Your honest question may be, “Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” The Law was given by God through Moses in order to identify sin. Salvation in the Old Testament was always by faith in God and His promises and not through keeping all of the 613 requirements of the Law. “But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed” (Gal 3:21-23).