If the Law Is Good, What Happened to It?
From: Life lessons learned from the Bible - Romans 7
If God's law is good, why would Christians say we are no longer under the law?
That's a legitimate question.
After all, the Bible says the law is holy. The commandments are righteous. The Old Testament is Scripture. So what exactly changed?
And if the law reveals sin, why wouldn't we simply continue keeping it?
To understand this, we have to look at the covenant—because the question isn't whether God's law was good.
The question is:
What was the purpose of the law, and what happened to its role when Christ established the New Covenant?
The Scriptures Were Always Pointing Somewhere
Jesus once confronted the religious leaders of His day about the very Scriptures they claimed to know.
He said:
“You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”— John 5:39–40
They had the Scriptures. They studied them. They knew the law. Yet Jesus told them that the very Scriptures they were studying were testifying about Him yet they still did not believe.
They were missing what Scripture was pointing to.
That same principle is important when we talk about the law today.
Because the same Scriptures that give us the law also tell us what the law was for, what it could accomplish, what it could not accomplish, and what would happen when Christ came.
The Law Is Good
Let's establish that first.
Paul says:
“So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.”— Romans 7:12
So when Christians say they are no longer under the Mosaic law, that does not mean the law was evil. God doesn't make mistake. So, the law served a purpose.
One of those purposes was to reveal sin.
Paul says:
“I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law.”— Romans 7:7
The law showed people what God called sin. It established God's standard. It exposed what was wrong.
But there was a problem.
The law could reveal sin without removing sin.
The Commandment Revealed the Problem
Paul gives an example with coveting.
God's commandment said:
“You shall not covet.”
Paul says that through the commandment he became aware of coveting. But then something happened.
Sin took advantage of the commandment.
“Sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting.”— Romans 7:8
And then Paul says:
“Sin…deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.”— Romans 7:11
Paul is saying, the commandment didn't cause the problem. Sin did. The commandment exposed the problem. It showed Paul that he was guilty. But the commandment couldn't rescue him from the power and consequence of sin.
That's why Paul could say both:
The law is holy and good.
And:
I have been released from the law.
Those statements aren't contradictory once you understand the covenant.
The Law Was Never the Final Destination
Paul says something important in Galatians:
“The law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.”— Galatians 3:24
Until Christ came.
That phrase matters.
The law had a God-given role. It pointed people toward righteousness. It exposed sin. It served as a guardian. But it was never intended to replace Christ.
The law was pointing forward to Christ, who could accomplish what the law itself could not.
God Had Already Promised a New Covenant
Centuries before Jesus came, God told Jeremiah:
“The days are coming…when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.”— Jeremiah 31:31
God then says:
“It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors…”— Jeremiah 31:32
God Himself announced that there would be another covenant. Not simply the same covenant forever. A New Covenant.
And God said:
“I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts.”— Jeremiah 31:33
So the New Covenant wasn't going to mean that God suddenly stopped caring about righteousness. Rather, something about the covenant relationship was going to change.
God's law would be written within His people.
Then Jesus Says the New Covenant Has Arrived
At the Last Supper, Jesus takes the cup and says:
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood.”— Luke 22:20
Jeremiah had prophesied it.
Jesus fulfilled it.
The New Covenant wasn't a theological invention made by later Christians. It was God's promise being fulfilled through Christ.
Hebrews Explains What Changed
Hebrews quotes Jeremiah's prophecy about the New Covenant.
Then the writer makes an unmistakable statement:
“By calling this covenant ‘new,’ he has made the first one obsolete.”— Hebrews 8:13
There it is.
The first covenant became obsolete (out of date), because God established a New Covenant.
That doesn't mean everything contained in the Old Covenant suddenly became meaningless.
It means the covenant itself was no longer the covenant governing God's people.
That's the difference.
So What Does Paul Mean When He Says We Died to the Law?
Now Romans 7 makes more sense.
Paul says:
“You also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another…”— Romans 7:4
And then:
“We have been released from the law…”— Romans 7:6
Paul isn't saying:
“God's law was bad.”
He already said the opposite.
He's saying:
Our covenant relationship to the Mosaic law changed because of Christ.
We died to what once bound us so that we could belong to Christ.
And notice what Paul says we now do:
“We serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.”— Romans 7:6
That's the transition.
Old Covenant → New Covenant.
Written code → life through the Spirit.
Moses → Christ.
Not because Moses, the law, or any of it was evil. But because Christ is greater.
Does That Mean We Throw God's Commands Away?
No.
Being released from the Mosaic law does not mean:
“Nothing matters anymore.”
Paul immediately addresses that idea:
“Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!”— Romans 6:15
Grace isn't permission to live in rebellion against God. The New Testament continues to command believers to live holy lives.
Love God.
Love your neighbor.
Don't steal.
Don't lie.
Don't murder.
Don't commit sexual immorality.
Forgive.
Show mercy.
Be faithful.
Walk in holiness.
Christians should obey the law. But we shouldn't use it as a basis for being made righteous before God.
Faith in Jesus Christ makes people righteous before God, rather than any good works.
Should Christians place themselves back under the Mosaic covenant in order to obey God or be righteous before Him?
The New Testament says no.
What About the Commands in the Law?
This is where we need to be careful.
We shouldn't simply say:
“Everything in the Old Testament law is irrelevant.”
Nor should we say:
“Because the law was good, Christians must therefore remain under the entire Mosaic law.” That's inconsistent with the New Testament.
Instead, we look at what the New Testament does with the law.
The New Testament itself becomes our guide for understanding the law after Christ.
Acts 15 Shows the Early Church Wrestling With This
This is not just a modern debate. The early church had to deal with this exact question. Some believers were teaching that Gentile Christians needed to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. And the apostles gathered to discuss it.
Peter asked why they should put upon the Gentile disciples:
“a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear.”— Acts 15:10
The apostles did not tell Gentile believers:
“You must now enter the Mosaic covenant.”
Instead, they wrote instructions to Gentile believers without imposing the entire Mosaic law upon them.
The early church understood that following Christ did not require Gentile believers to become Jews under the Mosaic covenant.
And What About Jewish Believers?
This is where we need to make another distinction.
A Jewish person can remain Jewish.
Being Jewish ethnically and culturally is not the same question as whether someone must be under the Mosaic covenant for righteousness and salvation.
Paul's message is not:
“Stop being Jewish.”
His message is:
Christ has come.
The New Covenant has been established.
Righteousness comes through faith in Christ, not through entering or remaining under the Mosaic covenant.
Paul says:
“We maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.”— Romans 3:28
That applies to the central question of righteousness.
What About the Sabbath?
The Sabbath is one example of why this distinction matters. The Sabbath was part of the Mosaic covenant given to Israel.
But Paul says to believers:
“Therefore do not let anyone judge you…with regard to…a Sabbath day.”— Colossians 2:16
He then explains that these things were:
“a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.”— Colossians 2:17
The Sabbath, then, isn't the entire argument about the law. But it is an example of the larger covenant question. The same is true of circumcision, food regulations, festivals, sacrifices, and other Mosaic practices.
We have to ask:
What does the New Testament say about their role after Christ? We cannot simply stop at Moses when the Bible itself continues the story through Christ and the New Covenant.
The Law Still Teaches Us Something
So if we are no longer under the Mosaic covenant, was the law pointless?
No. Far from it. The law still teaches us about God's holiness.
It shows us what sin is. It gives us historical and theological context. It helps us understand God's dealings with Israel.
It points us toward Christ.
And the New Testament repeatedly draws upon the Old Testament to teach believers how to live.
But there is a difference between learning from the law and placing yourself under the Mosaic covenant.
There is a difference between saying:
“This teaches me something about God's character and sin.”
and saying:
“I must place myself under the Mosaic covenant to be righteous before God.”
The New Testament rejects the second idea.
The Law Couldn't Give What Christ Gives
The law could reveal sin.
But Christ provides forgiveness.
The law could establish commandments.
But Christ gives the Holy Spirit. Read the full reference: The Holy Spirit: Why We Cannot Reject Him
The law could identify guilt.
But Christ provides justification.
The law could point toward righteousness.
But Christ makes us righteous through faith.
The law could tell us the root causes of our wrongs.
But Christ changes us from within.
That's why Paul doesn't end Romans 7 with the law.
He cries out:
“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?”
And then:
“Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”— Romans 7:24–25
Christ is the answer.
Not Understanding This Is Dangerous
Not understanding this is dangerous because it can leave people looking to the law for salvation—a job the law was never meant to do.
The law can reveal sin, but only Jesus can save us from it.
And I know this personally.
I read what the Bible said about the things I was doing. I knew that drunkenness and sexual immorality were wrong. I knew what Scripture said, but knowing what was wrong didn't give me the power to stop doing it.
Like Paul says in Romans 7:18–19:
“For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.”
That was my reality.
I struggled with alcohol addiction and sleeping around with women. I wanted to stop, especially when it came to drinking, but there was a hold on me that I could not break simply by knowing and trying to follow the law.
I needed a power greater than the law could provide.
What rescued me was the blood of Jesus. It was His love, His mercy, and His grace that saved me. It was the cross.
Jesus didn't just show me what was wrong with my life—He delivered me from what had a hold on me.
And that delivering power came through the Holy Spirit.
So I don't just understand this as a theological argument. I've experienced the difference.
The law showed me my sin.
Jesus saved me from my sin.
The Holy Spirit gave me the power to walk free from it.
Don't Stop at the Law
And this brings us back to Jesus' words to the religious leaders.
They had the Scriptures.
They knew the law.
But they didn't follow the Scriptures to where they were pointing.
Jesus said:
“These are the very Scriptures that testify about me.”
That gives us a powerful contrast—not because people today are necessarily denying Jesus, but because it shows us how easy it is to possess Scripture and still miss what Scripture is saying—which is why we need the Spirit of God.
The same Scriptures that tell us about the law also tell us:
The law was given for a purpose.
The law reveals sin.
The law points toward Christ.
A New Covenant was promised.
Christ established that New Covenant.
The first covenant became obsolete.
Believers died to the law and were released from it.
And righteousness comes through faith in Christ, not through works of the law.
So we don't place ourselves back under a covenant that Scripture says has become obsolete.
We understand its purpose, recognize what it pointed toward, and live under the New Covenant established by Jesus Christ.
So Paul is essentially saying:
“I know what is right. I want to do what is right. But there is still something in me fighting against what I want to do.”
And that's why verse 25 is so important. Paul has just cried:
“Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?”
Then he answers:
“Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
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