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.

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 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.

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 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.

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 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.

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

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 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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For we know that the Law is a spiritual thing; but I am unspiritual--the slave, bought and sold, of 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 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 when I do what I want not to do, I am admitting that the Law is right.

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

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

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

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

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 At heart I delight in the Law of God;

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

23 but throughout my body I see a different law, one which is in conflict with the law accepted by my reason, and which endeavors to make me a prisoner to that law of sin which exists throughout my body.

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

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

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.

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.