Romans 7
7
No Longer Bound to the Law
1Now, dear brothers and sisters#7:1 Greek brothers; also in 7:4.—you who are familiar with the law—don’t you know that the law applies only while a person is living? 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 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.
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. 5When we were controlled by our old nature,#7:5 Greek When we were in the flesh. 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, 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
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.”#7:7 Exod 20:17; Deut 5:21. 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 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. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead. 11Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. 12But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good.
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
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 really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. 16But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. 17So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
18And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.#7:18 Greek my flesh; also in 7:25. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 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 not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
21I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22I love God’s law with all my heart. 23But there is another power#7:23 Greek law; also in 7:23b. within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 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.
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Romans 7: NLT
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Romans 7
7
1Are ye ignorant, brethren — for to those knowing law I speak — that the law hath lordship over the man as long as he liveth?
2for the married woman to the living husband hath been bound by law, and if the husband may die, she hath been free from the law of the husband;
3so, then, the husband being alive, an adulteress she shall be called if she may become another man's; and if the husband may die, she is free from the law, so as not to be an adulteress, having become another man's.
4So that, my brethren, ye also were made dead to the law through the body of the Christ, for your becoming another's, who out of the dead was raised up, that we might bear fruit to God;
5for when we were in the flesh, the passions of the sins, that [are] through the law, were working in our members, to bear fruit to the death;
6and now we have ceased from the law, that being dead in which we were held, so that we may serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of letter.
7What, then, shall we say? the law [is] sin? let it not be! but the sin I did not know except through law, for also the covetousness I had not known if the law had not said:
8‘Thou shalt not covet;’ and the sin having received an opportunity, through the command, did work in me all covetousness — for apart from law sin is dead.
9And I was alive apart from law once, and the command having come, the sin revived, and I died;
10and the command that [is] for life, this was found by me for death;
11for the sin, having received an opportunity, through the command, did deceive me, and through it did slay [me];
12so that the law, indeed, [is] holy, and the command holy, and righteous, and good.
13That which is good then, to me hath it become death? let it not be! but the sin, that it might appear sin, through the good, working death to me, that the sin might become exceeding sinful through the command,
14for we have known that the law is spiritual, and I am fleshly, sold by the sin;
15for that which I work, I do not acknowledge; for not what I will, this I practise, but what I hate, this I do.
16And if what I do not will, this I do, I consent to the law that [it is] good,
17and now it is no longer I that work it, but the sin dwelling in me,
18for I have known that there doth not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh, good: for to will is present with me, and to work that which is right I do not find,
19for the good that I will, I do not; but the evil that I do not will, this I practise.
20And if what I do not will, this I do, it is no longer I that work it, but the sin that is dwelling in me.
21I find, then, the law, that when I desire to do what is right, with me the evil is present,
22for I delight in the law of God according to the inward man,
23and I behold another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of the sin that [is] in my members.
24A wretched man I [am]! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?
25I thank God — through Jesus Christ our Lord; so then, I myself indeed with the mind do serve the law of God, and with the flesh, the law of sin.
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