Romans 7

₁Friends, I know that you understand God's laws. You know the laws are important and you must listen to them while you live. ₂The laws say that a woman who is married is her husband's wife for as long as he is alive. But if her husband dies, then she is free. That is what the laws say. ₃The laws say she commits_adultery if she marries another man while her husband lives. But if her husband dies, she is free. The laws no longer rule over her. If she marries another man then, she does not commit_adultery.

₄My friends, it is the same for you. Christ has died and you have died with Him. That is why the laws do not rule over you anymore. You now belong to Someone else. You belong to Christ. Christ was dead, but God made Him live again and that is why we can all live as God wants us to. ₅Before we belonged to Christ we lived as sinful people. We knew God's laws and that is why we wanted to do bad things and sin. Our bodies wanted to do those wrong things and it brought us death. ₆But now we have become free from the laws that God gave to Moses. We are dead to the laws and we do not listen to what the laws tell us to do. We now serve God as the Holy_Spirit tells us to do, not like we did before, because the laws do not rule over us anymore.

₇Some people say: ‘God's laws are sin.’ Is that right? No, it is wrong to say that. I know God's laws and that is why I know what sin is. For example, God's laws say: ‘You must not want something that belongs to someone else.’ That is why I know that I may not do it. ₈But sin uses these laws and makes me feel like I want to have it. If there were no laws, then sin could not make me want to have those things that are wrong. ₉Before I knew what God's laws said, I was alive. But when I learned what the laws said, sin started to live in me. ₁₀I was like someone who had died. God gave the laws to make me alive, but what happened was that those laws brought me death. ₁₁Because sin used God's laws to deceive me, I believed something that was not_true. Yes, sin used the laws to kill me. ₁₂So, the laws of God are good laws. They all come from God and He gave them to help people.

₁₃Some people say: ‘The laws that are good brought death to me.’ Is what they are saying right? No, it is wrong. It is sin that killed me. Sin uses God's good laws to kill me so that everyone can see and know what sin is. Yes, sin uses the laws and that is why sin always becomes more and more.

₁₄We know that the Holy_Spirit gave the laws. They are spiritual but I am human and I do bad things. I am a slave to sin. ₁₅I do not understand what I am doing. I want to do good things, but I don't do them. I do bad things, things that I hate. ₁₆And when I do things that I don't want to do, I agree with the laws that they are good. ₁₇It is not I who am doing the bad things. It is the sin that is in me that makes me do the things that are wrong. ₁₈I know that there is nothing in me that is good. I am sinful. I want to do good things, but I don't do them. ₁₉Yes, I don't do the good things that I want to do. I keep on doing the bad things that I don't want to do. ₂₀And when I do the bad things that I don't want to do, it is not I who am doing the bad things. It is the sin in me that makes me do them.

₂₁I have learned something that will always be true: I want to do good things, but the bad things in me stop me from doing them. ₂₂I think about the laws of God and I love them and I want to do them. ₂₃But there are also other laws in me and these other laws fight against the laws of God. I know God's laws are right, but the laws in me are holding me back. They rule over me and they make me do bad things with my body. ₂₄That is why I am so sad. Who will save me from this body that brings me death? ₂₅It is God who has saved me and I thank Him. He uses Jesus Christ our Lord to save me.

Yes, I want to be a servant of God and obey Him. I want to do what He says. But I am human, and I am a slave to sin. That is why I do what sin tells me to do.