Shared Word Translation
Romans 7
Released from the Law
Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over a person only as long as he lives? For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is released from the law of the husband.
So then, if while her husband lives she is joined to another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.
Therefore, my brothers, you also were put to death to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might belong to another—to him who was raised from the dead—in order that we might bear fruit to God.
For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, which were through the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the law, having died to that in which we were held, so that we serve in newness of Spirit and not in oldness of letter.
The Law and Sin
What then shall we say? Is the law sin? May it never be! But I would not have known sin except through the law; for I would not have known coveting if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting; for apart from the law sin is dead. And I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came to life, and I died; and the commandment that was intended for life was found to be for death to me.
For sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So then the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
Therefore did that which is good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin, was producing death in me through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful.
The Conflict Within
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin. For what I am doing I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I want, but what I hate, this I do.
But if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin dwelling in me.
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the desire is present with me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but the evil that I do not want, this I practice.
But if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin dwelling in me.
So I find this law: when I want to do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God in the inner man, but I see another law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which is in my members.
Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself with the mind serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.