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What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, 1I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if 2the law had not said, "You shall not covet."
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But sin, 3seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. 4For apart from the law, sin lies dead.
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I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.
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The very commandment 5that promised life proved to be death to me.
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For sin, 6seizing an opportunity through the commandment, 7deceived me and through it killed me.
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So 8the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
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Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
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For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, 9sold under sin.
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For I do not understand my own actions. For 10I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
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Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with 11the law, that it is good.
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So now 12it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
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For I know that nothing good dwells 13in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
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14For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
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Now if I do what I do not want, 15it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
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So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
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For 16I delight in the law of God, 17in my inner being,
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but I see in my members 18another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
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Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from 19this body of death?
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Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.