Romans 7
What Happens in This Chapter
Paul explains that a law holds a person only as long as that person lives, using marriage as his example. He says believers died to the law through the body of Christ, so they now belong to Christ, who was raised from the dead. He then defends the law as holy and good, and says sin used the law's commands to bring death. He describes wanting to do good but doing the evil he hates, and thanks God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Plain reading written for kids. Short sentences, everyday words, one idea at a time.
Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
1Brothers and sisters, you know the law, the rules God gave. So you know this: the law rules over a person only while that person is alive.
"The law" means the rules God gave to Israel through Moses.
2For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
2A married woman is tied to her husband by law while he is alive. If her husband dies, she is free from that marriage law.
3So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
3If she marries another man while her husband lives, people call her unfaithful. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. Then she can marry another man and has done nothing wrong.
4Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
4So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ. Now you belong to someone else. You belong to Jesus, who was raised from the dead. Then our lives can grow good things for God.
5For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
5We used to live the old way, following what our bodies wanted. Wrong desires, stirred up by the law, worked inside us. What grew from our lives was death.
The KJV says "the motions of sins" in "our members." That means sinful desires working in the parts of our bodies.
6But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
6But now we are set free from the law that held us. We serve God in a new way, led by the Spirit. We do not serve in the old way of written rules.
7What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
7So what should we say? Is the law itself sinful? No, not at all! But I only learned what sin is because of the law. I would not have known about wrong wanting. The law had to say, "Do not covet," which means do not want what belongs to someone else.
The KJV answer "God forbid" is not a prayer. It is a strong way of saying "Certainly not!"
8But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
8But sin used that command as its chance. It stirred up every kind of wrong wanting inside me. Without the law, sin lies dead.
9For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
9Once I lived without knowing the law. But then the command came. Sin came alive, and I died.
10And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
10The command was meant to bring me life. Instead I found that it brought me death.
11For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
11Sin used the command as its chance and tricked me. Then it used that same command to kill me.
12Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
12So the law is holy. The command is holy, right, and good.
13Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
13Did something good bring death to me? No, not at all! It was sin that brought me death, using what was good. This showed sin for what it really is. It showed how very bad sin is.
14For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
14We know the law comes from God's Spirit. But I am weak and human. Sin has bought me and owns me like a slave.
15For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
15I do not understand what I do. I do not do the good I want to do. Instead I do the very thing I hate.
The KJV says "that which I do I allow not." Here "allow" means understand or approve, not permit.
16If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
16If I do what I do not want to do, then I agree with the law. I agree that the law is good.
17Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
17So it is no longer really me doing it. It is sin, living inside me, that does it.
18For 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.
18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my human self. I do want to do good. But I cannot make myself do it.
19For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
19I do not do the good I want to do. Instead I keep doing the bad I do not want to do.
20Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
20If I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer really me. It is sin, living inside me, that does it.
21I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
21So this is what I have found. When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
22For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
22Deep down inside, I love God's law. It makes me glad.
23But 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.
23But I see another power at work in my body. It fights against the law my mind loves. It makes me a prisoner of sin's power inside me.
24O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
24I am a miserable man! Who will rescue me from this body that leads me to death?
25I 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.
25Thank God! Jesus Christ our Lord rescues me. So with my mind I serve God's law. But with my human self I serve the law of sin.
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