Romans 7:12-13

“ So that the law assuredly is holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good. Did then that which is good become death unto me? Let it not be so! But sin, that it might appear sin, wrought death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. ”

The result formulated in these two verses is this: The holier the law is, the more does sin, which has used it to produce evil, appear thereby in the blackness of its nature.

The apostle begins, in view of the result indicated, by removing from the law all suspicion of blame. The μέν, undoubtedly, has no corresponding δέ, but. So far as the sense goes, the δέ is found in Romans 7:13 b This μέν is intended to guard beforehand the unassailable character of the law. Whatever may be said afterward, nothing shall invalidate the character of holiness belonging to the law. The law, ὁ νόμος, here denotes the Mosaic system in its entirety, and the commandment ἡ ἐντολή, each article of the code in particular. The term ἅγιος, holy, is the word which in Scripture denotes the perfect love of good; when it is applied to God, it is the identity of His will with goodness; when it is applied to the creature, it is his voluntary consecration to God, the one Being essentially good. The law is holy, precisely because it demands this consecration, and the commandment also, because each commandment only demands this consecration in a particular relation. The two characteristics just and good flow from and are included in that of holiness. The commandment is just (δικαία), because it regulates in a normal way the relations between different beings. It is good (ἀγαθή), in the sense of beneficent; this epithet is explained by the preceding words: fitted to give life (Romans 7:10).