As I have indicated before I don't believe this was inevitable. Devout Jews could keep the Ten Commandments out of a sincere regard for God and rely on the grace of God to accept the sacrifices made to absolve them from sin.

Another kind of person will rebel against lots of rules and regulations. They will question their necessity and legitimacy. So the law is ignored as if it didn't matter. Throughout Israel's history up till the exile, the Jews took God's prohibition against idolatry with a pinch of salt.

How is Paul's teaching of relevance today? Well legalism is not dead! It is very much part of other religions like Islam. Sadly it persists amongst some Christian groups that are defined by their rules and regulations: no music, no hymns, women wear hats but no makeup, use of the Authorised Version only, preaching without humour or illustrations, no alcohol or nicotine, no work on the 'Sabbath', tithing - and so on. Some sects, like the Amish, take things to absurd lengths with rules about facial hair, dress and means of transport.

The awful thing about legalism is that keeping the rules becomes more important than believing in Jesus. It produces self-righteous, hypocritical bigots.

If we are genuine Christians we stand in the grace of God free from the tyranny of rules and regulations - free to serve Jesus in the spirit that he desires. We have a good example of this in the apostle Peter. He was still bound even after the day of Pentecost by the laws to do with diet and ceremonial uncleanliness. It was only after he was released from their mastery that he was able to witness to the Gentile Cornelius.

(C) The purpose of the law. V7to12.

Paul refutes this and ends this section by writing: So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.

The law could hardly be bad. It is God's law. It was given by him. It is our attitude to the law that can be bad.

We should understand this. The laws of football define behaviour that is unacceptable to F.I.F.A..

So Paul knows that covetousness is unacceptable to God because the law says so just as the 10 outfield players know handball is a foul because the laws of football say so.

The law doesn't of itself change the way a person is. It doesn't change a man's heart. But it does provide an opportunity to obey and please God. It also provides an opportunity for a man to knowingly and wilfully disobey God. There is a sense that you can only break the law if you have the law. Nobody could be accused of breaking a non-existent law.

The rules of football don't change how a player is. They provide a player the opportunity to be lawless or law abiding.

Sadly when Paul became acquainted with God's rules, he found himself breaking them. Sin sprang to life and I died. v9. The law reveals the sinful nature for what it is and although good in itself is powerless to control that nature.

Most footballers are like that because although they know the laws of the game they regularly break them. That is why a referee is necessary with the power to exert sanctions. The sanctions are more influential than the rules for maintaining order. The rules in themselves would be enough but for man's sinful nature.

It is possible for a footballer to keep all the rules of football without being what is called, sporting. He can offend against the spirit of the game. Very, very few professional footballers will own up to a foul the referee has missed or that the ball has gone over the line when this has not been spotted by the linesman. Sometimes a goalkeeper will know the ball has crossed the line for a goal - but will not run to tell the referee who has not seen it that that he has made a mistake. Things are very different in the veterans' hockey matches I umpire!

So is there a lesson for us in all this? There is! Rules, laws, regulations might keep men in check if backed by sanctions but they don't make men good. So it is very foolish for politicians to think that all the ills of society can be cured by legislating against them. The British government has churned out a vast array of rules and regulations in the last 30 years. I read this week that literally hundreds of guidelines for teachers, particularly those to do with health and safety, have been withdrawn. A proliferation of regulations creates a terrible burden, causes great resentment and stifles initiative.

Politicians seem to think that the more rules they make the better everyone will be! You can't legislate for righteousness. Rules don't change men's hearts. This is also a lesson some churches need to learn. I like the old Sankey hymn:

Free from the law, oh happy condition!
Jesus hath bled, and there is remission!
Cursed by the law, and bruised by the fall;
Grace hath redeemed us once for all.

Once for all, O sinner, receive it;
Once for all, O brother, believe it:
Cling to the Cross, the burden will fall;
Christ hath redeemed us once for all.

