JUL 5

Romans 3:19-20
Memorise Romans 3:20
“For by the law is the knowledge of sin”

Say you have disobeyed your parents, or perhaps broken a school rule. The moment you are found out, your first instinct is to try to talk your way out of the situation, to give excuses, rationalize your actions, or maybe to try to shift the blame to someone else. We rarely want to take the full responsibility for our actions, and often try to make it seem that we are less guilty than we really are. That is our human tendency. However, when we are shown evidence beyond any reasonable doubt that we have in fact wilfully disobeyed a rule, our next instinct is to just keep quiet, and start to feel a sense of shame for what we have done.

This is what the law of God ought to do to us. In the book of Romans, Paul spends the first two chapters explaining how both Jews and Gentiles are sinners who have rebelled against God. In the beginning of chapter 3, he then proves to them how everyone in the world is in fact a sinner, and that we ought to be judged by God. But what is his basis for making such a statement? How do we know that we are in fact sinners? The answer – the law of God. These are God’s absolute standards, by which if all of us are compared against, we will definitely fall short.

That is how effective the commandments of God are. Without them, we could argue and rationalize and claim innocence for all our actions. However, if we measure our lives against the absolute standards of the law of God, the Ten Commandments, the Bible says that ‘every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God’ (Romans 3:19). We would really have nothing to say, for we would realize how guilty we really are. We can never with a clear conscience and full confidence stand up and declare that we are good people, or that we think we deserve to go to heaven, if we fully understand what the law demands.

When we are faced with the law of God, all we would realize how sinful we really are, ‘for by the law is the knowledge of sin’ (Romans 3:20).

Thought: The law is good, because it shows me I am not good.
Prayer: Lord, as we learn more of Your law, help my heart to be tender and willing to repent of my sins.