Or do you not know, ^1abrothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the Law), that the Law has jurisdiction to rule over a person as long as he lives? 2 For ^athe married woman as an example is bound and remains bound by law to her husband while he lives; but if her husband dies, she is released and exempt from the law concerning her husband. 3 Accordingly, she will be designated as an adulteress if she ¹unites herself to another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law regarding marriage, so that she is not an adulteress if she marries another man.

4 Therefore, my ¹fellow believers, you too ^adied ^bto the Law ^cthrough the crucified body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 When we were living ^ain the flesh trapped by sin, the sinful passions, which were ^bawakened by that which the Law identifies as sin, were at work ^cin our body to bear fruit for death since the willingness to sin led to death and separation from God. 6 But now we have been ^areleased from the Law and its penalty, having ^bdied through Christ to that by which we were held captive, so that we serve God in the ^cnewness of ^dthe Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter of the Law.

7 ^aWhat shall we say then? Is the Law sin? ^bCertainly not! On the contrary, ^cif it had not been for the Law, I would not have recognized sin. For I would not have known for example about coveting what belongs to another, and would have had no sense of guilt if the Law had not repeatedly said, “^dYOU SHALL NOT COVET.” Ex 20:17; Deut 5:21 8 But sin, ^afinding an opportunity ^bthrough the commandment to express itself produced in me every kind of coveting and selfish desire. For ^cwithout the Law sin is dead the recognition of sin is inactive. 9 I was once alive without knowledge of the Law; but when the commandment came and I understood its meaning, sin became alive and I died since the Law sentenced me to death. Ps 73:22 10 And the very commandment which was intended ^ato bring life, actually proved to bring death for me. Lev 18:5 11 For sin, ^aseizing its opportunity ^bthrough the commandment, ^cbeguiled and completely deceived me, and ¹using it as a weapon killed me separating me from God. 12 ^aSo then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

13 Did that which is good the Law, then become death to me? ^aCertainly not! But sin, in order that it might be revealed as sin, was producing death in me by using this good thing as a weapon, so that through the commandment sin would become exceedingly sinful.

14 We know that the Law is ^aspiritual, but I am a creature ^bof the flesh worldly, self-reliant—carnal and unspiritual, ^csold ^dinto slavery to sin and serving under its control. 15 For ^aI do not understand my own actions I am baffled and bewildered by them. I do not practice ^bwhat I want to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate and yielding to my human nature, my worldliness—my sinful capacity. 16 Now if I habitually do what I do not want to do, that means I agree with ^athe Law, confessing that it is good (morally excellent) . 17 So now if that is the case, then it is ^ano longer I who do it the disobedient thing which I despise, but the sin nature which lives in me. 18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my ^aflesh my human nature, my worldliness—my sinful capacity. For the willingness to do good is present in me, but the doing of good is not. 19 For ^athe good that I want to do, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want to do, ^aI am no longer the one doing it that is, it is not me that acts, but the sin nature which lives in me.

21 So I find it to be ^athe law of my inner self, that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22 For I joyfully delight in the law of God in ^amy inner self with my new nature, Ps 1:2 23 but I see ^aa different law and rule of action in the members of my body in its appetites and desires, waging war against the ^blaw of my mind and subduing me and making me a prisoner of ^cthe law of sin which is within my members. 24 Wretched and miserable man that I am! Who will rescue me and set me free from ^athis body of ^bdeath this corrupt, mortal existence? 25 ^aThanks be to God for my deliverance through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind serve the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh my human nature, my worldliness, my sinful capacity—I serve ^bthe law of sin.