Romans 7

1 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?

Know you not, brothers, (for I speak to them that know the law, ) how that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?

2 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.

For the woman which has an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he lives; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

3 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.

So then if, while her husband lives, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

4 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.

Why, my brothers, you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit to God.

5 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.

For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit to death.

6 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.

But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

7 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.”

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. No, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, You shall not covet.

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

But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, worked in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.

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

For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

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

And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be to death.

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

For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

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

Why the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

13 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.

Was then that which is good made death to me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

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

For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

15 —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!

For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

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

If then I do that which I would not, I consent to the law that it is good.

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

Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.

18 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.

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh, ) dwells no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

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

For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

20 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.

Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.

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

I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

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

For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

23 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.

But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

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

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

25 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.

I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.