Identity

“So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.” Romans 7:3

One way that the Law strengthens sin is through labeling a person’s identity according to certain characteristics of their behavior, as referred to in above verse.

“Romans 7:7 teaches, “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’.

There is still another aspect which the Law introduces– it points out sin in our life that may have been hiding in us, but still hurting us. So, verse 5 reads:

” For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. “Romans 7:5 

The next facet of the Law to consider, it puts sin into motion.

So, in summary so far, the Law:

• Labels a person as an “adulterer” for instance.
• Points out hidden sin.
• Puts sin into motion

Next, verse 9,

” For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.’ Romans 5:9

According to Paul, sin revived, and “I” died. Paul’s “I” speaks of his “days of ignorance, when, he was a stranger to the law, and deemed himself a righteous man, and, as such, entitled to life at the hand of God.”

Point four, the Law pointed out and killed the inaccurate self-labeling of a self proclaiming innocent man.

“Sin took occasion by the commandment”, in verse 8 and 11, — what does this mean?

The original language talks of taking occasion, “a starting place from which to rush into acts of sin, excuses for doing what they want to do.” How does this work?

.John Piper reminds us, “The law doesn’t just turn sin into trespasses of specific commandments; it actually aggravates sin itself and makes it more active.“

“So the effect of the law is not just to turn the power of sin into specific lawbreaking, but actually to aggravate sin into greater virulence.”

So we see that sin is a power, a kind of slave master or ruler that turns commandments into aggravated incitements to transgress.

Beloved, 1Corinthians 15:56 teaches, ” the strength of sin is the law.” and then in Romans 7:12 ,

Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

Folks. the Law makes our sin specific, and also when Law and sin meet, even if we consider ourselves as innocent, aggravated excitements to transgress result.

Sin, friends, is the culprit.

Paul now speaks of personal experience.

“For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.  If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. 

Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Romans 7:15-17 

What is Paul saying? From John Gill commentary:

“that since he did not approve, but hated what he did, and willed the contrary, it was not he as spiritual, as born again, as a new man, a new creature, that did it.”

And JFB “Not my true self, my higher personality, but my lower self due to my slavery to indwelling sin.

Paul has cited something very important here, that these sins operating impulsively were not originating from his new identity, but the old fallen nature still in him. He wisely refused to let his sin , as a new believer , establish again his old identity. To do this he had to recognize that the Law (which makes identities) was no longer governing him, he was dead to that Law by the body of Christ — through his union with Christ see Romans 6:11-6

So,

I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.   For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Romans 7:21-23

John Gill, clarifies, “only a regenerate man delights in the law of God; which he does, as it is fulfilled by Christ, who has answered all the demands of it: and as it is in the hands of Christ, held forth by Him as a rule of holy walk and conversation; and as it is written upon his heart by the Spirit of God, to which he yields a voluntary and cheerful obedience: he serves it with his mind, of a ready mind freely, and without any constraint but that of love.”

But Paul finds a law.

“I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.   For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members”. Romans 7:21-23 

Romans 7:24  “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? “

Through Jesus Christ our Lord, through Jesus Christ! love ya