Post by arete on Oct 21, 2014 19:04:22 GMT
Introduction:
Standards…principles…values…virtues…morals – sometimes it seems that the world has little of these things. That seems is actually a reality. To establish principles, values, morals, etc., we need an absolute by which to define them and to serve as a foundation for all morality. For the believer – we know that standard to be God himself. God in his mercy & grace has revealed himself and his will to us so that we have this foundation – we might refer to such as the Law. Yet in Christianity, it can be too easy to get confused about the Law’s role when the Bible specifically says we are not under the binding power of Law, but under grace. Paul in Romans is teaching us so that we need not be confused about the role of the Law in the lives of Christians…
Context:
In Romans, Paul has been dealing with the issue of sin. Specifically, he pointed out the possibility that people might excuse their sin by claiming to be under grace and not law. He countered by pointing out that while believers at one time were slaves to sin, now they are slaves to the one who saved them. While we were slaves to sin, our due was only death. Now that we are slaves to Christ, we receive the free gift of eternal life. Paul moved to clarifying the role of law and refute the idea that freedom in Christ could ever be used as a license to sin. We also found that the Law only has a binding effect on those who are not in Christ – meaning that the Law’s power is to condemn and we who are in Christ are no longer condemned. Now Paul moves to a possible response to his teachings concerning the Law…
Body – Romans 7:7-14 – ESV
The Law and Sin
7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
Purpose of the Law v. 7
So is the Law sin? Paul tells us again – it is not lawful to give birth to such a thought. After all, to believe the Law to be sin would be to call God a sinner. Because God gave the Law
Instead, Paul reminds us of the purpose of the Law – the Law shines a bright spotlight on sin. We know what sin is because the Law gives us the necessary scale to weigh it on – it gives us the standard to measure sin and the tool to expose it.
Paul gives us an example of the revealing power of the Law. God has revealed that coveting is a sin and with such a revelation we come to know what coveting is.
Side note: Why is coveting a sin? When we look at something we don’t have and lust after it, we are sinning against the person of God. We are denying that he is our good provider and is withholding joy from us. We also are confusing the blessing of his provision with the blessing of his person (we are valuing stuff above God.) Finally, we are saying that we do not believe that God can provide for us and we would do better on our own by pursuing what we lust for rather than pursuing the person of God.
As Paul moves into his example of coveting and the rest of this section, he is using himself and his experiences to explain the purpose of the Law. He explains how the Law was effective in convincing him of his sin. He wants us to identify with his example. Some identify with him in our own conversions from death to life in Christ. Others may identify with it as the Holy Spirit works in their lives convicting their hearts of sin as revealed by God’s word.
Illustration:
In light of Father’s day – I’d like to use the following example of why we need to know God’s Law and relate to it rightly – My house…my rules. Our heavenly father made all of this and us too – his creation…his rules.
Application:
The Law is our primary tool to know right from wrong. It would be sinful to reject God’s commandments by claiming to be under grace. For salvation’s sake – yes we are under grace and praise the Lord we are not under Law. But just because we have been saved by the Law-giver is no reason to reject his Laws. Part of our relationship with God is knowing what he has said – about himself, about us and how we are to live. Furthermore, as we grow in our relationship to the Father and mature in our faith – we do what many kids do after they grow up – we begin to understand the rules better – and we know they were given in love not to ruin our lives or hamper our fun – but to give us all the good things in life our loving father wanted us to have
Product of Sin vv. 8-12
While a contrasting word like “But” can provide relief from bad news – here the but takes us from the revelation of God to mankind’s rebellion
The power of sin is not subdued or conquered by the revelation of the Law. Instead, sin finds opportunity in stirring our fallen nature to pursue sin – even when the sin has been clearly identified. In fact, according to Paul’s choice of words here, sin manages to form a base of operations in the fallen nature of man and his rebellious nature.
Apart from the Law and our fallen response to it – sin lies dormant – the potential to sin is there, but the rebel heart needs something to rebel against
The response of all mankind is that of rebellion. And while we might think that when God speaks, people would bow their hearts and lives to him, the opposite is the truth. When natural man is confronted with the Law of God the response is to wallow in sin – which leads to death
The Law is clear that obedience to God is required and rewarded – but the Law still lacks any power to help any person actually keep it
Because of the origin of the Law is the Holy God – the Law is holy – it is sinless and opposed to sin. The Law is righteous – it reveals openly to all people how to be right with God. The Law is good – by revealing what is morally good, we also know what is morally wrong.
