Apart from the Law, Sin is Dead!

Monday morning, September 15, 2008 [beautiful and 720],
As I was driving from my office in Macon enroute to Reynolds to speak at a funeral service (a number of years ago), I was quoting to myself the passage of Scripture I planned to use as my text: "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:56-57). Thankfully, and for the first time in my life, I heard what Paul was saying and it shook me to my bones! I could not imagine how I had missed this very, very important truth, especially in light of the fact that I had spent most of my life studying the Scriptures! Listen to what Paul said: THE POWER OF SIN IS THE LAW! So obvious; yet, I had managed to overlook it. I think it is safe to say that I was as excited, as I had ever been; it was as if I had found the buried treasure, the key to victorious Christian living.
Think about it: The thing that gives sin its strength is the law! Amazing! Life-changing! Paradigm shifting! I could hardly wait to get back to my place of study and examine this more carefully. When I did finally return, the Holy Spirit immediately reminded me of what Paul had said in Romans 7. Listen to his words: "For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if he Law had not said, 'You shall not covet.' But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead" (Romans 7:5-8; emphasis, mine).
In light of this, I find it terribly depressing to think that most Christians believe that imposing the Law on "sinners" is the way to end their "sinning." The fact of the matter is this: The only effective way to break the power of sin is to release the sinner from the Law! Scary? Yes, until you get the message, until you see this truth: The power of sin IS THE LAW!
Sadly, far-too-many Christians worship the Ten Commandments, rather than The Christ, as is evidenced by the fact that they place far more confidence in their ability to keep the commandments, than they place in the efficaciousness of Jesus vicarious death, burial, resurrection, and ascension! Unfortunately, they sincerely believe that the way to holiness is through their keeping the Law—obeying the Ten Commandments; somehow, the fail to see that this mindset serves only to give sin more strength. If only they could see that Jesus is their righteousness, not their "good" behavior.
Remember: apart from the Law sin is dead! Wow!