Luther's Words...The purpose of the Law

The first knowledge of the Law consist in this, that we see the inability of human nature to keep it.  For it wants the heart, and if it is not kept from the heart, the observance is not valid before God.  To be sure, you make keep the works outwardly; but God is not satisfied unless they are performed from the heart and out of love, which is not possible unless a man is born anew through the Holy Spirit.  God then, wants to achieve no more with the Law than getting us thereby to recognize our inability, our frailty, and sickness - to recognize that, so far as we are concerned, we cannot keep one letter of the Law.  When you feel that, the Law has done its work.  This is what St. Paul means when he says to the Romans: "By the Law is the knowledge of sin."

WLS #2344