Released from the Law

(Galatians 3:15-25)

1Are ye ignorant, brethren, (for I speak to those knowing law,) that law rules over a man as long as he lives? 2For the married woman is bound by law to her husband so long as he is alive; but if the husband should die, she is clear from the law of the husband: 3so then, the husband being alive, she shall be called an adulteress if she be to another man; but if the husband should die, she is free from the law, so as not to be an adulteress, though she be to another man.

4So that, my brethren, ye also have been made dead to the law by the body of the Christ, to be to another, who has been raised up from among [the] dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. 5For when we were in the flesh the passions of sins, which [were] by the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit to death; 6but now we are clear from the law, having died in that in which we were held, so that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of letter.

God's Law is Holy

7What shall we say then? [is] the law sin? Far be the thought. But I had not known sin, unless by law: for I had not had conscience also of lust unless the law had said, Thou shalt not lust; 8but sin, getting a point of attack by the commandment, wrought in me every lust; for without law sin [was] dead. 9But I was alive without law once; but the commandment having come, sin revived, but I died. 10And the commandment, which [was] for life, was found, [as] to me, itself [to be] unto death: 11for sin, getting a point of attack by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew [me]. 12So that the law indeed [is] holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

Struggling with Sin

13Did then that which is good become death to me? Far be the thought. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death to me by that which is good; in order that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

14For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am fleshly, sold under sin. 15For that which I do, I do not own: for not what I will, this I do; but what I hate, this I practise. 16But if what I do not will, this I practise, I consent to the law that [it is] right. 17Now then [it is] no longer I [that] do it, but the sin that dwells in me. 18For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell: for to will is there with me, but to do right [I find] not. 19For I do not practise the good that I will; but the evil I do not will, that I do. 20But if what I do not will, this I practise, [it is] no longer I [that] do it, but the sin that dwells in me.

21I find then the law upon me who will to practise what is right, that with me evil is there. 22For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man: 23but I see another law in my members, warring in opposition to the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which exists in my members. 24O wretched man that I [am]! who shall deliver me out of this body of death? 25I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself with the mind serve God's law; but with the flesh sin's law.