Good Helps Us Recognize Sin

Text: Romans 7:7-13

⁷ What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”

 ⁸ But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. ⁹ Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 

¹⁰ I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. ¹¹ For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. 

¹² So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.

¹³ Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

Paul is leading us to a big “Therefore” that will help us put a stake in the ground concerning the law and the Spirit and the role each plays in our lives and how we move forward in our faith in God versus allowing the past to hinder us.

 

Good Helps Us Recognize Sin

Have you ever used this line when giving advice to family members or maybe even close friends:

“I’m doing this or I’m telling you this for your own good!”

I used to hate that advice when my parents would say it to me. Usually, it was said from a heart motivated by love to protect me from being harmed by someone else, or being led astray by someone else, or doing things that I couldn’t see were wrong.

My problem was, I didn’t see it as loving advice. I saw it as something that was going to hinder what I wanted to do, which I could not see was going to lead to trouble. Sometimes I would eventually see the wisdom in the advice, but often I couldn’t see it.

As a pastor, I’ve been on the advice-giving side of that relationship, trying to be of some assistance to people who were struggling. But one of things I’ve found is that a lot of people don’t come to a pastor for advice, but for approval. Something is going badly in their life. They’ve already made their choice, now they just want someone they respect to approve of their choice.

Is the Law Sinful?

Paul saw this issue being played among the believers in the Roman church. He says:

“I would have never known what sin was
had it not been for the law.”

He prefaces that statement with a rhetorical question: “Is the law sinful?” To which he replied, “Certainly not!”

He goes on to describe what he means by using the “You shall not covet” example. Why would Paul use that example? Because it’s one sinful action we can all identify with.

He explains that when God said, “You shall not covet”, the door to disobeying that law through many “acts of sin” was opened. Paul describes it as “sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting.”

Have you ever longed for, desired something so badly that it became the motivation for everything you did?

To the point that you lost all ability to say “No!” to the longing or desire that led to acts of sin, or you ignored the warning signs and “afforded the opportunity” for Satan to use it against you. It is in those cases that we fail to see sin as sin.

Covet is one of those words that is both an attitude and an action. I see something that I desire (attitude) then I do what is necessary to acquire it (action).

• We covet food
• We covet relationships
• We covet financial status
• We covet material possessions

So, one of God’s laws is, “Do not covet”. Its intention was to protect the adherents to the law from the “acts of sin” that coveting could cause.

It’s a law that was intended for GOOD that Satan uses for evil!

The law was given “for the good of the people” but it became a pathway to sin. Paul says, “the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death”. Because, as we know, the “wages of sin is death”.

Satan has been using the same playbook from the beginning of time. He seizes upon our weaknesses, deceives us, and then uses God’s holy commandments against us, which were created by God for our good.

We live in a world today that believes they are “living” because they are disconnected and apart from God’s commands (law). They’re ignorantly blissful. “But”, Paul says, “they are really dead.”

So, Paul asks another rhetorical question: “Did that which is good, then, become death to me?” And again, he answers, “By no means!”

He clarifies what he means by saying, “Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death…”

God used the “good” (laws and commandments)
to reveal in us sin that we didn’t recognize as sin!

Pause right here for a moment and let those words from Paul penetrate your heart, mind and soul.

In effect Paul is confirming that the job of the law was not to atone for sin but to point out sin in one’s life.

I mean think about it in just the Ten Commandments we can see this principle at work.

• Have no other gods before me points out idolatry
• Do not steal points out taking something from another
• Honor your father and mother points out actions that disgrace the family, disrespect, and lack of honor
• Don’t bear false witness points out a propensity to lie, malign, being inappropriately judgmental, and selfish

And the list goes on!

What is the “Good” God Works?

Go to Romans 7:21-25.

²¹ So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 

Paul determines that we are a unique creation. We have working within us both the desire to do good with the inability to accomplish it consistently, apart from Christ.

²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³ but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 

Paul knows that the law is good and he “delights” in God’s law. But my sinful nature rears its ugly head just bating me to ignore the good that God has for me. So how does Paul describe himself?

²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

He completes the thought in Romans 8:1-2.

¹ Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 

³ For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.

This is the really cool part:

• We created emotional, psychological, and spiritual prisons by our arrogance and innate selfishness
• We made the law powerless because of our weakness, ignorance, and disobedience
• All those attitudes and actions should have resulted in our eternal death

But despite our “flesh”, despite our “sinful nature”, despite our “sinful actions and attitudes”, we can say, for those of us who abide in Christ and have received life through his sacrifice,

WE ARE NO LONGER CONDEMNED!!!

Live Free of Condemnation

So, if you are a believer, if you’ve accepted the gift of grace God’s grace he offers, if you’ve accepted the atoning sacrifice of Jesus the Christ, and if you accepted live by the indwelling Holy Spirit, then why do you still feel condemned?

In the movie, A Few Good Men, Lt. Daniel Caffee (Tom Cruise) is questioning Col. Nathan R. Jessop (Jack Nicholson). Caffee is trying to get the Colonel to admit that he ordered the hazing (Code Red) of a Marine PFC who was falling behind in his training. The now banned hazing activity caused the death of the Marine PFC.

Colonel Jessop establishes the premise that no one disobeys his orders. The chain of command is never broken in his unit. He lied on the stand saying the failing Marine PFC was NOT to be touched and, supposedly, he had ordered the transfer of the Marine PFC off the base for his own safety.

But Caffee was not convinced. Because, if no one ever broke from the chain of command and if no one ever disobeyed an order he gave, then why would the Marine PFC be in any danger and why would he need to be transferred off the base?

Caffee wanted the truth. He wanted the Colonel to admit, under oath, that he ordered the Code Red, thus incriminating himself. When he told the Colonel, “I want the truth”, the Colonel responded, “You can’t handle the truth!” and, ultimately, confessed that he did give the order.

The reason you sometimes still feel guilty is because you don’t want to “handle the truth”.

Go to Romans 8:26-28.

²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 

²⁷ And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

What is the “good” that God works for those who love him?

Let’s break down these verses:

• The Spirit helps us in our weakness
• The Spirit intercedes for us through “wordless groans”
• God searches our hearts through the Spirit’s intercession
• The Spirit knows the will of God
• The Spirit inspired the writers of the Bible

Here’s the point: God knows exactly the “good” we each need to recognize when we’ve made accommodations for sin in our lives that keeps us feeling guilty and unable to accept truth.

So, it’s now up to us to accept or reject that which he does “for our own good” through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The sin of Adam led to the law and death. The law led to that which is good and to Christ. Jesus the Christ fulfilled the law (died to sin) and set us free from death. Jesus gave us life through the Holy Spirit.

The life we now live we live to God free from condemnation!