The Law Of Sin

The key to understanding the mystery of godliness is to understand what happened in the Garden of Eden. We know that Adam and Eve were created innocent. God gave them a commandment in which He forbade them to touch or eat of the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” He warned them saying, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Eventually, they did eat, throwing the whole human race into the captivity of sin and death.

Romans 5:12

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

Psalm 51:5

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

After sin entered the world, all the seed of Adam came under the captivity of sin and death. The testimony of the psalmist is that his shape or body is one of iniquity. Sin was in his conception, thus providing him with the nature of sin.

I Thessalonians 4:4-5

4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;

5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:

CONCUPISCENCE: NT: 1939

Desire, lust after, a longing (especially for what is forbidden):

Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c) 1994.

Romans 7:8

But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.

WROUGHT: NT: 2716

Do work fully, i.e., accomplish; by implication; to finish; fashion; cause; to (deed); perform; work (out).

(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c) 1994.

The common thread in these two verses is concupiscence. It is more than occasional lust. It isa continual longing for those things God has forbidden. This was the consequence of eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Lust for the things of this world began to work in the members of the body.

Romans 7:5

For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

This is the law of sin: evil concupiscence. It is emotions, influence and affection for sin continually working in the members of the body. Remember, Eve saw the fruit to be pleasant (lust of the eyes), good for food (lust of the flesh), and desirable to make one wise (the pride of life). The law of sin created continual lust in the flesh that could never be quenched.

Genesis 6:5

And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

This law of sin working in the members could not be overcome by the will of man.

Romans 7:22-23

22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Ephesians 2:2-3

2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

At the fall, the spirit of Satan entered man. The spirit of the prince of the power of the air worked in man. This work of the spirit of Satan created a new nature in the flesh. It was the nature of sin. Thus, it became natural for man to desire the things God forbids. This is called lust. Evil concupiscence, or lust, is the nature of the flesh, because the presence of sin established the law of sin and death in the flesh that cannot be overcome by anything less than God. Even when Satan is evicted from the body, death still works where there is an absence of obedience to the Word of God.

St. John 8:44

Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Jesus explains even further that Satan had become the father of the human race, and it is his lust that works in our flesh. In conclusion, the devil created a race of beings that were no longer subject to the law of God. They took on the character and attributes of their father, Satan. Man became a liar, a murderer and an enemy.

I John 2:14-16

14 I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.

15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are the attributes of the fallen man. They are everything that God is not. They are the attributes of the devil.