Romans 7:1–12

Released From the Law, Bound to Christ

7Do you not know, brothers and sisters^q—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? ²For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him.^{r 3}So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress.^s But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.

⁴So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law^t through the body of Christ,^u that you might belong to another,^v to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. ⁵For when we were in the realm of the flesh,^aw the sinful passions aroused by the law^x were at work in us,^y so that we bore fruit for death.^{z 6}But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law^a so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.^b

The Law and Sin

⁷What shall we say, then?^c Is the law sinful? Certainly not!^d Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law.^e For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”^{bf 8}But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment,^g produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.^{h 9}Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. ¹⁰I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring lifeⁱ actually brought death. ¹¹For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment,^j deceived me,^k and through the commandment put me to death. ¹²So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.^l