Readings for Lent and Easter

Sin’s Use of the Law

⁷ What should we say then?^(A) Is the law sin? Absolutely not!^(B) On the contrary, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law.^(C) For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet.^{(D)[a] 8} And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment,^(E) produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead.^{(F) 9} Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life ¹⁰ and I died. The commandment that was meant for life^(G) resulted in death for me. ¹¹ For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me,^(H) and through it killed me. ¹² So then, the law is holy,^(I) and the commandment is holy and just and good.

The Problem of Sin in Us

¹³ Therefore, did what is good cause my death?^[b] Absolutely not!^(J) On the contrary, sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure. ¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual,^(K) but I am made out of flesh,^[c] sold^(L) into sin’s power.^(M)