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7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet." 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. ~ Romans 7:7-11
Today, we return to our study of Romans 7 where we are being instructed on the topic of sanctification. You will remember that beginning in Romans 6 through Romans 8 we are given a three fold process which results in our sanctification. Our sanctification will never be perfect this side of heaven. In Romans 6 we learned about the believer's relationship to sin. In Romans 7 we are learning about the believer's relationship with the law of Moses. And, in Romans 8 we will learn about the believer's relationship with the Holy Spirit.
Throughout the Bible, we discover that the gospel of Jesus Christ sets us free from the penalty, the power and the presence of sin. As we go through the sanctification process, we are being freed from the power of sin. Christ came to earth as a man to die, and He rose from the dead, so that we might come to know Him as our savior and friend. Christ paid the penalty for our sin on the cross so that we might be freed from selfishness, self-centeredness, bitterness, anxiety and all kinds of other dysfunctional things due to our fears. Sanctification takes place in our souls which is made up of our minds, wills, and emotions.
In v.7 of today's passage we read, "What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, 'You shall not covet.'"
In today's passage the Apostle Paul goes from using the third person, to using the second person, and then to using the first person. He talks about I, me, my, and myself. This observation reveals that this is his autobiographical sketch detailing his struggle with sin or his flesh. We should be encouraged that the Apostle struggled with sin and the Apostle was willing to reveal it to us. This is the struggle of the saved soul. So often, we think that this struggle is a bad sign. We have often thought that we had lost our rightness with God because of this. This is not so. In fact, our struggle with sin is a sign that there is the life of God within us. If He were not in us, we would not struggle as we do. The struggle is real because we still live in these bodies of sin and we have the Holy Spirit living in us.
Understanding this section helps us to navigate the Christian life that many think should be an upward success story toward perfection. Of course, we know that the Christian life includes many struggles and failures in our pursuit of walking with God. In fact, the Lord expects more sin out of us than we do ourselves because He knows how wicked sin really is. He also knows that we will never reach perfection this side of heaven. The beauty to it all is that with God failure isn't always the opposite of success. This is why Paul points out that the problem is not with the law, the problem is with us.
In v.8 of today's passage we read, "But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead."
Paul's argument here is that the law draws out the rebellion that we know that is still within us, even though we have been justified before God through Christ. Here, Paul highlights the tenth command, "Thou shalt not covet," because covetousness is at the root of all sin. The Law deals with our hearts and it reveals to us our sin. This is the only way anyone can come to the salvation of the Lord. That which leads us to true salvation is an understanding of the absolute righteousness of God and our total depravity. The Law of God expresses God's perfect righteousness and it puts a demand on everyone who breaks it in the slightest way. We are led to true salvation through the overwhelming and frightening sense of the implications of breaking God's law. We are also kept in the faith through our continuing struggles with temptation and sin. The Lord Jesus not only wants to deliver us from the presence and penalty of sin, He also wants to deliver us from the power of sin. This is a big part of our sanctification.
In v.9-10 of today's passage we read, "9 Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death."
The forbidden nature of sin serves to make it more attractive to us. This is partly why it is so danged hard to resist it. According to Deuteronomy 30, the law holds out the promise of real life. If the Jews had obeyed and measured up to the law from their hearts, the nation would have been sustained as God’s people. But they, like us, were deceived by sin which deceived them into being defined by the self. The consequence of sin has always been exile from the presence of God which is the most damning expression of sin and death. It is this death that shows how wicked sin really is because it takes us further and further away from God.
In v.11 of today's passage we read, "For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death."
The Apostle hammers the idea that it is impossible to rely on our adherence to the law to make us right in God's eyes. This is so because even though the law of God is good and perfect, we are not. And, since we are imperfect, we can not measure up to the truth for ourselves. The law simply crushes us, but, this is good because it positions us to see the utter preciousness of the work accomplished by the Lord Jesus on the cross on our behalf. Christianity is not about the wood of a ladder that enables us to climb up to God. Christianity is about the wood of a cross that allowed God to come down to rescue sinful man. Christianity is about failures who give up on themselves and cast themselves upon the forgiving mercy of God through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.
