But now we are delivered from the Law, he [a]being dead [b]in whom we were [c]holden, that we should serve in [d]newness of Spirit, and not in the oldness of the [e]letter.

[f]What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? God forbid. Nay, I knew not sin, but by the Law: for I had not known [g]lust, except the Law had said, (A)Thou shalt not lust.

But sin took an occasion by the commandment, and wrought in me all manner of concupiscence: for without the Law sin is [h]dead.

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Footnotes

  1. Romans 7:6 As if he said, The bond which bound us, is dead, and vanished away, insomuch, that sin which held us, hath not now wherewith to hold us.
  2. Romans 7:6 For this husband is within us.
  3. Romans 7:6 Satan is an unjust possessor, for he brought us in bondage of sin and himself deceitfully: and yet notwithstanding so long as we are sinners, we sin willingly.
  4. Romans 7:6 As becometh them, which after the death of their old husband are joined to the spirit: as whom the spirit of God hath made new men.
  5. Romans 7:6 By the letter he meaneth the law, in respect of that old condition: for before that our will be framed by the holy Ghost, the law speaketh but to deaf men, and therefore it is dumb and dead to us, as touching the fulfilling of it.
  6. Romans 7:7 An objection: what then? are the law and sin all one, and do they agree together? nay, saith he: Sin is reproved and condemned by the law. But because sin cannot abide to be reproved, and was not in a manner felt until it was provoked and stirred up by the law, it taketh occasion thereby to be more outrageous, and yet by no fault of the law.
  7. Romans 7:7 By the word, Lust, in this place he meaneth not evil lusts themselves, but the fountain from whence they spring: for the very heathen philosophers themselves condemned wicked lusts, though somewhat darkly, but as for the fountain of them, they could not so much as suspect it, and yet it is the very seat of the natural and unclean spot and filth.
  8. Romans 7:8 Though sin be in us, yet it is not known for sin, neither doth it so rage, as it rageth after that the law is known.

But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law(A) so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.(B)

The Law and Sin

What shall we say, then?(C) Is the law sinful? Certainly not!(D) Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law.(E) For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”[a](F) But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment,(G) produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.(H)

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Footnotes

  1. Romans 7:7 Exodus 20:17; Deut. 5:21