Romans 7:14-24

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

The Inner Conflict

¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin.^{[a] 15} I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.^{(A) 16} Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ But in fact it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸ For I know that the good does not dwell within me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability.^{(B) 19} For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, 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 what is good, evil lies close at hand. ²² For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self,^{(C) 23} but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.^{(D) 24} Wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?