Release from the Law
(Galatians 3:15–25)

1Or do you not know, brothers, (now I am speaking to those who know the law) that the law has dominion over a man only so long as he lives? 2For example, a woman who is subject to a husband is obligated by the law while her husband lives. But when her husband has died, she is released from the law of her husband. 3Therefore, while her husband lives, if she has been with another man, she should be called an adulteress. But when her husband has died, she is freed from the law of her husband, such that, if she has been with another man, she is not an adulteress.

4And so, my brothers, you also have become dead to the law, through the body of Christ, so that you may be another one who has risen from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, which were under the law, operated within our bodies, so as to bear fruit unto death. 6But now we have been released from the law of death, by which we were being held, so that now we may serve with a renewed spirit, and not in the old way, by the letter.

God’s Law Is Holy

7What should we say next? Is the law sin? Let it not be so! But I do not know sin, except through the law. For example, I would not have known about coveting, unless the law said: “You shall not covet.” 8But sin, receiving an opportunity through the commandment, wrought in me all manner of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. 9Now I lived for some time apart from the law. But when the commandment had arrived, sin was revived, 10and I died. And the commandment, which was unto life, was itself found to be unto death for me. 11For sin, receiving an opportunity through the commandment, seduced me, and, through the law, sin killed me. 12And so, the law itself is indeed holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

Struggling with Sin

13Then was what is good made into death for me? Let it not be so! But rather sin, in order that it might be known as sin by what is good, wrought death in me; so that sin, through the commandment, might become sinful beyond measure.

14For we know that the law is spiritual. But I am carnal, having been sold under sin. 15For I do things that I do not understand. For I do not do the good that I want to do. But the evil that I hate is what I do. 16So, when I do what I do not want to do, I am in agreement with the law, that the law is good. 17But I am then acting not according to the law, but according to the sin which lives within me. 18For I know that what is good does not live within me, that is, within my flesh. For the willingness to do good lies close to me, but the carrying out of that good, I cannot reach. 19For I do not do the good that I want to do. But instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do. 20Now if I do what I am not willing to do, it is no longer I who am doing it, but the sin which lives within me.

21And so, I discover the law, by wanting to do good within myself, though evil lies close beside me. 22For I am delighted with the law of God, according to the inner man. 23But I perceive another law within my body, fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me with the law of sin which is in my body. 24Unhappy man that I am, who will free me from this body of death? 25The grace of God, by Jesus Christ our Lord! Therefore, I serve the law of God with my own mind; but with the flesh, the law of sin.