³¹ Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

²¹ I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law,^(A) Christ died for nothing!”^[a]

The Fulfillment of the Law

¹⁷ “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.^(A)

⁴ in order that the righteous requirement^(A) of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.^(B)

²¹ To those not having the law I became like one not having the law^(A) (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law),^(B) so as to win those not having the law.

Love Fulfills the Law

⁸ Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.^{(A) 9} The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,”^[a](B) and whatever other command there may be, are summed up^(C) in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”^{[b](D) 10} Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.^(E)

⁴ Christ is the culmination of the law^(A) so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.^(B)

The Law and Sin

⁷ What shall we say, then?^(A) Is the law sinful? Certainly not!^(B) Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law.^(C) For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”^{[a](D) 8} But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment,^(E) produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.^{(F) 9} Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. ¹⁰ I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life^(G) actually brought death. ¹¹ For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment,^(H) deceived me,^(I) and through the commandment put me to death. ¹² So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.^(J)

¹³ Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good^(K) to bring about my death,^(L) so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

¹⁴ We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual,^(M) sold^(N) as a slave to sin.^(O)

¹⁷ What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years^(A) later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. ¹⁸ For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise;^(B) but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

¹⁹ Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions^(C) until the Seed^(D) to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels^(E) and entrusted to a mediator.^(F)