Daily Devotional for Sunday, January 12

The Law Helps Us See Sin as Sin

"Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin,that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful;' Romans 7:13.

Have you ever thought about how vast the ocean and its inhabitants are? There are a plethora of things under the ocean that we have never seen. You may hear stories in the news when marine scientists discover a new species, name it and start studying it. They begin looking for more of the new species, maybe tracking it to learn about it. Before microscopes and the discovery of bacteria, we had no idea that life could get so small and could cause so much damage. Prior to knowing about these things, we lived our lives without thinking about them. This actually happens with many things in our lives. After we see, hear or learn something, it becomes etched in our minds. In some cases, we create obsessions or fears based on that new information.

Paul said sin is like that. Before the Law, we did not understand what sin was. It could not consume our minds because mankind had no knowledge base of right and wrong. More importantly, the Law made all guilty and dead. Paul asked himself if it was the Law that brought death and was sinful. The answer is an emphatic no. The Law itself is good and holy, revealing the righteousness of God; sin is the act of opposing the Law, which makes us guilty and brings forth death. Paul personified sin as he said it seized the opportunity through the Law to deceive. He used the example of covetousness and confessed that after knowing the Law and the commandment not to covet, human sin nature took advantage of the knowledge and produced the evil desire to covet. Sin took what was good and used it for destruction, revealing the inability to overcome and produce holiness within ourselves and separating us from aholy God.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

Sit in the overwhelming love of the Father who rescues us from sin and death.

Ashley Ridings