Romans 7
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1Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man 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 the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of 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 then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married 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 brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should 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 were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to 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 delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.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 shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall 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, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was 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.
9I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived 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,
10And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.10and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead.
11For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.11Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me.
12Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.12But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good.
13Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly 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
14For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under 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.
15For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that 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.
16If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.16But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good.
17But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.17So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
18For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.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 the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.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.
20Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells 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.
21I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.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 according to the inward man.22I love God’s law with all my heart.
23But 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.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.
24O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver 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?
25I 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.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, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.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.
Romans 6
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