I talked previously about a two-fold understanding of salvation from sin in Paul’s letter to the Romans, one of a substitutionary atonement paying a penalty for your transgressions to avert God’s wrath, and by contrast a moral influence cross where seeing ourselves in those who killed God’s especially beloved Jesus breaks the spell the powerful entity Sin has on us so we can then recognize our sinfulness and repent. In the former model God expects a fine to be paid for your transgressions, whereas in the latter model God needs you to see your hidden sinfulness, breaking the spell of Sin you are under, so your eyes will open and you can repent. For the latter model imagine a group of kids in the school yard excitingly pulling the legs off of daddy longlegs insects, while one kid looks on the scene horrified, their moral compass awakened. Or, suppose a person watching a video about the mistreatment of animals and their eyes are opened and they become a Vegan. This follows the general biblical idea of eyes being opened, such as with Adam or Saul/Paul.

The New Testament explains that a key purpose of the Old Testament law (which constitutes scripture) is to reveal or make people conscious of their sin—including hidden or unrecognized aspects—so they recognize their need for repentance and forgiveness through faith in Christ. This is not presented as the sole purpose of scripture overall, but as an essential function of the law within it. For example: Romans 3:20 states, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” Romans 7:7 elaborates, “What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.'”

This highlights how the law discloses sin that might otherwise remain hidden or unacknowledged.
Galatians 3:19-24 describes the law as added “because of transgressions” and as a “guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith,” implying it exposes sin to guide people toward repentance and forgiveness.

The Old Testament itself does not explicitly state this as a purpose of scripture, though passages like Psalm 19:7-13 imply a similar role for God’s law in warning against errors, discerning hidden faults, and leading to blamelessness through forgiveness.