Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech: Romans | Page 7

Law sin would be dead. 007:009 Once, apart from Law, I was alive, but when the Commandment came, sin sprang into life, and I died; 007:010 and, as it turned out, the very Commandment which was to bring me life, brought me death. 007:011 For sin seized the advantage, and by means of the Commandment it completely deceived me, and also put me to death. 007:012 So that the Law itself is holy, and the Commandment is holy, just and good. 007:013 Did then a thing which is good become death to me? No, indeed, but sin did; so that through its bringing about death by means of what was good, it might be seen in its true light as sin, in order that by means of the Commandment the unspeakable sinfulness of sin might be plainly shown. 007:014 For we know that the Law is a spiritual thing; but I am unspiritual-- the slave, bought and sold, of sin. 007:015 For what I do, I do not recognize as my own action. What I desire to do is not what I do, but what I am averse to is what I do. 007:016 But if I do that which I do not desire to do, I admit the excellence of the Law, 007:017 and now it is no longer I that do these things, but the sin which has its home within me does them. 007:018 For I know that in me, that is, in my lower self, nothing good has its home; for while the will to do right is present with me, the power to carry it out is not. 007:019 For what I do is not the good thing that I desire to do; but the evil thing that I desire not to do, is what I constantly do. 007:020 But if I do that which I desire not to do, it can no longer be said that it is I who do it, but the sin which has its home within me does it. 007:021 I find therefore the law of my nature to be that when I desire to do what is right, evil is lying in ambush for me. 007:022 For in my inmost self all my sympathy is with the Law of God; 007:023 but I discover within me a different Law at war with the Law of my understanding, and leading me captive to the Law which is everywhere at work in my body--the Law of sin. 007:024 (Unhappy man that I am! who will rescue me from this death-burdened body? 007:025 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!) To sum up then, with my understanding, I--my true self--am in servitude to the Law of God, but with my lower nature I am in servitude to the Law of sin. 008:001 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus; 008:002 for the Spirit's Law--telling of Life in Christ Jesus-- has set me free from the Law that deals only with sin and death. 008:003 For what was impossible to the Law--powerless as it was because it acted through frail humanity--God effected. Sending His own Son in a body like that of sinful human nature and as a sacrifice for sin, He pronounced sentence upon sin in human nature; 008:004 in order that in our case the requirements of the Law might be fully met. For our lives are regulated not by our earthly, but by our spiritual natures. 008:005 For if men are controlled by their earthly natures, they give their minds to earthly things. If they are controlled by their spiritual natures, they give their minds to spiritual things. 008:006 Because for the mind to be given up to earthly things means death; but for it to be given up to spiritual things means Life and peace. 008:007 Abandonment to earthly things is a state of enmity to God. Such a mind does not submit to God's Law, and indeed cannot do so. 008:008 And those whose hearts are absorbed in earthly things cannot please God. 008:009 You, however, are not devoted to earthly, but to spiritual things, if the Spirit of God is really dwelling in you; whereas if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, such a one does not belong to Him. 008:010 But if Christ is in you, though your body must die because of sin, yet your spirit has Life because of righteousness. 008:011 And if the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead is dwelling in you, He who raised up Christ from the dead will give Life also to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who dwells in you. 008:012 Therefore, brethren, it is not to our lower natures that we