Law Focuses on Self -- Grace Focuses on Jesus

Exodus 20 outlines the Ten Commandments. Each one begins with "Thou shalt" or "thou shalt not".

The law causes us to focus on ourselves,  on what we must do.

With the law comes the knowledge of sin:

"Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." (Romans 3: 20)

Yet also with this knowledge of sin comes the knowledge of a standard which we cannot meet, the guilt which we cannot escape:

"Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." (Romans 3: 19)

The standard of the law is good, but we cannot meet this standard. We are worse than sinners, then, but we are dead under this lie:

"The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law."" (1 Corinthians 15: 56)

But:

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 15: 57)

Jesus Christ is the demonstration of God's love:

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4: 10)

God's love causes us to focus on Him, not ourselves:

"And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." (1 John 4: 16)

and then

"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17)

Jesus wants us to abide in Him, for without Him, we can do nothing (John 15: 4-5).

Law makes us weak and beggarly, exposing to us the death within us and the weakness which follows. God's grace focuses us on Jesus, who leads us from within to live His life without.