Romans 7
1
Or do you not know, brothers - for I am speaking to those who know the law - that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives?
2
For e a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.
3
Accordingly, f she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
4
Likewise, my brothers, g you also have died h to the law i through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, j in order that we may bear fruit for God.
5
For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work k in our members l to bear fruit for death.
6
But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the m new way of n the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
7
What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, o I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if p the law had not said, "You shall not covet."
8
But sin, q seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. r For apart from the law, sin lies dead.
9
I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.
10
The very commandment s that promised life proved to be death to me.
11
For sin, t seizing an opportunity through the commandment, u deceived me and through it killed me.
12
So v the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
13
Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
14
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, w sold under sin.
15
For I do not understand my own actions. For x I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
16
Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with y the law, that it is good.
17
So now z it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
18
For I know that nothing good dwells a in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
19
b For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
20
Now if I do what I do not want, c it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
22
For d I delight in the law of God, e in my inner being,
23
but I see in my members f another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
24
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from g this body of death?
25
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
-
Cross References
1 Corinthians 7:39
A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.
-
Cross References
Matthew 5:32
But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
-
Cross References
Romans 7:6
But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
Romans 6:2
By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
-
Cross References
Romans 8:2
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
Galatians 2:19
For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.
Galatians 5:18
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Ephesians 2:15
By abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace.
Colossians 2:14
By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
-
Cross References
Ephesians 2:16
And might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
Colossians 1:22
He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.
-
Cross References
Romans 6:22
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
Galatians 5:22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.
Ephesians 5:9
(for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true).
-
Cross References
Romans 6:13
Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
-
Cross References
Romans 6:21
But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
-
Cross References
Romans 6:4
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
-
Cross References
Romans 2:27
Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law.
Romans 2:29
But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.
2 Corinthians 3:6
Who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
-
Cross References
Romans 3:20
For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
-
Cross References
Romans 13:9
For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Exodus 20:17
"You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's."
Deuteronomy 5:21
"'And you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.'
-
Cross References
Exodus 20:17
"You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's."
Deuteronomy 5:21
"'And you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.'
-
Cross References
Romans 7:11
For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
Galatians 5:13
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
-
Cross References
1 Corinthians 15:56
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
-
Cross References
Romans 10:5
For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.
-
Cross References
Romans 7:8
But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.
-
Cross References
Genesis 3:13
Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate.
Hebrews 3:13
But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
-
Cross References
Psalms 19:8 - 9
The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
Psalms 119:137
Righteous are you, O Lord, and right are your rules.
2 Peter 2:21
For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.
Romans 7:16
Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.
-
Cross References
1 Kings 21:20
Ahab said to Elijah, "Have you found me, O my enemy?" He answered, "I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord.
1 Kings 21:25
( There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited.
2 Kings 17:17
And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.
Isaiah 50:1
Thus says the Lord : "Where is your mother's certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.
Isaiah 52:3
For thus says the Lord : "You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money.
-
Cross References
Romans 7:18 - 19
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
Galatians 5:17
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
-
Cross References
1 Timothy 1:8
Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully.
Romans 7:12
So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
-
Cross References
Romans 7:20
Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
-
Cross References
Genesis 6:5
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Genesis 8:21
And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.
Job 14:4
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.
Job 15:14
What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?
Psalms 51:5
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
-
Cross References
Romans 7:15
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
-
Cross References
Romans 7:17
So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
-
Cross References
Psalms 1:2
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
Psalms 112:1
Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments!
Psalms 119:35
Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it.
-
Cross References
2 Corinthians 4:16
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
Ephesians 3:16
That according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.
1 Peter 3:4
But let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.
-
Cross References
Galatians 5:17
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
James 4:1
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
-
Cross References
Romans 6:6
We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
Romans 8:23
And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.