by Katie Erickson “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.” (Romans 7:14-25) This section of the book of Romans is often referred to as the “do do” chapter. As you read the text above, you may have gotten lost in all the do’s that Paul writes. But when you look at the underlying message, it truly sums up humanity and how we live our lives. In last week’s passage, we looked at how we want to do what we’re not supposed to, simply because we’re told not to do it. That’s what Paul is elaborating on here. We want to do what is good and right, but we mess it up, and we keep messing it up. Our minds agree with God’s law, but our actions don’t necessarily match up to that. We know we should do what God wants us to do and not disobey Him by sinning. But when we do what we don’t want to (sin), it’s the evil living in us that does it. We were all born with original sin, so we have that natural tendency to go against what God wants us to do. We are a new creation because of the work of Jesus on the cross, but we’re still living in the sinful world and still have sin in our lives. This is an ongoing battle in every one of our lives. Having good intentions are not good enough, especially not in God’s eyes. Just because I know I shouldn’t tell a lie, and really I didn’t mean to but it just slipped out, doesn’t make it right. I still told that lie, even if my intention was not too. As the saying goes, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Hell is the only place we’re headed when all we have are good intentions, without a perfect life to back them up - or without the perfect life of Jesus Christ covering up our sins. This brings back the idea of slavery that we talked about in Romans 6: are you a slave to sin and the requirements of the law, or are you a slave to the grace and freedom that comes through Jesus Christ? Our sin traps us in spiritual death because we cannot live up to the perfect standards of the law, and only Jesus Christ can free us from it. In last week’s passage of Romans 7:7-12, Paul shared how he got to know and understand the law. Here, he shares his struggle with the law (which is the same struggle that we all have), and his hope of a future without that struggle in his life. We are already made perfect because of Jesus Christ, but we can’t yet fully live that our lives because we’re still living in this sinful world. As I wrote about recently, we’re simultaneously saints and sinners. Good intentions are great, but it’s what you do that truly matters. But, if you can’t live up to God’s standards and have faith in Jesus, then it’s what Jesus Christ has done for you that truly matters! This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
by Nathan Buck As a parent, I often have "deja vu" moments, where what is coming out of my mouth as I discipline my children is something I have heard before. Not just because I have most likely repeated it a thousand times already, but because I remember hearing it from the other side - when I was a kid. One of those phrases that feels like a continuous feedback loop is, "No means NO." Let's face it, as human beings we have a problem with the word "NO." We especially have a problem with it when someone is telling us what we should not do, or are not allowed to do. The minute we hear the word, there is a part of us that takes the restriction as a challenge - one that we either must experience to understand, or one that we must see if we can get away with. Curiosity is one part of what drives us, and independent willfulness is the other. This dynamic duo has been getting humans in trouble for generations, well truthfully, since the dawn of creation with Adam and Eve. In Romans 7:7-13, Paul continues to explain our relationship to God's law (His teachings and commandments), and why the "rules" themselves are insufficient. The rules, and trying to keep them, cannot make us right before God. In fact, I don't think they were ever intended to. Read through the passage for a moment and then come back to the rest of this post. Did you catch how Paul describes the law of God? He said, "Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful." In other words, God's law and teachings were meant to shed light on and expose the choices, actions, and desires that are wrong and destructive. They were intended to show us the best way to live, and what true moral behavior looks like. Consistently, God's law and His interactions with humanity through each generation address where people are at that time and urges them forward from that point to a higher standard. But at each point we heard a "NO," we desired to keep or to discover what was identified as not good for us. My own simple example is with coffee. I like coffee, and I can take it or leave it on any given day. Some days I forget to drink it, and other days I choose tea. But the minute I think about getting rid of coffee completely for health reasons, I start desiring it more. When I fast from drinking coffee, the desire for it can be so strong, I will smell it when there is no coffee anywhere near me. Standing in my kitchen, my body will almost automatically at times start going through the motions of making coffee. (I have caught myself mid brew before.) So strong is the desires of the flesh, and so powerful, that when we tell them "NO," they try to take over and figure out another way to get what I want. The desires of our flesh can seem almost unstoppable. But