The Law Is Good
THE LAW IS GOOD
ROMANS 7:11-14
Paul digs more deeply into sin and the Law.
The Law was a way of life. If someone could only keep it absolutely, they might need no Savior. It was the spiritual tragedy of the rich young man who came to Christ that he thought that he had actually kept the Law (Mark 10:17-22). And yet that same inquirer was troubled in heart and felt that he lacked the eternal life which is the gift of God’s grace. Paul realized that fact sharply. The Law was what exposed him to condemnation and spelt out the sentence of death.
In 7:11 there is an acute piece of psychological insight which adds a facet of truth to this fact. Such is fallen human nature that the very definition of sin prompts to sin. The Law, says Paul, deceived me. Genesis 3:13 provides an illustration. The prohibition becomes a challenge, provokes rebellion, suggests defiance. And always, as in Eden, there is the lurking thought of possible impunity. The Tempter turned the prohibition, intended only for Adam’s good, into a force for destruction, mingling it with a lie.
It is the eternal nature of sin that it takes that which is good and transforms it into evil. If you test that thought in all areas of human folly and wrongdoing it will be seen to be true. The Law was good, but it was made by sin into a bridgehead of evil. But this raises the problem of 7:7 in a new form. Paul repels the thought that a good thing was made a source of death for him. It was part of God’s intention that sin might appear sin, shown in its true nature, for if sin turns a good gift into a curse, could anything more sharply awaken a desire for deliverance?
At the close of 7:11 we seem to hear Paul’s own testimony of his confrontation with the Law. He seems to be telling us how, in his early maturity, he had ridden smoothly along the stream of morality and reputation for piety, until he had struck the rock of the commandment: “You shall not covet,” with its implication of selfish ambition, and arrogant desire. Then, as though from an ambush, sin arose and made the strong and self-reliant one aware of the effects of his weakness and sin. He discovered the Law, and with it death. He was struck down on the road of life, convicted of sin by what he had professed with pride to follow and observe, and conscious of his desperate need. The passion of Paul’s first persecution of the Christians found its deep roots here. He was a desperate man battling against the urgent pressure of the devastating truth.