Romans 7:7–25

Sin’s Advantage in the Law

⁷What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, ^hI would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ⁱ“You shall not covet.” ⁸But ^jsin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For ^kapart from the law sin was dead. ⁹I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. ¹⁰And the commandment, ^lwhich was to bring life, I found to bring death. ¹¹For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. ¹²Therefore ^mthe law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.

Law Cannot Save from Sin

¹³Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. ¹⁴For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, ⁿsold under sin. ¹⁵For what I am doing, I do not understand. ^oFor what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. ¹⁶If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. ¹⁷But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. ¹⁸For I know that ^pin me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. ¹⁹For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. ²⁰Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

²¹I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. ²²For I ^qdelight in the law of God according to ^rthe inward man. ²³But ^sI see another law in ^tmy members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. ²⁴O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me ^ufrom this body of death? ^25vI thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.