Sin’s Use of the Law

⁷ What should we say then?^(A) Is the law sin? Absolutely not!^(B) But 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.^[a](D)

¹⁰ and I died. The commandment that was meant for life^(A) resulted in death for me. ¹¹ For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me,^(B) and through it killed me. ¹² So then, the law is holy,^(C) and the commandment is holy and just and good. ¹³ Therefore, did what is good become death to me? Absolutely not!^(D) But sin, in order to be recognised as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.

The Problem of Sin in Us

¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual,^(E) but I am of the flesh,^[a] sold^(F) as a slave under sin.^{(G) 15} For I do not understand what I am doing,^(H) because I do not practise what I want to do,^(I) but I do what I hate. ¹⁶ Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. ¹⁷ So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh.^(J) For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practise the evil that I do not want to do. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me. ²¹ So I discover this law:^[b](K) When I want to do what is good,^[c] evil is present with me. ²² For in my inner self^[d] I delight in God’s law,^{(L) 23} but I see a different law in the parts of my body,^[e](M) waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?^{(N) 25} Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!^(O) So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.

⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin^(A) is the law.^(B)

Law and Promise

¹⁰ For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse,^(A) because it is written,^(B) Everyone who does not do everything written in the book of the law is cursed.^[a](C)