Romans 7
New English Translation
The Believer’s Relationship to the Law
7 Or do you not know, brothers and sisters[a] (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is lord over a person[b] as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her[c] husband dies, she is released from the law of the marriage.[d] 3 So then,[e] if she is joined to another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress. But if her[f] husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she is joined to another man, she is not an adulteress. 4 So, my brothers and sisters,[g] you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God.[h] 5 For when we were in the flesh,[i] the sinful desires,[j] aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body[k] to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, because we have died[l] to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.[m]
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I[n] would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else[o] if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”[p] 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires.[q] For apart from the law, sin is dead. 9 And I was once alive apart from the law, but with the coming of the commandment sin became alive 10 and I died. So[r] I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death![s] 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died.[t] 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, so that it would be shown to be sin, produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual—but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin.[u] 15 For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I do not do what I want—instead, I do what I hate.[v] 16 But if I do what I don’t want, I agree that the law is good.[w] 17 But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me. 18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it.[x] 19 For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I do not want! 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me.
21 So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. 23 But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be[y] to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then,[z] I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but[aa] with my flesh I serve[ab] the law of sin.
Footnotes
- Romans 7:1 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.
- Romans 7:1 sn Here person refers to a human being.
- Romans 7:2 tn Grk “the,” with the article used as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).
- Romans 7:2 tn Grk “husband.”sn Paul’s example of the married woman and the law of the marriage illustrates that death frees a person from obligation to the law. Thus, in spiritual terms, a person who has died to what controlled us (v. 6) has been released from the law to serve God in the new life produced by the Spirit.
- Romans 7:3 tn There is a double connective here that cannot be easily preserved in English: “consequently therefore,” emphasizing the conclusion of what he has been arguing.
- Romans 7:3 tn Grk “the,” with the article used as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).
- Romans 7:4 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.
- Romans 7:4 tn Grk “that we might bear fruit to God.”
- Romans 7:5 tn That is, before we were in Christ.
- Romans 7:5 tn Or “sinful passions.”
- Romans 7:5 tn Grk “our members”; the words “of our body” have been supplied to clarify the meaning.
- Romans 7:6 tn Grk “having died.” The participle ἀποθανόντες (apothanontes) has been translated as a causal adverbial participle.
- Romans 7:6 tn Grk “in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”
- Romans 7:7 sn Romans 7:7-25. There has been an enormous debate over the significance of the first person singular pronouns (“I”) in this passage and how to understand their referent. Did Paul intend (1) a reference to himself and other Christians too; (2) a reference to his own pre-Christian experience as a Jew, struggling with the law and sin (and thus addressing his fellow countrymen as Jews); or (3) a reference to himself as a child of Adam, reflecting the experience of Adam that is shared by both Jews and Gentiles alike (i.e., all people everywhere)? Good arguments can be assembled for each of these views, and each has problems dealing with specific statements in the passage. The classic argument against an autobiographical interpretation was made by W. G. Kümmel, Römer 7 und die Bekehrung des Paulus. A good case for seeing at least an autobiographical element in the chapter has been made by G. Theissen, Psychologische Aspekte paulinischer Theologie [FRLANT], 181-268. One major point that seems to favor some sort of an autobiographical reading of these verses is the lack of any mention of the Holy Spirit for empowerment in the struggle described in Rom 7:7-25. The Spirit is mentioned beginning in 8:1 as the solution to the problem of the struggle with sin (8:4-6, 9).
- Romans 7:7 tn Grk “I would not have known covetousness.”
- Romans 7:7 sn A quotation from Exod 20:17 and Deut 5:21.
- Romans 7:8 tn Or “covetousness.”
- Romans 7:10 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “So” to indicate the result of the statement in the previous verse. Greek style often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” but English style generally does not.
- Romans 7:10 tn Grk “and there was found in/for me the commandment which was for life—this was for death.”
- Romans 7:11 tn Or “and through it killed me.”
- Romans 7:14 tn Grk “under sin.”
- Romans 7:15 tn Grk “but what I hate, this I do.”
- Romans 7:16 tn Grk “I agree with the law that it is good.”
- Romans 7:18 tn Grk “For to wish is present in/with me, but not to do it.”
- Romans 7:25 tc ‡ Most mss (א* A 1739 1881 M sy) read “I give thanks to God” rather than “Now thanks be to God” (א1 [B] Ψ 33 81 104 365 1506), the reading of NA28. The reading with the verb (εὐχαριστῶ τῷ θεῷ, eucharistō tō theō) possibly arose from a transcriptional error in which several letters were doubled (TCGNT 455). The conjunction δέ (de, “now”) is included in some mss as well (א1 Ψ 33 81 104 365 1506), but it should probably not be considered original. The ms support for the omission of δέ is both excellent and widespread (א* A B D 1739 1881 M lat sy), and its addition can be explained as an insertion to smooth out the transition between v. 24 and 25.
