Romans 7:10–25

¹⁰and I died. I found that the commandment which was intended to bring me life actually brought me death. ¹¹Sin, taking the opportunity provided by this commandment, deceived me and then killed me. 

¹²So the laws in Moses’ Teachings are holy, and the commandment is holy, right, and good. ¹³Now, did something good cause my death? That’s unthinkable! Rather, my death was caused by sin so that sin would be recognized for what it is. Through a commandment sin became more sinful than ever. 

God’s Standards Are at War with Sin’s Standards

¹⁴I know that God’s standards in Moses’ Teachings are spiritual, but I have a corrupt nature, sold as a slave to sin. ¹⁵I don’t realize what I’m doing. I don’t do what I want to do. Instead, I do what I hate. ¹⁶I don’t do what I want to do, but I agree that God’s standards are good. ¹⁷So I am no longer the one who is doing the things I hate, but sin that lives in me is doing them. 

¹⁸I know that nothing good lives in me; that is, nothing good lives in my corrupt nature. Although I have the desire to do what is right, I don’t do it. ¹⁹I don’t do the good I want to do. Instead, I do the evil that I don’t want to do. ²⁰Now, when I do what I don’t want to do, I am no longer the one who is doing it. Sin that lives in me is doing it. 

²¹So I’ve discovered this truth: Evil is present with me even when I want to do what God’s standards say is good. ²²I take pleasure in God’s standards in my inner being. ²³However, I see a different standard ⸤at work⸥ throughout my body. It is at war with the standards my mind sets and tries to take me captive to sin’s standards which still exist throughout my body. ²⁴What a miserable person I am! Who will rescue me from my dying body? ²⁵I thank God that our Lord Jesus Christ rescues me! So I am obedient to God’s standards with my mind, but I am obedient to sin’s standards with my corrupt nature.