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The Importance of Knowing Our Sin
Romans
7:7-12
What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be!
On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the
Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not
said, "YOU SHALL NOT COVET." 8 But sin, taking opportunity through the
commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the
Law sin is dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the
commandment came, sin became alive and I died; 10 and this
commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death
for me; 11 for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment,
deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So then, the Law is holy, and
the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
There Is Law!
The main point of the book of Romans up to this point is that God is
gloriously righteous in justifying the ungodly by faith alone apart from
works of the Law. Romans 4:5 says, "To the one who does not work, but
believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as
righteousness." How can this be? How can God justify declare as
righteous the ungodly who simply look away from themselves to Christ and
trust him? How can he acquit the guilty?
The answer came in one of the most important statements of the Bible,
Romans 3:24-26. God put forward Jesus Christ, his Son, to die in our place
"so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in
Jesus." There is the high point of the book so far: Jesus, who was
crucified, is the sin-bearing Redeemer; we, who trust him, are justified;
God, who gave him, is righteous. That's the glorious gospel of Christ.
Now, there is a massive assumption underneath this gospel. The
assumption is this: there is law. The Creator of the universe has revealed
his will. And it is law. When it is not done, there is real guilt and real
condemnation and real punishment. So the existence of law in the universe
the revealed will of God creates the foundation for law-breaking and
guilt, and law-keeping and righteousness, and court and judge, and
justification and condemnation. All of these great things rest on this one
assumption: there is law.
So when Paul proclaims that there are lawbreakers and there is guilt,
and there is court and there is Judge, and there is a guilt-bearing
substitute and there is faith, and there is justification by faith alone
apart from law-keeping when Paul proclaims this, the grand assumption
is: law!
No law, no law-breaking; no law-breaking, no guilt; no guilt, no court;
no court, no judge; no judge, no justification and no need for incarnation
or crucifixion. The whole reality and the whole glory of redemption hang
on the existence and excellence of law.
Paul's Shocking Way of Speaking about the Law
The reason I stress this is to throw into stark relief the fact that
Paul says so many negative things about the Law. It's amazing. It should
make us tremble. To speak the way Paul speaks about the Law of God is
shocking.
Some examples:
- Romans 3:20, "By the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in
His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin."
- Romans 3:21, "But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God
has been manifested."
- Romans 3:28, "We maintain that a man is justified by faith apart
from works of the Law."
- Romans 4:13-14, "The promise to Abraham . . . was not through the
Law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the
Law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified."
- Romans 5:20, "The Law came in so that the transgression would
increase."
- Romans 6:14, "For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not
under law but under grace." It gets worse . . .
- Romans 7:4, "Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to
the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to
another, to Him who was raised from the dead." In other words and we
say it with trembling care the Law bars us from marrying Christ. Only
death to the Law can free us from the Law to belong to Christ. There's
more.
- Romans 7:5, "For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions,
which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body
to bear fruit for death." The Law arouses sin and links up with sin to
bring about death. And finally . . .
- Romans 7:6 "We have been released from the Law, having died to that
by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and
not in oldness of the letter." The Law hinders life in the Spirit. You
must be released from it, "so that you may serve in the newness of the
Spirit.
That's amazing coming from the mouth of a mere man even an inspired
man.
I lay it out before you so that you will feel the urgency of the
question that begins today's text. Romans 7:7, "What shall we say then? Is
the Law sin?" There were saints in the Old Testament, you remember, who
loved the Law of God. Psalm 119:97, "O how I love Your law! It is my
meditation all the day." Psalm 1:2, "His delight is in the law of the
Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night." The words of Paul must
have landed on some humble saints like an utterly unjustified
indictment.
Does this matter to Paul? Does he care what people think about the Law?
It matters tremendously which is why we are going to spend several
Sundays on this question. It matters to him what you think of the Law, and
what you do with the Law. It really matters. So today, we'll just make a
start in answering Paul's question.
The Law Is Holy and Righteous and Good
His answer is given immediately in verse 7: "What shall we say then? Is
the Law sin?" Answer: "May it never be!" No! The Law is not sin.
That is his negative answer. But even more powerfully, in verse 12 he puts
it positively: "So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and
righteous and good." Be sure you see the force of what he is saying. Not
only is it not sin, and not only is it holy, and not only is it
righteous or just, but it is also good.
There is one other place in Romans where Paul puts the words
"righteous" and "good" together, namely Romans 5:7, where he says, "For
one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the
good man someone would dare even to die." This means that a man,
simply considered for his righteousness his justice might be admired
enough that someone would die for him. But a "good" man a man considered
mainly for his goodness, not just his righteousness is a man that has so
endeared himself to you that you are more ready to die for him. "Justice"
or "righteousness" seems to focus on what is legal and right to do.
"Goodness" seems to focus on what is helpful and caring to do. They aren't
in conflict. But they are two ways of seeing and acting each appropriate
in its own way.
So when Paul says the Law is holy and righteous and good, he means that
the Law is not only a rigorous standard of what is right and just, but
also what is helpful. The Law expresses care as well as correctness.
So let's listen to Paul's defense of the Law as holy and righteous and
good. Everything from the middle of verse 7 to the end of verse 11 is
Paul's defense of the Law, after all his seemingly negative
descriptions.
He begins in the middle of verse 7: No the Law is not sin, "On the
contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I
would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, 'YOU SHALL
NOT COVET.'"
