Monday, May 6, 2013
The Purpose of the Ten Commandments, Part 7 of 26
TEXT: "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, 'You shall not covet.' But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful" (Romans 7:7-13).
IDEA: The Law stirs up a desire in us to sin against God.
PURPOSE: To help listeners understand that the Law is good but the way we respond to it can make it an instrument for evil.
Listen to these words in Romans 7:8—"But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead."
What do you think Paul means when he says that the Law produced in him the occasion for sin?
I. A law can actually produce inside of us a desire for breaking it.
When prohibition came in the USA, it actually increased alcohol consumption. Why do you think that was so?
A sign that says "Do not touch" in a store produces in us a desire to reach out and touch.
A smoker seeing a sign about a smoke-free environment may find that it triggers a desire for a cigarette.
II. The Law may cause us to resent God for limiting our freedom.
This passage in Romans reflects the passage in Genesis 2:15-17:
"Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.' "
Look at the dynamics of what took place in the garden.
What is the first word of God to Adam about the garden? You are free to eat from any tree in the garden.
If you had that alone, how would you feel about this text?
The second word, "You shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," etc.; how do you feel about that command?
The serpent takes the command of God and says, "God wants to limit you" in Genesis 3:1.
In Romans 7, Paul personifies sin; in Genesis 3 the serpent was the personification of temptation. When we hear the commands, we often do not feel that they are freeing, but instead that God wants to restrict us. We act with the sense of rebellion against God.
Just as the serpent appealed to the command to prove that God was not really good, we can respond to God's commands because we believe that God does not want the best for us.
Conclusion:
So the commandment not only produces in us a desire to break it, but also a desire to break free of God.
