75 Question 31 How can we accurately define sin if we deny God’s law?

1 John 3:4  “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.”

Under the Old Testament, there were strict laws that defined sin because man had fallen out of grace in the Garden of Eden, and after Christ died on the cross there was a New Covenant, but no where in the Bible does Jesus state a list of laws except in Matthew 22:37-40 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Are all the Old Testament laws such as the Ten Commandments replaced by a law of love, and if so, are Christians the only ones who can understand this law because our relationship with God is what sets us apart from the world?

This cannot be, for although there is a New Covenant there is still sin, sin that every man has felt, but what is more powerful than sin is grace through Jesus Christ.

James 4:17 “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

Romans 5:20  “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

1 John 5:3 “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Romans 6:14  “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”