Title: Life and Commandments
Commentary on Romans 53
life and commandments
Romans 7:10-13
Introduction: In verse 10, Paul laments deeply, saying, “The commandment, which was to lead to life, has brought death to me.” This lamentation is not the lament that Paul is experiencing. This is the lament of a person called “I” who came to understand the principle that a person who wants to keep the law does not obtain righteousness from that law, but rather is condemned. The law clearly promised life to humans, but it was rather a vehicle that brought death to humans. It shows conflict and anguish as they discover contradictions.
I. THE COMMANDMENT THAT CAUSED DEATH
Paul divides the law and the commandments in Romans. However, this expression basically represents one thing. The law refers to the overall law given by God, and the commandments are specific provisions that subdivide them, which can be called the Ten Commandments.
(1) The commandment that will lead to life is a word that expresses the meaning of the commandment itself. This does not mean that the commandments were given to bring man to life. It is an interpretation that if a person keeps it, he can gain life. The reason is that life is promised to those who keep the commandments (Lev 18:4-5, Deut 6:25, Luke 10:25-28). This is by no means a violation of God's promises. “Is the law then against the promise of God? It can never be. If a law that was able to live had been given, then righteousness must have come through the law” (Galatians 3:21). We must once again clearly articulate the purpose and limitations of the law.
(2) Paul said that the commandment was rather to lead to death. Then why did it lead to death, even though it did not give us life? An explanation of this should take a closer look at the relationship between sin and the law. This can be viewed in three ways. When the first commandment came, man's sin was exposed before the commandment. This is a great opportunity for Satan. This is why Satan worked to provoke man's sinful nature (covetousness) to break that commandment. Because humans are slaves to sin and sold into sin, they are obliged to follow Satan's attacks and break the commandments. Second, since the human being who is called me is weak in body and cannot fulfill the commandments, the commandments eventually made me more sinful. Thirdly, as a result, the commandment became a catalyst that led to death through that commandment, let alone life.
2. The sin of taking an opportunity to deceive me and kill me
Satan always appears before us as a bright light. And sin is to deceive us by hiding and disguising ourselves. This fact is made clear before us through the experience of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:1-5. There are many ways in which sin deceives us.
(I) Sin is to deceive me that it is okay to build with the heart and not with the actions. However, the law condemns the sin of the heart as the 10th commandment.
(2) When sin peeks at an opportunity and appears before us, it justifies its appearance. The appearance of sin is attractive to man. By intensifying that attraction, we simply see sin with our eyes and accept it.
(3) Sin deceives that even doing this you will never die. That was the serpent's words to Eve. “The serpent said to the woman, ‘You will never die’” (Genesis 3:4). Because sin causes man to look at himself with covetousness, it is to look at sin in the same way that he sees himself as “a tree that is good for food, and that is pleasing to the eye, and that is desirable to make one wise,” as it was shown to Eve.
(4) The next sin reassures you that you have sinned, but don't worry. Christians reassure them by whispering that worrying about sin is pointless because there is no condemnation.
(5) Sin is to deceive us once we do it once and then stop because it doesn't matter. At this time, man loses his reason to think about the terrible consequences of sin and falls into that trap. We need to realize this nature of sin, turn away from it, and fight against it.
3. Was it really the law that gave sin and death?
In this respect, the commandments are neither evil nor unrighteous. The law is holy. Because it is the standard of God's judgment that condemns sinners, God's justice is reflected in the whole law. The commandment is righteous. Because it is God's standard of righteousness that gives righteousness to those who keep it. The law is good. The law is absolutely good because it comes from God. Only because we humans are evil, the law cannot give us good judgment. Even if we humans were to die because of that law, that law is holy, just, and good.
(1) But here Paul asks, “Did something so good become death to me?” This answer is simply given by Paul himself, but he replies, “It cannot be.” Death came to us not because of the law that made sin sinful. Even before the law, sin existed in us humans, and because of this sin, we humans were already doomed to receive God's judgment. The law merely exposed the existing sin existing in man as sin. Therefore, it is absolutely not that the law brought death to us.
(2) In fact, it is our evil sins that already exist that brought death to us human beings through the good law to declare the corpse. Before the law, while we were living in sin, we did not know that we were sinners, nor did we know that the penalty for sin was death. However, as the law intervened in human society, human sin was revealed as a sin, and we came to know that we all died as the price for that sin. Sin showed us that we were deeply sinful through the law, and it revealed the condemnation of sin that sinners are judged by God. Therefore, the law did not serve us humans as an evil-doer, nor did it come as a gift of death. just revealed it. They just paid attention to us.
Conclusion: Christians still have this power of sin. Therefore, it is said, “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body” (Romans 6:12). Our old self is dead, but the habits of that old person still remain in our mortal body. Since this power has been removed from its master's position, it is struggling to deceive and dominate us. We must defeat this power with our new life force.