Freed from the Law
1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?
2 Forthe woman who has a husband is bound by the law toherhusband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law ofherhusband.
3 So thenif, whileherhusband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.
4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have becomedead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we shouldbear fruit to God.
5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the lawwere at work in our membersto bear fruit to death.
6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should servein the newness of the Spirit and notinthe oldness of the letter.
Sin’s Advantage in the Law
7 What shall we say then?Isthe law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary,I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said,“You shall not covet.”
8 Butsin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me allmannerofevildesire. Forapart from the law sinwasdead.
9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
10 And the commandment,whichwastobringlife, I found tobringdeath.
11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killedme.
12 Thereforethe lawisholy, and the commandment holy and just and good.
Law Cannot Save from Sin
13 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal,sold under sin.
15 For what I am doing, I do not understand.For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.
16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law thatitisgood.
17 But now,itisno longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
18 For I know thatin me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, buthowto perform what is good I do not find.
19 For the good that I willtodo,I do not do; but the evil I will nottodo,that I practice.
20 Now if I do what I will nottodo,it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.
22 For Idelight in the law of God according tothe inward man.
23 ButI see another law inmy members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver mefrom this body of death?
25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.