New Revised Standard NRS
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 Do you not know, brothers and sisters —for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only during that person's lifetime?
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Is it not clear, my brothers (I am using an argument to those who have knowledge of the law), that the law has power over a man as long as he is living?
2 Thus a married woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning the husband.
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For the woman who has a husband is placed by the law under the power of her husband as long as he is living; but if her husband is dead, she is free from the law of the husband.
3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress 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.
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So if, while the husband is living, she is joined to another man, she will get the name of one who is untrue to her husband: but if the husband is dead, she is free from the law, so that she is not untrue, even if she takes another man.
4 In the same way, my friends, you have died 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.
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In the same way, my brothers, you were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, even to him who came again from the dead, so that we might give fruit to God.
5 While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.
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For when we were in the flesh, the evil passions which came into being through the law were working in our bodies to give the fruit of death.
6 But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.
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But now we are free from the law, having been made dead to that which had power over us; so that we are servants in the new way of the spirit, not in the old way of the letter.
7 What then should we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet."
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What then is to be said? is the law sin? in no way. But I would not have had knowledge of sin but for the law: for I would not have been conscious of desire if the law had not said, You may not have a desire for what is another's.
8 But sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead.
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But sin, taking its chance through that which was ordered by the law, was working in me every form of desire: because without the law sin is dead.
9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived
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And there was a time when I was living without the law: but when the law gave its orders, sin came to life and put me to death;
10 and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.
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And I made the discovery that the law whose purpose was to give life had become a cause of death:
11 For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
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For I was tricked and put to death by sin, which took its chance through the law.
12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.
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But the law is holy, and its orders are holy, upright, and good.
13 Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working 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.
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Was then that which is good, death to me? In no way. But the purpose was that sin might be seen to be sin by working death to me through that which is good; so that through the orders of the law sin might seem much more evil.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin.
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For we are conscious that the law is of the spirit; but I am of the flesh, given into the power of sin.
15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
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And I have no clear knowledge of what I am doing, for that which I have a mind to do, I do not, but what I have hate for, that I do.
16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good.
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But, if I do that which I have no mind to do, I am in agreement with the law that the law is good.
17 But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.
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So it is no longer I who do it, but the sin living in me.
18 For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.
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For I am conscious that in me, that is, in my flesh, there is nothing good: I have the mind but not the power to do what is right.
19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.
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For the good which I have a mind to do, I do not: but the evil which I have no mind to do, that I do.
20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.
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But if I do what I have no mind to do, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin living in me.
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand.
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So I see a law that, though I have a mind to do good, evil is present in me.
22 For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self,
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In my heart I take pleasure in the law of God,
23 but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
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But I see another law in my body, working against the law of my mind, and making me the servant of the law of sin which is in my flesh.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
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How unhappy am I! who will make me free from the body of this death?
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.
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I give praise to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So with my mind I am a servant to the law of God, but with my flesh to the law of sin.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.