The Strength of Sin is the Law

1 Corinthians 15:56 The sting of death is sin, the strength of sin is the law.

The question gets asked millions of times "why do I keep sinning, why does it seem like this sin just will not go away?! I read my Bible and pray, I go to church, I do communion. I keep doing doing and doing, but this sin is getting stronger and stronger. Many people at this point throw in the towel. The problem is not what your doing but in the fact that you believe more in those things to free you than in the blood of Jesus.

There is no work greater than what Jesus did on the cross, He became sin so that you might become the righteousness of God. You cant work your way to freedom, Jesus has already done that! The reason sin is strengthening in your life is because you feel like the more work you do for God the less sin there will be, but its opposite from that Romans 6:14 says For sin SHALL NOT have dominion over, for you ARE NOT under the the Law but UNDER GRACE! Anything you do outside of the finished work of the cross will strengthen sin in your life, but the moment you come to the end of yourself and trust in Jesus and the price he paid to free you! When you think you have to do something to be saved you cheapen the cross.

When you depend on yourself (putting yourself under law) you will fall every time! But Jesus is there to pick you up! Remember there are good works to be done like praying, going to church, feeding the hungry, just remember these things will NOT free you from sin, So in essence I'm saying quit doing and start depending and receiving what Jesus did for you!

Some members say keep the ten commandments but they don't keep them.

Yes, they only think they keep them. Once they understand that to have anger at your brother means you have already murdered, then they are seeing themselves correctly.

Our battle is not against acts of sin, but the fight is to keep our faith in who Christ is and what He did on the Cross, so we stay in His death, burial, and resurrection and are, therefore, victorious. That is the only way we are triumphant in Christ (II Cor. 2:14). And that is the only way He can work in us both to will (change our desires), and to do (give us the power of the Holy Spirit) (Phil. 2:13), so we can overcome sin. This is the only way believers can yield themselves as God’s servants (slaves) of obedience instead of being slaves to sin unto death (Rom. 6:16).

...and have no confidence in the flesh (in things other than the Cross, which alone is the guarantee of Salvation and Victory. Philippians 3:3

Most Christians don't give Satan control on purpose who are being oppressed (2 Timothy 2:24-26). Sin gives Satan the legal right to hold man captive. Yet, considering that Jesus atoned for all sin at the Cross, past, present, and future, at least for those who will believe, how can Satan hold Christians in bondage? How can a born-again Christian be freed from the bondage of Satan?

If it's not faith in Christ and what He did for us at the Cross, then it's faith that God will not recognize. The apostle says, "Christ shall profit you nothing" (Gal. 5:2). He says, "Christ is become of no effect unto you" (Gal. 5:4). That's the terrible problem that affixes itself to most Christians. They are trusting in things other than the Cross, making Christ of no effect. This guarantees spiritual failure. In fact, when the believer do this, they fall from Grace. In other words, the goodness of God, which, in effect, is the Grace of God, can no longer be extended to such Christians. The end result of such a position is bleak indeed!

Justification delivers us from the penalty of sin, while sanctification delivers us from the power of sin.


JSM

This post is excellent. Just excellent. I want to say that if I could have read it years ago I'd have had an easier time with less struggle, but I probably wouldn't have understood it then.

Not sure if I can quite agree. Not fully anyway. It is a fight of faith, a race of trust in which we gain endurance by the things He brings to us, allows to come to us, and lets us suffer - to grow in that trust, to begin to trust Him more and more.
I would say it guarantees spiritual failures for a time, but He does eventually get it across to us and grow our trust.

There is a problem that is so easily solved. First, if you think that there was no power to save by the Father before Christ was born in about the year 3, then it makes it impossible to read about sin when it is explained. That was in the Torah. There is a misconception in today's church that for the thousands of years of the world before Christ men had to work for their salvation. Or that God simply didn't care about people until Christ came. That isn't true. Physical death was different and the word used for salvation is atonement. Death was called sleeping with the fathers, and in Matthew it explains that they woke when the curtain ripped when Christ was crucified.

Please, everyone. Get out your concordance and look up grace as it is explained in the OT.

The law was passed down orally by the very few who remembered God until Moses when it was written down. Living in sin causes death. It always has, Christ didn't change that. What Christ did is all the things the old sacrificial system did so we need to understand that system to understand Christ. Christ does it better and more completely.

To obey the law is doing our part in the relationship that God set up for us. God spelled out the way we can live with freedom and joy. We are given the Holy Spirit to guide us in this. We have safety if we commit ourselves to Christ for when we repent His forgiveness is perfect and complete. The whole book of Hosea explains this as it compares our live committed to God to a marriage commitment.

