Yes, there is a big difference. The first verses describe Paul's experience without Jesus, the last his experience after conversion.

So why do you take your instruction from lost Pharisees? Why get your clues from the clueless? You will be more successful getting speech lessons from a mime. Can't you find better teachers?

Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

We Adventists, silly as we are, think that Jesus was the best teacher. We also have reason to believe that He taught that love is the foundation of the law, and that He kept the law His whole life. Call us crazy, but we think Jesus was the greatest law-keeper, not Satan. We study His ways, not the Pharisees' ways.

Romans 7:7-13 ¶ What shall we say then? Is the law sin? No, in no wise. But, I did not know sin except by the law; for neither would I have known lust if the law did not say, Thou shalt not covet. Then sin, when there was occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of lust. For without the law sin was as if it were dormant. So that without the law I lived for some time; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And I found that the same commandment, which was unto life, was mortal unto me. For sin, having had occasion, deceived me by the commandment and by it killed me. So the law is truly holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? No, in no wise. But sin, to show itself sin by that which is good, worked death in me, making sin exceedingly sinful by the commandment.

What about Paul? He eventually discovered the Great Teacher (better than the Pharisees, including Gamaliel), the Great Law-Keeper (better than Satan), the Law-Giver Himself. Then his eyes were opened, seeing things the Pharisees never taught him.

What did he see? "Thou shalt not covet." Surely, he must have memorized that in his youth. What was different? He saw that the law was primarily a matter of the desires of the heart, not the actions of the body.

As a blind Pharisee, he saw himself blameless in law-keeping. But when his eyes were opened, sin revived and he died. Externally, he could claim perfection, but a true understanding of the claims of the law revealed him to be dead in trespasses and sins.

That's what happens when one is taught by Jesus, not Pharisees. Choose wisely.

You have a theoretical perspective of the word of God: "eyes open, sin revive, death"? You don't understand anything you are reading, and to prove it, I would like you to tell us what Paul meant when he said:

"So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin." (Rom. 7:35)

What is the law of God and what is the law of sin and how is it that Paul admits to serving two opposing laws? What is the distinction between the mind and the flesh of man?

///

I don't understand anything? Coming from one who thinks Satan is the greatest keeper of God's law, which Jesus summarized as "Love everyone," I'll take it as a compliment.

As for your request for an explanation of Romans 7: you must have milk before meat. You need to upgrade your teachers from Pharisees to God. Otherwise, everything you say is just blah, blah, blah.

The lesson asks, "Why can't we really be keeping the commandments if we don't show love?"

We spent most of our time in class last week clarifying the fact that God's law is primarily a matter of internal thougts and feelings, rather than external actions. Paul could claim to be blameless as a Pharisee because his focus was on external obedience. But when he realized the implications of "Thou shalt not covet," that the law reached into his inner desires, he realized that he was still dead in sin.

Jesus summarized the law and the prophets in one word: love. This is the fundamental requirement of the law. Without love, we are just noisy brass and cymbals. Love fulfills the law.

Showing love = commandment keeping. Faith works by love - "that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven."