Romans 7:13

So, if someone were to object saying, “ The laws that God gave Moses, which are good, ◄resulted in my being separated from God!/did they result in my being separated from God?► [RHQ]” I would reply, “Certainly they did not do that!” But instead, those laws, which are good, stimulated my desire to sin. I knew that the result was that I was separated from God. And also, because I learned what God had commanded, I knew that what I was doing was truly sinful.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

In Context

12So we conclude that the laws that God gave to Moses are holy. What God commanded about not coveting, along with all the other things that he commanded, is also holy, and it is just and good.

14We know that the laws that God gave Moses came from God’s Spirit. But as for me, I am influenced by my self-directed nature. It is as though I have been forced to become a slave of my desire to sin [MET].

Read all of Romans 7

Cross References

Romans 7:8And because of what that commandment stated, my sinful desire to have things that belong to others [PRS] caused me to covet in many ways. Our desire to sin is not stimulated [MET] when there is no law that prohibits our doing sinful things.

Galatians 3:21If someone should ask, “When God gave his laws to Moses long after he told Abraham what he was promising to give to him, was he changing his mind?” I would reply that God certainly did not change his mind when he did that! If God had given a law that could enable people to live eternally, then it actually would be because of people obeying that law that God would erase the record of their sins.

Matthew Henry on Romans 7:8-25

Excellency of the Law; Usefulness of the Law. ( a. d. 58.) 7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. 8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. 9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto… Read the whole commentary →

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Study Romans 7:13