| King James Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? | 1Now, dear brothers and sisters —you who are familiar with the law—don’t you know that the law applies only while a person is living? |
| 2For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. | 2For example, when a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her. |
| 3So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. | 3So while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries. |
| 4Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. | 4So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God. |
| 5For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. | 5When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death. |
| 6But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. | 6But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit. God’s Law Reveals Our Sin |
| 7What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. | 7Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.” |
| 8But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. | 8But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power. |
| 9For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. | 9At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life, |
| 10And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. | 10and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead. |
| 11For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. | 11Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. |
| 12Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. | 12But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good. |
| 13Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. | 13But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes. Struggling with Sin |
| 14For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. | 14So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. |
| 15For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. | 15I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. |
| 16If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. | 16But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. |
| 17Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. | 17So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. |
| 18For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. | 18And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. |
| 19For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. | 19I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. |
| 20Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. | 20But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. |
| 21I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. | 21I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. |
| 22For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: | 22I love God’s law with all my heart. |
| 23But 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. | 23But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. |
| 24O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? | 24Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? |
| 25I 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. | 25Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin. |
| King James Bible, text courtesy of BibleProtector.com. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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