Romans 7

The Conflict Within

15I do not understand what I am doing. For I do not practice what I want, but I do what I hate. 16But if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin dwelling in me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells in me—that is, in my flesh. The desire to do what is good is present with me, but the ability to carry it out is not. 19For I do not do the good I want, but I practice the evil I do not want. 20But if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin dwelling in me.

21So I find this law at work: when I want to do good, evil is present with me. 22For in my inner self I delight in God's law, 23but I see another law at work in my members, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me captive under the law of sin that is in my members. 24What a miserable man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve God's law with my mind, but with my flesh I serve sin's law.