Purpose of the Law

¹⁹ What purpose then does the law serve? ^(A)It was added because of transgressions, till the ^(B)Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ^(C)appointed through angels by the hand ^(D)of a mediator.

^53 (A)who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”

Sin’s Advantage in the Law

⁷ What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, ^(A)I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ^(B)“You shall not covet.” ⁸ But ^(C)sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For ^(D)apart from the law sin was dead. ⁹ I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. ¹⁰ And the commandment, ^(E)which was to bring life, I found to bring death. ¹¹ For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. ¹² Therefore ^(F)the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.

Law Cannot Save from Sin

¹³ Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.

¹⁶ Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of ^(A)one, ^(B)“And to your Seed,” who is ^(C)Christ.

² For if the word ^(A)spoken through angels proved steadfast, and ^(B)every transgression and disobedience received a just ^[a]reward,

⁸ But we know that the law is ^(A)good if one uses it lawfully, ⁹ knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,

²⁰ Moreover ^(A)the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace ^(B)abounded much more, ²¹ so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹⁵ because ^(A)the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.

^5 (A)I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord; for ^(B)you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up the mountain. He said: