| New Living Translation | Holman Christian Standard Bible |
| 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? | 1Since I am speaking to those who understand law, brothers, are you unaware that the law has authority over someone as long as he lives? |
| 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. | 2For example, a married woman is legally bound to her husband while he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law regarding the husband. |
| 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. | 3So then, if she gives herself to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. Then, if she gives herself to another man, she is not an adulteress. |
| 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. | 4Therefore, my brothers, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the crucified body of the Messiah, so that you may belong to another--to Him who was raised from the dead--that we may bear fruit for God. |
| 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. | 5For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions operated through the law in every part of us and bore fruit for death. |
| 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 | 6But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law. |
| 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.” | 7What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet. |
| 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. | 8And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead. |
| 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, | 9Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life |
| 10and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead. | 10and I died. The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me. |
| 11Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. | 11For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. |
| 12But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good. | 12So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. |
| 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 | 13Therefore, did what is good cause my death? Absolutely not! On the contrary, sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure. |
| 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. | 14For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am made out of flesh, sold into sin's power. |
| 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. | 15For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. |
| 16But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. | 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. |
| 17So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. | 17So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. |
| 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. | 18For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. |
| 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. | 19For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. |
| 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. | 20Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that lives in me. |
| 21I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. | 21So I discover this principle: When I want to do what is good, evil is with me. |
| 22I love God’s law with all my heart. | 22For in my inner self I joyfully agree with God's law. |
| 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. | 23But I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. |
| 24Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? | 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this dying body? |
| 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. | 25I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh, to the law of sin. |
| 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. | Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. |
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