Free from the Law: Romans 7:10-13 Introduction This morning we are in a segment of Romans chapter 7 o where Paul takes a brief moment to defend the integrity of the law. In verses 7-13 Paul makes the case o that the problem is not with the law but with sin. In our last lesson o we covered the first half of this passage. Today we will cover the second half of it. In this passage, Paul presents sin o as a domineering evil tyrant that abuses and exploits the law in order to accomplish its own o negative purpose. It distorts the law and uses the law o for a purpose much lower than the purpose for which God has instituted the law. o God made the law for good but sin has used it for evil. Consider the Garden of Eden. o God established a law in the garden. The law was that Adam and Eve o could not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. o The law was placed there for their own protection, for their own good. o It was intended to preserve them. Satan, however, used the law o to plant the seeds of doubt in Adam and Eve s heart o and to provoke them to violate the law. He suggested to Eve
o that God only restricted that particular tree from them because he was keeping the best for himself. o God was holding some good thing back from Adam and Eve. o Satan used the law to encourage the sin. Paul s point in this passage o is that this does not mean that the law, itself, is a bad thing. o The law was placed there for a good purpose o and the law, because of its relationship to God, is holy, righteous, and good. Once again this week I am going to read the whole passage, then we will pick up where we left off last time. Text: Romans 7:7-13 7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. 8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence (Kon-Ku-pi-scents). For without the law sin was dead. 9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. 12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. 13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. Exposition 10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. This is a brief, single sentence and the meaning of it is pretty forthright. o The law was ordained to life.
That was the original purpose for the law. o It was designed to teach us how to live a life that was pleasing to God. Leviticus 18:5 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord. God s law was originally intended to bring life. o If a man obeyed the law he would maintain a right relationship with God and live in the blessings of God s presence. However, that which was ordained to life o actually brought death instead. Life was the intended purpose but death was the actual result. o And the culprit was sin. o The sin nature caused us to violate the law and when we violated the law o we became subject to the death penalty. The law can bring life only if it is perfectly obeyed. o But, according to Ecclesiastes 7:20 there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not. o Until Jesus Christ, there was no perfect man, so the law was never perfectly obeyed. Therefore its result was the opposite o of what it was intended for. Sin used the law to bring death instead of life. The reason for this is simple. o The law is black and white, it allows no room for mercy. Once a man has transgressed the law in one point o he has transgressed the law on every point, because the law only sees guilt or innocence. The innocent receive life and the guilty receive death.
o The law had no means by which to restore a sinner back to a state of righteousness. o The law had no means by which to overcome even a single transgression of the law. Galatians 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. The law was intended to bring life o but that life hinged on obedience in all points. From the moment that sin deceived Eve o and the sin nature took root in human flesh, that was impossible. Every man would sin and fall short. o And by the very nature of the law, once the law was violated, at any point, it condemned the violator to death. o That s how the law brought death instead of life. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Verse 11 turns back to the personification of sin o and picks back up a theme that we discussed last time. Sin is like an assassin lying in wait to kill us. o Its only desire is our death. Sin, however, is an assassin without a weapon. o It had no means by which to carry out its attack against us, until the law came. When the law came, o even though it was given for our good, sin saw it as an opportunity to destroy us so it tricked us into disobeying God s law. Sin took occasion by the commandment. It deceived me. And it slew me. Sin took advantage of the law
and used it to kill me. The point here is that the culprit is sin, not the law. o Sin is the enemy that attacked me and killed me. The law was only the instrument that sin used to accomplish o this terrible deed. Sin caused my death, o not the law. Notice how sin uses the law. o Sin deceived me. The word for deceived o is the same word that Paul used in 2 Corinthians 11: 3 when he said that the serpent beguiled Eve. Sin s attack on eve was not straightforward. o The serpent twisted the word of God, and deceived Eve into believing that God was withholding o some good thing for himself. Sin suggested that eating the fruit o would make Adam and Eve like God, put them on the same level as God o and that God was trying to subjugate them, to keep them lower than him, so he could lord over them. The whole argument was built on lies. o None of it was true. But Sin deceived Eve. o It caused her to resent God for denying her something that was both desirable o and beneficial. As a side note, that is always how sin works. o Sin works through deception. It presents half-truths. o It makes its tempting suggestions by presenting you with a lie
wrapped in a partial truth. God was, indeed, aware o of the distinction between good and evil, an awareness that Adam and Eve didn t have o and, in the sense that they would share a common awareness of good and evil, partaking of the fruit o would certainly give Adam and Eve something in common with God. That is the half-truth. o The deception is that they would become like God. The suggestion was that they would be like God in every way. o Eat this fruit and you will become God s peer, you will be elevated from this lowly plain of existence that you live on now o to that higher plain of existence o where God lives. o That was not true. But that was the heart of the deception. Sin promises benefits that it cannot deliver. o While it is true that Sin often has some immediate, short-term, benefit, a temporary moment of pleasure o that endures for a season. o Sin also has a long-term curse. But sin never presents the curse, only the pleasure. Sin always presents itself o as a convenient way to get what you want, to meet some need within you. It never presents the other side. o It never exposes the bondage that comes along with it. Sin beguiles, it deceives, o it causes you to think that, of all the people in the world, you are the one person that will escape the bondage.
