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.

Are ye ignorant, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law) that the law hath power over a man, only so long as it liveth?

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 a married woman is bound by the law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband die, she is discharged from the law of her 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.

Therefore while her husband is living, she shall be called an adulteress if she become another man's: but if her husband be dead, she is free from the law; so that she is not an adulteress, though she become another man's.

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.

And thus, my brethren, ye also are dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye might become another's, even his who is raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto 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 sinful passions while we were under the law operated in our bodies so as to bring forth fruit unto 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 are delivered from the law, that being dead by which we were bound, that we might serve God in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

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 shall we say then? is the law sin? God forbid! Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust to be sinful, if the law had not 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.

But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence: for without the law sin was 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 heretofore alive without the 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 the commandment which was intended to life, I found to be unto death.

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

For sin taking occasion by the commandment deceived me, and by it slew me.

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

So that the law is holy; and the commandment holy, and 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.

Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid! But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good: that sin might be shewn by the commandment to be exceeding sinful.

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, 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 that which I do, I allow not: for I do not that which I would; 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.

And if I do that which I would not, I consent to 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 am no more the doer of it, but sin that dwelleth 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 in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good: for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is 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 the good that I would; but the evil which I would not, 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.

Now if I do that which I would not, I am no more the doer of it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

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

I find then a kind of law, that when I would do good, evil besets me.

22 At heart I delight in the Law of God;

For I delight in the law of God, as to the inward 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 endeavors to make me a prisoner to that law of sin which exists throughout my body.

but I perceive another law in my body warring against the law of my mind, and captivating me to the law of sin, which is in my body.

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

Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of 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.

The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with my mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.