of what was good, it might be seen in its true light as sin,
in order that by means of the Commandment the unspeakable
sinfulness of sin might be plainly shown.
007:014 For we know that the Law is a spiritual thing; but I am unspiritual--
the slave, bought and sold, of sin.
007:015 For what I do, I do not recognize as my own action.
What I desire to do is not what I do, but what I am averse
to is what I do.
007:016 But if I do that which I do not desire to do, I admit
the excellence of the Law,
007:017 and now it is no longer I that do these things, but the sin
which has its home within me does them.
007:018 For I know that in me, that is, in my lower self, nothing good has
its home; for while the will to do right is present with me,
the power to carry it out is not.
007:019 For what I do is not the good thing that I desire to do;
but the evil thing that I desire not to do, is what
I constantly do.
007:020 But if I do that which I desire not to do, it can no longer
be said that it is I who do it, but the sin which has its home
within me does it.
007:021 I find therefore the law of my nature to be that when I desire
to do what is right, evil is lying in ambush for me.
007:022 For in my inmost self all my sympathy is with the Law of God;
007:023 but I discover within me a different Law at war with the Law
of my understanding, and leading me captive to the Law
which is everywhere at work in my body--the Law of sin.
007:024 (Unhappy man that I am! who will rescue me from
this death-burdened body?
007:025 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!) To sum up then,