Even before God announced the law to Moses, every person was a sinner after Adam and Eve agreed with Satan and defied God’s Word (Genesis 3:1-7). The absence of a law did not stop Cain and Noah, Abraham and Jacob from sinning, but when the law was given, sin was defined, and along with that the punishment for sin was stated (Romans 5:13).
Paul said that before he understood God's law he felt happy, free and alive. But when he read that he was a sinner, he found God's law condemning him to death. The more he knew the difference between right and wrong and understood the penalty for sin, God's Word made him feel even more guilty. How can that be? Surely God's Word is to comfort us. It does; but it also convicts us as the Holy Spirit takes the light of truth and shines it onto the darkness of our hearts (John 16:8).
The world, the flesh and the devil are incapable of creating anything new. All they can do is to deface and destroy God’s good gifts. Sin is always modelled on what is right and good, but twisted in some way to take the glory away from God and the blessing away from human society. Temptation is a set of lies convincing us that it is good to distort God's plan and go a different way. The lie is that the different way will be good and better than God’s, and like Adam and Eve, we all believe it in some way or another (Genesis 3:1-7).
Paul has been describing the effect which God's law had had on him. It had made him feel guilty for his sin, and strangely inflamed his natural desire to do what displeases God (Romans 7:7-13). So, is the Bible a problem? Would people be "more spiritual" without the black and white contrast of wickedness and righteousness?
In one of the most surprizing passages of the Bible, the Apostle Paul confesses that he is not in full control of himself. He writes in the present tense; it is his daily struggle. For an educated man with theological training (Philippians 3:5-6), and a personal encounter with Jesus Christ who commissioned him as the Apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 26:12-18), he was amazed at his inability to regulate his own behaviour.
The Bible is realistic about fallen human nature. With staggering honesty, Paul the apostle admits to sinning, and being unable to stop himself. He agrees that God's law is right, but he cannot keep it. He knows that he has failed to obey every system of morality; he knows that he needs a Saviour every day to forgive him and to strengthen him to live God's way.
The Christian life is a constant struggle. It was for the Apostle Paul, and it will be for us. Even though our hearts know what is right, and we want to obey God, there is always something inside us saying 'No' to righteousness. The grip of sin on our lives, even as believers in Jesus Christ, is far greater than most of us like to admit. The habits of sin easily take root, and their poisonous flowers become part of our landscape. In reality, we have become trapped in patterns of rebellion against God which we justify and accept as normal.
Despite our sinfulness, our inability to control or reform ourselves, and despite the ineffectiveness of religious rules ... those who believe in Jesus are released from condemnation. This is a Divine declaration to all who have confessed their heart’s rebellion against God and repented! God chooses not to remember our sins and He removes our personal burden of guilt. The inevitable down-pull of sin's gravity has been broken and replaced with new life in Jesus.
We cannot save ourselves; neither can any religion or legal regulation! All a law can do is to identify what is right and wrong and define the punishment for breaking the law. No rule can ever make people want to do what is right - even though it may, and often does, restrain unacceptable behaviour. Even the best of God's laws and regulations for living can never make sinners holy (Romans 7:21). All that God's law did was to condemn the sin in us, so that Jesus Christ could offer Himself as a sacrifice for our sin. The whole point of God's Law was not to make u
We behave according to our desires. If we want it, we will think about it, and plan how to get it ... then we take action. So it matters greatly how we manage our desires and our thoughts. Those whose minds are exposed to sinful ideas will start to desire them, and will find that they cannot stop sinning (James 1:13-15).
