Can a person keep the perfect law without the Holy Spirit?
No. A person cannot keep the perfect law without the Holy Spirit. In the flesh, man cannot keep it, because the law had no power to impart to man to keep it; it was holy and perfect but had no power to help the law keeper. Under grace, the Spirit enables fulfillment.
Les explains that man, without the power of the Holy Spirit and in his own flesh, could not begin to keep that perfect law. The law was perfect and holy, but it had no power within it to help the law keeper keep the law; consequently, they could not even come close. Under the law, it became weak, beggarly, and a yoke that Israel chafed under constantly. But under grace, believers have something far better: the righteousness of the law can be fulfilled in us as Grace Age believers because of the power of the Holy Spirit.