Gratitude for Being Exposed

Are You Thankful for What the 10 O’Clock Curfew Brought Out in You?
Romans 7:7-9; November 21, 2010

1. The Bible reveals to us the Source of true LIFE and the way to enjoy it.

We all want LIFE. LIFE is full and lasting happiness. The Bible proclaims to us where LIFE is found and where it isn’t! The Bible also proclaims to us the path of access to LIFE. It is one thing to know where LIFE is found and another thing to know how to get there. The Bible proclaims both. (John 20:31)

Three-legged World View

Our lives are built on a “three-legged stool” that constitutes our world view.

• The first leg is the answer we give to the question, “Where is LIFE to be found?”
• The second leg is the answer we give to the question, “How can I get access to that source of LIFE?”
• The third leg is the answer we give to the question, “Where is wisdom to be found that will enable me to answer the first two questions and enjoy LIFE?”

The book of Romans answers all three of these questions for us in the most systematic explanation of the gospel of Jesus Christ to be found in the Bible.

2. The book of Romans proclaims the good news of a gift of righteousness that leads to LIFE.

The message of this book is the key to the rest of Scripture. In Romans, Paul proclaims that LIFE is found in God and that access to God is through a gift of righteousness (forgiveness and a record of perfect obedience to God) by faith in Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:17)

Two men are walking down a road. The road comes to a fork. At that fork is the Law Man. He looks at one of the men who is dressed in clothes that are dirty and bloody. He points him down the road that has a sign that reads, “Everlasting DEATH.” The Law Man then looks at the other man who is dressed in clothes without a spot or wrinkle. He points him down the other road that has a sign that reads, “Everlasting LIFE.” They begin to go their separate ways, when suddenly the man in the clean white robe runs over to the man with the dirty and bloody robe. He takes off his clean robe and gives it to the other man and takes his dirty robe from him. They exchange robes and suddenly the road they are on changes. The Law Man points to the man who received the clean robe of the other and directs him to “Everlasting LIFE.”

3. This passage is about God’s Law bringing conviction to the unregenerate man.

Before we will ever receive the gift of Christ’s righteousness, we must see our own need for it. How we are brought to see our need for a gift of righteousness is what is in view in Romans 7:7-13.

Some people see this passage as referring to Adam and the law against eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, others see it as referring to the giving of the Law of Moses to Israel, and others see it as speaking of any person who is confronted with the Law of God. It seems best to understand it as Paul speaking both personally and representatively in describing the experience of coming to see one’s sinfulness, while yet unregenerate, through the Law (specifically, the law of Moses but also the moral code in general).

Law as the moral law, however it is revealed. (Hodge)

Paul’s own experience is paradigmatic of the story of the human race. Paul’s own history mirrors the history of Adam and Israel. (Schreiner)

This view is supported by the “I” who dies and the sin that “becomes alive” in the process. (Romans 7:9)

The title of this message is “Gratitude for Being Exposed.”

The Grateful Cockroach?

Have you ever walked into a dark kitchen in the middle of the night and turned on the light and seen cockroaches run for cover? Can you imagine that happening to two cockroaches and one of them, leaning against the back of the refrigerator and breathing hard, says to the other, “Whew … that was close! We could’ve died!” The other looks at his friend and says, “I did die! When that guy flipped the light on, I saw my reflection on the oven door … it was hideous! Have you ever seen what we look like!” The other cockroach replies, “Dude, now you know why I hate the light … it distorts everything! Let’s go find something moldy.”

4. God’s Law is not evil even though it is weak and associated with sin. (7)

Paul has said some things about the Law of Moses that would be hard for many of his Jewish people to take. Paul said about the law:

1. Brings a curse (Gal 3:10, 13);
2. Secondary to the promise to Abraham (Gal 3:15-18);
3. Produces transgressions (Gal 3:19);
4. Given by angels, not directly from God (Gal 3:19);
5. No power to grant life (Gal 3:21);
6. No one will be justified by it (Romans 3:20);
7. No power to overcome sin but actually increases and arouses it (Romans 5:20; 7:1-6).

Some thought this meant that the law of God must be evil in itself. Paul abhors this conclusion. (Romans 7:7) The law is not sin. But he does explain how the law plays a role in our sin, while remaining a good thing in itself.

