Is the Law Sin?

[Romans 7:7-9]

Let's look at Romans 7:7-9: "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law, sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died."

Is the law sin? (v. 7)
The law is not sin. The law given by God cannot be sin. On the contrary, the law is holy, righteous, and good. Let’s look at Romans 7:12: "Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, righteous, and good." [(Contemporary Bible translation) "Therefore, the law and the commandments are all holy, righteous, and good."]. This is why the apostle Paul says, "Is the law sin? Certainly not." [(v. 7, Contemporary Bible translation) "Is the law sin? Absolutely not."]

Let’s also look at Romans 6:14: "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace."
Romans 7:4 says: "Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God."
Romans 7:6 says: "But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter."

These three passages show the question, "Is the law sin?" (v. 7). The apostle Paul says, "Without the law, I would not have known sin" (v. 7). The law makes us aware of sin. We cannot know sin except through the law.

Let’s look at Romans 3:20: "Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin."
For example, the apostle Paul said: "... for I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet’" (7:7). The law teaches us that covetousness is sin. In Exodus 20:17, it says: "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s." The tenth commandment of the Ten Commandments is "You shall not covet" (twice).

However, sin takes opportunity by the commandment and produces all kinds of covetousness in us (Romans 7:8). Sin is what we commit. Sin is when we don’t live according to the law. In the expression "sin took opportunity," sin refers to Satan. In other words, Satan takes the opportunity through the commandment to stir up all kinds of covetousness within us. A prime example of this is Adam, the first human.

In Genesis 2:7, it says that the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. But Satan, seeing how to make Adam, the first living man, break God's commandment and sin, waited for the opportunity. God’s commandment here was: "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 2:17). Satan, in the form of a serpent, was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. The serpent asked Eve, "Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?" (Genesis 3:1).

Let’s look at Eve’s answer: "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’" (Genesis 3:2-3). In Eve’s answer, first, God did not say "You shall not touch it," but "You shall not eat it" (Genesis 2:17). Second, God said, "You shall surely die," but Eve said, "Lest you die" (3:3). Satan (the "serpent") told Eve, "You will not surely die" [(Contemporary Bible translation) "You will certainly not die"]—this was in direct contradiction to God’s word, which said, "You shall surely die." Satan said that eating the fruit would make them like God.

In the end, Eve and Adam disobeyed God’s commandment, "You shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Genesis 2:17). Let’s look at Genesis 3:6: "When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; she also gave to her husband with her, and he ate." Satan, waiting for the opportunity, distorted God’s commandment and ultimately led Adam to sin, bringing death upon him.

We have cultivated all kinds of covetousness within us (Romans 7:8).
Satan is tempting us to desire all kinds of covetousness through greed. An example of this is the covetousness for material things. The more material possessions one acquires, the more power one believes to have, and yet, in the midst of dissatisfaction, there arises a desire for even more power (authority) and eventually a longing for fame and honor. Thus, covetousness for material things keeps branching out into various kinds of greed. The phrase “we have cultivated” (v. 8) means that we have become consumed with greed.

In dissatisfaction, we keep seeking more. We cannot find satisfaction. Whether it is wealth, fame, or popularity, nothing can provide lasting satisfaction. In the end, even as we acquire and enjoy more, we still do not feel satisfied, and in some extreme cases, people even resort to suicide. We cannot find satisfaction in the things of this world. We must find satisfaction only in Jesus Christ. We must be grateful and content with the blessings God has graciously given us. We must be thankful and content for the eternal life God has given us as a gift (Romans 6:23). We must also be grateful for the faith and all the spiritual blessings He has given us (Ephesians 1:3; 2:8).

This is because, without the law, sin is dead (Romans 7:8).
Satan led Adam into sin through the commandments (God's commands). Without the law, sin would be as if it were dead, unable to exert any power. However, when the law is present, sin comes to life and tempts us to sin.

Before we understood the law, we lived, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and we died (v. 9). If we do not understand the law, it is as if we “had been living.” An example of this is the fourth commandment of the Ten Commandments: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy" (Exodus 20:8). When we did not understand this commandment, we violated the Sabbath. We need to know God’s commandments. If we are unaware, we will sin. We are weak, and even when we know, we often fall into sin. However, our sins are more often the result of ignorance. That is why we must know God's Word.

We must also arm ourselves with God's Word. At the same time, we need to understand God’s Word correctly. The reason for this is that Satan adds or subtracts from God’s Word to tempt us. Satan distorts God's Word to lead us astray. When we are in darkness, we do not know. But when the light shines, we can see the darkness. We must make an effort to avoid sinning because of ignorance. We must live a holy life. We must reject Satan's temptations with God's Word. When Satan distorts God's Word to tempt us, we must resist and overcome it with God’s Word.

I am reminded of Hymn 200 from the New Hymnal: “How sweet and mysterious is that Word. The Word of life is precious, that Word is truly the Word of life, which clearly shows me my path and my faith.” I am also reminded of Hymn 453 from the New Hymnal: “I want to know Jesus more” — “The Holy Spirit, my teacher, will teach me the truth, and through the holy purpose, I will come to know Jesus,” “Touched by the Holy Spirit, I learn God's Word, and each verse teaches my heart,” “My lifelong desire, my lifelong desire is to deeply understand the love that redeemed me.”