The Heart of True Repentance: “I CONSENT UNTO THE LAW THAT IT IS GOOD Romans 7:7-16

Romans 7:7  “… I HAD NOT KNOWN SIN BUT BY THE LAW:  for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” 

 I did not  recognize my sinful lust as covetousness until I knew the  law

8  “But sin, taking occasion by the commandment,  wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For WITHOUT THE LAW SIN WAS  DEAD.”

Without the law, it seemed that there was no  condemnation of my sin, as though it was not sin at  all.

9  “For I was alive without the law once: but WHEN  THE COMMANDMENT CAME, SIN REVIVED AND I DIED.”

I thought that I was alive before and well in God’s  sight, fully able to stand before him; but when the law came, instead of  justifying me and guaranteeing my eternal life, as I thought, it brought to  light the sinfulness of my sin, and condemned me  instead.

10“And THE COMMANDMENT WHICH WAS ORDAINED TO LIFE,  I FOUND TO BE UNTO DEATH.

Instead of being justified and made alive by the law,  I was brought to see my true condition before God as spiritually  dead.

7:11  “For  SIN, taking occasion by the commandment, DECEIVED ME AND BY IT SLEW  ME.”
7:12 “ Wherefore the  law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and 
good.”
13a  “WAS THEN THAT  WHICH IS GOOD MADE DEATH UNTO ME?”   

How can this thing which brought condemnation and  death be good?   

13b “SIN THAT IT MIGHT APPEAR SIN WORKING DEATH IN ME  by that which is good; that SIN BY THE COMMANDMENT MIGHT BECOME EXCEEDING SINFUL.”

The law proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am a  guilty sinner, unable to do good and rightfully condemned by God. 

14 “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am  carnal, sold under
sin.”15  “For that which I do I allow not: for what I  would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.”

My own actions, and inability to do good confirm that  the law is good while I am not, and brought me to repentance- a change of mind  wherewith I, as a
rebellious sinner, now agree with the law and the judgment of  God.  

16 “If then I do that which I would not, I  CONSENT UNTO THE LAW THAT
IT IS GOOD.”

Through the law, I see that God is just and holy and  true and I am only a sinner in need of a savior; and that repentance toward God  and Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are necessary for salvation.