Romans 7

1 Or do you not know, brothers (for I am speaking to people who know about law), that the law controls a person for as long as he lives?

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

2 For the married woman is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.

For example, a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if the man should die, she is released from the law about the husband.

3 So then, while her husband is living, if she lives with another man, she will be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so she is not an adulteress if she lives with another man.

So then, if she should ‘marry’ another man while her husband is living, she will be labeled an adulteress; but if the husband should die, she is free from that law, not being an adulteress if she marries another man.

4 Therefore, my brothers, you were also made dead to the law through the body of Christ. This is so that you could be joined to another, that is, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might produce fruit for God.

Therefore, my brothers, you also were put to death to the law through the body of the Christ so as to belong to another—to Him who was raised from the dead—so that we should produce fruit to God.

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

Because when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our body parts to produce fruit to death.

6 But now we have been released from the law. We have died to that by which we were held. This is so that we might serve in newness of the Spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.

But now we have been released from the law, having died to what was gripping us, so as to slave in newness of spirit and not in oldness of letter.

7 What will we say then? Is the law itself sin? May it never be. However, I would never have known sin, if it were not through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law said, “You must not covet.”

So what shall we say then? Is the law sin? Of course not! Indeed, I would not have come to know the sin except through the law: I would not have recognized covetousness if the law had not said, “You must not covet.”

8 But sin took the opportunity through the commandment and brought about every lust in me. For without the law, sin is dead.

But the sin, grasping an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. Now without the law sin is dead.

9 At one time I was alive without the law, but when the commandment came, sin regained life, and I died.

Once upon a time, without law, I was actually ‘alive’; but when the commandment came, the sin came to life and I died.

10 The commandment that was to bring life turned out to be death for me.

Yes, the commandment that was to bring me life turned out to bring death.

11 For sin took the opportunity through the commandment and deceived me. Through the commandment it killed me.

Because the sin, grasping an opportunity through the commandment, completely deceived me, and used it to ‘kill’ me.

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

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

13 So did what is good become death to me? May it never be. But sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin through what is good, brought about death in me. This was in order that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.

So has what is good become death to me? Of course not! Rather the sin, that it might be exposed as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment the sin might become extremely sinful.

14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh. I have been sold under slavery to sin.

We know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, having been ‘sold’ under sin

15 For what I do, I do not really understand. For what I want to do, I do not do, and what I hate, I do.

—you see, I do not understand what I am doing: I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate!

16 But if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that the law is good.

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

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

So now it is no longer I who am doing it, but the sin dwelling in me.

18 For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, lives no good thing. For the desire for good is with me, but I cannot do it.

Further, I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; because to will is present with me, but I do not find how to perform the good.

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

Because I do not do the good that I want to do; rather I practice the evil that I do not want to do.

20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, then it is no longer I who am acting, but rather sin that lives in me.

Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin dwelling in me.

21 I find, then, the principle in me that I want to do what is good, but that evil is actually present in me.

So I find this ‘law’: when I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

22 For I rejoice in the law of God with the inner man.

I joyfully agree with God's law according to the inner man,

23 But I see a different principle in my body parts. It fights against that new principle in my mind. It takes me captive by the principle of sin that is in my body parts.

but I see a different ‘law’ in my body parts, warring against the law of my mind and taking me captive to the law of the sin that is in my body parts.

24 I am a miserable man! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

25 But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind. However, with the flesh I serve the principle of sin.

I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve God's law, but with the flesh, sin's law.