Romans 7.11-Paul's Sin Nature Deceived And Killed Him Through The Commandment
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday September 9, 2008
Romans: Romans 7:11-Paul’s Sin Nature Deceived And Killed Him Through The Commandment
Lesson # 222
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 7:1.
This evening in Romans 7:11, we will learn more from Paul’s own Christian experience since in it he teaches that because his sin nature seized a base of operations through the commandment, it deceived and killed him.
Thus far in our studies of Romans chapter seven, we have noted that in Romans 7:1-6, the apostle Paul uses the analogy of marriage and argues that the Christian’s bondage to the Law has been severed because they have died with Christ and have been freed from the Law and placed in union with Christ.
Romans 7:1-6, “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? 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.”
Then, we noted that beginning in verse 7 all the way to the end of the chapter, Paul speaks of his own personal experience with the Law in relation to his sin nature.
Romans 7:7-11, “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.’ But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.”
Paul’s statement in Romans 7:11 explains his statement in verse 10 and thus explains why this is the case that the commandment resulted in him experiencing loss of fellowship with God.
“Sin” is the noun hamartia (a(martiva) (ham-ar-tee-ah), which refers to the sin nature as clearly indicated in that the word is being strongly personified by the verb exapatao, “deceived” and the verb apokteino, “killed” as well as by the expression aphormen labousa, “taking opportunity.”
In verse 8, he uses the exact same expression aphormen labousa, “taking opportunity” to personify the sin nature.
“Taking” is the verb lambano (lambavnw) (lam-ban-o), which has as its subject the articular form of the hamartia, “sin,” which refers to the sin nature and it has as its direct object, the noun aphorme, “opportunity,” thus, it means, “to seize.”
As was the case in verse 8, here in verse 11, the verb and the noun aphorme are personifying the sin nature, portraying it as engaging in a military operation since the noun aphorme refers to that from which an attack is launched, a starting point, or a base of operations.
That a military analogy is being used is indicated by verses 9-11 where Paul speaks of the sin nature killing him through the commandment prohibiting coveting in the Mosaic Law.
The picture is that the Law gave the sin nature a base of operations to attack the soul of the apostle Paul upon becoming a Christian so that the sin nature could eventually kill him.
1 Peter 2:11, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.”
The verb is in the participle form and functions as a “participle of cause,” indicating that “because” the sin nature had seized a base of operations through the tenth commandment that appears in Exodus 20:17, it deceived and killed him.
Romans 7:11, “for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.”
“Opportunity” is the noun aphorme (a)formhv) (af-or-may), which depicts the sin nature as engaging in a military operation against the soul of the Paul in his regenerate state.
Aphorme portrays the sin nature making the tenth commandment in Exodus 20:17 as its base of operations and from that vantage point deceived and killed Paul.
“Through the commandment” indicates that the sin nature seized a base of operations to war against the soul of the apostle Paul through or by means of the tenth commandment.
“Deceived” is the verb exapatao (e)capatavw) (ex-ap-at-ah-o), which means, “to deceive or seduce completely and thoroughly.”
In Romans 7:11, the verb is used with the sin nature as its subject in relation to the apostle Paul and means not only to give a false impression but to actively lead astray.
The sin nature caused Paul to believe or accept a false idea about the commandment that it would produce eternal life and holiness in him and make him acceptable to God when in fact it was only being used by the sin nature to deceive and cause him to sin and thus get him out of fellowship with God.
Instead of giving him eternal life the commandment only caused his sin nature to be active in him and thus leading him to commit personal sin and break the prohibition to not covet.
The commandment was simply the instrument used by the sin nature to deceive Paul.
Paul was deceived into thinking that he could live under the Law, and fulfill the Law and experience the life of God through obedience to the Law.
However, he found out quickly as a Christian that attempting to live the spiritual life by strictly adhering to the 613 mandates that appear in the Law would only end in defeat and frustration for him and loss of fellowship with God.
This is why Christianity based upon adhering to a specific set of rules and regulations is not living spiritually in fellowship with God.
The result of such an attempt to live the Christian way of life will be guilt and defeat and frustration and eventually giving up on God and the Christian way of life.
All the major denominations and organized religion is all about such performance based Christianity.
The sin nature deceives us into thinking that committing sin will result in satisfaction and happiness and joy.
In Romans 7:11, the meaning of the verb exapatao teaches us that the sin nature is a liar since it promises life but leads to death.
Romans 7:11, “for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.”
“Through it” indicates that the sin nature killed Paul in the sense that he lost fellowship with God “through” or “by means of the tenth commandment.”
“Killed” is the verb apokteino (a)pokteivnw) (ap-ok-ti-no), which is used of the sin nature causing the apostle Paul to experience “temporal spiritual death” as a Christian through the commandment.
As we noted in our previous studies in Romans 7:10 “temporal spiritual death” is related exclusively to the believer and equivalent to experiencing “loss of fellowship” with God.
Spiritual death for the unbeliever is called “real spiritual death.”
As we noted in detail, in Romans 7:7-25, Paul is speaking from his own personal experience as a Christian and not as an unbeliever.
Therefore, since “real spiritual death” is used exclusively for the unbeliever and “temporal spiritual death” is used exclusively of the Christian, the latter is being referred to here by Paul in Romans 7:11.
“Temporal spiritual death” or “loss of fellowship” with God takes place when the believer commits mental, verbal or overt acts of sin as a result of obeying the desires of the sin nature.
There is a distinction between the terms “relationship” and “fellowship.”
Since our relationship with God is eternal, it can never be lost.
Meanwhile, our fellowship with God, in time, can be lost due to sin and is only restored through the confession of sin to the Father (1 John 1:9).
Fellowship is maintained by bringing one’s thoughts into obedience to the teaching of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 10:3-5) through the power of the Spirit, which constitutes obeying the commands of Ephesians 5:18 to be influenced by means of the Spirit and Colossians 3:16 to let the Word of Christ richly dwell in your soul.
Paul spoke of “temporal spiritual death” i.e. “loss of fellowship with God in Romans 6:16 and speaks of it in Romans 7:9-10 and develops further the concept of “temporal spiritual death” for the believer in Romans 8:5-13.