Eternity Daily Bible Study: No. 530 Romans 1-8 - A Righteousness That Is By Faith Verses: Romans 7:7-13 Topic: The Law Is Not Sinful Date: 26th October 2005 Romans 7:7-13 HCSB What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, You shall not covet. (8) And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead. (9) Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life (10) and I died. The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me. (11) For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. (12) So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. (13) Therefore, did what is good cause my death? Absolutely not! On the contrary, sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin might become sinful beyond measure. This confusing paragraph is basically saying this: a) We have a sinful rebellious nature. b) This nature is concealed until the Law comes along and we rebel against its rules. c) Our automatic rebellion against the Law shows we are sinful. d) Our automatic rebellion also incites us to commit sin. e) So the Law, which is good, causes us to sin. f) Since sin leads to death, and the Law provokes us to sin, then the Law leads to our spiritual death. g) But the Law itself is holy, righteous and good. h) It is the rebellious sin nature, the flesh, which is the true source of sin and this shows that sin is perfectly sinful. Deep in every unredeemed person there is the urge to defy Heaven. This is the true source of all sin. This defiance stays underground until some rule or Law is created that gives it a clear “something” to rebel against. Sometimes when you put up a sign saying “Wet Paint - Do Not Touch” every person w ho walks by will lightly touch it to see if it is so! This is a small illustration the human urge to lawlessness at work and as 1 John says “sin is lawlessness”. 1 John 3:4 MKJV Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness. And the Anti-Christ is also called the Lawless One: 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8 MKJV (7) For the mystery of lawlessness is already working, only he is now holding back until it comes out of the midst. (8) And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the breath of His mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming, So there is a tendency in every human being to prefer our will to God's will. And when the Law says our will is wrong, our tendency is to defend ourselves and to say that the Law is wrong. So the unbeliever prefers to be without God's Law and this is lawlessness! So as the Law is given we challenge it. We disobey the clearly revealed will of God because we prefer the pleasures of sin. We want to do what we like, even if we know that what we like is wrong. However regeneration works deeply within us to change what we like, so we start to love God's will and it becomes “written on our hearts”. Hebrews 10:16 MKJV "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord; I will put My Laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them," When the person is born-again of God, and the law is written on their hearts, the sin-principle of lawlessness is broken. We now prefer God's will, and we love righteousness and become enslaved to it. Now lets look at today's verses: “I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, You shall not covet.” The Law tells us what sin us and makes us conscious of it. Just as an art critic becomes aware of faults in paintings that no-one else sees after learning the laws of art so the person who has the Law becomes aware of their own sin. And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. When the Law is given sin springs to life, our lawlessness jumps into action, and we rationalize away the Law. We do not like the feel of authority so we rebel. And sin makes up all sorts of excuses for why we are right and the Law is wrong – and deceives us. Then we rebel against the Law and deliberately disobey it. If an evil man wanted to kill people, and not get caught, he could put a fence near a crumbly dangerous cliff that has a good view, but would set it back about ten feet from the edge and cover it with signs saying “Danger - do not climb over the fence”. Of course because the fence is so far back some would climb over “to get a better view” and the crumbly edge would give way and they would plunge to their death. Is the sign evil? No! But because of rebellious human nature it works evil! So the Law, which is holy, righteous and good, provokes our sin nature into rebellion, so that we sin, and sin brings forth death. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. Therefore, did what is good cause my death? Absolutely not! On the contrary, sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin might become sinful beyond measure. Sin is “that bad”, it is not just ignorance, or a series of small faults that are easily remedied. It is lawlessness, it is an aggressive dislike of God's order and control, and this is proven by the fact of the way it reacts to the Law. The Law shows up sin for what it is – rebellion against God. Because sin takes something good, the Law, and uses it to tempt us, trap us and condemn us and produce “death” in us, then sin is utterly sinful. There is nothing wrong with the Law, but there is a lot wrong with unredeemed human nature. (More on that tomorrow) Blessings, John Edmiston (johned@aibi.ph) REFER OTHERS: If this devotional is a blessing to you, maybe you have a friend or family member that would like to start receiving this daily bible study. 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