Revelation of Sin

Romans 7:7-13 (v.11) “Sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and it killed me.”

A sinner saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. This is the gospel truth that is the solid rock foundation of Christianity that drives us as disciples to follow the Lord in prayer and study of the holy Bible to know more, to grow more, to mature as children of the kingdom of heaven and live godly lives for the glory of God daily. There is an old saying: “Speed kills”, but there is an older saying: “Sin kills/Jesus saves”. The guilty always say: “Don’t judge me”, because exposing our sin evokes unpleasant feelings of guilt designed to drive us to seek forgiveness and reconciliation with the God that we sinned against; after all, it is His law that we sinned against and deserve His just wrath. Judging is not the issue, as John 3:17-18 tells us that we “already stand condemned” for our sins by God.

I read that through its threats of punishment, the law of God restrains sin. Whether we encounter the moral law written in the Old Testament or have access to it only as it is inscribed on our consciences, we find our outward behavior held in check. I remember hearing an interview on the radio with Baseball star Albert Pojos, where he took an honest look at his sin, remorsefully repent and accepted the blessed Savior Jesus Christ after his soon-to-be wife told him that they must stop seeing each other because she could not bear the thought of him going to Hell for his sins. Reality woke him up to his sin and he did not want to go to Hell.  Human beings do not fulfill all of their sinful desires out of fear of the law’s judgments, and thus civil society is, in the main, preserved.

Romans 7:7 “What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law.”

Yet, though God’s Law retrains the outward expression of sin, the fact that we do not give full expression of our depravity does not make us righteous. Outwardly, we might appear to be “good” people, but inwardly, the encounter of the fallen, spiritually dead and sinful, human heart with God’s law always, apart from grace, increases our sinfulness. For, if we are a law unto ourselves, we hate and reject His law in our heart. The law of God reveals to us that sin is not merely as external matter but an internal reality, helping us to see that we are far more depraved than we would like to imagine.

Exodus 20:17a “You shall not covet.”

The article states that the law’s commandment against coveting ends up making fallen people more sinfully desirous of those things that are not properly theirs. In fact, in one sense, all sin originates in covetousness (self). We covet the control that God has, so we create idols that we can manipulate. We commit adultery through our unbridled lust. We commit murder through our hate and rage in our heart. We sin against God in thought, word, and deed ... whatever I want, whenever I want.  In summary, the moral law reveals and exacerbates our wicked, covetous desires.

Romans 3:23-24 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

We are wholly unaware of our sin apart from God’s law. After all, we are born in original sin and inclined to sin before we have any conscience awareness of the moral law of God. Unregenerate mankind is spiritually dead to any awareness of the gravity of sin. The Law of God does not so much give sinners a definition of sin as it shows sinners that their sin is far deeper than they first thought and drives us to the foot of the cross. Until we come face-to-face with the moral law of God, we spend most of our lives ignoring the sin that we know is there or telling ourselves that we are better than we actually are. That’s the bad news, but there is good news!

John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

God shows us the depth of our sin and thus leads us to guilt and despair. The Law of God gives us the bad news that we are sinners cut off from God. But, the gospel of Jesus Christ tells us we will be reconciled to god and forgiven when we repent and trust in Jesus alone for salvation. As Christians, our duty is to proclaim both truths, because you must have the revelation of sin to know where you stand before God and realize what you are being saved “from” before you can truly apprehend and understand exactly what you are being saved “to”.  

Blessed in Christ.