God set up the law in the first place out of His abundant love for us - to teach us, to guide us, and most importantly as a key to knowing Him. That's the spirit of the law. However, the Pharisees used the letter of the law to load people down with burdens they could hardly carry and ignored the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy, and faithfulness. They not only had taken away the key to the knowledge of God but also had hindered those who were entering the kingdom of God.”