Romans 7:22

New Living Translation

I love God's law with all my heart.

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
In my mind I am happy with God's law.

Revised Standard Version
For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self,

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
I delite in the lawe of God concerninge the inner man.

Hebrew Names Version
For I delight in God's law after the inward man,

International Standard Version
For I delight in the law of God in my inner being,Psalm 1:2; 2 Corinthians 4:16; Ephesians 3:16; Colossians 3:9-10;">[xr]

New American Standard Bible
For I joyfully agree with the law of God in the inner person,

New Century Version
In my mind, I am happy with God's law.

Update Bible Version
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

Webster's Bible Translation
For I delight in the law of God, after the inward man:

English Standard Version
For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,

World English Bible
For I delight in God's law after the inward man,

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
For I delight in the law of God, after the inward man.

Weymouth's New Testament
For in my inmost self all my sympathy is with the Law of God;

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For Y delite togidere to the lawe of God, aftir the ynnere man. But Y se another lawe in my membris,

English Revised Version
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

Berean Standard Bible
For in my inner being I delight in God's law.

Contemporary English Version
With my whole heart I agree with the Law of God.

Amplified Bible
For I joyfully delight in the law of God in my inner self [with my new nature],

American Standard Version
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

Bible in Basic English
In my heart I take pleasure in the law of God,

Complete Jewish Bible
For in my inner self I completely agree with God's Torah;

Darby Translation
For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man:

Etheridge Translation
For I rejoice in the law of Aloha in the interior man;

Murdock Translation
For I rejoice in the law of God, in the interior man.

King James Version (1611)
For I delight in the Lawe of God, after the inward man.

New Life Bible
My mind and heart agree with the Law of God.

New Revised Standard
For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self,

Geneva Bible (1587)
For I delite in the Law of God, concerning the inner man:

George Lamsa Translation
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
I have, in fact, a sympathetic pleasure in the law of God; according to the inner man.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For I am delighted with the law of God, according to the inward man:

Bishop's Bible (1568)
For I delite in the lawe of God, after the inwarde man:

Good News Translation
My inner being delights in the law of God.

Christian Standard Bible®
For in my inner self I delight in God’s law,

King James Version
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

Lexham English Bible
For I joyfully agree with the law of God in my inner person,

Literal Translation
For I delight in the Law of God according to the inward man;

Young's Literal Translation
for I delight in the law of God according to the inward man,

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For I delite in the lawe of God after the inwarde man:

Mace New Testament (1729)
for my mind takes delight in the law of God,

New English Translation
For I delight in the law of God in my inner being.

New King James Version
For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.

Simplified Cowboy Version
I love God's code with all my heart.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,

Legacy Standard Bible
For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,

Contextual Overview

¹⁴ So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. ¹⁵ I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate. ¹⁶ But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. ¹⁸ And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can't. ¹⁹ I want to do what is good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. ²⁰ But if I do what I don't want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. ²¹ I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. ²² I love God's law with all my heart. ²³ But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

I delight: Romans 8:7, Job 23:12, Psalms 1:2, Psalms 19:8-10, Psalms 40:8, Psalms 119:16, Psalms 119:24, Psalms 119:35, Psalms 119:47, Psalms 119:48, Psalms 119:72, Psalms 119:92, Psalms 119:97-104, Psalms 119:111, Psalms 119:113, Psalms 119:127, Psalms 119:167, Psalms 119:174, Isaiah 51:7, John 4:34, Hebrews 8:10

inward: Romans 2:29, 2 Corinthians 4:16, Ephesians 3:16, Colossians 3:9, 1 Peter 3:4

Reciprocal: Leviticus 13:39 - if the bright Job 22:26 - shalt thou Job 33:27 - right Psalms 51:6 - inward Psalms 62:4 - inwardly Psalms 68:30 - delight Psalms 112:1 - delighteth Psalms 119:5 - General Psalms 119:25 - soul Psalms 119:70 - but I Psalms 119:128 - I esteem Psalms 119:140 - pure Proverbs 21:15 - joy Song of Solomon 5:3 - have put Jeremiah 6:10 - delight Jeremiah 31:33 - I will Amos 5:15 - Hate Matthew 11:28 - all Romans 3:31 - yea Romans 7:14 - but Romans 7:16 - I consent Romans 12:2 - good 1 Corinthians 9:21 - not 2 Corinthians 3:7 - was Galatians 2:19 - through Philippians 1:10 - ye 1 Timothy 1:8 - the law James 1:25 - the perfect 1 John 5:3 - and

Cross-References

Genesis 2:7
Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man's nostrils, and the man became a living person.

Genesis 6:17
"Look! I am about to cover the earth with a flood that will destroy every living thing that breathes. Everything on earth will die.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For I delight in the law of God,.... This an unregenerate man cannot do; he does not like its commands, they are disagreeable to his corrupt nature; and as it is a threatening, cursing, damning law, it can never be delighted in by him: the moralist, the Pharisee, who obeys it externally, do not love it, nor delight in it; he obeys it not from love to its precepts, but from fear of its threatenings; from a desire of popular esteem, and from low, mercenary, selfish views, in order to gain the applause of men, and favour of God: only a regenerate man delights in the law of God; which he does, as it is fulfilled by Christ, who has answered all the demands of it: and as it is in the hands of Christ, held forth by him as a rule of holy walk and conversation; and as it is written upon his heart by the Spirit of God, to which he yields a voluntary and cheerful obedience: he serves it with his mind, of a ready mind freely, and without any constraint but that of love; he delights together with the law, as the word here used signifies; the delight is mutual and reciprocal, the law delights in him, and he delights in the law; and they both delight in the selfsame things, and particularly in the perfect obedience which the Son of God has yielded to it. The apostle adds,

