"Sin Revealed"

This writing is meant to be in concert with the blog labeled "My revelation on Sin - Ruler of Earth". As I was working my way thru Romans, Paul does an excellent job in explaining to his readers (those in Rome and us) the effect of Law in relation to sin.. Many in his day were charging him with antinomianism (Christians are freed from all laws and therefore no need for you to obey the law).. Paul sets out to take this charge on and to explain just how sin and the law are woven togtether...and just how the law was necessary to expose the sin in our life..Sin was always present but there was no standard to which you were compared to before the law, so sin had no real impact(using this loosely)...and when the law came about thru Moses, then we have the standard to which God expects from us and a standard so high that none of us can attain...without Jesus and the new covenant..The covenant of Grace.. We ALL fall short..Every single person..Paul included and Paul was very clear about how wretched his flesh was and how it rose up against his spirit...

For me, I always new there was a law that those who lived between Moses and Jesus' death were commanded to follow, but never really understood just how the Law was sent to reveal the Sin...until studying this section of Romans..

7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
Commentary
The law defines sin and also provokes sin. Confronted by the law, sin takes on the character of rebellion, so that people enjoy transgressing commands in order to demonstrate their independence

No wonder Sin is so bad..Not only is it wrong but it is outright rebellion.. To know right from wrong and still choose wrong is what Sin is all about.. I also find it interesting that Paul uses the term "covet" in his explanation above in trying to explain the Law in relation to Sin..I wonder if Paul was trying to say something a little deeper here than just randomly picking out one of the sins we could commit and using that one..I looked up Covet and is basically equals "desires"..Then it all came together..The desires of our heart..What are the desires of our heart..If we covet something ( another mans wife, his house, his car, etc) then we have the exact opposite in our hearts no matter how good we may be or act..This will in essence block God's blessings to give us the desires of our heart..because those desires are not in line with God and therefore can not be honored.. This is where it gets to the heart of the matter..What we say on the outside as opposed to what we feel on the inside....and so I believe Paul was trying to use "covet" to drive home this point about our heart..Our true transformation that has occurred in our life..and this should give us pause at least to the point of searching our hearts to see what really lies there and is if of the Father or of the world? Just something to think about

SO the law came and Sin used the Law to trip humankind up..Essentially sin was there but there was no real attention paid to it..But once the law came (Mosaic law)..certain things became forbidden and that created a desire in us to have what was forbidden..Just as Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden..

8" But sin,seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead"

The prohibition against coveting exacerbated the desire for what was forbidden. We never really noticed coveting until we were told we could not covet..How ironic is that...and how relevant this idea is today..The devil has taken something meant for Good by God and perverted it into something to trip us up..

9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died

Paul later emphasizes the power of Sin in this verse "15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me"

Now you tell me if you can truly understand this the way it is written..I could not..I pondered it and just sit her saying it over and over..but could not pull the meaning meant from these verses..So I went to the Message and ahhhhhh how much clearer the picture became

Message
"I can anticipate the response that is coming: "I know that all God's commands are spiritual, but I'm not. Isn't this also your experience?" Yes. I'm full of myself—after all, I've spent a long time in sin's prison. What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary.
Paul..Who many consider the most righteous Christian that ever lived (besides Jesus) is telling us that we will do what we know is wrong even when we know it is wrong.. Paul is depicting just how powerful sin is..It goes back to the Mastery idea..Sin is ruler of this world..we desperately need to understand this..Sin isnt just part of this world..It is RULER of this world..Sin is not just something we may or may not experience..It is who we are..PERIOD..and so without Jesus..we have no hope at all in combating this..We are either in Adam (this world) or we are in Christ..There is no halfway's..Either Sin rules our life or Christ rules our life..I am beginning to get the picture of just how important Jesus is in God's plan and what we are up against with Satan and Sin..Sin will destroy us and apart from Jesus we have not the weaponry to fend it off..Our meaningless efforts to try and foil Satan apart from Jesus are laughable..This is very serious business..Satan is no joke and we as humankind better get to understanding this foe we face..

Paul says
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Do you think for a minute that Paul did not understand the power of Sin.. Wretched Man that I am, Body of Death..Goodness..Paul is unequivocal in his understanding of the flesh..but also his Deliverer..Jesus Christ..

Praise God for His perfect Holy Plan for us and Jesus Christ in whom we can take refuge against the wiles of the devil...to be delivered from a life of death and to overcome Sin..!!

Worthy is the lamb

EB

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