For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
The law is spiritual, holy, just and good, founded on love, while man apart from grace is carnal, sold under sin and at enmity with God. Its claims reach beyond outward acts to secret thoughts, motives, desires and feelings, and by that light it detects, exposes and condemns sin, making it appear exceeding sinful. The law itself is not sin and does not cause death, for sin takes occasion by the good commandment to deceive and slay, and though ordained to life it has no power in itself to save the transgressor even when sin is confessed. Through Adam's disobedience every person has sold himself to sin and in that helpless carnal condition cannot by personal effort meet its holy claims or be subject to it. Deliverance comes only through repentance and conversion by accepting the atonement in Christ, who bore the penalty and curse of transgression as substitute and surety, so that His imputed righteousness is credited to the guilty and His moral power makes obedience to every principle of the law possible.
Spiritual Law Exposes Sin
The law is spiritual, holy, just, and good, and is founded on love. It is broad in its requirements, reaching beyond outward acts to secret thoughts, purposes, motives, desires, designs, and feelings, laying obligation to God upon the inner life. It requires that the spiritual agent itself be pure, the mind holy, and the heart yielded to love's rule, with all inner life in accordance with love and righteousness. External or merely formal obedience without love does not meet its demands, and by its light everyone sensible of transgression sees himself guilty before God and feels conviction of sin over wrong thoughts as well as wrong acts. Its reach extends to thoughts, words, and desires of the heart, so that when the Holy Spirit reveals its full extent a person sees sin in its true gravity.
Israel often failed to perceive this spirituality, holding the law as merely a code for outward observance. The Jewish leaders mistook the teaching of its inner truths for an attempt to weaken or overthrow it.
The law acts as a detector and standard of sin, exposing sin and making it appear as sin and become exceeding sinful. It serves as a standard that reveals moral defects, helps people resist temptation and judge rightly, brings conviction to the conscience, exposes and brings sin to the conscience, and condemns the transgressor and condemns sin in the flesh. The law is not sinful and does not cause death. Sin takes occasion by the good commandment to deceive and slay, working death to the carnal mind through what is good.
There is in the law itself no power to save the transgressor even when transgression is confessed. The law itself is not the evil to be destroyed: it exposes sin and condemns the transgressor, while the sinful life must die. The law is ordained to life and is a law of life and not of death to those who obey it, and perfect obedience to its holy requirements justifies.
Carnal Humanity Redeemed in Christ
Apart from deliverance the human being is by nature carnal, sold under sin, enslaved to sin, and at enmity with God. Through Adam's disobedience every human being breaks God's law and is enslaved to sin, having sold himself to the enemy of all righteousness and therefore unable to redeem himself and able of himself to do no good thing. In that helpless condition, as helpless as Satan himself to meet its claims, a person cannot meet the law's holy claims, attain purity or righteousness by personal effort, or withstand Satan's power and deceptions, for the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God and cannot be.
Those who war against the law with all their powers break it for this reason, and people can understand the law's spiritual nature and recognize its power to expose sin yet cannot withstand Satan without accepting the atoning sacrifice. Unless there is repentance, conversion, and death to the carnal mind, a person remains under bondage of the law, serving Satan, falling into the enemy's deceptions, and bearing witness against the precepts of Jehovah. When God's law is brought to the conscience, those who have mistaken self-pleasing for goodness see that they are sold under sin and that self must be slain. Freedom requires thorough conversion like Paul's, bringing Christ into the life and character so the carnal mind is changed and made subject to the spiritual law.
Being carnal and sold under sin is revealed in people who profess godliness but lack strict purity and practice adultery, and their sin makes the world like a second Sodom and Gomorrah. Recognizing the law's goodness is not enough, for deliverance is found only in Christ. Deliverance from that helpless state comes only by accepting the atonement provided in the remedial sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who is at-one-ment with God, and through faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Justification requires perfect obedience to the requirements of God's holy law, and such obedience is possible only through faith in Christ.
Through the moral power obtained from His imputed righteousness obedience to every principle of the law is made possible, so that the fallen race can repent, return to loyalty, keep the law of God, and live. Those whose natures have been perverted by sin must keep their eyes fixed on Christ as the author and finisher of faith. Christ remembers and redeems those sold under sin and those brought into bondage by sin. He bore their sins and the penalty of transgression and became a curse for them so that His righteousness could be credited to them, and His suffering heals them.
When man sinned Christ offered to stand as his substitute and surety to provide a way of escape whereby the guilty race might return to loyalty. Taking humanity, He passed over the ground where Adam stumbled and fell and without swerving from allegiance met the temptations wherewith man is beset. He resisted every plausible representation of hope that sinners can be saved in their sins and distinctly manifested righteousness by overcoming every temptation, coming to live the example humanity must live if they are to secure the heavenly reward.
