Deceived

Deceived Romans 7:10-11

Presumption that brought Deception v. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me

Paul thought that he was justified before God by his obedience to the law. (Phil 3:4-6 as to righteousness under the law blameless.) Paul had trusted the Law to give him eternal life, but in the end, all the Law could deliver was condemnation, death and an eternity in Hell! The Law cannot save! Keeping lists of do's and don’ts cannot save. The Law can be the instrument God uses to bring us to life, but the Law itself can never give life! (Carr)

The law was intended to produce life, or happiness. Life here means felicity, peace, eternal bliss (John 3:36). The Old Testament speaks of the Law in this manner, Lev 18:5, Duet 6:25, Ezek18:9, 21; 20:11, 13,20. Jesus affirms the same thing in the New Testament (Luke10:28 do this and live). The Law is good; it has no evil, and is itself suited to produce no evil. So, if a man was pure, and the Law was obeyed perfectly (Gal 3:12, James 2:10) it would produce life and happiness. It was ordained for this; it is adapted to it; and when perfectly obeyed, it produces no other effect. But, man is a sinner; he has not obeyed it; and in such a case the Law threatens woe. It crosses this inclination of man, and instead of producing peace and life, as it would on a being perfectly holy, it produces only woe and crime. (Barnes)

The Law does provide for us a demonstration of what true spiritual life looks like. These are the things that God says will produce a blessed life. The purpose of the Law was to show you what a blessed life is. Do this and live. Do this and be blessed. Deut 27:28, Here's My law, do what it says, you'll be blessed." That is, this commandment was ordained (promised) to show you what full, rich, blessed life is. And it's still that way. When you now read any of God's Law, you know that it is telling you what God wants you to do so you can be blessed. (Prov 3:1-2, Deut 30:15-20) There is nothing wrong with the Law (Rom 7:12). It is a reflection of God's holy nature and if obeyed, produces blessing. The Law shows us righteousness. But there's nothing we can do to keep the Law and therein lies the problem. “The commandment which was the way of life, the path of life, ordained to life, this is how to really live, proved to result only in death for me." It was designed to be the path of life, but it killed me, it destroyed me because I could not keep it. And that is the whole point of preaching the Law, to demonstrate to the sinner his true condition as dead. And in his desperation hopefully to turn to the only remedy, of course, coming in Jesus Christ. (Mac Arthur). v. 10 Two things are stated here — that the commandment shows to us a way of life in the righteousness of God, and that it was given in order that we by keeping the law of the Lord might obtain eternal life, except our corruption stood in the way (Rom 3:9-20, 23). But as none of us obey the law, but, on the contrary, are carried headlong on our feet and hands into that kind of life from which it recalls us, it can bring us nothing but death. (Calvin).

The law was designed and adapted to secure life, but became in fact the cause of death. Life and death, as here opposed, are figurative terms. Life includes the ideas of happiness

and holiness. The law was designed to make men happy and holy. Death, on the other hand, includes the ideas of misery and sin. The law became, through no fault of its own, the means of rendering the apostle miserable and sinful. How vain therefore is it to expect salvation from the law, since all the law does, in its operation on the unrenewed heart, is to condemn and to awaken opposition! It cannot change the nature of man. (Hodge). , Paul found himself condemned by that law from which he had expected life, for, though it could not justify a sinner, it was powerful to condemn him. It then destroyed all the hope he had founded on it, and showed him that he was obnoxious to the curse which it pronounces on all transgressors (Haldane)

Paul speaks as though perfect obedience, if it were possible, would actually lead to life. But when we look into the law, we soon recognize that perfectly obeying the law is an impossible supposition for fallen creatures, even though it is still held out to us as the only way to eternal life. This Covenant of Works, expressly teaches that eternal life would have been the result of perfect obedience. (Lev 18:5; Deut 30:15; Ezek 20:11; Matt 19:17; Rom 2:6-7; 7:10; 10:5; Gal 3:12). This knowledge leads us to despair in ourselves. But thanks be to God, for Christians, Christ has fulfilled the provisions of this covenant on our behalf successfully once for all, and we receive the benefits of it no longer by perfect obedience but in our trusting in the merits of Christ’s work. In fact, if a Christian today were to think of themselves as obligated to try to earn God’s favor by obedience they would be cut off from all hope of salvation for then we would be required to obey the whole law in all its particulars. (Gal. 3:10–12). (John Hendryx) The purpose of the commandment had indeed been to bring life; yes, life everlasting. It was true from the beginning and has always remained true that loving God with all of one's heart, soul, mind and strength, and loving the neighbor as one loves himself brings life, salvation (William Hendricksen). Christ perfectly obeyed the covenant of works (law) for us since he committed no sin (1 Pet 2:22) but completely obeyed God on our behalf (Rom. 5:18–19). Since we all have a sinful nature, we are not able to fulfill the provisions of the covenant of works (Law) on our own and receive its benefits—as this covenant applies to people directly, it only brings punishments... Christians have been freed from the covenant of works by virtue of Christ’s work and their inclusion in the new covenant, the covenant of grace." (Wayne Grudem) God's commands promise eternal life if one keeps them; and yet they lead to death, since everyone violates what God ordains (ESV)

The Problem of Deception 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.

