Released from the Law

(Galatians 3:15-25)

1Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law) that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? 2For the woman who hath a husband, is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband is dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3So then, if while her husband liveth, she is married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband is dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

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 to 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 to death: 6But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead by which we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

God's Law is Holy

7What shall we say then? Is the law sin? By no means. No, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. 8But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. 9For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. 10And the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be to death. 11For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. 12Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

Struggling with Sin

13Was then that which is good made death to me? By no means. 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.

14For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15For that which I do, I allow not: for what I would, that I do not; but what I hate, that I do. 16If then I do that which I would not, I consent to the law that it is good. 17Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 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. 19For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20Now if I do that which I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

21I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22For I delight in the law of God, after the inward man: 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. 24O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this 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.