Romans 7

1 Do you not know, brothers (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives?

Do you not know, brothers (for I am speaking to those who know law), that the law has authority over someone only as long as he lives?

2 For instance, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.

For example, a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if the man should die, she is released from the law about the husband.

3 So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law and is not an adulteress, even if she marries another man.

So then, if she should ‘marry’ another man while her husband is living, she will be labeled an adulteress; but if the husband should die, she is free from that law, not being an adulteress if she marries another man.

4 Therefore, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.

Therefore, my brothers, you also were put to death to the law through the body of the Christ so as to belong to another—to Him who was raised from the dead—so that we should produce fruit to God.

5 For when we lived according to the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death.

Because when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our body parts to produce fruit to death.

6 But now, having died to what bound us, we have been released from the law, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

But now we have been released from the law, having died to what was gripping us, so as to slave in newness of spirit and not in oldness of letter.

7 What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have been mindful of sin if not for the law. For I would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”

So what shall we say then? Is the law sin? Of course not! Indeed, I would not have come to know the sin except through the law: I would not have recognized covetousness if the law had not said, “You must not covet.”

8 But sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from the law, sin is dead.

But the sin, grasping an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. Now without the law sin is dead.

9 Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.

Once upon a time, without law, I was actually ‘alive’; but when the commandment came, the sin came to life and I died.

10 So I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life actually brought death.

Yes, the commandment that was to bring me life turned out to bring death.

11 For sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through the commandment put me to death.

Because the sin, grasping an opportunity through the commandment, completely deceived me, and used it to ‘kill’ me.

12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.

So then, the law itself is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Certainly not! But in order that sin might be exposed as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

So has what is good become death to me? Of course not! Rather the sin, that it might be exposed as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment the sin might become extremely sinful.

14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.

We know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, having been ‘sold’ under sin

15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do.

—you see, I do not understand what I am doing: I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate!

16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I admit that the law is good.

But if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good.

17 In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So now it is no longer I who am doing it, but the sin dwelling in me.

18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

Further, I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; because to will is present with me, but I do not find how to perform the good.

19 For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do.

Because I do not do the good that I want to do; rather I practice the evil that I do not want to do.

20 And if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin dwelling in me.

21 So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

So I find this ‘law’: when I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law.

I joyfully agree with God's law according to the inner man,

23 But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me.

but I see a different ‘law’ in my body parts, warring against the law of my mind and taking me captive to the law of the sin that is in my body parts.

24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

25 Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve God's law, but with the flesh, sin's law.