It is difficult at times, as a Christian, to know how to think about the Law. Paul makes clear that the Law is not sin and yet knowledge of the Law resulted in him sinning:

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COVET.’
But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.
I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died;
and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me;
for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.” - Rom 7.7-11

So the Law is not sin but the Law results in sin. How does that work?

My understanding - or at least harmonization - of this is helped by no less a theologian than Samwise Gamgee. In discussion with Faramir, Sam tries to explain the Lady Galadriel to him; Faramir has just called her “perilously fair”:

‘I don’t know about perilous,’ said Sam. ‘It strikes me that folk takes their peril with them into Lórien, and finds it there because they’ve brought it. But perhaps you could call her perilous, because she’s so strong in herself. You, you could dash yourself to pieces on her, like a ship on a rock; or drownd yourself, like a hobbit in a river. But neither rock nor river would be to blame.’”

This explains the nature of the Law to me as clearly as anything. It demonstrates the inevitable sin, peril, and power of the Law upon the individual but also finds great value, beauty, and holiness in the Law.

So Paul can say,

So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” - Rom 7.12

. . . and we can say, “Amen.”



Namárië.