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The Battle with Sin

(A) Does this mean that the Law is sinful? Certainly not! But if it had not been for the Law, I would not have known what sin is really like. For example, I would not have known what it means to want something that belongs to someone else, unless the Law had told me not to do this. It was sin that used this command as a way of making me have all kinds of desires. But without the Law, sin is dead.

Before I knew about the Law, I was alive. But as soon as I heard that command, sin came to life,

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The Law and Sin

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) 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) Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.

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Footnotes

  1. Romans 7:7 Exodus 20:17; Deut. 5:21