Romans 7:7 The Nature of the Law
7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means!
12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
Not only is it not sin, and not only is it holy, and not only is it righteous or just, but it is also good. The law is not sin, because it makes us know sin. It exposes sin as sin (Piper). The Law came from the Lord and therefore cannot be evil (Carr) The law is not sin (Rom. 6:2; 7:15). The law is itself "holy, righteous, and good" (Rom. 7:12). It displays the very character of God. The law reveals what God, who is "holy, righteous, and good," demands. Through the law the Christian discovers what sin is from God's perspective. (Third Millennium) So far from the law being evil, it is the source, and the only source of the knowledge of sin. I had not known sin, but by the law. Where there is no knowledge of the law, there can be no consciousness of sin; for sin is want of conformity to the law (1 John 3:4). If, therefore, the standard of right is not known, there can be no apprehension of our want of conformity to it. (Hodge). The Law is not evil, but that it is righteous. It defines sin by establishing the righteous standard. The Law cannot redeem, the Law cannot save the Law is not sinful, rather the Law sets such a perfect, holy standard that it becomes clear to us what sin is. (Mc Arthur).
The Need for the Law 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."
The Law Reveals sin v. 7 I would not have known sin
The Law is not sin! On the contrary, the Law helps me know my sin. And this knowing is a holy thing. This knowing my sin is a righteous thing. This knowing my sin and myself as a sinner is a good thing. (Piper).
Sin produced coveting. . . there is something beneath the sin of coveting, which is producing coveting. And that something he calls sin. He treats it like a power – almost like a person. It looks for opportunities – it will even look in God's holy law – and then uses those opportunities to produces sins like covetousness.
That deeper thing that produces sins is . . . our "sinful condition." . . . our depravity. You could call it our fallenness. Believers could call it our "remaining corruption." Paul simply calls it sin. But he makes it clear that it is deeper and more pervasive and productive than the sins that it produces, like covetousness
. . . we get to know sin – our deep sinful condition – by getting to know the sins that our sinful condition produces. And we get to know those sins and that connection with sin through the law. "I would not have come to know sin [my sinful condition] except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting [which is what this sinful condition produces v 8] if the Law had not said, "you shall not covet."
Here we find two different Gk words the first is epithumia (epi in and thumos mind) is the active lust or desire which is better translated “lust” then covet. It is attitude, desire or impulse. This is closely connected with Gk pathos which is the souls condition out of which desires spring (Mark 4:19, Jude 1:16). The other word is epithumeo (epithumēseis) it means more the action of coveting something. To have the affections or desire directed toward anything, to long after, to desire – it can be desires we should have (Heb 6:11,Matt 13:17, Luke 22:15, 1 Pet 1:12) ) or desires we should not have (Matt 5:28, Rom 7:7, 13:9, James 4;2). Covetousness is desire that we should not have – desire that shows we have
lost our contentment in all that God is for us in Christ. Many desires reflect how valuable God is for us. And those are good. But some desires show that we have lost our satisfaction in God and what he is for us, and are yearning for other things to make up for the fact that God is not the treasure for us that he ought to be (Piper)
At times we find ourselves walking according to the creaturely aspect of yourself apart from the rule of God (according to the flesh –Rom 8-4-8) rather than according to the Spirit. It is the redirection of desires away from it’s intended end and it becomes master. The pull of the passion always promises a resolution of the “burning”. But the passions are a lure. Unless they find resolution in the way God designed . . . they are perpetually unsatisfied. Ultimately, then, the desires always search for fulfilment, never fining it, gain mastery over you (2 Pet 2:19). Your passions are at war within you because they desire and do not have, you covet and cannot obtain (James 4:1-2). There is no upper limit to fame that can ever satisfy those who crave it. There is no monetary figure at which those who long for financial success will ever be willing to say that enough. There is no orgasm that feels good enough to last you a lifetime. As temptation moves onward and inward, you become “insatiable for sin” (2 (Peter 2:14) and You’re caught. (Russell Moore Tempted and Tried)
To desire to sin is sin. You can sin in your imagination, in your thoughts. That is as much sin as the act. There are obviously differents in consequences, but in the sight of God the one is sin just as much as the other (Matt 5:28). When I really understand the meaning of the law then I understand the truth about lust. I can see that the act of lust is as reprehensible as to commit, that desire is as damnable as the deed. (Jones).
