| NET Bible | New International Version |
| 1Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is lord over a person 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 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 the marriage. | 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 is joined to another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she is joined 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. |
| 4So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to 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 desires, aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body to bear 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, because we have died to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code. | 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 shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else 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." |
| 8But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. 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. |
| 9And I was once alive apart from the law, but with the coming of the commandment sin became alive | 9Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. |
| 10and I died. So I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death! | 10I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. |
| 11For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died. | 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, righteous, and good. | 12So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. |
| 13Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, so that it would be shown to be sin, produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. | 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 unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin. | 14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. |
| 15For I don't understand what I am doing. For I do not do what I want--instead, 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. |
| 16But if I do what I don't want, I agree that the law is good. | 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. |
| 17But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives 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 I want to do the good, but I cannot 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 I want, but I do the very evil I do not want! | 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, it is no longer me doing it but 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 find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me. | 21So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. |
| 22For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. | 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; |
| 23But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. | 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. |
| 24Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? | 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? |
| 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve 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. |
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