SIN’S USE OF THE LAW

7 What should we say then?p Is the law sin? Absolutely not!q But, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law.r For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet.D,s 8 And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment,t produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead.u 9 Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life again 10 and I died. The commandment that was meant for lifev resulted in death for me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me,w and through it killed me. 12 So then, the law is holy,x and the commandment is holy and just and good. 13 Therefore, did what is good become death to me? Absolutely not!y But, sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.

THE PROBLEM OF SIN IN US

14 For we know that the law is spiritual,z but I am of the flesh,E soldaa as a slave under sin.ab 15 For I do not understand what I am doing,ac because I do not practice what I want to do,ad but I do what I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh.ae For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. 19 For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me. 21 So I discover this law:G,af When I want to do what is good,H evil is present with me. 22 For in my inner selfI I delight in God’s law,ag 23 but I see a different law in the parts of my body,J,ah waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?ai 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!aj So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.

THE LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT

8 Therefore, there is now no condemnationak for those inal Christ Jesus,K,am 2 because the law* of the Spirit of lifean in Christ Jesus has set youL free from the law* of sin and death.ao 3 For what the law could not doap since it was weakened by the flesh,aq God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful fleshar as a sin offering,M,as 4 in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilledat in us who do not walk according to the flesha but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh,b but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit. 6 Now the mindset of the fleshc is death,d but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mindset of the flesh is hostilee to God because it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed, it is unable to do so. 8 Those who are in the fleshf cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.g If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ,h he does not belong to him. 10 Now if Christ is in you,i the body is dead because of sin, but the SpiritA gives lifeB because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the deadj lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life throughC his Spirit who lives in you.

THE HOLY SPIRIT’S MINISTRIES

12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, 13 because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,k you will live. 14 For all those led by God’s Spiritl are God’s sons.m 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear.n Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption,o by whom we cry out, “Abba,D Father!”p 16 The Spirit himself testifies together with our spiritq that we are God’s children, 17 and if children, also heirsr—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with hims so that we may also be glorified with him.