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.