Freedom from Sin

Sin and the Law, Part 1 and Part 2

Romans 7:7-13

INTRODUCTION

Romans 7:7-13 seems to be a very intricate, complex, and difficult argument to understand at first reading. But you shall find it is not as we study it together. In that passage the apostle Paul says, "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 coveting, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of coveting. For apart from the law sin is dead. For I was alive apart from the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore, the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. 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 exceedingly sinful."

A. The Heart of the Gospel

1. The destiny of man

Before we specifically examine the text, let me remind you of the greatest news ever known: That Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Because of sin, every member of the human race is bound for hell. That's because every person born into this world lives in rebellion against God and and His divine law. And God, being a God of justice, must require punishment for such violation. Since man's crimes against God are so severe, there's no way he can ever pay for them.

2. The desire of God

Although hell is the destiny of man, it is not the desire of God's heart. Second Peter 3:9 says God is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." He sent Jesus Christ into the world to pay the debt that all men and women owe, to die the death that all should die, and to bear the sin that all should bear. He ordained that when a man or woman believes in Jesus Christ and accepts His work on their behalf, their sin is forgiven forever and they become partakers of His divine nature. So, every believing sinner is equipped to spend eternity in heaven with God. That man can be made right with God and escape judgment is the best news that ever came into the world.

B. The Heart of the Epistle

The apostle Paul made justification by faith (that is, that men are made right with God through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ) the theme of his epistle to the Romans. It is also the central doctrine of the Christian faith.

1. Established

In Romans 1:16-17 Paul gives us the theme of the epistle: "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the [Gentile]. For in it is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live by faith." The gospel tells us that salvation is available by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

2. Explained

a) The scriptural context

Having established the theme, Paul unfolds the need for justification in the rest of chapters 1 and 2. He describes how it occurs in chapters 3 and 4. In chapters 5 through 8 he shows us the results of being justified by God's grace. One objection he anticipates in his discussion is if you preach that works have no part in salvation or sanctification, then you're saying that people can do whatever they want and grace will cover everything. But Paul points out that justification by grace, rather than leading to license, leads to holiness because inherent in justification is the impartation of divine life.

Grace and faith are key words that Paul uses in chapters 3-- 6 of Romans:

(1) Romans 3--Verse 22 says "the righteousness of God ... is by faith." Verse 24 says we're "justified freely by his grace." Verse 25 says "God hath set forth [Jesus Christ] to be a covering through faith." Verse 28 says, "Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith." Verse 30 says, "Seeing it is one God, who shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith."

(2) Romans 4--Verses 3-5 say, "What saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt, But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Verse 11 says Abraham "received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had." Verse 13 says, "The promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." Verse 16 says, "Therefore, it is of faith, that it might be grace." Verse 20 says Abraham "staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith."

(3) Romans 5--Verses 1-2 say we're "justified by faith [and] we have access by faith into this grace." Verses 20-21 say, "The law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life."

(4) Romans 6--Verse 23 says "the wages of sin is death, but the gift [grace] of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord."

b) The historical context

(1) Objecting to lawlessness

Paul's message of grace and faith was unique in its historical context. The Jewish people had been told that you please God by obeying His rules and conforming to His standards. Although that is true, they had gradually come to believe that you must work your way into His good favor. So when Paul preached that salvation is a free gift that can't be earned because it is received by faith (which itself is a gift of God-- Eph. 2:8-9), his message was very hard for many of the Jewish people to accept. They were committed to the law of God and to a works-righteousness system. They accused Paul of advocating lawlessness. Since they believed the law procured and maintained a person's holiness, they assumed that if it was taken away, then the safeguard to holiness would be eliminated. All they could see was society running amuck under Paul's teaching of grace.

(2) Obeying the laws

(a) The rabbinical corollaries

The law of God is commonly divided into three parts: the ceremonial laws, the social laws, and the moral laws. The Jews believed you had to keep all of those laws to become holy. By the time of Paul's ministry, the rabbis had summed up all of the Old Testament law into 613 commandments. But it was almost impossible to keep them all, especially since they had been embellished beyond the intention of God.

The rabbis divided the 613 laws into mandatory things that had to be done and prohibitory things that ought not to be done. They taught there were 248 things you had to do that related to God, the Temple, sacrifices, vows, rituals, donations, sabbaths, diet, festivals, community, idolatry, war, social issues, family, judicial matters, legal rights, and slaves.

The 365 prohibitory laws related to idolatry, historical lessons, blasphemy, Temple worship, sacrifices, priests, diet, vows, agriculture, loans, business, slaves, justice, and relationships. Those laws had all kinds of corollaries and adjunct laws to the point that keeping the law was a burdensome way of life. That's why in Acts 15:10 Peter mentioned that the law was "a yoke ... which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear."

