[1] Or don`t you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that
the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives? [2] For the woman
that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if
the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband. [3] So
then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would
be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law,
so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man. [4]
Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body
of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from
the dead, that we might bring forth fruit to God. [5] For when we were in
the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law, worked in our
members to bring forth fruit to death. [6] But now we have been discharged
from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve
in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter. [7] What will
we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! However, I wouldn`t have known
sin, except through the law. For I wouldn`t have known coveting, unless the
law had said, "You shall not covet." [8] But sin, finding occasion through
the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the
law, sin is dead. [9] I was alive apart from the law once, but when the
commandment came, sin revived, and I died. [10] The commandment, which was
to life, this I found to be to death; [11] for sin, finding occasion
through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. [12] So
that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.
[13] Did then that which is good become death to me? Certainly not! But
sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through that
which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceeding
sinful. [14] For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold
under sin. [15] For I don`t know what I am doing. For I don`t practice what
I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do. [16] But if what I don`t
desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good. [17] So now it is
no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me. [18] For I know that in
me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with
me, but I don`t find it doing that which is good. [19] For the good which I
desire, I don`t do; but the evil which I don`t desire, that I practice.
[20] But if what I don`t desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but
sin which dwells in me. [21] I find then the law, that, to me, while I
desire to do good, evil is present. [22] For I delight in God`s law after
the inward man, [23] but I see a different law in my members, warring
against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of
sin which is in my members. [24] What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver
me out of the body of this death? [25] I thank God through Jesus Christ,
our Lord. So then I of myself with the mind, indeed serve the law of God,
but with the flesh the law of sin.