A lot of controversy exists over this passage. It seems strange for Paul to admit to such a struggle when he appears to live such a triumphant Christian life. He did say after all that he could do all things through Christ who strengthened him. Yet according to this passage he struggles to do what is right. It also seems to conflict with the kind of life he describes the Christian as living in Ch8v5to17. In Ch7v14 Paul writes: I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin whereas in Ch8v9 he writes: You however are controlled not be the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. I will leave trying to reconcile this conflict to my next exposition. The old nature must be left in us after conversion for a purpose! Wouldn't it be grand if our propensity to sin was removed as of course it will be on the day we see Jesus and become like him.

There is quite a lot of repetition in this passage but but Paul makes three main points:

(a) Sin produces death.

The law is not what condemns us to death - it just shows us, according to Paul, what sin is. If we sin in contempt of the law then our sin becomes all the worse. It is open defiance to God and as such produces death on several different levels. Covetousness, for example, produces several deaths: the end of contentment and happiness, the demise of love for the one you covet and an impaired relationship with God.

Samuel Pepys, the 17 century diarist, lost his peace after becoming jealous over his wife's relationship with her dancing master. This is what he writes on the 15th May 1663: And so, well pleased, home - where I find it almost night and my wife and the dancing master alone above, not dancing but walking. Now, so deadly full of jealousy I am, that my heart and head did so cast about and fret, that I could not do any business possibly, but went out to my office; and anon late home again and ready to chide at everything; and then suddenly to bed and could hardly sleep, yet durst not say anything. Pepys' almost insane jealousy threatened to destroy his relationship with his wife.

(b) Powerlessness.

Paul knows what he wants to do, to keep the law which he knows is good, but finds himself unable to do so. Instead he does what he doesn't want to do. His mind accepts and delights in God's law but there is another side to him, what I will call his ego, with a will of its own.

This is very much my experience - and the experience of many other Bible scholars. I accept the wisdom of Jesus' teaching in Mt5v38to42. A good man will not retaliate when hurt or attempt to wriggle out of doing things he doesn't like or invariably insist on his rights. Yet when I am hurt I nearly always retaliate in some way or another. I can remember a boy throwing a bucket of cold water over me when I was conducting early morning physical exercises at a Christian camp. I chased him all over the camp site and then tried to wallop his bottom with a cricket stump. Fortunately for both of us he managed to wriggle into a rut in the ground so all I hit was the ground!! But it didn't do my witness much good at that camp.

Many years ago I played in a football match for Brockley Baptist chapel against Bradfield, a neighbouring Grace Baptist church. One of our church members, Philip, played for the opposition - perhaps, because his girl friend belonged to the opposition. This so incensed my friend, Peter, that he spent the whole match hunting Philip down with the avowed intent of kicking him in the river. Why is it that sporting contests between churches often exhibit very unsporting behaviour!!

(c) An explanation. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. v17. See also v20.

This almost sounds as if Paul is absolving himself from responsibility. Lurking within us is what Paul calls sin but which I prefer to call the old nature or the ego.

The ego is like a partly trained wild animal kept within the home. It is partly trained by rules enforced by tough sanctions. This is how the ego is. It is held in check by parental training, the law of the land and church teaching - all of which can be backed by sanctions. The reason an international rugby match does not turn into an out and out fracas is because the referee applies the rules of the game and punishes those that break them. If the refereee is weak or indulgent it is not long before anarchy reigns.

The ego, like a wild animal in the home, may behave reasonably well so long as it gets what it wants. Deny it what it wants - like food and water - and it becomes increasingly dangerous. Solzhenitsen wrote about the corrupting influence of lack of food in the Stalinist labour camps in the 1950's and 60's. Women would sell their bodies for a plate of fried potatoes. Children would steal the bread ration of frail and elderly prisoners.

Lust is a big problem for young men in particular. Paul did not advise lusty young men to submit their bodies to Jesus. He did not tell them to give their sexual desires to Jesus and he would enable them to cope. This is still the sort of baloney preachers are coming out with! I have tried this and it doesn't work! Paul advised young men who burned with desire to get married.

