"I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died" (Romans 7:9)
The Law brings life to sin so that sin can bring death:
It was this way for Adam and Eve. They were spiritually alive. Then God gave them a command "you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Genesis 2:17). They ate of the tree and died spiritually. They were alive, then the commandment came, and they died. Before the fall, they had a propensity to sin. One might say that sin was the inevitable result. In a way, sin was asleep. But when the commandment came, sin became alive as they sinned, resulting in death.
I will present one way to understand this passage. I consider this interpretation to be a possibility.
I believe that infants do not know the difference between right and wrong. Then, as they grow up, at some point they come to know it. But out of His grace, God then gives them some time before He holds them accountable. At that time of accountability, God's commandment comes, sin revives and they die spiritually.
I will present some scriptures which may provide some light. See Isaiah 7:16: "For before the child knows to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you abhor shall be forsaken." So, there is a time when a child can not distinguish between good and evil. But with passage of time, children come to the stage when they can discern between good and evil. Possibly Paul is saying that until we reach the age of knowledge of good and evil, we are alive in a sense. At some point after we have come to know the difference between right and wrong, after we have sufficient experience in that state, then we hear God's command and so the commandment has "come". After the commandment comes, man will inevitably sin.
I will repeat the subject passage for your convenience:
- "I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died" (Romans 7:9)
"Sin revived" may indicate that sin revived as to its power to condemn, which it first had in the sin of Adam. This is consistent with Romans 5:12-13 which preceded the subject passage "Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; so death passed to all men, because all sinned. 13 For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law." So, death passes to each, when each commits the first chargeable sin, which occurs after the age of knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 8:21 states "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth". So, God says that man becomes evil in youth, not at birth.
David was a prophet. When his infant son died, he believed that his son went to paradise, not hell. He said, "But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me" (2 Samuel 12:23). David believed that his dead infant son would be in Paradise because that is where David expected to go when he died. Romans 5:13 above appears to say, "sin is not charged" to the dead infant because law would not come to the infant until the age of knowledge of good and evil.
Some additional scriptures:
I believe that the age of knowledge of good and evil is different from the age of accountability. The age of accountability could be the age of twenty for some issues. Numbers 14:29 indicates that those who were twenty and over would die in the wilderness and not enter the promised land. They were not held accountable for refusing to enter the promised land when God first instructed Israel to enter. I believe that people know to "refuse the evil and choose the good" before the age of twenty (Isaiah 7:16). But, out of grace, and to give young people time to find their way, God apparently did not hold them accountable until they were twenty. Deuteronomy 1:39 indicates that those who "have no knowledge of good or evil" will enter the land, but it did not say they were the only ones who would enter. Those who possessed knowledge of good and evil, but were under twenty, were also not accountable, and would enter the promised land. I know of no scripture which indicates that the age of accountability for entering the promised land is the same as the age of accountability for being accountable for all sin.