7 Do you not know, brethren—for I am speaking to men who are acquainted with the Law—that legal claims have power over a person only for as long as he is alive?

² For [instance] a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is loosed and discharged from the law concerning her husband.

³ Accordingly, she will be held an adulteress if she unites herself to another man while her husband lives. But if her husband dies, the marriage law no longer is binding on her [she is free from that law]; and if she unites herself to another man, she is not an adulteress.

⁴ Likewise, my brethren, you have undergone death as to the Law through the [crucified] body of Christ, so that now you may belong to Another, to Him Who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.

⁵ When we were living in the flesh (mere physical lives), the sinful passions that were awakened and aroused up by [what] the Law [makes sin] were constantly operating in our natural powers (in our bodily organs, ^[a]in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh), so that we bore fruit for death.

⁶ But now we are discharged from the Law and have terminated all intercourse with it, having died to what once restrained and held us captive. So now we serve not under [obedience to] the old code of written regulations, but [under obedience to the promptings] of the Spirit in newness [of life].

⁷ What then do we conclude? Is the Law identical with sin? Certainly not! Nevertheless, if it had not been for the Law, I should not have recognized sin or have known its meaning. [For instance] I would not have known about covetousness [would have had no consciousness of sin or sense of guilt] if the Law had not [repeatedly] said, You shall not covet and have an evil desire [for one thing and another].^(A)

⁸ But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment [to express itself], got a hold on me and aroused and stimulated all kinds of forbidden desires (lust, covetousness). For without the Law sin is dead [the sense of it is inactive and a lifeless thing].

⁹ Once I was alive, but quite apart from and unconscious of the Law. But when the commandment came, sin lived again and I died (was sentenced by the Law to death).^(B)

¹⁰ And the very legal ordinance which was designed and intended to bring life actually proved [to mean to me] death.^(C)

¹¹ For sin, seizing the opportunity and getting a hold on me [by taking its incentive] from the commandment, beguiled and entrapped and cheated me, and using it [as a weapon], killed me.

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Book Five

Psalm 107

¹ O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever!

² Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has delivered from the hand of the adversary,

³ And gathered them out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the [Red] Sea in the south.

⁴ Some wandered in the wilderness in a solitary desert track; they found no city for habitation.

⁵ Hungry and thirsty, they fainted; their lives were near to being extinguished.

⁶ Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses.

⁷ He led them forth by the straight and right way, that they might go to a city where they could establish their homes.

⁸ Oh, that men would praise [and confess to] the Lord for His goodness and loving-kindness and His wonderful works to the children of men!

⁹ For He satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul with good.

¹⁰ Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and in irons,^(A)

¹¹ Because they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the counsel of the Most High.

¹² Therefore He bowed down their hearts with hard labor; they stumbled and fell down, and there was none to help.

¹³ Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses.

¹⁴ He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke apart the bonds that held them.^(B)

¹⁵ Oh, that men would praise [and confess to] the Lord for His goodness and loving-kindness and His wonderful works to the children of men!

¹⁶ For He has broken the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron apart.

¹⁷ Some are fools [made ill] because of the way of their transgressions and are afflicted because of their iniquities.

¹⁸ They loathe every kind of food, and they draw near to the gates of death.

¹⁹ Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivers them out of their distresses.

²⁰ He sends forth His word and heals them and rescues them from the pit and destruction.^(C)

²¹ Oh, that men would praise [and confess to] the Lord for His goodness and loving-kindness and His wonderful works to the children of men!^(D)

²² And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and rehearse His deeds with shouts of joy and singing!

²³ Some go down to the sea and travel over it in ships to do business in great waters;

²⁴ These see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep.

²⁵ For He commands and raises up the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea.

²⁶ [Those aboard] mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the deeps; their courage melts away because of their plight.

²⁷ They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits’ end [all their wisdom has come to nothing].

²⁸ Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses.

²⁹ He hushes the storm to a calm and to a gentle whisper, so that the waves of the sea are still.^(E)

³⁰ Then the men are glad because of the calm, and He brings them to their desired haven.

³¹ Oh, that men would praise [and confess to] the Lord for His goodness and loving-kindness and His wonderful works to the children of men!

³² Let them exalt Him also in the congregation of the people and praise Him in the company of the elders.

³³ He turns rivers into a wilderness, water springs into a thirsty ground,^(F)

³⁴ A fruitful land into a barren, salt waste, because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it.^(G)

³⁵ He turns a wilderness into a pool of water and a dry ground into water springs;^(H)

³⁶ And there He makes the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation,

³⁷ And sow fields, and plant vineyards which yield fruits of increase.

³⁸ He blesses them also, so that they are multiplied greatly, and allows not their cattle to decrease.

³⁹ When they are diminished and bowed down through oppression, trouble, and sorrow,

⁴⁰ He pours contempt upon princes and causes them to wander in waste places where there is no road.

⁴¹ Yet He raises the poor and needy from affliction and makes their families like a flock.

⁴² The upright shall see it and be glad, but all iniquity shall shut its mouth.

⁴³ Whoso is wise [if there be any truly wise] will observe and heed these things; and they will diligently consider the mercy and loving-kindness of the Lord.