Purpose of the Law April 15 2012

Pastor Curt Crist www.welcometograce.com Romans 5:20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: Paul is telling us here in Romans 5:20 that God really gave the law to Israel not to make them good but so that the offense might be made to increase, not to abate, but to abound. Romans 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. The statement "when we were in the flesh" is important to understand. The word "were" is in the past tense. We're no longer in the flesh. From God's judicial point of view, you're no longer in that position. You have a new position, but the statement: "When we were in the flesh doesn't mean in the body...although, the body is part of it. It's not that the skin, bones, and marrow, and the joints and all of that is not evil. It's the sin nature that resides in the body. The law didn't put those sinful passions in man...the law simply worked to arouse (or, as we said in our previous study, to ignite, or inflame) the sinful desires that were already in man given the sinful nature. Paul is associating the stirring up of the sinful passions of the sin-nature...with the law. A lot of folks today, smiling "church folks" who think their favor with God, and their position with God, and their place in Heaven is going to be determined by the amount of that law they can keep so they go back and they strive to at least do the best they can where it comes to the Law of Moses. In these next two verses, Verses 7 and 8, Paul is going to distinguish between the law and sin and this is how he's going to do it. In Verse 7 he's going to show us how the law operates. We might call it the activity of the law...how the law functions...how the law works. Then in Verse 8, he's going to show us the activity of sin and how sin operates. Paul is going to show us how sin actually makes great use of that law against an individual. The faulty premise going in is that God's acceptance today of individuals is intricately linked to man's performance. Those who have accepted that premise end up thinking that those who reject that premise are simply looking for an excuse to sin .Folks came to the table with the idea that the law was given to Israel in order to make them good people by keeping them from being bad people Philippians 3:6: "Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the (performance according to a) law (contract), blameless." No man could censure Paul when it came to the outward observances of the Law. No man could find a fault with Paul in that area. As far as the outward requirements of the law program were concerned...Paul could compare himself with anyone in the nation Israel and Paul was top-drawer, as the expression goes today when it came to the outward expressions of his law-keeping. He was as respectable in that regard as anyone could possibly be. Paul writes: ...I had not known lust, except (except what, Paul? Except)...the law had said...Thou shalt not lust." It's interesting that Paul chooses this commandment in that the first nine basically have to do with external practices. You shall have no gods before me...you shall not worship graven images...you shall honor the Sabbath and keep it holy, you shall honor your father and your mother...you shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery...you shall not lie...you shall not steal...they're all things that have to do with an action you might commit outwardly. Paul know sin and it takes us right back to 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. Paul's highest ambitions and in spite of his most lofty expectations, he could never (before his conversion, nor after that conversion) merit righteousness before God through the perfection of his flesh.