“What shall we say, then? Is the law
sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through
the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not
said, “Do not covet.”
Romans
7:7
The law of
God awakened us to the reality of sin! From the time of Adam, men had been
guided by their own sense of right and wrong. When the law came it “set in
stone” some things God explicitly saw as sin. For the first time sin had been
defined and recorded! Because of this men could no longer do what seemed right
in their own eyes. They now had a governing agent called the law that defined
for them proper God-ordained behavior.
One
commentator wrote that “the law brought unconscious sin into consciousness.”
Sin was exposed! However, when sin was revealed for what it is, it did not
cower or try to conceal itself:
“But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by
the commandment produced in me “every kind of covetous desire.” For apart from
the law sin is dead.”
Romans
7:8
Paul was
familiar with coveting, but when the law exposed its sinfulness, sin exploited
the situation producing in him every kind of covetous desire. Paul quickly
discovered what coveting really was! The law pulled back the curtain on sin…exposing
it!
The Law of
God clarified that there is clearly right and wrong. The commandment points us
towards the path of life, but by highlighting the path of life the choice to
disobey was revealed:
“Once I was alive apart from law; but
when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very
commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin seizing
the opportunity afforded by the commandment deceived me and through the
commandment put me to death. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is
holy, righteous and good.”
Romans
7:9-12
It wasn’t
that the law of God or the commandment wasn’t holy. It did not lead Paul into
sin! However, when the law highlighted the differences between sinfulness and
righteousness, sin seized the opportunity to deceive.
Now when
Paul chose to sin, he would be doing so in direct disobedience to God’s
prescribed law. Paul then asks the question:
“Did that which is good then, become
death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it
produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin
might become utterly sinful.”
Romans
7:13
The law of
God, written on our hearts, came in order that sin might be recognized as sin!
Pastor Scott
Burr
http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com/
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