¹⁴ When Gentiles, who do not have the Law [since it was given only to Jews], do ^[a]instinctively the things the Law requires [guided only by their conscience], they are a law to themselves, though they do not have the Law. ¹⁵ They show that the ^[b]essential requirements of the Law are written in their hearts; and their conscience [their sense of right and wrong, their moral choices] bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or perhaps defending them ¹⁶ on that day when, ^[c]as my gospel proclaims, God will judge the secrets [all the hidden thoughts and concealed sins] of men through Christ Jesus.^(A)

Believers United to Christ

7 Or do you not know, ^[a]brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the Law), that the Law has jurisdiction [to rule] over a person as long as he lives?

⁷ What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, if it had not been for the Law, I would not have recognized sin. For I would not have known [for example] about coveting [what belongs to another, and would have had no sense of guilt] if the Law had not [repeatedly] said, “You shall not covet.”^(A)