Romans 7

1 Do you not know, brothers (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a person only as long as he lives?

Know all of you not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law, ) how that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?

2 For a married woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning her husband.

For the woman which has an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he lives; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

3 So then, she will be called an adulteress if she is joined to another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and is not committing adultery if she is joined to another man.

So then if, while her husband lives, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

4 So then, my brothers, you also were put to death with respect to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, so that we might bear fruit for God.

Wherefore, my brethren, all of you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that all of you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

5 For when we were in the flesh, our sinful passions, which were aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit leading to death.

For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

6 But now we have been released from the law, having died to that by which we were held, so that we may serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, (pneuma) and not in the oldness of the letter.

7 What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Yet I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness if the law had not said, “Yoʋ shall not 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, except the law had said, You shall not covet.

8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetousness. For apart from the law sin is dead.

But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.

9 Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came to life and I died.

For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

10 So I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.

And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.

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

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

12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.

Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

13 Has that then which is good brought death to me? Certainly not! But sin, so that it would be shown to be sin, produced death in me through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

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 by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold as a slave to sin.

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

15 I do not understand what I do. Instead of doing what I want to do, I do the very thing I hate.

For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

16 Now if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.

If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.

17 But now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.

18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. I have the desire to do what is right, but I find that the ability to carry it out is lacking.

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh, ) dwells no good thing: in order to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

19 For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I do the very evil that I do not want to do.

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

20 Now if I do the very thing I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.

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

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

22 For I delight in the law of God in my inner being,

For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

23 but I see another law at work in my members, warring against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that is in my members.

But I see 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.

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

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

25 I thank God that he will do so through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.