Romans 7:7-13

Paul begins reiterating that sin only exists only when law exists. "But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by [the law], produced in me every kind of [sinful behaviour]." (Romans 7:8a) Interesting how "the [law], which was intended to bring life, actually brought death." (Romans 7:10) Once, a friend told me that God was cruel because He made the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He said that if God really wanted a relationship with us, God wouldn't have made the tree. My friend reasoned that by making the tree, God was tempting us, that God was making us sin. So by making Adam & Eve, then putting the tree there to taunt us, God was condemning us. I didn't have an answer for him at the moment. But I've since given it much thought. There's probably some theological answer I won't understand, but if God didn't put the tree there, our relationship with God wouldn't be real. Without the tree, we would stay with God only because we're ignorant and don't know any other way of living. But the tree offers another way of life: life without God. Through the tree, we'd have the choice to live for God or for self. If we choose God over the tree, that demonstrates true obedience and love for God.

Paul also says that we need to distinguish law from sin. We can't blame the law; law only shows us that we're sinful. At the root of it all, it's our sin that separates us from God, not the law. Disorder and chaos is naturally favoured in the universe. Even in a child, the innate desire to oppose authority is evident. Watch this! (This is an aside but ....) This can also be observed in the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that all changes (eg. chemical reactions) result in an increase in entropy (overall disorder) in the universe, and that any order is eventually overcome by more disorder.

Notice how, in verse 9, it says "Once, I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died." The way he says it, it seems so natural; "sin sprang to life and I died". Like sin just takes over. Why do we let it? Most of the time, when we sin, they're just small things. Smaller (in our judgment, not God's) than lying or cheating. It could be something like choosing to fool around on the internet and play Freecell (ingenious game, btw) over reading the Bible and posting on the blog ...

Sin is choosing something other than God. And it's about time I stopped doing that.

Sonia