Romans 7:1–12

Or are ye ignorant, brethren (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law hath dominion over a man for so long time as he liveth? ²For the woman that hath a husband is bound by law to the husband while he liveth; but if the husband die, she is discharged from the law of the husband. ³So then if, while the husband liveth, she be joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if the husband die, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be joined to another man. ⁴Wherefore, my brethren, ye also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ; that ye should be joined to another, even to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God. ⁵For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were through the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. ⁶But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein 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? God forbid. Howbeit, I had not known sin, except through the law: for I had not known coveting, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet: ⁸but sin, finding occasion, wrought in me through the commandment all manner of coveting: for apart from the law sin is dead. ⁹And I was alive apart from the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died; ¹⁰and the commandment, which was unto life, this I found to be unto death: ¹¹for sin, finding occasion, through the commandment beguiled me, and through it slew me. ¹²So that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.