The Deadly Tandem of Law and Sin

The Deadly Tandem of Law and Sin

OUR TEXT

{7} “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 lust, except the law had said, “THOU SHALL NOT COVET.”

{8} But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.

{9} For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

{10} And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.

{11} For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

{12} Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

{13} 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.”

Romans 7:7-13 KJV


SOME THEY WILL KILL, AND SOME THEY WILL PERSECUTE

It is a sobering thing that the bearers of good news can be treated with contempt and rejection. For example, we read in Luke 11:49 KJV, “Therefore also said the Wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute.” And in another place the Lord Jesus said, “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for My Name’ sake” (Matthew 24:9 KJV).
And maybe most shocking of all:

“These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.”

John 16:1-2 KJV

The word “Gospel” means good news. It means “good news” in Old English, “god spel,” and it means “good news” in Greek, “euanggelion.” The Christian Gospel is good news. And the sad fact is that you can bring good news – the best news in the world, the best news that ever was, the best news that ever will be – and cause people to rage and swear and seethe with anger and scoff at you and even kill you.

But our greatest danger in this situation of misunderstanding or distortion or rejection or persecution is that we ourselves would stop believing that our message is good news and start treating it as a provocation or a disputation or a legal summons to appear in court.

Oh, how easy it is to lose the sense of wonder at the preciousness of the Gospel – the good news of Romans chapters 1 to 5 – that God justifies the ungodly by grace alone, through faith alone, apart from works, on the basis of Christ’s work alone, not ours, for the glory of God alone – that “when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” – that “God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

These truths are not mainly for provocation or disputation or a legal summons to appear in court. They are mainly for proclamation and celebration and liberation and jubilation. And so, it should jar us – even though the Lord Jesus said it would happen – it should jar us when the best news in all the world is scorned and ridiculed and distorted and perverted and rejected.

In Romans chapters 6 and 7 we can’t afford to lose sight of what it is all about. It’s about the Gospel of Justification of the ungodly [!] by grace alone, through faith alone, based on Christ’s work alone, for the glory of God alone. It’s all about the Good News that sinners can have hope that God will save us from His own wrath based on what Christ did for us, not on the basis of what we do for Him.

DISTORTION OF THE GOOD NEWS

And yet when the apostle Paul announces and unfolds this glorious Good News in Romans chapters 1 to 5, he had to deal immediately with distortion and rejection of the Wonderful Message. Let’s look at what he says in Romans 3:28, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law,” and what he says, in Romans 5:20-21 KJV:

{20} “Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

{21} That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”

And yet, there were skeptical people who said,

“Paul, you are making grace into license and you are making law into sin.”

And so the apostle Paul writes in Romans chapter 6 to defend Grace. And he writes in Romans chapter 7 to defend Law. That is where we are now. Romans 7:7 KJV: “Is the Law sin?” he asks. Answer: “God forbid!”

But the objector goes on: “Paul, look what you say in verses 9 and 10. You say, ‘For I was alive without the law once: [that is, he once had little or no consciousness of sin or condemnation or slavery; he just did what he felt like doing; it seemed like freedom and felt like being alive]; but when the commandment came, [perhaps as a child or an adolescent waking up from the obliviousness and freedom of self-centeredness; or perhaps at his conversion seeing for the first time the true nature of his spiritual deadness] sin revived, [that is, he experienced sin as sin and the rebellion it really was] and I died [he experienced subjectively the objective reality of his true hopeless condition of slavery to sin, spiritual death]; and the commandment, which was ordained to life [the commandments pointed to life, offered life, and couldn’t give life – too weak and too powerless], I found to be unto death.’

“There, you see, Paul, you said it again. You said that God’s commandment killed you. You make a murderer out of the Law. You make the Law Sin.” So, the apostle Paul continues to explain his meaning in verse 11: “No,” he says in essence, “what I mean is this. When I say that the commandment became death for me, I mean, ‘Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.’

Sin killed me! Sin brought about my deadly condemnation. Sin brought about my experience of spiritual doom. Sin used the commandment of God as the weapon, but sin is the killer.” So, he concludes in verse 12: “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.”

And in verse 13, Paul repeats in the strongest language possible that sin, not the commandment, killed him. “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.” This is verse 11 all over again: “Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.”

THAT’S NOT WHAT THE LAW IS FOR

Picture the Law as a surgeon’s scalpel. It is meant for life and healing. And here comes Sin and takes the scalpel of God’s commandments and slashes people’s throats with it. It reminds me of the line in one of Michael Card’s songs – the words to Judas: “That’s not what a kiss is for.” The commandment – holy, just, good – was to be life to me, and it became death for me, because sin took the scalpel out of the surgeon’s hand and with it slashed my throat and killed me (verse 10). That is not what a scalpel is for.

Why would God allow this? The apostle Paul answers at the end of verse 13: “So that by the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful.”

It is sinful to murder; it is doubly sinful to force innocent people to help you murder. It is sinful to abort a child; it is doubly sinful to trick a mother into thinking that aborting her child is her right. You don’t boil a baby goat in its mother’s milk. That is not what a mother’s milk is for. It is for life, not death.

It is sinful to break God’s Law; it is doubly sinful to use God’s Law to break God’s Law.

So the bottom line so far in Romans chapter 7 is that the reason we need to die to the Law is not because the Law is Sin, but because the Law is weak and vulnerable, and we are exceedingly sinful. Therefore, the Law cannot be the first and decisive means of our justification or our sanctification, because “when the commandment comes” our sin rises up, comes alive, and uses the commandment to kill us, not save us.

SIN LIES
How does sin do that? Verse 11 gives the key word to explain how sin does this killing work through the commandments. “Sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.” Sin uses the commandments to deceive us.

Sin is fundamentally a liar.
Sin kills by deceit and superficial logic. It says things like: “You’re tired. You need a good night’s rest. But you are tense and can’t sleep. A sleeping pill might help. The instructions hold out hope for pretty good rest if you take a pill. Wouldn’t you really like one wonderful night’s sleep, a hundred times better than average? Yes? Well then, take a hundred pills.” Sin is a murderer, and it murders by making promises it cannot keep.

If you are perishing under the guilt and power of sin, it is because you are being deceived. Sin is lying to you, and you are believing it. Sin is making promises to you that it cannot keep, and you are trusting in these promises.

But, you say, how does sin do that with the Law? What deception does sin use when the commandment comes? Verse 11 says, “Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me.” What a lie – what tricky half-truth – does sin speak, when it meets the commandment of God? I think the deception of sin when it meets God’s commandments can be boiled down into two basic lies.

They sound almost like opposites; but they are, at the root, the same.

On the one hand, Sin might say when it meets the commandments of God: “You can’t keep these commandments, and you wouldn’t want to if you could. And so, there is no hope for you if there is a holy God, and you may as well put all that out of your head and get as much pleasure in this life as you can.”

Or, on the other hand, Sin might say when it meets the commandments: “You can keep these. So, muster all your willpower and show yourself as good as the next guy to get ready for the judgment.”

In other words, Sin takes the Law in hand and kills us with one of two kinds of deception about our future. Sin either offers us hopelessness relieved by self-indulgence, or it offers us hopefulness supported by self-righteousness.

First, it tells us that we can’t keep the commandments and so we should be hopeless.

Second, it tells us that we can and so we should be hopeful. They are both lies. And to believe either of them is suicide.

WHAT IS THE REMEDY?

What is the remedy? Die to the Law and live to God through the Crucified and Risen Christ. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the remedy. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16). It is the only Message in the world that gives hope to both the ungodly self-indulgent and the ungodly self-righteous.

It says to the hopeless self-indulgent, there is hope for you, because, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, because God will forgive you for Christ’s sake, if you will receive Him as a Treasured Gift and trust Him.

And the Gospel says to the hopeful self-righteous, there is sincere hope for you, because, though your righteousness be as filthy rags, the perfect obedience of Jesus will be credited to your account, if you will receive Him as a Treasured Gift and trust Him.

So, I bring you good news today, whether you are hopeless and self-indulgent, or you are hopeful and self-righteous. Jesus lived and died for both kinds of sinners. Believe in Him today. Trust Him as God’s Provision for your salvation. Receive Him as the Treasure of your life.

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