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?

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?

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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 sinful passions which were through the law, worked in our members to bring out 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 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.

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? 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.”

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, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is 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).

I was alive apart from the law once, 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.

The commandment, which was for life, this I found to be for 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, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.

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

Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, 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? May it never be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly 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 I don’t know what I am doing. For I don’t practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that 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.

But if what I don’t desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it 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 now it is no more I that do it, but sin which 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, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing 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 the good which I desire, I don’t do; but the evil which I don’t desire, that I practice.

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 don’t desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which 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, that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present.

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

For I delight in God’s law after 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 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.

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

What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of 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.

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