What is the Problem?

The Law, or Torah, is often disregarded in modern Christian thought. Many believers assume the Torah is incomplete, harsh, legalistic, or unable to reveal God’s true heart. Some even speak as though Jesus came to save us from the Law. But if that is true, what exactly was wrong with it?

David describes God’s Law as a source of “great peace,” a “delight,” and more desirable than “thousands of gold and silver pieces” (Psalm 119:72, 97, 165). Yet when many modern Christians hear the word “law,” they think of oppression, lack of grace, restriction, and legalism. Did God give Israel ancient instructions that later stopped being divine wisdom? Did the meaning of biblical freedom change? Did God change His mind about what is “holy and righteous and good” (Romans 7:12, NASB)?

In this article, we will trace Scripture’s answer through the Torah, the Prophets, the Gospels, and the Apostolic writings. The Bible clearly identifies the problem with the Law — and it may not be the problem we expected. But this problem also comes with real hope.

The Problem in the Torah

If you are waiting for some grand reveal at the end, you will be disappointed because the answer to our question actually comes within the Torah itself and is reaffirmed throughout scripture. The Torah never describes God’s commandments as the problem. Instead, it repeatedly exposes the problem in human beings.

Israel received God’s covenant, heard His voice, and saw His mighty works (Deuteronomy 4:5–8; 5:1–22). Yet Moses says, “To this day the LORD has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear” (Deuteronomy 29:4, NASB).

That is the issue: the heart.

The Torah commanded Israel to love God fully: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). But Israel needed God to do something deeper within them. Moses looked ahead and promised, “The LORD your God will circumcise your heart…to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live” (Deuteronomy 30:6).

So even in the Torah, the problem is not God’s instruction. The problem is the heart of the hearer, but this comes with the promise that God will circumcise your heart (i.e. purify your inner self) to that one day we may follow him commands.

The Prophets Agreed

The Prophets continue the same diagnosis. Jeremiah says Judah’s sin was “engraved upon the tablet of their heart” (Jeremiah 17:1). Ezekiel describes Israel as needing a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:26). Isaiah speaks of people who honor God with lips while their hearts are far from Him (Isaiah 29:13).

The promise found in Deut. 30 to circumcise the heart is now connected to the promises of the new covenant. God does not say, “I will discard My Law because it failed.” He says, “I will put My law within them and write it on their heart” (Jeremiah 31:33, NASB). Ezekiel says the same thing another way: “I will put My Spirit within you and bring it about that you walk in My statutes” (Ezekiel 36:27, NASB).

The solution is not a lower standard. The solution is a transformed people.

Jesus Exposed the Heart

Jesus did not treat the Torah as evil or obsolete. He said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17, NASB). Then He pressed God’s commandments deeper, from external behavior into the heart: anger, lust, deceit, hatred, and hypocrisy all reveal our need for inner transformation (Matthew 5:21–48; 23:25–28).

Jesus also said, “From within, out of the hearts of people, come the evil thoughts” (Mark 7:21). That is the biblical diagnosis. Defilement begins inside us. We do not merely need better information or instruction; we need new hearts.

At the Last Supper, Jesus identified His death with Jeremiah’s promise: “This cup…is the new covenant in My blood” (Luke 22:20). Through Messiah, God inaugurates the covenant of forgiveness, cleansing, and Spirit-given renewal (Matthew 26:28; Acts 2:33, 38–39). This again is the same promise given in Deuteronomy 30, to enable humans to walk in righteousness (follow God’s instruction).

Paul Did Not Blame the Law

Paul never says the Law is sin. He asks, “Is the Law sin? Far from it!” (Romans 7:7). The Law reveals sin (Romans 3:20; 7:7), but sin uses the commandment against us (Romans 7:8–11). The commandment is good, but sin twists even good things into rebellion.

That is why the Law cannot save. It can reveal God’s will, expose sin, and pronounce judgment, but it cannot give life to those enslaved to sin, The law cannot transform our hearts. As Paul says, “If a law had been given that was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law” (Galatians 3:21, NASB).

God’s answer is Messiah and the Spirit. What the Law could not do “weak as it was through the flesh,” God did through His Son (Romans 8:3). The goal is “so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:4).

Hebrews Clarification

In a passage that is often misunderstood as cancelling the law, Hebrews quotes Jeremiah’s new covenant promise and makes the same point: “For finding fault with the people, He says…” (Hebrews 8:8, NASB). The fault was with the covenant-breaking people, not with God’s holy instruction.

Through Jesus, the new covenant has been inaugurated (Hebrews 9:15; 12:24). Believers already receive forgiveness, cleansing, access to God, and the work of the Spirit (Hebrews 10:14–22). But the promises have not yet reached their full visible fulfillment. Jeremiah says all God’s covenant people will know Him fully (Jeremiah 31:34), and Ezekiel connects the new heart with Israel’s full restoration (Ezekiel 36:24–28; 37:21–28). We live in the already and not yet: Messiah has come, the Spirit has been given, but the kingdom and all of the promises have yet to be fulfilled in their fullness.

The Hope

As the apostle to the Gentiles, Paul proclaimed that through Jesus the Messiah, the nations are graciously grafted into Israel’s covenant promises as sharers in God’s mercy (Romans 11:17–24). In Messiah, Gentiles who were once “excluded from the commonwealth of Israel” and “strangers to the covenants of promise” have been “brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:12–13, NASB). This means the new covenant hope promised to Israel reaches the nations through Israel’s Messiah. God remains faithful ad extends the blessing and promises of Israel to Gentiles by grace through Jesus (Galatians 3:14, 29; Romans 15:8–12).

The problem with the Law was never the Law. The problem was us.

The Torah is holy, righteous, and good (Romans 7:12). God’s commandments reveal His wisdom (Deuteronomy 4:6), His holiness (Leviticus 19:2), and His love for life (Deuteronomy 30:15–20). But sinful people need more than commandments written on stone or scrolls. We need God’s instruction written on our hearts.

That is the beauty of the new covenant. God does not abandon His promises. He does not lower His standards. He forgives sin, gives His Spirit, circumcises hearts, and forms a people who can love Him from within.

In Jesus, God remains faithful — not by changing His righteousness, but by changing us.