Romans 7.13b-The Law Exposes The Sin Nature And Its Extraordinary Sinful Character
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday September 14, 2008
Romans: Romans 7:13b-The Law Exposes The Sin Nature And Its Extraordinary Sinful Character
Lesson # 225
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 7:7.
Thursday evening we noted Romans 7:13a, in which Paul poses a rhetorical question that anticipates an erroneous conclusion that could be inferred from his teaching in verses 7-12 that the commandment caused him to lose fellowship with God and which false assertion, he emphatically refutes.
This morning we will note Romans 7:13b in which Paul teaches that the Mosaic Law was given to expose man’s sinful nature and the sin nature’s extraordinarily sinful character.
Romans 7:7-13, “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. So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 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 effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.”
Romans 7:13b contains two purpose clauses with the first purpose revealing God’s ultimate objective for permitting the sin nature to exploit the commandment for its own destructive and lethal purposes and the second explains the first.
Therefore, “in order that” is the conjunction hina (i%na) (hin-ah), which introduces a purpose clause that emphasizes that God’s “intention” in permitting the sin nature to exploit or use the tenth commandment to its own destructive use was to expose the sin nature for what it really is, namely sin!
This purpose clause restates the purpose of the Law described in Romans 7:7.
In this passage, Paul teaches that the commandment helped him to identify sin in his life and gives an example of the tenth commandment.
Romans 7:7, “Therefore, what is the conclusion that we are forced to? Is, the Law, in the state of being identical with the sin nature? Absolutely not! On the contrary, I would have never become aware of my sin nature except by means of the Law. For example, I would never have been able to identify covetousness if the Law had not said, ‘You shall never covet.’”
Therefore, Paul employs the conjunction hina to introduce a purpose clause that expresses God’s ultimate objective in permitting the sin nature to exploit the tenth commandment, which resulted in Paul losing fellowship with God.
Romans 7:13, “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 effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.”
“Sin” refers to the sin nature.
“It might be shown to be” is the verb phaino (faivnw) (fah-ee-no), which is used of the sin nature and means, “to expose.”
Therefore, God’s ultimate objective in permitting the sin nature to exploit the tenth commandment, which resulted in Paul experiencing temporal spiritual death, i.e. loss of fellowship with God was to “expose” the sin nature for what it really is, sin!
The verb phaino denotes the idea that God gave the Law to Israel to demonstrate to her citizens that they have this principle of evil in all of them.
The Law was simply the instrument used by sin to accomplish its purpose.
However, in doing so, the sin nature exposed its own true character as being sinful.
Romans 7:13, “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 effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.”
“By effecting” is the verb katergazomai (katergavzomai) (kat-er-gad-zo-my), which means, “to produce” and is used in relation to the noun thanatos, “temporal spiritual death” and the first person singular dative form of the personal pronoun emoi, “in me,” which refers of course to Paul.
Therefore, the verb means that the sin nature caused temporal spiritual death in Paul in order that the sin nature would be exposed by producing spiritual death in him.
The verb also functions as a “participle of means” indicating that the sin nature in Paul was exposed “by” producing in him temporal spiritual death.
“My death” refers to Paul experiencing “temporal spiritual death,” or in other words, “loss of fellowship” with God since in context Paul is speaking from his own personal experience as a Christian.
“Through that which is good” indicates that the sin nature produced temporal spiritual death in Paul “through” or “by means of” the tenth commandment.
Next, we have the second hina purpose clause, which explains or elaborates on the first.
As we have seen, God’s first purpose in permitting the sin nature to cause Paul to lose fellowship through the tenth commandment was to expose to Paul that he did in fact possess a sin nature, an evil propensity to disobey the revealed will of God.
The second purpose introduced by hina was to cause the sin nature to become utterly sinful.
Romans 7:13, “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 effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.”
“Through the commandment” indicates that the sin nature would become utterly sinful “through” or “by means of” the tenth commandment.
“Would become” is the verb ginomai (givnomai) (ghin-om-i), which means, “to be shown or demonstrated as possessing a certain characteristic.”
Therefore, this verb is saying that the sin nature was “demonstrated” as possessing the characteristic of being utterly sinful by means of the tenth commandment.
The verb has a “direct” middle voice meaning that the sin nature demonstrates “itself” as utterly sinful by means of the tenth commandment.
“Utterly” is composed of the preposition kata (katav) (kat-ah) and the noun huperbole (u(perbolhv) (hoop-er-bol-ay).
In Romans 7:13, the noun huperbole describes the sin nature as being “extraordinarily” sinful “in character” as demonstrated by its exploiting that which is good, i.e. the tenth commandment to cause temporal spiritual death in Paul.
This word emphasizes that the sin nature is evil in character and is perpetually in opposition to the revealed will of God.
“Sinful” is the adjective hamartolos (a(martwlov$) (ham-ar-tol-os), which is used in relation to the he hamartia, “the sin nature,” which refers to the sin nature.
The adjective means, “sinful” and describes the sin nature as having missed the mark of the absolute perfection of God’s character, which is His holiness.
In Romans 7:5-13, Paul lists four particular functions of the Mosaic Law in relation to the sin nature.
In verse 5, Paul teaches that the Law stimulated or aroused the sinful desires of his sin nature.
Then, in verse 7, he lists two functions.
First of all he teaches that the Law makes the Christian aware of his sin nature.
The second is that the Law helps him to identify specific types of sin like covetousness.
Then, here in Romans 7:13, he lists a function of the Law that is a reiteration of the purpose he listed in verse 5, namely, that the Law “exposed” Paul to the fact that he had a sin nature.
The fourth function that appears in verse 13 is that the Law exposes the sin nature as being extraordinarily sinful in character.
Therefore, the Law was designed to expose the sin nature in our life and to identify specific types of sin.
It helps us to understand this evil force in our bodies that we have inherited from Adam through imputation (Romans 5:12-21).
The Law allows the sin nature to demonstrate itself in its true character, namely, totally and completely evil.
It demonstrates to the Christian the tremendous power of the sin nature in that it can cause us to do things that we do not want to do.
The Law reveals that the indwelling Adamic sin nature is stronger than our wills or desire to do God’s will.
It reveals our need for the enabling power of the Spirit to do God’s will.