The Law is Vital

As we arrive at this second partition in Romans 7, it is vitally important that we remember the context these verses are found in; if we were to take any of the verses throughout this chapter especially in isolation from their context, we would find ourselves in a great deal of confusion, and then to reduce that confusion we would then grasp at theological straws which often do not truly help us accurately handle the word of truth.

Paul is about to directly and unashamedly speak positively regarding the Law, something that many people today despise, just as they did even in Paul’s day. But before we simply launch into this next portion of Paul’s argument, let’s remember first its context.

Paul started his entire discussion all the way back at the beginning of Romans 5, regarding the fullness and finality of salvation by faith – faith like that of Abraham – and that faith alone, in the finished work of Jesus Christ alone, summarized in Romans 5:17

Romans 5:17 LSB

For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

And in that great portion of Scripture, Paul made the astounding statements in Romans 5:20-21,

Romans 5:20–21 LSB

Now the Law came in so that the transgression would increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And he immediately had to interject into his argument a parenthesis in chapter 6, in order that he might deal with the notion that many had that such a teaching would bring about an increase in sin. But in the midst of that discussion, he had doubled-down, as it were, on his comment in those verses regarding the law, saying in Romans 6:14,

Romans 6:14 LSB

For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

And so, Paul has now turned in a second parenthesis to address the question of the law here in chapter 7, first starting out in the first 6 verses to lay out the general principle: the Christian is in an entirely new relationship to the law, and that new relationship is absolutely essential if we are to bear fruit for God and serve in newness of the Spirit, we cannot do these things if we remain as we once were, under the authority and bound to the rule of the Law as a wife is to her husband. It is absolutely essential that we be removed from that former marriage to the law, in a full and final fashion, and then to be legally married instead to Jesus Christ, He who was raised from the dead, in order for us to truly serve God in a manner which is acceptable to Him.

Romans 7:4 LSB

So, my brothers, 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 order that we might bear fruit for God.

Romans 7:5–6 LSB

For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were constrained, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

And as we move on to this second partition, it’s important that we understand that it of necessity follows those first 6 verses, and the entirety must be taken together in context. The problem is that so very many people fail to do so, looking for a sort of proof-text, and once they think they have it, then immediately go on to their next subject.

And many people will latch on to Paul’s statements regarding the law – that we are “not under law but under grace” in chapter 6, that we have been released from the law in this first part of chapter 7, that the rallying cry of the new testament church was “faith alone”, and they begin to think that a positive view of the law is verboten, that any affirmation of the law is virtually unthinkable. “We are New Testament Christians”, they say, “the Law is done and over with!”

And yet, there is also the opposite extreme, which takes the statement in Romans 7:12, “So, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good”, and run on with that, saying that it is faith which justifies us, but that because of this, or because 1 John 2:3 declares that “...by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments,” they look longingly to the Law for their sanctification.

And so, in order that we rightly understand the purpose and place of the Law, Paul has not stopped at verse 6, but he goes on in verses 7 through 13 to resolve these very real misunderstandings that many people may take up due to Paul’s teaching regarding the Law.

For it would be very easy for a person to look at this teaching and come to the conclusion that the Law was in essence bad – after all, it constrained and held on to us, it bound us to itself in such a way that we were unable to do right on account of its arousing sinful passions within us. Not only that, but it appears here that on account of the Law that Christ had to die on the cross!

And so, it would be very easy for a person to come to the conclusion that the Law itself is bad for us.

And it is into this setting, that Paul has written this second partition regarding the nature of the Law:

Romans 7:7 LSB

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! Rather, 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.”

Romans 7:8–9 LSB

But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, worked out in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the Law sin is dead. Now I was once alive apart from the Law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died;

Romans 7:10–12 LSB

and this commandment, which was to lead to life, was found to lead to death for me. For sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Romans 7:13 LSB

Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by working out my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.

And you will note, that in many ways this 13th verse, in addition to serving to wrap up Paul’s emphasis in this vital vindication of the Law, also serves as the catalyst, a transition which introduces the final discussion which goes on through the end of the chapter.

