Does the Law Aggravate Our Sin Nature? // Ask Pastor John

The Mosaic law raises countless questions for Christians. But how might we begin to understand the function of the law in redemptive history?

Does the law empower our sin nature? Are we more sinful after the law arrives? It seems like that’s the case from what we read in the New Testament. The question is from a listener named Sam to Pastor John, who joins us over Skype today. “Pastor John, the more I read Paul, the more I think I see that the arrival of the Mosaic law did not weaken sin, but actually empowered and enflamed sin within us. Is that right? Can you explain this? How does the law make sin more alive and potent inside of us? I’m thinking of when Paul talks about how our sinful passions are ‘aroused by the law’ (Romans 7:5). He says the law came to increase sinning (Romans 5:20).

“Of course, the number of our sins increases as sins are named. But Paul seems to be talking about a new influence when he writes, ‘The power of sin is the law’ (1 Corinthians 15:56). Then he says, ‘Apart from the law, sin lies dead’ (Romans 7:8). Or, ‘Where there is no law there is no transgression’ (Romans 4:15). Maybe most provocatively of all, Paul speaks autobiographically in Romans 7:9, when he makes this claim: ‘I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.’ Wow! If this is true, it’s an incredible argument against legalism, and any law-centered attempts to defeat the sin within us. We’d need a far greater power! How do you explain Paul’s understanding of the law and its empowerment of our sin?”

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