ROMANS 7:9-13 THE LAW IS HOLY, AND THE COMMANDMENT HOLY AND JUST AND GOOD

Romans 7:9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. 12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. 13 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.

1. The Law reveals our Appetite or tendency for sin

Paul says he was in the same condition that Adam and Eve were originally.  They were free from the law (alive once without the law) until the commandment came.  Then they wanted the one thing they could not have (sin revived and I died… (Realized I was dead Spiritually)).

Gen 2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 "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."

Pastor Ray Steadman says he was in the Colorado Rockies. A man met him to take me into the mountains for a conference. When he came out to the curb, he was waiting in his new, powerful, shiny Lincoln Continental. He got into the car and he expected him to turn on the ignition. But to his amazement, he started driving without turning on the engine -- or at least that's how it seemed to him. He suddenly realized that the engine had been running all the time. It was so quiet that he hadn't heard it. As we moved up into the Rockies, the power of that engine became manifest. We traveled up the steep grades in those great mountains without difficulty because of the power released by the touch on the accelerator.

Now, that is something like what Paul is describing here. Sin lies silent within us. We do not even know it is there. We think we have got hold of life in such a way that we can handle it without difficulty. We are self-confident because we have never really been exposed to the situation that puts pressure upon us -- we never have to make a decision against the pressure on the basis of the commandment of the Law "Thou shalt not... "

But when that happens, we suddenly discover all kinds of desires are awakened within us. We find ourselves filled with attitudes that almost shock us -- unloving, bitter, resentful thoughts, murderous attitudes --

2. The Law reveals the death that sin brings

V10-11 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.

In Adam, all sinned, and all died (Romans 5:12)

Paul was speaking of his personal experience, in Adam, at the fall, described in Genesis 2 and 3 and Romans 5.

Paul, like every other human being, sinned in Adam. We are all born sinners (Psalm 51:5). From the day of our birth we are “dead in our trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1-3). We have never been alive, other than in Adam before the fall. We will never be alive, other than in Christ and His work on the cross.

Ezek 18:20 "The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

Ephesians 4:19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

Sin killed Adam and Eve spiritually, we are born dead spiritually, so the more sin we commit the further from God we go.  When you are dead, you are what (past feeling), dead people cannot feel.

The value of dying or knowing you are dead is so that you can turn to God and live again.

Ezek 18:23 "Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?" says the Lord GOD, "and not that he should turn from his ways and live? Ezek 18:30 "Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways," says the Lord GOD. "Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. 31 "Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel?  32 "For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies," says the Lord GOD. "Therefore turn and live!"

Eph 2:1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,

Colossians 2:13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

That is what the Law is for. It is to expose the fact that this evil force is in every one of us, waiting only for the right circumstance in order to spring into being, overpower our will, and carry us into things we never dreamed we would do. Many of us experience this. According to this passage, the great power of sin is that it deceives us. We think we have got life under control -- and we are fooled. All sin is waiting for is the right occasion when, like a powerful, idling engine, it roars into life and takes over at the touch of the accelerator and we find ourselves helplessly under its control.

Gen 3:13 And the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

1 Timothy 2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.

3. The Law reveals the Holy Nature of the Lawgiver

V12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.

The law comes from a Holy, Righteous, and Good God, so it must be holy, just, and good.

Leviticus 19:2 "Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them: 'You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.

Daniel 9:14 "Therefore the LORD has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice.

Mark 10:18 So Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.

The fall of man in the Garden of Eden shows just how evil sin is, using God’s command to tempt men, to produce coveting, then disobedience, and finally death.

4. How did the Law kill me if it is good?

V13 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.

The question of verse 13 is the result of confusing the evil-doer and the instrument. It results from confusing the one who pulled the trigger with the gun which the evil doer fired, taking the life of another. Many people want to curb violence and crime in our neighborhoods by getting rid of the guns, rather than by dealing with the person using the gun. So it is with sin. Paul’s question indicates that some would like to do away with the Law in the hope of solving the problem of sin and death, when the source of the problem lies elsewhere. Blaming the Law for death, rather than sin, is like watching a policeman appear at the scene of a murder only to seize the murderer’s weapon and then release the murderer with a pat on the back.

The Law is designed to expose that sin, and to make us feel this way so that we begin to understand what this evil force is that we have inherited by our birth into this fallen human race. The Law shows sin to be what it is, something exceedingly powerful and dangerous, something that has greater strength than our willpower and causes us to do things that we are resolved not to do