Published: January 28, 2024 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: Romans - Part 35 | Scripture: Romans 7:7-12
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turn with me please in your Bibles to uh Romans chapter
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7 as we continue to navigate uh one of the more difficult in um Paul's writings Romans chapter 7 today we'll be looking at verses 7 through
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12 uh let's take a look at that Romans chap 7 beginning in verse 7 What then shall we say is the law
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sin may it never be on the contrary I would not have come to know sin except through the through the law for I would not have known about
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coveting if the law had not said You shall not shall not covet but sin taking opportunity through the Commandment produced in me coveting
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of every kind for apart from the law sin is dead and I was once alive apart from the law but when the Commandment came sin
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became alive and I died and this commandment which was to result in life proved to result in death for me for sin taking opportunity
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through the Commandment deceived me and through through it killed me so then the law is holy and the Commandment is holy and righteous and
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good let us pray father indeed we always need the help of the Holy Spirit the guidance of the one who will lead us into all truth
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and also keep us from falsehood and only by your spirit can we understand your word by your light we see light but certainly this is a
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passage that brings that need home to us in a powerful way to understand what Paul is talking about here we ask that your Holy Spirit
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would indeed illuminate his words and our minds bringing the two together in true understanding and with that understanding worship and obedience for
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we ask this in Jesus name amen I've often commented that um in the Book
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of Romans of Romans especially as people follow Paul's logic and they're going down the path of the premises that he is setting
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forth he forth he anticipates a conclusion that they might logically draw and he presents that to us he does
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that here again in verse seven that phrase that we have seen numerous times and we'll continue to see What then shall we shall we say is the law
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sin well that would logically follow from what you've been saying about the law and sin and how and he continues to say that the law has brought
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sin indeed elsewhere he he says things like why the law then he writes in Galatians chapter 3 it was added because of transgressions or here in Romans chapter
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3 for through the law comes the knowledge of knowledge of sin and even more bewilderingly Romans
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5:20 and the law came in that the transgression might increase okay how can we not conclude then that
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there's something wrong with the law and in fact that has been the conclusion within Christianity over the Millennia especially in the second century a man
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by the name of marcion LED many in the church astray teaching that the god of the Old Testament was not the God and Father of Jesus Christ but rather a God
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who was retributive a God who was angry and punitive and his law itself was evil Paul said says may it never
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be he says I understand that your mind might go that way don't let it that what I'm saying might logically point in that direction it
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doesn't it points in a different direction altogether follow me because whenever he says what shall we say then he presents a falsehood that masquerades
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as a truth and even masquerad as a logical truth well Isen isn't this what you're saying Paul no it's not what I'm saying and so whenever you read that in
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Paul's writings especially Romans what shall we say then that is an admonition to us as readers pay attention because the direction Paul is
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going under the inspiration of the holy spirit is not necessarily the direction your mind will go under the inspiration of your of your logic and and his response may it never
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be is a very powerful statement in the Greek that says don't even think this get it out of your
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mind and we see at the end of this passage the bookmark in verse 12 so then the law is Holy and the Commandment is holy and righteous and
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good so in verse 12 he answers the question in verse 7 but he has more to say in between that's very very important to the flow of his overall
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Sherlock Holmes who I think in this statement that many of you are familiar with applies uh wonderfully to Paul when you have eliminated all which is impossible
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then whatever remains however improbable must be the truth and sometimes we feel that way when we we read Paul all that is impossible may it never
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be and therefore I'm going to give you something that however improbable is the truth and that's how we must look at what is what he is presenting to
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us and what he's saying to us is that sin and the law are intimately related but sin came into the world
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before the law did sin came into the world Romans 5 through the man Adam the law came with Moses and so how are these two related
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and what do I do now that I have been delivered from sin what do I do this is the whole topic here what do I do with the law Romans 5 ver verse 13 for until
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the law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed when there is no law that that statement alone is kind of strange and yet we know from Romans 5
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that sin still had its penalty how do we know that well because people died Romans 5:14 death reigned from Adam
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to Moses so what we're not saying here is that the law brought in sin no sin was already here so what about the law well the law
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as he says in chapter three brings the knowledge of sin and that's where his logic is logic is heading the knowledge of sin now how can we not impute evil to a
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law that brings the knowledge of sin and itself cannot give life but only condemnation in Corinthians Paul says the power of sin is the
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law well how is the law then not also sinful well Robert halan made a a very
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important distinction in his commentary he wrote an occasion of sin and a cause of sin are two things
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essentially different law is the occasion of sin it is not the cause of it and this shows us something about Sin
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and that's where Paul is drawing our attention because he's head heading toward verse three of chapter 8 where God will concentrate sin into the body
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of one man and In the Flesh of one man condemn it so let's not lose the focus that Paul is drawing us to and that is the nature
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of sin and of Christ's victory over that sin listen the law is Holy and the Commandment is holy and righteous is good that's verse 12 but then verse 13
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sin in order that it may be shown to be sin that's the stark contrast and what we're dealing with
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here is something that you would be familiar with if you've ever played chess if you've ever participated in competitive sports or if you've ever LED troops in
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troops in battle and that is the exploitation of your enemy's your enemy's weakness and that's a very simple uh principle of any strategy any game of of
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strategy any military strategy is to seek to know your enemy's weakness and then to exploit it and that will carry you to a measure of
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success and sin does this stirring up the weakness of the flesh as Paul mentions in chapter 8 John writes in his first epistle about the lust of the eyes
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the lust of the Flesh and the boastful pride of life these are the things that sin exploits these are our weaknesses being in Fallen Adam and so a
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successful tactical General General on the field will exploit when he sees his opponent's weakness the successful chess player will see when his opponent makes
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the wrong move and he will exploit that but this strategy does not create the Masters the Masters the Chess Masters or the great
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tacticians because these are the ones who can exploit their opponents strength and that is what Paul is teaching us here it's not surprising
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that sin will exploit our weakness what Paul is trying to show is sin that it might be shown to be sin exploits and takes opportunity and advantage of our
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strength the strength the law God by his grace showing us how to do it right sin by its wickedness and evilness and in Insidious nature taking
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that which is holy and righteous and good and killing us with it exploiting our strength not just our weakness and you find someone like that
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you can't beat them you sit across from a Chessmaster who knows how to take your strength and use it against you even on the the the martial arts there are forms
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whereby you take the strength of the move of the opponent and you turn it around and use it against them and on the battlefield if you can oppose the enemy's strength you can destroy his
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weakness you will be indefatigable and that's what sin is that's what Paul's saying it is indefatigable because it doesn't just
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okay we can strengthen our weaknesses we can discipline oursel we can do that people do that they deny themselves vies we have the willpower not most of
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us but we do as humans we can do that and that actually plays into sin because what comes from that pride and
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pride and self-righteousness and so even even our weakness strengthening our weakness serves to kill us even more and condemn us even more deeply because sin doesn't just exploit our weakness sin exploits
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our strength and that is why the law comes the law comes in so that transgressions might abound why because if transgressions abound hopefully we'll come to the realization that I need
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Grace because where sin abounds Grace much more much more abounds sin may be able to exploit my strength sin might even be able to and
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does exploit the law of God but sin cannot overcome the weakness of the god man in whom and in whose weakness the
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omnip ient power of divine grace is manifested to the cosmos I mean picture this please as as a cosmic
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battle and in the weakness of Flesh and the humiliation of death death itself is defeated sin is
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condemned that is God's plan that Paul is unfolding for us this is his gospel this is the gospel of our Salvation it's not of works because again all that does
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is engender pride and self-righteousness which will make us fall and be condemned it is of Grace so that God Alone might be
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glorified and so really the focus here is not even the law the focus here is sin through the law and the sinfulness of sin nothing
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worse can be said about Sin than the to call it by its own name Paul says but sin that I that it might appear sin is that the best you
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can go up with Paul yeah get on board there are no other words worse than that word sin and remember he's not
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he's not making it plural he's talking about a a destructive and Insidious power that has been introduced into God's Cosmos and
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that God has purposed to eradicate the law then is not the cause of sin it's the instrument of sin the flesh is the Battleground but the evil opponent is
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neither the law nor the flesh it is sin and so we don't resort to antinomianism where we throw away the law and we say the law was evil we're
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not going to have anything to do with it but we also don't turn to asceticism and we deny the pleasures of the Flesh and we beat ourselves and hold ourselves down
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because as Paul says in Colossians that is the appearance of godliness but is powerless against the flesh because the problem isn't the law and the problem
