The Purpose of the Law

¹⁹ Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring^[a] would come to whom the promise had been made, and it was ordained through angels by a mediator.^(A)

⁵³ You are the ones who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.”^(A)

The Law and Sin

⁷ What then are we to say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”^{(A) 8} But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law sin lies dead.^{(B) 9} I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived ¹⁰ and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.^{(C) 11} For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ¹² So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.^(D)

¹³ Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin that was working death in me through what is good, in order that it might be shown to be sin, so that through the commandment sin might become sinful beyond measure.

² For if the message declared through angels proved valid, and every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty,^(A)

¹⁶ Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring;^[a] it does not say, “And to offsprings,”^[b] as of many, but it says, “And to your offspring,”^[c] that is, to one person, who is Christ.^(A)

⁸ Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it legitimately; ⁹ this means understanding that the law is laid down not for the righteous but for the lawless and disobedient, for the godless and sinful, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their father or mother, for murderers,^(A)

²⁰ But law came in, so that the trespass might increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,^{(A) 21} so that, just as sin reigned in death, so grace might also reign through justification leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹⁵ For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law, neither is there transgression.^(A)

¹⁹ Now we know that, whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God.^{(A) 20} For no human will be justified before him by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.^(B)

3 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? ² Much, in every way. For in the first place, the Jews^[a] were entrusted with the oracles of God.^(A)