The Five-fold Function of Law (Romans 7:7–13)

A simple “No” can light up something in us that we didn’t even know was there. Tell people not to feed the bears, and suddenly the bears look hungry. Put up a “stay off the grass” sign, and the lawn starts calling your name. We use that everyday tension to unpack Romans 7 and a hard truth: God’s law doesn’t create evil, but it does expose how deeply our hearts resist limits, and how quickly forbidden things can feel irresistible.

We talk through Paul’s own story of being confident, moral, and deeply religious, only to be brought to zero when the commandment truly lands and he meets the Lawgiver. That moment doesn’t just reveal “mistakes,” it reveals a condition. From there we face the deception of sin head-on: the promises of satisfaction that never last, the illusion of safety, the myth of secrecy, the rewriting of shame, and the false security that says grace means nothing really matters. If you’ve ever thought, “It’ll be different for me,” this will hit close to home.

We also make the case that the law is holy, righteous, and good because it reveals God’s character, but it cannot heal what it diagnoses. The law works like an X-ray, not a cure, pushing us away from self-righteousness and toward redemption at Calvary rather than confidence at Sinai. Subscribe for more, share this with a friend, and leave a review with the biggest “forbidden fruit” temptation you’ve seen play out in real life.

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Transcript

Why Forbidden Things Feel Irresistible

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What is it about the sign at Yellowstone National Park along the road that says don't feed the bears? That seems to incite the tourist to what? Feed the bears. What is it about the sign stay off the grass? That makes you want to do what? Take your shoes off and frolic across the lawn, right? What is it about the speed limit sign that says 35 that sort of impels you, motivates you to go 40, not 30? All a human being needs to know is that something is off limits for him to want to have it. The Apostle Paul has described the believer as dead to the law and alive to the Spirit, right? Verse 5, we sort of skipped over it because it would relate to this next paragraph. Let's go back and start just with that verse. He says, While we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. The sinful passions were aroused by the law. How does the law arouse passion to sin? Well, think about it. What is it about the sign at Yellowstone National Park along the road that says don't feed the bears? That seems to incite the tourists to what? Feed the bears. And so bears die along that road every winter, coming, especially the young ones, to depend upon the tourists for food. What is it about the sign, stay off the grass? That makes you want to do what? Take your shoes off and frolic across the lawn, right? What is it about the speed limit sign that says 35 that sort of impels you, motivates you to go 40, not 30? What is it about the library that whenever you go in there you have this compelling urge to talk loudly? All a human being needs to know is that something is off limits for him to want to have it. And it starts very young, doesn't it? I watched one television show some time ago where young children, one at a time, were put in a room. One corner were lots of crayons and bicycles, tricycles, and all sorts of games and things like that, and then on a counter nearby was just a simple little plate with some cookies on it. And the adult told the child, as they brought them in one at a time, listen, you can do anything you want in this room, you can play with anything you want to play with, but you can't have any cookies until I get back, and I'll be back in about a minute or two minutes. It was so fascinating to watch as the hidden cameras revealed that awful agony in their little hearts. One little girl went over to the plate, just stood there and said, I can't have any, I can't have any, I can't have any. One little boy came over and looked at it, and then went over into the corner and banged his head against the wall. Why? Because they were told they couldn't do it, and oh, the agony of that battle. If they had said, look, welcome to this room, do anything you like, they'd have gotten on the toy, or they'd have picked up a crown, that little plate of cookies probably wouldn't have that much attraction to them. But because they were told you can't have that, you can do anything else, what do they want? That, which was forbidden. Think about it for a moment, ladies and gentlemen. What was it about that one tree? That one fruit. When they had every tree in the garden with all of the fruit, they could have any and all that they cared to have. And yet you find Eve standing before that tree, coveting, desiring, lusting after, wanting. Why? It was forbidden, and that nature was being promoted by the evil one who would use that commandment with that nature within her that had not yet sinned and bring about sin. The problem wasn't the law. You can have any fruit but that one. The problem was sin residing within that was dormant, that would come to life. Why? Why? Think about it. Why would Achan, against the command of God in the book of Joshua, steal a Babylonian garment that he could never wear publicly? Why would he so covet the gold and silver coins that he dug a hole in the ground and put in because he could never spend them publicly? Why do that? Because he was told he couldn't. Why would Ahab want Naboth's vineyard? He had acres and acres and acres of vineyards. Why that one? Because that one didn't belong to him and he wanted it. Why would Demas leave the church where God was moving in such miraculous ways? The church that was expanding and growing and reaching, why would he ever leave that for a few things in the world? Because he had been told he couldn't have those things. The law was not the problem. The nature of man is the problem, and it covets that which doesn't belong to it. Law then defines the danger and sin takes it from there. Number two, not only does the law of God define sin, the law of God destroys self-righteousness. Look at verse 9. And I was once alive apart from the law. But when the commandment came, sin became alive, and I died. And this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me. Paul, ladies and gentlemen, is giving his personal testimony here. You're allowed

