It is important for us to contemplate God's characteristics, as revealed to us in both God's written word and also in His Son, the living Word. Why? Because if we don't we are in danger of creating our own god, making the Almighty over into an image which is pleasing to us. I want to blog in more depth about this topic at some point, but today is not that day.
In Romans 7, Paul pointed out that sin (Satan, the devil, the enemy of the believer) doesn't usually flaunt or prance before our eyes to seduce us. Instead, Satan dresses sin up in goodness, so that we are fooled. A mouse gets caught in a mousetrap because all he sees is the cheese. Focusing exclusively on the morsel of good, he ignores the danger surrounding it. Reaching for the good and beautiful, he is trapped by the deadly.
Temptation is like that. Sin hides under the cloak of virtue. If sin were not appealing, we would not fall for it.
8-12 Don’t you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of “forbidden fruit” out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me. Without all the paraphernalia of the law code, sin looked pretty dull and lifeless, and I went along without paying much attention to it. But once sin got its hands on the law code and decked itself out in all that finery, I was fooled, and fell for it. The very command that was supposed to guide me into life was cleverly used to trip me up, throwing me headlong. So sin was plenty alive, and I was stone dead. But the law code itself is God’s good and common sense, each command sane and holy counsel.
13 I can already hear your next question: “Does that mean I can’t even trust what is good [that is, the law]? Is good just as dangerous as evil?” No again! Sin simply did what sin is so famous for doing: using the good as a cover to tempt me to do what would finally destroy me. By hiding within God’s good commandment, sin did far more mischief than it could ever have accomplished on its own.
Romans 7:8-13 (The Message)
Paul gives this teaching to explain the role of the Law of Moses to both Old Testament Jews and New Testament Christians. The original purpose of the Law was to show mankind exactly how God defined sin. Had the Law not been given, there would have been a question about whether something was/is sin, or not. It is important that we are honest about what the Word of God says. If the Bible calls something sin, so should we.
Last night, for example, the Bible study group was discussing the Ten Commandments. How many of us would have listed "Thou shalt not make unto me any graven image" as one of the "Big 10"? It was years before I ever understood that commandment. If, in your human life, you've never worshipped a manufactured object, you are probably similarly mystified. "What's the big deal?", you ask. But, remember, when Moses tarried on the mountain with God, and Aaron and the Hebrew nation thought he was dead, what was the first thing they did? They pooled all their gold so that it could be melted down into a likeness of a golden calf (Exodus 32). In other words, they created an image that represented their own fake, made-up, substitute god. The Great "I AM" knows the black hearts of man so well!
The Law puts all that to rest in that it defines sin, from God's perspective, which is the only one that matters. (Remember the two lists? We are not like God.)
The law code had a perfectly legitimate function. Without its clear guidelines for right and wrong, moral behavior would be mostly guesswork. Apart from the succinct, surgical command, “You shall not covet,” I could have dressed covetousness up to look like a virtue and ruined my life with it.
Romans 7:7 (The Message)
Recently, I was talking with a friend about one of her relatives who has what is often referred to in the churchy lingo as his "besetting sin": that sin that so easily trips a person up. (We all have at least one. If you don't, let me help you out: your besetting sin is then "pride". Get a clue!) At any rate, this friend's relative does not define his sin as "sin". The world does not define it as sin, and the young man has adopted the world's perspective on his behavior, instead of God's. He has made a golden calf and is worshipping it. He has made God over into his own image.
Honestly, when we sin knowingly and deliberately ... (Christian or non-Christian) when we let that besetting, masquerading, seducing sin get the best of us, we are doing the same thing. That should cause us great angst and grief. It did Paul. He described himself, in his Christian walk as "wretched" (KJV). Read Romans 7:17-24 (The Message).
17-20 But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.
21-23 It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.
24 I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?
All of this can become quite overwhelming. But, fear not! Chapter 8 was written for just this moment, and we will resume there tomorrow.
