Law, Commandment & Sin Nature

OK, today we're going to look at verses 12 through 14. But I thought it might be appropriate to kind of look at the previous verses back to verse 4. And you might ask the question, why are we starting out here in verse 12? And he starts out with a certain approach. And it seems like he's basically trying to answer a question that may have come up in people's minds. And I underlined in blue on the chart here. And actually, the handouts may come at some point. Hopefully, they will.

I underline in blue, if you weren't a careful reader, or if you just kind of read it kind of casually, you might come to the wrong conclusion about the law and the commandment. So I underlined in here, so if you read kind of casually, you also are made to die to the law through the body of Christ.

The sinful passions were aroused by the law. In verse 6, we have been released from the law. Is the law a sin? And then down in verse 8, and then it kind of switches, that's kind of speaking about the law, then it goes to the commandment. the commandment produced in me coveting of every kind. 9 But when the commandment came, sin became alive, and I died. 10 This commandment proved to result in death for me. 11 The commandment deceived me, and through it it killed me.

So you could come away, if you were kind of a port, you just kind of skimmed through that, you could say, boy, the law and the commandments don't look like they're really helping me out too much. They're kind of really a bad thing. And I think Paul wants to make absolutely clear that's not the case. And that's why we have 12 through 14. We're going to see a stark contrast between the righteous law and commandments of God and our sin nature. It's going to be just at opposite polarizations. Even though we did it carefully, both Bob and Jim went through carefully, and they showed you how it wasn't the law that was a problem, it was man's sin or man's sin nature that was a problem. But I think Paul wants to make absolutely sure that you don't come away with saying, well, the law has a problem.

The law has no problem. It's from God. His commandment has no problem. It's God's very commandment. So I want to kind of show you, if you kind of skimmed through there and you weren't careful, you can say, boy, the law and the commandment, boy, that's not a good thing for me. Okay, so with that said, let's go on here. Oops, trigger happy here. Okay, so now basically we're going to come into these verses here and right off the bat, it's going to say, so then the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Therefore, did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be. Rather, it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by affecting my death through that which is good. So that through the commandment, sin will become utterly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold into bondage to sin.

Interesting, if you notice here at the beginning and the end, the law is holy. Then it comes down here, the law is spiritual. And the commandments. Three characteristics, they're holy and righteous and good. So he's making very clear that God's law and God's commandments are absolutely righteous in character. There's no fault with his law and commandments. It's the interaction between the sin nature and those commandments that we're going to see.

Another thing I think that you need to, and we, you know, we've been talking through this fact, actually, we started probably back in Romans chapter five, Romans chapter five, six and seven. And most of you folks already know this, but I just would kind of re-verify this again. We're talking about the root of the problem here. And it's singular in the New Testament. It's sin singular, and it has a definite article. Many times it will have it in the translations, not many times. Sometimes it will have it in the translations, sometimes it will not.

But that's speaking of the root of the problem, our sin nature. And this is a verse that talks about how Christ died unto the sin nature. He also died in relation to our sins. He died for our sins. The point of this chart is to point out that we're going to see in here, we're going to be talking about the root of the problem, how the sin nature is the root of the problem, and how Paul struggles with that sin nature. He's not struggling with personal sins, he's struggling with the nature. Just to kind of make sure that we're on the same page here. So any questions or whatever? Sure. Okay. Thanks, Juanita. I appreciate that. Well, I'm off to a great start.

I pull out the, you know, I was my own worst enemy. I didn't, I hadn't used this in a while. I put up a little drive that causes it to advance. I put my little, little thumb drive in there and in place of the one that advances that, the cocked machine outside. Off to a rough start here. So, OK, I hope you'll bear with me. All right. And then I have this extra plug here, too. I feel like Bob with all his. OK, so let's see here. All right.

So here's some questions that I think are worthwhile to think about as we go through here. What does the law and the commandment tell us about God? And I've already kind of alluded to that, but I'm not going to answer these right now, but hopefully they'll be answered as we go through. How are we to view our sin nature?

Very important here. And then lastly, what is Christ's relationship to the law and the commandment? And this is not necessarily addressed specifically in this verse, but I think it's good to kind of keep in mind. OK, with that, OK. OK, we're just going to kind of go through each of these verses and kind of look piece by piece, kind of clause by clause. So we're going to look firstly at verse 12.

OK, the statement, the law is holy. Very simple statement. Holy is an adjective that describes the character of the law. The law from God is holy in its character. And this is from Vines. Fundamentally, it signifies holy haggios. separated, separated unto God.

