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?

Are ye ignorant, brethren — for to those knowing law I speak — that the law hath lordship over the man as long as he liveth?

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 married woman to the living husband hath been bound by law, and if the husband may die, she hath been free from the law of the 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, the husband being alive, an adulteress she shall be called if she may become another man's; and if the husband may die, she is free from the law, so as not to be an adulteress, having become another man's.

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.

So that, my brethren, ye also were made dead to the law through the body of the Christ, for your becoming another's, who out of the dead was raised up, that we might bear 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 passions of the sins, that [are] through the law, were working in our members, to bear fruit to the 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.

and now we have ceased from the law, that being dead in which we were held, so that we may serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of 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, then, shall we say? the law [is] sin? let it not be! but the sin I did not know except through law, for also the covetousness I had not known if the law had not said:

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

'Thou shalt not covet;' and the sin having received an opportunity, through the command, did work in me all covetousness — for apart from law sin is 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.

And I was alive apart from law once, and the command having come, the sin revived, and I died;

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

and the command that [is] for life, this was found by me for death;

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

for the sin, having received an opportunity, through the command, did deceive me, and through it did slay [me];

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

so that the law, indeed, [is] holy, and the command holy, and righteous, 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.

That which is good then, to me hath it become death? let it not be! but the sin, that it might appear sin, through the good, working death to me, that the sin might become exceeding sinful through the command,

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

for we have known that the law is spiritual, and I am fleshly, sold by the 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 work, I do not acknowledge; for not what I will, this I practise, but what I hate, this I do.

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

And if what I do not will, this I do, 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.

and now it is no longer I that work it, but the sin dwelling 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 have known that there doth not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh, good: for to will is present with me, and to work that which is right I do not find,

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 will, I do not; but the evil that I do not will, this I practise.

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.

And if what I do not will, this I do, it is no longer I that work it, but the sin that is dwelling in me.

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

I find, then, the law, that when I desire to do what is right, with me the evil is present,

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

for I delight in the law of God according to 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.

and I behold another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of the sin that [is] in my members.

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

A wretched man I [am]! who shall deliver me out of 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, I myself indeed with the mind do serve the law of God, and with the flesh, the law of sin.