Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.
"Is the law (which involves a mediator) against the promises of God (which are without a mediator, and rest on God alone and immediately)? God forbid."
Life. The law, as an externally prescribed rule, can never internally impart spiritual life to men naturally dead in sin, and change the disposition. If what was given were a law able to impart life, 'verily (in reality, not in the mere fancy of legalists) righteousness would have been of (resulting from) the law' (for where life is, there righteousness, its condition, must also be). But the law does not pretend to give life, and therefore not righteousness; so there is no opposition between the law and the premise. Righteousness can only come through the premise to Abraham, and through its fulfillment in the Gospel of grace.