Romans 7:7-12

Sitting on our couch
"Watching" Greys Anatomy
Just kissed Lynsey on her forehead

I have still been reading and studying, just not writing. Such is the pattern of my devotional life.

Romans 7:7-12

7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

In reality, the law of God is an act of grace. For without it, I die in my win with no knowledge to change anything. Thus comes the necessity of preaching the word of God. If it doesn't happen, people have no knowledge of a need to change. Nothing to compare themselves with except for other people. And that doesn't produce a positive result--just competition.

That's why God's law is the standard. Not the works of others. Competing against either will only result in frustration.

However, as my friend James Forlines says, frustration leads to change. If someone never gets frustrated because they can't get there, then they won't ever see a need for change.

And if you don't know the law exists, you never get frustrated.

God's law is an act of grace. The law is anything but sin. Law is grace.