Romans 7:7-25
The Law Shows We Sin
7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
Ephesians 2:1-10
Saved by Grace
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Our God is a moral God...God first gave Moses the Ten Commandments, and they certainly show His Morality...As the Hebrew people wandered the desert in search of the Promised Land, they were learning about His morality...During the forty year wandering trip from Egypt to Israel, God inspired Moses to write the law, which was in addition to the Ten Commandments...Theses additional laws were a set of rules for the Hebrew people so they would know most rights from wrongs...When the Hebrew people followed these Laws of Moses they did right...When they did not follow then, they did wrong and sinned...When the Hebrew people finally settled in Judea and Israel these written laws, in the first five books of the Bible, were to be followed in the Promised Land...The Hebrew people were to follow the Ten Commandments and the Law of Moses, in their new nation...
Moses wrote the Law of Moses, and these laws were similar to our regular laws...They were written and they were understood by the Hebrew people...The people would have either read them or heard them and became aware of them over time...The laws fit in legally in Judea and Israel, and the law were very much in their culture at that time...
St. Paul tells us he would not have known sin, except through the law (and the Ten Commandments)...He would have never have realized on his own that coveting something of his neighbors was a sin...This written document made it easier to define sin...For without a set of moral laws, and a list of rights and wrongs from our LORD, there was no sin...Because our LORD is perfect morally, we have sin (even before the Law of Moses)...Without God, and apart from the law that He inspired Moses to write, sin was dead in Paul's eyes...Man needs discipline, rules, and rights and wrongs to live in a nation...Laws help us to live with our neighbors and help us with our morality...
But Paul writes specifically about the morality part of the law that Moses had passed on to the new nation...It is very difficult not to covet...The Law of Moses did not not make Paul feel better...He struggled with the law and with sin...The law showed him, how sinful he really was...He said in his mind he is a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin...If St. Paul struggled with sin, most likely so will most of us...The law as Paul would write later shows that everyone falls short of God's morality and His expectations of man...We are unable because of our sin, to be the things necessary to earn God's favor...
But this is law -this is not grace...The great love of God for us, is also rich in mercy...Although we are dead and will be dead in our sins, He raised up His Messiah, His Only Son... By the gift of God and His grace we have been saved...God has done something for us, through His love, that we cannot do by ourselves...For it is by His grace that we are saved, through faith in Him and His Son...
We are saved by God's LOVE, we are save by His Grace...