The Law and Sin

⁷ What shall we say, then?^(A) Is the law sinful? Certainly not!^(B) Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law.^(C) For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”^{[a](D) 8} But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment,^(E) produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.^{(F) 9} Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. ¹⁰ I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life^(G) actually brought death.

¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.^{(A) 16} And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.^{(B) 17} As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.^{(C) 18} For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.^[a](D) For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.^{(E) 20} Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.^(F)

²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?^{(A) 25} Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!^(B)

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law,^(C) but in my sinful nature^[a] a slave to the law of sin.^(D)