ROM 7
7
Release from the Law
1 Or are you unaware, brothers and sisters—for I am addressing those who have knowledge of the Mosaic Law—that the Law exercises authority and jurisdiction over a person only for as long as that person lives?
2 For example, a married woman is bound by law to her living husband as long as he is alive; but if her husband dies, she is released and freed from the law that bound her to that husband.
3 So then, if whilst her husband is still alive she is joined to another man, she will be labelled and called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that marriage law, so that she is not an adulteress even though she is married to another man.
4 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also have been put to death with respect to the Law's authority and claims through union with the crucified body of Christ, so that you may now belong to and be joined to another—to the One who has been raised from the dead—in order that we may bear spiritual fruit for God's glory.
5 For when we were living in the flesh—controlled by our fallen sinful nature—the sinful passions aroused and stimulated by the Law were actively at work in the members of our bodies, producing fruit that leads to death.
6 But now we have been released from the Law's condemnation, having died to that system by which we were held in bondage, so that we now serve God in the newness that the Holy Spirit produces, and not in the oldness of merely following the written code.
The Law and Sin
7 What then shall we conclude? Is the Law itself sinful? Absolutely not! May it never be! But I would not have come to experiential knowledge of sin except through the Law's revelation. For I would not have known the inner sin of coveting or lustful desire if the Law had not commanded, "You shall not covet."*
8 But sin, seizing an opportunity and base of operations through this commandment, produced and worked in me every kind of covetous desire or lust. For apart from the Law's commands, sin lies dormant and powerless.
9 And I was once alive—thinking myself righteous—apart from a true understanding of the Law, but when the commandment came home to my conscience with its full force, sin sprang to life and became active,
10 And I died spiritually; and this very commandment, which was intended to lead to life and blessing, was discovered by me to lead instead to death and condemnation.
11 For sin, seizing an opportunity and exploiting the commandment, seduced and deceived me, and through the commandment, brought spiritual death to me.
12 Therefore, the Law itself is holy—set apart by God—and the commandment is holy, righteous in its standards, and good in its purpose.
13 Did that which is good—the Law—then become the cause of death to me? May it never be! Rather, it was sin itself that brought death, in order that sin might be clearly shown and exposed to be sin, producing death in me through that which is good—the Law—so that through the commandment, sin might be revealed as utterly sinful beyond measure.
The Pre-Conversion Inner Conflict of Someone Living Under the Law
14 For we know and understand that the Law is spiritual—originating from God and addressing spiritual realities—but I am fleshly, having been sold into slavery under sin's power.
15 For I do not understand or approve of what I am actually working out. For what I want to work out, this I do not practise, but what I hate, this I end up doing.
16 But if I do what I do not want to do, I am agreeing with the Law that it is good and right in its demands.
17 But now, in this situation, it is no longer I that is working out this sin, but rather the sin principle that dwells in me.
18 For I know from experience that nothing good dwells in me—that is, in my flesh, my fallen human nature; for the desire and will to do good is present within me, but the ability to work out the good is not.
19 For I do not do the good that I want to do, but the evil that I do not want to do, this I keep on practising.
20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I that is working it out, but the sin principle that dwells within me.
21 So I discover this operative principle: that when I want to do good, evil is present right there with me.
22 For I take pleasure in the law of God according to my inner man.
23 But I see another principle operating in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and holding me captive as a prisoner to the law of sin that is present in my bodily members.
24 Wretched and miserable man that I am! Who will rescue and deliver me from this body dominated by death?
25 Thanks and praise be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, to summarise the conflict: I myself with my mind am serving and submitting to God's law, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Notes
7 Quoted from Ex. 20:17; Deut. 5:21
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Copyright © 2026 Michael Adeyemi Adegbola. This Scripture text is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
