15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.(A) 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.(B) 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.(C) 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[a](D) For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.(E) 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.(F)

21 So I find this law at work:(G) Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being(H) I delight in God’s law;(I) 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war(J) against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin(K) at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?(L) 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!(M)

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law,(N) but in my sinful nature[b] a slave to the law of sin.(O)

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Footnotes

  1. Romans 7:18 Or my flesh
  2. Romans 7:25 Or in the flesh

15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto 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 that which 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 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 bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

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