Romans 7
Romans 7
Or don’t you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives? Verse 2. For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband. Verse 3. So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man. Verse 4. Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might produce fruit to God. Verse 5. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law worked in our members to bring out fruit to death. Verse 6. But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.
Verse 7. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” Verse 8. But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead. Verse 9. I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. Verse 10. The commandment which was for life, this I found to be for death; Verse 11. for sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. Verse 12. Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, righteous, and good.
Verse 13. Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, was producing death in me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful. Verse 14. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin. Verse 15. For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I don’t practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do. Verse 16. But if what I don’t desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good. Verse 17. So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me. Verse 18. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing that which is good. Verse 19. For the good which I desire, I don’t do; but the evil which I don’t desire, that I practice. Verse 20. But if what I don’t desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me. Verse 21. I find then the law that, while I desire to do good, evil is present. Verse 22. For I delight in God’s law after the inward person, Verse 23. but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. Verse 24. What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death? Verse 25. I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve God’s law, but with the flesh, sin’s law.