7. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid! But I did not know sin, except through the law. I would not have known coveting if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
8. But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law sin is dead.
9. I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
10. And the commandment, which was intended for life, proved to be death in me.
11. For sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and killed me through it.
12. So then, the law is holy and the commandment is holy and just and good.
13. Therefore has that which is good become death unto me? God forbid! Rather, sin, that it might be shown to be sin, was working death in me through that which is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.
14. We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15. For what I am doing, I do not understand, for I do not practice what I will to do, but I do the very thing I hate.
16. But if I practice what I do not will to do, I agree with the law that it is good.
17. So now it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.