Romans 7

1 Brothers and sisters, (I'm speaking here to people who know the law), don't you see that the law has authority over someone only while they're alive?

Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law, ) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

2 For example, a married woman is bound by the law to her husband while he's alive, but if he dies, she's released from this legal obligation to him.

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

3 So if she lives with another man while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery. However, if her husband dies and then she marries another man, she wouldn't be guilty of adultery.

So then if, while [her] husband liveth, 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 In the same way, my friends, you've become dead to the law through the body of Christ, and so now you belong to someone else—Christ, who was raised from the dead so that we could live a productive life for God.

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

5 While we were controlled by old nature, our sinful desires (as revealed by the law) were at work within us and resulted in 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've been set free from the law, and have died to what kept us in chains, so that we can serve in the newness of the spirit and not the old letter of the law.

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

7 So what do we conclude? That the law is sin? Of course not! I wouldn't have known what sin was unless the law defined it. I wouldn't have realized that wanting to have other people's things for myself was wrong without the law that says, “Don't desire for yourself what belongs to someone else.”

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, Thou shalt not covet.

8 But through this commandment sin found a way to stir up in me all kinds of selfish desires—for without 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 I used to live without realizing what the law really meant, but when I understood the implications of that commandment, then sin came back to life, and I died.

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

10 I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life brought death instead,

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

11 because sin found a way through the commandment to deceive me, and used the commandment to kill me!

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

12 However, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, right, and good.

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

13 Now would something that is good kill me? Of course not! But sin shows itself to be sin by using good to cause my death. So by means of the commandment, it's revealed how evil sin really 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 by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

14 We realize that the law is spiritual; but I'm all-too-human, a slave to sin.

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

15 I really don't understand what I'm doing. I do the things I don't want to do, and what I hate doing, that's what I do!

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

16 But if I'm saying that I do what I don't want to, this shows that I admit the law is good and right.

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

17 So it's no longer me who does this, but sin living in me—

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

18 for I know that there's nothing good in me as far as my sinful human nature is concerned. Even though I want to do good, I'm just not able to do it.

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

19 The good I want to do, I don't do; while the evil I don't want to do, that's what I end up doing!

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

20 However, if I'm doing what I don't want to, then it's no longer me doing it, but sin living in me.

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

21 This is the principle I've discovered: if I want to do what's good, evil is always there too.

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

22 My inner self is delighted with God's law,

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

23 but I see a different law at work within me that is at war with the law my mind has decided to follow, making me a prisoner of the law of sin that is within me.

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 I'm totally miserable! Who will rescue me from this body that's causing my death? Thank God—for he does this through Jesus Christ our Lord!

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

25 Here's the situation: while I myself choose with my mind to obey God's law, my human nature obeys 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.