Romans 5:19-20

Romans 5:19-20. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound."

It was the practical result of the giving of the law that men became greater sinners than they were before, and it was the design of the law that they should see themselves to be greater sinners than before. The law is the looking-glass in which we see our spots, but it is not the basin in which we wash them away. The law has a provoking power, for such is-the perversity of our nature that, no sooner do we hear the command, "You shall not do so-and-so," than at once we want to do it. Our nature is very much like quicklime. Throw cold water upon it, and straightway it generateth heat; acting, as it were, against the nature of that which is cast upon it. So, the more God says to a man, "Thou shalt," the more the man says, "I will not;" and the more God says to him, "Thou shalt not," the more doth the man resolve that he will. "The law entered, that the offence might abound." It reveals the depravity and disobedience of human nature, and lays us low before God as convicted criminals.