God’s Law Reveals Our Sin

Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin.
I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.” But sin used this command
to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power. At one time I
lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to
life, and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death
instead. Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. But still, the law itself
is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good.

But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my
condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes.