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.