71 Or do you not know , brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law ), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives ? 2 For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living ; but if her husband dies , she is released from the law concerning the husband . 3 So then , if while her husband is living she is joined to another man , she shall be called an adulteress ; but if her husband dies , she is free from the law , so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man . 4 Therefore , my brethren , you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ , so that you might be joined to another , to Him who was raised from the dead , in order that we might bear fruit for God . 5 For while we were in the flesh , the sinful passions , which were aroused by the Law , were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death . 6 But now we have been released from the Law , having died to that by which we were bound , so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter .
7 What shall we say then ? Is the Law sin ? May it never be! On the contrary , I would not have come to know sin except through the Law ; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said , " YOU SHALL NOT COVET ." 8 But sin , taking opportunity through the commandment , produced in me coveting of every kind ; for apart from the Law sin is dead . 9 I was once alive apart from the Law ; but when the commandment came , sin became alive and I died ; 10 and this commandment , which was to result in life , proved to result in death for me; 11 for sin , taking an opportunity through the commandment , deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So then , the Law is holy , and the commandment is holy and righteous and good . 13 Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin , in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good , so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful .
14 For we know that the Law is spiritual , but I am of flesh , sold into bondage to sin . 15 For what I am doing , I do not understand ; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate . 16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law , confessing that the Law is good . 17 So now , no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh ; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want , I do not do , but I practice the very evil that I do not want . 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want , I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good . 22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man , 23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members . 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death ? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord ! So then , on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God , but on the other , with my flesh the law of sin .
