We are released by Christ from the law and from the guilt of sin, though the inclination to it still tempts us.

¹ Or do you not know, brothers, (now I am speaking to those who know the law) that the law has dominion over a man only so long as he lives?¹

1. 7:1As long as it lives: or, as long as he lives.(Challoner)

² For example, a woman who is subject to a husband is obligated by the law while her husband lives. But when her husband has died, she is released from the law of her husband.

³ Therefore, while her husband lives, if she has been with another man, she should be called an adulteress. But when her husband has died, she is freed from the law of her husband, such that, if she has been with another man, she is not an adulteress.

⁴ And so, my brothers, you also have become dead to the law, through the body of Christ, so that you may be another one who has risen from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.

⁵ For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, which were under the law, operated within our bodies, so as to bear fruit unto death.

⁶ But now we have been released from the law of death, by which we were being held, so that now we may serve with a renewed spirit, and not in the old way, by the letter.

⁷ What should we say next? Is the law sin? Let it not be so! But I do not know sin, except through the law. For example, I would not have known about coveting, unless the law said: “You shall not covet.”

⁸ But sin, receiving an opportunity through the commandment, wrought in me all manner of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.¹

1. 7:8Sin taking occasion: Sin, or concupiscence, which is called sin, because it is from sin, and leads to sin, which was asleep before, was weakened by the prohibition: the law not being the cause thereof, nor properly giving occasion to it: but occasion being taken by our corrupt nature to resist the commandment laid upon us.(Challoner)

⁹ Now I lived for some time apart from the law. But when the commandment had arrived, sin was revived,

¹⁰ and I died. And the commandment, which was unto life, was itself found to be unto death for me.

¹¹ For sin, receiving an opportunity through the commandment, seduced me, and, through the law, sin killed me.

¹² And so, the law itself is indeed holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

¹³ Then was what is good made into death for me? Let it not be so! But rather sin, in order that it might be known as sin by what is good, wrought death in me; so that sin, through the commandment, might become sinful beyond measure.¹

1. 7:13That it may appear sin, or that sin may appear, viz: To be the monster it is, which is even capable to take occasion from that which is good, to work death.(Challoner)

¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual. But I am carnal, having been sold under sin.

¹⁵ For I do things that I do not understand. For I do not do the good that I want to do. But the evil that I hate is what I do.¹

1. 7:15I do not that good which I will, etc: The apostle here describes the disorderly motions of passion and concupiscence; which oftentimes in us get the start of reason: and by means of which even good men suffer in the inferior appetite what their will abhors: and are much hindered in the accomplishment of the desires of their spirit and mind. But these evil motions, (though they are called the law of sin, because they come from original sin, and violently tempt and incline to sin,) as long as the will does not consent to them, are not sins, because they are not voluntary.(Challoner)

¹⁶ So, when I do what I do not want to do, I am in agreement with the law, that the law is good.

¹⁷ But I am then acting not according to the law, but according to the sin which lives within me.

¹⁸ For I know that what is good does not live within me, that is, within my flesh. For the willingness to do good lies close to me, but the carrying out of that good, I cannot reach.¹

1. 7:18The verb ‘invenio’ does not always mean to find or to discover. It can also refer to an attempt to achieve something, to what one might manage to do.(Conte)

¹⁹ For I do not do the good that I want to do. But instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do.

²⁰ Now if I do what I am not willing to do, it is no longer I who am doing it, but the sin which lives within me.

²¹ And so, I discover the law, by wanting to do good within myself, though evil lies close beside me.

²² For I am delighted with the law of God, according to the inner man.

²³ But I perceive another law within my body, fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me with the law of sin which is in my body.

²⁴ Unhappy man that I am, who will free me from this body of death?

²⁵ The grace of God, by Jesus Christ our Lord! Therefore, I serve the law of God with my own mind; but with the flesh, the law of sin.