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Then what are we saying? Is the Law sinful? No, not at all! But it was the Law that showed me what sin is. I did not know it was sin to follow wrong desires, but the Law said, “You must not follow wrong desires.” The Law made me know how much I was sinning. It showed me how I had a desire for all kinds of things. For without the Law, sin is dead. I was once alive. That was when I did not know what the Law said I had to do. Then I found that I had broken the Law. I knew I was a sinner. Death was mine because of the Law.

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The Law and Sin

What shall we say, then?(A) Is the law sinful? Certainly not!(B) Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law.(C) For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”[a](D) But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment,(E) produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.(F) Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.

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Footnotes

  1. Romans 7:7 Exodus 20:17; Deut. 5:21