Know Your Sin
The first thing I see in that defense of the Law is that we need to
know sin. It is important for us to know our sin. It is good
for us to know our sin. Paul assumes this, doesn't he? To defend his
statement that the Law is not sin it's holy, just, good he says: it's
not sin, because without it I wouldn't know sin. Now if it weren't good
and right and helpful and important for you and me to know our sin, this
would be no argument. We would simply say, "Who cares if we know our sin!"
Well, Paul cares. God cares. And I care that you care.
O the perils of not knowing our sin! There is a great sadness that
comes from not being saddened by knowing our sin. There is a great pain
that comes to the soul and to the marriage and to the family and to the
church and to the world from not tasting the pain of knowing our sin.
There is a great self-destruction that comes from not experiencing the
self-devastation of knowing our sin. There is an eternal loss that comes
from not losing our pride in the knowledge of our sin.
If there is any hope and any faith and any joy and peace any love, it
will come from knowing our sin. So get to know your sin!
And do you know one of the clearest evidences of sin in this room right
now? Some of you have just interpreted what I said me to mean: experiment
with sin. The pastor just said try a little pornography, try a little
fornication, try a little lying and stealing and swearing. See what it
feels like. Get to know it. The pastor said so. You know that's not what I
mean, but sin, always looking for a way to exploit the mind for its own
desires, takes your mind captive and makes some of your most foolish
thoughts look plausible. O how subtle and devious is our sin!
Who Understands the Full Power of Sin?
No, you don't need to experiment with particular sins in order to know
the power of sin in your life. Think of it this way. Someone says: How can
you really know the power of the temptation to lust say to look at
Internet nudity if you've never given in and experienced it? Let me give
an answer in a parable. There are three men women, you supply the
necessary changes to make the parable fit your situation and each of the
three stands beside a pit of lewdness and sin. Three ropes extend out of
the pit, one bound around each man's waist. The strength of this narrow
cord is one-hundred-pound test.
The first man begins to be pulled into the pit that looks exciting, but
that he knows is deadly. Five pounds of pressure, ten pounds, fifteen
pounds. He resists and fights back. Twenty pounds, twenty-five. He digs in
his heels with all his might. Thirty pounds, thirty-five pounds, and the
rope starts to squeeze and he stops resisting and jumps in. Click goes the
mouse button.
The second man begins to be pulled into the pit. Five pounds of
pressure, ten pounds, fifteen pounds. He resists and fights back. Twenty
pounds, twenty-five pounds. He digs in his heels. Thirty pounds,
thirty-five pounds, and the rope starts to squeeze. He says, No! and
fights back. Forty pounds, forty-five pounds, fifty pounds, fifty-five
pounds. It's harder to breathe as the rope tightens around his stomach and
it begins to hurt. Sixty pounds, and he stops resisting and jumps into the
pit. Click.
The third man begins to be pulled into the pit. Five, ten, fifteen,
twenty, twenty-five pounds of pressure. He resists and fights back.
Thirty, thirty-five, forty, and the rope starts to squeeze. He says, No!
and fights back. Fifty pounds, sixty. It's harder to breathe as the rope
tightens around his stomach and begins to hurt. Seventy pounds and his
feet start to slip toward the pit. He cries out for help, and reaches out
to grab a branch shaped like a cross. In the distance he sees his wife
going about her business, trusting him; he sees his children playing, and
in their hearts admiring him. And beyond them all, he sees Jesus Christ
with a gash in his side standing, with both hands lifted and fists
clenched and smiling. And filled with passion, the third man holds fast.
Seventy-five, eighty, eighty-five pounds, and the rope cuts into his sides
and the pain stabs. Ninety, ninety-five and the tears flow unbidden down
his cheeks. One hundred and the rope snaps. No click.
Question: which of these men knows the full power of temptation?
If this were a message on lust I would look around this room and say,
"Are there any soldiers here? Does anyone in this room have blood on his
shirt and scars on his side? Do you know the power of temptation? Or do
you just jump in before its power is spent?"
But this is not a message on lust. And all I am doing right now is
answering the objection that the only or the best way to know your sin is
to give into temptation and experiment with sin and taste the pit. Not
true.
So I have only made one point from verse 7 so far. And that's all I am
going to make today, namely, it's important for us to know our sin. Know
your sin! This is Paul's first defense of the Law. He says, The Law is not
sin! On the contrary, the Law helps me know my sin. And this knowing is a
holy thing. This knowing my sin is a righteous thing. This knowing my sin
and my self as a sinner is a good thing. A precious thing. A caring,
loving thing. That's my point this morning.
The Pleasure of Knowing Our Sin . . . Forgiven
But why? Why is this good? And precious? What's good and precious about
the sadness and pain and loss and
self-devastation and humiliation of knowing my sin not
my sins but my sin? And why in verse 7 does Paul focus on
covetousness (desire) in particular? What does that tell us about
ourselves and the condition of our heart?
That's next week. And if you wonder whether it is a suitable topic for
Palm Sunday, remember this. Some of the people who were waving palm
branches on Sunday were shouting, "Crucify Him!" on Friday. Figure that
out. All those stories are told for our sake. Because that's us. And
that's sin. And I say again, "O the pain of not tasting the pain of
knowing our sin!" And as we will see next week O the pleasure that
comes through knowing our sin forgiven. If you try the shortcut around
the pain of knowing your sin as sin! you will not know the pleasures
of those who cherish Jesus. You will barely cherish him at all. In fact,
you will wonder, "Why do people use words like 'cherish' for Jesus?" O
come and let's find out together! |