New Testament · Letters

Romans chapter 7

You do know how works, don’t you, ? (I’m talking to people who understand legal systems.) The law only has authority over a person while they’re alive.Think about marriage: A married woman is to her husband while he’s alive. But if her husband dies, she’s from that legal tie.So if she gets with another man while her husband is alive, she’ll be called an . But if her husband dies, she’s from that law -- she can be with another man and it’s not adultery at all.Here’s the point, my brothers and sisters: You also through the body of -- so that you could belong to someone else, to the one who was raised from the dead. And the whole purpose? So that we’d for God.Because when we were living by our , the that the law stirred up were at work in every part of us, and all we produced was .But now we’ve been from the law, because we died to the thing that held us captive. So now we serve in a completely new way -- through , not through the .So what are we saying here -- that the law itself is corrupt? Absolutely not! But here’s the thing: I wouldn’t have known what even looked like if it weren’t for the law. I mean, I never would have known what it meant to if the law hadn’t said, “Don’t crave what belongs to someone else.”But saw its and used that very commandment to generate every kind of craving inside me. Because without the law, corruption has nothing to work with -- it’s dead in the water.There was a time when I was . But when the commandment showed up, corruption sprang to life --and I died. The very commandment that was ? It led to death instead.Because corruption saw its opportunity, used the commandment to me, and through it -- .So the law , and the command belongs to God, and it is and good.Wait -- so did something good kill me? Absolutely not! It was corruption. It used something good to bring about my death, so that corruption would be . Through the commandment, corruption became .We know the law -- it’s something beyond us. But I? I’m , .I my own actions. Because the good I want to do? I don’t do it. But the thing I hate? That’s exactly what I keep doing.And if I keep doing what I don’t want to do, then I’m actually -- that it’s good.So here’s the reality: It’s no longer me doing it -- it’s .Because I know that -- I mean, in my old human nature. I have the desire to do what’s right, but I .I don’t do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep doing the very I don’t want to do.And if I keep doing what I don’t want to do, then it’s not really me doing it anymore -- it’s corruption that has .So I’ve discovered this : When I want to do what’s right, is right there with me, every single time.In the , I God’s law.But I see a different pattern at work in every part of my body -- against the , and to the pattern of corruption that operates through my body.What a situation I’m in! Who is going to me from this ?Thank God -- it’s through Jesus, , our ! So here’s where I stand: With my mind, I serve God’s pattern. But with my , I serve .