Hey! y'all... PTL!
Gal 3: 23-26 "But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith that should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For we all are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."
This epistle is addressed to the church in Galatia by the apostle sent to the gentles. They predominately worshiped the Roman pantheon and yet it is the Galatian church and Paul who are the we in "we were kept under the law." So that before Christ, both the Jew and the Gentile are kept under the law.
But once we are born of the Spirit and join the faithful, we are no longer under the law. Our right standing before the Lord is now based upon faith or:
Gal 5: 4 "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace."
Law keeping to be pleasing to the Lord will never work. Keeping the Sabbath for righteousness will always fail. For without faith it is impossible to please the Lord. Does faith make the law void? Yes, if it is used to obtain righteousness, but if the law is used as a blueprint for the beginning of what righteousness looks like as an example, then the law and the commandment are good, just, and holy. When I say the beginning of what is righteous, the letter of the law is just that. For example: Is it more righteous to get an eye for an eye or to turn the other cheek? Is it more just to not murder or to keep oneself from hating his brother? Is it better to not commit adultery or to keep oneself from lusting after another? This is the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant! They couldn't keep the Old Covenant so the Lord replaced it by faith in Jesus with the New Covenant. They failed but we can succeed by devoting ourselves to the scriptures and having the Spirit put the Lord's laws and commandments into our hearts and minds. This difference is internal and changes the faithful more and more into Jesus' image, which is a moral or righteous image; and to which the faithful are predestinated to achieve. By having the Lord's commandments being written into one's heart and mind, it is in the conscience that the rubber meets the road, so to speak, and guilt or some prefer conviction is used by the Spirit to set such as these free from addictive behaviors, able to walk after the Spirit and deny the lusts of the flesh as the Lord desires of his children.
This is why, I suspect, that the law will not pass away until the heavens and the earth pass away, because even during the millennium those that are born in that time will have to at some point turn to Jesus in repentance and faith to no longer be kept under the law.
Maranatha!