“Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.” ~Romans 7:13 Has this concept ever challenged anybody as they try to wrap their minds around it? In some ways it can be a challenging concept to grasp, even though it is quite simple… This morning in my reading of Romans, when I came to this verse, my mind made an interesting leap to Genesis, making an association I had never thought about before. “Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good…” (v.13a) To help understand this concept look at Genesis 3… Did that which was good—the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (for there was nothing evil or sinful about this tree and its fruit, and therefore it was “good”—this we know, because God declared everything that He had created to be “very good”)—so did that which was good, then, bring death to mankind? No indeed! It was not the fruit (which was part of God’s creation that had been declared “very good”) that produced death, but rather it was sin—the rebellion in the hearts of Adam and Eve, their burning desire to be equal with God and their disobeying of His direct command (Gen. 3:6)--that is what produced death. But this was brought about through that which was good... The sin (rebellion against God), produced death in mankind, through what was good—the fruit of the tree. It is not an exact parallel, but I found it to be the same logical flow of cause and effect, which helped clarify just a little bit more, the whole principle in my mind… I hope you too have found something useful from my morning thoughts! Have a lovely day!
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