"Holy... Just and Good."

May we accept more and expect less as we follow Christ, seeking justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly.

Romans: 7:7-12

7 What then should we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ ⁸But sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead. ⁹I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived ¹⁰and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. ¹¹For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ¹²So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

1) "...By no means;" "...Apart from the law sin lies dead;" "...

2) Okay, I now laugh every time I see the expression "By no means!"  I can't say I follow Paul's argument here.  Maybe I've not made the passage long enough.  First, I'm not sure I agree with him that "Apart from the law sin lies dead."  This gives an absolute power to the law, that I don't think the law has.  I do think law can increase and magnify sin.  Certainly, we can be oblivious to sin without the law.  But I'm not sure I entirely follow his argument.  I can also agree with "For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me."  But I would also think that sin was there without the law, I just wasn't aware of it. "I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, you shall not covet."  Hmm... I may not have known that I was coveting, but I think I still would have been looking around, comparing what others have to what I have and wishing I had more, with or without the law.  Is he comparing the law with the awareness that comes with eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil?  Be fore the fruit, we had no idea we were naked, after the fruit we learned shame... was it the fruit or the commandment, do not eat the fruit that created the "awareness."  Would we have completely ignored the fruit had we not been told "Don't eat that!"  Highly likely.  The fruit isn't sin.  Eating the fruit is sin.  Is the desire to eat the fruit sin? Would there have been a desire to eat the fruit if we'd not be told don't eat it?  How does this get me to "the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good"?

3) What is the invitation in all this?  Stop being deceived.  Especially, stop being deceived by things we want to be deceived by so we can do what we shouldn't/don't want to be doing.

"Holy One, Lead us to the truth."

Breathprayer: "Holy... Just and Good."