Romans 7:10–25

¹⁰and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.^{* 11}For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ¹²So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.^*

¹³Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin that was working death in me through what is good, in order that it might be shown to be sin, so that through the commandment sin might become sinful beyond measure.

The Inner Conflict

¹⁴For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin.^{g 15}I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.^{* 16}Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷But in fact it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸For I know that the good does not dwell within me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability.^{* 19}For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me.

²¹So I find it to be a law that, when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. ²²For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self,^{* 23}but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.^{* 24}Wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God^h through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, with my mind I am enslaved to the law of God, but with my flesh I am enslaved to the law of sin.