And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
Parallel translations
- WEB The commandment, which was for life, this I found to be for death;
- BSB So I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life actually brought 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 3:7But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
- Rom 10:5For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.
- Lev 18:5Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.
- Gal 3:12And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
- Ezek 20:21Notwithstanding the children rebelled against me: they walked not in my statutes, neither kept my judgments to do them, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted my sabbaths: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness.
- Luke 10:27–29And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
- Ezek 20:11And I gave them my statutes, and shewed them my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them.
- Ezek 20:13But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.