The word “know’ means” to know as the result of reflection. He is saying, I would never have understood and come to feel in the depth of my being and have full understanding and experience of the meaning of lust, and the part lust plays in a man’s life apart from the law. It brought him to see not only that lust was a sin, but the terrible power of lust in his own life. (Jones).
. . . before the law calls it sin by prohibiting it. It's there. It works. We experience it. But we don't see it as sin. It's dead in our minds as sin. We don't see our sinful condition. We don't see our desires as illegitimate – unless a law has come in to call us into question. The law helps us to know our sinful condition because it tells us that our own desires are not the measure of right and wrong. Our own desires are not the measure of what is good and bad. Our own desires are not the measure of what is true and false. The law comes in and says, there is a standard outside us and above us, namely God and his revealed will. God is the measure of right and wrong, . . .of what is good and bad. . . . of what is true and false. That's what the law does. It tells us this. It contradicts the sovereignty, the deity, of my desires. Until the law comes, our desires are our law. We come into the world assuming that we ought to get what we want to have. Until the law comes, "want to" equals "ought to" – "desire" equals "deserve." This is very obvious in children, and they must learn that there is another law besides the law of their own desire. This is what God's law does: it exposes the sinful condition beneath all our desires for what it is. It is independence from God, rebellion against God. At root, our sinful condition is the commitment to be our own god: I will be god to me. Or I will make sure the god I have is the kind of god who never vetoes my legislation. That is, I will be the final authority in my life. I will decide what is right and wrong for me, and what is good and bad for me, and what is true and false for me. And my desires will express my sovereignty, my autonomy, and – though we don't usually say it – my deity. (Piper).
Removes Security Phil 3:3-11
Before Paul was a believer he followed the teaching of the Pharisees. He thought of sin only in terms of external actions. As long as a man did not perform and evil act, he was not guilty of sin. An evil desire, they said, was not sin; it only becomes sin when a man does the thing, carries out the desire; but desire in and of itself is not sinful. Until he fully understood the law he never realized that desires, coveting, lusts, evil thoughts and imaginations, were sin. They had reduced the commitment which prohibits adultery to the mere physical act, and again they imagined that, as long as they were not guilty of the act its, the command had nothing to say to them and they were perfectly innocent (Jones). Matt 5:21-30 “he has already committed” Lust is sinful in and of itself. (Jones).
It was the law that brought home to Paul the reality of sin. For instance, had the law not said, "Do not covet" (Exod 20:17; Deut 5:21), Paul would never have known what coveting really was. Law defines sin. Apart from law sin exists but cannot be designated as "sin." Without restriction there is nothing to break. Law provides the opportunity for sin's nefarious activity. Sin seizes the opportunity and arouses within a person through the commandment all manner of evil desire. But the law is intended to discover sin to us in its true colours—Like a perfect rule, it leads to a discovery of our smallest obliquities. When applied to our motives, and principles, and to the manner and measure of our duties, it shews us that our very best actions are extremely defective. Thus it plucks up by the roots all conceit of our own goodness, and causes us to lie low before God as miserable sinners (McArthur). And our only hope is that the Holy Spirit of God would humble us, so that we can see the folly of trying to be our own god and treating our own desires as law
I myself when I put my life up against the Law of God found out that I was a sinner. And, of course, this is where the path of salvation begins and continues there. The path of sanctification and the life of a believer is a direct reaction to the Law. How do you know you're falling short of what God wants you to be? Because you know what the standard is. I...Paul says...with regard to my own personal sinfulness became aware of what a wretched sinner I am because of my exposure to the Law. Everybody who comes to Christ comes the same path, you come because you've been exposed to the Law of God and you see yourself for who you really are, you see the reality of your sin in its depth. The Law reveals that reality. Paul thought that he was doing pretty well on the outside, but he knew there were things, illicit things that he coveted on the inside. And when he really came to grips with the tenth commandment, when the Spirit of God brought that to bear upon his life and produced conviction, he knew that his heart was unclean and filled with evil desire. The Law then reveals sin. That's why it's so critical. It's the only way you can come to salvation and it's the only way you can stay on the path of sanctification (Mc Arthur). The whole purpose of the law is to show the exceeding sinfulness of sin (Jones).