How The Law Kills Self-Righteousness

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to take a peek into his diary. He's speaking very personally here. He is saying, there was a time when I felt secure. I was a lawkeeper. I did the best that I could. I was a Pharisee among Pharisees. And those 365 prohibitions of the law, I kept them as best that I could. I followed all of the regulations and all those things which were important to us as given by Moses. I was from the very beginning circumcised on the eighth day. I was a fastidious keeper of the law. I was even pursuing these people called Christians because they were dishonoring the law of Moses. I wanted to wipe them from the face of the earth to bring glory back to the God of the law. But then the text says the commandment came and I died. Then the commandment came. There are a dozen opinions about when he's speaking, when this commandment came, I believe to be theologically correct, he would be referring to that moment of his conversion. When the lawgiver appeared in blazing glory over that road to Damascus, it knocked him off his horse, it blinded Paul, and the words were heard. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Suddenly, it all came together. He thought he was upholding the honor of God, and he was fighting against the one who was God. And at that moment, his self-confidence and all of his religious accomplishments and his self-righteousness he would consider from that moment forward rubbish. Because he had come face to face with the lawgiver. And it revealed the corruption, the true sinfulness of his heart. He had not been upholding the honor of God, he had actually been violating the honor and glory of God through his son. And that wonderful expression, evidencing his conversion to this resurrected one, he said, okay. What do you want me to do, Lord? You are now master and sovereign of my life. The one I persecuted in the form of these believers, I now turn my life over to you, resurrected Galilean. Lord, master, sovereign. What did the law do for Paul? It brought him to a point where he realized that he had not kept all of the law, and he used this one commandment as an illustration, and it destroyed his self-righteousness. Number three, the law of God declares the deception of sin. That's another function of the law. Look at verse 11. For sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, deceived me. And though it killed me. It deceived me. Have you ever been deceived? The verb translated deceived is intensive. Its tense could be rendered or amplified. It completely,