- Romans 7:25 tn There is a double connective here that cannot be easily preserved in English: “consequently therefore,” emphasizing the conclusion of what he has been arguing.
- Romans 7:25 tn Greek emphasizes the contrast between these two clauses more than can be easily expressed in English.
- Romans 7:25 tn The words “I serve” have been repeated here for clarity.
Romans 7
EasyEnglish Bible
The authority of the law
7 My Christian friends, you know about laws. You know that we have to obey them. The laws have authority over someone while they are still alive. 2 So think about this. A woman who has a husband must stay with him as long as he still lives. That is what the law says. But if her husband dies, she becomes free from that law about her marriage. 3 While her husband is alive, the law has authority over her. If she goes to live with another man, the law says that she has done something wrong. People will call her an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she becomes free from that law. If she then marries another man, she will not be doing anything wrong.
4 My friends, it is like that for you too. When Christ's body died on the cross, it is as if you also died with him. Because of that, you are no longer under the authority the law. Now you are free to belong to someone else. You belong to Christ, whom God raised up after his death. As a result, we can live in a good way that will please God. 5 In our old lives, we did the bad things that we wanted to do. God's laws brought bad thoughts into our minds. As a result, our bodies did many wrong things. In the end, those bad things lead to death.[a] 6 But now we have become free from the authority of the law. It is as if we have died. So those rules no longer control us. We do not still try to obey rules that someone has written down. That is the old way. Instead, we serve God in a new way. God's Spirit helps us to please him.
God's Law teaches us about sin
7 So someone might say, ‘God's Law must be bad.’ No! Certainly, it is not bad! Without that law, I would not have known what sin really is. One rule says, ‘You must not want to take things for yourself that belong to other people.’[b] Without that command, I would not have known that it is wrong to want other people's things. 8 But the command gave sin a chance to come into my thoughts. As a result, I started to want all kinds of wrong things. If there is no law to tell us what is wrong, then sin has no power to make us guilty.
9 As for me, there was a time when I did not know God's laws. I was living without any law to obey. But when I learned about that command, sin now had power in my life. 10 As a result, I became separate from God, as if I had died.[c] So the command that should have brought life to me brought death instead. 11 That command gave sin a chance to deceive me. It caused me to become separate from God.
12 So we understand that God's Law and its commands are completely good. They are holy, fair and good.
13 But someone might say, ‘This means that something good brought death to you.’ No! God's Law did not do that! It was sin that brought death to me. Sin used God's good Law to show that I was guilty. Because of that, we can see that sin is really very bad. The commands in God's Law help to show that sin is completely bad.
The power of sin in our lives
14 We understand that God's Law is spiritual. But I am weak and human. I am like a slave that has sin as my master. 15 I do not understand the things that I do. I do not do the good things that I want to do. Instead, I do the things that I hate to do. 16 But I do not want to do those wrong things. So I am agreeing that God's Law is good. 17 So it is not really I myself who am doing those wrong things. Instead, sin has power in my life. It is sin that causes me to do wrong things.
18 I know that there is nothing good in me. I am weak and human. I want to do what is good. But I am unable to do it. 19 I do not do the good things that I want to do. Instead, I continue to do the bad things that I do not want to do. 20 So, when I do bad things that I do not want to do, it is not really I myself who do them. It is sin that causes me to do wrong things, because it has power in my life.
21 So I understand what is happening in me. Whenever I want to do something good, I can only choose something bad. 22 Deep inside myself, I really love God's laws. 23 So my mind tells me to obey God's laws. But my body wants to make me do something else. Every part of me fights against what my mind tells me to do. Sin has power over my body so that I am like a prisoner. 24 This makes me very sad! My body is leading me to death. I need someone to make me free from the power of sin over my body. 25 I thank God! He has made me free, because of what Jesus Christ has done.
So with my mind I want to obey God's laws. But, at the same time, I serve sin as my master, because I am weak and human.
Footnotes
- 7:5 When Paul talks about death here, he means that people die in their spirits. They have become separate from God and the true life which he gives to believers. See Romans 5:12-14
- 7:7 When Paul talks about ‘God's Law’, he means the laws and commands that God gave to Moses for the Israelites to obey. Here, he uses one command as an example. See Exodus 20:17 and Deuteronomy 5:21.
- 7:10 Paul understood that he had not obeyed God's Law. He knew that he had become separate from God. He did not have the true life which God gives to believers. See Romans 5:12-14.
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