It's funny but when we finally come to the realisation that the way we're living our lives – well, it's not working that well – the first thing we do, is we invent a bunch of rules to make our lives better. And then we discover – they don't work either.

By large the law is a good thing. I mean, sometimes it's an ass, sometimes you read of a judgement handed down by a judge and you think, "Wow, that's not fair!" But mostly, the law acts as a deterrent. Not always of course but when it comes down to our personal lives, our relationships – how we treat people, what we say – you know more and more, it seems like there are no rules.

I was talking the other day with a young worker, a junior in the workplace where he works and the way that the boss treats people can be really appalling. And you know, it doesn't matter what industrial laws the government puts into place, the law can't stop that from happening. At the day-to-day relationship level, the law is pretty much useless in enforcing anything much except perhaps stopping violence and fraud, even then, it struggles.

Rules and regulations aren't going to change our behaviour, that's the point. What they do is they tell us what's wrong. But somehow, there's no power in those rules and regulations to change who we are or how we behave. If we treat people badly, it seems like we're powerless to change it. Well, you know something; this is not some new revelation that I've just had, this has been around for a long, long time.

See, it seems to me that we're powerless to change the dumb things we do so what we do is we invent religions and we add even more rules and regulations to our world as though that, somehow, is going to make a difference. You see how dumb that is!

This bloke Paul, an apostle, (he wrote almost half of the New Testament) he looked around at the people and what they were doing as a new Church, as that Church was forming in the 1st century, and it struck him right between the eyes. Now Paul, Paul was an expert in the law, he was a Pharisee. He was a religious separatist. He followed the law of God to the 'nth' degree. He went to extremes. Now have a listen to what Paul wrote when he finally came to his senses. It's so important, if we're going to break the power that sin has over our lives, it comes from a book called Colossians in the New Testament, chapter 2. He says:

And when you were dead in trespasses, God made you alive together with Him when He forgave us all our sins. Erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set it aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and the authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it. Therefore, don't let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or observing festivals or new moons or Sabbaths. They're only shadows over what is to come. The substance belongs to Jesus.

Don't let anyone disqualify you in insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels or dwelling on visions or being puffed up without cause by human way of thinking and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body is nourished. If with Christ you died to these basic spirits of the world, why do you live as though you still belong to the world? Why do you submit to these silly regulations? Don't handle! Don't taste! Don't touch!

All these regulations refer to things that perish with use, they're simply human commands and teachings. They have the appearance of wisdom in promoting self-imposed piety and humility and severe treatment of the body but they're of no value in checking self-indulgence. (Colossians 2: 13-23)

See how we invent rules. Paul's saying, "Look, you know you think you believe in God and all of a sudden people are saying do this, don't do that, eat this, don't eat that, go to this new moon festival" and he's saying, "this is stupid, these rules are not going to make it any better, they'll never do it." In fact elsewhere, Paul writes that, in a sense, the law only makes things worse because it serves to tell us where we're going wrong but provides no solution as to what to do about it.

So many people are trapped in the consequences of their sin. So many people are struggling with things that are going wrong in their lives. And then they think, "Well, you know, umm, I've got to invent some rules and what will happen is, the rules will make it better." And you see this. You go to Churches sometimes and it's about rules. And Paul's saying, "Look, it's not about rules. When God nailed Jesus to the cross, He disarmed the rulers and the authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them."

The answer in changing the sin in our lives is the victory that we have through Jesus Christ when He died on that cross, to pay for our sin and when He rose again to give us a new life. That's where it is. It doesn't come from inventing and living by a bunch of rules 'cause the rules only make things worse. Oh sure, they appear to be the answer, this is what he writes:

These indeed have an appearance of wisdom but they are of no value in checking self-indulgence."

So, what's the answer? Where do we start to discover that the power of sin is broken over our lives? Well in the first few verses of this passage we read,

And when you were dead in your trespasses, God made you a life together with Him when He forgave us all our trespasses. Erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set it aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and the authorities and made a public example of them all.

The answer is not in the law. The answer is grace. The answer is not in a bunch of rules. The thing that sets you and me free, the thing that unlocks the key that opens the door to a free life from the consequences of sin, is the fact that Jesus died on the cross.

We're going to look at that in a whole bunch more detail in the next few days but for today, I just want to leave you with one word, the word is "grace". See, the record is erased. So many people are still carrying around the guilt of all the things they have done wrong. But while we were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive again because He's forgiven us.

Do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe that Jesus died for you on the cross and rose again? If you do, you are forgiven! God has removed your sin from you, in fact, in the Old Testament it says:

As far as the east is from the west, so far God has removed your transgressions from you. (Psalm 103:12)

So many people are living at the bottom of a downward spiral and God has removed the one thing that pushes us further down that spiral, he has removed the guilt. Jesus paid for my sin and so I am forgiven. Jesus paid for your sin and so you are forgiven. There is no more guilt. There is no more condemnation.

See the guilt and the condemnation is what holds us in bondage. We're free, that is profound and it's deep! Where the rules failed, grace triumphs. Paul writes in Romans chapter 6:

For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under the rules anymore but you are under grace. (Romans 6:14)

That's all we have time for today, we're going to pick up again on this tomorrow but can I just leave this with you? The key to the freedom from sin, the key to seeing the power of sin broken in my life and your life is grace; Gods grace, the grace we have in Jesus Christ.