Romans 7
1 Are ye ignorant, brethren, (for I speak to those knowing law, ) that law rules over a man as long as he lives?
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?
2 For the married woman is bound by law to her husband so long as he is alive; but if the husband should die, she is clear from the law of the husband:
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.
3 so then, the husband being alive, she shall be called an adulteress if she be to another man; but if the husband should die, she is free from the law, so as not to be an adulteress, though she be to another man.
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.
4 So that, my brethren, ye also have been made dead to the law by the body of the Christ, to be to another, who has been raised up from among [the] dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.
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.
5 For when we were in the flesh the passions of sins, which [were] by the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit to death;
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.
6 but now we are clear from the law, having died in that in which we were held, so that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of letter.
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.
7 What shall we say then? [is] the law sin? Far be the thought. But I had not known sin, unless by law: for I had not had conscience also of lust unless the law had said, Thou shalt not lust;
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.”
8 but sin, getting a point of attack by the commandment, wrought in me every lust; for without law sin [was] dead.
But sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from the law, sin is dead.
9 But I was alive without law once; but the commandment having come, sin revived, but I died.
Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.
10 And the commandment, which [was] for life, was found, [as] to me, itself [to be] unto death:
So I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life actually brought death.
11 for sin, getting a point of attack by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew [me].
For sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through the commandment put me to death.
12 So that the law indeed [is] holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.
13 Did then that which is good become death to me? Far be the thought. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death to me by that which is good; in order that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
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.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am fleshly, sold under sin.
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
15 For that which I do, I do not own: for not what I will, this I do; but what I hate, this I practise.
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do.
16 But if what I do not will, this I practise, I consent to the law that [it is] right.
And if I do what I do not want to do, I admit that the law is good.
17 Now then [it is] no longer I [that] do it, but the sin that dwells in me.
In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
18 For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell: for to will is there with me, but to do right [I find] not.
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.
19 For I do not practise the good that I will; but the evil I do not will, that I do.
For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do.
20 But if what I do not will, this I practise, [it is] no longer I [that] do it, but the sin that dwells in me.
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.
21 I find then the law upon me who will to practise what is right, that with me evil is there.
So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man:
For in my inner being I delight in God’s law.
23 but I see another law in my members, warring in opposition to the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which exists in my members.
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.
24 O wretched man that I [am]! who shall deliver me out of this body of death?
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
25 I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself with the mind serve God's law; but with the flesh sin's law.
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.
