Lectionary Calendar
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025
the Week of Proper 11 / Ordinary 16
Attention!
Tired of seeing ads while studying? Now you can enjoy an "Ads Free" version of the site for as little as 10¢ a day and support a great cause!
Click here to learn more!

Read the Bible

THE MESSAGE

Romans 7:12

This verse is not available in the MSG!

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Good and Evil;   Justification;   Law;   Scofield Reference Index - Flesh;   Law of Moses;   Thompson Chain Reference - Bible, the;   Law;   Word;   Word, God's;   The Topic Concordance - Carnality;   Commandment;   Goodness;   Holiness;   Justice;   Law;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Law of God, the;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Law;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Goodness;   Law;   Sin;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Command, Commandment;   Death, Mortality;   Galatians, Theology of;   Law;   Legalism;   Paul the Apostle;   Sanctification;   Sin;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Law;   Sin;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Law;   Sin;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Custodian;   Death;   Good;   Law, Ten Commandments, Torah;   Romans, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Justification, Justify;   Law;   Man;   Romans, Epistle to the;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Commandment;   Goodness (Human);   Holiness Purity;   Interpretation;   Law;   Liberty;   Presence (2);   Regeneration;   Righteous, Righteousness;   Righteousness;   Romans Epistle to the;   Sin;   Sin (2);  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Saul of Tarsus;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Holiness;   Justification;   Law in the New Testament;   Pauline Theology;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Yeẓer Ha-Ra';  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.
King James Version (1611)
Wherefore the Law is holy, and the Commandement holy, and iust, and good.
King James Version
Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
English Standard Version
So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
New American Standard Bible
So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
New Century Version
So the law is holy, and the command is holy and right and good.
Amplified Bible
So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
Legacy Standard Bible
So, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
Berean Standard Bible
So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.
Contemporary English Version
Still, the Law and its commands are holy and correct and good.
Complete Jewish Bible
So the Torah is holy; that is, the commandment is holy, just and good.
Darby Translation
So that the law indeed [is] holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
Easy-to-Read Version
Now the law is holy, and the command is holy and right and good.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Wherefore the Lawe is holy, and that commandement is holy, and iust, and good.
George Lamsa Translation
Wherefore the law is holy and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
Good News Translation
So then, the Law itself is holy, and the commandment is holy, right, and good.
Lexham English Bible
So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
Literal Translation
So indeed the Law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.
American Standard Version
So that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.
Bible in Basic English
But the law is holy, and its orders are holy, upright, and good.
Hebrew Names Version
Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the mitzvah holy, and righteous, and good.
International Standard Version
So then, the law itself is holy, and the commandment is holy, just, and good.Psalm 19:8; 1 Timothy 1:8;">[xr]
Etheridge Translation
The law therefore is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
Murdock Translation
Wherefore, the law is holy; and the commandment is holy, and righteous, and good.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Wherfore the lawe is holy, and the commaundement holy, & iust and good.
English Revised Version
So that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.
World English Bible
So that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.
Wesley's New Testament (1755)
So that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
Weymouth's New Testament
So that the Law itself is holy, and the Commandment is holy, just and good.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Therfor the lawe is hooli, and the comaundement is hooli, and iust, and good.
Update Bible Version
So that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.
Webster's Bible Translation
Wherefore the law [is] holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
New English Translation
So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.
New King James Version
Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.
New Living Translation
But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good.
New Life Bible
The Law is holy. Each one of the Laws is holy and right and good.
New Revised Standard
So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
So that, the law, indeed, is holy, and the commandment, holy, and righteous and good.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Wherefore the law indeed is holy: and the commandment holy and just and good.
Revised Standard Version
So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.
Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Wherfore the lawe is holy and the commaundement holy iust and good.
Young's Literal Translation
so that the law, indeed, [is] holy, and the command holy, and righteous, and good.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
The lawe in dede is holy, and the commaundement holy, iust and good.
Mace New Testament (1729)
wherefore the law is holy; and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
Simplified Cowboy Version
There is nothing wrong with the Code. It is good and holy.

Contextual Overview

7 But I can hear you say, "If the law code was as bad as all that, it's no better than sin itself." That's certainly not true. The law code had a perfectly legitimate function. Without its clear guidelines for right and wrong, moral behavior would be mostly guesswork. Apart from the succinct, surgical command, "You shall not covet," I could have dressed covetousness up to look like a virtue and ruined my life with it. 8Don't you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of "forbidden fruit" out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me. Without all the paraphernalia of the law code, sin looked pretty dull and lifeless, and I went along without paying much attention to it. But once sin got its hands on the law code and decked itself out in all that finery, I was fooled, and fell for it. The very command that was supposed to guide me into life was cleverly used to trip me up, throwing me headlong. So sin was plenty alive, and I was stone dead. But the law code itself is God's good and common sense, each command sane and holy counsel. 13 I can already hear your next question: "Does that mean I can't even trust what is good [that is, the law]? Is good just as dangerous as evil?" No again! Sin simply did what sin is so famous for doing: using the good as a cover to tempt me to do what would finally destroy me. By hiding within God's good commandment, sin did far more mischief than it could ever have accomplished on its own.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the law: Romans 7:14, Romans 3:31, Romans 12:2, Deuteronomy 4:8, Deuteronomy 10:12, Nehemiah 9:13, Psalms 19:7-12, Psalms 119:38, Psalms 119:86, Psalms 119:127, Psalms 119:137, Psalms 119:140, Psalms 119:172, 1 Timothy 1:8

the commandment: Romans 7:7

Reciprocal: 2 Kings 18:3 - right in the sight Job 33:27 - right Psalms 19:8 - is pure Psalms 33:4 - the word Psalms 111:8 - are done Psalms 119:47 - which Psalms 119:62 - thy Psalms 119:128 - I esteem Proverbs 30:5 - word Isaiah 42:21 - he will Hosea 8:12 - written Hosea 14:9 - for Romans 7:16 - I consent 2 Corinthians 3:7 - was Ephesians 6:1 - for James 1:25 - the perfect James 4:11 - speaketh evil of the law 2 Peter 2:21 - holy 1 John 5:3 - and

