What happened when the commandment 'Thou shalt not covet' came?
When the commandment 'Thou shalt not covet' came, old Adam woke up, confessed 'that's me, I'm a coveter,' and died. That death of the Lawbreaker old Adam brings new life—salvation—making the believer a new creation alive with eternal life through the finished work of Christ.
Les explains that without the Law the old nature was dead or inoperative, but the Law exercised it. When the commandment 'Thou shalt not covet' came, old Adam woke up in Saul's make-up and said, 'Hey, that's me, I'm a coveter.' Then he died—that is, he had to die in the realm of the old Adam who was a Lawbreaker. With the death of old Adam, new life comes. Les says this is what salvation is: when our old Adam is put to death because he was a Lawbreaker, and we become a believer in the finished work of Christ, which is the Gospel, we become a new creation, alive, with eternal life, 'the whole nine yards.' Paul constantly refers to this, and as Peter said in all his epistles, this is all he talks about.
For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.