Illustration:
I would think that most of us would be willing to admit we had times of rebellion against our parents and their rules. Some of us had a harder time with rebellion than others. As an adult I marvel that my mother didn’t just snuff me out for my various crimes against her.
Application:
Our fallen nature, inherited from Adam gives us a rebel’s heart. Rules can be a sore temptation for a rebellious heart. Rules and laws on earth have never put an end to any crime. That’s because the laws of the land have no power in them to help us obey. The Law of God does not have the power to empower our obedience either. The Law’s job is to reveal the crime. In working with kids, there is an adage that “rules without relationship equals rebellion.” The relationship in question here is ours with our heavenly Father. If there is any break in the relationship – it is not his doing. He provides a savior for us so we can be his children. He then provides the Holy Spirit and a new heart so that we are able to please him and obey him. Let’s be clear, the power of sin can only be conquered by the Savior. Even if God gave only one command – people would still rebel at every opportunity. The answer is to have the relationship with God that is possible only through Jesus Christ. For those of us who have been saved – we are in no way off the hook. Today is the day of the year that has more collect calls than any other – people communicating with their dad and making him pay for it. Well our heavenly father already paid for us – we must pursue our relationship with him – by spending time with him and talking to him. He is never too busy and we shouldn’t get too busy for him either.
Power of Sin vv. 13-14
Paul moves to the next possible objection – if the Law is good – can it bring death? Paul again reminds us that we should not allow that thought to even come to be.
Instead, Paul tells us that sin produces death in mankind by using the righteous commands to stir rebellion
Yet, the Law remains a blessing even as sin is revealed. Sin cannot get away or hide because the eternal word of the eternal God will never let sin hide
Even more – sin is not left to hide its true awfulness. While some might try to excuse sin or make light of it – the Law shows the true decadence – the true evil of all sin - & that sin must be measured by the One we sin against.
Even knowing what we know about the Law & sin – we are left in a lurch. The Law is spiritual (from God) while we remain in the flesh in some sense even after our salvation. We are redeemed, but we remain in a body of sin & death -& one that was only recently totally enslaved to sin.
Illustration:
I must admit to being a child of my generation. I like many other boys my age watched GI Joe every day after school. One of the things I heard each time I watched was that “Now you know, and knowing is half of the battle.”
Application:
The Law – the commandments – the word of God is a gift. Today on Father’s day our heavenly Father has already given us this gift. The word of God helps us know what sin is. Then we are confronted with our helplessness to keep God’s laws. The word of God offers the greatest gift of all – the revelation of the Savior who can pay our sin debt and make us right with God. Even more, that same savior promised to send us the Holy Spirit who lives in each and every believer with the power to keep God’s commands and to convict our hearts when we need to repent. Yes – there is a power in sin to plague our bodies until we are finally made whole in heaven – but the power of sin is not worth comparing to the power of Jesus to save us from sin.
So What Do We Do Now?
The Law is the standard. When people denounce the Law, they echo the godless who desire that their lives are not held to any higher standard. God’s standard helps us to know how to live to please him – which also is how we are to live to have true joy through our relationship with God
The Law is not bad. The Law is a tool to identify sin. The problem lies when we use such a tool in the wrong way. When we try to use the Law to save us – we’re using a flashlight as a life jacket. This is not about grace=good and law=bad. The Law is good in its God given role
The Law is a blessing in that it renders men aware of their sin & condemnation & therefore their need for God’s grace to save them.
Still, we must admit, sin gets hard to handle. It makes me mad that I still deal with sin every single day. Sometimes I feel mad at God for not making me perfect – even though he will perfect me one day and that will be in his perfect time. Mostly I get mad at me. I get frustrated that I must repent for the same stupid things over and over.
Well, Paul in his letters shows that as he matured in faith, his conscience became finer tuned to sin and finer tuned to his absolute need for grace.
