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?

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 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, 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 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.

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 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.

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 which were through the law worked in our members to bring out fruit to 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 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 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 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.”

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, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from 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 I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived 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 which was for life, this I found to be for death;

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

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

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

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

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

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 fleshly, sold under sin.

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

15 For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I don’t practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that 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 what I don’t desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good.

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

17 So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells 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, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing that which is good.

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 which I desire, I don’t do; but the evil which I don’t desire, that I practice.

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 But if what I don’t desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells 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 law that, while I desire to do good, evil is present.

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

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

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

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

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

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.