Romans 7
An Analogy from
Marriage |
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 a 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.
|
The Problem of
Indwelling Sin |
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. Ex.
20.17 · Deut.
5.21
|
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. Gal.
5.17
|
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.
|