7Brothers and sisters, I am speaking to you who know the law. Don’t you know that the law has authority over us only as long as we are alive? ²For example, by law a married woman is joined to her husband as long as he is living. But suppose her husband dies. Then the marriage law no longer applies to her. ³But suppose that married woman gets married again while her husband is still alive. Then she is called a woman who commits adultery. But suppose her husband dies. Then she is free from that law. She is not guilty of adultery even if she marries another man.

⁴My brothers and sisters, when Christ died you also died as far as the law is concerned. Then it became possible for you to belong to him. He was raised from the dead. Now our lives can be useful to God. ⁵Our sinful nature used to control us. The law stirred up sinful longings in our bodies. So the things we did resulted in death.

⁶But now we have died to what used to control us. We have been set free from the law. Now we serve in the new way of the Holy Spirit. We no longer serve in the old way of the written law.

Struggling With Sin

⁷What should we say then? That the law is sin? Not at all! I wouldn’t have known what sin was unless the law had told me. The law said, “Do not want what belongs to other people.” If the law hadn’t said that, I would not have known what it was like to want what belonged to others. ⁸But the commandment gave sin an opportunity. Sin caused me to want all kinds of things that belonged to others. No one can break a law that doesn’t exist.

⁹Before I knew about the law, I was alive. But then the commandment came. Sin came to life, and I died. ¹⁰I found that the commandment that was supposed to bring life actually brought death. ¹¹When the commandment gave sin the opportunity, sin tricked me. It used the commandment to put me to death. ¹²So the law is holy. The commandment also is holy and right and good.

¹³Did what is good cause me to die? Not at all! Sin had to be recognized for what it really is. So it produced death in me through what was good. Because of the commandment, sin became totally sinful.

¹⁴We know that the law is holy. But I am not. I have been sold to be a slave of sin. ¹⁵I don’t understand what I do. I don’t do what I want to do. Instead, I do what I hate to do. ¹⁶I do what I don’t want to do. So I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷As it is, I am no longer the one who does these things. It is sin living in me that does them.

¹⁸I know there is nothing good in my sinful nature. I want to do what is good, but I can’t. ¹⁹I don’t do the good things I want to do. I keep on doing the evil things I don’t want to do. ²⁰I do what I don’t want to do. But I am not really the one who is doing it. It is sin living in me.

²¹Here is the law I find working in me. When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²²Deep inside me I find joy in God’s law. ²³But I see another law working in the parts of my body. It fights against the law of my mind. It makes me a prisoner of the law of sin. That law controls the parts of my body.

²⁴What a terrible failure I am! Who will save me from this sin that brings death to my body? ²⁵I give thanks to God. He will do it through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So in my mind I am a slave to God’s law. But in my sinful nature I am a slave to the law of sin.

The Holy Spirit Gives Life

8Those who belong to Christ Jesus are no longer under God’s sentence. ²I am now controlled by the law of the Holy Spirit. That law gives me life because of what Christ Jesus has done. It has set me free from the law of sin that brings death.

³The written law was made weak by our sinful nature. But God did what the written law could not do. He made his Son to be like those who have a sinful nature. He sent him to be an offering for sin. In that way, he judged sin in his Son’s human body. ⁴Now we can do everything the law requires. Our sinful nature no longer controls the way we live. The Holy Spirit now controls the way we live.

⁵Don’t live under the control of your sinful nature. If you do, you will think about what your sinful nature wants. Live under the control of the Holy Spirit. If you do, you will think about what the Spirit wants.

⁶The way a sinful person thinks leads to death. But the mind controlled by the Spirit brings life and peace. ⁷The sinful mind is at war with God. It does not obey God’s law. It can’t. ⁸Those who are controlled by their sinful nature can’t please God.

⁹But your sinful nature does not control you. The Holy Spirit controls you. The Spirit of God lives in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Christ.

¹⁰Christ lives in you. So your body is dead because of sin. But your spirit is alive because you have been made right with God. ¹¹The Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you. So the God who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your bodies, which are going to die. He will do this by the power of his Spirit, who lives in you.

¹²Brothers and sisters, we have a duty. Our duty is not to live under the control of our sinful nature. ¹³If you live under the control of your sinful nature, you will die. But by the power of the Holy Spirit you can put to death the sins your body commits. Then you will live.

¹⁴Those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. ¹⁵You didn’t receive a spirit that makes you a slave to fear once again. Instead you received the Holy Spirit, who makes you God’s child. By the Spirit’s power we call God “Abba.” Abba means Father. ¹⁶The Spirit himself joins with our spirits. Together they give witness that we are God’s children.

¹⁷As his children, we will receive all that he has for us. We will share what Christ receives. But we must share in his sufferings if we want to share in his glory.

The Hope of Future Glory

¹⁸What we are suffering now is nothing compared with the glory that will be shown in us. ¹⁹Everything God created looks forward to the time when his children will appear in their full and final glory. ²⁰The created world was bound to fail. But that was not the result of its own choice. It was planned that way by the One who made it. God planned ²¹to set the created world free. He didn’t want it to rot away completely. Instead, he wanted it to have the same glorious freedom that his children have.

²²We know that all that God created has been groaning. It is in pain as if it were giving birth to a child. The created world continues to groan even now. ²³And that’s not all. We have the Holy Spirit as the promise of future blessing. But we also groan inside ourselves as we look forward to the time when God will adopt us as full members of his family. Then he will give us everything he has for us. He will raise our bodies and give glory to them.

²⁴That’s the hope we had when we were saved. But hope that can be seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? ²⁵We hope for what we don’t have yet. So we are patient as we wait for it.

²⁶In the same way, the Holy Spirit helps us when we are weak. We don’t know what we should pray for. But the Spirit himself prays for us. He prays with groans too deep for words. ²⁷God, who looks into our hearts, knows the mind of the Spirit. And the Spirit prays for God’s people just as God wants him to pray.

We Will Win

²⁸We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him. He appointed them to be saved in keeping with his purpose.

²⁹God planned that those he had chosen would become like his Son. In that way, Christ will be the first and most honored among many brothers. ³⁰And those God has planned for, he has also appointed to be saved. Those he has appointed, he has made right with himself. To those he has made right with himself, he has given his glory.

³¹What should we say then? Since God is on our side, who can be against us? ³²God did not spare his own Son. He gave him up for us all. Then won’t he also freely give us everything else?

³³Who can bring any charge against God’s chosen ones? God makes us right with himself. ³⁴Who can sentence us to death? Christ Jesus is at the right hand of God and is also praying for us. He died. More than that, he was raised to life.

³⁵Who can separate us from Christ’s love? Can trouble or hard times or harm or hunger? Can nakedness or danger or war? ³⁶It is written,

“Because of you, we face death all day long.

We are considered as sheep to be killed.”

³⁷No! In all these things we will do even more than win! We owe it all to Christ, who has loved us.

³⁸I am absolutely sure that not even death or life can separate us from God’s love. Not even angels or demons, the present or the future, or any powers can do that. ³⁹Not even the highest places or the lowest, or anything else in all creation can do that. Nothing at all can ever separate us from God’s love because of what Christ Jesus our Lord has done.

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