‘For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse, for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things that are written in the book of the Law, to do them”.'
Now, he says, let us now consider the Law. The first thing that the Law requires is total obedience. And as with the law in any country one failure of the Law means that a person becomes a lawbreaker (James 2:10). And in the case of the Jewish Law this is especially important because it puts them under a curse. “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things that are written in the book of the Law, to do them”. The quotation is from Deuteronomy 27:26 (compare Jeremiah 11:3) slightly amplified to bring out its meaning, while in the main keeping faithfully to the meaning of the original. So, as no one who strives to keep the Law can claim to have fulfilled it completely, every one of them who tries to keep God's law is subject to God's curse. This demonstrates that those who are now seeking to use ‘keeping the Law', both the moral law and the ceremonial law, as their means of salvation, will find in it only the means of being cursed. And the more they dedicate themselves to keeping it the more they will be cursed, for the more they will fail.
Why then did God give the Law? It was not in order to be a means of achieving salvation. It was to act as a mirror in which we could look so that we could find out the truth about ourselves. It was in order to show us our sinfulness (Romans 7:10). It was to point Israel to the sacrifices, and to point us and the Galatians to the One Who was the one great sacrifice for sin for ever. ‘The Law is our tutor to bring us to Christ' (Galatians 3:24). It was to make us aware of God's total requirements. And that was all it could do. It shows us up for what we are, and then it leaves us stranded.