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isn't flesh the problem is sin the flesh is weak and sin will prevail unless someone stronger prevails
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over it but how do we even know sin now that's what he's getting at here he says in verse 7 on the contrary I would not have come to know sin except through the law well that goes with what he said
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earlier that where there is no law sin is not is not imputed but what kind of circumstance do we imagine ourselves here where there is no knowledge of sin
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because there is no law he's not saying that where there is no law there is no sin again he's taken care of that already we know that sin reigned because death
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rained and where there is death there is sin because death is the wages of sin so he's making a really fine distinction here it seems I would not have come to
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know sin apart from the law he uses the example of the tenth commandment Thou shalt not covet and he says sin taking opportunity through the Commandment produced in me coveting of every
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kind so he's not just talking about the intellectual or even legal awareness of of sin he's talking about the active and
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aggressive pursuit of that which the law prohibits he says in verse eight as I
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read I didn't just start coveting when I heard the heard the law Thou shalt not covet I started coveting everything possible that's the nature of
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sin we don't start hating when the law says Thou shalt not murder we do not start rebelling when the law says you shall honor your father and
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mother we start hating and rebelling and coveting and bearing false witness constantly because sin is taking that
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law that strength that God is giving us and exploiting and exploiting us then we come to verse n and verse N I think is the Crux of
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understanding in all of what Paul is saying here from verse 7 through verse 25 and I was once alive apart from the law but when the Commandment came or the
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Commandment coming literally sin revived and I died some of your Bibles might say sin became alive the better
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translation is sin revived sin was always there so what is Paul doing here in this passage this is where who is the eye of
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Romans 7 is Paul giving his personal testimony is is he um sharing how Jesus helped him overcome covetousness is that what we're dealing here next you're
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going to have a CD with his testimony and a and a song Because testimonies are an integral part of modern evangelism are they not there's a sign on a church out by our
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house you have to have a test to have a testimony this is why we don't have have signs out in front of don't you have to have ay too I mean it's so
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stupid testimonies are as I said an integral part of modern evangelism they were kind of started by um finny back in the early 1800s in the Second Great Awakening you you get people up to to share what Jesus
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has done for them and how they were hardened Sinners and drug addicts and murderers and murderers and whatever and that somehow shows the power of Salvation through Jesus Christ although most of the audience are not
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hardened criminals drug addicts and murderers the problem with the testimony is that it has no doctrinal weight it sets no sets no standard it it has the danger of setting
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a false a false standard of making people think that their path to God must mimic that of the drug addict or The
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Prostitute but it doesn't have to follow anybody's path C certainly Paul's path wasn't that way he was a righteous Jew a
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Pharisee and so testimonies I don't think that's what Paul's doing here one author says the theory that Paul is speaking simply of himself and exhibiting his own experiences must be set aside for this
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simple reason that in that case the entire disquisition as a mere individual psychological history would have no General probative Force whatever in
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other words it would have no doctrinal impact on impact on us which nevertheless it is intended to have what Paul is saying here using the
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first person singular I he he is also saying we and you and everyone he's not just saying this was my experience you know I really had a
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hard time with covetousness but Jesus gave me strength and now I don't covet so I could say to the Ephesian Elders you know I did not covet anyone's gold or silver and it may be that that
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covetousness was a particular problem that Saul of Tarsus had we don't know but it also may be that the tenth commandment is really kind of the root of all the others if you think about it
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the others deal with what we do on the outward but covetousness has to do with our heart and if you look at all of the others the act of murder the act of
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rebellion the act of theft has as its root some form of covetousness so it may very well be under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit just as Jesus often did he gets to the
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heart of the matter and chooses the Commandment which he again uses that word he chooses the Commandment that kind of undergirds all the others so we don't know that's not the
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point the importance of the I the first person singular in Romans 7 is that it shows the personal aspect of the redemp of the relationship between sin and the law in the
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flesh it does do personalize it now I personally do not think that Paul is being metaphorical here I think he's speaking of himself and his own experience and we
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need to ask what at what point in time in his life does do these words pertain and he doesn't not make it easy for us but I also don't think he intends
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for us to use this as a mirror for each one individually but rather to show that in each one of us this relationship between the Flesh
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and sin and the law has existed and we are that Wretched Man Who Needs Deliverance through Jesus
