⁷What should we say then? That the law is sin? Not at all! I wouldn’t have known what sin was unless the law had told me. The law said, “Do not want what belongs to other people.” If the law hadn’t said that, I would not have known what it was like to want what belonged to others. ⁸But the commandment gave sin an opportunity. Sin caused me to want all kinds of things that belonged to others. No one can break a law that doesn’t exist.

⁹Before I knew about the law, I was alive. But then the commandment came. Sin came to life, and I died. ¹⁰I found that the commandment that was supposed to bring life actually brought death. ¹¹When the commandment gave sin the opportunity, sin tricked me. It used the commandment to put me to death. ¹²So the law is holy. The commandment also is holy and right and good.

¹³Did what is good cause me to die? Not at all! Sin had to be recognized for what it really is. So it produced death in me through what was good. Because of the commandment, sin became totally sinful.

¹⁴We know that the law is holy. But I am not. I have been sold to be a slave of sin. ¹⁵I don’t understand what I do. I don’t do what I want to do. Instead, I do what I hate to do. ¹⁶I do what I don’t want to do. So I agree that the law is good.

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