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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Romans 7 NLT</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-LR4HSKRP2H"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-LR4HSKRP2H'); </script><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/romans/7.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/romans/7-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NLT</a> > Romans 7</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../romans/6.htm" title="Romans 6">◄</a> Romans 7 <a href="../romans/8.htm" title="Romans 8">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New Living Translation</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/nlt/esv/romans/7.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></td></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><p class="hdg">No Longer Bound to the Law</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>Now, dear brothers and sisters<a href="#footnotes"><span class="fn">a</span></a>—you who are familiar with the law—don’t you know that the law applies only while a person is living? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>For example, when a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>So while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries.</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>When we were controlled by our old nature,<a href="#footnotes"><span class="fn">b</span></a> sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.</p><p class="hdg">God’s Law Reveals Our Sin</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.”<a href="#footnotes"><span class="fn">c</span></a> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good.</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes.</p><p class="hdg">Struggling with Sin</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>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. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>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. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.<a href="#footnotes"><span class="fn">d</span></a> I want to do what is right, but I can’t. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>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. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>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.</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span>I love God’s law with all my heart. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span>But there is another power<a href="#footnotes"><span class="fn">e</span></a> within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-24.htm"><b>24</b></a></span>Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/7-25.htm"><b>25</b></a></span>Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.</p><A name="footnotes"></a><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="fn">a</span><note caller="+" style="f"><span class="fr">7:1 </span><span class="ft">Greek </span><span class="it">brothers;</span><span class="ft"> also in 7:4.</span><br><span class="fn">b</span><note caller="+" style="f"><span class="fr">7:5 </span><span class="ft">Greek </span><span class="it">When we were in the flesh.</span><br><span class="fn">c</span><note caller="+" style="f"><span class="fr">7:7 </span><span class="ft">Exod 20:17; Deut 5:21.</span><br><span class="fn">d</span><note caller="+" style="f"><span class="fr">7:18 </span><span class="ft">Greek </span><span class="it">my flesh;</span><span class="ft"> also in 7:25.</span><br><span class="fn">e</span><note caller="+" style="f"><span class="fr">7:23 </span><span class="ft">Greek </span><span class="it">law;</span><span class="ft"> also in 7:23b.</span><br></span></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center"><em>Holy Bible</em>, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of <a href="http://www.tyndale.com">Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.</a>, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. 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