Romans 7

 

1 Do you not know, brethren, {for I speak to them that know the law,} how that the law (only) has dominion over a man as long as he lives?

 

2 For instance, the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives; but if the husband is dead, she is released from the law (that bound her) to the husband.

 

3 So then if, while her husband lives, she is married to another man, she would be called an adulteress: but if her husband is dead, she is free from that law; so that she is not an adulteress, even if she is married to another man.

 

4 This is why my brothers, that (being dead to death) you have also become dead to the law (of sin and death) by (your union to) the body of Christ; so that you should be married to another (whose union serves you with life), even to Him who is raised from the dead (immortal), so that we should bring forth the fruit of God's life (unto immortality in our flesh).

 

5 For when we were (under the reign of death) in the flesh, (our body of death animated us with) the motions of sins (to preserve our lives through the works of our own hands), which were by the (deeds of the) law, (whereby sin) did work in our members to bring forth fruit to death.

 

6 But now (being united with Christ in His death) we are released from the law (of sin that worked in us), that being (once and for all) dead (to death) wherein we were held (captive all our lifetime); so as to serve us with newness of (the) Spirit (of life we behold in Christ Jesus), and not in the oldness of the letter (whereby we labored in our dying flesh to obtain life through carnal commandments that were killing us).

 

7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin (which brings death)? God forbid. No, I would not have known sin (was the thing ministering death to me), if not by the law: for I would not have known (that the) lust (to bring forth all the fruit of God’s life through the strength of my flesh was the thing serving me death), except the law said, you shall not covet.

 

8 But sin made use (of the lust of my dying flesh for life) by the commandment, which produced in me all manner of lust (to do things which are not proper). For apart from the law, sin was dead.

 

9 For I was alive once without (knowing) the law: but when the commandment came, (the) sin (to covet life by the strength of my flesh, which was dead) was revived, and I died.

 

10 And the commandment, which was ordained (as the teaching and instruction) unto life, I found (led me) to (experience the fruit of) death.

 

11 For sin, by making use of the commandment, deceived me (through the carnal mind into believing I must bring it forth in my own strength), and by (covetousness) sin slew me.

 

12 Wherefore the law is (and remains) holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

 

13 Was then that which is good made death to me? God forbid. But (it was) sin (working in my members), that it might be (clearly) seen that it was sin working death in me through that which is good; so that sin by the commandment might be revealed as exceedingly sinful.

 

14 For we know that the law is spiritual (pointing to the beginning principles of the life God would provide for you in Christ): but I am carnal, (sown in corruption through the first man Adam) sold under sin (subject to the body of death).

 

15 For that which I do, I do not (approve or) understand: for the thing I desire (to do), that I do not (do); but the thing I hate, that is the (very) thing which I do.

 

16 If then I do that which I do not want (to do), I agree with the law that it is good.

 

17 Now (I know) it is no longer I that (am purposing to) do it, but (my members being animated by) sin (working the sting of death) which dwells in me (in my flesh).

 

18 For I know that in me {that is, in my (dying) flesh}, dwells no good thing (that is profitable to bring forth an incorruptible life): for to desire (after that life) is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I cannot find (in me).

 

19 For the good that I desire (to do) I do not (do): but the evil which I do not want (to do), that I do.

 

20 Now if I do that which I do not desire, it is no longer I that does it, but sin that dwells in me (animating my dying flesh to preserve its own life).

 

21 I discover then another law, that, when I desire to do good, evil (which is able to cause harm) is present with me.

 

22 For I delight (rejoicing) in the law of God (to serve me with all the fruit of His life in Christ) after the inward man:

 

23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my (heart and) mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin (and death) which is in my members.

 

24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?

 

25 I thank God (who has delivered me) through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with the mind I (reckon) myself (to) be a slave of (Christ) the law of God (unto life), then in the flesh, the law of sin (unto death).