Romans 7

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Literal

Release from the Law

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?

¹Or are you ignorant, brothers (for I speak to those knowing the law), that the law rules over the man for as long as the time he lives?

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 the married woman is bound by law to the living husband; but if the husband should die, she is released from the law of the husband.

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 if she marries another man.

³So then, of the husband being alive, if she becomes unto another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if the husband should die, she is free from the law, so as not for her to be an adulteress, having become unto another man.

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.

⁴Likewise, my brothers, you also have been put to death to the law through the body of Christ, for you to become unto another, unto the One having been raised out from the dead, so that we should bear fruit to 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.

⁵For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins that were through the law were working in our members, to the bearing of fruit to 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, having died to that by which we were held, so as for us to serve in the newness of the Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

God’s Law Is Holy

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.”^a

⁷What then will we say? Is the law sin? Never may it be! But I did not know sin, if not through the law. For I would not have been conscious of covetousness if the law had not said, “You shall 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, having taken the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all covetousness; for apart from the law, sin is dead.

⁹Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.

⁹And I was once alive apart from the law, but on the commandment's having come, sin revived and I died;

¹⁰So I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life actually brought death.

¹⁰and the commandment that was unto life, this was found by me unto death.

¹¹For sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through the commandment put me to death.

¹¹For sin, having taken the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.

¹²So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.

¹²So indeed, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Struggling with Sin

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.

¹³Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Never may it be! But so that sin might be shown as sin, it is producing death through that which is good to me, so that through the commandment sin might become sinful beyond excess.

¹⁴We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.

¹⁴For we have known that the law is spiritual; but I am fleshly, having been sold as a slave under sin.

¹⁵I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do.

¹⁵For what I carry out, I do not understand. For what I want, this I do not practice; but what I hate, this I do.

¹⁶And if I do what I do not want to do, I admit that the law is good.

¹⁶Now if what I do not want, this I do, I assent to the law, that it is good.

¹⁷In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

¹⁷But now I no longer carry it out, but the sin dwelling in me.

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.

¹⁸For I know that there does not dwell in me—that is, in my flesh—good. For to want is present with me, but not to carry out the good.

¹⁹For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do.

¹⁹For the good that I want, I do not do; but the evil that I do not want, this I practice.

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.

²⁰Now if what I do not want, this I do, no longer do I carry it out, but sin dwelling in me.

²¹So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

²¹I find, then, the law in my wanting to do good, that evil is present with me.

²²For in my inner being I delight in God’s law.

²²For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man,

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.^a

²³but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin being in my members.

²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

²⁴O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me out of this body of 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.

²⁵But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself indeed with the mind serve God’s law, but with the flesh the law of sin.