The Law is not kept without Christ...

Therefore, in all our praising of works and in the preaching of the Law, let us keep this rule: The Law is not kept without Christ.  As He Himself has said, "Apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).  Likewise, "Without faith it is impossible to please [God]" (Hebrews 11:6).  For it is very certain that the doctrine of the Law is not intended to remove the Gospel and to remove Christ as the Atoning Sacrifice.  Let the Pharisees, our adversaries, be cursed.  They interpret the Law to assign Christ's glory to works.  (In other words, they say works are an atoning sacrifice, that they merit the forgiveness of sins.)  Works are always rightly praised in this way: they are pleasing because of faith.  For works do not please without Christ as the Atoning Sacrifice. "Through Him we have also obtained access [to God]" (Romans 5:2), not by works without Christ as Mediator.  Therefore, when it is said in Matthew 19:17, "If you would enter life, keep the commandments," we must believe that without Christ the commandments are not kept and cannot please.
~BOC, AP, V(III), 148-149