Romans 7:7-8:10

English Standard Version

The Law and Sin

⁷ What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, ^(A)I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if ^(B)the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” ⁸ But sin, ^(C)seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. ^(D)For apart from the law, sin lies dead. ⁹ I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. ¹⁰ The very commandment ^(E)that promised life proved to be death to me. ¹¹ For sin, ^(F)seizing an opportunity through the commandment, ^(G)deceived me and through it killed me. ¹² So ^(H)the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

¹³ 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. ¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, ^(I)sold under sin. ¹⁵ For I do not understand my own actions. For ^(J)I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶ Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with ^(K)the law, that it is good. ¹⁷ So now ^(L)it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells ^(M)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. ^19 (N)For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, ^(O)it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

²¹ So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. ²² For ^(P)I delight in the law of God, ^(Q)in my inner being, ²³ but I see in my members ^(R)another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from ^(S)this body of death? ²⁵ 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.

Life in the Spirit

8 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.^{[a] 2} For the law of ^(T)the Spirit of life ^(U)has set you^[b] free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. ³ For ^(V)God has done what the law, ^(W)weakened by the flesh, ^(X)could not do. ^(Y)By sending his own Son ^(Z)in the likeness of sinful flesh and ^(AA)for sin,^[c] he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that ^(AB)the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, ^(AC)who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵ For ^(AD)those who live according to the flesh set their minds on ^(AE)the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on ^(AF)the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For to set ^(AG)the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ For the mind that is set on the flesh is ^(AH)hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; ^(AI)indeed, it cannot. ⁸ Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

⁹ You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact ^(AJ)the Spirit of God dwells in you. ^(AK)Anyone who does not have ^(AL)the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.