For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work (A)in our members (B)to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the (C)new way of (D)the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.[a]

The Law and Sin

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, (E)I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if (F)the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”

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Footnotes

  1. Romans 7:6 Greek of the letter

For when we were in the realm of the flesh,[a](A) the sinful passions aroused by the law(B) were at work in us,(C) so that we bore fruit for death.(D) But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law(E) so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.(F)

The Law and Sin

What shall we say, then?(G) Is the law sinful? Certainly not!(H) Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law.(I) For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”[b](J)

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Footnotes

  1. Romans 7:5 In contexts like this, the Greek word for flesh (sarx) refers to the sinful state of human beings, often presented as a power in opposition to the Spirit.
  2. Romans 7:7 Exodus 20:17; Deut. 5:21