Here are two examples of the something not being bad in itself and yet it playing a role in something bad:

A $100 bill lying on the table. Someone walks by and picks it up. They are later arrested for theft. They argue, “Well, they shouldn’t have left it laying out on the table!” Is the real problem a $100 bill laying out in the open?

A parent gives their teenager a 10 o’clock curfew, they don’t get home until midnight and there is a big argument. The teenager argues that everything would have been fine if they, the parents, hadn’t been so unreasonable. Is the real problem the 10 o’clock curfew?

In both cases, the real problem is not the occasion or circumstance, but the heart.

5. God’s Law exposes by defining sin and convicting us that we are sinners. (7)

The law of God is good because it opens our eyes to what is sin against God (not just a mistake or a wrong in the eyes of men) and it also, through the work of the Spirit, actually convicts us of being sinners. The law is not sin, but the law exposes sin. (Romans 7:7)

I would not have known sin apart from the law does not mean that no distinction can be made between right and wrong but that we are not convinced of our own sinfulness without the law.
(Calvin, Hodge [conviction of sin in view not intellectual knowledge alone], Murray - Rom 3:20)

To know sin is not just to see one’s transgression but to see oneself as a sinner. (Hodge, Murray)

Checker Rules

If I’m playing checkers and I don’t know that I can’t move backwards unless I have been “kinged,” then it should not surprise anyone if I do that without feeling bad. But it would be even worse if the rule was, “Don’t even want to move backwards!”

6. God’s Law exposes by showing us that our problem is not only what we do, but what we desire. (7)

Paul brings up the tenth of the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20:17; Deut 5:21). Many Jewish rabbis saw this as a commandment which summarized all the commandments: don’t even desire what God forbids. The law can be summed up as anti-idolatrous desire. (Romans 7:7)

The word means simply “earnest desire” and the verb is “to desire earnestly.” (Hodge)

The citation of coveting in general has Jewish antecedents, where it stands as a representative summation of the Mosaic law. … Jewish writers could do this because they tended to view ‘coveting’ as the root of all sins. (Moo)

What is required in the tenth commandment? That even the least inclination or thought against any of God’s commandments should never enter our heart; but that with our whole heart we are continually to hate all sin and to take pleasure in all righteousness. (Question 113, Heidelberg Catechism)

It is possible that this is the way in which Paul’s sinfulness was brought home to him as a “blameless” Pharisee. (Philippians 3:4-6) Sin is not limited to what we do, but also what we desire, whether we ever act on it or not. This puts sin at the heart level and not simply at the level of what is outward and able to be seen.

We can see idolatrous, covetous desire illustrated in Scripture in many ways: Forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:6); position of the father’s favorite (Genesis 37:4); material things (Joshua 7:21); vineyard (1 Kings 21:1ff); woman (2 Samuel 13:1); crown (2 Samuel 15:1ff); praise of men (Acts 5:1ff); healing power (Acts 8:18ff); the world (2 Timothy 4:10); authority in the church (3 John 9).

Sermon on the Mount

In the Sermon on the Mount, we see the Lord Jesus expounding the Law in such a way that He reveals the need to keep the Law perfectly at the heart or desire level not simply the action level of life. (Matthew 5:20-28)

7. God’s Law exposes by increasing my sinfulness so that it is more evident to me. (8)

The law of God defines sin for us, shows us that it is a heart issue, and also increases our sinfulness! Sin, the evil principle within us, uses the com-mandment of God as a “springboard” or “base of operations” to increase our sin through direct rebellion against what God says. Sin plus the Law produces sinful desire. (Romans 7:8)

[Opportunity in vv. 8 and 11] refers often to the ‘base of operations’ or ‘bridgehead’ required for successful military operations … the idea, generally, of ‘occasion’ or ‘starting point’ (Moo)

In the Genesis narrative the serpent was only able to attack man because the commandment of Genesis 2:17 had been given. … The contrast between [dead] here and [sprung to life] in the next verse well suits the serpent lying motionless and hidden and then stirring itself to take advantage of its opportunity. ‘Nothing resembles a dead serpent more than a living serpent so long as it does not move!’ (Cranfield)

The standard illustration is the passage in Augustine’s Confessions in which he speaks of the time as a boy when he joined his companions in stealing pears not because they wanted them (they fed them to pigs) but because they wanted the pleasure of disobeying the law. …

Mark Twain said that if a mule thinks he knows what you want him to do he will do just the opposite and Twain admitted he was like that himself – often mean for the sake of meanness. (Morris)

Pilgrim’s Progress – Interpreter’s house – man sweeping with a broom

Then he took him by the hand, and led him into a very large parlour that was full of dust, because never swept; the which after he had reviewed it a little while, the Interpreter called for a man to sweep. Now, when he began to sweep, the dust began so abundantly to fly about, that Christian had almost therewith been choked. Then said the Interpreter to a damsel that stood by, Bring hither water, and sprinkle the room; the which, when she had done, it was swept and cleansed with pleasure.

