Romans 7:7-13

Romans 7:7-13 What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”  But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.  Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.  I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.  For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.  So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.  Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
 
Although everyone under the law is under a curse, the law is not sinful.  Paul uses the tenth commandment to point out how sin in him produced the very thing the law prohibited.  As he put it, the law caused sin to spring to life in him.  The problem is sin and not the law for the law is holy, righteous and good.  Sin used the law to bring about death for Paul.  This is why Paul calls the law the ministry of death in other epistles.

In the Mosaic Covenant the law was the condition the nation of Israel was required to keep in order to receive God’s blessings.  Failure resulted in receiving God’s curses.  The Old Testament gives a history of Israel’s failing over and over to keep God’s law and the resulting curses that followed.  God did spiritually save a small remnant of the Old Testament Jewish nation because they believed God and looked to his mercy to one day provide a redeemer.  Jesus Christ was the redeemer that perfectly fulfilled the law on the behalf of all [Jew and Gentile] who place their faith in him. 

Now that faith in Christ has come we no longer serve in the manner of the law, but we serve in the new way of the Spirit.  Seeking to be justified or sanctified by the law did not work for Old Covenant Jews and it will not work for New Covenant people who come from every tongue and tribe.  It is through Jesus Christ and not the law that redeems and sanctifies believers.