Sin is the divided self

(…) sin is not the breaking of a rule, it’s not a legal offence. It’s made into a legal offence if we get hung up on the law, which is meant just to control things. But sin itself is not a legal matter. Sin is the divided self. Sin is the state of self-alienation. And St Paul describes it in graphic terms. He says, ‘What I want to do, I do not do. What I do not want to do, that is what I end up doing.’ (Rom 7:15) 

Grace at Work by Laurence Freeman OSB