19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. 20 Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.
21 Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
But law is also to be understood as a divine order established by creation. Law, in this sense, is something that God has established with man, and requires him to respect, and has to do with definite ways of human behaviour, as for example in the case of marriage and family relationships. What the husband owes to the wife, the wife to the husband, and what parents owe to children and children to parents - all this derives from the order of creation, which is the basis of all 'right behaviour', and is given for all time. It is not law in this sense that Paul is speaking of in Galatians or Romans; nor are we absolved from it, either by the gospel or any other consideration. In this realm, what is in view is not motive, but right behaviour. Brunner puts it (Dogmatics II, p.225): 'So far as motive is concerned, love, the love which is revealed to us in Christ, is all that matters. But where the material requirement is concerned... the norm is the order of creation.... The commandment of love never says what we are to do; it does not tell the Good Samaritan what he ought to do for the poor man who fell among robbers. All it says to him is this: Here and now do everything you can for him! What he has to do, he knows from observing the order of creation, and the sound human body. This he must observe if he is to do the right thing for the wounded man.' And these are the commandments of God. We are not absolved from them as a rule of life. Not ever!