Epistles (written)

Saturday, 15 June 2013
Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Romans 7:12

Five verses ago, the question was asked, “Is the law sin?” The answer was, “Certainly not!” Since that question and response, a defense of the law and an exposure of our troubled nature has been given. The result of these comments is our “therefore” in this verse.

The law is holy. If the law came from God, then it must be holy because He is holy. “The commandment” is speaking of whatever part of the law is being referred to. In this case, “You shall not covet.” The commandment, which is a portion of the law, is holy. In other words, if the law is holy, then all of the law is holy. This is why James could say in his epistle that whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one aspect of it, he is guilty of all. If a holy precept found in the law is violated, the entire law is broken.

And not only is the commandment holy, but it is also “just.” What God determines is just because it stems from His righteous nature. Therefore, the penalty which comes from violating the standard is holy and just.

And equally true is that the law is “good.” What it expects is good, and when it is adhered to then good will result. There is no failing in the law. All that it entails is right, but when we don’t obey what has been given, then fault results. The goodness and beauty of God’s law is described in detail by David in the 19th Psalm –

“The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul;
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
Yea, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Moreover by them Your servant is warned,
And in keeping them there is great reward.”
Psalm 19:8-11

Life application: Like Psalm 19, the 119th Psalm gives a beautiful and lengthy discourse on the nature of God’s law. It is 176 verses which are subdivided into 22 octaves. Take time each day before your Bible reading to read one octave of this Psalm. By doing so, you will set a proper tone for the rest of your Bible reading. Make this be your daily habit for all the days of your life.

O Lord, my Lord! Thank You for the beautiful word You have given to us. Everything it details is perfect and pure. Each word is given to lead us to a fuller and more perfect walk with You. Give me the heart and desire to read from it all the days of my life. And Lord, may my thoughts and meditations of it be properly directed to a deeper understanding of Your work in my life. Amen.

Friday, 14 June 2013

For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. Romans 7:11

This is a similar sentiment to what was stated in 7:8. What Paul is doing is showing how sin takes root in us. Even though it is derived from something good, such as the law, things get cunningly turned around through deception.

The Greek word for “deceived” is exēpatēsen. It indicates being thoroughly deceived or “hoodwinked.” A form of this same word was used to translate Eve’s words in the Greek copy of the Old Testament in Genesis 3:13 – “The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.'” This shows that Paul is probably referring to Genesis and is thus using the personal pronouns “I” and “me” in this chapter to refer to his humanity and is thus applying the principle to all people.

Sin is being personified to show us how the devil worked in the Garden of Eden and how he continues to work through various things and people. The deception he is speaking of, which takes occasion through the commandment, ends in death. Solomon shows us how this works when describing the flattering words of an adulterous woman –

With her enticing speech she caused him to yield, With her flattering lips she seduced him.
Immediately he went after her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, Or as a fool to the correction of the stocks,
Till an arrow struck his liver. As a bird hastens to the snare, He did not know it would cost his life. Proverbs 7:21-23

Sin’s deception is so powerful that we simply follow its lead like dumb animals to the slaughter. This is exactly how it works in us time and time again. In the coming verses, Paul will show us how the conflict rages and the confusion which results. But he will also show us the remedy for it. There is victory over the power of sin and it is to be found in Jesus.

Life application: Sometimes something seems so right and yet it is deadly to our soul. We need to be on constant guard against the deceitfulness of sin, but the only way to do so is to know what in fact is sinful. Reading and meditating on God’s word is the surest way to be grounded in our faith. Be like the psalmist of old and “meditate day and night” on the precepts found in the Bible.

Lord, the thing I desire to do is the thing I often fail at. And the thing I know is wrong and that I don’t want to do, well, this is the thing I often end up doing. Where is the remedy? Where is my cure? I know it is found in You – knowing You, fixing my eyes on You, and meditating on Your word. Be with me in this struggle and may my life be one which is pleasing to You. Amen.

