When do the Ten Commandments stop having power over a person?
The Ten Commandments stop having power when old Adam is crucified and reckoned dead in God’s eyes. At that point the law no longer hangs over the person, for the old self is dead, and God immediately reckons a new relationship—married to Christ, under grace rather than the Mosaic law.
Les teaches that old Adam has to be crucified, and the minute Adam is crucified and dead in the eyes of God, the Ten Commandments no longer hang over him because he is dead. But the believer is not left there; he picks up another relationship. Les illustrates this with a widow who has lost her husband and is free to marry another. In the spiritual realm, as soon as old Adam is crucified and reckoned as dead, God immediately reckons that we are married to Christ. We then have a new relationship, not under the Mosaic law, but under the love, grace, and mercy of Christ Himself.