Romans 7:8,9 - Sin came alive and I died

7:8

Sin is described as almost a living force that exists within us. So when it is told that something is forbidden it sees this as an encouragement to do that very thing. Without the commandment sin lies dormant. Sin is still there, but because there is no command to do or not do something it is inactive. But when the commandment is given it knows what the right thing to do is, and therefore knows what the wrong thing to do is, so sets about doing the wrong thing. Sin is rebelliousness.

7:9

So Paul was once alive apart from the Law, but when the commandment came his inherent rebelliousness arose and he died, meaning spiritual death. Some see this as Paul seeing himself as Adam, and saying Adam did not sin until he was told not to eat the fruit of the particular tree. There seem to be a couple of problems with this. One is that it would imply that Adam was created sinful, for it would be saying that the sin was there, but dormant, from the beginning. Secondly, it doesn’t really fit with the narrative in Genesis. The matter of God creating beings that became sinful is a problem. Saying that God created beings that were sinful from the beginning cannot be right, and it doesn’t seem to be what Genesis says. So that leaves us with saying that God created beings that became sinful, which is closer to the Genesis narrative. This still leaves the problem of  why God created beings that could become sinful, but this is far less of a problem than God creating sinful beings. Perhaps the best explanation is that God created beings which had free will.