I believe that I have already backed off from the "law hardens the heart" position. While I think that such a view is correct, to assert it is really not necessary for my position. So I am happy to let that go. You agree here that sin works through the law. But Paul is something something much more specific - that sin actually exploits the law to produce covetous desires in the Jew:
But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire.
I am not saying the law is bad. But Paul needs to be taken seriously - the law functions as a catalyst that energizes sin and "makes things worse". In the past I have used the phrase "the law hardens the heart" as a shorthand expression. Perhaps that was misleading. In any event, the important point is that the Law has this "negative" effect of empowering and energizing sin, not merely revealing it.
Originally Posted by MarkT 
In 1 Cor. 15, Paul is tying death and sin and the law together to say the law gives sin the power of death.
This cannot be correct - that the law gives sin the power of death. As I have pointed out to another poster, Paul believes that sin produces death with or without the law:
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses,
I do not see how there can be any doubt, Paul believed that sin produced death from Adam to Moses, that is before the Law was given.
Now here is what Paul writes in 1 Cor 15:
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
He is not saying that the law produces death - how could he without contradicting the text I just provided? He is saying that sin produces death but that the Law energizes or gives power to sin.
As I see it, before the law was given, men sinned. Cain slew Abel. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed for their sin.
When the law was given or written down, then men knew sin, whereas before it was given, men transgressed the law but they didn’t know sin. The law brought men the knowledge of sin. Now, as Paul said, sin was in the world before the law was given. So when Moses gave the Israelites God’s law, he was telling them what God required. He was telling them what God hated, what God wanted. I don’t think killing, for instance, was ever what God wanted.
But at this point men knew it was a sin ( a legal term for a transgression which carries a penalty), whereas before they did not know. But it was always so. And sin always killed.
What God hated was always an abomination in his sight - violence, killing, men lying with men, lying, stealing, greed, coveting, disobedience. It’s just that now it was spelled out in a written code.
You say sin produces death with or without the law. I agree men died without the written law, but sin killed them nevertheless Therefore the law was in effect before it was written. It was the law that gave sin the power of death.
Even the godless know some things are wrong. Therefore I think the law always existed, even before it was written. Perhaps it is written on the heart.
I don’t know if killing was against the law before the law was written down. Lot knew men lying with men was wrong. Abraham had a sense of what was right.
I guess deep down people know killing is wrong, but what they don’t know is it is against the law of God, and the law carries a penalty - death.
When I say the law I mean the ten commandments. When I read Leviticus, I get the feeling God is telling us what is good for us; like washing your hands before eating and eating uncooked meat or anything with its life blood in it. They didn’t know about germs and viruses back then, but when they followed the ordinances they were doing the right things. There may be some things we still don’t know about the foods we eat that we might learn from Leviticus.