they are stoppable, and they are weaker than they feel. The first step in breaking free from sin is to recognize it for what it is. That is what God's law and commands do. He exposes our sinful desires, choices, and actions. When we see them and become more aware of them, we initially feel helpless and overwhelmed by them. In the same way, children must feel overwhelmed at all the "NO's" their parents give them, and all the things that are unsafe for them. I remember as a kid at times feeling like there were so many "NO's" that I didn't get to do 'anything' (which was no where near to being true - it just felt that way because I was focused on the "NO"). What's amazing, though, is what happens when we have a "YES." We can choose to focus on that "YES" and enjoy the freedom of it. Or, we can belittle the "YES" because it doesn't undo a "NO" that we really wanted to be a "YES." That choice in and of itself is the choice between a life with God and a life apart from Him. So, how are you doing with letting "NO" mean "NO"? Try focusing on the things God has blessed you with, and the gifts and abilities He has given you. As you see your habits and desires more clearly, try redirecting them toward what God says is good. See what you find out about your relationship with God when you stop throwing a tantrum over what is "NO" and start living for the "YES." For a practical exercise in this, try fasting some food you really love for a week. Pay attention to how you and your flesh behave when you want it and aren't allowed to have it. Then pray, and let God show you how to let it go, and celebrate what you are allowed to have. This simple exercise may help you understand this passage better, and may help you see some deep places of rebellion or ungratefulness between you and God. It may also help you experience His grace, presence, and strength in a new way. This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
by Charlie Wolcott In continuing with this theme of Identity, we now need to look at the key question that the worldview aspect of identity asks: Who am I? Last week, I talked about some of the major issues our society faces in terms of identity, and now I want to dig deeper into the heart of the issue. Who am I? Who gets to determine who I am? With that in mind, who do I get to say who anyone else is? These are questions not many people really know how to answer explicitly, but subconsciously we have all allowed others to some extent tell us who we are and who others are. First, let’s start simple. The aspect of origins deals with where we came from and some of that include where we were born and what society we grew up in. I grew up outside Denver, Colorado. That is part of my origins. Now I live in El Paso, Texas, and I have been here for the last 16 years. However, I still identify myself as a Coloradoan. I am 5th generation, Boulder County, Colorado. That’s part of my identity. But I also consider myself as from El Paso, because all of my adult life, I’ve lived in El Paso. Every city we come from has a reputation associated with it and when we say we are from a certain city, many people immediately get a picture of what you are like based on what they know of that city. When I tell people here in El Paso that I am from Colorado, they automatically think I am very tolerant of cold temperatures. Which is true to a degree, but 16 years in El Paso has acclimated me to warmer temps. All this is part of my identity. Identity also deals with your family name and what you grew up doing. I grew up as a missionary kid. My parents served with International Family Missions for 22 years and most of my childhood, I was not only along for the ride but also involved in the activity. This is what brought me to El Paso. My origin is that I came from a Christian home, serving in missions. But that does not make me a Christian by identity. I came from a Christian background, but I still had to make the choice to make Christianity my identity. Our primary philosophical position is also how we identify ourselves. I identify myself as a born again, Bible-believing Christian. There are others who identify themselves as Christians but you can tell rather quickly if that is true by if they show any evidence of being born-again of if they actually believe the Bible. There are some that call themselves ex-Christians, where they once thought they believed in Christianity but now they don’t. I’m always amazed at how I have yet to meet one of these people that actually knows even the basics of what they used to believe. Other people identify themselves as atheists, an affirmative belief that God does not exist. Many will claim they ‘lack belief’ but that is not atheism, by definition. That is actually more agnosticism. But agnosticism literally means ‘to be ignorant’ or ‘to not know.’ It sure is amazing how many will claim to be agnostic but are absolutely certain we are wrong. Others claim to be Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, New Age, Christian Scientists, Mormon, Catholics, etc., the list goes on and on. One of my favorites was when PZ Meyers said “We are still fish.” in “Evolution vs God”. That is how many people identify themselves. Now I want to make very clear that just because our worldview determines how we identify ourselves, that does not make our position right, in itself. Many people wear a false label. We call such labels ‘masks.’ Very often someone will ask us how we are doing and we will say, “Fine!” or “Great!” Yet inside, we know we are feeling anything but that. Likewise, we like to identify ourselves as one thing in front of one group of people and then when we get in front of another group of people we become someone else. The psychiatrists have a word for such behavior: schizophrenia. A little while back, Nathan Buck wrote a series of posts about a lion wearing a duck suit. That whole series is about claiming one identity while living another. The big problem with this mindset is we are too often dependent upon what people think about us and we let them define who we are. We have this tendency of conforming to those we hang around. We are too interested in what others want us to be instead of what God wants us to be. It should not take long for people to see that many of the groups and ‘cliques’ we want to hang around only want us around if you benefit the group. As soon as you start to not benefit the group, you tend to be cast out or shunned. Yet, so many of us still seek the approval of those people that we don’t even like. The root of this lies in identity. We want someone to tell us we are worthy of recognition. And this leads to another problem. When we look at others, do we see individuals or do we see one of a number? Agent K in Men in Black says, “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky and dangerous animals and you know it.” How often do we have that mindset? When we look at others, how often do we look and see the individuals? And when we do, do we see value in that individual? Ebenezer Scrooge had this problem in A Christmas Carol. He saw the poor and destitute as surplus population and taking up wasted space. Yet it was when visiting his loyal employee, Bob Cratchit, with the Ghost of Christmas Present that he saw the individual, Tiny Tim. That was the catalyst that started waking Scrooge up to what he had been doing. Do we see individuals? Do we see their problems? The storms in their lives? Or do we just see one of the masses? There is still more to explore about identity. Next week, we will zoom in even further and see what our identity is like on the internal level. Romans emphasizes on the issue of identity. And next week, Worldview Warriors wraps up Romans 7 with the passage where Paul famously reveals the inner struggle between living for Christ and living for sin. And if we understand the identity issue, it will help us know how to engage in that struggle. Stay tuned. This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
by Steve Risner
“Pardon me, your epidermis is showing, sir. I couldn't help but note your shade of melanin.”—DC Talk in Colored People The skin. It’s what we see of people on the outside. Human beings have decided, over the thousands of years they’ve been on earth, to judge people solely on the amount of melanin a person’s skin produces. Melanin, produced by melanocytes, is the pigment or coloring we have in our skin. Believe it or not, almost all of us have a very similar number of melanin producing cells in our skin—black, white, brown, red, whatever—but the amount of melanin produced by those cells differs from person to person. There are actually 2 different kinds of melanin giving us the various shades of skin we see around the world. If the amount of pigment in our skin is the largest difference between people, what’s the big deal? I’d like to take a look at some of the totally cool stuff your skin is about and take a look at the Christian or Biblical response to racism. Follow along… Your skin is commonly referred to as the largest organ of the human body, covering around 20-22 square feet and weighing in at about 20 lbs. The next largest organs of the body by weight are the liver and brain, each coming in around 3 lbs. The skin contains roughly 10 miles of blood vessels. These provide nutrients for your skin cells but also bring heat and waste products to the surface of your skin to release them. Your skin contains all sorts of wonderful contraptions that do everything from waterproof you to give you your senses of touch, pressure, vibration, temperature, and pain. How are you waterproofed? The top layer of your skin, the epidermis, is primarily dead skin cells and a layer of keratin. Those dead cells, of which you shed about 20,000-50,000 every 60 seconds or so, comprise about 50% of the dust you see in your house. Some estimates are as high as 1 billion tons of skin cells floating in the atmosphere right now! Gross, I know. But the primary function of the skin is to keep your insides in and the outside out as well as dealing with a lot of the exchanges we make with our environment. So what’s the deal with skin color and judging someone based on that? Honestly, I have no idea. In fact, for me personally, I reject the very notion of “races” within mankind. We are one race—the human race. Not only is this pretty clear when we look around the world but the Bible is pretty clear on this as well. According to Scripture, we all can trace our ancestry back to one family—Noah and his sons and their wives. From these 8 people and the scattering that occurred some time after the Flood, we have every tribe, every nation, every skin tone and feature, every one of the over 7 billion of us. Using an estimated birth rate, it’s pretty easy to trace humanity’s “start” (really our second start) to just several thousand years ago. If humans have been on the earth for some 200,000 