¹⁵ For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law, neither is there transgression.^(A)

¹³ for sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law.

¹⁰ For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law.”^(A)

¹⁹ Now we know that, whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God.^{(A) 20} For no human will be justified before him by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.^(B)

⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.^(A)

The Law and Sin

⁷ What then are we to say? That the law is sin? 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.”^{(A) 8} But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law sin lies dead.^{(B) 9} I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived ¹⁰ and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.^{(C) 11} For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ¹² So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.^(D)

¹³ Did 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

¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin.^{[a] 15} I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.^{(E) 16} Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ But in fact it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸ For 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.^{(F) 19} For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me.

²¹ So I find it to be a law that, when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. ²² For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self,^{(G) 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.^{(H) 24} Wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God^[b] 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.

³⁶ Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life but must endure God’s wrath.^(A)

⁴ Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.^(A)

²⁰ But law came in, so that the trespass might increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,^{(A) 21} so that, just as sin reigned in death, so grace might also reign through justification leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

⁶ Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on those who are disobedient.^[a](A)