Romans 7:7–16

Law and Sin

^7*Shall we say, then, that the Law itself is sinful? Of course not! But it was the Law that made me know what sin is. If the Law had not said, “Do not desire what belongs to someone else,” I would not have known such a desire. ⁸But by means of that commandment sin found its chance to stir up all kinds of selfish desires in me. Apart from law, sin is a dead thing. ⁹I myself was once alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life, ¹⁰and I died. And the commandment which was meant to bring life, in my case brought death. ^11*Sin found its chance, and by means of the commandment it deceived me and killed me.

¹²So then, the Law itself is holy, and the commandment is holy, right, and good. ¹³But does this mean that what is good caused my death? By no means! It was sin that did it; by using what is good, sin brought death to me, in order that its true nature as sin might be revealed. And so, by means of the commandment sin is shown to be even more terribly sinful.

The Conflict in Man

¹⁴We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. ^15*I do not understand what I do; for I don’t do what I would like to do, but instead I do what I hate. ¹⁶Since what I do is what I don’t want to do, this shows that I agree that the Law is right.