Romans 7:5 因为我们属肉体的时候，那因律法而生的恶欲就在我们肢体中发动，以致结成死亡的果子。

7:5 MSG

逐节对照

新标点和合本 - 因为我们属肉体的时候，那因律法而生的恶欲就在我们肢体中发动，以致结成死亡的果子。
和合本2010（上帝版-简体） - 因为我们属肉体的时候，那因律法而生犯罪的欲望在我们肢体中发动，以致结出死亡的果子。
和合本2010（神版-简体） - 因为我们属肉体的时候，那因律法而生犯罪的欲望在我们肢体中发动，以致结出死亡的果子。
当代译本 - 从前我们受自己本性的控制，因律法而激发的罪恶欲望在我们体内发作，以致结出死亡的果子。
圣经新译本 - 我们从前属肉体的时候，罪恶的情欲藉着律法在我们的肢体里发动，就结出死亡的果子。
中文标准译本 - 原来，当我们还在肉体中的时候，罪的欲望藉着律法在我们身体的各部分做工，以致为死亡结了果子。
现代标点和合本 - 因为我们属肉体的时候，那因律法而生的恶欲就在我们肢体中发动，以致结成死亡的果子；
和合本（拼音版） - 因为我们属肉体的时候，那因律法而生的恶欲就在我们肢体中发动，以致结成死亡的果子。
New International Version - For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death.
New International Reader's Version - The power of sin used to control us. The law stirred up sinful desires in us. So the things we did resulted in death.
English Standard Version - For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.
New Living Translation - When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death.
Christian Standard Bible - For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions aroused through the law were working in us to bear fruit for death.
New American Standard Bible - For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were brought to light by the Law, were at work in the parts of our body to bear fruit for death.
New King James Version - For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.
Amplified Bible - When we were living in the flesh [trapped by sin], the sinful passions, which were awakened by [that which] the Law [identifies as sin], were at work in our body to bear fruit for death [since the willingness to sin led to death and separation from God].
American Standard Version - For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were through the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
King James Version - For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
New English Translation - For when we were in the flesh, the sinful desires, aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.
World English Bible - For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law worked in our members to bring out fruit to death.
新標點和合本 - 因為我們屬肉體的時候，那因律法而生的惡慾就在我們肢體中發動，以致結成死亡的果子。
和合本2010（上帝版-繁體） - 因為我們屬肉體的時候，那因律法而生犯罪的慾望在我們肢體中發動，以致結出死亡的果子。
和合本2010（神版-繁體） - 因為我們屬肉體的時候，那因律法而生犯罪的慾望在我們肢體中發動，以致結出死亡的果子。
當代譯本 - 從前我們受自己本性的控制，因律法而激發的罪惡慾望在我們體內發作，以致結出死亡的果子。
聖經新譯本 - 我們從前屬肉體的時候，罪惡的情慾藉著律法在我們的肢體裡發動，就結出死亡的果子。
呂振中譯本 - 因為我們從前在肉體裏的時候，那因律法而生的罪之惡情、運用着動力於我們的肢體中，以致給死結果子。
中文標準譯本 - 原來，當我們還在肉體中的時候，罪的欲望藉著律法在我們身體的各部分做工，以致為死亡結了果子。
現代標點和合本 - 因為我們屬肉體的時候，那因律法而生的惡慾就在我們肢體中發動，以致結成死亡的果子；
文理和合譯本 - 蓋我儕徇形軀時、其由律之惡慾動於肢體、厥果維死、
文理委辦譯本 - 當我從欲時、情轉因律法而為惡、動乎四體、厥果惟死、
施約瑟淺文理新舊約聖經 - 蓋我儕屬肉體之時、罪慾由律法而生者、動於我肢體、使我儕結果以致死、
