Romans, 7

1. Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

1. You, my friends, understand law. The law has power only while a person is alive.

2. For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to [her] husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of [her] husband.

2. The married woman, for example, is bound by law to her husband while he is alive; but if he dies, she is free from her obligations as a wife.

3. So then if, while [her] husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

3. If she gives herself to another while her husband is alive, she will be an adulteress; but once the husband dies, she is free and if she gives herself to another man, she is not an adulteress.

4. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, [even] to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

4. It was the same with you, brothers and sisters: you have died to the Law with the person of Christ, and you belong to another, who has risen from among the dead, so that we may produce fruit for God.

5. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

5. When we lived as humans used to do, the Law stirred up the desires for all that is sin, and they worked in our bodies with fruits of death.

6. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not [in] the oldness of the letter.

6. But we have died to what was holding us; we are freed from the Law and no longer serve a written law - which was the old; with the Spirit we are in the new.

7. What 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, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

7. Then, shall we say that the Law is part of sin? Of course not. However, I would not have known Sin, had it not been through the Law. I would not be aware of greed if the Law did not tell me: Do not covet.

8. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin [was] dead.

8. Sin took advantage of the commandment to stir in me all kinds of greed; whereas, without a Law, Sin lies dead.

9. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

9. First there was no Law and I lived. Then the commandment came and gave life to Sin:

10. And the commandment, which [was ordained] to life, I found [to be] unto death.

10. and I died. It happened that the Law of life had brought me death.

11. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew [me].

11. Sin took advantage of the commandment: it lured me and killed me through the commandment.

12. Wherefore the law [is] holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

12. But the Law itself is holy, just and good.

13. Was 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 by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

13. Is it possible that something good brings death to me? Of course not. This comes from Sin which may be seen as sin when it takes advantage of something good to kill: the commandment let Sin appear fully sinful.

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

14. We know that the Law is spiritual; as for me, I am flesh and have been sold to sin.

15. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

15. I cannot explain what is happening to me, because I do not do what I want, but on the contrary, the very things I hate.

16. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that [it is] good.

16. Well then, if I do the evil I do not want to do, I agree that the Law is good;

17. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

17. but, in this case, I am not the one striving toward evil, but it is sin, living in me.

18. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but [how] to perform that which is good I find not.

18. I know that what is right does not abide in me, I mean, in my flesh. I can want to do what is right, but I am unable to do it.

19. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

19. In fact I do not do the good I want, but the evil I hate.

20. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

20. Therefore, if I do what I do not want to do, I am not the one striving towards evil, but Sin which is in me.

21. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

21. I discover, then, this reality: though I wish to do what is right, the evil within me asserts itself first.

22. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

22. My inmost self agrees and rejoices with the law of God,

23. But I see another 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.

23. but I notice in my body another law challenging the law of the spirit, and delivering me as a slave to the law of sin written in my members.

24. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

24. Alas, for me! Who will free me from this being which is only death?

25. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

25. Let us give thanks to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So, with my conscience I am a servant of the law of God, and with my mortal I serve the law of sin.