Philpot's exposition of Romans 7:9 traces the apostle Paul's spiritual progression from a state of false security under the law to conviction of sin and death. When Paul was "alive without the law," he mechanically observed external commandments while remaining ignorant of the law's true spiritual demands, particularly the tenth commandment against coveting, which exposes inward corruption of the heart. When the commandment came with power to his conscience through God's appointed means, sin revived within him and he died—the law, though "ordained unto life," became a minister of death as it revealed his guilt and the wrath of God, producing a sentence of spiritual death in his conscience that awaits final judgment.
What does the Bible say about the law and sin?
The Bible teaches that the law reveals sin and serves as a minister of death, bringing a knowledge of guilt and condemnation (Romans 7:9).
The law serves as a mirror, reflecting our sinful nature and showing that we are incapable of achieving righteousness through our own efforts. This devastating realization is crucial for spiritual awakening; recognizing that, without the law, one can mistakenly walk through life thinking they are alive and righteous. However, upon the law's entrance, a person becomes acutely aware of the sin that resides within, leading to spiritual death as it exposes the heart's true condition before a holy God.
What does the Bible say about the law and sin?
The Bible teaches that the law reveals sin and leads to death, as seen in Romans 7:9.
Romans 7:9
How do we know that the law brings death?
Scripture affirms that the law brings death because it convicts us of sin and condemns our actions (Romans 7:9-10).
Furthermore, the law instills a knowledge of guilt that weighs heavily upon the conscience, bringing the sinner to a place of realization that they are under judgment. As the law exposes our moral failings and incapacity to achieve righteousness, it completes the cycle of conviction that leads one to despair without the redeeming grace of Christ, affirming the necessity of salvation by grace alone.
How do we know the law leads to death?
The law leads to death as it reveals sin, highlighting our inability to attain righteousness, as seen in Romans 7:9.
Romans 7:9
Why is understanding the law important for Christians?
Understanding the law is vital for Christians as it reveals our sinfulness and points us to our need for grace in Christ (Romans 7:9-10).
This understanding fosters humility and dependency upon God’s mercy rather than self-righteousness. It illuminates the transformative power of the Gospel, which is necessary for salvation and sanctification. The law, therefore, is not to be viewed merely as a burden but as a tool employed by the Holy Spirit to convict, lead to repentance, and encourage believers to rest wholly upon Christ's finished work rather than their own efforts.
Why is understanding the law important for Christians?
Understanding the law is crucial because it reveals our sinfulness and the need for grace in Christ.
Romans 7:9
"I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died."-ROMANS vii. 9.
The Apostle describes in his own case how men are affected toward the law before it enters as a condemning sentence into their beart. "I was alive without the law once." The law was hanging over him as a condemning sentence, as a minister of death, as a messenger of wrath, as a consuming fire, but he felt it not. As with a thunderstorm in the remote distance, he might hear the low mutterings of the thunder which once rolled over Sinai's fiery mount, or might see from far the play of those lightnings which scorched its top. But at present the storm was in the distance. He went about without thinking, or feeling, or fearing, or caring whether the law was his friend or enemy. In fact he rather viewed it as his friend, for he was using it as a friendly help to build up his own righteousness. He had gone to it, but it had not come to him; he knew its letter, but not its spirit; its outward commands, but not its inward demands. He therefore speaks of himself as being "alive without the law," that is, without any knowledge of what it was as a ministration of condemnation and death. But in God's own appointed time and way, "the commandment came;" that is, it came with power into his conscience. He found that he could keep every one of the commandments but the tenth; for according to his apprehension and his interpretation of them, they did not extend beyond an external obedience. But the tenth commandment, "Thou shalt not covet," struck into the very depth of his conscience, for it was a prohibition from the mouth of God of the inward lusts of the heart, and that prohibition attended with an awful curse. Under this stroke sin, which before lay seemingly dead in his breast, revived like a sleeping serpent; and what was the consequence? It stung him to death, for he says, "And I died;" for the commandment which was ordained unto life he found to be unto death! Sin could not brook to be thwarted or opposed; it therefore rose up in enmity against God, took advantage of the commandment to rebel against the authority of Jehovah, and its guilt in consequence falling upon his conscience, made tender in the fear of God, slew him. It would not have done so had there been no life in his soul; but there being light to see and life to feel the anger of God revealed in the commandment, when the law came into his conscience as a sentence from a just and holy Jehovah, the effect was to produce a sentence of death in himself. And this experience which the Apostle describes as his own is what the law does and ever must do when applied to the conscience by the power of God. It kills, it slays the condemned sinner; it is a sentence of death in a man's own conscience, which only awaits the hour of death and the day of judgment to be carried into execution.
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