Therefore the Law of Moses produces nothing that goes beyond the things of the world, that is, it merely shows both politically and theologically the evils that there are in the world. With its terrors it merely drives the conscience to thirst and yearn for the promise of God and to look at Christ. But for this the Holy Spirit is necessary, so say to the heart: “After the Law has performed its function in you, it is not the will of God that you merely be terrified and killed, but that you recognize your misery and your lost condition through the Law and then do not despair but believed in Christ, who is ‘the end of the Law, that everyone who has faith may be justified’” (Rom. 10:4). Clearly there is nothing of the world being granted here; but everything of the world comes to an end here, and so do all the laws, while that which is divine begins. So long as we are under the elements of the world, therefore – that is, under the Law, which says nothing about Christ but merely discloses and increases sin and causes wrath – we are slaves, subject to the Law, even though we have the promise of the blessing to come. The Law does indeed say (Deut. 6:5): “You shall love the Lord your God,” but it is unable to supply the means by which I do this or acquire Christ.
Luther’s Works, volume 26 (364)