The law, sin, and death
(Parallel teachings: 2 Corinthians 3:1–18; Galatians 2:19–21; Galatians 3:19–25)
- 1 Or don’t you know, brothers – for I speak to men knowing the law – that the law has authority over a man for as long asfn“as long as” is literally “as long as the time” he lives?
- 2 For the married woman is *bound by law to her husband while he’s living. But if the husband dies, she is *severed from the law concerning the husband.
- 3 So then, if she becomes joined to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But she is free from the law if the husband dies, so she’s not an adulteress, though having become joined to another man.
- 4 So then my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of the Anointed for you to become joined to another, to the One who was raised from the dead so that we might bear fruit to God.
- 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions aroused through the law were working in our body parts to bear fruit to death.
- 6 But now, we were severed from the law, having died to the things which we were bound to, in order for us to serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
- 7 Therefore, what will we say? Is the law sin? May it never be! But I didn’t recognize sin except through the law, for I hadn’t even been aware of covetousness except that the law was saying: “You shall not covet.”fnquotation/allusion to Exodus 20:17 and Deuteronomy 5:21 (also quoted/alluded to by Rom 13:9)
- 8 But having taken an opportunity through the commandment, sin brought about all sorts of covetousness in me, for apart from the law, sin is dead.
- 9 Yet I was once alive apart from the law, but with the commandment having come, the sin revived and I died.
- 10 And the commandment that was to result in lifefnquotation/allusion to Leviticus 18:5 (also quoted/alluded to by Galatians 3:12; Romans 10:5). Given the clear allusion to Genesis 3:13 in the following verse and broader Pauline context that sin causes death (see CF note on verse 13) this might also be a reference to Genesis 2:16-17. for me, this was found to result in death.
- 11 For having taken an opportunity through the commandment, sin thoroughly deceived me;fnquotation/allusion to Genesis 3:13 (also quoted/alluded to by 2 Cor 11:3; 1 Tim 2:14) and through it, put me to death.
- 12 So then the law is indeed holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.
Desiring to do good but not doing it
(Parallel teachings: Galatians 5:16–26)
- 13 Therefore, did something good become death to me? May it never be! But it was sin – so that it might be revealed as sin – bringing about death in me through what’s good so that sin might become sinful beyond measure through the commandment. CFParallel teachings (that sin causes death): James 1:15; Romans 5:12, 6:16, 6:23, 7:5. See also 1 Corinthians 15:25-26 (death is God’s enemy, and He will defeat it).
- 14 For we *know that the law is spiritual but I’m fleshly, having been *sold under sin’s authority.fnquotation/allusion to Isaiah 50:1
- 15 For I don’t understand what I bring about. For what I desire, this I don’t do. But what I hate, this I do.
- 16 But if what I don’t desire, this I do, I agree with the law that the law is good.
- 17 And now I no longer bring it about, but the sin dwelling in me does.
- 18 For I *know that good doesn’t dwell in me (that is, in my flesh). For the desire to do good is present in me, but the bringing about of good isn’t.
- 19 For I don’t do the good that I desire; but the evil that I don’t desire, this I practice.
- 20 And if what I don’t desire, this I do, it’s no longer I who bring it about, but the sin dwelling in me.
- 21 Therefore, I find the principle that despite me desiring to do good, evil is present in me,
- 22 for I delight in the law of God in accordance with the inward man.
- 23 But I see another law in my body parts, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner to the law of sin existing in my body parts.
- 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from the body of this death?
- 25 But thanks be to God through Jesus the Anointed our Lord! So then, I myself indeed serve God’s law with my mind, but sin’s law with my flesh.