| NET Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is lord over a person as long as he lives? | 1Now, dear brothers and sisters —you who are familiar with the law—don’t you know that the law applies only while a person is living? |
| 2For 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 marriage. | 2For 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. |
| 3So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she is joined to another man, she is not an adulteress. | 3So 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. |
| 4So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God. | 4So, 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. |
| 5For when we were in the flesh, the sinful desires, aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. | 5When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death. |
| 6But now we have been released from the law, because we have died to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code. | 6But 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. God’s Law Reveals Our Sin |
| 7What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else if the law had not said, "Do not covet." | 7Well 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.” |
| 8But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. For apart from the law, sin is dead. | 8But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power. |
| 9And I was once alive apart from the law, but with the coming of the commandment sin became alive | 9At 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, |
| 10and I died. So I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death! | 10and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead. |
| 11For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died. | 11Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. |
| 12So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good. | 12But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good. |
| 13Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, so that it would be shown to be sin, produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. | 13But 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. Struggling with Sin |
| 14For we know that the law is spiritual--but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin. | 14So 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. |
| 15For I don't understand what I am doing. For I do not do what I want--instead, I do what I hate. | 15I 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. |
| 16But if I do what I don't want, I agree that the law is good. | 16But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. |
| 17But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me. | 17So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. |
| 18For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it. | 18And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. |
| 19For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I do not want! | 19I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. |
| 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me. | 20But 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. |
| 21So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me. | 21I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. |
| 22For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. | 22I love God’s law with all my heart. |
| 23But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. | 23But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. |
| 24Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? | 24Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? |
| 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. | 25Thank 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. |
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