years, as evolutionists contend, the population would likely be significantly higher. But God’s Word tells us, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). This passage, as well as a few others similar to it, shows us there is no partiality with God determined by gender, nationality, or status. So how can we decide there is a just cause for looking down on someone based on these categories? The LORD is the LORD of all of us and the Father of all of us. In Acts 17:26 we have Peter saying “…and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation.” You see, all of us are lost in our sin and slaves to it—black, white, rich, poor, Western, native, Eastern, Middle Eastern, tall, short, you name it. We all need a Savior and Jesus Christ, a Middle Easterner, paid the price for us all. 1 John 4 gives us some startling insight into God’s perspective on “racism.” It seems pretty clear He detests it. We’ll start with verse 8: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” John goes on in verses 11-12: “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” The crux of this whole passage in relation to racism is found in verses 20-21: “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.” Here we see the foundation of the argument. According to this, it seems very unlikely a racist person can be a Christian—a follower of Christ. Primarily, John is speaking of “brothers and sisters” in terms of fellow believers. But we’re all in the same boat here. Like I said, we ALL need a Savior and no one is any better than anyone else. But if you hold hatred or even just contempt in your heart towards a person with a different skin tone, I would love to hear justification based on God’s Word on that. It is true, in the past, that some have held up Bibles and marched for racism. I’ve seen pictures of a parade of white women carrying Bibles supporting their racist beliefs. But this is absurd. There is no case, Biblically, for discrimination. In fact, the Bible repeatedly tells us partiality is wrong. We are all human beings from the same family. You can’t condemn Christianity or the Bible because someone plucked a passage of Scripture out and made it say something the whole counsel of Scripture doesn’t say. People using Christ’s name to condone actions that are very clearly not Christ-like is no reason to label Christianity this way. However, although Darwinism did not spawn racism, it very much fueled the idea of some races being superior to others. The title of Darwin’s famous book was “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection OR the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life.” Did evolutionism birth racism? Of course not. Has it legitimized it for many? Without question. Backing up your hatred of a people group with a seemingly intellectual or scientific argument has damaged the cause of equality around the globe. Let’s be clear: God is love and shows no partiality. We are commanded to love everyone—especially anyone that calls themselves a follower of Christ. You cannot, according to the Bible, hate your brother and love God. Love is what has spread Christianity all around the world, making it the faith more people on the planet claim to hold than any other. It wasn’t spread by force, hatred, war, or anything else. Sure, there may be examples of people doing ungodly things in the name of God, but these are exceptions, not the rule. Love wins, to use a popular phrase of the day. This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
by Logan Ames “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees, and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess” (Deuteronomy 30:15-18). These words of Moses make it seem like a very simple choice for the people. Do “A” and you get life, do “B” and you get death. Raise your hand if you’re not sure which one of those you want. The problem is that there is no margin for error. To keep the commands, decrees, and laws of the Lord is to do so ALL THE TIME. Since nobody was able to accomplish that feat even though they clearly preferred life over death, they were all guilty of being lawbreakers. Based on the words above, that meant they would “certainly be destroyed." What was it that led to their death? Is it the law that would kill them? Of course not! The law itself was given by God, making it holy. But human beings are sinners and no matter how hard we try, we cannot be holy by our own power. So, what would kill the people was their inability to follow the holy law of God. This is what the Apostle Paul is setting up in Romans 7:7-13. Take a minute and read it. You see that he is saying that it took learning the law to even know what was and was not considered “sin." He shares that it was the sinful desires within him that caused him to want to do what was not permitted by the law. Because of this, he realizes the result. “I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death” (v. 10). Paul knows that the law itself was basically an instruction manual on how to live a prosperous life, just as Moses said it was. But as soon as you add sin to the mix, we receive the penalty of not following the law rather than the benefit of following it. And that penalty is death and destruction. Paul mentions that sin actually “deceives” us. I’m sure that just about anyone reading this can relate to that statement. Sin presents itself to us as something beautiful and innocent. Even though we have the commands that tell us what is beneficial versus what is destructive for us, we still have a dangerous curiosity that makes us want to find out if we will REALLY be destroyed if we walk in sin. This comes down to an issue of trust in our Creator that he is not slighting us, that the commands he has given us are designed to bring us abundant life more than we ever could have achieved on our own. If we trust God at our core, then we have no reason to doubt him about whatever is behind the curtain. Plus, we then have no desire to rebel against him. A week and a half ago on May 24, the church celebrated the day of Pentecost, which is traditionally 50 days after Passover. It commemorates the day that the Holy Spirit came to the believers, as promised by Jesus, according to Acts 2. As I was preparing for that day, I learned something from a friend that I want to share with you. You can read the story yourself and see what happens when the Holy Spirit comes to the believers, but I will tell you that after it all went down and after Peter stood up to urge those around him to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins, Scripture says that “about three thousand were added to their number that day” (v. 41). This was at a time when following Jesus was illegal and, quite frankly, dangerous! The message that these people could receive forgiveness of sins, which was a pardon from the penalty of death that they received because they could not fully keep God’s commands, decrees, and laws, caused them to abandon their personal safety and follow Jesus. Keep that instant and massive church growth in mind as you compare it to Exodus 32. For a little bit of context, think about the fact that Moses had gone up on Mount Sinai and had been up there “hanging out” with God for about two months while the rest of the Israelites were still down in the camp under the leadership of his brother Aaron. During that time on the mountain, God literally wrote the Ten Commandments on stone tablets so Moses could carry them back to the people. Eventually, the people got tired of waiting for Moses to return and asked Aaron to make them a god to go before them (v. 1). Like any poor leader who would rather be popular than do what is right, Aaron used their jewelry to create a golden calf. The people went so far as to give this thing they created credit for bringing them out of Egypt (v. 4). Aaron built an altar before the calf and when the people went to worship it, they got drunk and “indulged in revelry” (v. 6), which really means “sex play” according to the original language. The people’s collective rebellion against God made him angry and he was ready to destroy them completely, which we already know is the result of not keeping his commands. Moses then went back down the mountain to see what was happening and got so angry that he broke the stone tablets that had the Ten Commandments written on them, which was symbolic of Israel having broken their covenant with God by not following his commands. Sadly, something had to be done to try to get rid of the evil in the Israelite camp. As you can see in verses 27-29, God told Moses to have those who would take a stand for the Lord to kill some of those who were against him, including their family, friends, and neighbors. This resulted in the death of “about three thousand people” that day. I trust that you see the numerical connection between Exodus 32 and Acts 2. But the connection is more than that. The day that three thousand died was the first day that Moses brought the written law to the people from the mountain. The day that three thousand came to know the Lord at Pentecost was the first day that the Holy Spirit was poured out on all the believers. God’s law was just as holy as his Spirit, but as Paul says in our passage for this week in Romans, the law results in our death when we break it. You just need to decide if you want to try to earn God’s favor and earn salvation by obeying the law and even trying to force others to obey it (or whatever interpretation of it YOU desire), or if you want to trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and live according to the grace and power of the Holy Spirit. Paul explains our utter hopelessness in sin and our need for Christ even more in the passage we will delve into next week. For the rest of this week, I encourage you to think about which way you are living, according to the law or according to the Spirit. One results in death because of your sin, the other brings life and forgives your sin. It really is a matter of life or death. This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
by Bill Seng “Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law.” ~Romans 7:7b This week I was in a discussion about the origin of evil, which could just as easily be equated to the origin of sin. The passage cited above reveals a truth concerning the origin of sin, namely, that we would be ignorant concerning what is sin if it were not for the law. Does that mean that a commandment or a law is the only thing that distinguishes sin from righteousness? In the movie I, Robot, mankind lives in a futuristic world where robots wait on humans hand and foot. They are governed by a series of laws. The creators of the robots must have seen Terminator because the most important law was that robots were not allowed to cause humans any harm. Because it was their programming never to harm humans, a robot would never feel inclined