What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "you shall not covet." 8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; 10 and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; 11 for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
Romans Explains Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday marks the day Jesus entered Jerusalem near the endof his life with people waving palm branches and children shouting,"Hosanna – salvation – hosanna to the Son of David.Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." But thistriumphal entry into Jerusalem gets all its significance from thereason Jesus is coming to Jerusalem; namely, he is coming to bekilled. Mark 10:33-34, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, andthe Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and thescribes; and they will condemn Him to death and will hand Him overto the Gentiles. They will mock Him and spit on Him, and scourgeHim and kill Him, and three days later He will rise again."
That is why he is coming into the city. Luke 13:33, "I mustjourney on today and tomorrow and the next day; for it cannot bethat a prophet would perish outside of Jerusalem." Palm Sunday isall about the voluntary death of Jesus. He came to die. He plannedto die. He intended to die. And why did he intend to die? Here'swhat he said, in Mark 10:45: "For even the Son of Man did not cometo be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom formany." He said that he came to give his life as a ransom. That is,we are enslaved to sin and death and hell, and to free us from thisslavery, Jesus pays a ransom for us, his life.
That is what the book of Romans is about – explaining whywe need a ransom, why it had to be Jesus Christ the Son of God, howthe life and death of Jesus demonstrate the righteousness of Godand set us free from bondage to the guilt and power of sin throughthe Spirit. So Romans is a commentary on the meaning of Palm Sundayand why Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.
Up through chapter 5 of Romans, Paul makes a case for thejustification of the ungodly by grace through faith alone apartfrom works of the law. In other words, he shows that, because ofwhat Christ did as God's obedient suffering servant, ungodlysinners may have peace with God by grace alone through faith aloneapart from the works of the law. Romans 4:5, "But to the one whodoes not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, hisfaith is credited as righteousness."
Now by the end of chapter 5 Paul is in trouble with some of hislisteners because of what he says about grace andlaw. He's in trouble about grace, because he saysit justifies the ungodly and so he seems to open the door tolicense and lawlessness. And he's in trouble about law,because he seems to say that keeping the law it is not necessaryfor justification and because the law even joins hands with sin todefeat its own demands.
So in chapter 6 (6:1-7:6) Paul defends grace. And inchapter 7 (7:7-25) he defends law.
Grace Is the Base of Lifelong Warfare against Sin
How does he defend grace? Well, the accusation is that if we arejustified by grace through faith alone, then we may as well say,"Let's sin that grace may abound" (6:1). Or: "Let's sin because weare not under law but under grace" (6:15). Paul's answer in chapter6 is this: No, justification by grace through faith does not leadto more sinning. On the contrary, it is the only sure and hopefulbase of operations from which the fight against sin can belaunched.
All the bombers that go out to drop bombs on the strongholds ofsin remaining in our lives take off from the runway ofjustification by faith alone.
The missiles that we shoot against the incoming attack oftemptation are launched from the base of justification by faithalone.
The whole lifelong triumphant offensive called "operationsanctification" – by which we wage war against all theremaining corruption in our lives – is sustained by thesupply line of the Spirit that comes from the secure, unassailablehome-base of justification by faith alone. And it will bea successful operation – but only because of the unassailablehome base.
In other words, Paul's defense of grace in chapter 6 is thatthis justification by grace through faith alone never leads to alife of increased sinning, but becomes the secure, unassailable,triumphant base for the lifelong warfare against sin in our lives.That's his defense of grace: Sin will not have dominion overyou.
The Law Exposes Sin
What then is his defense of the law? Well, the accusation isthat Paul makes the law out to be sin because not only is it notnecessary to keep the law to get right with God – thathappens through faith alone – but the law seems to arouse sinand become the partner of sin in defeating its own demands (5:20;7:5). His defense begins in Romans 7:7, and that's where we startedlast week.
The only point we made from this verse last week is that it isimportant and good for us to know our sin and that we don't have toexperiment with sinning to know our sin.
Now today we go one step further in understanding Paul's defenseof the law in Romans 7:7-8. Let's read it:
What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "you shall not covet." But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.
His argument here is that the law is not sin, because it makesus know sin. It exposes sin as sin. In the process, sin may flareup even more than before it was exposed (that's what verse 8 says),but that does not make the one who exposes it sinful.
Most of you have experienced this if you care about helpingothers fight sin. You see some sin in a person's life whom you careabout. You humble yourself as Galatians 6:1 says you should andadmit that you have your own sinful faults. You take the log out ofyour own eye the way Jesus says you should (Matthew 7:3-5). Then,after much prayer, you go meekly and confront your friend aboutthis sin. And sometimes the very sin you are seeking to help himovercome flares up all the more and you get blamed for the flareup. And you feel unjustly blamed.
So it is with the law. The law, Paul says, is unjustly blamed assinful when its exposure of sin as sin results in a flare up ofmore sin. The law is not to be blamed or accused as sinful. Verse 8says, "Sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced inme coveting of every kind." Sin is the culprit. Sin is to beblamed. The law pushed its hot button. But that is not sin.
How Does the Law Help Us Know Our Sin?
So let's ask today, How does the law help us know our sin? I askthis because I want to benefit as much as possible from the goodpurposes of the law. I don't want to miss this blessing. I don'twant you to. I expect that it will be a painful blessing – tobe exposed by the law as a sinner, but we saw last week that thisis all good for us. Exploratory surgeries, biopsies, diagnoses,treatment – these may all be painful, but they are all goodfor us in the hand of a skilled physician. And God is the mostskilled physician.
