Page 23 - Laying Down the Law

experiences of Israel under Moses. For centuries the descendants of Abraham had
been slaves in Egypt. This stands as a type and shadow of mankind being slaves to sin
while living in this world. The Israelites had over them cruel taskmasters. Similarly,
sin is a cruel taskmaster. It drives men to actions that they would not otherwise do.
Men who were created to be the image and likeness of God find themselves compelled
to do the very things their conscience condemns.

Romans 7:15-24
For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do... For I
know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present
with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will
to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what
I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me... I see
another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing
me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Sin is a cruel taskmaster. Like Pharaoh, it enslaves men, refusing to let them go.
As often as an Adamic man may tell sin to relinquish its hold and let him depart to go
worship God, it will refuse. Sin’s power cannot be broken by any human effort
(Consider Moses’ failure to deliver his people at the age of forty). This leaves all men
in that state of misery described of those Israelites who were in bondage in Egypt.
They were groaning and crying out due to their harsh servitude. Similarly, the apostle
Paul exclaims:

Romans 7:24
O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

The answer comes in his very next words.

Romans 7:25
I thank God - (He has) - through Yahshua Christ our Lord!

This deliverance from sin’s slavery is signified in the historical account of Israel’s
departure from Egypt. On the night they departed and gained their freedom, every
household of Israel took the blood of a lamb and put it on the doorposts and lintel of
their home. When the death angel came that night he “passed over” every home upon
which the blood of the lamb was found. In every home in Egypt where the blood was
not applied, the firstborn son died.
Sin’s power had been broken by the blood of the lamb. Pharaoh arose in the
night, found his son and every other firstborn of Egypt dead, and gave permission to
the children of Israel to depart at once. Christ has set man free. This freedom is
difficult to comprehend by those who have only known slavery to sin all their lives.
This too is patterned in the experience of Israel.