| Holman Christian Standard Bible | New International Version |
| 1Since I am speaking to those who understand law, brothers, are you unaware that the law has authority over someone as long as he lives? | 1Do you not know, brothers and sisters--for I am speaking to those who know the law--that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? |
| 2For example, a married woman is legally bound to her husband while he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law regarding the husband. | 2For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. |
| 3So then, if she gives herself to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. Then, if she gives herself to another man, she is not an adulteress. | 3So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man. |
| 4Therefore, my brothers, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the crucified body of the Messiah, so that you may belong to another--to Him who was raised from the dead--that we may bear fruit for God. | 4So, my brothers and sisters, 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 for God. |
| 5For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions operated through the law in every part of us and bore fruit for death. | 5For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. |
| 6But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law. | 6But now, by dying to what once 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. |
| 7What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet. | 7What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." |
| 8And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead. | 8But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. |
| 9Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life | 9Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. |
| 10and I died. The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me. | 10I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. |
| 11For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. | 11For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. |
| 12So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. | 12So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. |
| 13Therefore, did what is good cause my death? Absolutely not! On the contrary, sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure. | 13Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. |
| 14For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am made out of flesh, sold into sin's power. | 14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. |
| 15For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. | 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. |
| 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. | 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. |
| 17So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. | 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. |
| 18For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. | 18For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. |
| 19For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. | 19For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. |
| 20Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that lives in me. | 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. |
| 21So I discover this principle: When I want to do what is good, evil is with me. | 21So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. |
| 22For in my inner self I joyfully agree with God's law. | 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; |
| 23But I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. | 23but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. |
| 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this dying body? | 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? |
| 25I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh, to the law of sin. | 25Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. |
| Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. | New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. |
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