Sermon Tone Analysis

Wenstrom Bible Ministries

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Sunday August 31, 2008

www.wenstrom.org

Romans: Romans 7:7-The Law Is Not Sin But Makes The Sinner Aware Of His Sinful Nature

Lesson # 218

Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 7:1.

This morning we will study Romans 7:7.

In this passage, Paul poses a rhetorical question that anticipates the false inference from his teaching in Romans 5:20, 6:14b and 7:5 that the Law is equivalent to the sin nature.

Romans 7:1, “Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?”

Romans 7:2, “For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.”

Romans 7:3, “So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.”

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 order that we might bear fruit for God.”

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.”

Romans 7:6, “But now 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.”

Romans 7:7, “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.’”

Paul poses the rhetorical question ti eroumen, “what shall we say then?” in order to anticipate the erroneous conclusion or false inference that the sin nature and the Law are one in the same as a result of his teachings in Romans 5:20-7:6.

This rhetorical question is in response to any false inference from his teaching in Romans 5:20-7:6 in which Paul teaches that the Jewish Christian is no longer under the authority of the Mosaic Law but God’s grace policy and the authority of Christ.

He poses this question because it could be inferred from his teaching in Romans 5:20 that the Law was sinful since he taught that it served as an addendum to the sin nature in order to expose the sinful nature of man but where sin increased, God’s grace infinitely abounded.

He also poses this question because it could be inferred from his teaching in Romans 6:14b that the Law was equivalent to the sin nature since he taught that the Jewish Christian is no longer under the Law but under God’s grace policy in the form of being in union with Christ.

Finally, he poses this question because it could be inferred from his teaching in Romans 7:5 that the Law is sinful since it serves to arouse the sinful passions of the sin nature rather than restricting them (Romans 7:5).

It could be inferred from these verses that Paul is teaching that the Law is equivalent to the sin nature.

This is not what Paul has been teaching but rather he has been teaching that the Law and the sin nature do have a relationship in that the former reveals to sinful man that he has a sin nature.

“The Law” is the the noun nomos (novmo$) (nom-os), which refers as we noted in our studies thus far of chapter seven to the Mosaic Law.

“Sin” is the noun hamartia (a(martiva) (ham-ar-tee-ah), which refers to the sin nature.

“May it never be!” is the strongest negative Greek expression emphatically denying any possibility or thought of the Mosaic Law being equivalent to the sin nature as a result of a false inference from Paul’s teaching in Romans 5:20, 6:14b and 7:5.

Romans 7:7, “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.’”

“On the contrary” is the adversative use of the conjunction alla (a)llav) (al-lah), which introduces a statement that presents a concept that is in total contrast or is totally antithetical to the false inference that the Law is equivalent to the sin nature or sinful.

“I would not have come to know” indicates that without instruction in the Law, Paul would have never been aware of his sin nature.

“Through the Law” emphasizes that the Mosaic Law was not only the means by which he became aware of his sin nature but it also caused him to be aware of it.

“I would not have known about” denotes that without instruction in the Law, Paul would “never” be able to “identify” the sin of coveting in the sense of recognizing or establishing that coveting is a sin.

“Coveting” is the noun epithumia (e)piqumiva), which appears 38 times in the Greek New Testament where it can have a positive sense of desire (Luke 22:15; Philippians 1:23; 1 Thessalonians 2:17) and a negative sense.

When used in a negative sense, the noun epithumia refers not only to sexual lust but also power lust, approbation lust, social lust, monetary lust, materialism lust, inordinate ambition resulting in inordinate competition, revenge lust, criminal lust, chemical lust, crusader lust, and pleasure lust.

At the heart of such lusts is the desire to live independently of the will of God.

Galatians 5:16, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”

Ephesians 2:1-3, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”

Colossians 3:5, “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.”

1 Thessalonians 4:3-5, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God.”

2 Timothy 2:22, “Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”

1 Peter 2:11, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.”

1 John 2:15-17, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”

Now, in Romans 7:7, the noun epithumia means, “covetousness” since it is used in the context of Paul quoting the tenth commandment that appears in Exodus 20:17 prohibiting the citizens of Israel from coveting.

To “covet” is to desire inordinately or without due regard for the rights of others.

Exodus 20:17, “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

“You shall not covet” is the verb chamadh (rm^j*) (khaw-mad), which means, “to covet, lust after.”

The Westminster Catechism puts it, “The tenth commandment requireth full contentment with our own estate, not envying or grieving at the good of our neighbor, an all inordinate motions and affections to anything that is his.”

Compare Exodus 20:17 with Deuteronomy 5:21.

Deuteronomy 5:21, “You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field or his male servant or his female servant, his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Romans 7:7, “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.’”

“YOU SHALL NOT COVET” is capitalized because it is quoting Exodus 20:17 in which the tenth commandment appears prohibiting the citizens of Israel from coveting.

Therefore, in Romans 7:7, Paul emphatically rejects the idea that the Mosaic Law is sinful in response to those who might infer this from his teaching in Romans 7:5.

He then makes clear that the Mosaic Law was the instrument used by God the Holy Spirit to make the regenerate Jew aware that he possesses a sin nature and helped him to identify that covetousness is a sin.