Romans 7

Believers United to Christ

1Or do you not know, 1brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? 2For 2the married woman is bound by law to her 3husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law 4concerning the husband. 3So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.

4Therefore, my brethren, you also were 5made to die 6to the Law 7through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5For while we were 8in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were 9aroused by the Law, were at work 10in 11the members of our body to bear fruit for death. 6But now we have been 12released from the Law, having 13died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in 14newness of 15the 16Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

717What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? 18May it never be! On the contrary, 19I would not have come to know sin except 20through the Law; for I would not have known about 21coveting if the Law had not said, “22You shall not 23covet.” 8But sin, 24taking opportunity 25through the commandment, produced in me 26coveting of every kind; for 27apart 28from the Law sin is dead. 9I was once alive apart 29from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; 10and this commandment, which was 3031to result in life, proved 32to result in death for me; 11for sin, 33taking an opportunity 34through the commandment, 35deceived me and through it killed me. 1236So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

13Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? 37May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.

The Conflict of Two Natures

14For we know that the Law is 38spiritual, but I am 39of flesh, 40sold 4142into bondage to sin. 15For what I am doing, 43I do not understand; for I am not practicing 44what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with 45the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17So now, 46no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my 47flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19For 48the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, 49I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

21I find then 50the 51principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22For I joyfully concur with the law of God 52in 53the inner man, 23but I see 54a different law in 55the members of my body, waging war against the 56law of my mind and making me a prisoner 57of 58the law of sin which is in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from 5960the body of this 61death? 2562Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh 63the law of sin.