Romans 7:1-12 ~ So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Romans 7:1-12

Or do you not know, brothers^{[bothers and sisters]}—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.


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.

What do we learn from the Ten Commandments? When you sit down to memorize them, they are orderly. God comes first. Right after God gave HIS Commandments, He said if you follow His Commandments you will be blessed.

Our Pastor asked a question in the Sermon on Sunday, and I thought it was the oddest question. "What do you hate about men?" Actually, he was asking what do you hate about Lent. But given that I actually learn a lot from the Sermons, I gave thought to the rather surprising question, "What do you hate about men?" After all, I have a husband and two sons.

It turns out what I hate about men is they always expect the maid is coming to clean up after them. We don't have a maid. Although.....

So, I hate to sweep up after other people's messes. I get angry, I think of harmful things. And I growl and make weird noises. Usually I'm not good company after their extended visits get cleaned up.

I think  God probably feels like this when He is called upon to clean up our messes. We need all the grace He willingly bestows and we should avoid messes.


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