An Illustration from Marriage
1 Certainly you will understand what I am about to say, my friends, because all of you know about law. The law rules over people only as long as they live. 2 A married woman, for example, is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives; but if he dies, then she is free from the law that bound her to him. 3 So then, if she lives with another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is legally a free woman and does not commit adultery if she marries another man. 4 That is how it is with you, my friends. As far as the Law is concerned, you also have died because you are part of the body of Christ; and now you belong to him who was raised from death in order that we might be useful in the service of God. 5 For when we lived according to our human nature, the sinful desires stirred up by the Law were at work in our bodies, and all we did ended in death. 6 Now, however, we are free from the Law, because we died to that which once held us prisoners. No longer do we serve in the old way of a written law, but in the new way of the Spirit.
Law and Sin
7 Shall we say, then, that the Law itself is sinful? Of course not! But it was the Law that made me know what sin is. If the Law had not said, “Do not desire what belongs to someone else,” I would not have known such a desire. 8 But by means of that commandment sin found its chance to stir up all kinds of selfish desires in me. Apart from law, sin is a dead thing. 9 I myself was once alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life, 10 and I died. And the commandment which was meant to bring life, in my case brought death. 11 Sin found its chance, and by means of the commandment it deceived me and killed me.
12 So then, the Law itself is holy, and the commandment is holy, right, and good. 13 But does this mean that what is good caused my death? By no means! It was sin that did it; by using what is good, sin brought death to me, in order that its true nature as sin might be revealed. And so, by means of the commandment sin is shown to be even more terribly sinful.
The Conflict in Us
14 We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am a mortal, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do; for I don't do what I would like to do, but instead I do what I hate. 16 Since what I do is what I don't want to do, this shows that I agree that the Law is right. 17 So I am not really the one who does this thing; rather it is the sin that lives in me. 18 I know that good does not live in me—that is, in my human nature. For even though the desire to do good is in me, I am not able to do it. 19 I don't do the good I want to do; instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do. 20 If I do what I don't want to do, this means that I am no longer the one who does it; instead, it is the sin that lives in me.
21 So I find that this law is at work: when I want to do what is good, what is evil is the only choice I have. 22 My inner being delights in the law of God. 23 But I see a different law at work in my body—a law that fights against the law which my mind approves of. It makes me a prisoner to the law of sin which is at work in my body. 24 What an unhappy man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is taking me to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who does this through our Lord Jesus Christ!
This, then, is my condition: on my own I can serve God's law only with my mind, while my human nature serves the law of sin.
1 Knowe yee not, brethren, (for I speake to them that knowe the Lawe) that the Lawe hath dominion ouer a man as long as he liueth? 2 For the woman which is in subiection to a man, is bound by the Lawe to the man, while he liueth: but if the man bee dead, shee is deliuered from the lawe of the man. 3 So then, if while the man liueth, she taketh another man, she shalbe called an adulteresse: but if the man be dead, she is free from the Law, so that shee is not an adulteresse, though shee take another man. 4 So yee, my brethren, are dead also to the Law by ye body of Christ, that ye should be vnto an other, euen vnto him that is raised vp from the dead, that we should bring foorth fruite vnto God. 5 For when we were in ye flesh, the affections of sinnes, which were by the Law, had force in our members, to bring foorth fruit vnto death. 6 But now we are deliuered from the Lawe, he being dead in whom we were holden, that we should serue in newnesse of Spirite, and not in the oldnesse of the letter. 7 What shall we say then? Is the Lawe sinne? God forbid. Nay, I knewe not sinne, but by the Lawe: for I had not knowen lust, except the Lawe had sayd, Thou shalt not lust. 8 But sinne tooke an occasion by ye commandement, and wrought in me all maner of concupiscence: for without the Lawe sinne is dead. 9 For I once was aliue, without the Law: but when the commandement came, sinne reuiued, 10 But I died: and the same commandement which was ordeined vnto life, was found to be vnto me vnto death. 11 For sinne tooke occasion by the commandement, and deceiued me, and thereby slewe me. 12 Wherefore the Lawe is holy, and that commandement is holy, and iust, and good. 13 Was that then which is good, made death vnto me? God forbid: but sinne, that it might appeare sinne, wrought death in me by that which is good, that sinne might be out of measure sinfull by the commandement. 14 For we knowe that the Law is spirituall, but I am carnall, solde vnder sinne. 15 For I alow not that which I do: for what I would, that do I not: but what I hate, that do I. 16 If I doe then that which I woulde not, I consent to the Lawe, that it is good. 17 Nowe then, it is no more I, that doe it, but sinne that dwelleth in me. 18 For I know, that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to wil is preset with me: but I find no meanes to perform that which is good. 19 For I doe not the good thing, which I would, but the euil, which I would not, that do I. 20 Nowe if I do that I would not, it is no more I that doe it, but the sinne that dwelleth in me. 21 I finde then that when I would doe good, I am thus yoked, that euill is present with me. 22 For I delite in the Law of God, concerning the inner man: 23 But I see another Law in my members, rebelling against the Lawe of my minde, and leading me captiue vnto the lawe of sinne, which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am, who shall deliuer me from the body of this death! 25 I thanke God through Iesus Christ our Lord. Then I my selfe in my minde serue the Lawe of God, but in my flesh the lawe of sinne.