1Or don’t you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives? 2For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband. 3So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man. 4Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might produce fruit to God. 5For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law worked in our members to bring out fruit to death. 6But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.
7What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” 8But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead. 9I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. 10The commandment which was for life, this I found to be for death; 11for sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. 12Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, righteous, and good.
13Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, was producing death in me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful. 14For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin. 15For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I don’t practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do. 16But if what I don’t desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good. 17So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me. 18For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing that which is good. 19For the good which I desire, I don’t do; but the evil which I don’t desire, that I practice. 20But if what I don’t desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me. 21I find then the law that, while I desire to do good, evil is present. 22For I delight in God’s law after the inward person, 23but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death? 25I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve God’s law, but with the flesh, sin’s law.
1An ignoratis, fratres (scientibus enim legem loquor), quia lex in homine dominatur quanto tempore vivit? 2Nam quæ sub viro est mulier, vivente viro, alligata est legi: si autem mortuus fuerit vir ejus, soluta est a lege viri. 3Igitur, vivente viro, vocabitur adultera si fuerit cum alio viro: si autem mortuus fuerit vir ejus, liberata est a lege viri, ut non sit adultera si fuerit cum alio viro. 4Itaque fratres mei, et vos mortificati estis legi per corpus Christi: ut sitis alterius, qui ex mortuis resurrexit, ut fructificemus Deo. 5Cum enim essemus in carne, passiones peccatorum, quæ per legem erant, operabantur in membris nostris, ut fructificarent morti. 6Nunc autem soluti sumus a lege mortis, in qua detinebamur, ita ut serviamus in novitate spiritus, et non in vetustate litteræ. 7Quid ergo dicemus? lex peccatum est? Absit. Sed peccatum non cognovi, nisi per legem: nam concupiscentiam nesciebam, nisi lex diceret: Non concupisces. 8Occasione autem accepta, peccatum per mandatum operatum est in me omnem concupiscentiam. Sine lege enim peccatum mortuum erat. 9Ego autem vivebam sine lege aliquando: sed cum venisset mandatum, peccatum revixit. 10Ego autem mortuus sum: et inventum est mihi mandatum, quod erat ad vitam, hoc esse ad mortem. 11Nam peccatum occasione accepta per mandatum, seduxit me, et per illud occidit. 12Itaque lex quidem sancta, et mandatum sanctum, et justum, et bonum. 13Quod ergo bonum est, mihi factum est mors? Absit. Sed peccatum, ut appareat peccatum, per bonum operatum est mihi mortem: ut fiat supra modum peccans peccatum per mandatum. 14Scimus enim quia lex spiritualis est: ego autem carnalis sum, venundatus sub peccato. 15Quod enim operor, non intelligo: non enim quod volo bonum, hoc ago: sed quod odi malum, illud facio. 16Si autem quod nolo, illud facio: consentio legi, quoniam bona est. 17Nunc autem jam non ego operor illud, sed quod habitat in me peccatum. 18Scio enim quia non habitat in me, hoc est in carne mea, bonum. Nam velle, adjacet mihi: perficere autem bonum, non invenio. 19Non enim quod volo bonum, hoc facio: sed quod nolo malum, hoc ago. 20Si autem quod nolo, illud facio: jam non ego operor illud, sed quod habitat in me, peccatum. 21Invenio igitur legem, volenti mihi facere bonum, quoniam mihi malum adjacet: 22condelector enim legi Dei secundum interiorem hominem: 23video autem aliam legem in membris meis, repugnantem legi mentis meæ, et captivantem me in lege peccati, quæ est in membris meis. 24Infelix ego homo, quis me liberabit de corpore mortis hujus? 25gratia Dei per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum. Igitur ego ipse mente servio legi Dei: carne autem, legi peccati.