1 Or do ye not know, my Brethren.-(for I am speaking to them that know the law,)- that the law hath dominion over a man, as long as he is alive ?
2 Just as a woman, by the law, is bound to her husband, as long as he is alive: but if her husband should die, she is freed from the law of her husband.
3 And if, while her husband is alive, she should adhere to another man, she would become an adulteress: but if her husband should die, she is freed from the law; and would not be an adulteress though joined to another man.
4 And now, my brethren, ye also have become dead to the law, by the body of Messiah; that ye might be joined to another, [even] to him who arose from the dead; and might yield fruits unto God.
5 For while we were in the flesh, the emotions of sin which are by the law, were active in our members, that we should bear fruits unto death.
6 But now we are absolved from the law, and are dead to that which held us in its grasp: that we might henceforth serve in the newness of the spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
7 What shall we say then ? Is the law sin ?, Far be it. For I had not learned sin, except by means of the law: for I had not known concupiscence, had not the law said, Thou shalt not covet:
8 and by this commandment, sin found occasion, and perfected in me all concupiscence: for without the law, sin was dead.
9 And I, without the law, was alive formerly; but when the commandment came, sin became alive, and I died;
10 and the commandment of life was found by me [to be] unto death.
11 For sin, by the occasion which it found by means of the commandment, seduced me; and thereby slew me.
12 Wherefore, the law is holy; and the commandment is holy, and righteous, and good.
13 Did that which is good, therefore, become death to me ? Far be it. But sin, that it might be seen to be sin, perfected death in me by means of that good [law]; that sin might the more be condemned, by means of the commandment.
14 For we know, that the law is spiritual ; but I am carnal, and sold to sin.
15 For what I am doing, I know not: and what I would, I do not perform; but what I hate, that I do.
16 And if I do what I would not, I testify of the law, that it is right.
17 And then, it is no more I who do that thing; but sin, which dwelleth in me.
18 For I know, that in me, (that is, in my flesh,) good dwelleth not: because, to approve the good, is easy for me; but to do it, I am unable.
19 For I do not perform the good, which I would perform; but the bad, which I would not perform, that I do perform.
20 And if I do what I would not, it is not I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me.
21 I find therefore a law coinciding with my conscience, which assenteth to my doing good, whereas evil is near to me.
22 For I rejoice in the law of God, in the interior man.
23 But I see another law in my members, which warreth against the law of my conscience, and maketh me a captive to the law of sin which existeth in my members
24 O, a miserable man, am I ! Who will rescue me from this body of death ?
25 I thank God; by means of our Lord Jesus Messiah [I shall be rescued.] Now, therefore, in my conscience, I am a servant of the law of God; but in my flesh, I am a servant of the law of sin.
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