Why is the law called a ministration of death?
It is termed a ministration of death because it brings the knowledge of sin and condemns, showing that no flesh can be justified by its deeds. It stops every mouth and makes all the world guilty before God, thus ministering death rather than life.
Les explains that the law is a ministration of condemnation because it finds fault and condemns what is flawed. He points to Romans 3:19-20, noting the law speaks to those under it—Israel—but its power extends to all, stopping every mouth and making the whole world guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh, Jew or Gentile, can be justified; the law only gives the knowledge of sin and death. So it ministers death, not life.
But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
More Questions
What could the law actually do to a person, and what was the result of its condemnation?
All the law could do was condemn the individual, and once a person is condemned, death is the only alternative.