“What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! But I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘Do not covet.’ And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life again and I died. The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.” (CSB – Read the chapter)
Some people are rule followers. If you give them a rule, they keep that rule. They may look for loopholes in the rule, but as far as the rule itself goes, they’ll toe the line. Others…aren’t. If you give them a rule, not only will they break it, they’ll make sure you are watching when they do so you can see them breaking it. In fact, with these folks, the quickest way to guarantee they do something other than what you want them to do is to tell them not to do it. They probably weren’t even considering doing whatever it is you don’t want them to do until you told them not to. Then the die was cast. They’re doing it. It was the rule itself that led to their breaking it. In this situation, we should ask an interesting question: What is the source of the problem here? The rule itself or something else?
Read the rest…
The Nexus 