Release from the Law
(Galatians 3:15–25)

1Or, are ye ignorant, brethren, (for I am speaking to those who know law), that the law has dominion over the man as long as he lives? 2For the married woman has been bound by law to the living husband; but, if the husband dies, she is loosed from the law of the husband. 3So, then, if, while the husband is living, she is married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but, if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be joined to another man.

4Wherefore, my brethren, ye also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that ye might be joined to another?to Him Who was raised from the dead?that we might bear fruit to God. 5For, when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, which were through the law, were working in our members to bring forth fruit to death. 6But now we have been fully discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.

God’s Law Is Holy

7What, then, shall we say? Is the law sin? It could not be! But I had not known sin, except through law; for I would not know even coveting, if the law did not say, "You shall not covet;" 8but sin, taking occasion through the commandment, wrought in me all manner of coveting; for apart from law sin is dead. 9And I was alive apart from the law once; but, when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. 10And the commandment which was unto life was itself found by me to be unto death; 11for sin, taking occasion through the commandment, thoroughly deceived me, and through it slew me. 12So that the law is holy, and the command is holy and righteous and good.

Struggling with Sin

13Did, then, that which is good become death to me? It could not be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through that which is good; that sin, through the commandment, might become exceedingly sinful.

14For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15For what I accomplish, I know not; for not what I wish, this do I practice; but what I hate, this I do. 16But, if what I wish not, this I do, I consent to the law that it is good. 17And now no longer do I accomplish it, but the sin which dwells in me. 18For I know that there dwells not in me, that is, in my flesh, any good; for to wish is present with me: but to do that which is good a not. 19For the good that I wish, I do not; but the evil which I wish not, this I practice. 20But, if what I wish not, this I do, it is no more I that perform it, but the sin that is dwelling in me.

21Consequently, I find the law, that, when I wish to do good, evil is present. 22or I delight in the law of God after the inward man; 23but I see a different 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. 24Wretched man that I am! who will deliver me out of the body of this death? 25Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! Accordingly, therefore, I myself with the mind, indeed, serve the law of God; but, with the flesh, the law of sin.