Study Desk

I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate.

But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good.

So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.^[d] I want to do what is right, but I can't.

I want to do what is good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.

But if I do what I don't want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.

I love God's law with all my heart.

But there is another power^[e] within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.

Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?

Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.