CHRISTIAN. Then said Christian, What means this?

INTERPRETER. The Interpreter answered, This parlour is the heart of a man that was never sanctified by the sweet grace of the Gospel. The dust is his original sin, and inward corruptions, that have defiled the whole man. He that began to sweep at first is the law; but she that brought water, and did sprinkle it, is the Gospel. Now whereas thou sawest that so soon as the first began to sweep, the dust did so fly about that the room by him could not be cleansed, but that thou wast almost choked therewith: this is to show thee, that the law, instead of cleansing the heart (by its working) from sin, doth revive, put strength into, and increase it in the soul, even as it doth discover and forbid it; for it doth not give power to subdue. (Rom. v. 20; vii. 7-11; 1 Cor. xv. 56.)
Again, as thou sawest the damsel sprinkle the room with water, upon which it was cleansed with pleasure: this is to show thee, that when the Gospel comes in the sweet and gracious influences thereof to the heart, then, I say, even as thou sawest the damsel lay the dust by sprinkling the floor with water, so is sin vanquished and subdued, and the soul made clean through the faith of it, and consequently fit for the King of glory to inhabit. (John xiv. 21-23; xv. 3; Acts xv. 9; Rom. xvi. 25, 26. Eph. v. 26.)

When a person is confronted with God’s law, the forbidden thing becomes all the more attractive not so much for its own sake as for its furnishing a channel for the assertion of self-will. (MacArthur)

8. God’s Law exposes the empty claim to goodness. (9)

Paul was raised in a Jewish home and always had access to the law of Moses. But here he is referring to being alive in the sense of thinking that he was good enough to be accepted by God. But when he came to really see what the law of God required, the proud, self-sufficient Pharisee “died.” He knew that he stood condemned and worthy of death before God. Without the Law, I feel righteous. With the Law, I know that I deserve death. (Romans 7:9)

The Rich Young Ruler (Matthew 19:16-22)

The Emperor’s New Clothes
An Emperor who cares for nothing but his wardrobe hires two weavers who promise him the finest suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or "just hopelessly stupid". The Emperor cannot see the cloth himself, but pretends that he can for fear of appearing unfit for his position or stupid; his ministers do the same. When the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they dress him in mime and the Emperor then marches in procession before his subjects. A child in the crowd calls out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all (“But he isn’t wearing anything at all!) and the cry is taken up by others. The Emperor cringes, suspecting the assertion is true, but holds himself up proudly and continues the procession. (Wikipedia)

9. I can be thankful for the exposure and death of the proud Pharisee in me. (9)

Can you say this? Has your proud, self-righteous self ever been put to death? If it hasn’t, it needs to be! If it has, you can be eternally thankful that it has. (Romans 7:9) Because if it hadn’t, you would never have received the gift of Christ’s righteousness which leads to eternal life.

The Prayer Meeting (Luke 18:9-14)

None are so blind as to think they have never sinned; but the generality suppose that they have never sinned in any great degree. (Simeon) Not appreciating the seriousness of their sin, they are at ease. … He is alive in the sense that he has never been put to death as a result of a confrontation with the law of God.

When the commandment came it killed forever the proud Pharisee thanking God that he was not like other men and sure of his merits before God. It killed off the happy sinner, for it showed him the seriousness, not so much of sin in general as of his own sin. The coming of the law in that sense always kills off our cheerful assumption of innocence. … Here the thought is rather that to realize that we are not good and decent people in God’s sight is a death. It marks the end of self-confidence, self-satisfaction, self-reliance. It is death. (Morris)

10. The power to be saved is in the gospel that emancipates, not in the Law that only exposes.

The Law cannot save because it is used by sin to enslave us. It can expose our sin but it cannot emancipate (free) us from our sin - either the penalty or the power of it. Only trust in the promises of God in Christ for mercy can save. (Romans 7:8)