What does the law give us?
The law gives us the knowledge of sin, not salvation. It was never intended to save anyone, Jew or Gentile, but to condemn and show guilt. It cannot justify a person; all it can do is declare guilty before God. It convicts every human being.
Les explains that the law, primarily the moral law and the Ten Commandments, was given to the Jew, but it does not stop with the Jew. It reaches out to every human being, not to save—because it could not save a Jew either—but to condemn. The law was written on cold tables of stone; it could do nothing to help a person keep it or to prevent stealing, adultery, or any other sin it names. All it can do is say, 'Guilty, guilty, guilty.' It convicts the Gentile just as thoroughly as the Jew. By the deeds of the law no flesh is justified in His sight; by the law is the knowledge of sin, not of salvation or a way to heaven.
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.