Romans — 7
No Longer Bound to the Law
1 Now, dear Achks (brothers) and Achutys (sisters), you who are familiar with the law, do you not know that the law applies only while a person is living?
2 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.
3 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.
4 So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤔𐤏_YAHUSHA. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of righteous fruits for 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH.
5 When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful fruits, resulting in death.
6 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 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the RUACH.
YAHUAH’s Law Reveals Our Sin
7 Well then, am I suggesting that the law of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH 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.”
8 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.
9 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,
10 And I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead.
11 Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me.
12 But still, the law itself is Qadash, and the commandments are Qadash and right and good.
13 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 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH’s good commandments for its own evil purposes.
Struggling with Sin
14 So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am carnally minded, a slave to sin.
15 I do not really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I do not do it. Instead, I do what I hate.
16 But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good.
17 So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I cannot.
19 I want to do what is good, but I do not. I do not want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.
20 But if I do what I do not want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
21 I have discovered this principle of life, that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.
22 I love 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH’s law with all my heart.
23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.
24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?
25 Tudah 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH! The answer is in 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤔𐤏_YAHUSHA Ha'Mashyach our Master and Savior. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.