| International Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1Don't you realize, brothers—for I am speaking to people who know the Law—that the Law can press its claims over a person only as long as he is alive? | 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 a married woman is bound by the Law to her husband while he is living, but if her husband dies, she is released from the Law concerning her husband. | 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 while her husband is living, she will be called an adulterer if she lives with another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from this Law, so that she is not an adulterer 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. |
| 4In the same way, my brothers, through the Messiah's body you also died as far as the Law is concerned, so that you may belong to another person, the one who was raised from the dead, and may bear fruit for 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 while we were living according to our human nature, sinful passions were at work in our bodies by means of the Law, to bear fruit resulting in 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 we have been released from the Law by dying to what enslaved us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit, not under the old writings. | 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 should we say, then? Is the Law sinful? Of course not! In fact, I wouldn't have become aware of sin if it had not been for the Law. I wouldn't have known what it means to covet if the Law had not said, "You must 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 seized the opportunity provided by this commandment and produced in me all kinds of sinful desires, since 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. |
| 9At one time I was alive without any connection to the Law. But when the rule was revealed, sin sprang to life, | 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, |
| 10and I died. I found that the very rule that was intended 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 the opportunity provided by the rule, deceived me and used it to kill me. | 11Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. |
| 12So then, the Law itself is holy, and the rule is holy, just, and good. | 12But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good. |
| 13Now, did something good bring me death? Of course not! But in order that sin might be recognized as being sin, it used something good to cause my death, so that through the rule, sin might become more exposed as being sinful than ever before. | 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 |
| 14For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am merely human, 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 don't understand what I am doing. For I don't practice what I want to do, but instead do what I hate. | 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. |
| 16Now if I practice what I don't want to do, I am admitting 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. |
| 17As it is, I am no longer the one who is doing it, but it is the sin that is living in me. | 17So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. |
| 18For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, 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 don't do the good I want to do, but instead do the evil that I don't 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. |
| 20But if I do what I don't want to do, I am no longer the one who is doing it, but it is the sin that is living in me. | 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 I find this to be a principle: when I want to do what is 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 I delight in the Law of God in my inner being, | 22I love God’s law with all my heart. |
| 23but I see in my body a different principle waging war with the Law in my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin that exists in my body. | 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 that is infected by death? | 24Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? |
| 25Thank God through Jesus the Messiah, our Lord, because with my mind I myself can serve the Law of God, even while with my human nature 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. |
The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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