7What are we to say, then? That Law and sin are the same thing? Heaven forbid! On the contrary, I should not have learnt what sin is, had not it been for Law. If the Law did not say ‘You must not covet,’ I should not know what it is to covet.
8But sin took advantage of the Commandment to arouse in me every form of covetousness, for where there is no consciousness of Law sin shows no sign of life.
9There was a time when I myself, unconscious of Law, was alive; but when the Commandment was brought home to me, sin sprang into life, while I died!
10The Commandment that should have meant life I found to result in death!
11sin took advantage of the Commandment to deceive me, and used it to bring about my death.
12And so the Law is holy, and each Commandment is also holy, and just, and good.
13Did, then, a thing, which in itself was good, involve death in my case? Heaven forbid! It was sin that involved death; so that, by its use of what I regarded as good to bring about my death, its true nature might appear; and in this way the Commandment showed how intensely sinful sin is.
14We know that the Law is spiritual, but I am earthly — sold into slavery to sin.
15I do not understand my own actions. For I am so far from habitually doing what I want to do, that I find myself doing the thing that I hate.
16But when I do what I want not to do, I am admitting that the Law is right.
17This being so, the action is no longer my own, but is done by the sin which is within me.
18I know that there is nothing good in me — I mean in my earthly nature. For, although it is easy for me to want to do right, to act rightly is not easy.
19I fail to do the good thing that I want to do, but the bad thing that I want not to do — that I habitually do.
Romans 7
Romans 7:7-19