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Christ Paul's discourse in this finally tuned logic deals not so much with himself and his own cognizance of sin as with the sinfulness of sin
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revealed through the law again that's the point so many commentators deal with trying to identify the Eye In this passage and apply it to either oh is
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this is this when I wasn't a Christian is this when I was a Christian is this when I was in between being not a Christian and being a Christian and that is not Paul's logic that's not where
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he's going with this he's trying to show us the sinfulness of sin but the way he does it certainly justifies Peter's judgment that there
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are some things in Paul hard to understand and verse 9 is one of the most difficult and I was once alive sin came and I
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died Paul you just changed the order of those two things from everything else you have said throughout your letters you say that we are dead in trespass and
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sin and he has made us alive we were dead in bondage to sin and he has set us free death to life what does he say I was once alive and then I died that's
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backwards how do we understand that at what point were you alive we are born we are conceived in iniquity we are born in sin when are we
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alive and there are so many theories but I I want you to hear the the flow of his logic in verse 9 and and just kind of think about it I once was
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alive without the law literally without the law I was alive but the law coming in is this the is a participle it's very Visual and and
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dynamic the law coming in sin revived and I died when we're born in
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sin when did all this happen and that's where the commentators go wild and I think it's the heart of the cont controversy of this passage is
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trying to figure out and I'm going to go over just a few of them and I'm not going to go into any depth because it you can read about it you've probably heard these theories before one theory is that verses 7
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through 13 is the Christian before he was saved The Sinner and then verses 14- 25 is what he is now that he's saved a nice little break between what I was
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before and what I am now another idea that this is the the The Sinner under conviction but not yet saved so it's it's kind of like a chemical reaction where all of the
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molecules break apart but they haven't reformed to form the others you know it's that intermediate State when we're not a sinner but we're not saved I'm not sure there is such a state biblically
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okay because I think what the Holy Spirit does by renov or by regeneration is in the moment this old idea he's under conviction I can't say that he could be
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a really good liar you know he could be a good actor we don't know this state of being not saved yet but under conviction another
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one is the believer who has not yet received the baptism of the Holy Spirit we got to get that in there okay this is the carnal Christian is what this is the one who's still dead because of the law
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we might say uh it's a legalist believer trying to earn salvation or at least sanctification through works of the law or there are now even in the more modern
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commentators that this is simply Paul as a typical Jew living under Torah that what Paul is talking about in himself as the people of Israel as a
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whole the problem with that of course is that God gave the people of Israel the law so how can we say that they were alive once apart from the law were they alive before they came to
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SI no it was then that they built the gold calf before the law came okay so how is it that they were alive well Paul
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makes very strong clear statements in this verse but the meaning is not so clear when was he alive without the law well one theory is when he was a
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self-righteous self-satisfied self-righteous self-satisfied Pharisee a Pharisee without the law is that not a contradiction of
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terms you cannot be a Pharisee without the law a Pharisee is one who is absorbed in the law and obsessed with the law so that seems like a rather silly unfortunately it is a very common
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view within reformed commentators and then it's it's an unbeliever well that makes matters even more confusing because the unbeliever is
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dead in his sin and his trespass yet he's alive without the law but then the gospel comes sin revives and he
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dies no that's not how it works when the gospel comes life comes not death so clearly Paul is not talking about himself as an unbeliever or even as an
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unbelieving Jew we need to remember the issue here is the law and sin not the personal testimony of testimony of Paul so Paul so when in Paul's life in anyone's
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life can we say that he is alive apart from the from the law Adolf schlau offers this he says
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what appears to be the closest is that this once when the law did not yet exist for me refers to my
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Deuteronomy 1 and it just kind of struck me when God says to Moses that the children of the Israelites those who did not yet know
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good or evil they would be the ones to see the see the land when is there a time in the life of any human being when though he is dead
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in trespass in sin because of the fall of Adam yet he is alive because he is apart from the law Jewish tradition recognizes this as one's Bar Mitzvah or
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if you are a girl you're B Mitzvah and they do have that bar mitzvah means the son of the Commandment it's the point in time in the Jewish culture whereby you are
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recognized now as being under the law but I think at 12 it's a bit late frankly and it's not biblical it is
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traditional it is cultural but I think waiting until 1 is 12 is is a bit late and so it's always a a parents um
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angst you know when when when can my child be saved are they too young and I don't have any hard fast rule but I heard something many many years ago that
