Why then did God give the law?

       First, God's law was designed to show our mistakes, 

not to correct them. Grace was designed to correct our 

mistakes. So, look at the law as a mistake detector and 

Grace as a correction detector. If God didn't give the law, 

man would not have known good from bad. Now that we 

know good from bad, the antidote(solution) to this bad attitude 

is Grace(God's love and mercy); and Grace came by Jesus. 

      So, look at it this way. When ever you have a sickness 

and you go to the hospital, what happens? You get tested 

right? A device is used to have you tested in order to know 

what is wrong with you. In other words, the testing device 

diagnoses the problem. Now, does the testing device serve 

as the medicine? Definitely not. So, the obvious thing would 

be for you to get the medicine to cure that sickness right? In 

the same way, we were sick because of the sin committed by 

Adam. So, the law served as a testing device to test us. In 

other words, the law diagnosed our problem so that we would 

be aware of the sickness(sin) in us. Now, the only way to cure 

this disease(sin) in us is not by using the same testing 

device(law). The only way to cure this disease(sin) in us is by 

using the antidote(medicine) called Grace. Grace is Jesus. 

Grace is the mercy of God which empowers you naturally to 

do good without making any efforts. Your only effort is the 

Holy Spirit that works in you and through you. That is why the 

bible tells us  "...we are no longer under the law but under 

Grace"(Rom 6:14). Grace is easy but not cheap. It is pretty 

much easy to accept it. Just open your mouth and sincerely 

accept Jesus into your life wholeheartedly and He will 

manifest His power in you for good. So if someone asks you 

this "if I am not under the law, how then am I supposed to 

know what is good or bad"? Your response should be "the 

Holy Spirit that works in you as your conscience would tell 

you the right thing to do". Awesome right?   

     
     The second reason God gave the law was to show a 

shadow of the Christ. Heb 10:1 says "the law is only a 

shadow of the good things that are coming - not the realities 

themselves. For this reason, it can never by the same 

sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect 

those who draw near to worship".  As you can see, I did not 

make this up. This is a quote directly from the bible. God 

gave the law in order that we will already see a shadow of 

the good things(Jesus) that are yet to come. So, this is what 

we need to understand: the law is holy but the law itself can't 

make you holy. The bible says that the law is a shadow. So 

ask yourself this question: Can a shadow do you any good? 

Can the shadow of a sandwich feed you? Can the shadow of 

money fill your bank account? Definitely not! Only the product 

itself can satisfy the need right? Therefore, the law(a shadow) 

can not satisfy the need for righteousness but the product 

itself(Grace or Jesus) can satisfy the need for righteousness. 

      Bear in mind that the law has so many do's and don'ts 

that no one on earth could fulfill except God the son(Jesus). 

So Jesus fulfilled all the requirements and gave us the free 

gift of Grace. Grace in simple terms is described as the 

exceptional unmerited favor from God. 

     The third reason God gave these do's and don'ts(the law) 

was to show the jews that they could never be perfect by their 

own will or strength. God was proving to them that there was 

no amount of good they would do that would please 

him(God). And that is why many people were suffering from 

the numerous commandments and feeling guilty of sin. Think 

with me for a second. Can you honestly feel free and happy if 

you have too many laws to follow? Never! May I remind you 

that there are over 613 laws in the old testament 

scriptures(see book of Exodus). So if you want to please God 

with behavior, you need to follow all 613 laws. You can not 

follow only 600 of them and tell God that you have tried. 

Nope! God is the perfect God and so if you want to please 

Him with the law, you need to follow all 613 of them. The bible 

even says "whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at 

just one point is guilty of breaking all of it"(James 2:10). So, it 

is either you follow all 613 of the law or nothing at all. But 

because it is impossible for man to follow all these do's and 

don'ts, Jesus(God the son) fulfilled the law, ended it, and 

gave us Grace. No man fulfilled all these law requirements 

except king Jesus. When Jesus came, He knew that we could 

not follow all these do's and don'ts. Therefore, He decided to 

fulfill them for us(Matt 5:17) and in place of it, He gave us a 

free gift - Grace. So Christ ended the law(Rom 10:4) and 

gave us Grace. Yet, most of us(including christians) are still 

trying to fall back to the law.   

        Please listen to this important statement very carefully: 

satan is able to tempt you only where there is a law. If 

there is no law, satan can't tempt you. So if you believe you 

are not under any laws, satan can't tempt you and he would 

run away from you. Let me prove it to you. Take the example 

of Adam and Eve in the garden. According to the book of 

Genesis, we learn that  Adam was living freely and happily; 

and didn't face temptation whatsoever(Adam wasn't under 

any law). But the moment God gave him one law, satan(the 

tempter) showed up. Ask yourself that why did satan not 

show up or tempt Adam until God gave Adam a law? It was 

just one simple instruction i.e "eat of all trees but do not eat of 

the tree of the knowledge of good and evil"(see Gen 2:17). So 

you see, when you are under a law, that is when satan tempts 

you. More so, if you are under so many laws, the temptation 

will be more and you won't be able to live a free life under 

grace. 

      Now, let me reverse a little and make something clear. I 

hear some preachers say that it was God's original plan for 

Adam to be tempted so that Adam will leave the garden and 

he won't be imprisoned in the garden. First of all, God is the 

God of Grace, love and mercy and He will never plan to hurt 

His children. Pain comes only from the devil but when it 

happens, God uses that painful situation for His glory. It was 

not God's will for Adam and Eve to fall into temptation. Bear 

in mind that God did not threaten Adam; He only warned him 

nicely about that particular tree. The truth is that God was 

hoping that Adam and Eve would enjoy in the garden and that 

human beings would enjoy in the garden for generation to 

generation with no pain and struggle. Who says God could 

not expand the garden and make the entire world to be as 

beautiful as the garden? He probably would have done so if 

Adam and Eve did not disobey and fall into temptation.    

        In conclusion, God always been gracious and loving. 

However, He gave the law to clearly demonstrate to us that 

we could not survive without His Grace.