What Worth Is The Law Of God If It Not A Part Of Salvation.

Romans 7:7 “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.”

As we continue to crawl our way through the book of Romans on Wednesday nights, we have found that Paul just continues to define the law and salvation. Paul has from just about a 360 degree angle defined the uselessness of the law when it comes to salvation. I simply cannot understand how anyone can study the first seven chapters of Romans and still believe that works is a part of salvation.

Here in chapter seven Paul is asked a very important question, “…Is the law sin…” and he answers “…God forbid…” Just because the law is not part of salvation does not make it useless, worthless, or even unusable to the Christian. And just because the law teaches us our sinfulness and our need of a Saviour does not make it sin itself. Paul said “…for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” Or I would not have known I was a sinner before God had the law not told me. In the book of Galatians chapter 3 Paul calls the law a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, and that is accomplished by making our sins known to us. I likened this to driving down the Interstate where the Maximum speed limit is posted and if you go over that posted speed then you have broken the law. However what if there is no posted speed limit and you go over the state maximum speed then are you still a law breaker, yes but unknowingly. Paul went on in verse 11 “For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me…” did the law “deceive” Paul, yes it did, the word “deceive” means to seduce wholly that is the law made Paul a law breaker just as a posted speed limit would make one a law breaker and when he recognized this he found the need for a Saviour. While the law is not sin it does make us sinners, not because if we do as it says then we are sinners but because we fail to do as it says. The law of God does not work like we do, for example if a woman came to church with a short and tight shirt and by that caused a man to look at here with lust in his heart then he has sinned and she has sinned because she was improperly dressed. However with the law of God while it does cause us to sin it is not sin. Paul went on in verse 12 “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” The law is holy because it is God’s law and nothing of God is sinful. The law is in itself holy because God spoke it, it is His words and His law. The law was never written to justify man but to show us sinners. Paul told us in Romans 3:20 “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” It is our desire in the flesh to break laws in fact it has been said “laws were made to be broken” however they were not. It is man completive nature not to be told how to live and if the law says not to do something then someone will do it, this is what Paul meant when he said “For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me…” verse 11 The law brought the opportunity by its commandment to cause me to sin.

Please do not expect justification by the law because was not written for that reason, but the law serves a wonderful purpose in that, through it, we have a full understanding how important Jesus Christ is to us. We know by the law that we come up short of God’s standards and lean on Jesus Christ for salvation the only person to ever live the law to its fullness.