7 So what do we conclude? That the law is sin? Of course not! I wouldn’t have known what sin was unless the law defined it. I wouldn’t have realized that wanting to have other people’s things for myself was wrong without the law that says, "Don’t desire for yourself what belongs to someone else."7:7. Quoting Exodus 20:17 or Deuteronomy 5:21. 8 But through this commandment sin found a way to stir up in me all kinds of selfish desires—for without law, sin is dead.
17 So it’s no longer me who does this, but sin living in me— 18 for I know that there’s nothing good in me as far as my sinful human nature is concerned. Even though I want to do good, I’m just not able to do it. 19 The good I want to do, I don’t do; while the evil I don’t want to do, that’s what I end up doing! 20 However, if I’m doing what I don’t want to, then it’s no longer me doing it, but sin living in me.
23 but I see a different law at work within me that is at war with the law my mind has decided to follow, making me a prisoner of the law of sin that is within me.