If you have ever felt this way – read ahead in the letter (I hope we are all reading ahead and being taught by the Holy Spirit through the Book of Romans.) The final portion of this chapter will reveal that if we have ever been frustrated in our sin – Paul has been too
Finally, such frustration has an immediate cure – repentance. The best cure for sin is to quickly ask the forgiveness of God and his power to turn from the sin and to him. This gets said a lot. This is written in Scripture a lot. This is because we need to hear it…a lot. We have God to thank though that he gave us his standards. We have him to thank because when we failed to keep his standards he sent us Jesus. We have God to thank that his grace did not end with his word or his son (although what grace that is!) – but God’s grace continues to be given to us in abundance in the Holy Spirit who helps us keep the Law and helps us to make it right when we don’t…
Benediction
"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you." (2 Corinthians 13:14 NRSV)
Standards…principles…values…virtues…morals – sometimes it seems that the world has little of these things. That seems is actually a reality. To establish principles, values, morals, etc., we need an absolute by which to define them and to serve as a foundation for all morality. For the believer – we know that standard to be God himself. God in his mercy & grace has revealed himself and his will to us so that we have this foundation – we might refer to such as the Law. Yet in Christianity, it can be too easy to get confused about the Law’s role when the Bible specifically says we are not under the binding power of Law, but under grace. Paul in Romans is teaching us so that we need not be confused about the role of the Law in the lives of Christians…
Context:
In Romans, Paul has been dealing with the issue of sin. Specifically, he pointed out the possibility that people might excuse their sin by claiming to be under grace and not law. He countered by pointing out that while believers at one time were slaves to sin, now they are slaves to the one who saved them. While we were slaves to sin, our due was only death. Now that we are slaves to Christ, we receive the free gift of eternal life. Paul moved to clarifying the role of law and refute the idea that freedom in Christ could ever be used as a license to sin. We also found that the Law only has a binding effect on those who are not in Christ – meaning that the Law’s power is to condemn and we who are in Christ are no longer condemned. Now Paul moves to a possible response to his teachings concerning the Law…
Body – Romans 7:7-14 – ESV
The Law and Sin
7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
Purpose of the Law v. 7
So is the Law sin? Paul tells us again – it is not lawful to give birth to such a thought. After all, to believe the Law to be sin would be to call God a sinner. Because God gave the Law
Instead, Paul reminds us of the purpose of the Law – the Law shines a bright spotlight on sin. We know what sin is because the Law gives us the necessary scale to weigh it on – it gives us the standard to measure sin and the tool to expose it.
Paul gives us an example of the revealing power of the Law. God has revealed that coveting is a sin and with such a revelation we come to know what coveting is.
Side note: Why is coveting a sin? When we look at something we don’t have and lust after it, we are sinning against the person of God. We are denying that he is our good provider and is withholding joy from us. We also are confusing the blessing of his provision with the blessing of his person (we are valuing stuff above God.) Finally, we are saying that we do not believe that God can provide for us and we would do better on our own by pursuing what we lust for rather than pursuing the person of God.
As Paul moves into his example of coveting and the rest of this section, he is using himself and his experiences to explain the purpose of the Law. He explains how the Law was effective in convincing him of his sin. He wants us to identify with his example. Some identify with him in our own conversions from death to life in Christ. Others may identify with it as the Holy Spirit works in their lives convicting their hearts of sin as revealed by God’s word.
Illustration:
In light of Father’s day – I’d like to use the following example of why we need to know God’s Law and relate to it rightly – My house…my rules. Our heavenly father made all of this and us too – his creation…his rules.
Application:
The Law is our primary tool to know right from wrong. It would be sinful to reject God’s commandments by claiming to be under grace. For salvation’s sake – yes we are under grace and praise the Lord we are not under Law. But just because we have been saved by the Law-giver is no reason to reject his Laws. Part of our relationship with God is knowing what he has said – about himself, about us and how we are to live. Furthermore, as we grow in our relationship to the Father and mature in our faith – we do what many kids do after they grow up – we begin to understand the rules better – and we know they were given in love not to ruin our lives or hamper our fun – but to give us all the good things in life our loving father wanted us to have
Product of Sin vv. 8-12
While a contrasting word like “But” can provide relief from bad news – here the but takes us from the revelation of God to mankind’s rebellion
The power of sin is not subdued or conquered by the revelation of the Law. Instead, sin finds opportunity in stirring our fallen nature to pursue sin – even when the sin has been clearly identified. In fact, according to Paul’s choice of words here, sin manages to form a base of operations in the fallen nature of man and his rebellious nature.
Apart from the Law and our fallen response to it – sin lies dormant – the potential to sin is there, but the rebel heart needs something to rebel against
The response of all mankind is that of rebellion. And while we might think that when God speaks, people would bow their hearts and lives to him, the opposite is the truth. When natural man is confronted with the Law of God the response is to wallow in sin – which leads to death
The Law is clear that obedience to God is required and rewarded – but the Law still lacks any power to help any person actually keep it
Because of the origin of the Law is the Holy God – the Law is holy – it is sinless and opposed to sin. The Law is righteous – it reveals openly to all people how to be right with God. The Law is good – by revealing what is morally good, we also know what is morally wrong.
Illustration:
I would think that most of us would be willing to admit we had times of rebellion against our parents and their rules. Some of us had a harder time with rebellion than others. As an adult I marvel that my mother didn’t just snuff me out for my various crimes against her.
