Romans 7:6

Delivered] RV 'discharged.' That being dead] RV 'having died to that,' i.e. to the Law. Spirit] RV 'the spirit.' In the new state, the spiritual part of the man has been emancipated, and has become the predominant part of him. He lives, as it were, in a spiritual world, and has become a spiritual person; and therefore desires to carry out God's will freely and fully. In the old state, his obedience was constrained, and therefore limited, by a written code.

7-13. Although, in order that we might truly serve God, it was necessary that we should be set free from the Law (Romans 7:1), yet the Law is not evil. On the contrary, it does God's work, for it detects the sinfulness hidden in the soul, and exposes it in its true nature.

Paraphrase. '(7) Are we to infer (e.g. from Romans 7:5) that the Law is evil? Not so: the Law brings sin to light. For example, the tenth commandment made me conscious of the sin of coveting. (8) Not only so, but my sin became active when there was a commandment to resist, so that I coveted all the more because coveting is forbidden. Without law, sin is dormant. (9) So it was with me; my conscience was untroubled until I realised the commandment, then sin sprang to life, and I knew myself to be dead before God. (10) How startling a consequence of a commandment which pointed the way to spiritual life! (11) But it was the fault of sin within, which persuaded me to love that which I knew the commandment forbade, not the fault of the commandment, (12) which is holy and righteous and beneficent. (13) Thus I realised the exceeding wickedness of the sin within me, for it not only brought me to death, but did so by preventing the beneficent commandment from having any other effect than that of awakening my resistance.'