And there's actually, in Scripture, in fact, I did a little search. There's just a ton of references. And I searched on, if I'll show you the next page, I searched on is holy, since it's in this phrase is the law is holy. So the question is, what else in Scripture is talked about as being holy, or separated unto God, or consecrated to God? Actually, I didn't underline the whole thing here.

In Psalm 77, verse 13, it says, Your way, O God, is holy. So God's way, because it's His very way, His very character, is holy. And then in Isaiah 57, verse 15, it says, Whose name is holy. For thus says the high and exalted One who lives forever, Whose name is holy.

And then in Acts 17, verse 33, this is the account of Moses and the burning bush. And Moses, you know, he's attracted by this bush and the Lord speaks to him. It seems like it's the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus. And he tells him, you know, take off your sandals for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. And then in Revelation, it talks about the Lord Jesus here.

And the angel of the church in Philadelphia writes, he who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one will open. So there's just a tremendous number of verses that talk about the holy character of God, the set-apart nature of God. And then also, things like in the temple, there's just a tremendous number of things that were set apart to God. All the utensils of the temple were set apart to God. OK, so let's go on. OK, so the next clause talks about the commandment.

And I noticed as I went through and looked at the text here, it was always the commandment. The definite article was always there. It was the commandment. And it seems like he's, in this passage, pointing out a particular commandment, the one of coveting. But it's not as representative of any of God's commandment.

But it's singular in all these occurrences. So it says the commandment. is holy and righteous and good. So we've already kind of covered holy, but just to kind of just back up here, the commandment is the word interle, denotes an injunction, a charge, a precept. And it's used basically of God's commandments given as the Ten Commandments and other things that God has given in Scripture outside the Ten Commandments. And like I said, it's singular in this passage. And on the next page, I have a listing of those.

And it has three adjectives that describe the commandment. It's holy, righteous, and good. And righteous is this word for just, just and righteous. Without partiality, it speaks of God's judgments. And then good is this word in the Greek. It's agathos. And actually, I have a little story about this one, about God's commandment being good. I had a brother, let's just turn to a passage here for a second before I tell the story here. Let's look at Matthew, which uses this word, Agathos. Matthew 19, verses 16 and 17. I'll just go ahead and read that. Matthew 19, verses 16 and 17. And behold, one came to him and said, Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life? And he said to him, why are you asking me about what is good? There is only one who is good.

But if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments. So I had a brother who kind of used this, maybe kind of in a legal sense. I'd be walking down the hall at work, and he said, well, how's your day? I said, it's good. He said, there's only one that's good, brother. And I would think, OK. And at that time, I didn't know about the identification truths.

I wish I could have said to him, if I could roll it back and say, well, I'm good because I'm in the Lord Jesus Christ. I have no goodness in myself, but because I am have been placed in him in his death and burial and resurrection. I am good because he is good. So, you know, the characteristics that describe who God is, his very characters, are ours because we're in him.

And we can live that life which is good because he is good, not that we are good, just like this man said, what good thing can I do? In essence, he tells them to keep the commandments. Well, he can't do that. He can't do that without knowing the Savior. Then I went through and did a little search. In Romans, in fact, we've covered a few of these already.

Once again, it's the commandment back in Romans 7 and 8. Sin taking opportunity through the commandment, producing me covenant of every kind. Then in 7 and 9, the commandment again. I once was alive from the law, but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died. And then in 11, for sin taking opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and killed me. And then the other two we're going to cover as we go through this. OK.

So the middle part here probably is, in looking at this pattern, the first and the last verse seem pretty straightforward. 13 is a little bit complicated, and I tried to, and there's about three or four clauses in here, so I tried to put it in, and this is sort of an engineering thing, and this may be good for you, and it may not. I put it in block diagrams, you know, that means something to an engineer. You put things in blocks so you can figure them out and decide what goes in and what comes out. It has a meaning to me, you know, whether it has meaning to you, hopefully. So what I did here, I put it into blocks by clauses. So hopefully, again, this will be helpful. So the first clause here is at the top.

Therefore, did that which is good become a cause of death for me? And his immediate answer is, may it never be. And then he continues on with that. And he says, no, it wasn't the good that was a problem. Rather, it was sin. In the singular, it was the sin nature. And then there are two. purpose clauses, and that's something that you can kind of pick up on. In the Greek, there's a certain construction. Go ahead. I'm sorry. I'm just going to say, in case no one can find that, it's on the back page. Okay. All right. Sorry for that. I'm grateful for Margaret. Thanks, Margaret. I don't know if Bonnie already said that, but I can see people. It's actually chart 11, so wherever chart 11 appears in your thing.

