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here's a message in St. Paul's letter to the Romans that has confused me in the past, which I think I understand better now. Paul tells us that those under Christ are no longer under the law, but under grace; however, this does not mean that Christians have free license to sin. At first blush, this is hard to understand. If we're still not allowed to sin, how are we not still bound by the law?
He goes on to say that sin "takes occasion by the commandment" to cause concupiscence; and that without the law, sin is dead; and when the commandment came, sin was revived. Yet -- the law is divine and good, and not sinful. How do we make sense of these explanations?
What Paul is talking about here is similar to the psychological game of "don't think about a pink elephant". When commanded in this way, it is virtually impossible not to imagine a pink elephant. This is was Paul means by saying that the law begets sin -- because human beings are fallen creatures, we have an instinct to rebel against God's commandments. A human being who has literally no idea of good or evil cannot sin in the same way that one who has knowledge of God's will can. Such a man will just wander around, doing as his whims dictate. He may cause evil to occur, but he is essentially blameless.
Now, with regard to the pink elephant -- the way to not think about something is never with a negative proposition; it is with a positive action, i.e., you must choose to think about something else. This is how grace differs from the law. The law tells us not to do something (which would, in fact, be good to not do). Grace, however, draws us positively toward the Lord, and gives us motivation to act accordingly to His will, rather than the negative prohibition and punishment. This is was Paul means by telling us that we are no longer bound by the law. Instead, we have a higher calling directly guiding our souls. The law and grace both come from the same place, but the way they order our interior dispositions is completely different.