How does the law help me know my sin?
Let’s start by looking at the context of Romans 7: 7-8.
- 1.
- Paul defends the law.
- After saying negative things about the law (such as: Do you have to die to the law?7.
- 4; Are sinful passions awakened by law?7.
- 6; Has the law come to increase the offense?5.
- 20 ).
Paul’s argument is that the law is not sin, but he exposes sin as a sin; in doing so, the law often makes sin obvious and blames.
3. Is there a sinful condition behind our sins, a condition that we must be aware of?Paul says in verse 8, “Did sin awaken in me all kinds of desires?”In other words, the sin of greed is caused by a condition Paul called “sin. “It is our “depravity”, “fall” or (for believers) our “remaining corruption”.
4. Paul used the commandment against greed to illustrate how the law shows us our condition of sin.
5. ?Greed? It just means wishes you shouldn’t have. Our desires are bad because they come from the loss of satisfaction in all that God is to us in Christ. Desires are bad when they come from the loss of satisfaction in God.
6. Until God’s Law enters the stage and forbids some of our desires (?Not greed?), Our desires are not lived as a sin, but as imperative demands that seem to have their own legitimacy. ? Law? Seditious, do we not feel our desires as a sin (?Without law, is sin dead?7. 8). ??I want this Therefore, I must have this. This kind of thinking is innate. “Desire is equal to merit,” until God’s law comes and says, “No. “We see this clearly in young children, who find it very painful to learn that their desires are not laws.
7. This shows us the source of sinful condition: independence from God, rebellion against God. At the source, our condition of sin is a commitment to be our own god. I’ll be the last authority of my life. I will decide what is right and what is wrong with me, what is good or bad for me, what is true or bad for me Do my wishes express my sovereignty, my autonomy and?Although we don’t usually say it? My supposed divinity.
This independence of God, this rebellion and hypothetical sovereignty, autonomy and divinity, produces all kinds of greed. Any chance? It reminds us how evil greed can be expressed. We need to know, otherwise we will not know our own sin or ourselves.
In general, there are two types of bad desires (greed) that awakens the Law, and both are expressions of love, of a love story with independence and self-out.
1. One is quite obvious, that is, the desire for things to be banned. Proverbs 9:17 states: “Stolen waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. “Augustine confessed his youth: “I felt the will to fly, and I flew, even if I did not push for any desire, except for the lack of justice or the aversion to the right or an avid love to practice. I didn’t feel like enjoying the things I wanted to steal, but only to enjoy flight and sin?1 Wherefore, one of the ways of desire which awakens the commandment is the desire to do the forbidden in himself, because of the innate love of being our own god, and our displeasure with submission.
2. The other kind of ill-desire, aroused by the Law, is the desire to observe the Law for our own efforts, with a view to exalting our moral feat. It looks very different. You won’t kill, you won’t steal, you won’t forge, you won’t lie, instead, just do justice. It is not that law enforcement is incorrect or greedy, but that the problem is a desire to maintain it for my own efforts, not for a sincere dependence on God’s power. The problem is to desire the glory of my fulfillment, not the glory of God It is a subtle form of greed.
Then you know that! Know your sins, your sinful condition of rebellion and insubordination. If this leads you, time and again, to the cross and the gospel of justification only by grace, by faith, it will exalt Christ, it will be healing for your soul and sweetness for all your relationships.
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