Application to Believers in Yeshua
7: 7-13
Application to believers in Yeshua DIG: What is the significance of the shift in pronouns in this section? Why does the Torah arouse sin? How does the Torah reveal sin? How is sin dead apart from the Torah? How does the Torah, which is supposed to lead to spiritual blessing actually lead to spiritual death? Where is the real battle going on?
REFLECT: In light of your own struggles with sin, how do you feel reading about Paul’s conflict? Does it encourage you, or discourage you? Why? How is this a model for a healthy, realistic self-image? When have you experienced the sense of Yeshua rescuing you from sin or situations that were too big for you to handle? How does Messiah help you right now?
The Torah is like a mirror being held up to reveal our own sin.
Therefore, what are we to say? That the Torah is sinful? Using the strongest Greek negative, Paul declares: Heaven forbid (Hebrew: chalilah, meaning that’s a contradiction, it makes no sense)! Not only is Torah not sinful, but it continues to have great value for the believer by convincing him of sin (Romans 3:19-20, 5:20, 7:7a). After reading the Torah no one could claim to be without sin. Paul gives four elements of the convicting work of Torah.
It is significant that, beginning with verse 7, and continuing to verse 25, Paul turned to the first person singular, presenting his own personal experience. Up to this point he had used the third person, the second person, and even the first person plural. But now he describes his own experience, allowing the Ruach Ha’Kodesh to apply the truth to his readers.179
The Torah reveals sin (7:7b): Rather, the function of the Torah was that without it, I would not have known what sin is. Apart from the Torah we would have no way of accurately judging our sinfulness. Paul is not speaking about mankind’s general awareness of right and wrong. Even pagan Gentiles who had never heard of the Torah, nevertheless, have God’s Torah written on their hearts, their consciences bearing witness to this, for their conflicting thoughts sometimes accuse them and other times defend them (2:15). In the present passage, Paul is speaking about knowledge of the full extent and depravity of man’s sin. For example, I would not have become conscious of what greed is if the Torah had not said, “Do not covet” (7:7b). This example shows that the Torah cannot be seen as a set of behavior rules to be followed legalistically. The real battle is internal, in the heart and mind. The Torah makes a person aware of his sin and of his need for divine forgiveness and redemption and to set the standard of acceptable morality.
The central theme of the Sermon on the Mount (see the commentary on The Life of Christ, to see link click Cz – Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount), is that YHVH demands perfect righteousness of the heart, a righteousness that far exceeds the external, hypocritical righteousness of Pharisaic Judaism. Yeshua said : You have heard that it was said to the people long ago through Moses My servant: You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment (Mattityahu 5:21). The Pharisees said that people were not guilty of murder until they actually murdered someone. They reduced this commandment to something merely external. As long as you weren’t killing people, you were innocent of any wrongdoing. The difference throughout is between the letter of the commandment in the Torah and the spirit of the commandment.
But the Master struck at the heart of the issue when He said: But I tell you that anyone who is even angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment (Matthew 5:22). Jesus said that righteousness could be broken even before the act is committed. It was not enough to merely fulfill the mitzvah of not murdering, but we are called to a higher standard of not even being angry with a brother or sister. The principles of the Kingdom go beyond external obedience to the motivations and thoughts of the heart, all based on the Torah.
The Torah arouses sin (7:8): Once again, Paul makes it clear that the Torah itself is not sinful and is not responsible for sin. Here, Paul’s meaning for sin comes very close to the rabbinic notion of the yetzer ra’ or the evil inclination, which desires only that which is forbidden. Unlike the rabbis, however, he pictures sin here, and on through 7:25, as being beyond mankind’s ability to control it. But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, worked in me all kinds of evil desires – for apart from Torah, sin is dead (Romans 7:8; Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21). There is something in human nature that wants to rebel whenever a boundary is set. When people notice a sign that reads, “Keep off the grass,” or “Don’t pick the flowers,” for instance, there is often a simple impulse to do the very thing the sign forbids.
In his rich allegory Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan paints a vivid word picture of sin’s arousal by the Torah. A large, dust-covered room in the Interpreter’s house symbolizes the human heart. When a man with a broom, representing the Torah, begins to sweep, the dust swirls up and all but suffocates Christian. That is what Torah does to sin. It so agitates sin that it becomes stifling. And just as a broom cannot clean a room of dust, but merely stirs it up, so the Torah cannot clean the heart of sin, but only make sin more evident and unpleasant.
The basis of Paul’s argument here is that for apart from Torah, sin is dead. It is not true that sin has no existence apart from the Torah, because that’s obviously not true. Paul had already stated that, long before the Torah was revealed, sin entered the world through Adam and then spread to all of his descendants (5:12). Sin was indeed present in the world before Torah was given, but sin is not counted as such when there is no Torah (5:13). Paul makes the point that sin is dead in the sense that it is somewhat dormant and not fully active, until confronted with the truth of the Torah. Then sin is aroused.
