Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 5:20-21).
God defined sin through the Law of Moses so that the Israelites could live in righteousness. They learned the Law, their sin was ever before them, so that they could through obedience to the letter of the Law be granted pardon for their sin. We are no longer under the letter of the Law, the law of our mind, but born into the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. ‘For as many as are led the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God’ (Romans 8:14). This is the glorious liberty of the children of God. Our sin is not just covered: through the Lord Jesus Christ, Father God has provided a means of escape from the reign sin, Jesus, our scapegoat, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29; 1 John 1:7). We are saved and being saved. Washed and sanctified, made righteous, through Christ’s blood, raised from death to life through His resurrection. Then there is work that only the Holy Spirit can do: we are cleansed through the water of the Word spoken into us the Holy Spirit, that word He has heard from the Word, the only begotten Son of the Living God (John 16:13-15), the building blocks of our faith (Romans 10:17; Jude 1:20-21), the word that cuts away the influence of our soulish nature (Hebrews 4:12-13). O what glorious liberty God has brought us into, the reign of sin is finished!