In this thought-provoking episode, we delve into the intriguing perspective on sin and temptation as outlined in Romans chapter 7. Join us as we explore how Satan uses the law to deceive and tempt Christians, leading them away from true spiritual growth and divine grace. By personifying sin, Paul offers a profound insight into the nature of temptation and the internal struggles faced by many believers.
So what we’re looking here in Romans chapter 7, where Paul is talking about being dead to the law, is being tempted by the law. That may be a very odd thing for me, or it may sound a very odd thing to you when you hear me say that, but the temptation of the law is something that the devil puts before Christians. How do I know that? Because of what it says in verse 8 and 9. but sin, that is chapter 7 of Romans, verses 8 and 9, but sin taking opportunity by the commandment. Now, as I say, sin is not a personal thing, so what Paul is doing here is personifying the word sin, giving it a sort of personal character. Well, who is the personal character behind sin? Satan, of course. And so, when it says sin taking opportunity by the commandment, Paul is saying Satan taking opportunity by the commandment. Now, as I said yesterday, Satan is not at all interested in law-keeping. He’s not at all interested in being obedient. He’s not at all interested in conforming to the word of God. He’s a rebel. He’s lawless. So why would he take opportunity of the commandment? Because he knows the weakness and foibles of human nature. He knows that humanity is broken and wounded. And so he taunts humanity, especially Christians, by saying, come on, come on, shape up. Obey God. Keep his law. Let me see you do it. Come on, you can do it. Knowing full well that they cannot do it. This is taunting of the worst kind. It is an evil cruelty to taunt human beings with the thing that he knows that they cannot emulate, the law itself. because of their fallen human nature. And so sin, Satan, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. His goal is not to make you obedient to the commandments, but to make the commandments lead you to all kinds of evil desire. Now, if you’re not sure about this still, let’s take another verse. Verse 11, For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. So Satan takes occasion or opportunity by the commandment, and he deceives us with it. Christians are tempted by the law, and they are often deceived by it, believing that they can keep it, and that they can conform to God in such a way as to create a holy humanity that God will be pleased with and that he will therefore save. In other words, Christians Christians many times are tempted by the law to use it to save themselves. Now, this is an astonishing idea, an astonishing reality, because it seems the very opposite. I mean, after all, who wouldn’t like to be, as a Christian, obedient to the law, especially the law of God, and especially the law in the inward life, the inward parts? Remember what Jesus said about the law in the inward parts. You have heard it said, he said, that you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that whosoever lusts after a woman has committed adultery already in his heart. Or you have heard it said, you shall not steal, but whosoever covets has already stolen, and you shall not kill, but whosoever is angry with his brother has killed. So, you see, Jesus is going right back to the core of the law. We don’t disregard the law because it’s carnal. That’s what some Christians say, and that’s nonsense. die to the law because it is spiritual. It reveals the heart of God’s desire for the human race, that they not kill one another, but love one another, that they don’t take advantage of one another, but give generously to one another, and so on. And so when we see Jesus going to the core of the law and all its spirituality, we realize, my goodness, the law is spiritual. And the reason I can’t keep it is that I am carnal. So you see what Satan is doing. He is taunting our carnality. He is taunting us saying, I know how deceptive and hypocritical and defiled you are. I know all that. But I am going to tempt you to think that you can rise above this. I’m going to tempt you to think that you can be holy. And so Satan does something astonishing. He appears before the mind’s eye to be encouraging our spirituality and to be encouraging our holiness. Have you heard this before? The devil himself shall appear as an angel of light. Now that makes sense at last, doesn’t it? He is going to try to make you develop a false holiness. a false holiness. And he will try to do that through the law. And what you will find in the last days before the coming of Christ is a whole mass of people who are holy, in quotes, by the law, and the rest of the world will be intimidated by them. But Christians know differently. Christians know that they cannot become righteous by the law, that they will not submit to the temptation of Satan, who uses the law to enact or to elicit a false