Paul’s conversation partner posed a question that must be asked in light of v. 5. In 7:5 Paul had said that “while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.” If so, “What then should we say? That the law is sin?” To which the apostle replied: “By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ ”