I guess Paul didn't think he was doing Gods service as a Pharisee by killing Christians either by your way of thinking. He plainly stated in verse eleven that sin taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me and by it slew me. And by the way you left out the part of scripture that say's The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; BUT IS LONG SUFFERING TO US-WARD (Christians) not willing that any perish but that all should come to repentance.
Oh, without a doubt Paul thought he was doing God service when he persecuted the church. What does that have to do with Romans 7?
Paul said he was alive without the law once. Now if you read, he tells us WHEN he was without the law.
Rom 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
Paul is describing that time he learned the law. For Jewish men, this is about the time they become a teen, the time of their Bar Mitzvah. Bar Mitzvah literally translates to "son of commandment". This is when he learned the law. This is when Paul learned what lust is, when he learned the meaning of "Thou shalt not covet".
It was this knowledge that made him accountable for his actions, and therefore convicted him as a sinner. This is when he spiritually died.
The scriptures show that very young persons who did not know the law were not accountable.
Deu 1:39 Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it.
God did not allow the Jews who rebelled against God in the wilderness to enter the promised land. But God did allow their children who had no knowledge between good and evil to enter in. Now, many of these young people probably participated in doing wrong, but they were not held accountable because they did not fully understand their actions.
By the way, the promised land is a figure of heaven, this scripture argues that little children who die all go to heaven.
Isa 7:16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.
This scripture shows little children do not at first know to refuse evil and choose good.
This verse also refutes Total Inability, as it shows that even children can refuse evil and CHOOSE GOOD. :thumbsup:
Jon 4:10 Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:
11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?
Here God speaks to Jonah. Jonah was not happy when the people of Nineveh repented, probably because he was a Jewish bigot. God asks him if he is angry for a gourd that he did not labor over or cause to grow.
Then God asks Jonah "and SHOULD NOT I spare Nineveh?" God was asking Jonah if it were JUST to spare Nineveh. Why? Because there were 120,000 little children there who could not tell between their right hand and their left hand, and much cattle also.
These little children were innocent of their parents sin, because they were too young to understand between good and evil. This is why God argued to Jonah that he SHOULD spare Nineveh. These children were no more guilty than the cattle that also cannot understand sin.
So, the scriptures show little children are not guilty of sin until they reach a stage of maturity and understand between good and evil. This is the age of accountability, and exactly what Paul is speaking of in Romans 7.
If Paul wanted to tell us he "mistakenly" believed he was alive but was not, he could have easily said so. The Holy Spirit is not unable to express himself properly as some here laughingly argue.
No, Paul knew exactly what he was saying. Before he learned the law he was spiritually alive, but when the commandment came, sin revived and HE DIED. This is when he spiritually died.
Now, he may not have understood this until after he was saved, but that does not change the facts. Until he learned the law he was alive, but after he learned the law he was accountable and spiritually died, whether he was aware of it or not.
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