| International Standard Version | NET Bible |
| 1Don't you realize, brothers—for I am speaking to people who know the Law—that the Law can press its claims over a person only as long as he is alive? | 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 the Law to her husband while he is living, but if her husband dies, she is released from the Law concerning her husband. | 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. |
| 3So while her husband is living, she will be called an adulterer if she lives with another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from this Law, so that she is not an adulterer if she marries another man. | 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. |
| 4In the same way, my brothers, through the Messiah's body you also died as far as the Law is concerned, so that you may belong to another person, the one who was raised from the dead, and 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 according to our human nature, sinful passions were at work in our bodies by means of the Law, to bear fruit resulting in 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 have been released from the Law by dying to what enslaved us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit, not under the old writings. | 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 should we say, then? Is the Law sinful? Of course not! In fact, I wouldn't have become aware of sin if it had not been for the Law. I wouldn't have known what it means to covet if the Law had not said, "You must 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 seized the opportunity provided by this commandment and produced in me all kinds of sinful desires, since apart from the Law, sin is 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. |
| 9At one time I was alive without any connection to the Law. But when the rule was revealed, sin sprang to life, | 9And I was once alive apart from the law, but with the coming of the commandment sin became alive |
| 10and I died. I found that the very rule that was intended to bring life actually brought death. | 10and I died. So I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death! |
| 11For sin, seizing the opportunity provided by the rule, deceived me and used it to kill me. | 11For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died. |
| 12So then, the Law itself is holy, and the rule is holy, just, and good. | 12So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good. |
| 13Now, did something good bring me death? Of course not! But in order that sin might be recognized as being sin, it used something good to cause my death, so that through the rule, sin might become more exposed as being sinful than ever before. | 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 merely human, sold as a slave to sin. | 14For we know that the law is spiritual--but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin. |
| 15I don't understand what I am doing. For I don't practice what I want to do, but instead do what 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 practice what I don't want to do, I am admitting that the Law is good. | 16But if I do what I don't want, I agree that the law is good. |
| 17As it is, I am no longer the one who is doing it, but it is the sin that is living in me. | 17But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me. |
| 18For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but I cannot 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 don't do the good I want to do, but instead do the evil that I don't want to do. | 19For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I do not want! |
| 20But if I do what I don't want to do, I am no longer the one who is doing it, but it is the sin that is living in 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 this to be a principle: when I want to do what is good, evil is right there with me. | 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 body a different principle waging war with the Law in my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin that exists in my body. | 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. |
| 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is infected by death? | 24Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? |
| 25Thank God through Jesus the Messiah, our Lord, because with my mind I myself can serve the Law of God, even while with my human nature 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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