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. ¹¹ For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment,^(H) deceived me,^(I) and through the commandment put me to death. ¹² So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.^(J)

²¹ So I find this law at work:^(A) Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²² For in my inner being^(B) I delight in God’s law;^{(C) 23} but I see another law at work in me, waging war^(D) against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin^(E) at work within me. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?^{(F) 25} Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!^(G)

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