In Romans, Paul makes statements that may seem when taken out of context, almost as if he is criticizing the law.
However, there’s no doubt that the law is one of God’s greatest gifts to humanity. It instructs us on how to relate to God and how to live harmoniously with one another.
The issue with the law isn’t the law itself, but rather the sin that dominates our lives.
Romans 6:16 summarizes the power that sin holds over humans: “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?”
Sin functions in human beings like a powerful force, compelling us to follow its desires. The primary area where sin exerts its influence in our lives is through covetousness or sinful passions.
The Tenth Commandment prohibits covetousness (Exodus 20.17), which is the root of all sin. Paul identifies covetousness as those sinful passions—the inherent desire to obtain what God has not granted us.
While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.
But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.
What then should 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. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, You shall not covet.
But sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead.
I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died,
And the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me (Romans 7.7-9).
Throughout Paul’s discussion, starting in Chapter 5, he uses imagery to contrast the first Adam, representing the old age, with the second Adam, who is Jesus, and the new age.
In this new age, we are liberated from the power of sin and can serve God through the power of the Holy Spirit (See Romans 6.17-18).
As I’ve written in previous articles, we are living between the times. We are already in the new age, but the new age has not been fully realized. Thus, even though we are free from the dominion of sin, we must continue to wrestle with whether to be obedient to sin or the Lord.
The Goodness of the Law
Paul emphasizes that the law is good and a gift from God to humanity. If everyone lived according to the Ten Commandments or Jesus’ more complete explanation of God’s law in Matthew 5-7, the world would be like heaven on earth.
The problem is not with the law, but with sin’s power over humans.
For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.
Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working 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 (Romans 7.11-13).
The real culprit is sin, not the law. I end today’s article on a somewhat negative note, but soon we will move into Chapter 8, where we discover that the Spirit of God works with our human spirit to overcome the power of the flesh.
It is in this chapter that we learn that we can live lives free from the power of sin and devoted to God.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross and I discussed this passage on YouTube today. It is on the Bob Spradling channel.
Real Voices 