The More We're Told Not To The More We Want To

What do you think Paul means when he says that the Law produced in him the occasion for sin?

I. A law can actually produce inside of us a desire for breaking it.

When prohibition came in the USA, it actually increased alcohol consumption. Why do you think that was so?

A sign that says "Do not touch" in a store produces in us a desire to reach out and touch.

A smoker seeing a sign about a smoke-free environment may find that it triggers a desire for a cigarette.

II. The Law may cause us to resent God for limiting our freedom.

This passage in Romans reflects the passage in Genesis 2:15-17: "Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.' "

Look at the dynamics of what took place in the garden.

What is the first word of God to Adam about the Garden? "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden."

If you had that alone, how would you feel about this text?

How do you feel about the second word, "You shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil"?

The serpent takes the command of God and says, "God wants to limit you" in Genesis 3:1.

In Romans 7, Paul personifies sin; in Genesis 3 the serpent was the personification of temptation. When we hear the commands, we often do not feel that they are freeing, but instead that God wants to restrict us. We act with the sense of rebellion against God.

Just as the serpent appealed to the command to prove that God was not really good, we can respond to God's commands because we believe that God does not want the best for us.

So the commandment not only produces in us a desire to break it, but also a desire to break free of God.

Taken fr.: RBC