Rom. 5:20 Why God Reveals The Truth About Our Self

SPEAKER 01 : 0:05

So Paul now throws an unexpected line in his arguments about the salvation of all humanity, and it’s very typical of Paul. He often throws a curveball or a wrench into the works, and this is what he’s going to do right now in Romans chapter 5. Let’s look at the few verses just before it to get the idea. Paul says in verse 18, “…therefore as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation,” that’s Adam’s fall, resulting in the condemnation of the world, sin and death coming into the world, “…even so through one man,” that’s Christ’s righteousness, “…even so through one man’s righteous act, the free gift,” came to all men, resulting in the injustification of life. So Christ brings in righteousness and life for all humanity. And then he goes on, for as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, that’s all, of course, so also by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous, which is equally all. But now here’s this Odd verse that seems not to fit. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. Well, it’s interesting that he’s introducing the law here because he’s going to spend a whole chapter on that subject in chapter 7. But he’s sort of giving us a warning, if you like, of what’s coming. Why did God introduce the law? The law entered. Was it that… God saw the world getting increasingly wicked, so he thought as an afterthought, as it were, well, I’d better bring in the law in order to put a brake on the world’s sin. Is that what Paul had in mind in describing this situation? Is that what God had in mind? No. The verse says, “…the law entered that the offense might abound.” So, law was introduced not to put a brake on sin, but, shockingly, to increase it, so that it might abound. Well, boy, let’s take a look at that for a minute. There are two ways of thinking of sin abounding. Sin could abound in the actions of sin, so that sinful actions abounded, or sin could abound in our awareness of sin, in that we become more aware of it when the law is introduced. That is how most people understand it, and of course rightly so, but only partly so. Romans chapter 3, for instance, says that, verse 19, we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Well, that’s kind of an odd thing for Paul to say, that the world is—God wants people to feel guilty. God wants the world to feel guilty. Is that what God likes? Is God so heartless that he just wants us to carry around this massive boulder of guilt everywhere we go? No, that’s not the point. The point is that as we become aware of our sin, and as we become aware of our guilt, then we are more ready to call upon God for mercy and help. We see the relevance of Jesus more fully when we’re aware of our guilt. That is, once Jesus, of course, reveals himself, otherwise guilt will never redeem us. It’ll never bring us closer to God. Verse 20 says, Therefore, 3 verse 20, by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. And so, when Paul says in chapter 5, Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound, he may mean that the offence that we might become more aware of our offence. so that we might want the mercy and love of God through Jesus’ Son more readily. But there’s more to it than that. According to chapter 7 of Romans, verse 5, it says this, For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law… Wow. Aroused by the law? Passion aroused by the law? So the law was not meant to put a brake on sin, but to arouse it. Not only was the law then to make us more aware of sin, but also to excite it. How does that work? Well, let’s suppose you have a struggle with alcohol, and you’ve been doing pretty well for a day or two or three or four, maybe a month or two, and suddenly a temptation to drink hits your mind. Now, you’re a Christian. Well, maybe not necessarily a Christian, but you’re certainly a person who wants to be free from alcoholism because it’s devastating your life, it’s crippling your economy, it’s ruining your health, it’s affecting your relationships, and you want to be free from it. And so when the urge comes to drink, but let’s say you’re a Christian, You feel guilty. You feel afraid if you’re a non-Christian and afraid and guilty if you’re a Christian. And what happens when you feel guilty? Now, remember where guilt comes from. It comes from a knowledge of the law, not to put anything before God like an idol. Well, you are suddenly wanting this drink. And you know you can go before God and call upon his aid to help you, or you can block God so that you can enjoy another drink. And in this instance, you block God. And when you block God, something terrible happens in your mind. It becomes darkened and isolated and lonely. And loneliness and that sense of separation from ourselves, let alone separation from God, is so terrifying that we need the comfort of God or the comfort of drink. But since we’ve sort of decided to block God, we don’t want his comfort, so we go to the drink. Do you see then how the law, the guilt that the law produces and the fear and the shame, can actually arouse passions? That’s what it does. And so Paul says here, going back now to chapter 5, verse 20, the law entered that the offense might abound, that sin might abound. It is a very strange thing. We need to be careful of it because we don’t want to think, well, God encourages sin because he doesn’t. He doesn’t encourage temptation. But he does encourage a revelation of ourselves. We have to know what we’re made of, the stuff that’s inside of us that creates such chaos in our lives. He has to reveal this because we are stuffing it. We’re not prepared to know the full truth. Remember Romans 1 verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed because men suppress the truth. Humanity is in a state of suppression. Well, what does that mean exactly? It means several things. It means the suppression of God in our consciousness, but also the suppression of ourselves. Because when we suppress God, in whose image we were originally made, We are suppressing our own image, our sense of what it is to be a man or a woman, our sense of what it is to be human. And so we fall into this pit where it is so difficult to see any light and any way out, and we are in a mess, and we cannot bring ourselves together, pull ourselves together. So, you see, God has to reveal the true state of the human heart. Again, let’s think of it another way. Sin is pride. It is, I don’t need you, God. Just bug off. I want myself to take control. I want to be my own God. And in that process, then, is a pride that develops that completely blinds us to who we are and what is really going on. And so God introduces the law, which not only makes us aware of sin, but also actually excites sin, so that we become fully aware of what’s going on and of who we are. Now, why does he do that? so that we might come to him for help, for mercy, for grace, for redemption, for rescue, that’s why, so that we may break this terrible condition of independence. Now, if you’re not sure that I’m interpreting this rightly, or if you’re not sure that Paul is interpreting it rightly, remember the book of Ezekiel. God allowed Israel to go into terrible, terrible idolatry those 800 years prior. Such terrible idolatry that they even sacrificed their children, their babies to Molech and Baal. And God said that he did it to devastate them. He did it, that is, he allowed them to do it. He didn’t stop them from doing it. He handed them over to it to devastate them. Well, why? Because he hated them? Because he was going to destroy them? No. because he was devastating their hearts and minds to help them to see what they were fully capable of as sinners, so that they would call upon Jehovah so that they might know that he is the Lord. A phrase, then they shall know that I am the Lord, a clause that appears over 60 times in those 49 chapters, I think it is, 49 chapters of Ezekiel. So you see, God has a real tough way of dealing with us because we have a very tough way of resisting him. He wouldn’t need to do all this if we were just compliant and if we were willing to listen. But we’re so darn stubborn, aren’t we? We just have it all backwards. And he has to let us go the full way of our rebellion in order to see our need of a Savior. So then, moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. But look what follows. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. When God devastated Israel by letting them have the sins of idolatry that they exercised, God’s grace was revealed all the more because he said that he will provide an atonement and forgive them for all that they had ever done, so that they would never open their mouth again in pride and arrogance. My goodness, how wonderful God is to be able to reveal his mercy through the instrumentality of our sin. That is how God is, and that’s what you must take to heart. Don’t be overwhelmed by your sin, but say, Lord God, thank you for revealing through my sin the mercy that I need to deal with it. Thanks for joining me today. Colin Cook here, and this is my broadcast, How It Happens. If you want to hear any repeats or a repeat of this broadcast, go online to download a free app, soundcloud.com or podbean.com, and key in How It Happens with Colin Cook, and you can listen to this program all over again or other archival programs. 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