Romans 7

1 Are you ignorant, brothers—for to those knowing law I speak—that the law has lordship over the man 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 the married woman to the living husband has been bound by law, and if the husband may die, she has been free from the law of the husband;

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, the husband being alive, she will be called an adulteress 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.

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 So that, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of the Christ, for your becoming another’s, who was raised up out of the dead, 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 were in the flesh, the passions of sins, that [are] through the Law, were working in our members, to bear fruit to 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 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.

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, will we say? The Law [is] sin? Let it not be! But I did not know sin except through law, for also the covetousness I had not known if the Law had not said:

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 “You will not covet”; and sin having received an opportunity, through the command, worked in me all covetousness—for apart from 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 And I was alive apart from law once, and the command having come, sin revived, and I died;

Once I lived apart from the Law, myself; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died;

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

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

11 for sin, having received an opportunity, through the command, deceived me, and through it, slew [me],

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

12 so that the Law, indeed, [is] holy, and the command holy, and righteous, and good.

So then the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

13 That which is good then, has it become death to me? Let it not be! But sin, that it might appear sin, through the good, working death to me, that sin might become exceedingly sinful through the command.

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 For we have known that the Law is spiritual, and I am fleshly, sold by 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 for that which I work, I do not acknowledge; for not what I will, this I practice, but what I hate, this 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 what I do not will, this I do, I consent to the Law that [it 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 and now it is no longer I that work it, but sin dwelling in me,

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

18 for I have known that there does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh, good: for to will is present with me, and I do not find to work that which is right,

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

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

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

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

22 for I delight in the Law of God according to the inward man,

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

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

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 A wretched man I [am]! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?

Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this slave of death?

25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord; so then, I myself indeed serve the Law of God with the mind, and with the flesh, 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.