So if I were to try and summarize this second section of Romans 7, I would say it this way:

Just as the perfect Law of God could never justify us, even so it can likewise never sanctify us. Yet even so, far from being worthless, the Law is an absolutely essential component of the gospel of Jesus Christ!

I would go so far as to say that I do not believe that a person can rightly call themselves a Christian who does not accept this – even though I am certain that on the surface this may seem to be something of a contradiction to you. But I am likewise certain that as we work our way through this vital teaching by the apostle to the Gentiles in the coming weeks, you will come to fully agree with me in this assessment.

And I particularly love how the apostle Paul commences this argument in verse 7, for in it he once again lays out the basic teaching and principles he will expound in more depth in the verses which follow:

Romans 7:7 LSB

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! Rather, 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.”

There are many within churches and Christian circles who may not outright say that the law is sin, but in the rest of their terminology, in the rest of their words, in their descriptions and discussion of the law, it is derided and despised. There is even a word used by these people in the same way others use the word “racism”; a term which is used to shut down and put an end to any meaningful conversation or discussion related to the law, almost like the ultimate trump card; you lay the card legalism down, and just like saying “that’s racism”, from that point onward there is no possibility at all of having any degree of fruitful discussion. It despises the Law, it despises everything about the Law. It joyfully concurs with the claim that the Law in sin, that it is evil and is set against us entirely.

It is to say, in many ways, that because we are not “under law” in the same way as we are no longer “under sin”, that in a sense the Law and sin are kindred spirits, being harmful and hateful and abusive toward us, the law itself must be as bad and as abhorrent as sin.

And Paul’s immediate response is identical to the objections of chapter 6: “May it never be!” μὴ γένοιτο! Such a thing is unthinkable, it goes beyond simply being “wrong”, but that it is so very abhorrent that it should never even enter a person’s mind, this is no mild nor trivial thought you entertain by the question, but it is so very bad that it denies the very obvious reality in which we exist!

No! Far from being sin, far from being something that misses the mark, the Law, Paul exclaims joyously, is absolutely necessary for salvation! It is essential to the gospel!

And the reason why this is so, is intensely personal. “Rather, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law!”

Far from being an obstruction to understanding our sin, it is through the Law, and through the Law alone, that we may come to know sin, to discern and recognize sin for what it is.

Now we should be clear in our understanding, here – this isn’t suggesting that those who aren’t Christian don’t have a general sense of what sin is. Paul had already taken great pains to underscore that general sense already in Chapter 2!

For Paul had already stated in Rom 2:1 “Therefore you are without excuse, O man, everyone who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.” In other words, he is indicating that those who stand in judgement display their understanding that sin exists, and that others have indeed committed those sins. He even further went on to say in verses 14 and 15 of that chapter that there are “Gentiles who do not have the Law” who “naturally do the things of the Law”, that “these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves in that they demonstrate the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.”

But now, Paul is going beyond this “knowing about sin” in a general sense, but instead the apostle is saying that such a general knowledge about sin, such as that afforded by God’s attributes as seen in the natural world, is insufficient to truly understand sin, that’s why in the Greek this first “I would not have come to know sin except through the Law” is γινώσκω, mean to apprehend what sin is, and he starts there and then progresses to the far deeper understanding and comprehension of sin when he says, “I would not have known [οἶδα] about coveting if the Law had not said, ‘You shall not covet’.”

In other words, it is through the Law, and the Law alone that we are able to move beyond a simplistic and surface-level impression of wrong-ness, a gut-feeling that something is off, and move into understanding how utterly abhorrent and hated sin is by holy God, in whom there is no darkness. This is what Paul foreshadowed for us in Rom 3:20, “because by the works of the Law NO FLESH WILL BE JUSTIFIED IN HIS SIGHT, for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” It is the Law which gives us a full and complete comprehension of the true character and nature of sin.

And this is one area where our culture’s hatred of law-teaching takes center-stage: for when we teach the Law, a person moves from that position of a moral unease with the faint shadows of sin, to truly comprehending in detail and specificity that God hates not only sin, but as Psalm 5:5 declares, “The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all workers of iniquity.”

