Originally from an email on 06/17/12
Dear friends, I just did a little study on the purpose of the Law, with a help and inspiration of an Italian reformer and martyr Aonio Paleario (1500-1570) Thought you’d like it.
Blessings, Vaclav
The purpose of the Law is:
1. To make us conscious of our sin and to know what sin is – – Romans 3.20b, “through the law we become conscious of our sin”. and, Romans 7.7b, ” Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law.
2. To make the trespass increase and our sinful passions aroused – Romans 5.20a, “The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase.” and, Romans 7.5b, “the sinful passions aroused by the law”.
3. To reveal God’s wrath and bring death – Romans 4.15a, “the law brings wrath”. and, 2.Corinthians 3.7a, “the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone”.
4. To reveal that our mind by nature is hostile and un-submissive to God – Romans 8.7, “ The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.”
5. To lead us to Christ as a tutor, teaching us that we are sinners, and we cannot save ourselves, so we may come to Jesus and be justified by faith alone, in Christ alone by grace alone – Galatians 3.24, “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.”
6. To nullify the law by faith? No! To uphold the law. How? By fulfilling it, being written on our hearts by the Spirit – Romans 3.31, “Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.” and, Romans 8.4, “in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” and, Hebrews 8.10a, “I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” and, Hebrew 10.16, ““This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”