Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Romans 7:13

"Did then that which is good become death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through that which is good; --that through the commandment sin might become exceeding sinful." — Romans 7:13 (ASV)

Having detached the law from any wrongful association with sin, Paul must still treat the problem of its relation to death, the other great enemy of the human race. Continuing to present the case in personal terms, he protests that the responsibility for incurring death must be assigned to sin rather than to the law. By using the law to bring death, sin shows how “utterly sinful” it is. At the same time, the law, which seemed to be victimized by being taken over by sin, emerges as having gained an important objective. It has exposed sin for the evil thing it is.

From this point on to the end of the chapter, the personal emphasis continues, and with increased intensity. The powerful forces of law and sin are depicted as producing a struggle that ends in a confession of despair, relieved only by the awareness that in Jesus Christ there is deliverance. Paul does not shrink from putting himself prominently in this arena of conflict if only his doing so will help others (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:6).

A shift of emphasis is discernible on moving from vv.7–13 to vv.14–25. In the former section Paul has shown that the fault lay not with the commandment of God but with sin in its use of the commandment. In the latter section he will maintain that the responsible party, ultimately speaking, is not “I” but the sin that dwells within.