The Torah brings spiritual death to the sinner (7:9-11): The Torah not only reveals and arouses sin, but it also brings death to the sinner. Torah cannot give spiritual life. It can only show the sinner that he is guilty and condemned. I was once alive outside the framework of Torah. But when the commandment really confronted me, sin sprang to life, and I died (7:9-10a). As a highly trained and zealous Pharisee, he was an expert on the Torah and considered himself to be blameless in regard to it, thus thinking he lived a life that pleased God (Philippians 3:6). But when the truth of the commandment confronted him, he began to see himself as he really was and began to understand how far short he came to the Torah’s righteous standards. Thus, on the one hand, the sin within him sprang to life. But on the other hand, he died in the sense of his realizing that all his religious accomplishments were mere spiritual garbage (Philippians 3:7-9). His self-esteem, self-satisfaction, and pride were devastated and in ruins. Paul died. That is, for the first time, he realized he was spiritually dead. The commandment that was intended to bring spiritual blessing into my life was found to be bringing me spiritual death (7:10b)!180
Paul was not unique among Jewish writers in pointing out that the Torah produces death when rejected or misused. Timothy said: We know that the Torah is good, provided one uses it in the way the Torah itself intends, as our blueprint for living. We are aware that Torah is not for the person who is righteous, but for those who are heedless of Torah and rebellious, ungodly and sinful, wicked and worldly, for people who kill their fathers and mothers, and for murderers (First Timothy 1:8-9). And Rabbi Y’hoshua ben-L’vi said, “What is the meaning of the verse: And this is the Torah which Moses set before the children of Isra’el (Deuteronomy 4:44)? It means that if a person is admirable, it becomes for him a medicine that gives life; but if not, it becomes a deadly poison” (Yoma 72b).181
Paul also said that sin deceived him. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me; and through the commandment, sin killed me (Romans 7:11; Leviticus 18:5; Deuteronomy 30:19). Deceit is one of sin’s most subtle and disastrous evils. A person who is deceived into thinking he is acceptable to God because of his own merit and good deeds will see no need for salvation and no reason for trusting Messiah. It is doubtless for that reason that all false religions – including those who claim the name of Messiah (see the commentary on Galatians Ak – The Hebrew Roots Movement: A Different Gospel), in one way or another are built on a deceptive foundation of self-trust and self-effort. Self-righteousness is not righteousness at all but is the worst of sins.182
The Torah reflects the wickedness of sin (7:12-13): So, the Torah is not cancelled (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Dg – The Completion of the Torah). It is holy; that is, the commandment is holy, just and good (Romans 7:12; Genesis 3:13). It is our blueprint for living (see the commentary on Deuteronomy Bk – The Ten Words). The fact that sin reveals, arouses, and brings spiritual death to the sinner does not make it wicked in itself. If an Israelite sacrificed one of his children to Molech and was therefore stoned to death (Leviticus 20:2), the Torah was blameless. The fault was in the one who violated the Torah.
Then did something good become for me the source of death? Heaven forbid! It is not the Torah that causes spiritual death, rather, it was sin working death in me through something good, so that sin might be clearly exposed as sin, so that sin through the commandment might come to be experienced as sinful beyond measure (7:13). Sin’s deadly character is exposed under the pure light of God’s Torah. The Torah isn’t the problem. We’re the problem. It’s not the Torah that causes spiritual death, it’s our sinfulness of not obeying the Torah. Paul’s point here is that sin is so utterly sinful that it can even pervert and undermine God’s holy Torah. Sin can twist and distort the Torah so that instead of bringing spiritual blessing, as ADONAI intended, it brings spiritual death. It can manipulate the pure Torah of God to deceive and damn people to hell. Such is the awful wickedness of sin.
Dear Heavenly Father, Praise You that though sin is powerful, You are Almighty and have made it possible for us to conquer sin thru Your power. No temptation has taken hold of you except what is common to mankind. But God is faithful – He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can handle. But with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape, so you will be able to endure it (First Corinthians 10:13).
Praise You that as I keep my eyes on You, I can win over any temptation for Your Almighty Ruach lives within each of those who love and will help them be victorious over any temptation. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper so He may be with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him. You know Him, because He abides with you and will be in you (John 14:16-17). When temptation or trial comes, I will remember that these problems will soon be over. For I consider the sufferings of this present time not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed to us (Romans 8:18). I will spend eternity with my Awesome Father whom I love. It is so much more peaceful when a stressful situation comes to – not complain but to rest the problem in Your hands asking for You to guide in each detail. You are Wonderful! I look forward to worshipping and praising You for all eternity! In Your Yeshua’s holy name and power of His resurrection. Amen
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