The Power of Sin Revealed by the Commandments
Commentary on Romans 52
Romans 7: 8 - 9
Introduction: Sin is cunning and very accustomed to hiding itself, glorifying itself, and justifying itself. It is because of covetousness within us that sin can do so. Sin has always been accustomed to working hand in hand with covetousness, our original sinful nature. And our covetousness is easily deceived by the whispers of sin and destroys our conscience. But when the commandment of God came to us, it revealed the identity and authority of such a terrible sin. This is the meaning of Paul's lamentable appeal, "Once upon a time I lived without the understanding of the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died."
1. The sin of causing various kinds of covetousness with the commandment
Paul says, “Sin took opportunity, and produced in me every kind of covetousness through the commandment.” These verses reveal the nature of sin and its power.
(1) Sin is a force. Sin has its source from the devil. The beginning of sin came from the devil to Adam and Eve in Eden. Since then, this sin has established itself as a great force in the human body that takes hold of man's greed and leads us to sin. This is what Paul says in verse 23, “I see myself bringing me captive under the law of sin that is in my members.” Because this sin is a definite force at work in fallen human nature, it exercises power in our bodies.
(2) Sin is a force that disobeys the commandments of the law. Sin knows well the fear of the law. He is well aware that the law has the power to condemn him. But sin yields to the law and disobeys it. Sin deceives us when the law tells us not to do it. Sin is a terrifying existence that challenges even the law.
(3) Sin works through opportunity. Sin is well aware of his opportunity to act. Sin waits for the opportunity to come, and once the opportunity is given it attacks without a doubt. When sin attacked David to commit murder and adultery, he seized the opportunity to watch Uriah's wife bathe naked. When sin seizes an opportunity to work on its own, it does not miss that opportunity and uses all its cunning, camouflage, and power to attack us and force us to yield to it.
2. Without the law, sin is dead.
Paul says, “For, without the law, sin is dead.” When Paul said “dead” here, he did not mean that he was without sin. He said that because sin was not revealed as sin, it was as if he were dead. The reality of committing a sin without knowing it as a sin is that it is as good as dead.
(1) There was sin even before the law. God's law, called conscience, in the heart of man has shown us sin. Even when there was no law in this world, God said, "Man's iniquity was tolerant in the world" (Genesis 6:5) . God lamented this man's sin, but because man did not recognize it as a sin, his power spread and he became tolerant of sin.
(2) After the law was introduced, it was made possible to show us what sin was through the law. The law has uncovered the true nature of sin hidden within us. However, rather than sin, it uses even the items of sin shown in the commandments to instill the desire for sin in our hearts. This is never because the commandments are unholy. The commandments do not have the power to overcome sin. The mission of the commandments is not to give human beings the power to overcome sin, but to make sin a sin and condemn it.
The human conscience wants to follow the commandment, but the body is weak and cannot do so. The power of sin, which controls even our bodies and our consciences, prevents us from keeping the law. Because we are enslaved under the power of this sin, fulfilling the requirements of the law is unimaginable. It is said that “by the works of the law there is no flesh to be justified” (Galatians 2:16). While the law does not have the power to make us human beings, sin is in the position of the master who can make us submit to ourselves, so each clause of the sin forbidden by the law acts as an incentive for sin to commit even that. is to reach
3. When you don't understand the law
Paul laments, “Before, when I did not understand the law, I was alive; when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.”
(1) The time when you did not understand the law refers to a time when you only knew the question of the commandment and did not know the true meaning of God that the commandment gave you. Before Paul accepted the Lord, he knew that simply keeping the commandments was simply keeping the commandments. So, even before he had faith, Paul was proud of himself as having no groove in the law, and he denounced Christians as having no law. Even at the time of Jesus, the Jews boasted that they were fulfilling the righteousness of the law while outwardly keeping the law. But Jesus, who knows the true meaning of the law (because Jesus is the author of the law), condemned them as hypocrites.
(2) Paul said that when the commandment came, sin was revived and he died. The saying that the commandment has come is referring to the current state of the person who realized the true meaning of the commandment. In other words, the commandment not only has no power to give us righteousness, but rather it is conquered and aroused in man's covetousness because of it, and the commandment reveals all of its sins, so that sins are revived and confesses that he is dead. is. What we need to keep in mind here is that Paul is not here talking about his own experience when he did not receive Christ. In revealing the relationship between the commandments and sin, he is merely stating hypothetically the facts that can be experienced by the person who appears as “I” while he is aware of all these facts.
Conclusion: Paul's words that I lived are his own situation when he did not know the true meaning of the law. In fact, even though he was dead because of the commandment, Paul knew he was alive because he did not know the true meaning of the commandment. It means that they knew that they had the righteousness of the law. However, when he came to understand the function of the law, his sin was revealed through the law, and he came to know that he had died because of the law that condemned the sin. The reason God gave the law to humans is so that humans can understand this fact through the law and come to know God's grace for salvation through Jesus Christ, not out of conscience or the law. That is why Paul says this in Galatians 2:24. “So the law became our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified through faith.”