We need to remember before getting too complacent about our holiness that if the ego is satisfied it will cause less trouble than if it is frustrated. If an American pastor is successful, admired by his large congregation, financially comfortably off and happily married with obedient and affectionate children he should be free from several of the temptations that torment me - and others.

However, everyone has that ego lurking in them. That seemingly contented, well behaved, almost tamed wild animal in the home will change in an instant if you are foolish enough to poke it or stand on its tail. Before you know where you are the family pet has gone beserk: snarling, scratching, biting, roaring, raging and rampaging. You can never feel entirely safe with such a beast in the house!

Michael Simkins in his amusing book entitled, Fatty Batter, writes about a member of his cricket club called Chris Buckle. He is one of nature's gentlemen, a committed Christian, fund raiser for numerous charities, reasonable, compassionate and a fanatical but inept cricketer. If he bats and manages to score 3 or 4 Chris manages to take it in good part but if he is dismissed for nought he is a man transformed. He hurls his bat into the changing room, flings his pads in the air, curses violently and stomps in a kind of incandescent solitude around the boundary. Finally, slowly and sheepishly, he returns to the company and consolation of his team-mates. After EVERY such unbecoming outburst of temper Chris swears a solemn oath that he will never, ever under any circumstances behave like that again.

I have every sympathy with Chris. One of the most terrible jolts to my ego was to be dismissed cheaply at cricket. It made me feel terrible. I was disappointed beyond telling and was more than ready to lash out at anyone foolish enough to comment on my dismissal. Yet I realised later what a terrible exhibition I had made of myself and vowed to behave better in future. It took me a long time to accept failure with good grace.

The ego hates being disappointed, bruised or threatened. Woe-betide the person responsible for jolting the ego. How difficult to maintain control in these circumstances.

I very much like the Teacher's observation in Ecclesiastes: Whoever breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake. Ecc10v8. The Teacher means by this that no one is harmless and it is very dangerous to presume so. The old wall, weathered and mellow, and the new wall, whitewashed and cheerful, may look harmless but behind each facade there lurks a snake. Similarly within each human being, regardless of the attractiveness of the facade, there lurks a snake - the old nature. If that old nature is disturbed, stirred up, it will strike and its venom will poison your system.

I can remember giving a school assembly on this subject. The response from the children was surprising. Many could identify with what I said - they had been bitten by the snake.

(E) The saving work of Jesus.

After describing how the old nature so often triumphs over good intentions Paul exclaims: What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord. Ch7v24and25. He goes on to affirm that the Christian, notwithstanding the trouble he has with his ego, is free from condemnation. Therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 8v1.

(1) The way it happens.

When we trust Jesus the power of the Spirit of life - the Holy Spirit - frees us from the power of sin and death. We are translated from the realm where sin and death rule to the kingdom of God's own son. Jesus said: "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." AV Jn10v10.

(2) How it's possible.

Paul writes: For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. Ch4v3.

Grace accomplished what the law could never do. This is also the plain teaching of Heb2v14and15: Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death - that is the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

God condemned sin in the flesh. This probably means in the person of Christ. This broke the power of sin to bring the sinner death.

God condemned sin in Jesus. He was obedient - obedient even unto death - to spare us condemnation. Jesus suffered, bled and died so that all who submit in faith to him might be forgiven and declared righteous in God's sight.

There is an interchange. Christ became what we are and suffered what we deserved so that we might become what he is and enjoy God's favour.

So Charles Wesley was able to write:

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine!
Alive in him, my living Head,
and clothed in righteousness divine,
bold I approach the eternal throne,
and claim the crown,
through Christ, my own.

Paul writes that the great transaction was done for those who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

Every believer in Jesus receives his Spirit. The Holy Spirit assists the Christian to obey Christ's commands. The followers of Jesus no longer adopt the standards of the world but espouse the values of Christ's kingdom.

This does not mean that the believer no longer commits sins. He does - but is sad to sin, confesses sin, sheds guilt and carries on serving and pleasing Jesus.