Romans 7

1 Or don’t you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives?

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.

2 For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband.

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.

3 So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man.

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.

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

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.

5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law worked in our members to bring out fruit to death.

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.

6 But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.

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.

7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”

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.

8 But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead.

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.

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

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!

10 The commandment which was for life, this I found to be for death;

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

11 for sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.

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

12 Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, righteous, and good.

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

13 Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, was producing death in me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful.

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.

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

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

15 For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I don’t practise what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do.

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.

16 But if what I don’t desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good.

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

17 So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.

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

18 For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing that which is good.

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.

19 For the good which I desire, I don’t do; but the evil which I don’t desire, that I practise.

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.

20 But if what I don’t desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.

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.

21 I find then the law that, while I desire to do good, evil is present.

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

22 For I delight in God’s law after the inward person,

At heart I delight in the Law of God;

23 but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.

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.

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

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

25 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.

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.