For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
Romans 7:11 (ESV)
What is sin? The word translated here as sin is ‘hamartia’, meaning ‘offense’. It is failing to do what God wants me to do. But sin is more than just something I do or fail to do. This passage, and many more, picture sin as an active force with a mind and will. Sin is my enemy, seeking to deceive and kill me. And one of the ways it accomplishes that is through the Law. As soon as I am commanded not to do something, sin encourages me to do it.
This is pictured in the garden. A command was given not to eat from one tree. But then sin, in the guise of a serpent, enticed the woman. She fell for the lie, ate, and death resulted.
In the next chapter, God told Cain that sin was crouching at the door, seeking to devour him. Cain ignored God, sin sprang on him, and he killed his brother and went into exile.
And here in this seventh chapter of Romans, Paul characterizes sin as an active force that uses the Law to produce in me the very thing the Law was given to stop. The Law is good and holy. But through it, sin springs to life. What I am told not to do is the very thing I want to do.
Freed From Bondage to Sin?
So, what is sin? When used like this, we might say that it is me, my old human nature that cannot please God (Rom. 8:7-8). It is what was crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:6). But that did not destroy sin. Rather, I experienced a spiritual rebirth and was freed from the power of sin, my old nature.
Being freed from my bondage to the old man, I no longer have an excuse when I sin. It is a choice I make, to give myself to righteousness (to obey God) or to sin (what my old nature wants) (Rom. 6:13).
