Confessions of a Seminarian

A Contradiction in Scripture

This week I was reading Romans 7 at a Bible study. As we read and discussed, I became frustrated. Paul seemed so clearly to contradict himself. Paul first argues that the law is dead to Christians, and that the Christian is now united with Christ instead of the law. Paul says that the law “aroused” sinful passions within him, and thus the law brings death. So it sounds like the law is bad, even evil, right?

But Paul says, “What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin” (v. 7). The law is not sin, it is through the law we become aware of sin. But then why does Paul say, “apart from the law, sin lies dead” (v.8)? It just doesn’t seem to make sense how something that produces sin can be good.

But let’s say we give Paul the benefit of the doubt, and say the law is good. That means that something good brings about death, right? But Paul says, “Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means!” (v. 13). Paul seems to contradict himself right here in the same passage!

Part of me wanted to shut the Bible and forget the whole thing. But Paul had to be aware of this issue. For one thing, he was a highly educated Pharisee. Although this does not preclude him from making mistakes in his writing, it would be odd if he made them so blatantly and so close together. Furthermore, Paul seems to want his readers to feel puzzled for a moment. This is supported all the more as Paul anticipates the questions “is the law sin?” and “did that which is good bring death?”

I first wondered what Paul meant when he said, “our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death” (v. 5)? The idea of “law” here is not necessarily limited to “rules,” though our culture often equates the two as the same. When Paul was writing, it often referred to the Jewish religion (which some had warped to become a laundry list of rule keeping). Paul was perhaps talking about when he was still not a Christian and was a zealous rule observing Jew. Rules work to destroy us in this context.

Calvin said on this point, “What the law does, in the absence of the inward leader, the Spirit, is increasingly to inflame our hearts, so that they boil up with lusts.” Now, when Paul says “I once was alive apart form the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died” (v. 9) he does not mean he once had salvation, but rather that he thought he was golden. Paul is pouring out his experience with 1^st century Judaism. Paul only felt like he was alive, but when he really understood the commandment and looked at himself, he realized he was dead in sin.

Also, Paul does not say that the law caused the sin, but that sin used the law (Paul calls this good) to stir up the evil already within us. Thus Paul can say, “apart for the law, sin lies dead” (v.8). Paul is saying that all of his being is somehow corrupted, and the law brings this to the surface.

So the law is good, cool. But what now we ask a subsequent question: “Did that which is good, then, bring death to me?” (v. 13). After all “apart from the law, sin lies dead” (v. 8). But this means we can feel like we really are alive. In actuality, we are not. When the law comes, it takes the sin that is deep down inside us, and stirs it up, brings it out, and makes us aware of our desperate state. Without the law, we would be unaware, like a man with frostbite not aware of how dangerously cold his body really is.

So this passage, that last week made me angry because of what I perceived as contradictory, in fact encourages me. Paul’s discourse at first seemed foolish, now it seems wise.

It never ceases to amaze me how the Bible shows itself to be coherent and beautiful, albeit challenging at times.