34 The Fundamentals worthy of punishment. “Made sinners” signifies that man’s nature is essentially sinful, and so man may be said to be under the sin principle, or in the state of sin (though this phrase, “in the state of sin,” does not occur in Paul, but first in theologians of a later age). T h ir d ly , Paul uses several terms for sin which signify acts of sin. Here he views it in the concrete. Men forget God, hate God, lie, steal, kill, commit adultery, hate parents, love self, etc., etc. In this sense he sees the stream of human conduct which is only the expression of the sin principle. RELATION OF THE LAW TO SIN Does the law produce sin? Is the law sinful in that it causes men to sin? Not at all, asserts Paul. “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Howbeit, I had not known sin, except through the law: for I had not known coveting, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet; but sin, finding occasion, wrought in me through the command ment all manner of coveting; for apart from the law sin is dead”, etc., etc. (Rom. 7 :7-14, R. V.) The following points seem clearly expressed in this passage: j. The law is not the real cause of man’s sin. Not even its severest demands can be charged with causing man’s sin. 2 . This is true, because the law is essentially “holy, righteous, good”; holy in the double sense of being a separate order of being and conduct ordained by God and also requir ing holiness, or the following of this separate order of being and conduct; righteous in the sense of being the expression of God’s will and the standard o f man’s thoughts and ac tions; good in the sense that it is ordained for benevolent ends. It is also called “spiritual” in the sense that it was given through God’s Spirit and conduces to spirituality if obeyed from the right motive. _j. But this holy and righteous, good and spiritual, law became " t h e occa s ion ” of sinning. This Paul illustrates
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