Would giving away your wife to another man to have sex with her count as being "lawful"? This is exactly what Abraham did - twice. We have just been religiously programmed to think whenever we see "commandment" - we think of the Law only.
All men have sinned and sin is the transgression of the Law - so it's easy "to get".....if we don't think of commandments as only the "Law" given by Moses.
God dealt with Abraham through a covenant of grace - not the Law as given by Moses.
In Luke 1 - they were blameless because they kept the temple sacrifices.
Here is Paul talking about being blameless too as to his interpretation of the Law. Phil 3:2-9 ( Notice Paul deals with the dogs - the evil workers - those trying to get people to go back to the Law for living in verse 2-3 ..Paul calls them the false circumcision)
Philippians 3:6 (NASB)
[SUP]6 [/SUP] as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.
And yet Paul said that he was the chief of sinners and a coveter.
Paul who knew the Law better then anyone had this to say about the purpose of the law.
The purpose of the law was :
1) To reveal our sinful state. Rom 3:20
2) To inflame sin Rom 7:8
3) To minister death in us Rom 7:10-11
4) To lead us to Christ Gal 3:24
The law is good, holy and spiritual but we are in the flesh. Jesus fulfilled all the law! When we read the law we should be seeing Jesus in it. Jesus did not save us so that we could go back to the law.
But the purpose of the law was not for righteousness or salvation at all, it was to manifest sin in our lives, so that the purpose of grace which is in Jesus is to manifest salvation. Grace does not set aside the law, but completely satisfied it
But grace, anything God says out of his mouth IS law because his "words don't return to [him] void without accomplishing what they set out to do". That's rule. A law is a governing rule. "Man lives by every word out of God's mouth". To say man "can't keep" God's law is to say man can't live by every word out of his mouth. It contradicts the truth of scripture at its core, so there has to be another explanation.
It's not that man "can't" keep God's law ever, it’s that man "couldn’t" keep God’s law...*UNTIL AFTER* Christ. Now we who believe are freed so that we can do that through the power of Christ's love.
With respect, you're misunderstanding when Paul condemns folks who go back to the law. They were going back to following the instructions of taking animal sacrifices to the high priest to pay for their sins as a believer in christ...but those are two contradictory actions.
Animal sacrifices, post-christ, is a work of the law that nullifies belief in what Christ is doing in heaven. It was hard for them to quit the habit because they had been doing it all of their lives. They didn't understand animal sacrifice was just a foreshadowing of what Christ would do to forgive sins. But the commandments are always meant to be followed so that one doesn't fall into sin again after one is forgiven by Christ...we were even given Christ same holy Spirit that helped him resist sin in this same flesh of Adam that he had.
So with Christ in heaven as the true high priest, ministering with his blood, and his Holy Spirit in us guiding us to obey, the law (i.e. the cycle) of "sinning and (something) dying; sinning and dying; law-breaking and dying; law-breaking and dying" could finally be broken.
The purpose of ANY law in any society isn't for deliverance from a punishment either. The purpose of any law that's established by a government is
1) To show what a crime is, similar to Rom 3:20
2) To magnify it (like a magnifying glass) similar to Rom 7:8
3) To minister the punishment for crime, similar to Rom 7:10-11
4) To lead us to goodness in society, similar to Gal 3:24
But no law in society can *make* a person be a good person. No law in existence has the power to. The same goes for God's law.
But just because laws can't make a bad person be good doesn't mean those laws are tossed away as impossible or unnecessary to be followed. We're still expected to follow them in society. No, a person must be changed on the inside into a good person (independent from society's laws) and trained to follow those laws properly.
This is what Christ has done and is doing for we who want to be part of God’s society.