IDEA: Even though the Law reveals our sinfulness, the Law itself is good. TEXT: "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, 'You shall not covet.' But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful" (Romans 7:7-13).

PURPOSE: To help listeners understand all that the Law reveals in us.

Let's read a paragraph from Romans 7:7-13. It's a very complex paragraph, but a very important one. The apostle Paul is talking about the Law and what the Law did in his life. In some ways Paul could say that the Law was responsible for sin in his life.

I. In Romans 7:7 the apostle Paul asks the question, "What shall we say then? Is the Law evil?"

Is it possible to have laws in a society that are evil? For example, laws requiring that slaves who run away from their masters suffer capital punishment?

Or laws that say if a woman goes outside the home without her husband or brother being with her, she can be beaten?

Do you think that is what Paul is asking when he asks, "Is the Law evil?" He's talking about the Ten Commandments made by God and not about some evil laws passed by evil people.

Paul responds by saying, "Certainly not!" It's the strongest negative he could use.

II. If the Law isn't evil, then how does Paul defend the "goodness" of the Law?

The Law reveals the fact of sin (7:7). He would have not have known that some acts or attitudes were wrong apart from the Law.

Do you think that Paul means that no sin existed until the Law was given? No, because earlier in Romans he points out that even people who do not have the Law stand guilty before God.

Do you think people need the Ten Commandments to show them that murder is wrong, or that stealing is wrong?

Why do you think that he uses the example "You shall not covet" as an illustration that he needed the Law to point out that coveting is sin?

All men and women experience covetousness, even if they don't know the tenth commandment. It is only by the commandment that they realize that covetousness is not only "natural" but is disobedience to what God's will is. Until we have the Law, covetousness is so much a part of us that it may never occur to us that there is anything wrong with it.