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?

Surely, brothers, you know (for I am speaking to those who know what law means) that law governs a person only during his lifetime?

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 a married woman who has a husband is bound by law to her husband during his lifetime; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of her 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 during her husband lifetime, she unites herself with another man, she will be counted an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the Law, so that she is no adulteress, even if she unites herself with 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.

So also, my brother, you were made dead to the Law through the body of Christ; that you should be joined to another, even to Him who was raised from the dead that we might bear fruit for 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.

For while we were unspiritual, the sinful passions, aroused by the Law, were ever active in every part of our bodies, leading us to bear fruit unto 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, because we are dead to that in which we were held; so that we are now in thraldom in new and spiritual conditions, and not under the old written code.

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.”

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? Certainly not. On the contrary I should not have become acquainted with sin had it not been for the Law; for except the Law had repeatedly said, "Thou shalt not lust," I should never have known the sin of lust.

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 when sin had gained a vantage-ground, by means of the commandment, it stirred up within me all manner of lust; for where there is no 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 I lived apart from the Law, myself; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died;

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

and the very commandment which should have meant life, this I found to mean death.

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

For sin, when it had gained a vantage-ground through the commandment, beguiled me, and through it slew me.

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

So then the Law 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.

Did then that which was good become for me death? Never! but sin did; that it might be manifest as sin, by that the unutterable malignity of sin might become plain through the commandment.

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

For we know that the Law is spiritual; but as for me, I am a creature of flesh, bought and sold under the dominion of 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.

For what I perform I know not; what I practise is not what I intend to do, but what I detest, that I habitually do.

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

If then I habitually do what I do not intend to do, I am consenting to the Law, that it is right.

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

And now it is longer I myself who do the deed, but it is sin which has its home 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.

For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, no good thing has its home; for while to will is present with me, to carry out that which is right is not.

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.

For the good that I intend to do, I do not; but the evil which I do not; but the evil which I do not intend to do, that I am ever practising.

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.

But if I do the very thing I do not intend to do, it is no more I who practise it, but sin which has its home in me.

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

I find, then, this law, that when I intend to do good, evil is ever present with me.

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

For in my inmost self I delight in the law of God;

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 find a different law in my bodily faculties, waging war with the law of my will, and taking me prisoner to that law of sin which is in my bodily faculties.

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

Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this slave 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.

Oh, thank God! it is through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself in my will am in thraldom to the law of God; yet in my animal nature I am in thraldom to the law of sin.