Release from the Law (Galatians 3:15–25)
1 UDB My fellow believers, you know about laws. So you certainly know that people have to obey laws only while they are alive. BSB BSB: Do you not know, brothers (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives?
2 UDB For example, a woman must be faithful to her husband as long as he is alive. But if her husband dies, she does not have to act any longer as if she were married. The law releases her from the marriage. BSB BSB: For instance, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.
3 UDB So if she goes to another man while her husband is alive, she will be an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she no longer has to obey that law. Then if she marries another man, she will not be an adulteress. BSB BSB: So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.
4 UDB In the same way, my brothers and sisters, when you died with Christ on his cross, the law of God could no longer control you. You were free to join Christ, so that you might honor God. You can do this because you are alive again. God has joined you to Christ, and he has raised Christ from the dead. BSB BSB: Therefore, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.
5 UDB When we were doing what our evil thoughts told us to do, the more we learned God's law, the more we wanted to sin. So we did evil things that would break the relationship that we could have had with God, and it would separate us from him forever. BSB BSB: For when we lived according to the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death.
6 UDB But now God has freed us from having to obey the law of Moses—it is as though we have died, and the law can no longer tell us what to do. God has done this for us so that we may worship him in a new way that the Spirit shows us, rather than in the old way that the law required. BSB BSB: But now, having died to what bound us, we have been released from the law, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
God’s Law Is Holy 7 UDB Since people want to sin more if they know God's laws, does that mean that those laws themselves are evil? No, of course not! The law is not evil! But it is true that I did not really know what sin was until I learned about it in the law. For example, I did not realize that it is evil to desire what is not yours until I learned that the law says, "You must not desire what is not yours." BSB BSB: What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have been mindful of sin if not for the law. For I would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”
8 UDB And because of what that commandment stated, my sinful desire to have things that belong to others caused me to covet in many ways. But where there is no law, there is no sin. BSB BSB: But sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from the law, sin is dead.
9 UDB Formerly, when I did not know what God's law required, I used to sin without worrying about what I was doing. But when I became aware that God had given us his law, I suddenly realized that I was sinning, BSB BSB: Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.
10 UDB and I realized that I was apart from God. The law that was supposed to allow me to live forever, if I obeyed it, was leading me to die instead. BSB BSB: So I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life actually brought death.
11 UDB When I wanted to sin, I thought that I would live forever if I obeyed the law enough. But I was mistaken: I thought I could keep sinning at the same time. In fact, God was going to separate me from him forever because I did not truly obey the law. BSB BSB: For sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through the commandment put me to death.
Struggling with Sin 13 UDB Did God's good law separate me from God forever because I couldn't obey it? Not at all! It was not the law but my sin that caused my spiritual death—the separation from God— and ultimately, the law convicted me of my sin and it carried the punishment of death. The law, which is a good thing, showed my sin for what it truly is. By those commandments in the law, the commandments show how terrible my sin is. BSB BSB: Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Certainly not! But in order that sin might be exposed as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
14 UDB We know that the law came from God and changes our attitude. But I am a person whose attitude tends toward sin. It is as though I had been forced to become a slave of my desire to sin—had to do whatever my desires told me to do. BSB BSB: We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
15 UDB The things that I do, I often do not understand. That is, sometimes it is the good things that I want to do that I do not do. And sometimes it is the evil things that I detest that I do. BSB BSB: I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do.
16 UDB Since I do the evil things that I do not want to do, I agree that the law of God directs me in the right way. BSB BSB: And if I do what I do not want to do, I admit that the law is good.
17 UDB So, it is not because I wish to sin that I sin. Instead, I sin because the desire to sin causes me to sin. BSB BSB: In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
18 UDB I know that when I follow my own attitude I can do nothing good. I know this because I want to do what is good, but I do not do what is good. BSB BSB: I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
19 UDB I do not do the good things that I want to do. Instead, it is evil things that I do not want to do that I do. BSB BSB: For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do.
20 UDB When I do evil things that I do not want to do, it is not that I really want do those things. It is my attitude that favors sin that makes me do what is sinful. BSB BSB: And if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 UDB I find, then, that when I want to do what is good, there is an evil desire present within me that prevents me from doing good. BSB BSB: So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
22 UDB In my new attitude I am very happy about the law of God. BSB BSB: For in my inner being I delight in God’s law.
23 UDB Nevertheless, I sense that there is a different power that is in my body. It is opposed to what with my mind I desire to do, and it makes me do what my old sinful attitude wants me to do. BSB BSB: But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me.
24 UDB When I consider this, I feel that I am a very wretched person. I want someone to set me free from the control of what my body desires, so that I might not be separated from God. BSB BSB: What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
25 UDB I thank God that it is by Jesus Christ our Lord that he sets me free from the control of what my body desires. So, with my mind I on the one hand want to obey God's law. But also, I often let my sinful desires control me because of my old sinful attitude. BSB BSB: Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.