An Example From Marriage

7 Brothers 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.” (Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21) 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.