吳經熊文理聖詠與新經全集 - 當吾人尚在肉身之權下、吾人之四肢百體、在在受罪惡之牽引。此罪惡者、生於情慾、滋於律法、終則致死亡之果者也。
Nueva Versión Internacional - Porque, cuando nuestra naturaleza pecaminosa aún nos dominaba, las malas pasiones que la ley nos despertaba actuaban en los miembros de nuestro cuerpo, y dábamos fruto para muerte.
현대인의 성경 - 우리가 육신의 지배를 받을 때에는 율법에 의해 일어난 죄의 욕망이 우리 안에서 작용하여 죽음에 이르는 열매를 맺었습니다.
Новый Русский Перевод - Когда мы жили сообразно своей грешной природе, то Закон пробуждал в нас греховные желания, действовавшие в членах нашего тела, и плодом их была смерть.
Восточный перевод - Когда мы жили сообразно своей грешной природе, то Закон пробуждал в нас греховные желания, действовавшие в членах нашего тела, и плодом их была смерть.
Восточный перевод, версия с «Аллахом» - Когда мы жили сообразно своей грешной природе, то Закон пробуждал в нас греховные желания, действовавшие в членах нашего тела, и плодом их была смерть.
Восточный перевод, версия для Таджикистана - Когда мы жили сообразно своей грешной природе, то Закон пробуждал в нас греховные желания, действовавшие в членах нашего тела, и плодом их была смерть.
La Bible du Semeur 2015 - Lorsque nous étions encore livrés à nous-mêmes, les mauvais désirs suscités par la Loi étaient à l’œuvre dans nos membres pour nous faire porter des fruits qui mènent à la mort.
リビングバイブル - 私たちの古い性質がまだ生きていた時には、欲望が私たちの中で思うままにふるまい、神の命令に逆らって、罪深い行いという死に至る腐った実を結びました。
Nestle Aland 28 - ὅτε γὰρ ἦμεν ἐν τῇ σαρκί, τὰ παθήματα τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν τὰ διὰ τοῦ νόμου ἐνηργεῖτο ἐν τοῖς μέλεσιν ἡμῶν, εἰς τὸ καρποφορῆσαι τῷ θανάτῳ·
unfoldingWord® Greek New Testament - ὅτε γὰρ ἦμεν ἐν τῇ σαρκί, τὰ παθήματα τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν τὰ διὰ τοῦ νόμου ἐνηργεῖτο ἐν τοῖς μέλεσιν ἡμῶν εἰς τὸ καρποφορῆσαι τῷ θανάτῳ;
Nova Versão Internacional - Pois quando éramos controlados pela carne , as paixões pecaminosas despertadas pela Lei atuavam em nosso corpo, de forma que dávamos fruto para a morte.
Hoffnung für alle - Von Natur aus waren wir einst der Gewalt der Sünde ausgeliefert und wurden von unseren selbstsüchtigen Wünschen beherrscht. Durch das Gesetz wurde die Sünde in uns erst geweckt, so dass wir taten, was letztendlich zum Tod führt.
Kinh Thánh Hiện Đại - Khi chúng ta còn sống theo bản tính cũ, những ham muốn tội lỗi do luật pháp khích động, đã hoành hành trong thể xác, kết quả là cái chết.
พระคริสตธรรมคัมภีร์ไทย ฉบับอมตธรรมร่วมสมัย - เพราะเมื่อก่อนเราถูกวิสัยบาป ควบคุมอยู่จึงถูกบทบัญญัติกระตุ้นตัณหาชั่วให้ออกฤทธิ์ในกายของเรา เพื่อให้เราเกิดผลอันนำไปสู่ความตาย
พระคัมภีร์ ฉบับแปลใหม่ - ด้วยว่าแต่ก่อนเราดำเนินชีวิตตามฝ่ายเนื้อหนัง กฎบัญญัติปลุกตัณหาชั่วที่อยู่ในตัวของเราให้ตื่นขึ้น เราจึงเกิดผลซึ่งนำไปสู่ความตาย

