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?

¶ Know ye not, brethren (for I speak to those that know the law), that the law has dominion over a man only 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 woman who is subject to a husband is obligated to the law so long as the husband lives; but if the husband dies, she is free 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 if, while her husband lives, she belongs to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law so that she is no adulteress if she belongs 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.

Likewise ye also, my brethren, are become dead to the law in the body of the Christ that ye should belong to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto 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 while we were in the flesh, the affections of the sins which were by the law worked in our members to bring forth fruit unto 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 free from the law of death in which we were held, that we might serve in newness of Spirit, and not in the oldness of the 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? Is the law sin? No, in no wise. But, I did not know sin except by the law; for neither would I have known lust if the law did not say, Thou shalt not covet.

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.

Then sin, when there was occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of lust. For without the law sin was as if it were dormant.

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).

So that without the law I lived for some time; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

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

And I found that the same commandment, which was unto life, was mortal unto me.

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, having had occasion, deceived me by the commandment and by it killed me.

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

So the law is truly 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.

Was then that which is good made death unto me? No, in no wise. But sin, to show itself sin by that which is good, worked death in me, making sin exceedingly sinful by the commandment.

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 now know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold unto subjection by 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 understand, and not even the good that I desire is what I do; but what I hate, that is what I do.

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.

If then I do that which I do not desire, I approve that the law is good.

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.

So that it is no longer I that do it, but 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.

And I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing; for I have the desire, but I am not able to perform that which is good.

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 do the good that I desire; but the evil which I do not desire, 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].

And if I do that which I do not desire, I am not working, but 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.

So that, desiring to do good, I find this law: evil is natural unto me.

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

For I delight with the law of God with 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 which rebels against the law of my mind, bringing captive unto the law of sin which is 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 am! who shall deliver me from the body of this 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.

The grace of God, by Jesus, the Christ, our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.