Red, Paul is telling us his personal history of coming to a consciousness of sin (vv.7-11). He is doing this to give us and understanding of what we call the age of accountability. In verses 1-6, Paul described the brothers as being released from the law. That would seem to imply that there was something wrong in the law. Paul now begins to show us that the law is not wrong. He says, "What then shall we say? That the law is sin?" His answer was, "By no means!" He then goes on to point out that without the law, he would have not known sin (v.7). Then he says that without the law, there is no such thing as sin. He says, apart from the law, sin lies dead. Paul has already in Romans 4:15 declared that "where there is no law there is no transgression".
It is important here to understand that Paul is not necessarily talking about the law of Moses, but law systems in general. Remember, again, Paul has already noted in Romans 2 that " Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them." Thus, we see here that sin, by biblical definition, exists only by way of the law. Sin is lawlessness (2 Pet 2:8; 1 John 3:4). All of this is quite in line with Romans 5:13, "sin is not counted where there is no law".
Thus, all of this is in contradistinction to any notion that newborn children sin or are sinners. Moreover, Paul is proclaiming here that until they become knowledgeable and conscious of right and wrong, they do not sin. Sin is not imputed to them. That is clearly mandated by Paul's declaration in Romans 7:9, " I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died".
Until such time in his life that he became consciously aware of the law, he was alive. He was not dead in trespasses and sins. But only through the law, and recognizing it to be law, did sin come alive, and it was only then that he died. It was only at that point in life that Paul became a sinner and needed to be saved.
He then proceeds to explain the stress, the internal anxiousness and perplexity in doing what he knows to be right. We, just like Paul, continue to fight with ourselves to do what we know to be the right thing. Paul then asks the question, "if all that is true, then who can set it right?" Specifically, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death" (7:24)?
The answer to that very pointed question begins in Chapter 8 to explain that victory over sin comes through the Holy Spirit. The first verse in chapter 8 is one of my favorite verses in the Bible; "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus".
