WHAT SHALL WE SAY THEN "IS THE LAW SIN?" - MAY IT NEVER BE: Ti oun eroumen (1PFAI) ho nomos hamartia me genoito (3SAMO): (Ro 3:5; 4:1; 6:15) (Ro 7:8,11,13; 1Co 15:56)

Paul anticipates a question that might arise concerning the Law - Is it sin? Did it miss the mark so to speak? He answers without taking a breath "Absolutely not! Away with such a thought!" Quite to the contrary, the Law is the means by which sin is made known!

Ironside comments...

The law must simply be recognized as having a special ministry but not as the rule of the new life. It is a great detector of sin. Paul could say, "I had not known sin, but by the law." That is, he had not detected the evil nature within - so correct was his outward deportment - had not the law said, "Thou shalt not covet." The sin nature rebelled against this and brought out all manner of covetousness, or unsatisfied desire in him. (Commentary on Romans).

Wuest (he interprets Romans 7 as speaking of Paul's experience as a believer) introduces this section writing that...

With this verse, we come to a new division of the subject under discussion. In 7:1–6, Paul has shown that the believer is not under law. In Romans 7:7–13, he shows that a believer putting himself under law, thus failing to avail himself of the resources of grace, is a defeated Christian (here he recounts his own experience as a Christian before he came into the knowledge of Romans 6); and in 7:14–25, he teaches that while the law incites this Christian to more sin, yet the law is not responsible for that sin, but his evil nature, which only can be conquered as the believer cries, “Who shall deliver me?” and thus looks away from himself and self-dependence to the Lord Jesus. (Wuest, K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans or Logos or here)

The law is like a x-ray machine; it reveals plainly what might have always been there, but hidden before; and you can’t blame a x-ray for what it exposes. The law sets the "speed limit" so we know if we are going too fast; we might never know that we are sinning in many areas (such as covetousness) if the law did not spell this out to us specifically.

Paul’s aim in [Ro 7:7-25] is to support the teaching, up to this point in the book, that the Law of Moses - or the law written on the heart of all men - is powerless to declare us righteous before God and powerless to make us righteous before God (see notes Romans 3:19; 20, 28). We are sinners by nature (see note Romans 5:12) and by action. Therefore the Law condemns us and stirs up rebellion within us. It doesn’t justify and it doesn’t sanctify.

God, in his mercy, has made His righteousness available for us another way, apart from the Law (see note Romans 3:21), namely through Jesus Christ His Son. So to be declared righteous (to be justified) we must turn from our law-keeping to Christ’s law-keeping. We must receive Christ as our treasure, and be declared righteous because of our UNION with Him by faith (see notes Romans 6:3; 6:4; 6:5; 6:6; 6:7; 7:4; 7:5; 7:6; 8:1; 8:2; 8:3; 8:4), not because of any righteousness in us. That’s how we are declared perfectly righteous before God.

Then to become progressively righteous (be sanctified) we must also turn from law-keeping, for as Paul says in [Romans 7:4], we have died to the Law and are united with Christ so that we might bear fruit for God. So justification is by faith in union with Christ, and sanctification is by faith in union with Christ. And both involve turning away from the Law as the decisive means of getting right with God and becoming like God (see note 2 Peter 1:4).

His reader might think that since the effect of the Law was to arouse the sinful passions, that the Law itself was SIN. Paul wanted to make certain his readers did not conclude that the law itself was SIN and it brings this answer to a climax in characterizing the Law in (see note Romans 7:12) "holy and righteous and good".

Paul addresses the certain objection of at least some of his readers. The objection is that all this teaching on justification by faith and sanctification by faith - all this talk about getting right with God "apart from works of the law" (see note Romans 3:21) and bearing fruit for God by "dying to the law" really undermines the law and makes it sinful and deadly. That’s the objection. Paul had already faced it back in Romans 3:31 where he said,

Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law. (see note Romans 3:31)

Now in [Ro 7:7] he asks, "What shall we say then? Is the Law sin?" And in [Ro 7:13] he asks, "Did that which is good become a cause of death for me?" You see that Paul is answering an objection: Paul, you are saying that the law of God is sinful and poisonous. If that is true, then Paul’s doctrine is false. So he defends and supports his doctrine of justification by faith and sanctification by faith by arguing that the Law is holy, just, good, and spiritual. It is powerless to justify and sanctify not because it is sinful and deadly, but because I am sinful and my sin is deadly. Therefore this objection to his teaching on justification by faith and sanctification by faith falls to the ground. And the glorious truth of the gospel stands. That’s the point of Romans 7.

