Rom 7:10, 12, Gal 3:21 | JFB | STEP | 10, 11. And —thus. the commandment, which was, &c.—designed to —give life —through the keeping of it. I found to be unto death —through breaking it. For sin —my sinful nature. taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me —or "seduced me"—drew me aside into the very thing which the commandment forbade. and by it slew me —"discovered me to myself to be a condemned and gone man" (compare , "I died ").

Romans 7:10

10, 11. And—thus.

the commandment, which was, &c.—designed

to—give

life—through the keeping of it.

I found to be unto death—through breaking it.

For sin—my sinful nature.

taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me—or "seduced me"—drew me aside into the very thing which the commandment forbade.

and by it slew me—"discovered me to myself to be a condemned and gone man" (compare Ro 7:9, "I died").

Romans 7:12

12, 13. Wherefore—"So that."

the law is—"is indeed"

good, and the commandment—that one so often referred to, which forbids all lusting.

holy, and just, and good.

Galatians 3:21

21. "Is the law (which involves a mediator) against the promises of God (which are without a mediator, and rest on God alone and immediately)? God forbid."

life—The law, as an externally prescribed rule, can never internally impart spiritual life to men naturally dead in sin, and change the disposition. If the law had been a law capable of giving life, "verily (in very reality, and not in the mere fancy of legalists) righteousness would have been by the law (for where life is, there righteousness, its condition, must also be)." But the law does not pretend to give life, and therefore not righteousness; so there is no opposition between the law and the promise. Righteousness can only come through the promise to Abraham, and through its fulfilment in the Gospel of grace.