Desire for Forbidden Things
What is it about rules and laws that drive people to want to break them? Even saying, "I'm starting a diet," can send me to the refrigerator faster than a bear to honey. As I read in Romans today, an explanation became even more clear to me.
The following excerpts in Romans 6:18-7:8 helped to shed light on this human desire to sin. Romans 6:18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness…20 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!…22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life…23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord…7:5 For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death…6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the laws so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code…7 Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the laws had not said, "Do not covet."…8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire.
The above excerpts come from The NIV Study Bible, Editor Kenneth Barker and published by Zondervan Bible Publishers of Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1985. The study notes at the bottom of page 1715 for the scripture Romans 7:5 explain the following, "The law not only reveals sin; it also stimulates it. The natural tendency in man is to desire the forbidden thing." I have read these scriptures before and even underlined the study notes, but it seemed that God revealed something else to me as I read them all again today. I felt He was reminding me that from the creation of man recorded in Genesis, He gave man all kinds of "good" things, and man instead sought out the one, the very one thing out of all the trees and plants full of delicious foods to eat which God had said not to eat. The first rule on earth was broken as soon as the man and woman had wandered off into the garden alone. They became open game for the serpent (Genesis 3) to debate God's goodness and what His "real" meaning was concerning "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."
God's Word has shown mankind to be unable to function sinlessly without our Creator. Left to our own accord, we gravitate to self-gratification and pleasure seeking. He has shown us through the Bible that we are law breakers who without a Savior, God's Son Jesus Christ, we would never make it back to our heavenly home, but instead would be doomed eternally to live with the fruit of our lawlessness.
The following excerpts in Romans 6:18-7:8 helped to shed light on this human desire to sin. Romans 6:18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness…20 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!…22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life…23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord…7:5 For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death…6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the laws so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code…7 Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the laws had not said, "Do not covet."…8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire.
The above excerpts come from The NIV Study Bible, Editor Kenneth Barker and published by Zondervan Bible Publishers of Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1985. The study notes at the bottom of page 1715 for the scripture Romans 7:5 explain the following, "The law not only reveals sin; it also stimulates it. The natural tendency in man is to desire the forbidden thing." I have read these scriptures before and even underlined the study notes, but it seemed that God revealed something else to me as I read them all again today. I felt He was reminding me that from the creation of man recorded in Genesis, He gave man all kinds of "good" things, and man instead sought out the one, the very one thing out of all the trees and plants full of delicious foods to eat which God had said not to eat. The first rule on earth was broken as soon as the man and woman had wandered off into the garden alone. They became open game for the serpent (Genesis 3) to debate God's goodness and what His "real" meaning was concerning "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."
God's Word has shown mankind to be unable to function sinlessly without our Creator. Left to our own accord, we gravitate to self-gratification and pleasure seeking. He has shown us through the Bible that we are law breakers who without a Savior, God's Son Jesus Christ, we would never make it back to our heavenly home, but instead would be doomed eternally to live with the fruit of our lawlessness.
A beautiful dogwood tree growing in a yard in Oregon. I'm drawn to God's amazing creations.
Awesome trees God made! It just popped out that they wondered into the garden without God. How many times have I went to places I shouldn't have because I simply wanted to walk away from God and do my own sin. Thank you Jesus for never letting us wonder too long. You always bring us back on your lap and clean the dirt from the world off.
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