Romans 7

1 Surely, friends, you know (for I am speaking to people who know what Law means) that Law has power over a person only as long as they lives.

Or are ye ignorant, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over the man for as long a time as he lives?

2 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.

For the woman under authority to the living husband has been bound by law, but if the husband should die, she has been released from the law of the husband.

3 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.

So then, of the living husband, she will be called an adulteress if she becomes to another man, but if the husband should die, she is free from the law, for her not to be an adulteress having become to another man.

4 And so with you, my friends; 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.

Therefore, my brothers, ye also became dead to the law through the body of Christ in order for ye to become to another, to him who was raised from the dead, so that we would bear fruit to God.

5 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.

For when we were in the flesh, the passions of the sins were working in our body-parts (through the law) in order to bear fruit to death.

6 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.

But now we have been released from the law, having died to what we were held, so as for us to serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of a document.

7 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 “You must not covet,” I should not know what it is to covet.

What will we say then? The law is sin? May it not happen! Yet I did not know sin except through law. For likewise I would not have known lust, if the law did not say, Thou shall not covet.

8 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.

But sin, having taken opportunity through the commandment, wrought in me every evil desire, for apart from law sin is dead.

9 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!

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

10 The commandment that should have meant life I found to result in death!

And I found to me, the commandment being for life, this is for death.

11 Sin took advantage of the commandment to deceive me, and used it to bring about my death.

For sin, having taken opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.

12 And so the Law is holy, and each commandment is also holy, and just, and good.

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

13 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.

Has therefore what is good become death to me? May it not happen! Instead, it is sin, so that it might be revealed, sin working death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin might become sinful to extreme.

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

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

15 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 thing that I hate.

For I do not understand what I do, for I do not do this that I want, but what I hate, this I do.

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

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

17 This being so, the action is no longer my own, but is done by the sin which is within me.

But now I no longer perform it, but the sin dwelling in me.

18 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.

For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh, for to will is present in me, but to do the good, I find not.

19 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.

For I do not do good that I want, instead, wrong that I do not want, this I do.

20 But, when I do the thing that I want not to do, the action is no longer my own, but is done by the sin which is within me.

But if I do this that I do not want, I no longer perform it, but sin dwelling in me.

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

Consequently I find the law in my wanting to do good, that evil is present in me.

22 At heart I delight in the Law of God;

For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man,

23 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.

but I see a different law in my body-parts, warring against the law of my mind, and taking me captive in the law of sin, which is in my body-parts.

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

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

25 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.

I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, I of myself in the mind indeed serve a law of God, but in the flesh a law of sin.