Romans 7:9-12

Passage

And I was once living apart from the Law, but after the commandment came sin sprang to life and I died.  And the commandment – the one into life – it was being found into death for me.  For after seizing the opportunity through the commandment, sin deceived me about the truth and killed me through it.  Therefore the Law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Paul now introduces another layer of thought.  The Law is intended to be good – for life, even – yet the consequence of being under the Law is death.  The Law reveals to us how to live, yet because we are fundamentally unable to attain the Law we realize how much we cannot truly live.  When we look into the Law, we realize just how far we fall short of what truly living is all about.  We look into the Law and find death rather than life.

How can this point be frustrating, disappointing, or even non-motivational?  Why is this point an essential point to understand with respect to salvation by grace?

Second Thought:

Paul then returns to develop the concept of how sin uses the Law.  Paul says that sin deceives us according to the truth.  The Law tells us that something is morally or ethically wrong.  Sin comes along and convinces us that if it is forbidden it must be fun.  After all, how many of us sin because we are convinced that it will bring happiness?  Yet, how many of us ever find true sustaining happiness within sinfulness?  Sin is a great deceiver.  It promises us joy and life and only ever delivers disappointment and death.

Do you know this to be true in your life?  If so, why do human beings still fall into sin?

Third Thought:

Amazingly, after speaking about how sin works in bringing about death, Paul turns and tells us that in spite of this the Law is still holy, righteous, and good.  This is a very mature stance.  It is like the adult who can look back into their childhood and say that the restrictions that their parents placed over them were good.  We may not see the restrictions as good when they are placed upon us, but looking back upon them in maturity we can indeed understand how good they were.  Even though sin was defined through the Law and sin killed us through the Law, the Law is still good.  It is not the Law that sinned; it is the Law that exposed us to be sinners.  The sin is within us, not a fault of the Law.

Why is it easy to get mad at the rules when the fault really lies within ourselves?  How does one become mature enough to understand that the problem is not the rules but the rule-breaker?

Passage for Tomorrow: Romans 7:13-14