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The Letter to the Romans 7

7 My fellow Jewish believers, you are well-aware that the laws God gave the Jews must be obeyed by Jewish people throughout their whole lives. (I know that you are well-aware of this fact, because I am speaking to people who are familiar with the laws God gave the Jews.) 2 For instance, according to the laws God gave the Jews, a married woman must remain married to her husband as long as he lives. However, if her husband dies, God’s law no longer requires her to remain married to him. 3 Therefore, if she marries another man while her husband is alive, according to God’s law she will be an adulterous woman. However, if her husband dies, she no longer has to obey what God’s law requires of those who are married. As a result, she would not be an adulterous woman if she married another man. 4 So, my fellow Jewish believers, by means of the Messiah dying on the cross the laws God gave the Jews no longer control you. God did this in order to unite you to the Messiah, as if you were marrying a new husband. He is the person whom God made alive again after he had died. God did this in order that we may do things that please him. 5 Indeed, when living sinfully used to control us, the laws God gave us caused us to want to sin even more. Our living sinfully controlled what we did with our body parts. As a result, we would eventually die eternally. 6 But now that we trust in Jesus, God cancels what his laws require us to do. The laws God gave the Jews no longer control us as if we were prisoners. As a result, we now serve God in the new way that comes from the Holy Spirit. We no longer serve God in the old way that the written rules God gave the Jews require.

7 Someone might say, “If what you have said is true, then surely the laws God gave the Jews are sinful!” Then I would say, “Of course not!” On the contrary, without the laws God gave the Jews, I would never have become aware of what it means to sin. For instance, if God did not say in his laws, “You must not covet,” I would never have become aware of what it means to covet. 8 However, since I am sinful, I wanted to covet in many ways because I knew that God commanded us not to covet. This is because if the laws God gave the Jews did not exist, living sinfully would cease. 9 There was a time when I was living without being aware of the laws God gave the Jews. But, when I became aware of those commandments, I wanted to sin even more. 10 I became spiritually dead. God’s command was supposed to result in me living eternally. But God’s command actually will result in me dying eternally. 11 This is so because I wanted to sin even more because I knew what God had commanded. When I sinned, I tricked myself. Then disobeying what God had commanded killed me spiritually. 12 So the laws God gave the Jews are worthy of God and what God has commanded is worthy of God, just, and good.

13 So, God’s laws, which are good, surely did not cause me to die spiritually! Of course not! Rather, living sinfully did so. This happened so that God’s good laws would reveal how sinful it is to live sinfully. This also happened so that what God commands would reveal that living sinfully is utterly sinful.

14 This is true because we are all aware that the laws God gave the Jews are from God’s Spirit. But as for me, I am spiritually weak. It is as if I must serve as a slave to living sinfully. 15 This is true because I do not comprehend what I do! Indeed, I keep on doing what I do not want to do. But I do what I hate that I do. 16 Now because I do what I do not want to do, this proves that I agree with the laws God gave the Jews. I also testify that they are good laws. 17 This means that now I am no longer the one who causes me to do these sinful things. Rather, my wanting to live sinfully causes me to do them. 18 Indeed, I am aware that I am not good at all. In other words, my sinful self is not good at all. This is true because, even though I really want to do what is good, I am unable to do so. 19 Indeed, I do not do the good things I want to do. Rather, I keep on doing evil things that I do not want to do. 20 Now because I do what I do not want to do, I am no longer the one who causes me to do these sinful things. Rather, my wanting to live sinfully causes me to do them. 21 Consequently, I realized that a principle exists: I keep on doing evil things, even though I really want to do good things. 22 This is true because the laws God gave the Jews make my mind rejoice. 23 Yet, I notice another principle that controls what I do with my body parts. This principle conflicts with the other principle that my mind accepts. It also controls me, making me its prisoner by means of the principle that I tend to live sinfully. Living sinfully controls what I do with my body parts. 24 I am truly a wretched person! I feel as though there is no one who could possibly rescue me from this body that kills me! 25 I thank God who rescued me by means of our Lord Jesus the Messiah! Therefore, I actually do obey with my mind the laws God gave the Jews. Yet at the same time with my sinful self I obey the principle that I tend to live sinfully.

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