交叉引用

Ephesians 2:11 - But don’t take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God’s ways had no idea of any of this, didn’t know the first thing about the way God works, hadn’t the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God’s covenants and promises in Israel, hadn’t a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. Now because of Christ—dying that death, shedding that blood—you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.
Romans 1:26 - Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn’t know how to be human either—women didn’t know how to be women, men didn’t know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches.
Galatians 5:19 - It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.
Romans 6:19 - I’m using this freedom language because it’s easy to picture. You can readily recall, can’t you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing—not caring about others, not caring about God—the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God’s freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness?
Titus 3:3 - It wasn’t so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, easy marks for sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all his doing; we had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God’s gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there’s more life to come—an eternity of life! You can count on this.
Romans 7:7 - But I can hear you say, “If the law code was as bad as all that, it’s no better than sin itself.” That’s certainly not true. The law code had a perfectly legitimate function. Without its clear guidelines for right and wrong, moral behavior would be mostly guesswork. Apart from the succinct, surgical command, “You shall not covet,” I could have dressed covetousness up to look like a virtue and ruined my life with it.
Romans 7:8 - Don’t you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of “forbidden fruit” out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me. Without all the paraphernalia of the law code, sin looked pretty dull and lifeless, and I went along without paying much attention to it. But once sin got its hands on the law code and decked itself out in all that finery, I was fooled, and fell for it. The very command that was supposed to guide me into life was cleverly used to trip me up, throwing me headlong. So sin was plenty alive, and I was stone dead. But the law code itself is God’s good and common sense, each command sane and holy counsel.
Romans 7:13 - I can already hear your next question: “Does that mean I can’t even trust what is good [that is, the law]? Is good just as dangerous as evil?” No again! Sin simply did what sin is so famous for doing: using the good as a cover to tempt me to do what would finally destroy me. By hiding within God’s good commandment, sin did far more mischief than it could ever have accomplished on its own.
2 Corinthians 3:7 - The Government of Death, its constitution chiseled on stone tablets, had a dazzling inaugural. Moses’ face as he delivered the tablets was so bright that day (even though it would fade soon enough) that the people of Israel could no more look right at him than stare into the sun. How much more dazzling, then, the Government of Living Spirit?
2 Corinthians 3:9 - If the Government of Condemnation was impressive, how about this Government of Affirmation? Bright as that old government was, it would look downright dull alongside this new one. If that makeshift arrangement impressed us, how much more this brightly shining government installed for eternity?
Romans 8:9 - But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!
Colossians 3:5 - And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That’s a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. It’s because of this kind of thing that God is about to explode in anger. It wasn’t long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better. But you know better now, so make sure it’s all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk.
Romans 5:20 - All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.
1 John 3:4 - All who indulge in a sinful life are dangerously lawless, for sin is a major disruption of God’s order. Surely you know that Christ showed up in order to get rid of sin. There is no sin in him, and sin is not part of his program. No one who lives deeply in Christ makes a practice of sin. None of those who do practice sin have taken a good look at Christ. They’ve got him all backward.
James 4:1 - Where do you think all these appalling wars and quarrels come from? Do you think they just happen? Think again. They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves. You lust for what you don’t have and are willing to kill to get it. You want what isn’t yours and will risk violence to get your hands on it.
Galatians 5:16 - My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are contrary to each other, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence? * * *

