1 D o you not know, brethren—for I am speaking to men who are acquainted with the Law—that legal claims have power over a person only for as long as he is alive?

Are ye ignorant, brethren, (for I speak to those knowing law,) that law rules over a man as long as he lives?

2 F or a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is loosed and discharged from the law concerning her husband.

For the married woman is bound by law to her husband so long as he is alive; but if the husband should die, she is clear from the law of the husband:

3 A ccordingly, she will be held an adulteress if she unites herself to another man while her husband lives. But if her husband dies, the marriage law no longer is binding on her; and if she unites herself to another man, she is not an adulteress.

so then, the husband being alive, she shall be called an adulteress if she be to another man; but if the husband should die, she is free from the law, so as not to be an adulteress, though she be to another man.

4 L ikewise, my brethren, you have undergone death as to the Law through the body of Christ, so that now you may belong to Another, to Him Who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.

So that, my brethren, ye also have been made dead to the law by the body of the Christ, to be to another, who has been raised up from among dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.

5 W hen we were living in the flesh (mere physical lives), the sinful passions that were awakened and aroused up by the Law were constantly operating in our natural powers (in our bodily organs, in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh), so that we bore fruit for death.

For when we were in the flesh the passions of sins, which by the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit to death;

6 B ut now we are discharged from the Law and have terminated all intercourse with it, having died to what once restrained and held us captive. So now we serve not under the old code of written regulations, but of the Spirit in newness.

but now we are clear from the law, having died in that in which we were held, so that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of letter.

7 W hat then do we conclude? Is the Law identical with sin? Certainly not! Nevertheless, if it had not been for the Law, I should not have recognized sin or have known its meaning. I would not have known about covetousness if the Law had not said, You shall not covet and have an evil desire.

What shall we say then? the law sin? Far be the thought. But I had not known sin, unless by law: for I had not had conscience also of lust unless the law had said, Thou shalt not lust;

8 B ut sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, got a hold on me and aroused and stimulated all kinds of forbidden desires (lust, covetousness). For without the Law sin is dead.

but sin, getting a point of attack by the commandment, wrought in me every lust; for without law sin dead.

9 O nce I was alive, but quite apart from and unconscious of the Law. But when the commandment came, sin lived again and I died (was sentenced by the Law to death).

But I was alive without law once; but the commandment having come, sin revived, but I died.

10 A nd the very legal ordinance which was designed and intended to bring life actually proved death.

And the commandment, which for life, was found, to me, itself unto death:

11 F or sin, seizing the opportunity and getting a hold on me from the commandment, beguiled and entrapped and cheated me, and using it, killed me.

for sin, getting a point of attack by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew.

12 T he Law therefore is holy, and commandment is holy and just and good.

So that the law indeed holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

13 D id that which is good then prove fatal to me? Certainly not! It was sin, working death in me by using this good thing, in order that through the commandment sin might be shown up clearly to be sin, that the extreme malignity and immeasurable sinfulness of sin might plainly appear.

Did then that which is good become death to me? Far be the thought. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death to me by that which is good; in order that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

14 W e know that the Law is spiritual; but I am a creature of the flesh, having been sold into slavery under sin.

For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am fleshly, sold under sin.

15 F or I do not understand my own actions. I do not practice or accomplish what I wish, but I do the very thing that I loathe '> which my moral instinct condemns].

For that which I do, I do not own: for not what I will, this I do; but what I hate, this I practise.

16 N ow if I do what is contrary to my desire, I acknowledge and agree that the Law is good (morally excellent) and that I take sides with it.

But if what I do not will, this I practise, I consent to the law that right.

17 H owever, it is no longer I who do the deed, but the sin which is at home in me and has possession of me.

Now then no longer I do it, but the sin that dwells in me.

18 F or I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it.

For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell: for to will is there with me, but to do right not.

19 F or I fail to practice the good deeds I desire to do, but the evil deeds that I do not desire to do are what I am doing.

For I do not practise the good that I will; but the evil I do not will, that I do.

20 N ow if I do what I do not desire to do, it is no longer I doing it, but the sin which dwells within me '> fixed and operating in my soul].

But if what I do not will, this I practise, no longer I do it, but the sin that dwells in me.

21 S o I find it to be a law (rule of action of my being) that when I want to do what is right and good, evil is ever present with me and I am subject to its insistent demands.

I find then the law upon me who will to practise what is right, that with me evil is there.

22 F or I endorse and delight in the Law of God in my inmost self.

For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man:

23 B ut I discern in my bodily members '> in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh] a different law (rule of action) at war against the law of my mind (my reason) and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells in my bodily organs '> in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh].

but I see another law in my members, warring in opposition to the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which exists in my members.

24 O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from this body of death?

O wretched man that I! who shall deliver me out of this body of death?

25 O thank God! through Jesus Christ (the Anointed One) our Lord! So then indeed I, of myself with the mind and heart, serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself with the mind serve God's law; but with the flesh sin's law.