The sin of Adam brought death and condemnation to all human beings because all people sin(Romans 5:12, 18)

God wanted to bring eternal life and righteousness by faith, promising this to Abraham

Genesis 15:6 “⁶ Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”

But for God to give righteousness and eternal life, He had to forgive the sins of the world. He could not just forgive sins without a price. For that reason He had to give the Law to Israel as a temporary covenant.

The Law said that those who obeyed ALL the commands would receive eternal life and that sins were forgiven by the shedding of blood.

The law had two elements: 1) It could give eternal life to the righteous who did all the works. 2) It imputed sins to the sinner who broke even one commandment.

Leviticus 18:5 “⁵ Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord.”

Deuteronomy 6:24-25 “²⁴ The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. ²⁵ And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.””

Matthew 19 “If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”

James 2:10 “¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.”

Galatians 3 “¹⁰ For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” ¹¹ Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.””

Leviticus 17:11 “¹¹ For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.’

But Israel could not be righteous by the law and could not attain eternal life by their works because nobody could obey the law perfectly. All men were sinners under the law and were condemned to death.

Romans 7 “⁷ What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” ⁸ But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. ⁹ Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. ¹⁰ I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. ¹¹ For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. ¹² So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.”

Romans 3 ““There is no one righteous, not even one;¹¹     there is no one who understands; ¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. ²⁰ Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.”

The entire world was dead in sin without any hope until Jesus Christ, the Son of God came.

Jesus said in His earthly life, He did not come to abolish the law but fulfill it. He had to fulfill the Law by His sinless life and death.

Matthew 5 “¹⁷ “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them….²⁰ For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven….⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Jesus said that people were required to have the Righteousness of God with sinless perfection to live forever.

No man was perfect in his works except Jesus Christ. Therefore Jesus fulfilled the 1st requirement of the law by being the only human being who never sinned. The Law declared Jesus as the Righteousness of God.

Jesus then died on the cross for the sins of the world thereby fulfilling the 2nd requirement of the Law for the forgiveness of our sins!

Romans 6 ” ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Jesus rose from the dead after fulfilling AND abolishing the law by removing it on the cross. The Law was removed after Jesus fulfilled it on the cross! Therefore everyone who believes in Jesus is forgiven all sins and has eternal life!

Colossians 2 “¹³ When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴ having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. “

Ephesians 2 “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,…..⁴ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶ And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷ in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast…..¹⁵ by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations….through the cross”

Jesus died with us and He raised us up with Him by faith because ALL our sins were forgiven and we received ETERNAL LIFE.

The believer is sinless and righteous and has eternal life.

Colossians 2 “⁹ For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, ¹⁰ and in Christ you have been brought to fullness….in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.”

The law could not make anyone perfect but now Jesus fulfilled and removed the law to make us perfect by His blood.

Hebrews 7 “¹⁸ The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless ¹⁹ (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.”

Hebrews 10 “⁹ Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. ¹⁰ And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all…. ¹⁴ For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever “

The law could not give eternal life but Jesus died and rose again to give us eternal life by faith in Him!

John 3:16 “¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”