holiness. The only holiness we have is in Christ. Christ is our holiness. And we put faith in him. And we believe he loves us. And we believe that by faith and trusting in him, we develop a beautiful faith relationship with him that leads us into beautiful ways of living. before the world, caring for the world, taking care of the world, being compassionate, empathetic, merciful. Be ye therefore merciful, even as your heavenly Father is merciful, Jesus said. And so we approach a beautiful life, but in an entirely different way, not by the law. The law leads to a knowledge of sin. That’s Romans 3, 19 and 20, or rather 20 and 21, I think it is. And the law also excites sin. Now, some of you are rock-hard legalists, and you think I’m talking codswallop, and you think it’s all nonsense, what I’m telling you. You believe that I’m deceiving you. But I’m telling you this based upon the Word of God here, based upon what Paul says. We must not yield to a false holiness. What it will do is make rigid, cold-hearted, critical Christians. who are endlessly examining themselves and looking at themselves in the mirror, asking themselves whether they’re doing it right or not, and realizing very much so that they’re not doing it right. In their heart of hearts, they won’t admit that verbally, but they’re not doing it right. And what happens then is that they do it wrong, of course, but they blame everybody else. They project their guilt and shame, their failures, on other people. And so legalistic Christians become quite cold, and quite critical of others. We need the warm-hearted Christian. We need people who know how to love and how to be merciful and how to help others up from their difficulties. This can only come about by the love of Jesus. So then, what do we have? Let’s look at these verses again. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not, Paul says. 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 and the commandment which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. So you can see where this is now going. Paul says, I was alive without the law once. What does he mean? That is, before Jesus came into his life, before he saw the sacrifice of Christ for the sins of the world, before that he was a law-abiding Jew. And he was alive with it. He said, as touching the law, blameless. He felt quite confident in himself, but there was a lower, a deeper layer in him that was uncomfortable, that knew that this wasn’t altogether right, because, how do I know that? Because Jesus, when he met him, he said, I am Jesus. It is hard for you to kick against the pricks. What are those pricks? The pricks of conscience, the jabbings. You remember when somebody is in a cart behind a donkey that’s pulling it, he has a little stick in those Middle Eastern days with a nail on the end of it. And if the donkey’s going slow, he just jabs that donkey, poor thing. But the fact is… That illustration is being used to say that though Paul was very much alive with the law, he felt quite confident in himself, there was an underlayer, something deeper that made him feel uncomfortable. And it was only when Jesus revealed himself that he realized what that discomfort was, that his law-keeping was all a sham, and that it did not reveal a heart of love, didn’t give him a heart of love, a heart of compassion and warmth, and caring for the world. He was a fake. And all legalists, all of us have been legalists at one time or another and still are in many, many ways because we only like to present the best of ourselves to the public eye. We’re all fakes. We’re all pretenders. And we have to come before the Lord and say, Father, I am a pretender. Have mercy on my soul. You alone know the true depths of my brokenness. You can tell God everything. You can tell God you’re a pretender. He knows you are anyway. But to confess it to God is helpful to you, because then you know, yeah, I won’t take myself too seriously. I’m a fake. But Jesus is real, and I trust in him. So, you see, the commandment, which was meant to bring life originally, before the fall, when it could, when we obeyed it and it gave us life and joy, now brings death because of our human nature. So, Paul then says, therefore, now it’s lovely to hear a therefore, therefore, it’s a conclusion, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. Do you see what that’s implying? But the problem is me, not the law. I can’t attain it, and therefore I must die to this that has held me captive by my wanting to try to obey it and never succeeding and always feeling guilty, and therefore I need the mercy and the love of Jesus to keep me going. Thank you for joining me today. This is Colin Cook. You can listen to this program of mine, How It Happens, on your smartphone. Simply download a free app, soundcloud.com or podbean.com and key in How It Happens with Colin Cook when you get there. or go directly to soundcloud.com slash faithquest. You can also make a donation if you’d like. 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