Or don’t you know, brothers[1] (for I speak to men who know shariah), that shariah has dominion over a man for as long as he lives? 2For the woman that has a husband is bound byshariah to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the part of the shariah relating to husbands. 3So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from shariah, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man. 4In the same way, my brothers, you also were made dead to shariah through the body of al-Masih, that you may belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for Allah. 5For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were enflamed through the shariah, worked in our members to bear fruit resulting in death. 6But now we have been discharged from the obligations of shariah, having died to that which held us; so that we may serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.
7What shall we say then? Is the Taurat’s shariah sin? Astaghfirullah! However, I wouldn’t have been made aware of sin, if not for the Taurat with its shariah. For I wouldn’t have known coveting, unless the Taurat had said, “You shall not covet.“[2] 8But sin, finding occasion through that command, produced in me all kinds of coveting. Apart from shariah, sin is dead. 9I was alive apart from shariah once, but when the command came, sin sprang to life, and I died. 10The command intended to bring life, instead brought me death; 11for sin, finding occasion through the command, deceived me, and through the command killed me. 12Therefore the shariah of the Taurat indeed is holy, and the command is holy, and righteous, and good.
13Did then that which is good become death to me? Astaghfirullah! Rather, sin worked death in me through that which is good, that sin might be exposed as sin. Through the command, sin was shown to be very sinful. 14For we know that the Taurat’s shariah is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin. 15For I do not know what I am doing. For I do not practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do. 16But if what I do not desire, that I do, I consent to the Taurat’s shariah that it is good. 17So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me. 18For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I do not find it doing that which is good. 19For the good which I desire, I do not do; but the evil which I do not desire, that I practice. 20But if what I do not desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me. 21I find then a law, that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present. 22For I delight in Allah’s law in my inner man, 23but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of this body of death? 25I thank Allah through ‘Isa al-Masih, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve the law of Allah, but with the flesh, the law of sin.
[1] 7:1 The word for “brothers“ here and where context allows may also be correctly translated “brothers and sisters“ or “siblings.“
[2] 7:7 Taurat, Exodus 20:17.