What Shall We Say?

Love, it will not betray you, dismay or enslave you,

It will set you free

Be more like the man you were made to be.

There is a design,

An alignment,

A cry of my heart to see,

The beauty of love as it was made to be.

-Mumford & Sons

The purpose of God's law in man's original estate was not to give occasion to sin but to

direct and regulate man's life in the path of righteousness and, therefore, to guard and

promote life. By reason of sin, however, that same law promotes death, in that it gives

occasion to sin. And the wages of sin is death. The more law is registered in our

consciousness the more sin is aroused to action, and law, merely as law, can exercise no

restraining or remedial effect.

-John Murray

The law, God's good, holy, and spiritual gift, has been turned into an instrument of sin

because of the "fleshiness" of people. It is therefore unable to deliver a person from the

power of sin, and people who look to it for such deliverance will only experience frustration

and ultimate condemnation.

-Doug Moo

For Discussion

1. Think of your own journey to faith in Christ. How do you see the truths of these verses

in your own life?

2. How, and why, is it helpful to be reminded that the commandments are about internal

attitudes BEFORE they are about external behaviors?

3.) Are there ways you are tempted to have a pharisaical view of God's law, and of the

Christian life?

4.) While Romans 7:7-13 is talking about the 10 Commandments as "the law", even non-

religious folk have "must obey laws". What are some of these you see at play in our day?

5.) How does Jesus' obedience & suffering change your understanding of the law and sin?