A Life in Exile

There are so many lessons in the Ten Commandments, but today will be our last reference to them from the New Testament. I haven’t touched them all, but if this series is going to be only for fifty-two Fridays, I should soon move on. Today, we’re looking at a teaching from the Apostle Paul to the believers in Rome. It’s crucial, because I think many Christians have a misguided view of the Law, and I know many non-believers do, so I don’t want to skip this reference.

Is Law Sin?

We’re going to have to go back a couple of chapters from our focus today in order to see what Paul’s addressing. In this great doctrinal discourse, Paul has been talking about faith and grace, beginning with an overview of Abraham. Christ died for the ungodly. While we were still sinners, he died for us. Sin entered the world through that first act of disobedience in the Garden, so it’s been around a long time, even before the Law was introduced. Then Paul writes this:

The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 5:20-21 CSB

The Law was provided as a guideline for people to understand the way of God. It became the dividing line between the life of righteousness and that of sin. After using marriage as an illustration, Paul then goes on to say:

What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! But I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet. And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life again and I died. The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me. 

Romans 7:7-10

Signs of Righteousness

Just as a Stop sign tells the driver to put his foot on the brakes before proceeding through an intersection, the Law, such as this one given from Exodus 20:17, tells the one who seeks to live a godly life not to covet. If the driver ignores the Stop sign and continues willfully through the intersection, not only has he broken the law, but he risks being hit by a driver who had the “right” of way.

The Stop sign was not the problem for the now hospitalized driver. It did no wrong, but in his choice of ignoring the sign, his own error was put on full display—consequences and all.

The Ten Commandments or Words from God have done nothing wrong. They are not sin. They merely reveal what is sin by what they prohibit. Living a life without coveting my neighbor’s house, wife, or stuff is pleasing to God. Coveting the things my neighbor has is not, and thus identified as sin.

Lawlessness

Without the Law there is chaos. We saw it the further removed from the Garden-life man became. Even the flood did not remove the curse of sin from the earth. Noah’s descendants would be the ones to build the Tower of Babel, seeking only to make a name for themselves. That’s the root of all sin in a nutshell—making a name for self. Mankind just kept going with this plan of living as each one saw fit in his own eyes, leading to the horrors of Sodom and Gomorrah, wars, sexual impropriety, and enslavement of one’s fellowman. This is life without guidelines—lawlessness.

So, God saw fit to put some guardrails up for those who would choose to follow him. It is a sign of his grace, if you can grasp it. The Law that would point out our sin is a grace by God to help us avoid it. Yet, it’s also a grace to lead us to the realization that we really can’t live a fully righteous life (obey the Law completely) without help. We need a Savior. Paul says it this way:

For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. 

Romans 7:18

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 

Romans 8:1-4

Praise be to Christ Jesus, who makes it possible to live according to the Spirit that life of righteousness that was impossible to achieve in and of ourselves.

Grace and Peace

If you missed the last Learning from the Past post, click HERE, or start the series from the BEGINNING.