A lot of Christians believe that law and grace contradict each other. They believe you can only choose one. You can either live under the law or live under grace. Not only that, but Christians believe that God’s law is evil, and thus, Jesus came to do away with the law. He introduced a brand new commandment of only loving each other and you’ll be saved.

One of the most popular verses they use to support this belief is found in Romans 7:7-12. If you are not careful, after reading these verses, you might end up misunderstanding the text. Thus, in this post, let me explain verse by verse what Romans 7:7-12 really mean!

What does Romans 7:7-1 Say?

Romans 7:7-12 reads:

So, let’s read the passage first to get an overview of our discussion:

⁷ What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” ⁸ But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. ⁹ I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. ¹⁰ And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. ¹¹ For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. ¹² Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.

Romans 7:7-12

What shall we say then? Is the law sin?

Paul here is addressing an accusation from other people that He is getting rid of sin and saying that the law itself is sin. That’s why, he emphatically responded, “Certainly not!”

Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”

Now, here’s where the Apostle Paul explains the purpose of the law.

What is the purpose of the law? It is to show us what sin is. The law of God actually tells us what is good and evil. It tells us which way to go. It guides us. It teaches us how to behave. It helps you to understand how we can better live this life.

Why? Because on our own, we can’t possibly know what is good and evil. We are like little children who would be experimenting with what works and what doesn’t work. If it weren’t because of God’s law, how would we know that we need to set a day apart as our Sabbath? How would we know that we should only have one God? How should we know that covetousness is evil? In short, the law is not sin, instead, the law defines what sin is!

⁸ But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.

Now, here’s where most people kind of stumble and misunderstand. Paul just said that the law is not sin, but why is it that he is now talking about sin taking advantage of the law to produce all manner of evil desires? What’s more, he said that apart of the law, sin was dead.

What is going on here? How should we understand this concept? When I first read through this, brethren, it got me confused. However, if we are going to dig deeper into Paul’s thoughts here, we will see a clearer concept.

Let’s talk about the first part of the verse first. “But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire.” We need to realize that all of us has the natural tendency to break God’s law. Our default is not obedience, it’s rebellion.

Paul would later explain in Romans 7:15-20:

¹⁵ For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. ¹⁶ If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. ¹⁷ But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. ¹⁸ For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. ¹⁹ For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. ²⁰ Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

In Romans 8:7, Paul adds:

⁷ Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 

So, going back to Romans 7:8, Paul was explaining that the mere existence of God’s law provokes us to sin. We have the natural tendency to want to break that. You might have heard about the expression, “Kung ano pa ang masarap, yun pa ang bawal.” (Whatever is pleasurable, those are the ones that are forbidden.) This only testifies to our desire to break God’s law.

Can you think of a restriction that you want to break? We have the attitude, “No one can tell me what to do. No one can tell me what I can or I can’t be. No one can tell me how I should live my life.”

So, when the law was introduced, Paul had evil desires to break them. That’s why he added, “For apart from the law sin was dead.” When there was no law, there is nothing to break, so there’s no evil desire. If there’s no law, then there’s no sin. Sin is dead. Do you now understand what Paul is saying here?

Now, here’s another interesting statement of Paul in verse 9:

 ⁹ I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.

A lot of people would take this verse to show us how the law is evil. They won’t admit that outwardly, but that’s what they imply and that’s the reason that Jesus came to abolish the law. However, Paul was often misunderstood here.

You see, the law of God will not only tell you what sin is, but it will also expose your sin. Have you ever experienced that you were doing something all your life without even realizing that it was a sin? Most people don’t realize that using God’s name in vain is a sin. Most people didn’t know that the Sabbath was Saturday and that we should observe God’s appointed times. 

So, Paul here was saying that all His life, he thought that he was a righteous man. He thought that he was good. He thought that by persecuting the followers of Jesus (Yahshua), he was doing God a favor. Yet, when He knew the spiritual intent of the law, he learned about sins he never knew that he had!

Let me give you an analogy for you to better understand this concept. When a person goes to his doctor for a regular checkup, he goes into that clinic feeling alive. He didn’t feel anything wrong with him. However, after receiving the results, he found out that he had a serious medical condition, which only gave him a few years to live. In that sense, he thought that he was alive, but in reality, he was dead. 

In the same manner, Paul thinks he is alive, but in reality, he is dead spiritually. In verse 10, we read:

 ¹⁰ And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.

Huh? I thought the commandments bring life but why is Paul saying, it brings death? Here’s the truth: the law of God brings life to those who will keep it. Those who follow God’s commandments will find themselves to be living a life of fulfillment and blessedness. However, when you break God’s commandment, it brings death.

 ¹¹ For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.

Sin is deceitful. It promises us pleasure, but it causes pain. It promises us wealth, but it causes misery. It promises us life, but it leads to death.

We think that God doesn’t know what He is saying or doing. So, we ignore His law. We thought that we are better off doing our own thing and so, that’s how sin deceives us.

Notice, in all these explanations of Paul, he concluded:

 ¹² Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.

If in case people misunderstand him, he concludes with those words. God’s law is perfect. The fault was not in God’s law, but in us who failed to follow them.

The Role of Grace

Now, here’s the problem. We are all sinners. All of us have broken God’s commandments. None of us has kept the law perfectly. Paul, who was certainly on a different spiritual level, admitted that he was a sinner. How much more would have been us who always fall short?

You see, the law does a great job of telling us what sin is. But what it lacks is the power to deliver us from the penalty of sin. That is where grace comes in. We read in Ephesians 2:8-9:

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

The law can’t save you. Even if you keep the law perfectly from now on, which is impossible, you still can’t erase the sins you have committed in the past. There’s nothing in this world that could remove the penalty of sin hanging around our neck. That’s why, God’s grace is very important. It is not something we earned, but rather, it was a gift God willingly extended to us.

I don’t know about you but every time I think about God’s grace, it just amazes me. When I think of all the sins I have committed, of the wrong things I have done, of the people that I have hurt, God still chose to forgive me.

Looking back on my life, I know a lot of things I wish I didn’t do and didn’t say. Because of God’s grace, I can live a renewed life. I don’t have to live in my past mistakes and sins. There’s no one in this entire universe who knows me inside and out. He knows every detail of my life. He knows how sinful, wretched, and deplorable I am. He knows I’m only made of dust with just a lifespan of about 70 years, yet God still chose me to be part of His church.

The Impact of Grace in Our Lives

God’s grace should humble us, brethren. It shouldn’t make us proud, thinking that we are better than others. If it weren’t for God’s grace, I might be out there lost in a world filled with religious deception, deceitful riches, and sinful lives. That’s why we don’t make fun of people who have different beliefs than ours. We don’t condemn them. If it weren’t because of God’s grace, those people could have been us.

And because God is gracious to us, we should extend the same grace to other people. Because God is patient with us, we should be patient with others. Because God is forgiving toward us, we should also be forgiving to one another.

If you can only see the magnitude of the sin God has forgiven us, I’m sure that whatever other people have done to us, it is nothing compared to the sin God has already forgiven. So, if you hate someone now, why don’t you extend the same grace, mercy, and love God has given us?

With that, I hope you have a better understanding of what law is based on Paul’s explanation and the amazing role that grace plays in our salvation.

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