An Example of How Law and Sin Work Together
Tell a child "Don't touch that stove! It's hot!" You know that at his first opportunity, he will touch it. It doesn't matter how much effort you put into your explanation about the hurt that the stove will inflict or what you might threaten in order to deter him from the pain. He will still try to touch the stove.
In this case, the law consists of the words "Don’t touch!" The sin is simply the child touching the hot stove. Ironically, the child wasn't tempted until you gave him the law! Once we recognize that the law is no longer a part of our Christian life, we are free from the power of sin. Because the law makes us want to sin due to our fallen nature.
For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:5-6)
The Law Just Doesn't Do What We Expect!
The law can not produce holiness nor give life nor cleanse the conscience nor make anyone righteous. It can only point out fault and guilt and sinfulness.
The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God. (Hebrews 7:18-19)
It has no power (being weak and useless) to actually change a person’s heart. The best it can do is to affect his external actions. And the law continues to give power to sin!
Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!" These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. (Colossians 2:20-23)
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. (1 Corinthians 15:56)
We Have a New Way to Live
The way God leads a Christian is not by His Old Testament law; He leads by His Spirit through love.
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope-- the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. (Titus 2:11-14)
We look at ourselves and at others and see faults and sins, but God has already dealt with those sins, He punished His Son for them. Jesus was given the wages of all our sins --he died!
Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:27-28)
The removal of our sins through Christ was even prophesied in Isaiah and the Psalms.
Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back. (Isaiah 38:17)
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. (Psalms 103:11-12)
Still Trying the Same Old Way?
Trying to live under the law will only make a Christian frustrated at his inability to please the One he wants to please most. He can not respond with love to a God who appears to be continually pointing out every wrong action or thought. Instead, we are left with a guilty conscience and sense of fear in approaching God. But we have been set free from all that!
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:18-19)
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4)