Romans 7:15-25

New International Reader's Version

¹⁵ I don’t understand what I do. I don’t do what I want to do. Instead, I do what I hate to do. ¹⁶ I do what I don’t want to do. So I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ As it is, I am no longer the one who does these things. It is sin living in me that does them. ¹⁸ I know there is nothing good in my desires controlled by sin. I want to do what is good, but I can’t. ¹⁹ I don’t do the good things I want to do. I keep on doing the evil things I don’t want to do. ²⁰ I do what I don’t want to do. But I am not really the one who is doing it. It is sin living in me that does it.

²¹ Here is the law I find working in me. When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²² Deep inside me I find joy in God’s law. ²³ But I see another law working in me. It fights against the law of my mind. It makes me a prisoner of the law of sin. That law controls me. ²⁴ What a terrible failure I am! Who will save me from this sin that brings death to my body? ²⁵ I give thanks to God who saves me. He saves me through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So in my mind I am a slave to God’s law. But sin controls my desires. So I am a slave to the law of sin.