逐节对照

交叉引用

新标点和合本 - 因为我们属肉体的时候，那因律法而生的恶欲就在我们肢体中发动，以致结成死亡的果子。
和合本2010（上帝版-简体） - 因为我们属肉体的时候，那因律法而生犯罪的欲望在我们肢体中发动，以致结出死亡的果子。
和合本2010（神版-简体） - 因为我们属肉体的时候，那因律法而生犯罪的欲望在我们肢体中发动，以致结出死亡的果子。
当代译本 - 从前我们受自己本性的控制，因律法而激发的罪恶欲望在我们体内发作，以致结出死亡的果子。
圣经新译本 - 我们从前属肉体的时候，罪恶的情欲藉着律法在我们的肢体里发动，就结出死亡的果子。
中文标准译本 - 原来，当我们还在肉体中的时候，罪的欲望藉着律法在我们身体的各部分做工，以致为死亡结了果子。
现代标点和合本 - 因为我们属肉体的时候，那因律法而生的恶欲就在我们肢体中发动，以致结成死亡的果子；
和合本（拼音版） - 因为我们属肉体的时候，那因律法而生的恶欲就在我们肢体中发动，以致结成死亡的果子。
New International Version - For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death.
New International Reader's Version - The power of sin used to control us. The law stirred up sinful desires in us. So the things we did resulted in death.
English Standard Version - For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.
New Living Translation - When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death.
Christian Standard Bible - For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions aroused through the law were working in us to bear fruit for death.
New American Standard Bible - For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were brought to light by the Law, were at work in the parts of our body to bear fruit for death.
New King James Version - For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.
Amplified Bible - When we were living in the flesh [trapped by sin], the sinful passions, which were awakened by [that which] the Law [identifies as sin], were at work in our body to bear fruit for death [since the willingness to sin led to death and separation from God].
American Standard Version - For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were through the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
King James Version - For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
New English Translation - For when we were in the flesh, the sinful desires, aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.
World English Bible - For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law worked in our members to bring out fruit to death.
新標點和合本 - 因為我們屬肉體的時候，那因律法而生的惡慾就在我們肢體中發動，以致結成死亡的果子。
和合本2010（上帝版-繁體） - 因為我們屬肉體的時候，那因律法而生犯罪的慾望在我們肢體中發動，以致結出死亡的果子。
和合本2010（神版-繁體） - 因為我們屬肉體的時候，那因律法而生犯罪的慾望在我們肢體中發動，以致結出死亡的果子。
當代譯本 - 從前我們受自己本性的控制，因律法而激發的罪惡慾望在我們體內發作，以致結出死亡的果子。
聖經新譯本 - 我們從前屬肉體的時候，罪惡的情慾藉著律法在我們的肢體裡發動，就結出死亡的果子。
呂振中譯本 - 因為我們從前在肉體裏的時候，那因律法而生的罪之惡情、運用着動力於我們的肢體中，以致給死結果子。
中文標準譯本 - 原來，當我們還在肉體中的時候，罪的欲望藉著律法在我們身體的各部分做工，以致為死亡結了果子。
現代標點和合本 - 因為我們屬肉體的時候，那因律法而生的惡慾就在我們肢體中發動，以致結成死亡的果子；
文理和合譯本 - 蓋我儕徇形軀時、其由律之惡慾動於肢體、厥果維死、
文理委辦譯本 - 當我從欲時、情轉因律法而為惡、動乎四體、厥果惟死、
施約瑟淺文理新舊約聖經 - 蓋我儕屬肉體之時、罪慾由律法而生者、動於我肢體、使我儕結果以致死、
吳經熊文理聖詠與新經全集 - 當吾人尚在肉身之權下、吾人之四肢百體、在在受罪惡之牽引。此罪惡者、生於情慾、滋於律法、終則致死亡之果者也。
Nueva Versión Internacional - Porque, cuando nuestra naturaleza pecaminosa aún nos dominaba, las malas pasiones que la ley nos despertaba actuaban en los miembros de nuestro cuerpo, y dábamos fruto para muerte.
현대인의 성경 - 우리가 육신의 지배를 받을 때에는 율법에 의해 일어난 죄의 욕망이 우리 안에서 작용하여 죽음에 이르는 열매를 맺었습니다.
Новый Русский Перевод - Когда мы жили сообразно своей грешной природе, то Закон пробуждал в нас греховные желания, действовавшие в членах нашего тела, и плодом их была смерть.
Восточный перевод - Когда мы жили сообразно своей грешной природе, то Закон пробуждал в нас греховные желания, действовавшие в членах нашего тела, и плодом их была смерть.
Восточный перевод, версия с «Аллахом» - Когда мы жили сообразно своей грешной природе, то Закон пробуждал в нас греховные желания, действовавшие в членах нашего тела, и плодом их была смерть.
Восточный перевод, версия для Таджикистана - Когда мы жили сообразно своей грешной природе, то Закон пробуждал в нас греховные желания, действовавшие в членах нашего тела, и плодом их была смерть.
La Bible du Semeur 2015 - Lorsque nous étions encore livrés à nous-mêmes, les mauvais désirs suscités par la Loi étaient à l’œuvre dans nos membres pour nous faire porter des fruits qui mènent à la mort.
リビングバイブル - 私たちの古い性質がまだ生きていた時には、欲望が私たちの中で思うままにふるまい、神の命令に逆らって、罪深い行いという死に至る腐った実を結びました。
Nestle Aland 28 - ὅτε γὰρ ἦμεν ἐν τῇ σαρκί, τὰ παθήματα τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν τὰ διὰ τοῦ νόμου ἐνηργεῖτο ἐν τοῖς μέλεσιν ἡμῶν, εἰς τὸ καρποφορῆσαι τῷ θανάτῳ·
unfoldingWord® Greek New Testament - ὅτε γὰρ ἦμεν ἐν τῇ σαρκί, τὰ παθήματα τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν τὰ διὰ τοῦ νόμου ἐνηργεῖτο ἐν τοῖς μέλεσιν ἡμῶν εἰς τὸ καρποφορῆσαι τῷ θανάτῳ;
Nova Versão Internacional - Pois quando éramos controlados pela carne , as paixões pecaminosas despertadas pela Lei atuavam em nosso corpo, de forma que dávamos fruto para a morte.
Hoffnung für alle - Von Natur aus waren wir einst der Gewalt der Sünde ausgeliefert und wurden von unseren selbstsüchtigen Wünschen beherrscht. Durch das Gesetz wurde die Sünde in uns erst geweckt, so dass wir taten, was letztendlich zum Tod führt.
Kinh Thánh Hiện Đại - Khi chúng ta còn sống theo bản tính cũ, những ham muốn tội lỗi do luật pháp khích động, đã hoành hành trong thể xác, kết quả là cái chết.
พระคริสตธรรมคัมภีร์ไทย ฉบับอมตธรรมร่วมสมัย - เพราะเมื่อก่อนเราถูกวิสัยบาป ควบคุมอยู่จึงถูกบทบัญญัติกระตุ้นตัณหาชั่วให้ออกฤทธิ์ในกายของเรา เพื่อให้เราเกิดผลอันนำไปสู่ความตาย
พระคัมภีร์ ฉบับแปลใหม่ - ด้วยว่าแต่ก่อนเราดำเนินชีวิตตามฝ่ายเนื้อหนัง กฎบัญญัติปลุกตัณหาชั่วที่อยู่ในตัวของเราให้ตื่นขึ้น เราจึงเกิดผลซึ่งนำไปสู่ความตาย

