New Living Translation

Darby Bible Translation

No Longer Bound to the Law

Now, dear brothers and sistersa — you who are familiar with the law — don’t you know that the law applies only while a person is living?

1

Released from the Law

Are ye ignorant, brethren, (for I speak to those knowing law,) that law rules over a man as long as he lives?

2

For 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.

2

For the married woman is bound by law to her husband so long as he is alive; but if the husband should die, she is clear from the law of the husband:

3

So 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.

3

so then, the husband being alive, she shall be called an adulteress if she be to another man; but if the husband should die, she is free from the law, so as not to be an adulteress, though she be to another man.

4

So, 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.

4

So that, my brethren, *ye* also have been made dead to the law by the body of the Christ, to be to another, who has been raised up from among [the] dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.

5

When we were controlled by our old nature,b sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death.

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For when we were in the flesh the passions of sins, which [were] by the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit to death;

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But 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.

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but now we are clear from the law, having died in that in which we were held, so that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of letter.

7

God’s Law Reveals Our Sin

Well 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.”c

7

God's Law is Holy

What shall we say then? [is] the law sin? Far be the thought. But I had not known sin, unless by law: for I had not had conscience also of lust unless the law had said, Thou shalt not lust;

8

But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power.

8

but sin, getting a point of attack by the commandment, wrought in me every lust; for without law sin [was] dead.

9

At 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,

9

But *I* was alive without law once; but the commandment having come, sin revived, but *I* died.

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and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead.

10

And the commandment, which [was] for life, was found, [as] to me, itself [to be] unto death:

11

Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me.

11

for sin, getting a point of attack by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew [me].

12

But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good.

12

So that the law indeed [is] holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

13

But 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.

13

Struggling with Sin

Did then that which is good become death to me? Far be the thought. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death to me by that which is good; in order that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

14

Struggling with Sin

So 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.

14

For we know that the law is spiritual: but *I* am fleshly, sold under sin.

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I 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.

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For that which I do, I do not own: for not what I will, this I do; but what I hate, this I practise.

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But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good.

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But if what I do not will, this I practise, I consent to the law that [it is] right.

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So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

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Now then [it is] no longer *I* [that] do it, but the sin that dwells in me.

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And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.d I want to do what is right, but I can’t.

18

For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell: for to will is there with me, but to do right [I find] not.

19

I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.

19

For I do not practise the good that I will; but the evil I do not will, that I do.

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But 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.

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But if what *I* do not will, this I practise, [it is] no longer *I* [that] do it, but the sin that dwells in me.

21

I have discovered this principle of life — that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.

21

I find then the law upon *me* who will to practise what is right, that with *me* evil is there.

22

I love God’s law with all my heart.

22

For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man:

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But there is another powere within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.

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but I see another law in my members, warring in opposition to the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which exists in my members.

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Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?

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O wretched man that I [am]! who shall deliver me out of this body of death?

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Thank 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.

25

I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then *I* *myself* with the mind serve God's law; but with the flesh sin's law.

Parallel

New Living Translation

Darby Bible Translation

Romans 7

Romans 7