after the inward man; by which he means the renewed man, the new man, or new nature, formed in his soul; which had its seat in the inward part, is an internal principle, oil in the vessel of the heart, a seed under ground, the kingdom within us, the hidden man of the heart, which is not obvious to everyone's view, it being not anything that is external, though never so good: this in its nature is agreeable to the law of God, and according to this a regenerate man delights in it: but then this restrictive limiting clause supposes another man, the old man, the carnal I, according to which the apostle did not delight in the law of God; and proves, that he speaks of himself as regenerate, and not as unregenerate, or as representing an unregenerate man, because no such distinction is to be found in such a person; nor does such a person delight at all, in any sense, upon any consideration in the law of God, but is enmity against it, and not subjected to it; nor can he be otherwise, without the grace of God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For I delight - The word used here Συνήδομαι Sunēdomai, occurs no where else in the New Testament. It properly means to rejoice with anyone; and expresses not only approbation of the understanding, as the expression, “I consent unto the law,” in Romans 7:16, but more than that it denotes sensible pleasure in the heart. It indicates not only intellectual assent, but emotion, an emotion of pleasure in the contemplation of the Law. And this shows that the apostle is not speaking of an unrenewed man. Of such a man it might be said that his conscience approved the Law; that his understanding was convinced that the Law was good; but never yet did it occur that an impenitent sinner found emotions of pleasure in the contemplation of the pure and spiritual Law of God. If this expression can be applied to an unrenewed man, there is, perhaps, not a single mark of a pious mind which may not with equal propriety be so applied. It is the natural, obvious, and usual mode of denoting the feelings of piety, an assent to the divine Law followed with emotions of sensible delight in the contemplation. Compare Psalms 119:97, “O how love I thy law; it is my meditation all the day.” Psalms 1:2, “but his delight is in the law of the Lord.” Psalms 19:7-11; Job 23:12.

In the law of God - The word “law” here is used in a large sense, to denote all the communications which God had made to control man. The sense is, that the apostle was pleased with the whole. One mark of genuine piety is to be pleased with the whole of the divine requirements.

After the inward man - In respect to the inward man. The expression “the inward man” is used sometimes to denote the rational part of man as opposed to the sensual; sometimes the mind as opposed to the body (compare 2 Corinthians 4:16; 1 Peter 3:4). It is thus used by the Greek classic writers. Here it is used evidently in opposition to a carnal and corrupt nature; to the evil passions and desires of the soul in an unrenewed state; to what is called elsewhere “the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.” Ephesians 4:22. The “inward man” is called elsewhere “the new man” Ephesians 4:24; and denotes not the mere intellect, or conscience, but is a personification of the principles of action by which a Christian is governed; the new nature; the holy disposition; the inclination of the heart that is renewed.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Romans 7:22. I delight in the law of God after the inward man — Every Jew, and every unregenerate man, who receives the Old Testament as a revelation from God, must acknowledge the great purity, excellence and utility of its maxims, c., though he will ever find that without the grace of our Lord Jesus he can never act according to those heavenly maxims and without the mercy of God, can never be redeemed from the curse entailed upon him for his past transgressions. To say that the inward man means the regenerate part of the soul, is supportable by no argument. Ὁ εσω ανθρωπος, and ὁ εντος ανθρωπος, especially the latter, are expressions frequently in use among the purest Greek ethic writers, to signify the soul or rational part of man, in opposition to the body of flesh. See the quotations in Wetstein from Plato and Plotinus. The Jews have the same form of expression; so in Yalcut Rubeni, fol. 10, 3, it is said: The flesh is the inward garment of the man; but the SPIRIT is the INWARD man, the garment of which is the body; and St. Paul uses the phrase in precisely the same sense in 2 Corinthians 4:16, and Ephesians 3:16. If it be said that it is impossible for an unregenerate man to delight in the law of God, the experience of millions contradicts the assertion. Every true penitent admires the moral law, longs most earnestly for a conformity to it, and feels that he can never be satisfied till he awakes up after this Divine likeness; and he hates himself, because he feels that he has broken it, and that his evil passions are still in a state of hostility to it. (Romans 7:22-25 (note))

The following observations of a pious and sensible writer on this subject cannot be unacceptable: "The inward man always signifies the mind; which either may, or may not, be the subject of grace. That which is asserted of either the inward or outward man is often performed by one member or power, and not with the whole. If any member of the body perform an action, we are said to do it with the body, although the other members be not employed. In like manner, if any power or faculty of the mind be employed about any action, the soul is said to act. This expression, therefore, I delight in the law of God after the inward man, can mean no more than this, that there are some inward faculties in the soul which delight in the law of God. This expression is particularly adapted to the principles of the Pharisees, of whom St. Paul was one before his conversion. They received the law as the oracles of God, and confessed that it deserved the most serious regard. Their veneration was inspired by a sense of its original, and a full conviction that it was true. To some parts of it they paid the most superstitious regard. They had it written upon their phylacteries, which they carried about with them at all times. It was often read and expounded in their synagogues: and they took delight in studying its precepts. On that account, both the prophets and our Lord agree in saying that they delighted in the law of God, though they regarded not its chief and most essential precepts." See farther observations on this point at the end of the chapter.

So far, then, is it from being true that none but a REGENERATE man can delight in the law of God, we find that even a proud, unhumbled PHARISEE can do it; and much more a poor sinner, who is humbled under a sense of his sin, and sees, in the light of God, not only the spirituality, but the excellence of the Divine law.