John Calvin Commentary Romans 7:8

"but sin, finding occasion, wrought in me through the commandment all manner of coveting: for apart from the law sin [is] dead." — Romans 7:8 (ASV)

But an occasion being taken, etc. From sin, then, and the corruption of the flesh, every evil proceeds; the law is only the occasion.

And though he may seem to speak only of that provocation by which our lusting is instigated through the law, so that it boils out with greater fury, yet I refer this primarily to the knowledge the law conveys, as though he had said, “It has revealed to me every lust or coveting which, being hidden, seemed somehow not to exist.”

I do not, however, deny that the flesh is more sharply stimulated to lusting by the law, and thereby also more clearly reveals itself (which may also have been the case with Paul); but what I have said about the knowledge it brings seems to harmonize better with the context, for he immediately adds —

For without the law, etc. He expresses most clearly the meaning of his former words; for it is as though he had said that the knowledge of sin without the law is buried. It is a general truth, which he then applies to his own case. Therefore, I wonder what could have come into the minds of interpreters to render the passage in the preterimperfect tense, as though Paul were speaking of himself; for it is easy to see that his purpose was to begin with a general proposition and then to explain the subject by his own example.