The Purpose of the Law: Awakening Us to Our Need for Christ

Have you ever wondered why God gave the law if salvation comes through faith alone? It's a question that has puzzled many throughout history, yet the answer reveals something profound about God's redemptive plan and our desperate need for a Savior.
The Human Condition: Blind to Our Sin
Sin is far more pervasive than most of us realize. It doesn't just affect certain areas of our lives—it touches every part of who we are. This is the sobering reality of what theologians call "total depravity." It doesn't mean we're always as bad as we could possibly be, but rather that no part of our being remains untouched by sin's corrupting influence.
Here's the truly frightening part: sin is so exceedingly sinful that it actually darkens our minds. We become comfortable in our sin, going day after day enjoying God's blessings while simultaneously violating His standards—and we're completely fine with it. We don't lose sleep over it. We don't even notice.
King David understood this reality when he wrote in Psalm 19:12-13, "Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me."
David recognized something terrifying: there are depths of sin within us that we're not even aware of. Hidden faults. Secret rebellions. Sins we commit without even realizing we're sinning.
The Divine Diagnosis: What Will Wake Us Up?
If we're in this spiritual stupor, perfectly content in our sin and unaware of our condition, what will shake us awake? What will show us our desperate need?
God gives us the law.
The law wasn't given so we could climb a ladder to heaven through our good behavior. It was given to show us we're lawbreakers who need a Savior. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 3:20, "Through the law comes knowledge of sin."
Think of it this way: imagine driving a car with no working speedometer, in an area with no speed limit signs and no police presence. You'd have no idea if you were speeding. You wouldn't care because you wouldn't know there was even a limit to break.
But install a working speedometer, post the speed limit signs, and add some police with radar guns—now you know when you're doing 80 in a 55 zone. You're without excuse. The law doesn't make you a speeder; it reveals that you already are one.
Similarly, God's law doesn't make us sinners—it reveals what we already are. It holds up a mirror to our souls and shows us the truth we've been blind to.
The Law's Surprising Effect: Making Things Worse
Here's where things get even more uncomfortable. The law doesn't just reveal our sin—it actually provokes more of it. Paul wrote in Romans 5:20, "Now the law came in to increase the trespass."
We are so rebellious by nature that when told not to do something, our immediate response is often, "Want to bet? Watch me." We've all experienced this. It's the human condition. Tell someone they can't do something, and suddenly they want to do it more than ever.
This doesn't mean the law is bad. The problem isn't with the law—the problem is with us. The law simply exposes what was already there: hearts that rebel against God's authority.
The Law's Expiration Date
But here's the crucial truth many miss: the law had a shelf life. It was temporary by design. Paul wrote that the law "was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made" (Galatians 3:19).
That little word "until" is enormously significant. From the moment God gave the law to Israel, the clock was ticking. The law served its purpose for a season, but it was never meant to be the final word.
The law pointed forward to someone. It created a hunger, a desperation, a recognition of need that could only be satisfied by one person: Jesus Christ.
The Better Mediator
Under the law, Moses served as an intermediary between God and Israel. But Moses was merely a man. He could represent the people, but he couldn't effectively represent God. The covenant he mediated was limited because the mediator himself was limited.
But consider what God did with Abraham, centuries before the law. When God made His covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15, He did something remarkable. In the ancient world, covenant-making involved both parties walking between the halves of slaughtered animals—essentially saying, "May what happened to these animals happen to me if I break my word."
But when God made His covenant with Abraham, Abraham didn't walk through the animals. God put Abraham into a deep sleep and walked through alone, represented by a smoking fire pot. God was saying, "I will keep this promise while you're asleep. I will be both parties to this covenant. Your part is simply to trust me."
This is exactly what God did in Jesus Christ. Christ's divine nature represents God perfectly, while His human nature represents us perfectly. He is the one mediator between God and humanity—accomplishing what we could never do, keeping promises we could never keep, living the life we should have lived, and dying the death we deserved to die.
The Scripture's Verdict: All Are Imprisoned
Galatians 3:22 delivers a sobering truth: "The Scripture imprisoned everything under sin." We are trapped, enclosed on all sides with no way out. Like animals in a sale barn running in circles looking for an exit that doesn't exist, we are caught in our sin with no escape route.
This is what the law does—it traps us, showing us there's no ladder we can climb, no good deeds we can perform, no religious activities we can complete that will set us free.
The Glorious Purpose: Faith in Christ
But the verse doesn't end there. It continues: "so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe."
Notice that word: given. Not earned. Not achieved. Not deserved. Given.
Salvation is a gift from a generous God to desperate people who finally realize they can't save themselves. The entire redemptive story—from Abraham to Moses to David to the prophets—all of it culminates in God saving sinners through faith in Jesus Christ.
The law served its purpose perfectly. It showed us our sin. It revealed our helplessness. It demonstrated our desperate need. And then it pointed us to the only one who could help: Jesus.
The Question That Matters
So the question isn't whether you're a good person. The law has already answered that—none of us are. The question is: do you trust Jesus Christ for your salvation?
Are you still trying to climb the ladder of self-righteousness, or have you finally fallen into the arms of grace? Are you trusting in your own goodness, or in His?
The law was never meant to save you. It was meant to show you that you need saving—and then to point you to the Savior. Have you run to Him yet?