^15 (A)I do not understand what I do; for I don't do what I would like to do, but instead I do what I hate. ¹⁶ Since what I do is what I don't want to do, this shows that I agree that the Law is right. ¹⁷ So I am not really the one who does this thing; rather it is the sin that lives in me. ¹⁸ I know that good does not live in me—that is, in my human nature. For even though the desire to do good is in me, I am not able to do it. ¹⁹ I don't do the good I want to do; instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do. ²⁰ If I do what I don't want to do, this means that I am no longer the one who does it; instead, it is the sin that lives in me.

²¹ So I find that this law is at work: when I want to do what is good, what is evil is the only choice I have. ²² My inner being delights in the law of God. ²³ But I see a different law at work in my body—a law that fights against the law which my mind approves of. It makes me a prisoner to the law of sin which is at work in my body.