What does 'deeds of the law' mean?
The deeds of the law are the actions of doing what the law commands—doing good and refraining from breaking the law—by which no flesh can be justified. The law was never intended to save but to give the knowledge of sin and condemn, whether Jew or Gentile.
Les explains that "the deeds of the law" means doing what the law commanded, doing good, and refraining from breaking the law. But the law was given to the Jew and reached out to everybody, not to save—because it could not save a Jew either—but to condemn. It was on cold tables of stone and could do nothing to help a person keep it or stop stealing or adultery. All it can do is condemn, guilty, guilty, guilty, and give the knowledge of sin, not salvation.
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
More Questions
Why can't a person be justified by the deeds of the law?
Doing the law's deeds cannot justify anyone in God's sight because the law gives knowledge of sin, not knowledge of salvation or a way to heaven.