Romans 7 Parallel Bible Translations

Romans 7 ▼
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1 Don't you realize, brothers and sisters, that laws have power over people only as long as they are alive? (I'm speaking to people who are familiar with Moses' Teachings.) Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives?
2 For example, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he is alive. But if her husband dies, that marriage law is no longer in effect for her. For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him.
3 So if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she will be called an adulterer. But if her husband dies, she is free from this law, so she is not committing adultery if she marries another man. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.
4 In the same way, brothers and sisters, you have died to the laws in Moses' Teachings through Christ's body. You belong to someone else, the one who was brought back to life. As a result, we can do what God wants. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. So, my brothers and sisters, 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 for God.
5 While we were living under the influence of our corrupt nature, sinful passions were at work throughout our bodies. Stirred up by Moses' laws, our sinful passions did things that result in death. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death.
6 But now we have died to those laws that bound us. God has broken their effect on us so that we are serving in a new spiritual way, not in an old way dictated by written words. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. But now, by dying to what once 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.
7 What should we say, then? Are Moses' laws sinful? That's unthinkable! In fact, I wouldn't have recognized sin if those laws hadn't shown it to me. For example, I wouldn't have known that some desires are sinful if Moses' Teachings hadn't said, |Never have wrong desires.| What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
8 But sin took the opportunity provided by this commandment and made me have all kinds of wrong desires. Clearly, without laws sin is dead. But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.
9 At one time I was alive without any laws. But when this commandment came, sin became alive I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.
10 and I died. I found that the commandment which was intended to bring me life actually brought me death. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.
11 Sin, taking the opportunity provided by this commandment, deceived me and then killed me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.
12 So Moses' Teachings are holy, and the commandment is holy, right, and good. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
13 Now, did something good cause my death? That's unthinkable! Rather, my death was caused by sin so that sin would be recognized for what it is. Through a commandment sin became more sinful than ever. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
14 I know that God's standards are spiritual, but I have a corrupt nature, sold as a slave to sin. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
15 I don't realize what I'm doing. I don't do what I want to do. Instead, I do what I hate. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
16 I don't do what I want to do, but I agree that God's standards are good. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
17 So I am no longer the one who is doing the things I hate, but sin that lives in me is doing them. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.
18 I know that nothing good lives in me; that is, nothing good lives in my corrupt nature. Although I have the desire to do what is right, I don't do it. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
19 I don't do the good I want to do. Instead, I do the evil that I don't want to do. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.
20 Now, when I do what I don't want to do, I am no longer the one who is doing it. Sin that lives in me is doing it. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I've discovered this truth: Evil is present with me even when I want to do what God's standards say is good. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
22 I take pleasure in God's standards in my inner being. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;
23 However, I see a different standard [at work] throughout my body. It is at war with the standards my mind sets and tries to take me captive to sin's standards which still exist throughout my body. but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.
24 What a miserable person I am! Who will rescue me from my dying body? Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
25 I thank God that our Lord Jesus Christ rescues me! So I am obedient to God's standards with my mind, but I am obedient to sin's standards with my corrupt nature. Thanks 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. Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
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