Renders us helpless Rom 3:19-20 the Law shuts every moth and shows us that we are accountable to God, Gal 3:22, it imprisons all men under sin Gal 3:10-12. Deut 27:26 So no one is justified by the Law before God because no one can keep all those Laws all the time. So v 11, "The righteous man shall live by faith." 12, "The Law is not of faith, on the contrary, he who practices them shall live by them." If you're going to try to get to heaven and get to God by the Law, you have to keep the Law perfectly and if you break the Law anywhere, you're cursed. What a horrible burden. What an unthinkable burden (McArthur).
, "The Law, although it cannot secure either the justification or the sanctification of men, performs an essential part in the economy of salvation. It enlightens conscience, it secures its verdict against a multitude of evils that we should not otherwise have recognized as sins. It arouses sin, in increases its power and making it both in itself and in our consciousness exceedingly sinful. It therefore produces that state of mind which is a necessary preparation for the reception of the gospel. Before the gospel can be embraced as a means of deliverance from sin, we must feel that we are deeply involved in corruption and misery." And further he says, "If our religious experience does not correspond with that, as detailed in the Scripture, we cannot be true Christians. Unless we have felt as Paul felt, we have not the religion of Paul and cannot expect to share his eternal reward. (Charles Hodge). What is the typical attitude that people have toward their condition? Oh, I do some bad things but God couldn't send a good person like me to hell, He just couldn't. I think my good things overbalance my bad things. I'm very religious, I try to not harm people, etc. You've heard it all. But when a person comes face to face with a full reality of God's moral Law, sin is seen for what it really is, and this is what is absolutely necessary to drive a person to salvation. Continuing exposure to the holy Law of God through the pages of Scripture is what drives the saved person toward sanctification. We must preach the Law to bring sinners under conviction that they might be saved and we must uphold the Law to bring Christians under conviction that they might pursue the path of sanctification. The whole effort of the Law comes down to this, it is to bring men into the sense of their sin so that they know they need to be saved and they know they need to be sanctified. (Mc Arthur).
Redirects us to Christ
There is One who has fulfilled the demands of the law. His obedience and righteousness will avail for us. Have we fled to him as the fulfiller of the law for us? Have we take refuge in him who bore its curse for us? Do we see the need of him to “bear the iniquity of our holy things?” Let us then bless God for such a Savior, and “cleave to him with full purpose of heart (Simeon) We have to take the sinner, turn him face to face to the Law, and make him see the standard of perfect righteousness. By this, people understand their sin and they understand the consequence of their sin and the helplessness in which they exist. When this conviction of sin is absent, conversion is usually false. The initial objective for evangelism is not to get people to be attracted to Jesus. The initial effort in evangelism is not to get people to be attracted to the happy life of a Christian. Salvation doesn't come that way. The objective is to bring upon the head of the sinner fear of the judgment of God upon him or her for violations of His holy Law that are going on all the time in his or her life. What we want to do is bring conviction upon that person by the work of the Spirit and the Word through us as we minister that they would come to a place of such conviction and fear and dread of divine wrath that they desire to flee to the rescue available in Christ. The sinner has to move from conviction to faith in Christ- the Gospel without Law produces faith without repentance (Mc Arthur)
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