Topic: Human Nature is Inflamed by the Law
Reading: Romans 7:7-11
Introduction and Overview
We must understand that even though God’s law is good, it creates a problem for us. It creates an issue because human nature is inflamed by the law. The problem is not in the law itself, but in human nature.
People are by nature creatures filled with passions, emotions, lusts, desires, and so on. These can be positive or negative. The greatest problem we have though, is our inability to control these passions and desires. Sometimes they lead us to the highest of highs, and sometimes the lowest of lows. And there are many places in between that are both positive and negative.
But what we find is that the law often brings out the negative passions and desires. For example, when a law tells us we cannot have or do something, human nature is inflamed by the law. It is worse when that particular issue is combined with a temptation or a particular weakness.
As Christians it is important we understand these things. When we understand what drives us spiritually, psychologically, and emotionally, then we are in a better place to do something about it. We are also able to understand how to act when these things arise in our passions.
Key points from reading:
- The laws of God are not sin, but they define what sin is.
- Human nature is inflamed by the law.
- As Christians, we must not put ourselves back under the law again as it undoes the work of the freedom from law we receive in Christ Jesus.
Discussion:
- Scripture: Romans 7:7
- The first thing to understand is that the law is not sin. The law is the standard of righteousness that God set for His people when Moses led the people out of Egypt. It is the minimum standard of righteousness. The law defines right and wrong, good and evil. The law it is not sin, but it defines sin.
- There is a constant reminder of sin under the law. When a person is under the law, the law requires compliance. It insists on compliance, and if someone does not comply, then the law condemns them as lawbreakers and sinners.
- Worse still is that human nature is inflamed by the law. When the law expressly says that you cannot do something, human passions are inflamed and you want to do the thing you are told not to do. Paul expresses this as the desire to covet. The law says, “Thou shall not covet.” Apparently Paul had an issue with covetousness. But that law, which is good, drove Paul’s covetous passions and inflamed his desire to covet.
- Scripture: Romans 7:8
- In Paul’s case, it was not that he wanted to covet. He understood that the law was good, especially since he had been a student of the law since a young child as a member of the Pharisees. Paul was well advanced in his understanding of the law.
- But that law drove and pushed at his weakness for coveting, and wrought all kinds of covetousness in him. We are not told what his particular covetous desires were, but you can imagine it in people today. There are those who want what someone else wants, those who want specific things others have, and those who just want it all. They covet anything and everything, and in their envy they sin.
- And it is the law that drives this covetous behaviour that leads to sin. But as Paul says in this scripture, “Apart from the law sin lies dead.” That is, when you take away the law, the desire to break it or be inflamed by it goes too. And if the desire goes, then sin lies dead because the law cannot inflame the passions that lead to sin.
- This is why God has set us free from the law in Jesus Christ. It is part of our victory over the flesh to enable us to gain self-control over our thinking and behaviours by the power of the Holy Spirit in us.
- Scripture: Romans 7:9-10
- Now the challenge for us as Christians, is that when we are set free from the law, we need to stay that way. When we are baptised into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are set free from the law. But only if we believe it and hold fast to our faith that we have been set free from sin and the law.
- Paul shows in this verse that he struggled with holding fast to this piece of faith too. He says, “I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.” What Paul is showing us in his own example, was that after he was baptised, he recognised and believed that he was set free from the law. He understood what that meant and he believed it.
- But after some time it is evident that the power of the instruction of his old life as a Jew and a Pharisee caused him to to put himself back under the law. His human weakness and the teachings of his former life as a Pharisee made him believe that he needed to be under the law, because the law was good.
- The problem with that thinking though, is that it negated the work of God. We are delivered from the law by faith in Jesus Christ. And if the law is gone, so is the desire to sin, since human nature is inflamed by the law.
- Furthermore, if we build up the law again, or if we put ourselves back under the law, we remove the freedom we received in baptism into Jesus Christ. When we put ourselves back under the law, we are no longer free. Instead we are back under the old bondage of law, and back under the power of sin. We have put ourselves back where we were prior to baptism, and our baptism has no benefit. We have walked away from the grace of God and the righteousness by faith that He gives us by faith. Instead we are seeking a self-righteousness based upon keeping the law rather than the only true righteousness that comes from God through faith in Jesus Christ.
- This is what Paul was also showing to the Galatians church when he wrote:
- Note those words well. In this case Paul uses the example of those who wanted to be circumcised, as the Israelites were instructed under the law. Circumcision was the sign and seal of the law for Israel. If you read that section above and replace the word “circumcision” with “the law,” you will see how returning to the law after finding Christ is a problem. When a person returns and puts themself back under the law after receiving freedom from law in Christ Jesus through baptism, they are rejecting Christ. They are saying that the righteousness and freedom they have in Christ is not good enough. As Paul says, “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.”
- The law promised life to those who followed the law prior to Christ. But the law ceased to offer life when the greater promises of faith and grace came to be. The law offers only death now because it defines sin and human nature is inflamed by the law that drives sinfulness. That is why we cannot go back under the law. It takes us away from the life we now have, want, and seek in Jesus Christ through faith and the grace of God.
- Scripture: Romans 7:11
- What Paul discovered was that when he put himself back under the laws and commandments, it gave sin the opportunity to rise up by inflaming his human passions. Sin took opportunity in the commandment when Paul put himself back under the law, and it killed him.
- What Paul was saying is that under the law he died. As we walk in and with Christ, His life is being formed in us. We are being transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit into the image of Christ. The life of Christ is growing in us as we continue to walk, learn and grow with Him.
- But that life is killed and it dies if we put ourselves back under the law. It dies because by putting ourselves back under the law, we are rejecting Christ and the work of transformation stops. The law cuts us off from Christ and the life of Christ being formed within us ceases.
- This is why it is essential that we remember at all times that we are set free from sin, and also set free from the law. We no longer serve God under the laws of sin and death. We now serve God under the power of His grace and the righteousness He gives to all who believe. Putting yourself back under the power of the law will negate all of the work of transformation and life that the Lord is working in you. Do not do it. Remember, you are free, and as Paul wrote in Galatians 5:1, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
Key Takeaways:
- The law is not sin, but human nature is inflamed by the law that can lead to sin.
- Christ has set us free from the law so that sin lies dead as the law cannot inflame human passions and desires where there is no law.
- Seeking to return under the law is to reverse your baptism and reject Christ’s death that was given so that you could be free from the law. The only way forward is to continue to believe and remember at all times that Jesus has taken your sins away and set you free from the law.
Prayer Points
- Pray and ask God to teach you these things and bring them into your understanding. Ask Him to show you the path of righteousness by faith rather than self-righteousness through being under the law.
- Pray also that God gives you His Holy Spirit to work transformation in you so that you can grow and understand all of these things.