So I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life actually brought death.
Parallel translations
- WEB The commandment, which was for life, this I found to be for death;
- KJV And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
- NKJV And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.
- NASB and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me;
- NLT and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The commandment meant to give life instead brought death, because of indwelling sin. The fault lies not in the law but in our corrupt nature.
Overview
The law promised life to those who kept it, but in sinful people it became an instrument of death. This tragic reversal arises not from a defect in the commandment but from sin's exploitation of it. The verse highlights humanity's inability to find life through law-keeping.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- 2 Cor 3:7Now if the ministry of death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at the face of Moses because of its fleeting glory,
- Rom 10:5For concerning the righteousness that is by the law, Moses writes: “The man who does these things will live by them.”
- Lev 18:5Keep My statutes and My judgments, for the man who does these things will live by them. I am the LORD.
- Gal 3:12The law, however, is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them.”
- Ezek 20:21But the children rebelled against Me. They did not walk in My statutes or carefully observe My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they profaned My Sabbaths. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the wilderness.
- Luke 10:27–29He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
- Ezek 20:11And I gave them My statutes and made known to them My ordinances—for the man who does these things will live by them.
- Ezek 20:13Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not follow My statutes and they rejected My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they utterly profaned My Sabbaths. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and put an end to them in the wilderness.
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 7:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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