Cross-References

Genesis 7:17
The flood continued forty days and the waters rose and lifted the ship high over the Earth. The waters kept rising, the flood deepened on the Earth, the ship floated on the surface. The flood got worse until all the highest mountains were covered—the high-water mark reached twenty feet above the crest of the mountains. Everything died. Anything that moved—dead. Birds, farm animals, wild animals, the entire teeming exuberance of life—dead. And all people—dead. Every living, breathing creature that lived on dry land died; he wiped out the whole works—people and animals, crawling creatures and flying birds, every last one of them, gone. Only Noah and his company on the ship lived.
Exodus 24:18
Moses entered the middle of the Cloud and climbed the mountain. Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
Deuteronomy 9:18
Then I prostrated myself before God , just as I had at the beginning of the forty days and nights. I ate no food; I drank no water. I did this because of you, all your sins, sinning against God , doing what is evil in God 's eyes and making him angry. I was terrified of God 's furious anger, his blazing anger. I was sure he would destroy you. But once again God listened to me. And Aaron! How furious he was with Aaron—ready to destroy him. But I prayed also for Aaron at that same time.
Deuteronomy 10:10
I stayed there on the mountain forty days and nights, just as I did the first time. And God listened to me, just as he did the first time: God decided not to destroy you.
1 Kings 19:8
He got up, ate and drank his fill, and set out. Nourished by that meal, he walked forty days and nights, all the way to the mountain of God, to Horeb. When he got there, he crawled into a cave and went to sleep. Then the word of God came to him: "So Elijah, what are you doing here?"

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Therefore the law is holy,.... This is a conclusion or inference drawn from the preceding discourse, in commendation of the law; that standing clear of any charge or imputation of sin, as being the cause of it. This epithet the apostle gives to the law is what the Jews frequently give it; worthy are the Israelites, say they h,

"to whom is given אורייתא קדישא "the holy law"; in which they study day and night.''

By "the law" is meant the whole body of the precepts of it in general; and by

the commandment, either the same, or everyone of the commandments in particular, and especially that which is cited, "thou shall not covet". Some have thought that the three properties of it design the threefold division of the law; and suppose that by that which is "holy" is meant the ceremonial law, which sanctified to the purifying of the flesh; by that which is "just", the judicial law, which pointed out to the Jewish commonwealth what was right and wrong; and by that which is "good", the moral law in all its precepts: but nothing is more certain, than that the moral law is only spoken of in this context, which may be said to be

holy, because of its author, the holy God, from whom nothing can come but what is holy; and because of the matter of it, it is a transcript of the holy nature of God, a declaration of his holy will; it requires holiness both of heart and life; it forbids whatever is unholy, and commands nothing but what is holy; it teaches men to live holy, sober, righteous, and godly lives. It may be truly called

just, or righteous, as it demands perfect obedience to all its precepts, or it will not admit of it as a righteousness; as it pronounces guilty, curses and condemns for every disobedience of it; as it deals impartially with persons the transgressors of it; and as it acquits believers upon the foot of the righteousness of Christ, the fulfilling end of it. It is rightly called

good, from the author of it, God, from whom every good thing comes, and nothing else; from the matter of it, and from the use of it both to saints and sinners.

h Zohar in Gen. fol. 48. 4.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Wherefore - So that. The conclusion to which we come is, that the Law is not to be blamed, though these are its effects under existing circumstances. The source of all this is not the Law, but the corrupt nature of man. The Law is good; and yet the position of the apostle is true, that it is not adapted to purify the heart of fallen man. Its tendency is to excite increased guilt, conflict, alarm, and despair. This verse contains an answer to the question in Romans 7:7, “Is the law sin?”

Is holy - Is not sin; compare Romans 7:7. It is pure in its nature.

And the commandment - The word “commandment” is here synonymous with the Law. It properly means what is enjoined.

Holy - Pure.

Just - Righteous in its claims and penalties. It is not unequal in its exactions.

Good - In itself good; and in its own nature tending to produce happiness. The sin and condemnation of the guilty is not the fault of the Law. If obeyed, it would produce happiness everywhere. See a most beautiful description of the law of God in Psalms 19:7-11.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Romans 7:12. Wherefore the law is holy — As if he had said, to soothe his countrymen, to whom he had been showing the absolute insufficiency of the law either to justify or save from sin: I do not intimate that there is any thing improper or imperfect in the law as a rule of life: it prescribes what is holy, just, and good; for it comes from a holy, just, and good God. The LAW, which is to regulate the whole of the outward conduct, is holy; and the COMMANDMENT, Thou shalt not covet, which is to regulate the heart, is not less so. All is excellent and pure; but it neither pardons sin nor purifies the heart; and it is because it is holy, just, and good, that it condemns transgressors to death.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile