Verse 12 continues, "So then the law is holy, and the commandment holy and righteous and good." We should never consider the law evil. The law is always holy, righteous, and good. "Did then that which is good become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin did" (v. 13a). At the beginning, sin was dead and I was not conscious of it; but when the law came to check me out, I became dead. "Did then that which is good become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin did, that it might be shown to be sin by working out death in me through that which is good, that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful" (v. 13). Initially, we did not sense that sin is that sinful. But when the law came and we tried to keep it, we realized where our sins are and how sinful and thoroughly evil they are.

You can see the function of God's law here. The law is like a thermometer. A thermometer will not give you a fever. but if you have a fever, the thermometer will surely make it manifest. The law will not cause you to sin, but if you have sins, God's law will immediately show you that you are a sinner. Originally, you did not know that you are a sinner, but now you do.

The law came to judge man's sin. The law was established because man has sin. You never see God keeping the law because there is simply no possibility for God to transgress the law. Hence, no law is put upon Him. God never told the Lord Jesus to love the Lord His God with all His heart, with all His soul, with all His strength, and with all His will, and to love His neighbor as Himself. The Lord Jesus simply did not need it. He spontaneously loves the Lord His God with all His heart, with all His soul, with all His strength, and with all His will; He spontaneously loves His neighbor as Himself, even beyond Himself. Therefore, the law is useless to Him. And God did not tell Adam not to covet and not to steal. Why would Adam need to covet? Why would Adam need to steal? God had already given everything on the earth to him. The Ten Commandments were not given to Adam because Adam had no need of them. Rather, the law was specifically given to the Israelites because it showed fleshly man his inward condition and his sin within. If no Chinese had ever stolen, there would be no need for a clause in Chinese law concerning stealing. Because man steals, there is a clause in the law which says that one should not steal. Hence, the law exists because of sin. When man sinned, the law came in.

Now let us come back to Galatians 3 and continue with verse 19: "Why then the law? It was added because of the transgressions." Now we are clear. God purposed before the times of the ages to give grace to man. Later He gave Abraham a promise. In eternity it was merely His purpose. With Abraham, it was something spoken: He would deal with man in grace. Why then did God give man the law four hundred and thirty years after that? It was added because of the transgressions. In order for man's sins to become transgressions, the law was given to man. In this way, man realized that he had sin and would wait "until the seed should come to whom the promise was made" (v. 19). It was not until the whole world saw that they were sinners and that they were really hopeless that they were willing to receive the Lord Jesus Christ whom God had promised. Even if God had given man His salvation earlier, man would not have taken it. Man does not want God's grace, but because man has transgressions and is hopeless, he will possibly receive God's grace.