Romans 7:9, How then can I be saved?

Romans 7:9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

The Apostle Paul before his conversion did not truly understand the significance of the moral law. He thought he could keep the law and be saved by it. He was mistaken. After his conversion, he realized the law was given so that the sinful nature of man is aroused causing him to sin. The law, properly applied, was meant to expose one’s sinfulness. This would cause the person to realize his inability to be saved through keeping the law and come to Christ.

A flippant youth asked a preacher, “You say that unsaved people carry a weight of sin. I feel nothing. How heavy is sin? Is it ten pounds? Eighty pounds?” The preacher replied by asking the youth, “If you laid a four-hundred-pound weight on a corpse, would it feel the load?” The youth replied, “It would feel nothing, because it is dead.” The preacher concluded, “That spirit, too, is indeed dead which feels no load of sin or is indifferent to its burden and flippant about its presence.” The youth was silenced! [Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (1284). Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.]

This was the plight of the Apostle Paul till he met the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. He could not see the obvious depravity of his heart. Now, he understood. He writes to explain this important truth concerning the purpose of the law in exposing man’s sinfulness. This would lead the exposed sinner to ask the question, “How then can I be saved?” This would be the opportune time to share the gospel of salvation through the atoning work of Christ. Amen.