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I thought was was it had an element of um possible WIS wisdom what was the first thing that Adam and Eve realized after they
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sinned that they were naked right aren't our children that way is there not a time when they go
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happily running through the house in the same outfit into which they came into the world or with which they came into the world and then it seemed like all of a sudden shut the door you know all of a
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sudden they are aware of something now again I can't point to any Scripture except what happened in the garden and the fact that there is this mention throughout the scripture of
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being alive apart from the law or not knowing good or evil that there is a time in the life of every child at which they transition like Paul does that they
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come they go from not knowing sin because not having the law to having the law sin Reviving and
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they are now in all senses dead but they are also now susceptible to the Salvation of God through Jesus Christ in the gospel now as an encouraging note if if
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this is this is correct this correct this does how lean toward a very a more gracious view of children who die in
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infancy they have died because of Adam not because of their their own sin and if we trust that God is infinitely gracious they have not yet come under the Commandment therefore they have not yet come under
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condemnation I do not think they go to limbus and fantis as the Roman Catholic Church teaches I think they go to be with the with the Lord on the basis of this principle that
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Paul lays out here in just one verse that I was once alive so what do we do with our own children we talked about this before the elders
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follow the example of of Ezra in Nehemiah 8 where he read the law to those to the men and to the women and to all who could hear with understanding I would say
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would say this while there may be no harm I I would not encourage bringing your children under the law
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prematurely I I don't have any chapter and verse that says that if you do that it will cause problems but I can't see any benefit in it and I think that that time of Innocence which is reflective of our
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original innocence in the garden should be enjoyed and unburdened because we all know how burdened it will be afterward those few years of Innocence that God graciously
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grants are going to be overwhelmed by decades upon Decades of struggle don't rush it ask the Lord's wisdom that you might know your children especially your
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toddlers to recognize the time at which they have as Paul did transferred from without the law to the law coming in therefore transferring from alive to
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dead and thereby needing to hear the gospel so Paul is not giving his
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personal testimony he is pointing out that sin crouches at the door as God said to Cain it crouches at the door of our
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children's lives and the only thing needed to open that door is the law we can't withhold the law from them because the law is written in the conscience of
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the human the human mind so we cannot prevent them by keeping them in some type of innocent environment it will come in sin will
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revive they will die and we we will be and each one of us has been exploited by sin through the instrument of God's perfect
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law verses 10 and 11 and this commandment which was to result in life Pro proved to result in death for me for sin again taking opportunity that's
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exploitation taking opportunity through the Commandment deceived me and through it killed me the law says do this and
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live sin says you'll not be able to do it so die that is the relationship between sin and the law in our
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flesh but here is where Paul is heading and I do think every time we get into Romans 7 we need to stay in Romans 8 it's almost like plant your feet in
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Romans 8 and then read Romans 7 don't try to read Romans 7 alone because where we're headed God is
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setting up the final defeat of sin under the law for what the law could not do weak as it was through the flesh God did
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sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh born of a woman born under the law he condemned sin in the
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flesh let us pray father we do ask that you would help us to understand Paul's logic and that we would restrain ourself as Paul would
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have us restrain oursel from concluding what appears to be logical but is in fact blasphemous that your law could be
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sin that we might understand as Paul is teaching us through the holy spirit that the law shows the sinfulness of sin that even a law that is holy and
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righteous and righteous and good only becomes an instrument of exploitation by exploitation by sin and that by which life might have come becomes to us
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death but we Rejoice that all of this you were centering on a man who would take upon himself he would literally
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become sin on our behalf and he would carry that sin to the cross and in his flesh sin would be condemned death would be
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destroyed and we praise you that by your grace and your mercy you have imputed that righteousness to our account you have removed our sin in
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Christ as far as East is from the west and you remember it no more and because he became sin on our behalf we have become the righteousness of God in
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him may this thought lift our spirits and our minds every day of our lives and give us strength for the Walk That Remains we ask in Jesus name
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amen please rise for the benediction from Paul's second letter to the Corinthians the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the
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fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all