| Chapter 7
|
1 | Know ye not,
brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath
dominion over a man as long as he liveth? |
2 | For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law
to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed
from the law of her husband. |
3
| So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man,
she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from
that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another
man. |
4 | Wherefore, my
brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye
should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we
should bring forth fruit unto God. |
5 | For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by
the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. |
6 | But now we are delivered from the
law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of
spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. |
7 | What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay,
I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law
had said, Thou shalt not covet. |
8
| But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner
of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. |
9 | For I was alive without the law once: but when the
commandment came, sin revived, and I died. |
10 | And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I
found to be unto death. |
11 |
For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew
me. |
12 | Wherefore the law
is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. |
13 | Was then that which is good made death
unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by
that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding
sinful. |
14 | For we know
that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. |
15 | For that which I do I allow not: for
what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. |
16 | If then I do that which I would not, I
consent unto the law that it is good. |
17 | Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that
dwelleth in me. |
18 | For I
know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is
present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. |
19 | For the good that I would I do
not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. |
20 | Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that
do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. |
21 | I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present
with me. |
22 | For I
delight in the law of God after the inward man: |
23 | But I see another law in my members, warring against
the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is
in my members. |
24 | O
wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? |
25 | I thank God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with
the flesh the law of sin. |