But if we commit to Christ and insist we will do nothing to be part of that relationship, saying that the commitment wasn't made based on our doing and doesn't affect that it is established or not (we are saved) then it isn't a good relationship (covenant).

Had you included the next verse in your quotation, everything would have been very clear:

56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So what was Paul telling us?

1. The wages (consequence) of sin is death (both the first and second deaths).

2. It is the Law (the Ten Commandments) which renders every sinner guilty before God.

3. But thanks be to God -- from those who have been saved by grace.

4. It is God who gives us the victory over sin through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So the way the believer has victory is through the indwelling Holy Spirit, and the indwelling Christ. Those who are completely yielded to the Holy Spirit walk in the Spirit, and produce the fruit of the Spirit, therefore sin cannot have dominion over them. Our focus must not be on sin (which is negative), but on righteousness through Christ (which is positive).

is it because a believer produces good fruit that sin has no more dominion over them, or is it because through Him they are no longer under law, but grace, that the power of sin is taken away?

which one is cart and what is horse?

You have already answered this question yourself. After all:

• "Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression." (Rom 4.15).

Through Christ the power of the law does not kill ONLY because we can take our sins to Christ with repentance (don't forget that word repentance) and Christ keeps us from death.

Today's church have grabbed onto that phrase "under the law" and distorted it to mean that bully for me, yippee, law means nothing to me I have grace. It is like throwing out all food because there is candy. The law is our blessing, it guides and protects us from the enslavement of sin. It is our way to freedom and joy.

Scripture is simply telling you, when it says you aren't under law but grace, that you have Christ available to protect you from the sin that would kill you eternally.

Amen, it is all about what Jesus did on the cross, 1 Corinthians 1:18 for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to us who are saved it is the power of God. I didn't always know that but Romans 6 changed my life completely knowing my identity through the cross!

Thanks for the comment, I should've added that verse it portrays victory through Jesus

The Romans 7 experience, people make laws on themselves through 12 step programs, psychology etc..and everytime it is going to bring failure in their lives. Sin gains its power through the law. But, through the cross men are freed!

I would have to kindly disagree, The law is done serving its purpose when it brings us to Christ (to an end to ourselves) Galatians 3:24 The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Romans 10:4 Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, the days of trying to "earn" Gods righteousness or blessing is over through Christ. Am I saying the law is evil? Absolutely not! The law serves as a mirror it can reveal ungodliness Paul said "I would not have known not to covet unless the law said DO NOT COVET" But notice in Romans 7 Paul never said that the mirror changed him. it serves no power to change anyone. The children of Israel full of pride when they said they would do all that the law said, they were wrong! Nobody can achieve what Jesus has already done for us. Romans 5:17 speaks of "receiving" the "gift" of righteousness would cause us to reign in life. See righteousness is earned its a free gift! You might not see it, but God sees Jesus' righteousness when He looks at you.

Great question! Producing "good fruit" cannot break sins dominion. If you read Romans 7 you will see where Paul tried to keep commandments that he put on himself and failed everytime. Jesus died to break sins power of your life and everytime we choose something else over Christ we fall! Romans 5 sums it up....Through Adams disobedience death reigned (notice it was adam that made you a sinner not your sins that made you a sinner), but through Jesus' obedience on the cross many were made righteous (notice you didn't do any righteous work to be righteous).

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)

We are neutral in this either you are a sinner or you are righteous, and its all because of Adam or Jesus.

Are you denying that the 119th Psalm is of God?

No not at all, we have to separate the covenants, the writer of that psalm was under the old covenant in a system of doing to please God...very right heart and I believe His word is a lamp to our feet I believe in good works, I believe in holiness, and walking a straight path, I believe you shouldn't live a life of sin, as sin is destructive! The law we live under is the Law of love, the ten commandments can be summed up in Love. If you have love for your brother you do not want to do harm to him etc.. But in Psalm 119 we can be thankful that we are blessed as Jesus is blessed, again don't look at yourself look to Jesus He is our representative! Jesus kept all of theose precepts and all of the law and through what He did for us we receive HIS achievement because I cant.

What does the law being fulfilled mean to you? Does it mean more has to be done? Or does it mean that we have a new and better way? WE have a BETTER Covenant than Moses had, I don't serve Moses I serve Jesus. Now, let me explain again I believe the law is holy. But, God is the one who found fault with the Law not me... Hebrews 8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second....So if the first covenant had been without fault and could make you perfect, there would've been no need to find a second, no need for Jesus to die on the cross. HIS holiness makes us holy. When we behold the Law we become what the law says we are...When we behold Jesus we become who He says we are!