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¹ Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law) that the law hath dominion over a man, as long as it liveth?² For the married woman is bound to her husband while he is alive; but if her husband be dead, she is freed from the law of her husband.³ Therefore if she marry another man while her husband liveth, she will be called an adultress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law, so as to be no adultress, though she marry another man.⁴ Thus ye also, my brethren, are dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye might be married to another, even to him who was raised from the dead, that we may bring forth fruit to God.⁵ For when we were in the flesh, sinful passions, which were by the law, wrought in our members, so as to bring forth fruit unto death.⁶ But now we are freed from the law, that whereby we were held being dead, so that we serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

⁷ What shall we say then? That the law is sin? God forbid. Yea, I should not have known sin, but for the law. I had not known lust, unless the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.⁸ But sin taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of desire: for without the law sin was dead.⁹ And I was once alive without the law; but when the commandment came,¹⁰ sin revived, and I died, And the commandment, which was intended for life, this I found unto death.¹¹ For sin taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.¹² So that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.¹³ Was then that which is good made death to me? God forbid: But sin: so that it appeared sin, working death in me by that which is good: so that sin might by the commandment become exceeding sinful.

¹⁴ We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin.¹⁵ For that which I do I approve not; for what I would, I do not, but what I hate, that I do.¹⁶ If then I do what I would not, I consent to the law, that it is good.¹⁷ Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.¹⁸ For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good, I find not.¹⁹ For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do.²⁰ Now, if I do that which I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.²¹ I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me.²² For I delight in the law of God, after the inward man.²³ But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and captivating me to the law of sin, which is in my members.²⁴ Wretched man that I am!²⁵ Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself with my mind serve the law of God, but with my flesh the law of sin.