Chapter 7

Do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know law), that the Law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?

For the married woman is bound by the Law while her husband is alive; but if her husband die, she is set free from the law of the husband.

Therefore while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress if she be with another man; but if her husband dies, she is set free from the law of the husband, so that she is not an adulteress if she has been with another man.

Therefore, my brethren, you also, through the body of Christ, have been made to die to the Law, so as to belong to another who has risen from the dead, in order that we may bring forth fruit unto God.

For when we were in the flesh the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in our members so that they brought forth fruit unto death.

But now we have been set free from the Law, having died to that by which we were held down, so that we may serve in a new spirit and not according to the outworn letter. The Law the Occasion of Sin

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? By no means! Yet I did not know sin save through the Law. For I had not known lust unless the Law had said, "Thou shalt not lust."

But sin, having found an occasion, worked in me by means of the commandment all manner of lust, for without the Law sin was dead.

Once upon a time I was living without law, but when the commandment came, sin revived,

and I died, and the commandment that was unto life was discovered in my case to be unto death.

For sin, having taken occasion from the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.

So that the Law indeed is holy and the commandment holy and just and good. Sin the Cause of Death

Did then that which is good become death to me? By no means! But sin, that it might be manifest as sin, worked death for me through that which is good, in order that sin by reason of the commandment might become immeasurably sinful.

For we know that the Law is spiritual but I am carnal, sold into the power of sin.

For I do not understand what I do, for it is not what I wish that I do, but what I hate, that I do.

But if I do what I do not wish, I admit that the Law is good.

Now therefore it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me.

For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, no good dwells, because to wish is within my power, but I do not find the strength to accomplish what is good.

For I do not the good that I wish, but the evil that I do not wish, that I perform.

Now if I do what I do not wish, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me.

Therefore, when I wish to do good I discover this law, namely, that evil is at hand for me.

For I am delighted with the law of God according to the inner man,

but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and making me prisoner to the law of sin that is in my members. Deliverance Due to the Grace of God

Unhappy man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?

The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore I myself with my mind serve the law of God, but with my flesh the law of sin.