Romans 7:8-19

⁸But the sin, grasping an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. Now without the law sin is dead.

⁹Once upon a time, without law, I was actually ‘alive’; but when the commandment came, the sin came to life and I died.

¹⁰Yes, the commandment that was to bring me life turned out to bring death.

¹¹Because the sin, grasping an opportunity through the commandment, completely deceived me, and used it to ‘kill’ me.

¹²So then, the law itself is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

¹³So has what is good become death to me? Of course not! Rather the sin, that it might be exposed as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment the sin might become extremely sinful.

¹⁴We know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, having been ‘sold’ under sin

¹⁵—you see, I do not understand what I am doing: I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate!

¹⁶But if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good.

¹⁷So now it is no longer I who am doing it, but the sin dwelling in me.

¹⁸Further, I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; because to will is present with me, but I do not find how to perform the good.

¹⁹Because I do not do the good that I want to do; rather I practice the evil that I do not want to do.