1 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.
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