Thursday, 13 June 2013

And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. Romans 7:10

When God gave Adam his one and only commandment in the Garden of Eden, it was intended as a means of life. Returning to the Genesis account again, we can see this –

“Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;  but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 2:16, 17

Although a promise of death came with disobedience, it is thus inferred that the commandment was meant to bring life if obeyed. This is the nature of obedience. When a law is adhered to, one is fulfilling the intent of the law. However, as is noted, “the commandment which was to bring life, I found to bring death.” This wasn’t the commandment’s fault, nor the fault of the One who gave it. Instead, it was the fault of the person who didn’t follow suit in obedience. The same is found true under the Mosaic law –

“You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.” Leviticus 18:5

Although stated in the positive, rather than in the negative as in Eden, the result is the same – “If you do these things, you shall live.” It wasn’t the fault of the law that one disobeyed. The law was good. It was also suited to produce good, not evil. However, evil ensued through disobedience of it, resulting in death.

Life application: When we look at the evil around us, or when we see calamity occur, we want to lash out at God. But this attitude fails to consider that He gave us free will and we have exercised it to our own detriment. The fact that evil exists isn’t God’s fault, nor does it mean He isn’t competent to end it. That evil isn’t ended yet has no bearing on what will someday be. His plan is greater than our temporary perceptions of the world around us. Have faith that He will bring all things to a satisfactory conclusion.

Glorious Lord God, forgive me when I lash out at You and blame You for the evil I see around me. I know that what You created is good and that it was through our own disobedience that evil entered the world. Remind me again of the promises in Your word that all evil will be dealt with and help me to wait patiently for that day, resting in Your sure promises! Amen.

Wednesday, 12 June 2013

I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. Romans 7:9

Today’s verse has been interpreted in a variety of ways. Some insist that Paul is speaking of himself in the first person – at a time when he felt secure in himself concerning his spiritual nature. However, when he realized the true weight and purpose of the law, “sin revived and I died.” It was at this moment that he realized his fallen state, when before this he felt assured in his own righteousness. This is not likely because he wasn’t saved until he was saved. He wasn’t spiritually alive as a Pharisee persecuting God’s people and then suddenly spiritually dead when he encountered the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. Both testaments show that it is faith in God and His promises by which one lives, not adherence to the law. As Paul lived under the law, he should have known that “the just shall live by his faith.” (Habakkuk 2:4).

Others look at him speaking of an “age of innocence” or “accountability.” Paul was spiritually alive until he came to a point in life where he mentally grasped the law and thus went from “spiritual life” to “spiritual death.” This is incorrect and is based on an emotional interpretation of biblical doctrine. This concept requires inserting incorrect preconceived notions about the nature of man into the text, rather than drawing out what the Bible teaches. The Bible is abundantly clear that we are spiritually dead even from birth. We inherit Adam’s sin and thus there is nothing which causes us to spiritually die; it is a part of our nature from birth.

Some scholars believe that he is speaking of the people who received the law; Israel. They were alive apart from the law, but when the law came, sin revived and they died. In essence, Paul is speaking in the first person, but relating it to his heritage – Israel. This is also unlikely for the same reason as the previous two cases. The people were already born spiritually dead and each needed to be made alive individually, just as their father Abraham was. The introduction of the law merely magnified the truth of this.

A fourth option, which will be substantiated in the coming verses, is that he is writing about the introduction of any law, the knowledge of which revives sin and through that sin we die. In essence, it would take us all the way back to Adam and his original sin. Thus Paul is speaking in the first person of his humanity. This is certainly the case. He has been speaking about one commandment, coveting, as the basis for his analysis. However, coveting doesn’t cover the entire Law of Moses, it is merely one aspect of it. Further, he speaks of “law” not “the law.” There is no definite article in the original Greek. Therefore, it is whatever law is given. In other words, he is using coveting as an example of any law. All will have the same effect.

