Release from the Law (Galatians 3:15–25)
1 ULT Or do you not know, brothers(for I am speaking to those knowing the law), that the law is lord of the man for as long as he lives? 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 ULT For the married woman remains bound by law to the living husband, but if the husband dies, she has been released from the law of the husband. 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 ULT So then, the husband being alive, if she becomes{ married} to another husband, she will be titled an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress, having become{ married} to another husband. 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 ULT So then, my brothers, you yourselves were also made dead to the law through the body of Christ so that you might become{ married} to another, to the one having been raised from dead ones, in order that we might produce fruit for God. 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 ULT For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions that{ were} through the law were working in our members to produce fruit for death. 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 ULT But now we have been released from the law, having died to that by which we were being held, so that we might serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. 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 ULT What then will we say?{ Is} the law sin? May it never be! But I would not have known sin, if not through the law. For I would not have known the covetousness unless the law said,“You will not covet.” 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 ULT But sin, having taken opportunity through the commandment, produced all covetousness in me. For apart from law, sin{ is} dead. 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 ULT Now at one time I was alive without law, but the commandment having come, sin came to life again, BSB BSB: Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.
10 ULT and I died. And the commandment that{ was} for life, it was found{ to be} for death to me. BSB BSB: So I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life actually brought death.
11 ULT For sin, having taken the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it, killed{ me}. BSB BSB: For sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through the commandment put me to death.
Struggling with Sin 13 ULT Therefore, did what{ is} good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, in order that it might be shown{ to be} sin through what{ is} good, producing death in me so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure. 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 ULT For we know that the law is spiritual, but I myself am fleshly, sold into slavery under sin. BSB BSB: We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
15 ULT For what I produce, I do not understand. For what I do not want, this I practice. But what I hate, this 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 ULT But if what I do not want, this I do, I agree with the law that{ it is} good. BSB BSB: And if I do what I do not want to do, I admit that the law is good.
17 ULT But now no longer I myself produce it, but the sin living in me! BSB BSB: In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
18 ULT For I know that there does not live in me,(that is, in my flesh), good. For the wanting is present in me, but the producing of the good{ is} not. 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 ULT For I do not do the good I want; but the evil I do not want, this I practice. 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 ULT Now if what I do not want, this I do, I myself no longer produce it, but the sin living in me. 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 ULT I find, then, this law in me, the one wanting to do good, that evil is present in me. BSB BSB: So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
22 ULT For I delight in the law of God with the inner man. BSB BSB: For in my inner being I delight in God’s law.
23 ULT But I see a different law in my members fighting against the law of my mind and taking me captive by the law of the sin that exists in my members. 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 ULT I am a miserable man! Who will rescue me from the body of this death? BSB BSB: What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
25 ULT Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve with the mind the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. 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.