What's really interesting here is that, and I've highlighted, I didn't actually put it in your black and white copy, I apologize for that, but this in order that, or so that, are what's called a purpose clause. So we're going to see two purposes that come out of the fact that rather it was sin. So Paul says, no, it wasn't the good or the good commandment that caused my death. That wasn't the problem. It was sin.

With a purpose set, there are two purposes that flow out of that. And that kind of comes as you start looking at this verse, and it helps if you have the original. You can kind of see those are purpose clauses. But you can pick up on that just in the English. Whenever you see a that or so that, Or in order that you know what kind of follows is going to explain a purpose for what's happened before. So there's two that are shown in this this passage.

I want to cover both of them. OK. All right. So let's go on. So we're going to take the first clause and sort of the answer to the first clause. And actually, I should have had in here. I should have had it up. There should be a V of and both that and those two places because the definite article is there in the original. This is sort of an expanded and explained kind of thing here.

So I'm basically taking pieces of that verse and trying to just put it in the simplest form. So the verse reads, therefore did that which is good become a cause for death to me? So really in essence, if you notice that a cause of death is not, they'll do that in English Bibles to show that's really not in the text. So it really reads, the good became death, or literally the good became death to me. So this is saying, and the good seems to refer back to the previous verse 12, and it's saying, this good and righteous and holy commandment became death to me. Huh? Is it duh? How can that be? It doesn't compute.

And it's even more stark in the fact that this is this verb become, ginome, ginomai, and it's the idea to come into a new state of being. And let me show you, this is kind of a negative example. of that, but let's look at a positive example. Can I get someone to read the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 14? I'll pull it back here a little bit. I'll get a volunteer to read 1.14 in the Gospel of John.

The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Okay, so the very first part of that, and Margaret you had, read the very first four or five words there again in verse 14 for me.

And the Word was made flesh. The word made, that's a King James translation, and then New American Standard has become, but it's the same basic word, it's ginome, to come into a new state of being. This is saying that the word, the Lord Jesus, became flesh.

Prior to that time, all eternity passed, he never was man. He came to a new state of being, which is man. A wonderful, wonderful truth. And what's wonderful is, he will be man through all eternity. Because we see him in Revelation, we see him with the marks of the crucifixion. So he became man, a point in time.

So this is saying here, it's making a statement that's illogical, what Paul's saying. That's why he says, may it never be. He says, the good, this righteous commandment, I came into a new state of being of death. That doesn't make any sense. How could something so righteous and holy do that?

So I just wanted to give you that sense. And this actually will occur again in one of the Purpose Clauses. We'll see this ginomai again. And I have the Weiss translation, which isn't a whole lot more expanded. But therefore, that which is good, to me, did it become death? And the answer, may it never be.

And we've seen that a lot. And actually, I tried to capture a few of those. on the next page. I was trying to think how many I got. Maybe it was 15 times in the New Testament. I might be off on that count. But this in Romans was a sampling. And a couple of these, I don't have the previous verse, so let me skip over the first couple.

Let's look at Romans 3.31. Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be.

Romans 6.2, may it never be, how shall we who died to sin still live in it? In all these cases, Paul, this is this argumentative format called diatribe. I haven't really studied a lot about that. I know people have referred to it. It's a way of expressing an idea and then giving an argument against it. And saying, it doesn't make sense.

And then in Romans 6.15, what shall we say, what shall, what then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be.

And then in Romans 7.7, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be. And then we're going to see later on here, what shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May never be.

So this is a way of Paul kind of spotlighting a statement which he wants to refute. And he's going to refute that statement. The good law is not sin. It's holy and righteous and good. OK, so now we're in the next block. So now Paul shifts and he says, it wasn't the good commandment. Rather, it was sin. Sin or the sin nature is the issue. Yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry. Sure. That's fine. Go ahead. Excellent. Excellent. Very good. Very good.

And Paul, you know, which portrays that very well. In fact, actually, I think this is one of the most personal things that Paul goes through. He's talking about this struggle, which wasn't any fun. This is a very difficult thing for him. I agree with you. That's neat. That's really good.

Rather, it was sin or the sin nature. So my kind of little paraphrase on that, it was the sin nature that caused my death. And death in scripture means separation. So Paul's talking about being separated in a temporal sense for a time period. He was separated. And it wasn't the good commandment, the holy and righteous commandment. It was his sin nature.

