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 men who know what Law means) that Law has power over a man only as long as he lives.

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 example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband while he is living; but, if her husband dies, she is set free from the law that bound her to him.

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.

If, then, during her husband’s lifetime, she unites herself to another man, she will be called an adulteress; but, if her husband dies, the law has no further hold on her, nor, if she unites herself to another man, is she an adulteress.

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;

And so with you, my Brothers; as far as the Law was concerned, you underwent death in the crucified body of the Christ, so that you might be united to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that our lives 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;

When we were living merely earthly lives, our sinful passions, aroused by the Law, were active in every part of our bodies, with the result that our lives bore fruit for 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 are set free from the Law, because we are dead to that which once kept us under restraint; and so we serve under new, spiritual conditions, and not under old, written regulations.

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 are we to say, then? That Law and sin are the same thing? Heaven forbid! On the contrary, I should not have learned what sin is, had not it been for Law. If the Law did not say ‘Thou shalt not covet,’ I should not know what it is to covet.

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 sin took advantage of the Commandment to arouse in me every form of covetousness, for where there is no consciousness of Law sin shows no sign of life.

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

There was a time when I myself, unconscious of Law, was alive; but when the Commandment was brought home to me, sin sprang into life, while I died!

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

The very Commandment that should have meant Life I found to result in Death!

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

Sin took advantage of the Commandment to deceive me, and used it to bring about my Death.

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

And so the Law is holy, and each Commandment is also holy, and just, 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, a thing, which in itself was good, involve Death in my case? Heaven forbid! It was sin that involved Death; so that, by its use of what I regarded as good to bring about my Death, its true nature might appear; and in this way the Commandment showed how intensely sinful sin is.

14 For we have known that the Law is spiritual, and I am fleshly, sold by sin;

We know that the Law is spiritual, but I am earthly — sold into slavery to 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.

I do not understand my own actions. For I am so far from habitually doing what I want to do, that I find myself doing the very thing that I hate.

16 And if what I do not will, this I do, I consent to the Law that [it is] good,

But when I do what I want not to do, I am admitting that the Law is right.

17 and now it is no longer I that work it, but sin dwelling in me,

This being so, the action is no longer my own, but that of Sin which is within 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,

I know that there is nothing good in me — I mean in my earthly nature. For, although it is easy for me to want to do right, to act rightly is not easy.

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

I fail to do the good thing that I want to do, but the bad thing that I want not to do — that I habitually do.

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, when I do the very thing that I want not to do, the action is no longer my own, but that of Sin which is within me.

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

This, then, is the law that I find — when I want to do right, wrong presents itself!

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

At heart 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 throughout my body I see a different law, one which is in conflict with the law accepted by my reason, and which endeavours to make me a prisoner to that law of Sin which exists throughout my body.

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

Miserable man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body that is bringing me to this 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.

Thank God, there is deliverance through Jesus Christ, our Lord! Well then, for myself, with my reason I serve the Law of God, but with my earthly nature the Law of Sin.