The law arouses sin
“But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.” ROMANS 7:8 When confronted with God’s holy law , sinful men are motivated not to obey it, but to break it. It is a perverse fact of fallen human nature that the surest way to get people to do things is to tell them not to do them. When people see a sign reading “Keep off the grass!” or “Don’t pick the flowers!” their first impulse is often to trample the grass and take some flowers. The same is true in the spiritual realm. God’s law reveals what is right and what is wrong—and sinful men choose to do what is wrong. In his classic allegory Pilgrim’s Progress , John Bunyan vividly depicts the seemingly paradoxical truth that the law does not restrain sin but stirs it up. In the house of Interpreter, Christian was shown a large, dust–filled room. A man with a broom, representing the law, appeared and began to sweep. The resulting dust cloud nearly cho