SIN? WHAT A CONCEPT
“Sin” is a word we don’t like to use too freely these days. We use caution when describing something as sinful. God forgive us if we call anyone a sinner, for who are we to judge.
Sin has become a theological term we use to describe hypothetical situations that would upset God. It certainly is not a word we use in everyday language. “Sin” is a harsh term, a critical label, an archaic (old-fashioned) way of describing human weakness.
Today, we do not say someone sinned. We say they made an error in judgment. They made a mistake. In some cases we call it a crime. And in the context of criminal justice there is always a reason or excuse why the perpetrator committed the crime – his upbringing, abuse, poverty, or his race. To say the person sinned would hold him solely accountable for his actions.
Several years ago the Anglican Church of England voted to stop using the term “living in sin” as it pertained to couples who were unmarried. Anglican leaders felt that it was ungracious to label all unmarried couples this way as there may be good reasons for their decision. Unfortunately this decision, born out of grace, gave the impression that the Church condoned living together outside of marriage. John Stott in keeping with the spirit of grace added that the Church needs to teach that anything but marriage is second best.
Basically, if the law of the church creates undue heartache for its members, change the law. If the law, or code of conduct for Christian living, leaves you feeling dirty or sinful, the law must be the problem.
Why do we not believe in the concept of sin anymore? One reason: We don’t believe that God’s moral law is meant for us. Believing in the concept of sin requires two things: one is that we have an objective standard against which we are measured (absolute standards of right and wrong); and two, a person whom we sin against. Without God’s law we lose both.
If we ignore God’s law then we lose the concept of sin and the only thing that reveals our true spiritual and moral condition. Consequently the cross of Christ is emptied of its power for our lives.
This morning we want to study the relationship of sin and the law. In Romans 7:7-13 we will see what the law teaches us about sin and why we need the law.
1. The Law tells us what sin is
“What shall we say then?” Paul had to answer his imaginary opponent who objected to Paul’s teaching on faith. Remember, Romans introduced us to the truth that we are saved by believing in the gospel of God. We are not saved by law or good deeds but by grace which covers our sins. As a result Paul’s detractors challenged him on a few points, to which Paul answered with this question:
“What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? (6:1)…Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?” (6:15) and now, “Is the law sin?”
We keep coming back to that statement Paul made when he said the law was given so that sin would increase (5:20). And his detractors, probably Jews who love the law, are offended because Paul makes the law sound evil. So Paul, is the law sin? No, he replies, absolutely not.
The law, Paul says, reveals the nature of sin. “Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law” (7:7b). To understand this better when we speak of the law we could refer to the Ten Commandments (see Hillbilly version). These were given to Moses on Mt. Sinai like a cheat sheet, or shorter version of the law, so people would remember.
Paul himself was a good Jew and kept the law. The first nine commandments did not give Paul a lot of grief, but then came the tenth, which he mentions here. “For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘Do not covet’” (7:7c). Why was this one so hard for Paul?
Notice also that Paul does not finish the commandment with its prohibition of coveting his neighbor’s house, wife, servants and sweet rides. He just quotes, “Do not covet.” What does this mean?
a) The 10th commandment represents the others. By quoting this small piece, Paul indicated that one summarizes the others.
b) Coveting is a root sin which is often the cause of other sins. To covet is to desire what someone else has but cannot be ours legitimately. If we can put a stop to our coveting we can eliminate a lot of other sins.
c) The 10th commandment deals with the heart. All the other commandments are external while this one focuses on what is inside a person. Murder and stealing are visible. To covet is a matter of the heart and mind and no one can tell what you are thinking.
d) Keeping the first nine is easy. Paul probably thought he kept the other nine: for him, God was number one, the only one; no idols; no blasphemy; keeps the Sabbath; loves Mom and Dad; wouldn’t hurt a fly…but number ten…shoot! I always want more stuff; I’m always greedy for more. And with a culture built on coveting it is safe to say that number 10 is a problem for us all.
No government in the world would forbid coveting. Materialism is encouraged in Canada – it keeps the economy running. It is almost a natural thing to covet what others have – no, it is natural for us.
And this is Paul’s point. Unless the law had said not to covet he would not have known that it was a sin.
2. The Law provokes us to sin more
Sin is personified in this next verse, almost as if it were Satan himself. Sin takes the law and uses it for its own wicked purposes.
See how Paul says this, “But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment produced in me every kind of covetous desire” (7:8a).
We can illustrate this verse by looking at Genesis 3 where the first sin is committed. Adam and Eve did not have the Law per se, or the Ten Commandments, but God did say to Adam in 2:17 not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or they will die.
Then sin (the serpent) got into Eve’s head. He started reasoning with her about the commandment and filling her head with questions. Then he convinced her that eating the fruit would make her like God. Finally we read, “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate…” (Gen 3:6).
Do you see the progression? Sin began in Eve’s heart as she coveted what she ought not to have. By taking the fruit she “stole” what was not hers to take and she usurped God’s place of Lordship by ignoring his command. She made herself her own god because she took control of her own life. Ultimately she and Adam murdered the human race by bringing death through sin. So without knowing it they broke most of the Ten Commandments including and especially the first, “You shall have no other gods before me.”
Sin takes the law and makes us do the reverse of what we know we ought to do. It’s like reverse psychology: you tell your kids don’t and they do.
