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15 For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not keep doing what I want. Instead, I do what I hate. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 But now it is no longer I who am doing it, but it is sin living in me. 18 Indeed, I know that good does not live in me, that is, in my sinful flesh. The desire to do good is present with me, but I am not able to carry it out. 19 So I fail to do the good I want to do. Instead, the evil I do not want to do, that is what I keep doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who am doing it, but it is sin living in me.

21 So I find this law[a] at work: When I want to do good, evil is present with me. 22 I certainly delight in God’s law according to my inner self, 23 but I see a different law at work in my members, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me captive to the law of sin, which is present in my members. 24 What a miserable wretch I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 I thank God[b] through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my sinful flesh I serve the law of sin.

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Footnotes

  1. Romans 7:21 The word law is used in different senses in this chapter. Sometimes it is a moral code. Sometimes it is a fixed principle.
  2. Romans 7:25 A few witnesses to the text read Thanks be to God.

15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.(A) 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.(B) 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.(C) 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[a](D) For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.(E) 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.(F)

21 So I find this law at work:(G) Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being(H) I delight in God’s law;(I) 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war(J) against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin(K) at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?(L) 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!(M)

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law,(N) but in my sinful nature[b] a slave to the law of sin.(O)

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Footnotes

  1. Romans 7:18 Or my flesh
  2. Romans 7:25 Or in the flesh