Christians, by virtue of their dying with Christ, are set free from the law. The law produces sinful desires leading to death. The only way to break this captivity to sin through the law is by the Spirit, previewing chapter 8. The law is not sinful, but sin becomes more defined and powerful with the coming of the law. The law does offer a path to life, which sin uses the law to trick people into works righteousness when all it could ever do was point us to Christ. When someone attempts to do what the law says, they suddenly find that sin is not merely an external force, but actually resides in them, in their flesh. The mental faculty which wants to do the law is overpowered by a stronger internal faculty—sin. Thus, we have no power to defeat sin and are condemned to die. When we receive AND subsequently depend on Christ, only then can the power of sin be broken.