Application:
Our fallen nature, inherited from Adam gives us a rebel’s heart. Rules can be a sore temptation for a rebellious heart. Rules and laws on earth have never put an end to any crime. That’s because the laws of the land have no power in them to help us obey. The Law of God does not have the power to empower our obedience either. The Law’s job is to reveal the crime. In working with kids, there is an adage that “rules without relationship equals rebellion.” The relationship in question here is ours with our heavenly Father. If there is any break in the relationship – it is not his doing. He provides a savior for us so we can be his children. He then provides the Holy Spirit and a new heart so that we are able to please him and obey him. Let’s be clear, the power of sin can only be conquered by the Savior. Even if God gave only one command – people would still rebel at every opportunity. The answer is to have the relationship with God that is possible only through Jesus Christ. For those of us who have been saved – we are in no way off the hook. Today is the day of the year that has more collect calls than any other – people communicating with their dad and making him pay for it. Well our heavenly father already paid for us – we must pursue our relationship with him – by spending time with him and talking to him. He is never too busy and we shouldn’t get too busy for him either.
Power of Sin vv. 13-14
Paul moves to the next possible objection – if the Law is good – can it bring death? Paul again reminds us that we should not allow that thought to even come to be.
Instead, Paul tells us that sin produces death in mankind by using the righteous commands to stir rebellion
Yet, the Law remains a blessing even as sin is revealed. Sin cannot get away or hide because the eternal word of the eternal God will never let sin hide
Even more – sin is not left to hide its true awfulness. While some might try to excuse sin or make light of it – the Law shows the true decadence – the true evil of all sin - & that sin must be measured by the One we sin against.
Even knowing what we know about the Law & sin – we are left in a lurch. The Law is spiritual (from God) while we remain in the flesh in some sense even after our salvation. We are redeemed, but we remain in a body of sin & death -& one that was only recently totally enslaved to sin.
Illustration:
I must admit to being a child of my generation. I like many other boys my age watched GI Joe every day after school. One of the things I heard each time I watched was that “Now you know, and knowing is half of the battle.”
Application:
The Law – the commandments – the word of God is a gift. Today on Father’s day our heavenly Father has already given us this gift. The word of God helps us know what sin is. Then we are confronted with our helplessness to keep God’s laws. The word of God offers the greatest gift of all – the revelation of the Savior who can pay our sin debt and make us right with God. Even more, that same savior promised to send us the Holy Spirit who lives in each and every believer with the power to keep God’s commands and to convict our hearts when we need to repent. Yes – there is a power in sin to plague our bodies until we are finally made whole in heaven – but the power of sin is not worth comparing to the power of Jesus to save us from sin.
So What Do We Do Now?
The Law is the standard. When people denounce the Law, they echo the godless who desire that their lives are not held to any higher standard. God’s standard helps us to know how to live to please him – which also is how we are to live to have true joy through our relationship with God
The Law is not bad. The Law is a tool to identify sin. The problem lies when we use such a tool in the wrong way. When we try to use the Law to save us – we’re using a flashlight as a life jacket. This is not about grace=good and law=bad. The Law is good in its God given role
The Law is a blessing in that it renders men aware of their sin & condemnation & therefore their need for God’s grace to save them.
Still, we must admit, sin gets hard to handle. It makes me mad that I still deal with sin every single day. Sometimes I feel mad at God for not making me perfect – even though he will perfect me one day and that will be in his perfect time. Mostly I get mad at me. I get frustrated that I must repent for the same stupid things over and over.
Well, Paul in his letters shows that as he matured in faith, his conscience became finer tuned to sin and finer tuned to his absolute need for grace.
If you have ever felt this way – read ahead in the letter (I hope we are all reading ahead and being taught by the Holy Spirit through the Book of Romans.) The final portion of this chapter will reveal that if we have ever been frustrated in our sin – Paul has been too
Finally, such frustration has an immediate cure – repentance. The best cure for sin is to quickly ask the forgiveness of God and his power to turn from the sin and to him. This gets said a lot. This is written in Scripture a lot. This is because we need to hear it…a lot. We have God to thank though that he gave us his standards. We have him to thank because when we failed to keep his standards he sent us Jesus. We have God to thank that his grace did not end with his word or his son (although what grace that is!) – but God’s grace continues to be given to us in abundance in the Holy Spirit who helps us keep the Law and helps us to make it right when we don’t…
Benediction
"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you." (2 Corinthians 13:14 NRSV)