The law is spiritual, holy, just and good, founded on love, while man apart from grace is carnal, sold under sin and at enmity with God. Its claims reach beyond outward acts to secret thoughts, motives, desires and feelings, and by that light it detects, exposes and condemns sin, making it appear exceeding sinful. The law itself is not sin and does not cause death, for sin takes occasion by the good commandment to deceive and slay, and though ordained to life it has no power in itself to save the transgressor even when sin is confessed. Through Adam's disobedience every person has sold himself to sin and in that helpless carnal condition cannot by personal effort meet its holy claims or be subject to it. Deliverance comes only through repentance and conversion by accepting the atonement in Christ, who bore the penalty and curse of transgression as substitute and surety, so that His imputed righteousness is credited to the guilty and His moral power makes obedience to every principle of the law possible.
Spiritual Law Exposes Sin
The law is spiritual, holy, just, and good, and is founded on love. It is broad in its requirements, reaching beyond outward acts to secret thoughts, purposes, motives, desires, designs, and feelings, laying obligation to God upon the inner life. It requires that the spiritual agent itself be pure, the mind holy, and the heart yielded to love's rule, with all inner life in accordance with love and righteousness. External or merely formal obedience without love does not meet its demands, and by its light everyone sensible of transgression sees himself guilty before God and feels conviction of sin over wrong thoughts as well as wrong acts. Its reach extends to thoughts, words, and desires of the heart, so that when the Holy Spirit reveals its full extent a person sees sin in its true gravity.
Israel often failed to perceive this spirituality, holding the law as merely a code for outward observance. The Jewish leaders mistook the teaching of its inner truths for an attempt to weaken or overthrow it.
The law acts as a detector and standard of sin, exposing sin and making it appear as sin and become exceeding sinful. It serves as a standard that reveals moral defects, helps people resist temptation and judge rightly, brings conviction to the conscience, exposes and brings sin to the conscience, and condemns the transgressor and condemns sin in the flesh. The law is not sinful and does not cause death. Sin takes occasion by the good commandment to deceive and slay, working death to the carnal mind through what is good.
There is in the law itself no power to save the transgressor even when transgression is confessed. The law itself is not the evil to be destroyed: it exposes sin and condemns the transgressor, while the sinful life must die. The law is ordained to life and is a law of life and not of death to those who obey it, and perfect obedience to its holy requirements justifies.
Carnal Humanity Redeemed in Christ
Apart from deliverance the human being is by nature carnal, sold under sin, enslaved to sin, and at enmity with God. Through Adam's disobedience every human being breaks God's law and is enslaved to sin, having sold himself to the enemy of all righteousness and therefore unable to redeem himself and able of himself to do no good thing. In that helpless condition, as helpless as Satan himself to meet its claims, a person cannot meet the law's holy claims, attain purity or righteousness by personal effort, or withstand Satan's power and deceptions, for the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God and cannot be.
Those who war against the law with all their powers break it for this reason, and people can understand the law's spiritual nature and recognize its power to expose sin yet cannot withstand Satan without accepting the atoning sacrifice. Unless there is repentance, conversion, and death to the carnal mind, a person remains under bondage of the law, serving Satan, falling into the enemy's deceptions, and bearing witness against the precepts of Jehovah. When God's law is brought to the conscience, those who have mistaken self-pleasing for goodness see that they are sold under sin and that self must be slain. Freedom requires thorough conversion like Paul's, bringing Christ into the life and character so the carnal mind is changed and made subject to the spiritual law.
Being carnal and sold under sin is revealed in people who profess godliness but lack strict purity and practice adultery, and their sin makes the world like a second Sodom and Gomorrah. Recognizing the law's goodness is not enough, for deliverance is found only in Christ. Deliverance from that helpless state comes only by accepting the atonement provided in the remedial sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who is at-one-ment with God, and through faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Justification requires perfect obedience to the requirements of God's holy law, and such obedience is possible only through faith in Christ.
Through the moral power obtained from His imputed righteousness obedience to every principle of the law is made possible, so that the fallen race can repent, return to loyalty, keep the law of God, and live. Those whose natures have been perverted by sin must keep their eyes fixed on Christ as the author and finisher of faith. Christ remembers and redeems those sold under sin and those brought into bondage by sin. He bore their sins and the penalty of transgression and became a curse for them so that His righteousness could be credited to them, and His suffering heals them.
When man sinned Christ offered to stand as his substitute and surety to provide a way of escape whereby the guilty race might return to loyalty. Taking humanity, He passed over the ground where Adam stumbled and fell and without swerving from allegiance met the temptations wherewith man is beset. He resisted every plausible representation of hope that sinners can be saved in their sins and distinctly manifested righteousness by overcoming every temptation, coming to live the example humanity must live if they are to secure the heavenly reward.