Verse 9 I was alive; free from any special or aggravated outward guilt.--Without the law; at the period, whenever that period might have been, before the requirements of the divine law had been clearly brought to my mind.--Sin revived; was aroused to a state of activity, as explained in the Romans 7:7,8.--And I died; was involved in open guilt and ruin. This last expression has sometimes been understood to refer to the humility and self-abasement produced by conviction of sin, under a just appreciation of the divine law; but such a state of mind is spiritually good, whereas the whole context shows that the effect here spoken of, as resulting from the exhibition of the law, was an evil effect. This seems to be placed beyond question by the Romans 7:10,11.