to harm a person even if that person was behaving abusively to it. Ultimately (spoiler alert) the robots determined that mankind threatened its own existence, requiring assistance from the robots, which would entail breaking their number one rule. What was once unthinkable to the robots became their number one priority by justifying wickedness through a righteous command. In the beginning, there was no written command. There was no evil. And yet God still saw it fitting to separate light from darkness and command humans never to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The natural state of mankind was to be good. What that natural state lacked was knowledge of what is good. But mankind did not need to know what is good because it was already good. Looking back at the movie I, Robot, the machines determined that although it was their creator that gave them the law, they deduced that they were wiser than their creator. It was only then that the robots rebelled and started harming humans for mankind’s own good. In the same respect, in the Garden of Eden mankind became self-conscious through temptation by the serpent. Mankind knew that the law given through God was good, but could there be something better than what God commanded? Ironically, no. God’s creation was already good and, in a manner of speaking, one could make the case that mankind’s acquisition of the knowledge of good and evil would have been sinful even if God had not directly commanded against it. If you doubt me on this, think of Cain and Abel. Did God tell humanity that murder was evil? It is not the command that makes sin what it is, it is deviance from God’s created order. The written word makes us aware of sin, as the verse says, but the written word clarifies what is sinful in instances when we are unsure or unaware of a sinful activity we may regularly engage in. Paul uses the example of covetousness and says he would not have known coveting was a sin had the law not said so. Sin originated when nature rebelled against God’s natural order. The written word of the law clarified the differences between sin and righteousness so that all people might know how to repent from evil. Unfortunately, the law also exposed all of humanity as hopeless sinners. It is in this reality that we can know that we need a Savior from our sins. This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
by Katie Erickson “What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.” (Romans 7:7-13) Paul continues his discussion here of the law and what it is. To review a bit from previous posts, the law (the rules that we’re given by God) traditionally has 3 uses: a mirror, a curb, and a guide. The law is a mirror because it shows us our sin. When we see what is right and wrong, we see that we are sinful. The law is a curb because it keeps our sin in check through fear of punishment, just as a curb on a road keeps cars on the road. The law is a guide for believers because guides us on how to live. We know what we’re supposed to do to stay on God’s path, even if it is difficult for us to always follow that. Based on the arguments Paul has made before this, his readers are likely thinking that the law itself is a bad thing. He makes sure to explain here that the law itself is not sinful, but it just shows us what our sin is. We can’t know we’re breaking the rules unless we know what the rules are, right? Just like my reflection in a mirror is not really me and simply shows me what I look like, the law is not really sin and it just shows us what sin is. The law is important because it gives guidelines to all of humanity. It’s what’s considered objective moral truth - it’s universal and there’s no questioning it. The opposite of that would be subjective moral truth, which is where every person decides what truth is for themselves. In verse 8, we read that, “But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.” This is Paul explaining part of our human nature, that when we’re told not to do something, we want to do it all the more. If you go to a friend’s house and they tell you not to go in a particular room, doesn’t that make you wonder all the more what’s in there? Or if a big red button has a sign on it that says “Do Not Touch,” doesn’t it make you want to hit that button and see what happens? It’s in our nature to be curious, and especially curious and desirous about things we are told we can’t have! When we know what we’re not supposed to do, it unfortunately makes us want to do that all the more. When God gave the original law to the people of Israel in Exodus 20, they learned what was right and wrong. While it was an act of God’s love to give them (and us) the law, it actually brought them death instead of life. They knew that the consequence for disobeying God was death, and now they knew exactly what it looked like to disobey. No one (aside from Jesus Christ) has ever or will ever be able to fully keep God’s laws. We all deserve death, because we all disobey God. The phrase “ignorance is bliss” came to my mind when I was thinking about this idea. If you don’t know what sin is, you don’t know you’re committing it, right? But unfortunately, whether we realize it or not, we’re all guilty. Instead of ignorance being bliss, the true bliss is found through God’s grace and forgiveness when we do mess up! Have you received that grace and forgiveness in your life? This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
