The Importance of Knowing Our Sin 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. There Is Law! The main point of the book of Romans up to this point is that God is gloriously righteous in justifying the ungodly by faith alone apart from works of the Law. Romans 4:5 says, To the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. How can this be? How can God justify – declare as righteous – the ungodly who simply look away from themselves to Christ and trust him? How can he acquit the guilty? The answer came in one of the most important statements of the Bible, Romans 3:24-26. God put forward Jesus Christ, his Son, to die in our place so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. There is the high point of the book so far: Jesus, who was crucified, is the sin-bearing Redeemer; we, who trust him, are justified; God, who gave him, is righteous. Thats the glorious gospel of Christ. Now, there is a massive assumption underneath this gospel. The assumption is this: there is law. The Creator of the universe has revealed his will. And it is law. When it is not done, there is real guilt and real condemnation and real punishment. So the existence of law in the universe – the revealed will of God – creates the foundation for law-breaking and guilt, and law-keeping and righteousness, and court and judge, and justification and condemnation. All of these great things rest on this one assumption: there is law. So when Paul proclaims that there are lawbreakers and there is guilt, and there is court and there is Judge, and there is a guilt-bearing substitute and there is faith, and there is justification by faith alone apart from law-keeping – when Paul proclaims this, the grand assumption is: law! No law, no law-breaking; no law-breaking, no guilt; no guilt, no court; no court, no judge; no judge, no justification and no need for incarnation or crucifixion. The whole reality and the whole glory of redemption hang on the existence and excellence of law. Pauls Shocking Way of Speaking about the Law The reason I stress this is to throw into stark relief the fact that Paul says so many negative things about the Law. Its amazing. It should make us tremble. To speak the way Paul speaks about the Law of God is shocking. Some examples: Romans 3:20, By the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. Romans 3:21, But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested. Romans 3:28, We maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. Romans 4:13-14, The promise to Abraham . . . was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the Law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified. Romans 5:20, The Law came in so that the transgression would increase. Romans 6:14, For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. It gets worse . . . Romans 7:4, Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead. In other words – and we say it with trembling care – the Law bars us from marrying Christ. Only death to the Law can free us from the Law to belong to Christ. Theres more. Romans 7:5, For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. The Law arouses sin and links up with sin to bring about death. And finally . . . Romans 7:6 We have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. The Law hinders life in the Spirit. You must be released from it, so that you may serve in the newness of the Spirit. Thats amazing coming from the mouth of a mere man – even an inspired man. I lay it out before you so that you will feel the urgency of the question that begins todays text. Romans 7:7, What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? There were saints in the Old Testament, you remember, who loved the Law of God. Psalm 119:97, O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. Psalm 1:2, His delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. The words of Paul must have landed on some humble saints like an utterly unjustified indictment. Does this matter to Paul? Does he care what people think about the Law? It matters tremendously – which is why we are going to spend several Sundays on this question. It matters to him what you think of the Law, and what you do with the Law. It really matters. So today, well just make a start in answering Pauls question.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 18:51:44 +0000
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