Romans 7

1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I am speaking to those who are acquainted with the Law, ) that the Law hath dominion over a man only as long as he liveth?

Brethren, do you not know--for I am writing to people acquainted with the Law--that it is during our lifetime that we are subject to the Law?

2 For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he liveth; but if the husband die, she is released from the law which bound her to him.

A wife, for instance, whose husband is living is bound to him by the Law; but if her husband dies the law that bound her to him has now no hold over her.

3 So then, if while her husband is living she connect herself with another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband die, she is no longer bound by that law, so that she will not be an adulteress, though she connect herself with another man.

This accounts for the fact that if during her husband's life she lives with another man, she will be stigmatized as an adulteress; but that if her husband is dead she is no longer under the old prohibition, and even though she marries again, she is not an adulteress.

4 So then, my brethren, ye also were slain to the Law through the body of Christ, that ye might be connected with another, even with him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit to God.

So, my brethren, to you also the Law died through the incarnation of Christ, that you might be wedded to Another, namely to Him who rose from the dead in order that we might yield fruit to God.

5 For when we were in the flesh, the affections of sins, which were through the Law, were working in our members to bear fruit unto death.

For whilst we were under the thraldom of our earthly natures, sinful passions-- made sinful by the Law--were always being aroused to action in our bodily faculties that they might yield fruit to death.

6 But now we are delivered from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, that we might serve in the new life of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the letter.

But seeing that we have died to that which once held us in bondage, the Law has now no hold over us, so that we render a service which, instead of being old and formal, is new and spiritual.

7 What then shall we say? Is the Law sin? God forbid! But I should not have known sin, except by the Law; for I should not have known sinful desire, unless the Law had said, “Thou shalt not covet.”

What follows? Is the Law itself a sinful thing? No, indeed; on the contrary, unless I had been taught by the Law, I should have known nothing of sin as sin. For instance, I should not have known what covetousness is, if the Law had not repeatedly said, "Thou shalt not covet."

8 But sin, seizing the opportunity, wrought in me by means of the commandment all manner of sinful desire; for without the Law sin is dead.

Sin took advantage of this, and by means of the Commandment stirred up within me every kind of coveting; for apart from Law sin would be dead.

9 And I, apart from the Law, was once alive; but when the commandment came, sin came to life again, and I died;

Once, apart from Law, I was alive, but when the Commandment came, sin sprang into life, and I died;

10 and the very commandment whose design was life, I found to issue in death.

and, as it turned out, the very Commandment which was to bring me life, brought me death.

11 For sin, seizing the opportunity, deceived me through the commandment, and through it slew me.

For sin seized the advantage, and by means of the Commandment it completely deceived me, and also put me to death.

12 So that the Law is holy, and the commandment holy, and right, and good.

So that the Law itself is holy, and the Commandment is holy, just and good.

13 Did then that which is good become death to me? Far be it! but sin; that it might become manifest as sin, causing death to me by means of that which is good; that sin by means of the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.

Did then a thing which is good become death to me? No, indeed, but sin did; so that through its bringing about death by means of what was good, it might be seen in its true light as sin, in order that by means of the Commandment the unspeakable sinfulness of sin might be plainly shown.

14 For we know that the Law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, a slave sold to sin.

For we know that the Law is a spiritual thing; but I am unspiritual--the slave, bought and sold, of sin.

15 For I know not what I do. For I do not what I would, but I do what I hate.

For what I do, I do not recognize as my own action. What I desire to do is not what I do, but what I am averse to is what I do.

16 But if I do what I would not, I assent to the Law that it is good.

But if I do that which I do not desire to do, I admit the excellence of the Law,

17 Now, however, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

and now it is no longer I that do these things, but the sin which has its home within me does them.

18 For I know that there dwelleth not in me, that is, in my flesh, any good thing; for to desire is present with me, but not to perform that which is good.

For I know that in me, that is, in my lower self, nothing good has its home; for while the will to do right is present with me, the power to carry it out is not.

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

For what I do is not the good thing that I desire to do; but the evil thing that I desire not to do, is what I constantly do.

20 But if I do what I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

But if I do that which I desire not to do, it can no longer be said that it is I who do it, but the sin which has its home within me does it.

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

I find therefore the law of my nature to be that when I desire to do what is right, evil is lying in ambush for me.

22 For I delight in the Law of God, as to the inward man;

For in my inmost self all my sympathy is with the Law of God;

23 but I perceive 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.

but I discover within me a different Law at war with the Law of my understanding, and leading me captive to the Law which is everywhere at work in my body--the Law of sin.

24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?

(Unhappy man that I am! who will rescue me from this death-burdened body?

25 Thanks be to God, [[who hath delivered me]] through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, I, the same person, with the mind serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!) To sum up then, with my understanding, I--my true self--am in servitude to the Law of God, but with my lower nature I am in servitude to the Law of sin.