"Is the law sin? God forbid" Augustine placed the truth in a clear light when he wrote,

"The law is not at fault, but our evil and wicked nature; even as a heap of lime is still and quiet until water is poured on it, but then it begins to smoke and burn, not from the fault of the water, but from the nature of the lime which will not endure it."

ON THE CONTRARY, I WOULD NOT HAVE COME TO KNOW SIN EXCEPT THROUGH THE LAW: alla ten hamartian ouk egnon (1SAAI) ei me dia nomou: (Ro 7:5; 3:20; Ps 19:7-12; 119:96)

Eido/oida was often used to describe "know-how" or the possession of knowledge necessary to accomplish a desired goal.

The law reveals the divine standard, and as believers compare themselves against that standard, they can accurately identify sin, which is the failure to meet the standard. Paul uses the personal pronoun “I” throughout the rest of the chapter, and many think this refers to his own experience as an example of what is true of unredeemed mankind (Ro 7:7-12) and true of Christians (Romans 7:13-25) but this is by no means agreed to by all observers.

Through the Law - The instrument by which the real truth about sin becomes known is the Law.

S Lewis Johnson explains it this way...

God gave Israel the Mosaic Law with its commandments and ordinances since the Abrahamic Covenant promises did not lay much stress on sin (cf. Ge 12:1-3). It was necessary for the education of the nation that they be taught their sinful nature, for only in this way would they be likely to respond to the ministry of the Messiah who was to come. In this sense the giving of the Law of Moses was an act of grace on the part of the Lord...(Johnson adds) The giving of the commandment in Genesis 2:16-17 made it possible for Satan to attack the woman and the man in the Garden of Eden.

Denney comments that this verse suggests that...

The desire for what is forbidden is the first conscious form of sin.… He, Paul, says that the consciousness of sin awoke in him in the shape of a conflict with a prohibitive law.

John Piper writes...

O the perils of not knowing our sin! There is a great sadness that comes from not being saddened by knowing our sin. There is a great pain that comes to the soul and to the marriage and to the family and to the church and to the world from not tasting the pain of knowing our sin. There is a great self-destruction that comes from not experiencing the self-devastation of knowing our sin. There is an eternal loss that comes from not losing our pride in the knowledge of our sin. If there is any hope and any faith and any joy and peace any love, it will come from knowing our sin. So get to know your sin! (The Importance of Knowing Our Sin)

Oswald Chambers writes that...

Once conscience begins to be aroused it is aroused more and more till it reaches the terrible conviction that I am responsible before God for the breaking of His law; I know that God cannot forgive me and remain God; if He did I should have a clearer sense of justice than He has. There is nothing in my spirit to deliver me from sin, I am powerless—“sold under sin.” Conviction of sin brings a man to this hopeless, helpless condition; until he gets there the Cross of Christ has no meaning for him. It is of the mercy of God that no man is convicted of sin before he is born again; we are convicted of sins in order to be born again, then the indwelling Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. If God gave us conviction of sin apart from a knowledge of His Redemption, we would be driven insane. When conviction of what sin is in the sight of God comes home to me, language cannot support the strain of the verbal expression of its enormity; the only word that expresses it is “Calvary.” If I see sin apart from the Cross, suicide seems the only fool’s way out. (Chambers, O: God's Workmanship. Hants UK: Marshall, Morgan and Scott)

FOR I WOULD NOT HAVE KNOWN ABOUT COVETING IF THE LAW HAD NOT SAID "YOU SHALL NOT COVET: ten te gar epithumian ouk edein (1SPluRAI) ei me o nomos elegen (3SIAI): ouk epithumeseis (2SFAI): (Ro 13:9; Ge 3:6; Ex 20:17; Dt 5:21; Josh 7:21; 2Sa 11:2; 1Ki 21:1-4; Mic 2:2; Mt 5:28; Lu 12:15; Acts 20:33; Eph 5:3; Col 3:5; 1Jn 2:15,16)

Haddon Robinson defined coveting...

Covetousness is simply craving more of what you have enough of already.

