89: The Law Arouses Sin

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” (Romans 7:7)¹

The law Paul was talking about here is not the part that told the Israelites what animals to sacrifice and how to kill them or the instructions for the seven feasts or the dietary rules. The context clearly tells us that the “law” he was referring to was the Ten Commandments: “I would not have known coveteousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet.’”

But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. (Romans 7:8)

Sin by itself didn’t produce in Paul all manner of evil desire. He said sin “taking opportunity by the commandment” produced in him all manner of evil desire. The more Paul tried not to covet, the more he coveted!

With sin, first there is temptation, but then before a sin becomes a sin, something happens: temptation hooks up with CONFIDENCE IN THE FLESH. This is the conception that gives birth to sin. Paul said he put no confidence in the flesh. When there is confidence in the flesh, we will fall into sin because we fall back into self-effort: “I can handle this thing.” And the problem after sin comes guilt and promises to do better. “I’m NEVER going to do that again!” The devil just loves all these promises we make because all of our declarations lean on our strength which always ends in failure and produces guilt. Once we’re in guilt, the cycle continues, and then we are susceptible to being tempted even more. Like Paul said,

…the strength of sin is the law… (1 Corinthians 15:56)

When we get into guilt and shame, we need to repent! Remember, “repent” is not changing your behavior. It’s changing our mind. Repent, the Greek word “metanoeo,” means “to change one’s mind.” Change our mind about what? About who we are in Christ! Are we sinners or are we a new creation? We still sin, but we believe by faith that we are the righteousness of God in Christ, and we will be transformed outwardly by the renewing of our mind. We have the mind of Christ!

After we repent – change our mind and get out of that stinkin thinkin – we don’t want go back to performance and put confidence in the flesh again. A lot of times we’ll enjoy our forgiveness and the peace in our conscience for a while, but the guilt returns, and we go back to leaning on our fleshly commitments. That’s called spiritual adultery. We go from Grace to law and back to Grace!

Our union with Jesus is a life of strength and supply from the inside out. Paul prayed,

…that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man. (Ephesians 3:16)

(from pages 150-152 of Unveiling Jesus)

Want more from Tricia Gunn? Check out excerpts from the Unveiling Jesus 20-part series!

Unveiling Jesus, by Tricia Gunn, is a verse by verse study of the pure gospel of grace. It’s an amazing journey of love, identity, and freedom in Christ.

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¹All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New King James Version. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®.  Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.  Used by permission.