Romans 7 — AAB
Release from the Law
7Verse 1Do you not know, brothers (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives?Verse 2For instance, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of the husband.Verse 3So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.Verse 4Therefore, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.Verse 5For when we lived according to the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death.Verse 6But now, having died to what bound us, we have been released from the law, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.God’s Law Is Holy
Verse 7What then shall we say? Is the law Sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have been mindful of Sin if not for the law. For I would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”+Verse 8But Sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from the law, Sin is dead.Verse 9Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, Sin sprang to life and I died.Verse 10So I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life actually brought death.Verse 11For Sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through the commandment put me to death.Verse 12So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.Struggling with Sin
Verse 13Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Certainly not! But in order that Sin might be exposed as Sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment Sin might become utterly sinful.Verse 14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to Sin.Verse 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do.Verse 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I admit that the law is good.Verse 17In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is Sin living in me that does it.Verse 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.Verse 19For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do.Verse 20And if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but it is Sin living in me that does it.Verse 21So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.Verse 22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law.Verse 23But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of Sin that dwells within me.+Verse 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?Verse 25Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!So then, with my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh I serve the law of Sin.