Romans 7:10
ESV
The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.
NIV
I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.
NASB
and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me;
CSB
and I died. The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me.
NLT
and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead.
KJV
And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
NKJV
And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.
What does Romans 7:10 mean?
In the previous verse, Paul wrote that he died, spiritually, when he became aware of the law. This is meant in the sense of Paul's own perspective: coming to a realization that he was not righteous, or "good," but a sinner. Knowing God's command not to covet, for example, suddenly made Paul aware of how covetous he really was. Thanks to his sin nature, there were ways in which it made him desire to covet even more.Now he writes that the commandments promised life. That is, some believed the purpose of the law was to show human beings how to live in order to be righteous before God. If we will just keep the commandments, in other words, God will give us life. True though that may be, in a literal sense, Paul writes once more that the law could not actually keep any such promise. Why? Because nobody can keep the commands of the law (Romans 3:10, 23). We all break them. Paul wrote that learning of the law proved only that he was spiritually dead and unable to do what pleased God.
