MySlaton.com

By: Curtis Baker 

People often conceive of religion as simply a system of rules. If you are predisposed to like religion, then you might find the rules helpful and necessary to living a good life. If you are not, then you might see the rules as a hindrance to your fun and self-fulfillment. In either perspective, what matters is that there are rules, and the question is whether they are to be obeyed or defied. But while it is true that religion, and the Christian religion in particular, does have certain rules to govern behavior, it would be a mistake to think that keeping the rules is all that religion amounts to. Indeed, if we follow what the apostle Paul says here in Romans 7, we see that rules alone have rather strange consequences.

Once again, this section of Paul’s teaching is hard to follow, but here is basically what he says in these verses: “Rules actually provoke people to sin further!” Can you believe that? Maybe I need to state it again so that you don’t think it was a typo. “Rules provoke people to sin further!” That is what Paul says as he continues his discussion of the law in 7:7-13.

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