1 C hristian brothers, I am sure you understand what I am going to say. You know all about the Law. The Law has power over a man as long as he lives.

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 A married woman is joined by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if he dies, she is free from the law that joined her to him.

For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.

3 I f she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is sinning by not being faithful in marriage. If her husband dies, she is free from the law that joined her to him. After that she can marry someone else. She does not sin if she marries another man.

So then if, while her husband 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 M y Christian brothers, that is the way it is with you. You were under the power of the Law. But now you are dead to it because you are joined to another. You are joined to Christ Who was raised from the dead. This is so we may be what God wants us to be. Our lives are to give fruit for Him.

Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead 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 should bear fruit to God.

5 W hen we lived to please our bodies, those sinful desires were pulling at us all the time. We always wanted to do what the Law said not to do. Living that kind of life brings death,

For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.

6 b ut now we are free from the Law. We are dead to sin that once held us in its power. No longer do we follow the Law which is the old way. We now follow the new way, the way of the Spirit.

But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. Sin’s Advantage in the Law

7 T hen what are we saying? Is the Law sinful? No, not at all! But it was the Law that showed me what sin is. I did not know it was sin to follow wrong desires, but the Law said, “You must not follow wrong desires.”

What shall we say then? Is the 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 T he Law made me know how much I was sinning. It showed me how I had a desire for all kinds of things. For without the Law, sin is dead.

But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.

9 I was once alive. That was when I did not know what the Law said I had to do. Then I found that I had broken the Law. I knew I was a sinner. Death was mine because of the Law.

I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.

10 T he Law was supposed to give me new life. Instead, it gave me death.

And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.

11 S in found a way to trap me by working through the Law. Then sin killed me by using the Law.

For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.

12 T he Law is holy. Each one of the Laws is holy and right and good.

Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Law Cannot Save from Sin

13 T hen does it mean that the Law, which is good, brought death to me? No, not at all! It was sin that did it. Sin brought death to me by the Law that is good. In that way, sin was shown to be what it is. So because of the Law, sin becomes much more sinful.

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 W e know that the Law is right and good, but I am a person who does what is wrong and bad. I am not my own boss. Sin is my boss.

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

15 I do not understand myself. I want to do what is right but I do not do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate.

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 W hen I do the thing I do not want to do, it shows me that the Law is right and good.

If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.

17 S o I am not doing it. Sin living in me is doing it.

But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

18 I know there is nothing good in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do good but I do not.

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.

19 I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I am always doing the sinful things I do not want to do.

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

20 I f I am always doing the very thing I do not want to do, it means I am no longer the one who does it. It is sin that lives in me.

Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

21 T his has become my way of life: When I want to do what is right, I always do what is wrong.

I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.

22 M y mind and heart agree with the Law of God.

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

23 B ut there is a different law at work deep inside of me that fights with my mind. This law of sin holds me in its power because sin is still in me.

But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

24 T here is no happiness in me! Who can set me free from my sinful old self?

O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

25 G od’s Law has power over my mind, but sin still has power over my sinful old self. I thank God I can be free through Jesus Christ our Lord!

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.