13. Does this mean that something that is good brought death to me? No! Sin used something that is good to bring death to me. This happened so that I could see what sin is really like. The command was used to show that sin is something very evil.
14. We know that the law is spiritual. But I am not spiritual. Sin rules me as if I were its slave.
15. I do not understand the things I do. I do not do the good things I want to do. And I do the bad things I hate to do.
16. And if I do not want to do the bad things I do, then that means that I agree that the law is good.
17. But I am not really the one who is doing these bad things. It is sin living in me that does these things.
18. Yes, I know that nothing good lives in me—I mean nothing good lives in the part of me that is earthly and sinful. I want to do the things that are good. But I do not do them.
19. I do not do the good things that I want to do. I do the bad things that I do not want to do.
20. So if I do things I do not want to do, then I am not the one doing those things. It is sin living in me that does those bad things.
21. So I have learned this rule: When I want to do good, evil is there with me.
22. In my mind, I am happy with God’s law.