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

1Are ye ignorant, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law) that the law hath power over a man, only so long as it liveth? 2For a married woman is bound by the law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband die, she is discharged from the law of her husband. 3Therefore while her husband is living, she shall be called an adulteress if she become another man's: but if her husband be dead, she is free from the law; so that she is not an adulteress, though she become another man's.

4And thus, my brethren, ye also are dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye might become another's, even his who is raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God. 5For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions while we were under the law operated in our bodies so as to bring forth fruit unto death. 6But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead by which we were bound, that we might serve God in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

God’s Law Is Holy

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 to be sinful, if the law had not said, "Thou shalt not covet." 8But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence: for without the law sin was dead. 9And I was heretofore alive without the law: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died: 10and the commandment which was intended to life, I found to be unto death. 11For sin taking occasion by the commandment deceived me, and by it slew me. 12So that the law is holy; and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

Struggling with Sin

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 might be shewn by the commandment to be exceeding sinful.

14For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15For that which I do, I allow not: for I do not that which I would; but what I hate, this I do. 16And if I do that which I would not, I consent to the law that it is good: 17but now I am no more the doer of it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 18For I know that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good: for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not. 19For I do not the good that I would; but the evil which I would not, this I do. 20Now if I do that which I would not, I am no more the doer of it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

21I find then a kind of law, that when I would do good, evil besets me. 22For I delight in the law of God, as to the inward man: 23but I perceive another law in my body warring against the law of my mind, and captivating me to the law of sin, which is in my body. 24Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death? 25The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with my mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.