Apparently there is a hotel in Galveston, Texas that put a notice in each room: “No fishing from the balcony.” Yet, everyday, hotel guests threw their lines to the water below. Do you know how the hotel management solved the problem? They removed the signs…and the fishing stopped. The sign had inspired the sin.
Telling us not to do something makes us want to do it. This is why Paul struggled with the law. Sin seized the opportunity to use the law to put ideas in our heads. Sin literally ambushes us when we think we are safe from our own desires. If I tell you not to think of pink elephants that may be all you want to do.
Now this doesn’t make the law look too good. The law is still righteous; it is sin that is hideously evil. The evil nature of sin is evident in that it seeks to use the law, which is good, to achieve its own evil purposes. That’s the power of sin. The more the law says “don’t” the more you want to do it.
3. The Power of sin is revealed in the Law
Sin is powered by the law. We are reminded of this in another Pauline letter, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law” (1 Cor 15:56).
The introduction of death is appropriate here since these next verses are united by that theme. “For apart from law, sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death” (7:8b-11).
We are brought back to the garden and the serpent again. The contrast between ‘dead’ in v. 8b and ‘sprang to life’ in v. 9 is a perfect picture of a serpent lying motionless as though dead and then quickly coiling up to strike its unsuspecting victim. Nothing resembles a dead serpent more than a living serpent lying motionless.
That is the portrait of sin. It is deceptive in its seeming impotent. We think we have it conquered or beaten, and then it comes roaring back at us. Sin deceives us in three ways:
First, sin deceives us by promising what it can never deliver. How many times have we fallen for that one? Sin grabs us with the excitement and anticipation of the forbidden. Being forbidden is what makes it fun. It will make you feel alive, it will give you a buzz, it will make you feel special. Sin promises that this time it won’t make you feel guilty or ashamed. You can get away with this because it’s not really wrong.
Second, sin deceives us by convincing us that we won’t suffer any consequences. The serpent said to Eve, “you won’t die.” Caught up in the passion of the moment we feel invincible, like nothing bad could happen. But the passion lasts only a moment in real time. And you find that there are consequences for your sin. The unmarried couple finds an unwanted pregnancy. A woman has an abortion to save her career only to suffer depression because of the guilt she bears. A man loses his wife and children through his addiction to online pornography. All sin has consequences. Gossiping, back-stabbing, lying, complaining…all of it.
Third, sin deceives us by creating a desire in us for destructive behavior. The stupid thing about sin is that we know we are going to pay for it and we do it anyways. We know it’s bad for us but we’re caught in it. Sin seized the opportunity…
The result is death.
Paul said that apart from law sin was dead. Sin was dead; Paul was alive. Then the law came and sin sprang to life. With sin alive, Paul died.
This is Paul’s version of a murder mystery. When the commandment was revealed, sin convinced Paul to disobey the commandment. Paul’s sin resulted in his death. Therefore sin murdered Paul.
All sin leads to death. James said, “…whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (Js 2:10). For as Eve discovered committing one sin is the same as trying to replace God.
4. The Law reveals the sinfulness of sin
If we are trying to make a case for the law being good, it’s not looking good. The law is causing us to sin; it is provoking us to do what we had never thought of; the law is going to get us killed. Why would we as Christians under grace need to keep the law on the table?
Didn’t Jesus say, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matt 5:17). So Jesus is not throwing out the law. There must be a use for it yet.
Paul affirms the law too when he said, “So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good” (7:12).
It is holy: God’s law is like no other. It is full of purity, majesty and glory because God the giver of the law is holy. The law is holy but cannot make us holy.
It is righteous: God’s law is impartial, fair and never wrong. The law is righteous but can never make us righteous.
It is good: God’s law tells us the way to live and tells us when we fail to live that way. The law is good but can never make us good.
The law is not sin. The law is good. It is no more evil for revealing our sins than a mirror is evil for showing us our acne. It is no more evil than an x-ray for showing us a tumor. The mirror and the x-ray are tools of revelation and cannot fix the problem but they show us the problem. That’s what the law does.
One more question needs to be asked: “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” (7:13).
That says it all. We may not like the phrase “utterly sinful” but it exposes the true nature of sin. It means literally, “exceedingly evil and superabundantly sinful.” Paul uses the worst word he can think of and puts it in the strongest terms possible. It’s not a mistake. It’s not a human error. It’s not a genetic disposition. It’s not poor upbringing. It’s not because of poverty or privilege. It is without excuse. It is an act of the will. It is SIN!
Without the law we could never understand what it is that Christ actually did for us. The law was a death sentence for us because we could never do all that it commanded. The law was death to us.
Christ fulfilled the law in himself. He never broke one little part of it. Jesus obeyed the whole thing. Then he died. “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 15:56-57). The law that meant death for us makes the life that Christ gave us that much more victorious.
Martin Luther said we should preach law to the proud and grace to the humble. When you are dealing with someone who is proud, don’t talk to them about the love of God or the death of Christ. Preach the law to them so that they will see themselves in the sight of God’s law. Then when they are humbled, preach the gospel to them.
Francis Schaeffer suggested a similar approach. He said that if you had an hour to spend with a post-Christian secular man, take 45 minutes showing him his sin according to God’s law. Speak of sin, righteousness and judgment. Show him the holy God who is offended by his sin and how he has fallen short of the glory of God. Then when he has grasped all of this, spend the last 15 minutes sharing the grace and love and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The law of God is given to humble the proud. It is given to drive us to the cross of Christ, the only place where we can find complete and utter forgiveness.
AMEN
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