Under the law, how could someone restore their relationship with God?
Under the law, restoration with God was possible only through the prescribed rituals and sacrifices. The law itself could only condemn, because no one could keep it. Those ceremonial provisions allowed a person to get back into a good relationship with God, though the law had no power to accomplish it.
Les explains that under the law, its only function was to condemn, because no one could keep it. The one exception he notes was the ritual and the sacrifices, by which a person could get back into a good relationship with God. Yet even that did not come from the law’s power; the law itself could not restore anyone. This stands in contrast to the present circumstances, where Christ has died, paid the sin debt, been buried, raised, and ascended to the Father’s right hand to intercede, and where God’s righteousness is manifested without the law, witnessed by the law and the prophets.