The apostle says: “once I was alive, apart from the law: but when the command came, sin sprang to life and I died” (7:9). When was Paul alive apart from the law? When Paul was a baby and too young to understand, but when he learned the law, the rules, commandments, the sinful nature inside him found a way to express itself by rebelling and committing the very acts which were not supposed to thereby sin sprang to life or Paul may be speaking of Adam before the law was given to us.
Ex. If a baby is told not to touch a particular thing, his mind is always filled up to touch and see it. This is the human rebellion inherited from our old nature.
Believers who try to live by rules and regulations discover that their legalistic system only arouses more sin and creates more problems. The churches in Galatia were very legalistic, and they experienced all kinds of trouble. Their legalism did not make them more spiritual; it made them more sinful. So let’s take the lesson that law is good but it makes us guilty and only lead us to death.
- The law brought death: (7:10-12):The law became an agent of condemnation and death from which we need to be rescued. The law could not give us life on the other hand, it brought death to humanity. The law makes us to realize that we are sinners, but it offers no help. As long as we are following the law, we will be in the bondage or slavery of sin. The law shows the people of their destructive destiny. Many Jews assumed that the law would bring transformation in their lives, or a new life, but it brought death, because sin took over. Then sin breaks the rules and commandments and allows the humanity to exercise more sin. In this way the law allowed sin to trick us and finally we got death. When people try to be righteous by keeping the law, they are relying on themselves instead of relying on God and that is again a sin. The law is not a problem, but it is easily hijacked by our lusts and sinful desires. The law did not cause us to take wrong path, but it told us that which direction was wrong. The perversity inside our life, made us to turn to wrong path and ended up in destruction. For this the law is not a culprit, but an unwitting accomplice. Therefore Apostle Paul says: “the law is holy and the commandment is holy, righteous and good” (7:12). But the law cannot make us holy.
- The good has become death to us: (7:13): In the preceding verse, Paul said: the law is holy, righteous and good. Certainly the law is good, but it can’t undo what has been done. Law cannot forgive or forget because “the wages of sin is death” (6:13a). Criminals can’t blame the law for their crimes. The law gives the consequences of doing wrong things. The principle of sin uses the commandment as an agent or instrument to keep on producing death in a person, thereby portraying sin as utterly sinful. Then the nature of sin using the specific commandments of the Law of God makes us to be rebellious to God, leaving only consequence of death to individual. The reason the believer cannot make himself holy by means of law is not because God’s law is not holy and good, but because our nature is so sinful that it cannot be changed or controlled by law.
Although the law is good, sin hijacked it and uses the law to bring us death. God allowed this so we could see how terrible sin is. It would be a wonderful day in the life of the Christian when he or she discovers that “the old nature knows no law and the new nature needs no law.” (thought taken from Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the New Testament)
- The law is spiritual and we are unspiritual: (7:14): The character of the Law is described in simple 4-words as: holy, just, good, and spiritual. No one can deny it because the law came from the holy God who is perfectly just in all that He does. The Law is good. The law is not to be considered as a system of external rites and ceremonies nor a set of moral action. It is a spiritual system, it reaches to the most hidden purposes, thoughts, dispositions, and desires of the heart and soul. It reproves and condemns everything, without hope of reprieve or pardon, that is contrary to eternal truth and rectitude.
Further it reveals God’s holiness to us and helps us to see our need for a Saviour. Paul says: “I am unspiritual” which means we are carnal, of the flesh, or characterized by the flesh. The law though it is spiritual has no answer for the carnal nature of men. The law deals with the inner man, the spiritual part of man as well as with the outer actions. When Apostle Paul says: “sold as a slave to sin” shows the utter helplessness of mankind in the face of the law. The entire law and any number of amendments or modifications cannot save a person from the bondage of sin.
Ex: A man arrested for a crime and thrown in jail. The law will only help him if he is innocent, but Paul says: if he is guilty, the law only argues against him, not for him.