Sin’s Deception About Satisfaction And Safety

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absolutely, totally deceived me. I cannot begin to recount the times and the people over 17 years of ministry that I have encountered. Unbelievers totally deceived by their sin, even after being warned. Those who claimed to know Jesus Christ, deceived in sin that had crept back into their life, and they were warned, even though they were headed for a precipice, they were deceived by sin. I wondered about that thought and began to write some things down that I believed Paul would refer to here as he talked about sin deceiving. Let me give you three, four, or five of them. Sin deceives us regarding satisfaction. Sin says, I'll satisfy that desire. And it seems to temporarily satisfy. But then what happens? The desire comes back only stronger. Sin says, I'll satisfy that too. And it comes back later, but the duration of time between lusting or wanting or needing that possession or that thing or that person. Gary Richman, a man I've referenced a few times over the years, used to work for the Los Angeles Zoo and went into the ministry, told the story in one of his books, which you ought to get, they're great books, about a zoo keeper named Julie. Julie was part of his division that had sort of inherited this little baby raccoon. Evidently, raccoons, when they're little, are much like little puppies. They're cuddly, they have lots of antics, they'll allow you to pet them. And in fact, Julie would be seen as she sort of adopted this little raccoon and named it Bandit. You could see her about her duties with the little bandit perched on her shoulder. Gary knew better and he warned her. He said, Listen, Julie, at 24 months, raccoons go through a glandular change. Yeah, I know all about that. But no, listen. They can attack without provocation once they reach that stage. Oh, she would say, and Gary Richmond wrote, Her answer was always the same. It will be different for me. And so she resisted the warning, and over time, this raccoon, of course, grew. Now a 30-pound raccoon that could do as much damage as a large dog. And sure enough, Richmond wrote, three months after my last warning, Julie underwent plastic surgery for severe facial lacerations, sustained when her raccoon attacked her for no apparent reason. That's sin. The deception of sin is that it won't hurt you. It'll be different for me, you say. Do not be deceived, God says through Paul in Galatians 6, 7. Don't be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever you sow, that you will reap. When you cheated on that test, nobody saw but you. When you filled out your income tax form, nobody saw but you. When you filled out your expense report, when you had that secret planning, and you had that evil desire, and maybe even acted out upon it. And maybe you're here today and you're planning tomorrow to follow after that sin which you've been planning for weeks. And sin has deceived you, and it said it's not gonna hurt you, and then nobody's really gonna know. That's a lie. Hundreds of thousands of men in the last five years I have read have entered the world of internet pornography, deceived by one single lie. Nobody sees. And whatever you do in private, anyway, nobody will ever see, and it won't affect you in public. That also is a lie. It makes you who you are in public. You have been becoming who you are right now in private. Because you spend more time alone than with anybody else. Sin deceives. Jesus said nothing is hidden except to be revealed, nor has anything been secret but that it should come to light. Mark chapter 4, verse 22. Be sure your sin will find you what? Will find you out. Let me give you another point. Sin deceives you regarding shame. It says what you did or planned or saw or said isn't really sin at all. You have no reason to be ashamed about that. In fact, wanting something is another way of needing something. And you should never withhold from yourself what you need. And so those things that you want, being truly needs, should be those things which you allow yourself to have. And there's no shame in fulfilling and meeting your needs. Doesn't that sound wonderful? That's the logic of the deceived mind. Do people think like that? Has sin actually been able to deceive people to think that which is wrong could be right, that which they shouldn't have, they can have, that which God would condemn is something that God would be pleased with? Have you been watching the news? Twelve years ago, the Episcopal Church set a policy. You know what the policy was? That sexual relations were appropriate only within heterosexual marriage. Twelve years later, as you know, they have made history as the first mainline Protestant denomination to appoint an openly homosexual bishop. I watched some of the delegates speak on television, and I'll never forget one little lady stepping up to the microphone and saying, but the Bible says it's wrong. And you would think she was from another planet. How old-fashioned can you be? The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted just 24 months ago to launch a committee to, quote, re-examine its policy against same-sex activity. And we all know what that means. You say, I'm not picking on the Lutherans, by the way, or the Episcopalians. In fact, in this county, we have a Baptist church with a lesbian pastor. Frankly, I am not surprised that the world would go the way of the world, that it would continue to slip along Romans chapter 1, from turning their back on creator God, doubting creation and his ability to create all there is, to violating law, to ultimately landing where you not only practice sin, but you stand on the sidelines and you applaud those who sin. Sin deceives. And what God condemns is twisted now to becoming an expression of dignity when God calls it sin. How do you come to this? It comes when you are under the deceptive influence of sin and you violate and ignore and repudiate and redefine the law of God. So it deceives in regard to satisfaction and safety and secrecy and shame. One more, sin deceives in regards to security. People say and think under the deluding influence of sin, well, God will let me in up there one day. God will overlook my sin. That is true on one hand, but twisted, dangerously twisted on the other hand. I had an admitted adulterer tell me a few weeks ago, God's gonna understand that I have a sinful fallen nature and that we live in a fallen world, and he's just gonna let me in. He's a God of grace. True to a certain point, but dangerously twisted. He said it really didn't matter. And I said, Oh, it does matter. In fact, I'm reminded that anybody who sins without shame is not secure of heaven. They are simply reflecting, perhaps, to their own mind and those around them that they are headed for hell, not heaven. It does matter. Listen to the word of God. This isn't Stephen's opinion, this is God's. Listen to the word of God. Do not be deceived. Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, those who practice sexual relations outside of marriage, nor adulterers, those within the marriage confines, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Now, does that mean if you've committed any of the sins you can't get in? Well, later on in that next verse, Paul says, Such were some of you. And that's the point. How many of you are sinners? Why don't we just take a poll? How many of you sinned today or you're going to sin tomorrow and the next day? Let me just see. Show of hands? I can't believe it. On our 17th anniversary, we've just recognized that everyone in here is a sinner at this church. And so it is true. But the Apostle John clarifies a little bit of the fog when he wrote, Whoever practices sin is not born of God. The key verb to practice is in the perfect tense it means to sin over and over and over again, to relish and cherish that sin, to live there without any shame. My friend, if you practice sin without repentance, without remorse, without guilt, without shame, without ever being able to ask God, please rescue and save me from this. You happen to be exhibit A of someone deceived by sin. And sin, I'm here to warn you, as one of those little stop signs. Sin does not satisfy, it is not safe, sin is shameful, sin is never done in secret, and sin will never lead to security within the kingdom of God, but may in fact be paving your way to hell. Paul says here in Romans chapter 7, as he shares his own personal testimony that sin had deceived his own life. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees. He kept the law, he promoted the law, he wanted to honor the law, he loved God. And yet, one revelation, I believe it is conversion of the true law by the lawgiver, and he realized his nature was corrupt, he was filled with covetousness. Just one. He was guilty of that one. And to be guilty of one, James writes, is to be guilty of how many? Guilty of all. So then the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Only somebody who's holy can conceive of something holy in its perfection. Only someone righteous and perfectly good could create a standard that is righteous and perfectly good. Thus the law, ladies and gentlemen, is a revelation of the character of God. And

