The Law and Sin
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. Rom 7:7
What shall we... Questions 41-42. Next, Rom. 7:13. The law itself is not sinful in demanding me to live right. The law only makes known what sin really is (Rom. 3:20; 4:15; 7:7; 1Jhn. 3:4).
Thou shalt not... Quoted here and in Rom. 13:9 from Exo. 20:17.
The law is not sin. It just makes us aware of right from wrong. When we know right from wrong and do wrong anyway, then we have sinned. Paul did not want his readers to conclude that the law itself was evil.
Gal. 3:24 “Therefore the law was our schoolmaster [to bring us] unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”
We would not have even known we needed a Savior had there been no law.
The law reveals the divine standard, and as believers compare themselves against that standard, they can accurately identify sin, which is the failure to meet the standard.
Paul uses the personal pronoun “I” throughout the rest of the chapter, using his own experience as an example of what is true of unredeemed mankind and true of Christians.
The involvement of the Mosaic Law in the discussion of a believer’s identification with Christ and death to sin raises a question about
Law’s relationship to sin.
Is the Law sin? Paul’s response again was a vehement denial. Certainly not! (mē genoito; cf. See Rom. 3:4) The Law arouses sin (Rom. 7:5) but that does not mean the Law itself is sin. In fact, Paul said later, the Law is holy (Rom. 7:12) and spiritual (Rom. 7:14). Paul went on to explain that the Law made sin known (cf. Rom. 3:19-20). Then to be specific, he mentioned coveting. The Law’s prohibition, Do not covet (Exo. 20:17; Deut. 5:21), makes people want to covet all the more.
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