This fourth option is certainly what he is speaking about and this will be seen in what he states as he progresses. He will speak in plural terms, “we,” and then in the singular, “I.” By merely looking at his statements and comparing them to Adam’s transgression, we can see what occurred in humanity. The use of coveting is simply demonstrating that whatever law is given will have the same effect. Through law is the knowledge of sin and apart from law, sin is dead.

Life application: Faith… this is what God looks for in each of us. When we trust in our own righteousness, it is saying that we can do it all without God. The introduction of law is intended to show us this isn’t so. It is faith in Jesus and His work which delivers us from death to life. Thank God for Jesus!

Heavenly Father, how great You are. The gold in the riverbeds, the silver in the hills, the money in the bank… none of it compares to the treasures found in Your word. And of all the treasures I find there, the greatest is seen in Jesus. There is nothing which compares to what You have done for us through Your Son, our Lord Jesus. Thank You for Jesus! Amen.

Tuesday, 11 June 2013

But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. Romans 7:8

The words in today’s verse hit at the heart of the depravity of man and at the immense glory of what must surely be realized in the work of Christ. In the previous verse we were shown that we would not have known sin except through the law. Using coveting as an example, it was demonstrated that we wouldn’t even know what it meant to covet unless we were told to not do it.

“But sin” – the excitation of this act; the wicked principle in the heart – takes its “opportunity by the commandment.” Once the commandment was given, the heart was stirred into an act of rebellion by presuming it could do the very thing it was instructed to not do. In the Garden of Eden there was no sin; all was holy. There existed a state which never was before and which could never be again. There was free will, but there was no commandment which could excite sin into being.

However, the commandment was given, ” Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 2:16, 17

Once the words were spoken, it produced in man an evil desire, to do the very thing he was instructed to not do. Edgar Allen Poe would call it “the imp of the perverse.” The very thing that shouldn’t be done suddenly springs to life and wants to do that thing. When a new law is introduced in a land, the first thing that happens is for people to think about breaking that law or devising ways to get around it. But before the law was introduced, there was no impetus for doing the very thing which they are now intent on doing. In other words, “apart from the law sin was dead.”

To now look at this from the other side of the cross, we can see the immense glory of our state in Christ. A corporate body of law was given to Israel, a law based on God’s standards of righteousness and holiness. With the introduction of this law, sin took the opportunity and produced all manner of evil desire. The only way to be relieved from this was by grace through faith that God’s provisions for the sins committed would remove the sin. These included sacrifices and a Day of Atonement.

Even the sacrifices became sinful though when they were made without the faith which necessitated them in the first place. However, in a beautiful demonstration of God’s righteousness, mercy, love, justice, truth, holiness, and grace, a promise was made throughout the time of this law that God would provide a final Sacrifice which would, once and for all, handle the sin-debt which was excited into being through the law. Jesus came and lived His life under this body of law without sinning and then He gave His life as an offering and an exchange for those of us who cannot do so.

As He fulfilled the law, when He died, the law died with Him for those who trust in Him (through faith in His work). Because we are dead to the law, we are dead to sin. This is what Paul was speaking about in Romans 6:14, 15. The law has no power over us. Therefore, let us not sin because we are not under law, but under grace.

Life application: There is a struggle going on in each of us. The laws which exist around us are given and when they are introduced, we now have a standard by which we will be judged and a premise by which we are to conduct ourselves. But the law, when given, can also incite us to wrongdoing by the giving of the law. Does this make the law the cause of sin? No, it only shows us that we are prone to sin. In our weak and fallen state, we need a release from life’s temptations and it is found in Jesus. Let each of us look to Him for strength against this war which wages in our lives.

I am dependent on You, O God, completely and entirely, for strength against the war which wages in my life. Those things I know I shouldn’t do, these are the things which tempt me. Grant me Your wisdom to decide on the right course to take, and grant me Your strength to endure that course. In myself I am weak, but through You I am strong. Thank You Lord. Amen.