John Calvin Commentary Romans 7:10

"and the commandment, which [was] unto life, this I found [to be] unto death:" — Romans 7:10 (ASV)

Was found by me, etc. Two things are stated here: first, that the commandment shows us a way of life in the righteousness of God, and second, that it was given so that by keeping the Lord's law we might obtain eternal life, unless our corruption stood in the way.

But since none of us obey the law but, on the contrary, are carried headlong on our feet and hands into that kind of life from which it calls us back, it can bring us nothing but death. We must therefore distinguish between the character of the law and our own wickedness.

It therefore follows that the law inflicts a deadly wound on us only incidentally, just as an incurable disease is further aggravated by a healing remedy. I indeed admit that this is an inseparable consequence, and therefore the law, when compared with the gospel, is called in another place the ministration of death. But this still remains unchanged: that it is not in its own nature harmful to us, but it becomes so because our corruption provokes and draws upon us its curse.