Romans 7:7-13 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Romans 7:7-13. Let’s go!
Romans 7:7-13 (NIV)
7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”
8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead.
9 Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.
10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.
11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.
12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
On verses 7-13: In Romans 7 Paul has been writing about God’s law, that is, the moral requirements we had to fulfill if we wanted to have a relationship with a perfect and holy God. Since we couldn’t fulfill the law ourselves, in love God sent Jesus to fulfill the law on our behalf and to die on the cross for our sins. Through Jesus, we have been released from the law and can serve God with His joy, forgiveness and power filling our lives.
Now if Jesus died to set me free from God’s law, does that mean the law was bad? No. God’s law is like an accurate measuring stick, a ruler. It shows us what God’s standards are and how we measure up to them. The law was intended to bring us life (Romans 7:10), showing us how we ought to live. The law is good in and of itself. As verse 12 says, “the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good”.
The problem, Paul clarifies, was not God’s law; the problem was sin in us. For “sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire.” (Romans 7:8) Later on Paul says: “For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.” (Romans 7:11) In other words, after we heard God’s good, righteous and holy commands, it was sin in us that made us rebel against God’s commands, causing us to be separated from God and to die spiritually.
So don’t make the mistake of thinking that God’s laws are bad, or that God’s law is the problem. It was our sin that took God’s good law, which is good, and “through what is good [i.e. God’s law]” produced death in us, separating us from God. So let’s thank God for His good laws, which show us how holy, righteous and perfect God is, and conversely how unholy, unrighteous and imperfect we are without Him. And even more, let’s thank God for sending Jesus to bridge the gap that sin and the law created, so that we could be with God again.
Father, I affirm the goodness of Your law and the greatness of Your Son Jesus. Thank You that whereas sin used the law to produce death in me, Jesus conquered sin and death. Jesus, You’re the greatest of all. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
