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My fellow Jewish believers in the Messiah, you are well-aware that {God’s} law has control over a {Jewish} person for their whole life. I know that you are well-aware {of this fact}, because I am speaking to people who are familiar with what God’s law teaches. 2 For instance, a married woman remains obligated to stay married to her husband for as long as he lives. But, if her husband dies, {God’s} law cancels her marriage obligation to her husband. 3 So then, if she marries another man while her husband is alive, she will be identified as an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from what God’s law requires of those who are married. Then she is not {considered} an adulteress if she marries another man. 4 {A similar thing happened} through {the death} of the body of the Messiah {for your sake}. As a result {of the Messiah’s death}, my fellow believers in the Messiah, you too spiritually died to {being controlled by} God’s law. Now you belong to another {“husband”}. You belong to the Messiah who God resurrected from death. {This happened} so that God’s people would live in such a way as to produce deeds that bring him glory. 5 Indeed, at one time, we were controlled by living sinfully. What God’s law requires from us revealed in us just how much we lust after living sinfully. God’s law also caused how much we lust after living sinfully to act within our body parts. As a result, this would {eventually} produce {our eternal} death. 6 But now, God cancels what his law requires {for us}. God’s law no longer controls us by suppressing people. So then, now we newly serve the {Holy} Spirit. We are no longer {required} to serve as slaves to God’s old written law code.7 We should not think that God’s law is sinful! Of course not! Yet, without {God’s} law, I would never have known {what it means to} sin. For instance, if God’s law did not say, “You must not covet,” I would never have known {what it means to} covet. 8 In fact, {humanity tends toward} living sinfully {and} takes {every} opportunity to break God’s command. {As a result,} all {sorts of} lust{ful activity} controls me. This is because if God’s law did not exist, living sinfully would cease. 9 Certainly, there was a time when I was living without {God’s} law. But, when God instituted the command, how I tend toward living sinfully intensified. 10 But I became controlled by death. God’s command was supposed to lead me towards {eternal} life. But, God’s command led me to become controlled by death. 11 In fact, {I tended toward} living sinfully {and} took {every} opportunity to break God’s command. When I sinned, I was tricked. Then {breaking} God’s command {spiritually} killed me. 12 In summary: God’s law is special, God’s command is special, and just, and good.
13 So, of course {God’s law} which is good did not make me controlled by death! Instead, {how I tended toward} living sinfully activated {spiritual} death in me. This was to clearly exhibit how bad it is to live sinfully in comparison to doing what is good. This is {also} so that {how I tended toward} living sinfully would become excessively sinful through {how I broke} God’s command.
14 Certainly, we {instinctively} realize that God’s law is spiritual. But, I am {spiritually} frail. {It is as if} I sell {myself} to serve as a slave to living sinfully. 15 I simply do not understand what controls me! Indeed, what I do not desire, that is what I practice. But, what I hate, that is what I do. 16 But since I do the very thing that I do not desire, I am consenting to the fact that God’s law is superior. 17 This means that now I am no longer the one who controls {how I tend toward} living sinfully. Instead, {how I tend toward living sinfully} resides deep within me {and actually controls me}. 18 Certainly I realize that there is nothing that resides within me that is good. In other words, I tend toward doing what is bad. Even though I actually deeply desire to do what is good, yet {how} I {tend toward doing what is bad makes me} unable to do what is superior. 19 Indeed, I do not do the good thing I desire {to do}. Instead, I practice the very evil thing I do not desire {to practice}. 20 So, since I do the thing that I do not desire, I am no longer the one who controls what I do. Instead, {how I tend toward living sinfully} resides within me and is responsible for why I sin. 21 So then, I have discovered a different {kind of} law: what is evil is actually present within me, although I desire to do what is superior. 22 Certainly I am delighted with God’s law as it relates to what I spiritually desire. 23 Yet, I notice another kind of law present in my body parts. This law conflicts with the law that controls how I spiritually perceive. This {conflicting} law still remains in my body parts. It controls me, so that I become captivated by the law that makes me tend toward living sinfully. 24 I am truly a wretched human being! {I feel as though there is no one} who could {possibly} rescue me from this body {that tends to do what brings} death! 25 I give thanks to God because of our Lord Jesus the Messiah! So, I actually do serve God’s law with how I spiritually perceive. Yet in my body, I serve as a slave to that law that makes me tend toward living sinfully.