1
Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?
2
For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.
3
So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.
4
Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another--to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
5
For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.
6
But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should 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? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet."
8
But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.
9
I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
10
And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.
11
For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.
12
Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.
13
Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.
14
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15
For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.
16
If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.
17
But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
18
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.