Released from the Law
1 Or do you not know, brothers1—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For ga married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.2 3 Accordingly, she will be called an hadulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have idied to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful jpassions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit kfor death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve lin the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the mwritten code.3
The Law and Sin
7 nWhat then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! oYet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, p“You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. qFor apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment rthat promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So sthe law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For tI do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now uit is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that vnothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a wlaw that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I xdelight in the law of God, in my yinner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this zbody of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Life in the Spirit
1 There is therefore now no acondemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.1 2 For the blaw of the Spirit of life has set you2 cfree in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done dwhat the law, eweakened by the flesh, could not do. fBy sending his own Son gin the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,3 he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the hrighteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who iwalk jnot according to the flesh but kaccording to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh lset their minds on mthe things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on nthe things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 oFor the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God pdwells in you. Anyone who does not have the qSpirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is rin you, although the sbody is dead because of sin, the Spirit is tlife because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of uhim who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus4 from the dead will also vgive life to your mortal bodies wthrough his Spirit who dwells in you.
Heirs with Christ
12 So then, brothers,5 we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For xif you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you yput to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are zled by the Spirit of God are sons6 of God. 15 For you did anot receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of badoption as sons, by whom we cry, c“Abba! Father!” 16 dThe Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then eheirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, fprovided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Future Glory
18 For I consider that gthe sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with hthe glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For ithe creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that jthe creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits kof the Spirit, lgroan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this mhope we were saved. Now hope nthat is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself ointercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And phe who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because7 the Spirit intercedes for the saints qaccording to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who rlove God sall things work together for good,8 for those who are called according to his tpurpose. 29 For those whom he uforeknew he also vpredestined to be wconformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be xthe firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also ycalled, and those whom he called he also zjustified, and those whom he justified he also aglorified.
God’s Everlasting Love
31 bWhat then shall we say to these things? cIf God is for us, who can be9 against us? 32 dHe who edid not spare his own Son but gave him up for us fall, ghow will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 hWho shall bring any charge against God’s ielect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is jto condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—kwho is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.10 35 Who shall separate us from the llove of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
m“For your sake we are being killed nall the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than oconquerors through him who ploved us. 38 For I am sure that qneither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor rheight nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