(b) The scriptural consequences

Scripture itself instilled in the Jewish people the need to obey the law. Deuteronomy 27:26 says, "Cursed be he who confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them." The next chapter warns of severe consequences for not obeying: "But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee. Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy kneading-trough. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy cows, and the flocks of thy sheep. Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly, because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me. The Lord shall make the pestilence cling unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, to which thou goest to possess it. The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blight, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish" (28:15- 22). That's a fairly comprehensive curse, isn't it? And that's not even the end of it. That kind of cursing goes on through the rest of the chapter, extending its way through every conceivable dimension of life. Is it any wonder the Jewish people felt so bound to the law of God? It was, after all, the law of God, and neither the law or its author was open to debate.

The apostle Paul alludes to the burden of the law in his epistles. He too must have borne that burden, having once been a zealous Pharisee (Phil. 3:5-6). In Galatians 3:10 he says, "As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse." Those who are trying to please God by keeping the law are under a curse. Why? Because no one can keep the law perfectly. In the same verse he quotes Deuteronomy 27:26: "Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them." That tells us Paul understood what Deuteronomy was saying. He was typical of the rest of the Jewish people who were zealous for the law.

(c) The theological confrontation

When Paul said that no one shall be justified by the deeds of the law (Gal. 3:11), he was stomping on the theological toes of those who found that conclusion difficult to accept. He confronted them with the utter futility of trying to keep the law, stating in the same verse that "no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident; for the just shall live by faith" (a quotation of Hab. 2:4). So the Old Testament said that man was cursed if he failed to keep the law. James knew that. He said, "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all" (James 2:10).

Why Did God Give Israel a Law They Couldn't Keep?God gave Israel a law they couldn't keep to show them how sinful they and all mankind are, and to drive them to come to God by faith. But they didn't want to come by faith. Content with their self- righteousness, they thought they could merit God's favor on their own. So they were all under a curse.

To break one law of God is not like breaking one spoke in a bicycle wheel--you can break a spoke and keep on riding. It's more like breaking a pane of glass: you break it in one spot and the pane shatters. Because Israel couldn't keep the law and refused to come to God by faith, they were under the curse of the law.

Romans 6:14 is a key verse: "Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law but under grace." That means believers are no longer under the curse of the law. Christ was made a curse for us that we might be set free from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13).

At this point a question naturally arises: If the law can't save us (Rom. 3-4) or sanctify us (Rom. 5- 6), and is nothing but a curse, then what good is it? If we're saved and made holy by our union with Christ, what place does the law have? Why did God go to such extremes to give such a complex law? Paul answers those questions in Romans 7.

The Role of the Law

Paul has been building up to an explanation of the law's place since chapter 3 when he first mentioned that the law couldn't save us. Chapters 3 through 8 give us a comprehensive view of the law and its role. In this section we learn some important things about the law:

* It can't save us (Rom. 3-5).

* It can't make us holy (Rom. 6)

* It can't condemn us if we're in Christ (Rom. 7:1-6).

* It can convict us of sin (Rom. 7:7-13).

* It can't deliver us from sin (Rom. 7:14-25).

* It can be fulfilled in the power of the indwelling Spirit (Rom. 8:1-4). 

LESSON

Romans 7:7-13 answers the following question: If the law can't save us or sanctify us, what good is it? This passage teaches us it is good because it can convict us in four ways.

I. THE LAW REVEALS SIN (v. 7)

A. The Accusation Answered (v. 7a)

"What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay"

Paul anticipates the Jewish antagonist who's going to say, "You've just said we're dead to the law, which has been set aside. If we're out from under the authority of that which was trying to condemn us, are you saying that the law God gave to His people was evil?"

Paul's answer is the strongest negative in the Greek language: "God forbid" (me genoito). He is saying, "No, no, no! The law cannot be considered evil under any circumstance. That would be an utter absurdity!" In verse 7 he goes on to say he would not have recognized his sin unless the law had revealed it.

If there weren't any law, there wouldn't be any sin. For example, without a sign saying "Keep Off the Grass" there would be nothing wrong with standing on the grass. Similarly, if there's no law about driving a certain speed, you can legally drive as fast as your car will take you. However, once the standard is established, you are responsible for violating it. Breaking God's law reveals sin.

1. Romans 3:20--"Therefore, by the deeds of the law there shall be no flesh be justified in his sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin." That's a very important truth. The law simply shows us what sin is by God's definition.

2. Romans 4:15--"Where no law is, there is no transgression."

3. Romans 5:13--"Sin is not imputed when there is no law."

Chapters 3, 4, and 5 say the same thing: Without a law you haven't got any sin. So when God reveals the law, we immediately are measured by the standard and are found to be sinners.

B. The Externals Examined (v. 7b)

"I had not known sin but by the law"

1. The experience of Paul's conviction

Paul is saying, "I never knew the full extent of my sin until I understood the full extent of the law. When I understood the law, I felt convicted of sin." Paul's use of the first-person singular means he is giving a personal testimony of what was going on in his own heart. I believe the recognition of his personal sinfulness was part of the convicting work of the Spirit of God on the Damascus Road and the days of blindness that followed. That experience forced him to come to grips with his own life, and see his need for a Savior.

