“Absolutely not!” (Romans 7:7)
When Paul said that we “are released from the law” he knew that it would stir up all kinds of questions. For Paul the Law referred to the commands given by God in the Old Testament. Those commands were given to the people of Israel by God and through Moses. And when Paul said we are released from them the question in people’s minds was this: “What shall we say then? That the law is sin?”
Paul’s answer is a resounding no. “By no means!” When Paul says we are released from the law he isn’t saying that the law is no good. He is essentially saying that the law is no good for making people righteous. But the law was never meant to be a means by which God’s people earned favor with God. The law was meant to show us our sin. Paul says, “If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin.”
And what’s the problem with that? Why would God give us commands so we could know our sin? Yes! That’s exactly what he’s saying. God wants your sin to come up, be pointed out, to smack you in your face. But not to destroy you! But to draw you to repentance. He wanted his people to recognize that there was no act that they could do to save them from sin. The only place they could turn to was God himself. That God who provides grace through his Son Jesus Christ, who steps into history, lives a righteous life, dies on behalf of sinful human beings, and rose again. The law is meant to show us how weak, frail and sinful we are, so that we can see how strong, powerful, and holy God is.