Romans 7
The law has authority over a person only as long as they live, and once they die, they are released from its obligations. Similarly, believers have died to the law through Christ and are now free to serve God in a new way. The law itself is holy and good, but it can also reveal and even provoke sin, as it did in the author's own experience. The author struggles with the conflict between their desire to do good and their tendency to do evil, and ultimately finds freedom from this struggle through the grace of God in Jesus Christ.
1Or do you not know, brothers, (now I am speaking to those who know the law) that the law has dominion over a man only so long as he lives2For example, a woman who is subject to a husband is obligated by the law while her husband lives. But when her husband has died, she is released from the law of her husband3Therefore, while her husband lives, if she has been with another man, she should be called an adulteress. But when her husband has died, she is freed from the law of her husband, such that, if she has been with another man, she is not an adulteress4And so, my brothers, you also have become dead to the law, through the body of Christ, so that you may be another one who has risen from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God5For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, which were under the law, operated within our bodies, so as to bear fruit unto death6But now we have been released from the law of death, by which we were being held, so that now we may serve with a renewed spirit, and not in the old way, by the letter7What should we say next? Is the law sin? Let it not be so! But I do not know sin, except through the law. For example, I would not have known about coveting, unless the law said: "You shall not covet.8But sin, receiving an opportunity through the commandment, wrought in me all manner of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead9Now I lived for some time apart from the law. But when the commandment had arrived, sin was revived10and I died. And the commandment, which was unto life, was itself found to be unto death for me11For sin, receiving an opportunity through the commandment, seduced me, and, through the law, sin killed me12And so, the law itself is indeed holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good13Then was what is good made into death for me? Let it not be so! But rather sin, in order that it might be known as sin by what is good, wrought death in me; so that sin, through the commandment, might become sinful beyond measure14For we know that the law is spiritual. But I am carnal, having been sold under sin15For I do things that I do not understand. For I do not do the good that I want to do. But the evil that I hate is what I do16So, when I do what I do not want to do, I am in agreement with the law, that the law is good17But I am then acting not according to the law, but according to the sin which lives within me18For I know that what is good does not live within me, that is, within my flesh. For the willingness to do good lies close to me, but the carrying out of that good, I cannot reach19For I do not do the good that I want to do. But instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do20Now if I do what I am not willing to do, it is no longer I who am doing it, but the sin which lives within me21And so, I discover the law, by wanting to do good within myself, though evil lies close beside me22For I am delighted with the law of God, according to the inner man23But I perceive another law within my body, fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me with the law of sin which is in my body24Unhappy man that I am, who will free me from this body of death25The grace of God, by Jesus Christ our Lord! Therefore, I serve the law of God with my own mind; but with the flesh, the law of sin
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