In chapters 5-8 we learn of the "newness of life" that is ours in "union" with Christ Jesus, a life that is a natural consequence of a person's eternal right-standing in the sight of God by faith. Having explained how a believer is free from the slavery of sin, Paul now explains how we are free from the oppressive dominion of the law. In our passage for study, Paul tackles a possible misconception; he is not implying that the law is sinful, rather that the law exposes sin and thus our need for redemption. Paul, in this passage, uses the past tense. He speaks in a general way of a person without the law, who is then confronted by the law. He is thinking of the giving of the Mosaic law to Israel and uses the first person to identify himself with the people Israel. His observation is that the law exposes the true nature of sin. The law therefore serves as an especially important revelation from God, a sacred, fair and good thing.

v7. "Am I suggesting that the law is sinful?". This criticism could easily be on the lips of Paul's law-bound opponents and so he responds by condemning the suggestion. In no way is Paul implying that the law is evil. Sin is evil, the law but serves to expose that evil. Paul quotes the perfect example, the command not to covet, not to allow ego-centric desire, lust, to gurgle within. Of course, the more we are told not to covet, the more we covet. So, the law exposes our state of loss.

v8. Apart from the law, sin is powerless and relatively subdued. Sin has certainly set up a base of operations in the life of every human and remains fully destructive, but without the law it just doesn't show itself. When faced with the law, sin raises its head and bursts into life. So, in a sense, sin is like a snake lying motionless and hidden and only stirring to take advantage of its opportunity in the giving of a commandment. Well Mark Twain observed when he suggested that humans are like mules, we do the opposite we are asked to do.

v9. Unaware of the law, we live in innocent bliss, but once we become aware of the full impact of the law, sin raises its head and our real condition of loss is easy to see. There is no idea that we were actually "alive", in the sense of right with God, prior to understanding the demands of the law, rather, once we come up against the demands of the moral law, any sense of innocence we may have had is soon dispelled.

v10-11. The commandments, given to Israel to guide faithful living, served only to promote rebellion and this because of the human condition of sin. When faced with the commandment, sin springs into action and we die, we die "the living death of sin, precursor of eternal death", Sanday and Headlam. We are therefore foolish if we think that our Christian walk is improved by attention to the law, because the law tends to promote rebellion, not holiness.

v12. So, the law is a good and sacred thing because it serves to expose unrighteousness, sin and our state of loss.

One of the greatest dangers we face in the Christian life is to assume that the law serves to shape righteousness in us, to progress our right-standing before God, to make us holy. The trouble is that any standing we possess in the sight of God is a work of divine grace appropriated through faith, and is not something earned by an effort of the will applied to divine law. In fact, if we slip into law-obedience we find the law operating in our lives to condemn us, pronounce us guilty, and so undermine our assurance of salvation. As Paul asks the Galatians, "after beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain you goal by human effort?" 3:3. So, what then is the role of the law?

i] To drive us to Christ. It serves to expose sin and thus our need for a saviour. This, for Paul, is the prime function of the law - a revelatory task of immense value. For a believer, the law has already served this function.

ii] To give direction to the Christian life. God's law is designed to shape the life of faith; it is a practical guide to the renewing work of the Spirit.

To use the law to earn divine brownie-points is to court disaster.

It is sometimes suggested that there is a third role for the law, namely, "to restrain evil". Does scripture teach this truth? cf. Gal.3:24, 1Tim.1:9. What of Romans 5:20?