| New Living Translation | New American Standard Bible 1995 |
| 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? | 1Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person 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 the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning 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 while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. |
| 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 brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might 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 while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear 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, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. |
| 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 shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "YOU SHALL 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. | 8But sin, taking 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, | 9I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; |
| 10and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead. | 10and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; |
| 11Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. | 11for sin, taking 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 righteous 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 that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. |
| 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 of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. |
| 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 what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. |
| 16But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. | 16But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. |
| 17So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. | 17So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells 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 dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. |
| 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 the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. |
| 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. | 20But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. |
| 21I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. | 21I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. |
| 22I love God’s law with all my heart. | 22For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, |
| 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 members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. |
| 24Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? | 24Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? |
| 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. | 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh 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. | New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit //www.lockman.org |
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