What Is the Purpose of God's Law If We Are Saved by Grace?

From a message by Jon Alsdorf

Many people wonder why the law matters if salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Romans chapter 7 tackles this question head-on, and the answer is both challenging and deeply freeing.

Why Does Paul Talk About the Law So Much in Romans?
The Book of Romans was written largely to a Jewish audience wrestling with a radical idea: that the Gospel, not the law, is the power of God for salvation. Paul had heard every argument. He had preached across the Roman Empire. And now, writing ahead of his arrival in Rome, he lays out his case systematically.

Between chapters 3 and 11, Paul asks 36 questions. Each one builds on the last, moving from simple to complex, from clear to controversial. By chapter 7, he arrives at one of the most pointed questions of all: Is the law sinful?

Does the Law Cause Sin?
Paul's answer is immediate and firm. "By no means." But then he says something striking:

"Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin, for I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, 'You shall not covet.' But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness." - Romans 7:7-8

The law did not create sin. But it did expose it. And that exposure is exactly what God intended.

How the Law Leads Us to Grace in Jesus
1. The Law Reveals Sin and Our Rebellious Hearts
There is something in human nature that resists being told what not to do. When a rule is given, the desire to break it often rises up immediately. This is not a personality flaw unique to a few people. It is the universal human condition.

God knew this. The law was never designed to be a ladder we climb to reach salvation. It was designed to be a mirror that shows us what we truly are. Without seeing our need, we cannot receive the cure.

The question worth sitting with is this: Have you ever stopped to ask yourself why you keep doing the very things you know are wrong? That tension is not random. It is the law doing exactly what it was meant to do, revealing the depth of our need for something greater than willpower.

2. Sin Uses the Law Deceptively and Lethally
Paul uses a literary device throughout this section that is easy to miss. He personifies sin, writing about it almost as a tyrant or slave master. He describes sin as something that reigns, enslaves, deceives, seizes opportunities, and pays wages.

"For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me." - Romans 7:11

This is not Paul removing personal responsibility. He is helping us see that sin is not just a list of bad choices. It is a spiritual power at work in fallen humanity, one that exploits the law to produce death.

Understanding this matters because it changes how we fight. Paul makes it clear elsewhere that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual powers. The body is not the enemy. Sin is.

3. The Law Is Holy, Righteous, and Good
"So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good." - Romans 7:12

The law is not impossible to follow. That framing actually does more harm than good. Most of the commandments are not physically impossible. They are inconvenient. They are uncomfortable. They require sacrifice. But they are not beyond human capacity.

What is impossible is for law-keeping to save you once you have broken any part of it. That is the distinction. The law is perfect. We are not. And that gap is exactly where grace enters.

There is no need to minimize the law to make grace look better. Grace is already glorious. The law is beautiful, and our failure to keep it perfectly is what makes the cross so necessary and so stunning.

4. The Law Amplifies the Tension Between Spirit and Flesh
Paul describes an experience that every believer recognizes:

"For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate." - Romans 7:15

This is not a sign that something has gone wrong in your faith. This tension is the Holy Spirit at work. When the Spirit moves into a life, He does not find a clean, empty space. He finds a war zone. And He begins the long, patient work of transformation.

Think of it like a master sculptor chipping away at stone. There is friction between the chisel and the rock. That friction is not failure. It is progress. The more we cooperate with the Spirit's work, the more that transformation takes shape.

Many people who come to faith later in life reflect that before Christ, they knew something was wrong but it did not bother them much. It was only after receiving the Holy Spirit that the tension became real. That tension is not the enemy. It is evidence that God is at work.

What Does Paul Mean When He Says "Wretched Man That I Am"?
"Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" - Romans 7:24

This is Paul's exasperated conclusion after wrestling with the war inside himself. It is the same word borrowed by the hymn writer of Amazing Grace. It is not self-loathing for its own sake. It is the honest cry of someone who has glimpsed holiness and knows how far short they fall.

People throughout history have tried to answer this cry in every way imaginable. Sacrifices. Personal piety. Wealth. Intelligence. Pleasure. Distraction. None of it works. Solomon, the richest and wisest man who ever lived, summed it up at the very start of Ecclesiastes:

"Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity." - Ecclesiastes 1:2

Without Christ, the search for deliverance leads nowhere.

Only Jesus Can Rescue Us from Sin and Death

After all the wrestling, Paul lands on the only answer that holds:

"Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" - Romans 7:25

He does not claim that following Jesus means the war is over. He acknowledges that with his mind he serves God's law, but with His flesh He still feels the pull of sin. The tension remains. But the outcome is no longer in question.

Jesus saved us while we were still His enemies. He is not going to abandon us now that we belong to Him. The Holy Spirit does not surrender. God does not give up. Even when we are still under construction, we are held.

The grace of Jesus is not Plan B. From the very beginning, God declared that He would show mercy to whom He would show mercy. The law was always pointing toward this. The cross was always the destination.

Life Application
This week, pay attention to the tension. When you feel the pull between what you know is right and what you are tempted to do, do not run from it or try to silence it. Recognize it as the Holy Spirit doing His work in you. Instead of fighting the discomfort, lean into cooperation with God. Surrender to the chisel.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Am I honest with myself about the depth of my sin, or do I minimize it to avoid discomfort?
• Do I see the tension in my spiritual life as a sign of failure, or as evidence that the Holy Spirit is actively at work in me?
• Have I truly accepted that no amount of personal effort, sacrifice, or achievement can save me, and that only Jesus can?
• Am I cooperating with the Holy Spirit's work in my life, or resisting it?

The law is not your enemy. Sin is. And the One who defeated sin is already living inside of you. Trust Him with the war.