You shall not covet - Quoted from Exodus 20:17

"You shall not covet (Hebrew = chamad = desire, take pleasure or delight in; Lxx = epithumeo = have a strong impulse toward in sense of an unrestricted desire for a forbidden person) your neighbor's house; you shall not covet (Hebrew = chamad = desire, take pleasure or delight in; Lxx = epithumeo = have a strong impulse toward in sense of an unrestricted desire for a forbidden person) your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor." (cf Deut 5:21)

Most of us experience this "revelation" every day if we drive a car, because we are constantly confronted with Speed Limit signs which themselves are not sinful but do specify the limits of sin.

Wiersbe has an interesting illustration of the effect of the Law noting that...

Something in human nature wants to rebel whenever a law is given. I was standing in Lincoln Park in Chicago, looking at the newly painted benches; and I noticed a sign on each bench: “Do Not Touch.” As I watched, I saw numbers of people deliberately reach out and touch the wet paint! Why? Because the sign told them not to! Instruct a child not to go near the water, and that is the very thing he will do! Why? “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (see note Romans 8:7).  (Wiersbe, W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989. Victor or Logos)

There apparently did come a time when Paul knew that coveting was sin. C H Spurgeon suggests when that point may have occurred writing...

It strikes me that when Paul was struck down from his horse on his way to Damascus, the first thought that came to him was, 'this Jesus Whom I have been persecuting, is after all the Messiah and Lord of all. Oh, horror of horrors, I have ignorantly warred against Him. He is Jesus, the Savior who saves from sins; but what are my sins? Wherein have I offended against the law?' In his lonely blindness his mind involuntarily ran over the ten commandments; and as he considered each one of them with his poor half-enlightened judgment, he cried to himself, 'I have not broken that! I have not broken that! I have not broken that!,' till at last he came to that command, 'Thou shalt not covet,' and in a moment, as though a lightning flash had cut in twain the solid dark­ness of his spirit, he saw his sin, and confessed that he had been guilty of inordinate desires. He had not known lust if the law had not said 'thou shalt not covet'. That discovery unveiled all the rest of his sins, the proud Pharisee became a humble penitent, and he who thought himself blameless cried out, I am the chief of sinners.’

Ray Stedman has a nice illustration of the power of the LAW to AWAKEN the sleeping giant, the sin which still inhabits our physical bodies and will until the day we are glorified. Stedman writes...

"I was in the Colorado Rockies this past week. A man met me to take me into the mountains for a conference. When I came out to the curb, he was waiting in his new, powerful, shiny Lincoln Continental. I got into the car and expected him to turn on the ignition. But to my amazement, he started driving without turning on the engine -- or at least that's how it seemed to me. I suddenly realized that the engine had been running all the time. It was so quiet that I 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 -- we would like to get hold of somebody and kill him, if we could. Lustful feelings that we never dreamed were there surface and we find that we would love to indulge in them if only we had the opportunity. We find ourselves awakened to these desires. AS THE GREAT ENGINE SURGES INTO LIFE AT THE TOUCH OF THE ACCELERATOR, so THIS POWERFUL, IDLING BEAST within us called SIN SPRINGS INTO LIFE as the LAW comes home to us. WE DISCOVER SOMETHING THAT WE NEVER KNEW WAS THERE BEFORE." (Read the full sermon The Continuing Struggle) (All caps added for effect)

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Have you ever heard of the "Toddler's Creed"? Then read the following devotional from Our Daily Bread (October 27, 2005)...

Elisa Morgan, president of MOPS International (Mothers Of Pre-Schoolers), shared this insight into a child's view of the world:
 

Toddler's Creed

If I want it, it's mine.
If I give it to you and change my mind later, it's mine.
If I can take it away from you, it's mine.
If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.
If it's mine, it will never belong to anyone else, no matter what.
If we are building something together, all the pieces are mine.
If it looks just like mine, it is mine.

Anyone who has ever known a toddler knows the truth of that creed. We expect to see this trait in toddlers, but we despise it in adults. It is called covetousness.

The apostle Paul, who had led an outwardly religious life before he became a follower of Jesus, wrestled with that sin (Ro 7:7). After carefully studying the law, he recognized covetousness for what it was. But God in His grace changed Paul. Instead of being a coveting, grasping man, he became a truly generous person (Acts 20:33-35). Generosity may be the acid test of whether or not we are still spiritual toddlers.

Have you allowed Jesus Christ to create in you a new, giving heart? Or are you still following the "Toddler's Creed"? - H W Robinson  (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)