o Sin seductively convinces you that you, alone, will enjoy the pleasure of a momentary experience with sin o and reap no long-term effects. o But the whole suggestion is built on a lie. Before the government began o to crack down on cigarette advertising, preachers would often use the Marlboro man to make this point. o The billboards and magazine ads would show images of a robust cowboy smoking a cigarette but they would never show that same cowboy a few years later after lung cancer o has taken its toll on him. o Sin never tells you the whole truth. Sin brought death to Adam and Eve through its deception. o That was the end result of the temptation. And, in the long run, the cost of sin was much higher o than the perceived benefit of a momentary pleasure. o That s the heart of sin s deception. 12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. In verse 7 Paul asked the question: Is the law sin? o In verse 12 he gives the definitive answer to the question, based on the previous verses. o The conclusion of the matter is that law is not sin. The law is holy, just and good. o All three of these attributes, which are assigned to the law, are attributes of God. God is the author o and the source of the law and the nature of the law is influenced by the nature of God. The law reflects the character of God.
First it is holy. o To be holy, in a moral sense, means to be totally separate from sin, to be the polar opposite o of that which is unholy. o God is holy in every way and the law that he created shares his holiness. o It cannot be sin because it is the opposite of sin. It stands as far away from sin as possible. Secondly, it is just. o To say that God is just means that his actions means that his actions always are in perfect conformity o with his nature. o The law is just in that if a man obeys it he will put himself in conformity o with the nature of God. o The law was about defining for us how God wants us to live. Conformity with the law o is conformity with the nature of God. The law is just because, o if it were obeyed, it would produce a just life, or a life in conformity with God. Finally the law is good. o God s goodness is expressed in his kindness and goodwill towards us. o God desires only what is best for us. The law is good in the sense that it was intended for our benefit, o not our detriment. The purpose of the law was good, o if it was obeyed it would bring life, not death.
If the law was embraced and fulfilled, o everything that it would produce in our lives would be good for us, therefore the law is good. 13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. Paul starts this final verse with a follow up question. o Having reached the conclusion that the law is good, o he asks again if that which was good somehow became evil. He then answers that question rather emphatically. o We cannot blame the law for our spiritual death. It was Sin, not the law, that caused our death. Throughout this passage o and throughout the two weeks we have taken to discuss it, we have portrayed sin o as a killer whose weapon was the law. o Sin killed us and it used the law to do it. It makes no sense to blame the law for our death. The law was just the tool, o but sin was the culprit. We can no more blame the law for our death o than we can blame the gun that an assassin might use to kill someone. o The assassin is the killer, the gun is just the tool. o We cannot place blame on the gun, the blame belongs to the killer. If a drunk driver has a wreck o and takes an innocent life, we do not blame the car that he was driving for the death, o we blame the driver. He is the guilty party.
The law is good. o It is not responsible for our death. Sin is. o Sin uses the law as a weapon, but it is sin that actually causes spiritual death. How is the law good, then, if sin can use it to kill us? o The law is good because it gives us the knowledge of what sin is. o The assassin hides in the dark, he conceals himself, his stealth is his main weapon. The law, however, shines the light on sin. o It reveals sin. It makes us aware of what sin is. Not only does it identify sin, o but by assigning a penalty for sin, it demonstrates for us the wrongness of sin. The law shows us what sin is o and it shows us the horror of what sin does. Sin demands death. We learn that from the law. The law is good in that o it reveals the definition of sin, the sinfulness of sin and the results of sin, which is death. When we truly learn these lessons from the law, o then we become totally committed to overcoming sin. We turn to God in repentance o and use the power of the Spirit to conquer sin on a daily basis. For example, if we truly understand o how much God loves truth and hates lies and how much lying pollutes us spiritually, o then we will not see lying as just a minor social indiscretion. Instead we will see it
o as the horrible sin that it really is. The law is good because it reveals the sinfulness of sin. o We would have no idea of what it means to be holy if we didn t have the law as a definition of righteousness. We can t even begin to strive o to live a righteous life until we see sin for what it is. The law makes sin appear to be sin. o It sheds the light on it. But it goes a step beyond that. It also reveals the horror of sin. o It exposes sin as a killer. The law makes us see sin and reveals it as exceedingly sinful. When we recognize the utter sinfulness of sin, o the depth of its perverseness and ungodliness, then we are compelled to strive to live better than that, to live in a way that is pleasing to God. When we truly recognize the sinfulness of sin, o it compels us to strive for righteousness. CLOSE In the end, even though the law o was used by sin to bring about our spiritual death. The law itself is holy, just and good, o because the law reveals to us the sinfulness of sin. It causes us to see sin for what it is o and when we truly see the evil nature of sin it should repulse us o and cause us to turn towards God. For instance, a man cannot truly repent o until he sees the utter sinfulness of sin. As long as a man thinks his sin is excusable, o or justifiable,
then his repentance will never be genuine. In order to truly repent, o we must first fully accept the wrongfulness of what we have done. We must see sin as sin. It s the story of the kid with their hand caught in the cookie jar. o More often than not they are sorry they got caught, not sorry that they were trying to get the cookie. True repentance doesn t happen o until we truly recognize that what we have done has driven a wedge between God and us, o that it has robbed us of spiritual life. Once we recognize that, o then we genuinely repent and are compelled to make a change in our lives. Repentance is a lot more o than just saying I m sorry. Repentance is about making a change. In order to make a change, o you have to see the need for a change. The goodness of the law is that it enables us to see the need for a change.