Having argued that we are dead to sin
and law, and that we cannot go on sinning so that grace may abound, Paul now
tries to define sin and explain its hold on us in Romans 7:7-13.
Having shown that we are not under
the law, the natural question that would then arise is, is the law sin, which
should be avoided like plague? Paul’s argument is that the law is not sin, but
it has a useful purpose, that is, we come to know what sin is only through the
law. Verse 7.
Law is not equivalent to sin, but
apart from the law, sin is dead. We become conscious of sin only through the
law. Romans 3:20. Paul goes on to give an illustration. The law lays
down, “Do not covet.” Exodus 20:17 and Deuteronomy 5:21. Because
the law said so, we come to know that coveting is a sin. Earlier, when there
was no law, one did not realize that coveting was wrong. This knowledge about a
sin is imparted by the law. Verse 8.
Paul now shows that sin, seizing the
opportunity given by the commandment, produced in people all kind of covetous
desire. Human nature is to do the forbidden thing. For example, a small child
told not to touch a thing, would immediately try to touch it. Forbidden fruits
are always tempting and appear sweeter.
In his book Confession, St. Augustine
narrates an event. He and his friends as young boys, used to steal pear fruits
in a neighbouring garden, not to eat them, but to throw them to the pigs. It
was the pleasure of the forbidden act that attracted them to do the stealing,
knowing fully well that it was a wrong thing to do. It was the pleasure of
acting against the law, with impunity, that made them commit such an act.[1]
The desire to steal was aroused
simply by the prohibition of stealing. The command not to steal gave an impulse
to sin, to covert the forbidden.
Similar thing happened in the Garden
of Eden. God had laid the rule that Adam and Eve shall not eat the fruit of Knowledge
of good and evil. The command incited their curiosity. Well, ‘curiosity killed
the cat,’ and so when Satan tempted, they yielded and committed the sin and
died spiritually. The serpent beguiled them. Because it was forbidden, the
fruit became desirable. ‘Adam was seduced into sin by the forbidden fruit.’[2]
Before the law was given, one was not
aware of sin, but once the commandment came, sin sprang to life, became active
and seduced the person and he/she died. A small child is unaware of right and
wrong. The child simply cries to get what it wants. This is before the baby
became mature.
Once the child grows into an
adolescent, restrictions start appearing and the tendency is to break it and
rebel against it. Sin of disobedience springs and he/she dies, because as per Romans
6:23, the wages of sin is death. Verse 9.
The very commandment which was meant for our
good, actually brought death. ‘Do not covert,’ is a good command, but it
brought death in us, as it created a desire in us to do the very wrong thing it
tried to prevent. Verse 10.
Through the same law sin gains entry
into a man. This it does in two ways. One, the law defines sin. A grown-up
person ought to know what is right and wrong and has fairly a good knowledge
about what constitutes sin. Second, the fascination for the forbidden thing makes
it desirable to break the law. In that sense law produced sin. That way it
brought ultimately death.
The commandment offered an
opportunity to sin, and taking advantage of this, sin deceived a person, and
through the very commandment, which was meant to bring good to the person, it
brought his death. Verse 11. We needed law to define sin, but sin took a good
thing, the law, and twisted it into something that served the ends of evil. Sin
is that bad and treacherous.
So, Paul asserts that the law is
holy, and the commandments given there on are holy, righteous and good. There
is nothing wrong or evil in the law itself. It is righteous and good and holy.
It is sin that twisted the whole operation of the law. Verse 12. The Law
represented an objective moral ideal, and thus is good and holy. Law is definitely
not sin.
Paul is asking, did the law which was
supposed to be good, brought death to us? He replies in the negative. What
happened was, sin had to be recognized as sin, defined as sin and the law did
that. But sin being what it is, produced death in us, through something that was
good. It just showed the terrible nature of sin, which could thus use a good
command to produce something horrible as death. Verse 13.
Thus, law reveals sin, it provokes
sin and results in death, while offering no help to get out of such a
situation. Law is only a warning in that it makes people realize they are
sinners. More than that it cannot do anything.
To get out of the iron grip of sin,
we need more than the law; we need grace and the sacrificial death of God’s
very Son, faith in whom alone would save us from the horrible and deadly sin.
More about that in the next blog.
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