Men have lost all deep respect for law because they have forgotten the very source of all law and authority. The Bible says: "There is one law giver, who is able to save and to destroy" (James 4:12). That law giver is Almighty God. When you leave the true God out, there is no real standard of behavior left. The result is spiritual chaos and lawlessness and wretchedness in the human heart.

In nearly all present-day religious denominations, the tendency is to try to "modernize" God, and do away with His authority to rule His creation--and us; His creatures. There are very few truly "God fearing men" left on earth today. Yet the real message of Jesus Christ was about the God who created and now rules the earth! His was the God who blessed men for obedience to His laws--and who punished for disobedience.

The Jesus Christ of your Bible always preached the gospel of the Kingdom of God (Mark 1:14; Luke 4:43). In modern language, He preached the happy news of the government of God--the rule of God. He said: "Repent ye, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15). Before you can sincerely believe and accept Jesus as your Savior and have His blood cover your sins, you must repent. But repent of what? Repent of Sin! "Sin is the transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4). Sin is breaking God's spiritual law-- the Ten Commandments. That is definitely and specifically what sin is!.

Sin, or transgression, disobedience of God's law, brought death into the world (Rom.5:12). Then in the New Testament, the wages of transgressing God's law has not changed. It is death (Rom.6:23). Christ is our Savior from sin. Through faith in Christ and obedience to the terms of the Gospel we are forgiven of our sins and at the same time made free from sin, dead to sin, and become servants of righteousness (Rom.6:1-2,6,17-18).

Paul is saying that without the law there is no sin. Sin is the transgression of the law, and if God's law is abolished then there is no sin. If there is no sin the preaching of the Gospel is in vain. The fact that all have sinned (Rom.3:23) is proof in itself that God does have a law that men are transgressing. Paul, in Romans 7:7, makes it very plain that he would not have known sin but by the law. He also identified that law by quoting from the law. The law had said, "Thou shall not covet." Was this a quotation from a new law given to Christians? No, it is a quotation from the Ten Commandment that says, "thou shalt not covet." What law gave Paul and the people of that time a knowledge of sin? It was the Ten Commandments according to Paul's own words.

“Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just and good." Please note that the law is holy; not was holy. It is just and good in this dispensation of grace. Paul himself was a Christian and he was writing to Christians in this chapter. If the Ten Commandments were holy, Just and Good for Christian's in Paul's day, why don't we teach them today? No wonder people are confused.