So Paul states the The problem or the and then he refutes it and he says rather it was sin the sin nature and I noticed that I look back at the verses we covered before and Back in Romans the previous 11 verses The sin nature was was mentioned as a as an issue in several times before It says the sinful passions of the sin nature were at work through the members of my body to bear fruit for death But sin produced in me coveting of every kind. And then the last one, for sin, the sin nature deceived me and killed me.

So the sin nature is pointed to over and over again by Paul as being the issue here. So you don't miss that. He doesn't let you get very far if he comes back and hits it again. But he's always kind of contrasting the law and the commandment back and forth. But it's the sin nature that's the problem. So hopefully when we get through with this, you'll know what the problem is, right? It's not the holy law and righteous It's our sin nature.

So this is the first purpose clause. So this has this little introductory, in order that it might be shown to be sin by affecting my death through that which is good. So a couple of words here that I thought were worthwhile looking up. is in the eris, subjunctive, passive, and you don't have to worry too much about that. But basically, in the passive, it means brought forth into light, become evident. So one of the purposes of the law is, of this good law, is to spotlight sin, to show it, to put a light on it, to brought into light. And then affecting is, actually it's a participle here, to work out, to affect, to produce, the cause of, and I have some other, in the next chart here, I have some other occurrences of that guy. Affecting is translated in various ways.

For the law brings about wrath, in Romans 5.15.

Romans 5.3 says, not only this, but we also exalt in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance. Then Romans 7 and 8, but sin taking opportunity through the commandment produced in me, coveting of every kind. So it's either like brings about or produced is kind of the choice of a phraseology. So let's just go back here for a second.

So it says, in order that it might be shown or brought to light to be sin or the sin nature by affecting or producing my death. So his death was produced by the sin nature. not by the good commandment. But the good commandment was involved, because of that tension between the good commandment and his sin nature. So here's the same verse again, but here's kind of a paraphrase. In order that, or with a purpose that, in the blue, the sin nature may be shown to be working death. So the sin nature is working death through the good commandment. OK, so this is the second purpose clause.

So that through the commandment, sin would become utterly sinful. This is kind of an eye opener. It was to me that actually what we're going to see here is that the commandment spotlights the sin nature and shows it for its utterly sinfulness. So that, with a purpose that, the sin nature comes into an utterly new sinful state. And this is where this word become is the same word ginomai, come into a new state of being. So the sin nature actually excels itself. When it sees a commandment, when it sees God's righteous commandment, it actually gets worse.

Isn't that kind of characteristic of, you know, you kind of think, maybe outside of scripture you think, well, You know, if I show people this, if I do people this, they'll see the goodness of this and they'll want that. But many times it does not happen that way. You show people, not always, but some people are showing goodness and kindness and they don't react that way, they react the opposite way. And you think, how can that be? How can they react to something that's good in a negative sense?

Well, I think this explains it. When the sin nature sees the goodness of God, it says, It just, it can't take it, so to speak. I mean, it just, it rebels against it. And that, you know, that's a sad thing. That's why you think, well, boy, if I just show this person this, I'll show them Christian kindness, quote unquote, and that will turn them to the Lord.

My experience is it never works. What does work is when the Holy Spirit's working in their lives and they come to you and say, you know, I noticed that you're different than other people. You do these things differently. You don't, you know, you don't do, you know, you react differently. That's when something in the Lord is working, not when I show them, quote, Christian goodness or kindness, because that's probably coming from the flesh.

Okay, so this word utterly is kind of an interesting word. It's kind of a compound of, it's this word ballo. I don't know if you guys remember when Vern had the ballo, the ball, where you throw this ball and he had it going out into outer space someplace. Vern is always great pictures. Well, this is huperbalo, which means to throw beyond. And then you tack onto it another prefix, kata, and it means beyond major. It's beyond beyond.

So the sin nature is shown to be as bad as it is beyond beyond bad. And that kind of clicked when I started thinking about that a little bit. Let's look at, for a second here, let's look at John chapter 3. Let me read verses 18 and 19. Kind of familiar verses.

He who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is a judgment that light has come into the world, but men love the darkness rather than light, for their deeds were evil. So this is another explanation of that principle, I think. Goodness comes in.

Does man say, wonderful, glad to see you? No. Man in his natural state without God, you know, does not want it, does not want it. And actually, and I haven't rechecked it, but a brother many years ago said, you know that loved? What Greek word do you think that loved is off the top of your head? There's like phileo, there's agape, and a bunch of other ones. That is agape. You're right, Margaret. Isn't that incredible?

Men agape the darkness. The love that describes that relationship, that special It blows your mind. How could they love the darkness that much? Well, it shows the utter sinfulness of the old man. The utter sinfulness of the sin nature. That was John 3, verse 19. Men love the darkness rather than light. And basically, it really shouldn't be a surprise, man's fallen nature, their sin nature, is that very characteristic. It says in the Old Testament, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. The heart kind of speaking of that sin nature.

And then there's a couple of the verses here that kind of speak of this. How beyond measure are we talking about here? In Galatians chapter 1 is one of those cases. Galatians 1, and I'll go ahead and read this. Galatians 1, verse 13. For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God. So this is Paul saying, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. So his persecution of the church is kind of linked in with this above and beyond and beyond and beyond.

There's another one which I won't go to right now. And it was through the commandment, with his tension with the commandment up against it. Alright, so let's go on. Okay, verse 14. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. Okay, so I just kind of broke this down into little pieces here. We know this happens to be Oida, and there's two of the most frequent words in the New Testament are Oida and Gnosko. And Oida speaks of full knowledge.

And what's interesting is it's in the perfect tense. So you folks with, you've always asked this every couple of weeks here, the perfect tense. Does that mean anything to anybody? Thank you, thank you. So, it's something that happened in the past with continuing results up in the future.

So, he says he knew it in the past and he continues to know it now. So, what's wonderful is in this verse, there's two perfect tenses that occur. He perfectly knows, in the perfect tense, he knows that the law is spiritual. He knows that. He knew it in the past, he continues to know it. Then we're going to see he knows the sin nature too. So, he knows two Two truths.

One is a wonder he knows that the law is spiritual. And spiritual here is an adjective that describes the law. Another adjective is holy before doubt. It's a spiritual. And it's kind of the idea that it's relating to God, to the spirit. And here's probably maybe one of the more interesting parts of the verse.

It says, I am of the flesh. And actually, some of you, if you have your King James, I am carnal. The word carnal is used, translated carnal in the King James. And this is the word sarx, comes from sarx, signifying the nature of the flesh, controlled by the sensual nature, governed by human nature instead of God's nature. And there's a really kind of critical verse to kind of put this in perspective in 1 Corinthians. And let's look at that, 1 Corinthians chapter 2. And can I get someone to read starting in verse 14 in chapter 2 through 3.1 in 1 Corinthians chapter 2? Doris? No, thanks.

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto Carmel, even as unto Babes in Christ. Thanks Doris. Okay, so in here you'll notice that actually in each of these three verses, 14, 15, and then 3.1, it talks about a certain kind of man.

The first man is a natural man. And that's a man that doesn't accept the things of the Spirit of God. He's unsaved. He's an unbeliever. So that's one kind of man. Then in verse 15 it talks about the spiritual man. And that's a believer. He appraises all things. He knows God and he's walking with God.

Actually, I left out 16 there. And let's skip over 16 and go to verse 1. And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to, mine says, men of the flesh, or could be carnal, as to babes in Christ. So in this passage, it kind of talks about all three men. So the third one is this carnal or man of the flesh.

It's a believer, but he's acting contrary to who he is. He's acting from his carnal nature. So Paul's saying, I'm basically, I'm a carnal Christian, is what he's declaring, which is an incredible thing. And he's saying, I'm a carnal Christian. I'm walking according to that mindset. And I'm sold into bondage to sin. He said, walking as a carnal Christian, I'm not going to be walking Christ's life. I'm going to be walking the sin nature's life.

Also, this is the perfect tense. He recognizes that at some point in time, it was in the past, but it continues on into the present. To me, this says this happened over a time period. It happened in the past and continued on for some time period. And it was a result of him in this carnal state. Sure, go ahead. Right. And this is exactly right. This is exactly right.

And I think if you look at it carefully, you look at how that word is used, and you compare scripture with scripture, you say, oh, look at this. Paul over here describes three kinds of men. He's saying, I'm one of those three kinds of men right here. So I think it, you know, scripture, compared with scripture, it fits here. Now you can go off and say, well, hey, he's, you know, if he didn't say he was an unbeliever, what's funny is he did not say he was an unbeliever. If he had used the other word, the natural man, then you might have a case. But using the carnal man, I think he's saying I'm an unbeliever walking, my sin nature controlling me, I'm in bondage to that sin nature, and that's what's happening.

I think it answers that question. Thanks for raising that. That's really good. This struggle that Paul describes, it's an intense struggle. They say, well, he must have been an unbeliever. But actually, the unbeliever, he wouldn't have cared about this. Think about that. He wouldn't have cared about the law. That wouldn't fit Paul anyway. Paul knew the law. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. That's why he can say, We know, speaking of himself too, we know the law is spiritual. We know it comes from God. So in this passage, he says he knows the law is spiritual, but he sees himself in bondage to this in nature. Other questions about this? Oh, sorry, go ahead. I was just kind of pondering here in terms of what a great principal grace it is to think about the Dadaabi darkness from whence we've been rescued and saved and positioned.

It reminds me of kind of 2nd Corinthians 3 and where Paul talks about, you know, in terms of the In verse 6, who also made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but the spirit. For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. And he talks about, you know, us really having this written in our hearts, right? This letter written in our hearts. And the contrast is substantial.

It's got nothing to do with the law, it's just grace. Right, right. And what's missing in this, as people point out, is that you don't see the Holy Spirit mentioned. In this passage, where Paul is struggling, he's not mentioned. When he gets to the very end, end to 8, we're going to see the Spirit of God involved. But until this, he's struggling with himself, trying to work out his own issues, and he's not depending upon God. So the Spirit isn't mentioned here, and grace isn't mentioned.

So actually, I tried, at the very last chart here, it was my attempt at trying to summarize these verses. You see the wonderfulness of the law, the holiness of the law, and you see the contrast with the sin nature. So I just basically, this is nothing, I just took the verses and kind of chopped them up and tried to expand it a little bit.

The law is holy. The commandment is holy and righteous and good. The good commandment was not the cause of my death, my separation. The sin nature was a cause of my death and separation. The sin nature was working death through the good, the commandment, brought into light by the good, the commandment. The sin nature is utterly, beyond measure, sinful through the commandment. It exposes the sin nature. So the commandment exposes that sin nature.

The law is spiritual. I am carnal, having been sold into bondage to sin. So, in one sense, it's not a very uplifting set of verses, but the thing is, I think we need to know how bad our sinful nature is. I think that's important. We need to know how bad it is. And it is exceedingly sinful.

So that's an important, and that's one of the things that you come away with from Moment 7. that is exceedingly sinful, and the contrast between that and the righteousness of God. I kind of did most of the talking. Hopefully it was... All right, well... Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry. I was looking over here half the time. conversations the week before that. And this whole thing is kind of, for me, tied up in teachings in other Christian places.

A lot of people, it's hard to accept our sin nature as being the cause of most of our trouble. And a lot of teaching out there, in a lot of organizations, it's Satan who's the problem. And we don't want to recognize that our own sin nature is what's getting us. As Donna said, it's not this outside thing that we can blame. Oh, it's Satan chasing me down the street. It's ourselves. really amazing how many Christian organizations that that is the focus.

No, I agree. Pray for Satan to stay away from. Exactly. Right. Exactly. It's really just kind of, again, changes your focus. It does. It does. It puts it off. It puts it in the wrong. You know, you put outside yourself. It can't be me. It's got to be somebody else. No, that's that's excellent. That's excellent. I think that's Right, right. Yes, I'm sorry, I'm daydreaming here. I apologize.

I was just thinking that I think as Christians we never get to the point where we can forget how bad the sin nature is. Not that we need to dwell there, but to read this again and recognize that our sin nature did not change. Absolutely, absolutely. It still wants to do what it did before. Absolutely. And I can be sucked into that and my joy is destroyed. and my, I don't show the light of the Lord, and everything's just a big mess. And so periodically, to think about this and go back and say, yes, Lord, I still need your grace. Absolutely. And I truly needed your salvation. I really know it now how bad I need it. Good.

No, that's wonderful. No, I think that's, you know, realizing the utter sinfulness of sin nature. It's not something that you get up cozy and, like, some place will say, well, you've got to get to know your sin nature. You've got to go over all the bad, you know, make a list of all the bad things you did. That's sad, because you're not going to learn anything from that. You're just going to learn about sin. You need to know it's exceedingly sinful. That's Paul's message to us. It's exceedingly sinful, beyond measure. That should be good enough for us. Okay, Lord. Amen. We want to know Him. I might know Him. Good questions. Let's pray then.

Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you, Lord, for your word, Father. We thank you for the blessings we have, Lord. We thank you that we've been placed into you, into your death and your burial and your resurrection, Lord. We thank you that we can walk in newness of life, Lord. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.