What was the law like and could it help a person obey it?
The Law was perfect but powerless, like cold stone and a mirror: severe, condemning, and unable to help anyone obey it. It could only show what was wrong and needed cleansing, but it had no power to reach out, clean, or enable the person to keep it.
Les explains that the Law sat in cold stone, with nothing warm or cuddly about it; it was severe, it condemned, and it did nothing to help that person keep it. Though the Ten Commandments were perfect, they were powerless. The Law was like a mirror: when you look in it, it can show you what is wrong and what needs cleaning up, but it will never reach out and clean you. By contrast, the indwelling Holy Spirit is warm, loving, and gives the desire to live pleasing in God's sight, taking away the desire to rebel. That work is the Holy Spirit's, not ours.