5. When we were self-centered, the sinful passions aroused through the Law were at work in all the parts of our body, so that we bore fruit for death.
6. But now we have been released from the Law. We have died with respect to the thing that controlled us, so that we can be slaves in the new life under the Spirit, not in the old life under the written Law.
7. So what are we going to say? That the Law is sin? Absolutely not! But I wouldn’t have known sin except through the Law. I wouldn’t have known the desire for what others have if the Law had not said, Don’t desire to take what others have.
8. But sin seized the opportunity and used this commandment to produce all kinds of desires in me. Sin is dead without the Law.
9. I used to be alive without the Law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life,
10. and I died. So the commandment that was intended to give life brought death.