I Would Not Have Known What Sin Was -- Romans 7:7-13

The Sixteenth in a Series of Sermons on Paul's Epistle to the Romans

When Paul tells us in Romans 6:14 that we are no longer under law but under grace, he’s referring to the fact that now that we are in Christ (and, therefore, under grace), the law no longer condemns us.  In Romans 7:1-6, Paul continues to discuss this, reminding us that apart from Christ, the law held us captive and aroused our sinful passions so that we bore fruit for death.  But now we are released from the law, because we died with Christ.  In Romans 7:7-13, Paul continues his discussion of the Christian’s relationship to the law.  The law of God is holy, and the commandments are holy, righteous, and good.  And yet that same law arouses the desire within us to sin.  Why is that?  How did that which is good become death to us?  As Paul will tell us, God gave us the law to show us that our sin is utterly sinful.  We would not know what sin was, Paul says, were it not for the commandments of God.

We are working our way though Romans chapters 6-8 and looking at Paul’s doctrine of sanctification.  Building upon the distinction he set forth in Romans 5:12-21 between the damage wrought by Adam and the superabounding grace of Jesus Christ, Paul makes the point that all those in Jesus Christ have died with Christ and will rise to newness of life.  Having set forth Christ’s death, burial and resurrection as pattern for our own sanctification, Paul began this discussion not with a list of things we should do or avoid, but by reminding us that sanctification begins with the recognition that we have died with Christ, we have been buried with Christ, and that we have been raised with Christ.  And having been reminded of this, Paul asks, “how then, can we continue to live as slaves to sin, offering ourselves as instruments of unrighteousness?”  Rather, the apostle’s point is that having been set free from sin and its condemnation, we are now free for the first time to offer ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness.

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