Some feel Law is still in effect and that Paul wrote against an abuse of the Law when he downplayed it, while others like myself feel Law has expired. Expiration is not destruction. Jesus fulfilled the Law in the sense of seeing it expire.
I believe the principle can be see in the tree of Life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Paul spoke of striving to keep law, in
Romans 7. He kept repeating the words "good" and "evil". Law is provision of such knowledge. The Law, itself, though is not evil. Man inherently thinks he need simply be provided with the knowledge of what is good and evil in order to take that and make himself do the good and avoid the evil. We got this compulsion from the forbidden fruit in the Garden.
Paul even stated that the law was supposed to bring life but instead brought death, in
Romans 7.
Notice that God did not bring salvation immediately to Adam and Eve after they sinned. Why did not Jesus come THEN and die for mankind, instead of waiting another 4,000 years to do so, with Law coming into effect beforehand?
I believe God had to teach man a lesson before bringing grace and salvation into the picture. Had man received grace and was returned to former pre-fall status right away in Adam's day, man would still have the propensity to say, "Thanks, but I think I could have done it myself." So God had to ensure that once grace is given, man would have ample means to realize he better not think that way ever again. SO LAW CAME.
LAW is like one man said: a mirror showing us our sin.
GRACE is the mirror, the water, the soap and the wash cloth to see sin and see it removed!
With all its hundreds of rules, Law would prove to man that man cannot make Himself righteous. This is partly why Law was called a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.
Paul spoke of Gentiles in
Romans 1 being uncultured brutes, so to speak, as far away from being culturally trained and taught in the righteous things of God as could be. And then he spoke to the Jews in
Romans 2 about how they had all the culture and truth of what is sin and what is righteous. Paul said the Jews were in no better position than the lost Gentiles, since since the Jews knew what was righteous, but were unable to live such a lifestyle. The road to righteousness through Law was an impossible road to take, and after centuries of law, Paul lists passages of scripture that said Israel was still left unrighteous, in
Romans 3:10-18. And Paul said such things that describe a depraved people were written to PEOPLE UNDER LAW! Shocking, but true! Even with LAW, Israel could not cut it!
Peter even commented that Law was something they and their forefathers could not bear. Some at this point claim it is a Pharisaical distortion of Law that was unable to be borne. I disagree. Paul simply said those under Moses' law are under a curse. He said the reason was that one has to perform all the law to do it, and not fail in one point, in order to not be cursed. A person might respond and say Paul was a bit hasty in saying all under law are cursed if the curse comes due to not keeping it all successfully. But Paul was right! NO ONE COULD keep it successfully, except JESUS ALONE!
So it seems that once God thought it was enough for Israel to have a law they could not keep, but a law that rightly showed what sin really was, time arrived for GRACE to appear on the scene. Man would then have indication that he could never make himself righteous, by having the account of the Israelite experience with Law, and truly and genuinely accept grace knowing MAN NEEDS GRACE. In that manner, satan could not pull it over on man again, as he did in the Garden when he urged the woman to make herself like God.
Romans 7:6 says it is not enough to serve God, but to serve Him with the awareness of self effort being futile in overriding sin in our lives (Law keeping is self effort making self righteous), and that we instead consciously need the power of the Spirit to serve Him!
and receive a little 
and perhaps ask a question or two for my own clarification.
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