If we didn’t have the Old Testament ‘Law’ and the New Testament ‘teachings’, if we didn’t have the Bible, would we ever know what sin is? Granted, there would be times when we might have to guess but, overall, the answer is still… Yes, we would know what sin is. ‘Phrases such as ‘it isn’t fair’ or ‘it serves him right’… Where does our sense of justice come from? John Stott said, “Human beings are moral beings by reason of our creation in the image of God. Every human being knows the difference between right and wrong.” We know what sin is even without the Bible, and so why then was the Law given?

• The law was given to show God’s perfect standard.
• The law was given so that God’s chosen people might seek to glorify Him, and in this way be a testimony and a witness to a pagan world.
• The law was given so that God’s chosen people might seek to be holy, set apart and obedient… so they might be in a right relationship with God.
• But the law – or keeping the law – was never given as a means of earning salvation (it’s worth remembering that the law was given to Moses after the people of Israel had already been redeemed/saved from Egypt).
• And the law was never intended to commend a man before God: not commend him, but to condemn him… to show Man that he is incapable of fully keeping the law.
• And so God (through the law) also provided atonement for sins by way of sacrifice – a foretaste of what Jesus would one day accomplish once and for all time, on the cross. Jesus himself said he didn’t come to abolish the Law but to fulfil it… that’s because nobody else, other than Jesus could ever fully keep/fully-fill the Law.
• And so the Law is, ultimately, evangelical; in that it shows that Man is incapable of fully keeping it and so it points us to our need for salvation: our need for a Saviour: Christ.