Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.
Parallel translations
- WEB I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
- KJV For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
- NKJV I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
- NASB I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin came to life, and I died;
- NLT At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life,
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
Paul describes being 'alive' before the law's full impact, but when the commandment came home, sin sprang to life and he died. Confronted by God's law, he saw himself spiritually condemned.
Overview
Paul recounts an experience of self-understanding many take as representing the encounter between a person and the convicting law. A former, untroubled sense of life gave way to spiritual death when the commandment exposed sin's true power. Christians differ on whether this depicts Paul's pre-conversion awakening or a representative experience, but all agree it shows the law's power to slay self-righteous confidence.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 20
- Gal 3:10All who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”
- Rom 8:7because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
- Jas 2:10–11Whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
- Rom 7:4Therefore, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.
- Gal 2:19For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God.
- Rom 10:5For concerning the righteousness that is by the law, Moses writes: “The man who does these things will live by them.”
- Rom 7:21–23So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
- Rom 7:6But now, having died to what bound us, we have been released from the law, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
- Rom 7:11For sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through the commandment put me to death.
- Phil 3:5–6circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin; a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;
- Rom 3:19–20Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
- Luke 18:9–12To some who trusted in their own righteousness and viewed others with contempt, He also told this parable:
- Luke 15:29But he answered his father, ‘Look, all these years I have served you and never disobeyed a commandment of yours. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.
- Matt 19:20“All these I have kept,” said the young man. “What do I still lack?”
- Luke 10:25–29One day an expert in the law stood up to test Him. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
- Matt 5:21–26You have heard that it was said to the ancients, ‘Do not murder’ and ‘Anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’
- Luke 18:21“All these I have kept from my youth,” he said.
- Ps 40:12For evils without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, so that I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart has failed within me.
- Mark 7:8–13You have disregarded the commandment of God to keep the tradition of men.”
- Matt 15:4–6For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’
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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 7:9 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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