Gk exapatao means deceived, to lose your way (Robertson). The word means to lead or seduce from the right way; and then to deceive, solicit to sin, cause to err from the way of virtue, (Rom 16:18; 1 Cor 3:18);, It is an obvious reference to Eve's temptation, which is regarded as representing ours (2 Cor 11:3). The view of the origin of human sin presented to us in Genesis is that man at first lived at peace with God; but that the commandment," Thou shalt not eat of it, lest thou die," was taken advantage of by the "serpent" inspiring sinful lust; and that so the commandment (i.e. law), though in itself holy, became the occasion of sin, and of death as its consequence; and further, that all this came about through delusion. The thing desired was not really good for man; but the desire inspired by the tempter caused it to seem so. One great purpose of regenerating grace is to dispel this delusion; to bring us back to the true view of things as they are, and so to peace with God. Thus, in part, this is taught us to regard the inscrutable mystery of sin, and the remedy for it in Christ. (Pulpit commentary). The metaphor is taken from a robber who leads a man into some by-path and then murders him. The word principally denotes an innate faculty of deceiving. The meaning here seems to be, that Paul’s corrupt and rebellious propensities, excited by the Law, led him astray; caused him more and more to sin; practiced a species of deception on him by urging him on headlong, and without deliberation, into aggravated transgression. In this sense, all sinners are deceived. Their passions urge them on, deluding them, and leading them further and further from happiness, and involving them, before they are aware, in crime and death. (Prov 7:21-23, James 1:12-17). (Biblical Illustrator) The “ek” is intensive: ‘It completely deceived me, or disappointed my expectations.' How? By leading the apostle to expect one thing, while he experienced another. He expected life, and found death. He expected happiness, and found misery; he looked for holiness, and found increased corruption. He fancied that by the law all these desirable ends could be secured, when its operation was discovered to produce the directly opposite effects. Sin therefore deceived by the commandment, and by it slew him, instead of its being to him the source of holiness and blessedness. (Hodge).

Sin is very deceptive. How does sin deceive? By leading us to expect one thing and experiencing another. What did Paul expect from the Law? Well he's a Jew, a self-righteous Jew and a Pharisee, he's doing his best to keep the Law, to obey the Law the superficial way they had interpreted the Law and he's expecting then to get life from the Law. He's expecting that the Law is going to result in true spiritual and eternal life for him cause he's working real hard to keep the Law. But instead, v10, it proves to result only in death for him because sin deceived me. He expected to get out of his effort of law-keeping, life and all he got was death. He expected happiness, all he got was misery. He expected holiness and all he got was corruption. He felt like all people who want to work their way to heaven that all the desirable spiritual goals were available through the Law, if he just kept the Law and did what the Law said. When he learned the truth that he couldn't keep the Law and all the Law did was kill him, then he knew he had been deceived. The exceeding deceitfulness of sin is that it makes people think they can please God on their own. The most deadly sin of all sins is the deadly sin of thinking you can earn your salvation. That will damn you every time. Sin...the pride of sin...makes people think they can please God on their own and that's the deception. "I'm okay, I'll be okay, I'm religious, I'm good." Paul's case, "I'm a Pharisee of the Pharisees, zealous for the Law, blameless before the Law." The Law can't save you but it can condemn you. The Law can't make you happy, but it can make you miserable. Sin will deceive you into thinking that you can be alive to God through the Law. Satan wants people to think that. Satan. He is the master at deception. He makes people think that they're going to be okay with God because they're basically keeping some level of the Law. And all the Law does is destroy and kill the sinner. And that's a good work because it shows the sinner that he has been deceived. Paul had lived a life of being deceived. (Mac Arthur).

Sin’s nature, like Satan’s, is to deceive (Rev 12:9). Eve was seduced by Satan through the commandment (Gen 3:1-6). Sin seduces men to break the law, it persuades men that they are able to keep it. A man’s case is never worse than when expecting heaven from his works. Israel was thus deceived (Rom 10:3); and the Pharisee (Luke 18:11).(T. Robinson, D. D.)

Sin deceives:

1) By blinding our understandings (Rom 1:21-22; Eph 4:18). This blindness of the mind consists in ignorance of God and of our own interests, giving us light thoughts toward sin, 2) By misusing the law. It persuades us that nothing matters but actions, and that desires, imaginations and so on do not count at all. It persuades us to believe that if we have not performed an actual evil deed we remain free from sin. As long as I’m not committing these actions, I am keeping the law and I therefore justifying myself in the eyes of God (Jones).

3) By making sin very attractive. It allures with the specious prospect of riches, but it steals away our best treasure; it flatters us with hopes of honor and happiness, but rewards with disgrace and misery; it premises liberty, but binds us with fetters stronger than iron (Prov 16:25, Gen 3:5 your eyes will be open) (J. Stafford.)

4) By turning aside our thoughts from the punishment of sin. Sin deceives us about results and ends; it assures us that nothing unpleasant is going to happen. (Gen 3:4 you will not surely die),

5) By presenting God as our enemy It makes us feel like God has put unreasonable demands on us in the Law. That it is narrow and restrictive, prohibiting everything that we like and urging us to do things that we don’t like. (Gen 3:1 did God actually say?).

6) By making us feel hopeless in our failure. This drives us to feel there is no point in continuing to try to defeat sin. So, we conclude we might as well sin again and again and again. It persuades us that it no longer matters (Jones)

Product of Deception

Where sin has deceived it will also kill, either here or hereafter. It caused in Paul a state of aggravated condemnation. It delivered him over to eternal death, so that the more he reflected upon it, the more was he convinced that he had been grossly imposed upon by the fascinating power of sin (Job 20:12-14; Pro 20:17; Pro 6:32-33; James 3:15). Achan thought to obtain a goodly prize; but how did sin wound his conscience and at length slay his soul! Josh 7:1-26) (J. Stafford.)

Sin had taken the opportunity the Law had given it in the life of Paul and had lulled him into believing that a life lived keeping the Law was a life that would be saved. Paul came to realize that a life lived under the demands of the Law was nothing more than a living death. When Paul saw the truth of his situation, he threw off his dependence upon the Law and embraced Jesus as the only means of his soul's salvation. Those who try to good their way to God, need to know now that it will never work! The Law must be abandoned for the Prince of Life! (Carr)