said, “This is it, I’ve put it on the line. You either do it or you don’t do it. And if you don’t do it, I’ll punish you. If you do it, I’ll bless you.” Well, they didn’t do it. And the consequences? Look at the history of the Jewish people for the past 3,000 years. An example is their treatment by Hitler, who had some six million Jews killed. But if they could have kept God’s Law, not one hand would ever have been put on them. They are a witness to the world that you cannot please God by doing something. They tried it, and they had ideal conditions for it—which we don’t have.
God today is saying to mankind, “You have not met My standard, but I am prepared to reach down and lift you up.” That is the reason He sent Christ into the world. And now He says that those who have come to Him and are really born-again children of God are to express that same kind of love. He also says, “I’ll give you the power for it today—the fruit of the Spirit is love.” Now after that, there are other fruits that apparently stem from love, because the language, the grammar, is quite exact. The fruit of the Spirit is not our love, joy, peace, et cetera, but it is His love working through us. The one fruit is love, and out of love comes “joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control…” (Galatians 5:22, 23). This is what is produced, not by our own effort but by the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.
BigMack
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/3251/genjp2000.html