Joh 3:17 …but that the world through Him might be saved (c)
The purpose of the law was not to make man righteous but to reveal the condition of the heart. Paul in Rom 7:9-13says, “9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me…13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure” What Paul hoped to save him only held and condemned him because it called for moral perfection only Christ possesses.
The purpose of the law was to show us we are condemned already in need of a perfect sacrifice, “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Gal 3:24). We were held captive by the law until a deliverer came, “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: …”(Rom 8:3) “…that the world through Him might be saved” (Joh 3:17).