| Berean Study Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1Do you not know, brothers (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? | 1Now, dear brothers and sisters —you who are familiar with the law—don’t you know that the law applies only while a person is living? |
| 2For instance, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. | 2For example, when a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her. |
| 3So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law and is not an adulteress, even if she marries another man. | 3So while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries. |
| 4Therefore, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. | 4So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God. |
| 5For when we lived according to the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death. | 5When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death. |
| 6But now, having died to what bound us, we have been released from the law, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. | 6But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit. God’s Law Reveals Our Sin |
| 7What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have been mindful of sin if not for the law. For I would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” | 7Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.” |
| 8But sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from the law, sin is dead. | 8But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power. |
| 9Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. | 9At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life, |
| 10So I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life actually brought death. | 10and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead. |
| 11For sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through the commandment put me to death. | 11Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. |
| 12So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good. | 12But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good. |
| 13Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Certainly not! But in order that sin might be exposed as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. | 13But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes. Struggling with Sin |
| 14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. | 14So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. |
| 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do. | 15I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. |
| 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I admit that the law is good. | 16But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. |
| 17In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. | 17So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. |
| 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. | 18And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. |
| 19For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do. | 19I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. |
| 20And if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. | 20But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. |
| 21So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. | 21I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. |
| 22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law. | 22I love God’s law with all my heart. |
| 23But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me. | 23But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. |
| 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? | 24Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? |
| 25Thanks be to God, 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. | 25Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin. |
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