Romans 7–8

Released from the Law through Death

7Or do you not know, brothers (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is master of a person for as long a time as he lives? ²For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of the husband. ³Therefore as a result, if she belongs to another man while^* her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress if she^* belongs to another man. ⁴So then, my brothers, you also were brought to death with respect to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. ⁵For when we were in the flesh, sinful desires were working through the law in our members, to bear fruit for death. ⁶But now we have been released from the law, because we^* have died to that by which we were bound, so that we may serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter of the law.

Knowledge of Sin Comes through the Law

⁷What then shall we say? Is the law sin? May it never be! But I would not have known sin except through the law, for I would not have known covetousness if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”^{a 8}But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin is dead. ⁹And I was alive once, apart from the law, but when^* the commandment came, sin sprang to life ¹⁰and I died, and this commandment which was to lead to life was found with respect to me to lead to death. ¹¹For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ¹²So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Internal Conflict with Sin

¹³Therefore, did that which is good become death to me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be recognized as sin, producing death through what is good for me, in order that sin might become sinful to an extraordinary degree through the commandment. ¹⁴For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold into slavery to sin^b. ¹⁵For what I am doing I do not understand, because what I want to do, this I do not practice, but what I hate, this I do. ¹⁶But if what I do not want to do, this I do, I agree with the law that it is good. ¹⁷But now I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that lives in me. ¹⁸For I know that good does not live in me, that is, in my flesh. For the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. ¹⁹For the good that I want to do, I do not do, but the evil that I do not want to do, this I do. ²⁰But if what I do not want to do, this I am doing, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that lives in me.

²¹Consequently, I find the principle with me, the one who wants to do good, that evil is present with me.^{c 22}For I joyfully agree with the law of God in my inner person, ²³but I observe another law in my members, at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that exists in my members. ²⁴Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be^d to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself with my mind am enslaved to the law of God, but with my flesh I am enslaved to the law of sin.

Set Free from the Law of Sin and Death

8Consequently, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ²For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. ³For what was impossible for the law, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did. By^* sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴in order that the requirement of the law would be fulfilled in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵For those who are living according to the flesh are intent on the things of the flesh, but those who are living according to the Spirit are intent on the things of the Spirit. ⁶For the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace, ⁷because the mindset of the flesh is enmity toward God, for it is not subjected to the law of God, for it is not able to do so, ⁸and those who are in the flesh are not able to please God.

⁹But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him^a. ¹⁰But if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹And if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ Jesus^b from the dead will also make alive your mortal bodies through his Spirit who lives in you.

¹²So then, brothers, we are obligated not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. ¹³For 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, you will live. ¹⁴For all those who are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. ¹⁵For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba!^c Father!” ¹⁶The Spirit himself confirms to our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer together with him so that we may also be glorified together with him.

The Glory that is to be Revealed

¹⁸For I consider that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us. ¹⁹For the eagerly expecting creation awaits eagerly the revelation of the sons of God. ²⁰For the creation has been subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹that the creation itself also will be set free from its servility to decay, into the glorious freedom of the children of God. ²²For we know that the whole creation groans together and suffers agony together until now. ²³Not only this, but we ourselves also, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves while we^* await eagerly our adoption, the redemption of our body. ²⁴For in hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees? ²⁵But if we hope for what we do not see, we await it eagerly with patient endurance.

²⁶And likewise also, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as one ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unexpressed groanings. ²⁷And the one who searches our hearts knows what the mindset of the Spirit is, because he intercedes on behalf of the saints according to the will of God. ²⁸And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose, ²⁹because those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he should be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰And those whom he predestined, these he also called, and those whom he called, these he also justified, and those whom he justified, these he also glorified.

Victory in Christ

³¹What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, together with him, freely give us all things? ³³Who will bring charges against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. ³⁴Who is the one who condemns? Christ^d is the one who died, and more than that, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. ³⁵Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or hunger or lack of sufficient clothing or danger or the sword? ³⁶Just as it is written,

“On account of you we are being put to death the whole day long;

we are considered as sheep for slaughter.”^e

³⁷No, but in all these things we prevail completely through the one who loved us. ³⁸For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.