Romans 7

1 Brothers and sisters, (I'm speaking here to people who know the law), don't you see that the law has authority over someone only while they're alive?

Or do you not know, brothers (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has authority over a person for as long as he lives?

2 For example, a married woman is bound by the law to her husband while he's alive, but if he dies, she's released from this legal obligation to him.

For the 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 concerning the husband.

3 So if she lives with another man while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery. However, if her husband dies and then she marries another man, she wouldn't be guilty of adultery.

So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she is called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress, though she is joined to another man.

4 In the same way, my friends, you've become dead to the law through the body of Christ, and so now you belong to someone else—Christ, who was raised from the dead so that we could live a productive life for God.

Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we may bear fruit to God.

5 While we were controlled by old nature, our sinful desires (as revealed by the law) were at work within us and resulted in death.

For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law, worked in our members to bring forth fruit for death.

6 But now we've been set free from the law, and have died to what kept us in chains, so that we can serve in the newness of the spirit and not the old letter of the law.

But now we have been released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.

7 So what do we conclude? That the law is sin? Of course not! I wouldn't have known what sin was unless the law defined it. I wouldn't have realized that wanting to have other people's things for myself was wrong without the law that says, “Don't desire for yourself what belongs to someone else.”

What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not. However, I would not have known sin, except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness, unless the law had said, "Do not covet."

8 But through this commandment sin found a way to stir up in me all kinds of selfish desires—for without law, sin is dead.

But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin is dead.

9 I used to live without realizing what the law really meant, but when I understood the implications of that commandment, then sin came back to life, and I died.

I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin became alive, and I died.

10 I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life brought death instead,

The commandment, which was for life, this I found to be for death;

11 because sin found a way through the commandment to deceive me, and used the commandment to kill me!

for sin, taking the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.

12 However, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, right, and good.

Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.

13 Now would something that is good kill me? Of course not! But sin shows itself to be sin by using good to cause my death. So by means of the commandment, it's revealed how evil sin really is.

Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Absolutely not. But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceeding sinful.

14 We realize that the law is spiritual; but I'm all-too-human, a slave to sin.

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

15 I really don't understand what I'm doing. I do the things I don't want to do, and what I hate doing, that's what I do!

For I do not know what I am doing. For I do not practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do.

16 But if I'm saying that I do what I don't want to, this shows that I admit the law is good and right.

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

17 So it's no longer me who does this, but sin living in me—

So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.

18 for I know that there's nothing good in me as far as my sinful human nature is concerned. Even though I want to do good, I'm just not able to do it.

For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For the desire is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.

19 The good I want to do, I don't do; while the evil I don't want to do, that's what I end up doing!

For the good which I desire, I do not do; but the evil which I do not desire, that I practice.

20 However, if I'm doing what I don't want to, then it's no longer me doing it, but sin living in me.

But if what I do not desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.

21 This is the principle I've discovered: if I want to do what's good, evil is always there too.

I find then the law, that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present.

22 My inner self is delighted with God's law,

For I delight in God's law in my inner being,

23 but I see a different law at work within me that is at war with the law my mind has decided to follow, making me a prisoner of the law of sin that is within me.

but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.

24 I'm totally miserable! Who will rescue me from this body that's causing my death? Thank God—for he does this through Jesus Christ our Lord!

What a wretched man I am. Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?

25 Here's the situation: while I myself choose with my mind to obey God's law, my human nature obeys the law of sin.

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself serve God's law, but with the flesh, the sin's law.