| English Standard Version | NET Bible |
| 1Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? | 1Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is lord over a person as long as he lives? |
| 2For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. | 2For a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of the marriage. |
| 3Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. | 3So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she is joined to another man, she is not an adulteress. |
| 4Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. | 4So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God. |
| 5For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. | 5For when we were in the flesh, the sinful desires, aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. |
| 6But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. | 6But now we have been released from the law, because we have died to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code. |
| 7What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” | 7What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else if the law had not said, "Do not covet." |
| 8But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. | 8But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. For apart from the law, sin is dead. |
| 9I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. | 9And I was once alive apart from the law, but with the coming of the commandment sin became alive |
| 10The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. | 10and I died. So I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death! |
| 11For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. | 11For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died. |
| 12So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. | 12So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good. |
| 13Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. | 13Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, so that it would be shown to be sin, produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. |
| 14For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. | 14For we know that the law is spiritual--but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin. |
| 15For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. | 15For I don't understand what I am doing. For I do not do what I want--instead, I do what I hate. |
| 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. | 16But if I do what I don't want, I agree that the law is good. |
| 17So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. | 17But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me. |
| 18For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. | 18For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it. |
| 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. | 19For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I do not want! |
| 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. | 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me. |
| 21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. | 21So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me. |
| 22For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, | 22For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. |
| 23but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. | 23But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. |
| 24Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? | 24Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? |
| 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. | 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. |
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