The Law Reveals God’s Character

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to abandon the law means to abandon God. To walk away from this book means you walk away from the God who inspired this book. Thus the law is a revealer of the wonderful God He is. That's why Joshua could be challenged to meditate day and night in the law, and therein he would find true success. That's why David could sing, Oh, how I love thy law, Psalm 119. That's why David could sing further in Psalm 19: the law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true. They are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, then much fine gold, sweeter also than honey, and the drippings of the honey come. How could you say that? You say that because the law reveals the lawgiver. And to know and follow the book means you know and follow the bookgiver. To follow the lawgiver is to walk in a holy and righteous and good path. But I want to warn you, you abandon the book, and you abandon the inspirer of the book. And he will one day abandon you. I had a neighbor come visit me this week, in fact, several on Thursday. It was the strangest day. Usually home studying, and the doorbell rang. One neighbor had gotten locked out of his house, and we talked a while and talked about as best I could things of the Lord, and he left about an hour later, 45 minutes later, and the doorbell rang again. It was another neighbor from a few blocks away who'd come to ask me a question about some other things unrelated, but after a while we steered the conversation toward the Lord. You've been told, I'm sure you've heard you should never talk about religion and politics. Well, what fun is that? He shared with me his frustration with his church. I will only tell you this much. He is involved in a Protestant mainline denomination, which will remain nameless this time. He said his frustration had been growing ever since he moved south from New York because the people in that particular region, under the authority of one particular man, were committed to trying to rescue that church and that region. And so they came up with the idea that if we can just get people to say and put into the bylaws of our procedures this one statement, at least we'll be allowed some little light in this growing dark place. And the statement was this Jesus is Lord. That's it. Jesus is Lord. So they promoted it, they pushed it, they finally were able to vote on it, and people stood up and said, Hey, that's way too authoritative, isn't it? Jesus isn't the authority of the church. That's too exclusive, others said, he told me. Growing frustration. Finally, the vote came, and there weren't enough votes to pass. Jesus is Lord. He's involved right now in starting a church outside that mainline denomination that has abandoned the simple truth that Jesus is Lord, that they couldn't come to say. Ladies and gentlemen, they will one day say it. The world will say it. When every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is the Lord. One more function of the law. The law of God ultimately demands redemption by the Savior. Verse 13. Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me, may it never be. Rather, it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by affecting my death through that which is good. Let me stop long enough and tell you. If you've ever driven as I have up through the mountains of Pennsylvania, there's one particular stretch on the interstate that's very dangerous. There are a lot of signs.

Why The Law Demands A Savior

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There are signs that have squiggly marks that tell you which way the road is going to bend. There are signs that tell truckers to use the lower gear. There are signs that tell you for the next three miles, go 35 miles an hour. All those signs. If I were to violate those signs and ignore those signs and go 60 miles an hour, I would go crashing through a guardrail to my death. And on my way down, I could not say and would not say those signs ruined my life. Could I? Oh, those horrible signs. That's what Paul is saying here. Is death brought by something good? No, the law is good. It's our rebellion against it that isn't. And then he says this: so that through the commandment, sin would become utterly sinful. Interesting use of words that sin would become utterly, absolutely sinful. What a strange thing to say. But is it? Do you work around people who are involved in sin and they don't think it's what? Sinful. But when the law comes, you recognize this holy and good and just standard, and then you realize how far off you are. You realize that sin is actually sinful. And that then leads ultimately to the necessity of someone to redeem you. Because he ends here by saying, all the law can do is reveal your corruption. Can the law help you know? The law is like an x-ray. It's not the cure, it can only reveal the corruption within, the disease within. That's the function of the law. The law was not given to show you how good you have to be, the law was given to show you how good you will never be. That's the function of the law. You cannot be saved at Mount Sinai. You must be saved at Mount Calvary. The law cannot save. The lawgiver can. When lawbreakers like you and me come to him and say, We have nothing to offer you but the corruption of our sinfulness and receive from him that inheritance that John said, those who receive him to them, he gave the power, the right to become children of God. When Paul was thirteen years old, according to the custom of his day, he went through a ceremony known as bar mitzvah, literally translated, he became a son of the law. And he promised at that ceremony to uphold the law. And we know from his own personal testimony that he had dedicated his life to keeping the law. He was a son of the law. But the truth of God's

From Son Of The Law To Christ

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revelation came, and he knew he had to become the Son of God through Jesus Christ. Sons and daughters of God by faith in Jesus Christ. Those who do not hold to their good works, those who hold to the finished work of the Lamb, not the law.