Readings for Lent and Easter

⁷ So what is the story? Is the law itself sin? Absolutely not! It is the exact opposite. I would never have known what sin is if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known that desiring something that belongs to my neighbor is sin if the law had not said, “You are not to covet.”^{[a] 8} Sin took advantage of the commandment to create a constant stream of greed and desire within me; I began to want everything. You see, apart from the law, sin lies dormant. ⁹ There was a time when I was living without the law, but the commandment came and changed everything: sin came to life, and I died. ¹⁰ This commandment was supposed to bring life; but in my experience, it brought death. ¹¹ Sin took advantage of the commandment, tricked me, and exploited it in order to kill me. ¹² So hear me out: the law is holy; and its commandments are holy, right, and good.

¹³ So did the good law bring about my death? Absolutely not! It was sin that killed me, not the law. It’s the nature of sin to produce death through what is good and exploit the commandments to multiply sin’s vile effects. ¹⁴ This is what we know: the law comes from the spiritual realm. My problem is that I am of the fallen human realm, owned by sin, which tries to keep me in its service.