So how does the law help us know our sinful condition? Notice Iask about our "sinful condition," not our "sins." I do this becauseof something that you can see in verse 8: "But sin, takingopportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting ofevery kind." Sin produced coveting. Wait, I thought covetingwas sin. But in Paul's mind there is something beneath thesin of coveting, which is producing coveting. And that something hecalls sin. He treats it like a power – almost like a person.It looks for opportunities – it will even look in God's holylaw – and then uses those opportunities to produces sins likecovetousness.
That deeper thing that produces sins is what I am calling our"sinful condition." You could call it our depravity. You could callit our fallenness. Believers could call it our "remainingcorruption." Paul simply calls it sin. But he makes it clear thatit is deeper and more pervasive and productive than the sins thatit produces, like covetousness.
This sinful condition is what we need to get to know. Andaccording to verse 7, we get to know it by knowing what it producesand how the law exposes that. "I would not have come to know sin[my sinful condition] except through the Law; for I would not haveknown about coveting [which is what this sinful condition produces,according to verse 8] if the Law had not said, "you shall notcovet." So we get to know sin – our deep sinful condition– by getting to know the sins that our sinful conditionproduces.And we get to know those sins and that connection withsin through the law.
Now how does it work? How does the law show us our sinfulcondition and what it really is?
Using Covetousness as an Example
Paul takes the last of the Ten Commandments (see Romans 13:9)"You shall not covet," and uses it as his illustration. Why thisone? I think the reason is that it is the clearest commandmentdealing with the desires of our heart, as opposed to externalbehavior. The other commandments assume desires behindthem – "you shall not steal" (the desire for something that'snot yours); "you shall not commit adultery" (the desire for illicitsex); "you shall not murder" (the desire for revenge or money orthe like), and so on. But "you shall not covet" is the clearestcommand relating directly to the desires of our heart.
The word "covet" in verse 7 (epithumēseis) meanssimply "desire" – it can be desires we should have (Hebrews6:11) or desires we should not have. Covetousness is desire that weshould not have – desire that shows we have lost ourcontentment in all that God is for us in Christ. Many desiresreflect how valuable God is for us. And those are good. But somedesires show that we have lost our satisfaction in God and what heis for us, and are yearning for other things to make up for thefact that God is not the treasure for us that he ought to be.
Now Paul says, "I would not have known coveting if the Law hadnot said, "you shall not covet." And thus I wouldn't know my sinfulcondition that produced this coveting if the law had not said, "Youshall not covet."
Now why is that? Does he mean that I am not coveting before Ihear the law say, "You shall not covet"? No. You might think thatfrom the words at the end of verse 8: "apart from the Law sin isdead." But we know from all of chapter 6 and things he said inchapter 2 and 5 that Paul does not mean there is no sin and nocoveting before we hear the command not to covet (see Romans 5:13).I think what he means when he says, "apart from the Law sin isdead," is that sin is imperceptible as sin, before the lawcalls it sin by prohibiting it. It's there. It works. We experienceit. But we don't see it as sin. It's dead in our mindsas sin. We don't see our sinful condition. We don't seeour desires as illegitimate – unless a law has come in tocall us into question. So it's all dead to us as sin.
So how does the law help us know our covetousness and our sinfulcondition? It does something very profound.
It tells us that our own desires are not the measure of rightand wrong. Our own desires are not the measure of what is good andbad. Our own desires are not the measure of what is true and false.The law comes in and says, there is a standard outside us and aboveus, namely God and his revealed will. God is the measure of rightand wrong. God is the measure of what is good and bad. God is themeasure of what is true and false.
God, not Our Desire, Is the Measure of Right and Wrong
That's what the law does. It tells us this. It contradicts thesovereignty, the deity, of my desires. Until the law comes, ourdesires are our law. We come into the world assuming thatwe ought to get what we want to have. Until thelaw comes, "want to" equals "ought to" – "desire" equals"deserve." This is very obvious in children, and they must learnthat there is another law besides the law of their own desire.
This is what God's law does: it exposes the sinful conditionbeneath all our desires for what it is. It is independence fromGod, rebellion against God. At root, our sinful condition is thecommitment to be our own god: I will be god to me. Or I will makesure the god I have is the kind of god who never vetoes mylegislation. That is, I will be the final authority in my life. Iwill decide what is right and wrong for me, and what is good andbad for me, and what is true and false for me. And my desires willexpress my sovereignty, my autonomy, and – though we don'tusually say it – my deity.
We need to know this about ourselves. I'm not picking on anybodyhere. Or any group of people. I am saying this is what it means tobe fallen human beings. This is what we are dealing with inourselves and in the world. This is why the church is the way it isand why the world is the way it is.
And our only hope is that the Holy Spirit of God would humbleus, so that we can see the folly of trying to be our own god andtreating our own desires as law: "If I want it I ought to have it."This is what we have to be delivered from. This is why we need aGreat Physician. This is why Jesus came to Jerusalem on PalmSunday. This is why he died in our place and rose again and sendsthe Holy Spirit into the world and offers us forgiveness forrebellion, and justifies by faith in Jesus Christ.
'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
And to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
And to know, "Thus says the Lord!"
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I've proved Him o'er and o'er
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Him more!
