Romans 7:13-15

Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin. For I don’t know what I am doing. For I don’t practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do.

One of the big problems we have as humans is that we don’t realize just how sinful sin is. We tend to justify it, act like it isn’t that bad, or even ignore it completely. God’s good Law does not allow us to do these things. It makes sin look really bad because that’s what it really is.

The problem is that The Law is spiritual and we are earthly, unspiritual people without God. We actually can’t do good even when we try. We are slaves to sin. As Christians, we can even desire to do what The Law says and still not be able to do it. Not only that, we end up doing what we hate to do instead!

This only proves what Paul is saying. We, by ourselves, can’t do what is right. We can’t live up to the good things that God tells us to do. We know the good things we should do, but we don’t have any idea how to do them. Even if we have the desire to follow the rules, it isn’t enough unless we know how to follow them.

So we still have an ignorance problem. We have the rules, but we lack the knowledge about how to follow them. Just trying to do it doesn’t work.