THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

Romans 7:7-13
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust.

God’s Law Reveals Our Sin

7 Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.” 8 But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power. 9 At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life, 10 and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead. 11 Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. 12 But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good.

13 But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes.


Take a look at The Ten Commandments . Are there one or two commandments on this list which are your albatross? Is there a particular one which you struggle with in your day-to-day life? Is there one over which you have tripped, even just once?

Can you say with Paul, “… it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known…”?

Even just once earned you a death sentence. Aren’t you thankful for grace … for the Cross … for Jesus Christ?