I think it's important that Scripture records that part of Paul's spiritual journey because if we knew only the confrontation on the Damascus Road, we might think he was saved apart from his own will. If he was persecuting Christians at one point, and then suddenly buried in the dirt and ordained to the ministry, you wouldn't know whether there was any personal conviction involved in his salvation. But Romans 7:7-13 reveals that God was progressively convicting Paul's heart of sin as he began to see the law of God for what it is.

2. The extent of Paul's tradition

For a long time Paul thought he knew all about the law of God. He was a Pharisee and had spent his life trying to keep the law. He had previously been in the category of people he later described in Romans 10:2-3 as having "a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.... being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness." He was like the Pharisee in Luke 18, who said, "God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are.... I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all that I possess" (vv. 11-12). Self-righteous types assume that God must have been thrilled to have them around.

a) Galatians 1:13-14--In writing to the Galatians, Paul said, "Ye have heard of my manner of life in time past in the Jews' religion how that beyond measure I profited in the Jews' religion, above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers." Paul's reputation as a zealous Jewish leader had spread far and wide. He once boasted of his religious zeal in keeping the law.

b) Philippians 3:5-6--Paul gives a similar testimony with more detail, stating he was "circumcised on the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; as touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless." Do you want to know how he could say that? The same way the rich young man could admit to the Lord that he had kept all the law since his youth (Matt. 19:20). Such people have a limited understanding of the law of God and its internal implications. They reinterpret it to accommodate their sinfulness so they can maintain the appearance of external righteousness and assume they are acceptable to God.

However when Paul recognized his spiritual depravity, he admitted that mere external righteousness is of no more value than manure (v. 8). Once he got a view of where the real problem was--on the inside, where the law really needed to be applied, he saw what he was.

C. The Internalization Implied (v. 7c)

"For I had not known coveting [Gk., epithumia, "lusting" or "evil desire"], except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet."

Romans 7:7-13 records the conviction Paul experienced before he was saved. Note what illustration he chose: of all the Ten Commandments, Paul selected a commandment that relates solely to a person's motivation. Coveting isn't an external act; it's something that happens internally. Paul was saying, "When I realized that the law of God had to do not just with my acts but with my attitudes, like lusting for what isn't mine, I realized that all my self-righteous actions were worthless because I was filled with vile desires." That's true conviction of sin.

1. Concentrating on externals

a) Superficial conviction

When some people recognize their need to get their life right, they limit the changes to externals like lying, getting drunk, or getting angry. It's good to avoid those things, but they don't understand that the real issue of sin is internal. They might be able to control their actions through means other than grace. By going to Alcoholics Anonymous they might stop their drinking problem. By going to a psychologist or hypnotist, they might stop their lying. There are many ways to reform one's actions. However the only way the evil desire of a person's heart will be cleared up is by divine transformation.

b) Sincere conviction

The law was intended to stimulate that transformation by bringing about conviction. That's why there aren't just external commands, but internal ones as well. They hit with the greatest impact. Not only was that Paul's experience, but it is for all who come to true conviction. I believe that when you come to Jesus Christ, you realize that not only do you have trouble controlling the outside, but you even have worse trouble controlling the inside.

Theologian Charles Hodge said, "The law, although it cannot secure either the justification or sanctification of men, performs an essential part in the economy of salvation. It enlightens conscience, and secures its verdict against a multitude of evils, which we should not otherwise have recognized as sins. It arouses sin, increasing 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 .... Conviction of sin, that is, an adequate knowledge of its nature, and a sense of its power over us, is an indispensable part of evangelical religion. Before the gospel can be embraced as a means of deliverance from sin, we must feel we are involved in corruption and misery" (Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, n.d.], p. 226).

2. Condemning externals

Apart from the law, people don't recognize their sinfulness. It's not unusual to hear someone say, "I'm not such a bad guy. God certainly wouldn't send a good person like me to hell; I do my very best. I try to do what's right and obey the laws." Many people live under that illusion. But that must be changed if you're to be saved. Even though on the outside you may have control of your life and look like the citizen of the century, in the words of Jesus you "are like whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones" (Matt. 23:27).

Let's examine Matthew 5 to see how our Lord proclaimed the convicting message of salvation to His Jewish audience. In verses 21-22 He says, "Ye have heard it that it was said by them of old, Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of judgment. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of judgment." The rabbinic tradition had lowered God's standards to fulfilling a bunch of external requirements, but Jesus reinstated God's intention by saying that the attitude of hatred is as much a sin as the act of murder. Similarly He said, "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old, Thou shalt not commit adultery; but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart" (vv. 27-28). In verses 33-34 Jesus says, "Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old, Thou shalt not perjure thyself ... but I say unto you, Swear not at all." Jewish tradition had degenerated to the point that if a person swore by certain things, he didn't have to mean it. It was another indication of the externalized religion they had created. Therefore, the Lord identified the root problem as going beyond acts like murder and adultery, for He focused on the internal sins like hatred and lust.