In other words, a true teaching of the Law can only make it clear that in themselves, each and every person is nothing less than an enemy of God, just as Paul had set forth in Romans 5:10. We are at enmity with Him, and He is at enmity with us. We are enemies of each other.

And the world at large, who ignore and denigrate that holy and perfect Law of God, who refuse to accept it and refuse to be taught it, are then unable to truly come to grips with the reality of what Paul had written back in Romans 5:10

Romans 5:10 LSB

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Is it then no wonder that a true preaching of the Gospel must, of necessity, demonstrate by the Law that we are unable to please God through the Law? This was the manner of the great preachers of old who saw great revivals under their ministries – this was the manner of Edwards, Knox, Bunyan, Whitfield, and others. They rightly knew that a man could never understand salvation unless and until he rightly understood the utter depravity of his sin!

So it then is no wonder that we read in Romans 7:7

Romans 7:7 LSB

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! Rather, 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.”

No, far from being itself evil, the Law is instead necessary!

And this last sentence makes it clear that this is no simple and superficial view of the Law! There is a depth to it we may easily pass by, and that, too, bears out in much of today’s view of the Law.

For by far, the most common view of the Law, and I’m talking now about those who will actually make mention of it, is to treat it in a most superficial manner.

We know the type, those who basically say “see the law? See how bad it is, that it condemns everyone? Well if you don’t want to be condemned, you need to just accept Jesus into your heart!”

In fact, the typical approach to the Law, even in Bible-believing Evangelical churches, is to think of the Law in a manner entirely consistent with the view of the Pharisees, as a list of external rules.

But that’s not what Paul is doing here. If he had wanted to do that, if the Holy Spirit had wanted us to only think of the Law in those simplistic terms, He would not have talked about coveting.

No! For it would be far easier for Paul to have written about stealing, about adultery, about murder – and these would have been far more in line with his teaching and training as a Pharisee.

You see, the Pharisees, and even most people today, view the Law as prohibiting the doing of sin, the action. Tell me, have you heard this from someone: “There’s no problem in looking at this beautiful woman, just don’t touch her, don’t act against her!” How foolish a thought! Do you not remember our Lord saying in Matthew 5:28 “but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

And so, in this grown-up, mature understanding of the Law, Paul says, “I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, ‘you shall not covet’.” For in a mature understanding of coveting, we realize that coveting is a denial and denunciation of God Himself, a declaration that He made a mistake and that we ought to have something that He has allowed someone else to have – their wife, their house, their field, their resources, their things, their toys.

To covet is to repudiate and rebel against God’s command that we be content with what we have been given, and is truly in every sense of the word rebellion against God Himself.

And, most importantly, I don’t have to act upon the coveting impulse in order to violate this tenth commandment, no! It is entirely internal and personal – no one else ever needs to know that I covet what someone else has, in the modern legal sense it would be called a “victimless crime”, and is relegated to a matter of trivia.

But it’s not a matter of trivia to God – it is a matter of sin, it is a matter of rebellion, it is a matter of enmity toward Him and a rejection of that which He has determined to be good for me, says Paul.

And Paul says, “I would never have understood this without the Law, laid down in Exodus 20, repeated in Deuteronomy 5, expounded and meditated upon continually!”

In other words, this is no slight or meaningless view of the Law, but it is a deep and mature view of the Law which truly exposes sin; it brings understanding and comprehension to our innermost man, where the continual din of the world becomes muted and distant, thoughts which lead us to fall to our knees in despair as we ever more realize our desperate need for salvation, that we cannot in truth please God on our own even in our innermost thoughts, thoughts which can only serve to condemn us yet further by the God who knows even our thoughts.

Foreshadowing what Paul will say in verse 14, that the Law is spiritual, he is declaring here that by the Law, and by the Law alone, we may personally come to comprehend the evil in our own hearts! The Law exposes for us the depth and the depravity of the exceeding sinfulness of our sin, bringing this reality to the forefront of our hearts in a way that nothing else is able to do.

Is the Law sin?

Absolutely not!

But it teaches us the necessary lesson of our need for repentance unto life!

And so the Law is a vital and essential component of the Gospel!

Let us pray!