| New King James Version | Berean Study Bible |
| 1Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? | 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? |
| 2For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. | 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 marriage. |
| 3So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. | 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, even if she marries another man. |
| 4Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. | 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. |
| 5For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. | 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. |
| 6But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. | 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. |
| 7What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” | 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.” |
| 8But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. | 8But sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from the law, sin is dead. |
| 9I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. | 9Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. |
| 10And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. | 10So I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life actually brought death. |
| 11For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. | 11For sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through the commandment put me to death. |
| 12Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. | 12So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good. |
| 13Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. | 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. |
| 14For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. | 14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. |
| 15For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. | 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do. |
| 16If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. | 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I admit that the law is good. |
| 17But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. | 17In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. |
| 18For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. | 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. |
| 19For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. | 19For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do. |
| 20Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. | 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. |
| 21I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. | 21So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. |
| 22For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. | 22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law. |
| 23But 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. | 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. |
| 24O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? | 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? |
| 25I 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. | 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. |
|
