Rom 7:7-8 | KingComments | STEP | A lot has already been said about the law. In the following chapters in Romans, and in the other letters of Paul, a lot more will be said about the law. Thus you need to understand why the law was given. . You may have started to think the law is something sinful. All it does, it seems, is give you an opportunity to do evil things. This is not the way it is. Romans 3 said: “Through the Law [comes] the knowledge of sin” ( ). Notice the word “knowledge”. It doesn’t say the law causes you to sin, but the law manifests the sin already present. Take lust for example. Lust is something you cannot see. It is in the heart. You wouldn’t have known that lust is sin if the law hadn’t said: “You shall not covet” and: “You shall not desire” ( ). Knowing this is said so clearly in the law, you realize it’s true. Sin living in you awakens lust and so a commandment was given to tell you not to covet. An example may make this clearer. My children may take a cookie from the cookie jar when they come home from school. Suppose one morning I tell them: ”When you come home, you may not touch the cookie jar nor look in it.“ The result is that, when they come home, they must restrain themselves to obey my commandment. In them the lust has been brought out by the commandment. Sin uses the commandment to bring out lust. . As long as I hadn’t given the commandment, there was nothing wrong. Sin was present, but it was dead, that is to say it wasn’t experienced. But once the commandment had come, sin was awakened and they were made aware of its presence. Here you can see the real function of the law in practice. . Once, being unconverted, you were living without the law. You didn’t care that the law said “you shall not covet”. You did not even think about it. You had no desire to obey the law. Only when you let God into your life did you think about His law. Then your eyes were opened to sin because the law showed it to you. You also discovered that the law condemned you, because you couldn’t keep it. The commandment that was for life – in Leviticus 18 God had said: “So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the LORD” ( ) – turned out to mean death for you. This was because of sin living in you. Sin used the law by seducing you and bringing you to do wrong and evil deeds. . So the law is not to blame, for the law came from God and is “holy”. The commandments of the law are “holy and righteous and good”. Would the good that comes from God so you might live through it, mean death to you? This cannot be true, can it? But why then are you under the death-sentence of the law? It is because of sin. Sin used the good to work death for me. Sin used for evil what God had meant for good. But another thing has happened. The law has shown the real form of sin. Through the law sin became even more sinful. You saw in Romans 5 what this means ( ). Sin was in the world before the law was given. Once the law was given, sin became worse because the law showed what sin was. And now you and I know what sin is. Here is a simple example to make this clearer. In England the law dictates that people must drive on the left side of the road. If you go to England without knowing it is a left-sided driving country and you drive on the right, you are trespassing. But if they had told you that England is a left-sided driving country and you still drove on the right, you would be even more guilty. This is how it is with sin and the law. Through the law you are made aware of what sin is. And you are more responsible for the sins you do because now you know what’s allowed and what’s not. Now read Romans 7:7-13 again. Reflection: How can you know that the law is good?

‏ Romans 7:7-8

By Law Is Knowledge of Sin

A lot has already been said about the law. In the following chapters in Romans, and in the other letters of Paul, a lot more will be said about the law. Thus you need to understand why the law was given.

Rom 7:7. You may have started to think the law is something sinful. All it does, it seems, is give you an opportunity to do evil things. This is not the way it is. Romans 3 said: “Through the Law [comes] the knowledge of sin” (Rom 3:20). Notice the word “knowledge”. It doesn’t say the law causes you to sin, but the law manifests the sin already present. Take lust for example. Lust is something you cannot see. It is in the heart. You wouldn’t have known that lust is sin if the law hadn’t said: “You shall not covet” and: “You shall not desire” (Deu 5:21). Knowing this is said so clearly in the law, you realize it’s true. Sin living in you awakens lust and so a commandment was given to tell you not to covet.

An example may make this clearer. My children may take a cookie from the cookie jar when they come home from school. Suppose one morning I tell them: ”When you come home, you may not touch the cookie jar nor look in it.“ The result is that, when they come home, they must restrain themselves to obey my commandment. In them the lust has been brought out by the commandment. Sin uses the commandment to bring out lust.

Rom 7:8. As long as I hadn’t given the commandment, there was nothing wrong. Sin was present, but it was dead, that is to say it wasn’t experienced. But once the commandment had come, sin was awakened and they were made aware of its presence. Here you can see the real function of the law in practice.

Rom 7:9-11. Once, being unconverted, you were living without the law. You didn’t care that the law said “you shall not covet”. You did not even think about it. You had no desire to obey the law. Only when you let God into your life did you think about His law. Then your eyes were opened to sin because the law showed it to you. You also discovered that the law condemned you, because you couldn’t keep it. The commandment that was for life – in Leviticus 18 God had said: “So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the LORD” (Lev 18:5) – turned out to mean death for you. This was because of sin living in you. Sin used the law by seducing you and bringing you to do wrong and evil deeds.

Rom 7:12-13. So the law is not to blame, for the law came from God and is “holy”. The commandments of the law are “holy and righteous and good”. Would the good that comes from God so you might live through it, mean death to you? This cannot be true, can it? But why then are you under the death-sentence of the law? It is because of sin. Sin used the good to work death for me. Sin used for evil what God had meant for good.

But another thing has happened. The law has shown the real form of sin. Through the law sin became even more sinful. You saw in Romans 5 what this means (Rom 5:20). Sin was in the world before the law was given. Once the law was given, sin became worse because the law showed what sin was. And now you and I know what sin is.

Here is a simple example to make this clearer. In England the law dictates that people must drive on the left side of the road. If you go to England without knowing it is a left-sided driving country and you drive on the right, you are trespassing. But if they had told you that England is a left-sided driving country and you still drove on the right, you would be even more guilty.

This is how it is with sin and the law. Through the law you are made aware of what sin is. And you are more responsible for the sins you do because now you know what’s allowed and what’s not.

Now read Romans 7:7-13 again.

Reflection: How can you know that the law is good?