7. Shall we say, then, that the Law itself is sinful? Of course not! But it was the Law that made me know what sin is. If the Law had not said, “Do not desire what belongs to someone else,” I would not have known such a desire.
8. But by means of that commandment sin found its chance to stir up all kinds of selfish desires in me. Apart from law, sin is a dead thing.
9. I myself was once alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life,
10. and I died. And the commandment which was meant to bring life, in my case brought death.
11. Sin found its chance, and by means of the commandment it deceived me and killed me.
12. So then, the Law itself is holy, and the commandment is holy, right, and good.
13. But does this mean that what is good caused my death? By no means! It was sin that did it; by using what is good, sin brought death to me, in order that its true nature as sin might be revealed. And so, by means of the commandment sin is shown to be even more terribly sinful.
14. We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
15. I do not understand what I do; for I don't do what I would like to do, but instead I do what I hate.
16. Since what I do is what I don't want to do, this shows that I agree that the Law is right.
17. So I am not really the one who does this thing; rather it is the sin that lives in me.
18. I know that good does not live in me — that is, in my human nature. For even though the desire to do good is in me, I am not able to do it.
19. I don't do the good I want to do; instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do.
20. If I do what I don't want to do, this means that I am no longer the one who does it; instead, it is the sin that lives in me.
21. So I find that this law is at work: when I want to do what is good, what is evil is the only choice I have.