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From Law to Grace in Paul's Epistles

      When I got to the epistles, I finally found what I had been expecting all along. Focusing on Paul's letters, I found places where he said things like "abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations" (Eph. 2:15) and "Christ is the end of the law" (Rom. 10:4), as well as "all who rely on observing the law are under a curse" (Gal. 3:10) and "now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law" (Gal. 3:25). These seemed pretty clear.

      But I also found passages where Paul said, "Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Absolutely not! Rather, we uphold the law" (Rom. 3:31), and "it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous" (Rom. 2:13). He also says, "Is the law sin? Certainly not!" (Rom. 7:7), "the law is holy" (7:12), "the law is spiritual" (7:14), "the law is good" (7:16), and "in my inner being I delight in God's law" (7:22).

      To make matters worse, within the space of two verses he says, "I myself am not under the law" and "I am not free from God's law, but am under Christ's law" (I Cor. 9:20-21). These examples could be multiplied on both sides.

      What was I to make of such seemingly contradictory statements? What was Paul's view of the law, anyway?