Sin, Not Law, Produced Evil Desires
Thinking about Romans 7:8.
But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. (Romans 7:8)
Paul strongly disagreed with the conclusion that the Law was sin (Romans 7:7).
Beginning with Romans 7:8, Paul explains the connection between Law and sin.
Sin produced all kinds of evil desires.
Sin is personified by Paul as an evil, murderous tyrant searching for any opportunities to kill his victims.
It was Sin - that wicked murderer - who produced the evil desires, not the Law. However, Sin “took opportunity” through the commandments of the Law.
The word translated “opportunity” (aphorme) literally means “a base or circumstance from which other action becomes possible,” such as a base camp for an expedition or a military activity. Sin, always on the alert for a way to injure, kill, and destroy, found an opening by which it could enter and turn the commandment “not [to] covet” into something totally unintended. In effect, sin “made the commandment its base of operations.” Sin used the prohibition not to crave something to have the opposite effect, almost like using reverse psychology. Sin needed fuel to get a blaze started, and that fuel was the Law. - Pollard, Truth for Today Commentary, 239
Sin is the murderer.
The Law - in a sense - was yet another victim of Sin. Sin, pictured as an evil tyrant, used the Law to reach its target - us.
Sin’s power to inflict death comes through the Law.
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. (1 Corinthians 15:56)
Apart from the Law - the necessary fuel, the “base camp of operations” for a military strike - the wicked murderer Sin has no power. “Apart from the law,” sin is dead.
Paul doesn’t subscribe to the view that sin is in man and the law simply exposes that it is in there. “Sin” is not a condition; sin is a deviation from God’s holy will. No deviation (of one kind or another), no sin. - McGuiggan, Romans, 206
So to recap what Paul has said…
The Law is not sin.
However, Sin uses the Law to bring death on us.
There’s something else that is interesting to consider.
Sin (that evil murderer) is dead “apart from the law.”
Individuals are “justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law” (Romans 3:28).
Being set free from sin (Romans 6:3-7) and being justified (Romans 5:6-9) both come through the same One - Jesus Christ the Son of God.