I. General Statements About The Law Vs. 6-8
A. The Law Reveals Sin Vs. 6, 7
1. The law is not sinful.
2. We didn’t die to the law because it is sinful.
3. We didn’t need to separate from the law because it is sinful.
4. We were not held back by the law because it is sinful.
5. The law shows us what sin is, both outward and inward sin; actions, words, attitudes.
6. David Guzik- “The law is like an x-ray machine; it reveals plainly what might have always been
there, but was hidden before. You can’t blame an x-ray for what it exposes”.
a. Imagine a man that had a general idea that he shouldn’t smoke, shouldn’t drink
large amounts of liquor, shouldn’t eat foods high in fat, and shouldn’t be lazy, but
rather, that he should exercise. He has a general idea that he has been wrong.
b. He finally goes to see his doctor, and through testing, discovers that he has
emphysema, cirrhosis of the liver, high cholesterol, and is terminal.
c. What he knew in a general sense was now made explicitly clear via medical exams.
d. The medical exams simply defined in exact terms what his conditions were.
e. Before the exams, he felt somewhat bothered in his conscience for his poor lifestyle.
f. After the exams, he feels condemned, hopeless, helpless, and ashamed.
g. What changed? Not his health, but the understanding of his condition.
h. The medical exams were not the cause, but simply revealed his true condition.
B. The Law Provokes Sin V. 8
1. Sin is dead when there is no law.
2. Sin is provoked by the law, by the commandment. See Romans 7:5
3. Sanctification/holiness is not produced by making more rules.
4. J. Brown– “legalism is the great enemy to sanctification”.
5. Some Christians and churches try to change themselves or others by telling them every
detail of what their lives should look like.
6. It is human tendency to try to regulate holiness.
7. The reverse effect is actually what happens. The fleshly nature is provoked by
prohibitions. A child wants to steal candy not because he can’t afford it, but for the
thrill of stealing. It’s the idea of “forbidden fruit” being more delightful.
II. The Law Condemns The Sinner
A. Alive Without The Law V. 9
1. Paul grew up as a Jew, knowing the Law.
2. Paul was also a Pharisee, so he knew the Law of Moses very well.
3. What is he saying in verse 9?
a. There was a time when he felt uncondemned by the law, and thus felt “alive”.
b. He felt secure in his religious observances, and felt right with God.
c. However, at some point, the weight and true meaning of the Law came to him.
d. He realized that he was not keeping the Law as he should, and he felt condemned
e. Sin revived…it came alive…it became real, heavy, burdensome…and “death” came.
4. Leon Morris- Sin is there, but it is more or less dormant until the commandment comes.
5. “…to realize that we are not good and decent people in God’s sight is a death. It marks
the end of self-confidence, self-satisfaction, self-reliance. It is death”. (a needed death)
B. From Life To Death V. 10
1. The law, if kept perfectly, will provide eternal life. See Mark 10:17-22
a. This man claimed to have kept the commands relating to his fellow man.
b. He failed to love God with all that he had and was.
c. In essence, he committed a type of idolatry. He loved Money more than God.
2. The law is given to restrain man from evil, but also to promote life and grant eternal life
to any who can obey it.
3. But none can keep it; therefore it brings judgment and death.
Romans 3:20 20Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin.
III. The Sinner Is Wrong And The Law Is Good Vs. 11, 12
A. The Deceptive Nature Of Sin V. 11
1. All sin is, by its nature, deceptive.
2. It exaggerates its benefit, and minimizes or denies its consequences.
3. When sin is done with a person, that person has experienced deaths of many kinds.
4. If that person dies unforgiven, they experience eternal death, separation from God, and
eternal torment.
B. The Rightness Of The Law V. 12
1. Holy- The law discloses sin; it shows us what sin is.
2. Just- The law rightfully condemns the lawbreaker, the sinner
3. Good- Because of its intrinsic and spiritual purpose. It has our welfare in mind.
a. The law has the element of life giving in it, if and when it is obeyed.
b. It aims to restrain people from evil, and to promote the good.
C. The Needed Result From Interacting With The Law
1. When we understand the law, we will never try to be justified or sanctified by it.
a. It is out of reach, and none can perfectly keep it.
b. It doesn’t arouse in us holy passions, but sinful passions.
c. The law doesn’t equip us to obey it; it only sets the standard, and then judges and
condemns us when we fail.
2. When we rightly understand the law, we will abandon all efforts to be justified by it, or
to think that we can, in our own strength, keep it.
3. All people have some sort of moral code, some sense of right and wrong. (Conscience)
4. People who do have God’s law still know that they do wrong.
5. People without God’s law don’t see wrongdoing for what it really is: sin against God.
6. There is a huge difference between breaking a human moral code and a law of God.
7. It takes the law to show the wrongdoing of sin.
8. When we see our wrongdoing as sin against God, our conscience ought to be more
troubled, and that troubling of the conscience ought to lead a person to seek out pardon
from God.
9. There is an aspect of healing that comes when the law convicts a sinner of his sin.
10. W.H. Griffith Thomas– Happy, therefore, is the man who has come to the end of
himself, his own ideas, his own efforts, his own determination to be saved by his own
obedience, and has acknowledged his own sinfulness, his hopeless inability, and has
accepted Christ as “the end of the law for righteousness”.