Ephesians 2:11 - But don’t take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God’s ways had no idea of any of this, didn’t know the first thing about the way God works, hadn’t the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God’s covenants and promises in Israel, hadn’t a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. Now because of Christ—dying that death, shedding that blood—you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.
Romans 1:26 - Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn’t know how to be human either—women didn’t know how to be women, men didn’t know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches.
Galatians 5:19 - It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.
Romans 6:19 - I’m using this freedom language because it’s easy to picture. You can readily recall, can’t you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing—not caring about others, not caring about God—the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God’s freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness?
Titus 3:3 - It wasn’t so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, easy marks for sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all his doing; we had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God’s gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there’s more life to come—an eternity of life! You can count on this.
Romans 7:7 - But I can hear you say, “If the law code was as bad as all that, it’s no better than sin itself.” That’s certainly not true. The law code had a perfectly legitimate function. Without its clear guidelines for right and wrong, moral behavior would be mostly guesswork. Apart from the succinct, surgical command, “You shall not covet,” I could have dressed covetousness up to look like a virtue and ruined my life with it.
Romans 7:8 - Don’t you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of “forbidden fruit” out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me. Without all the paraphernalia of the law code, sin looked pretty dull and lifeless, and I went along without paying much attention to it. But once sin got its hands on the law code and decked itself out in all that finery, I was fooled, and fell for it. The very command that was supposed to guide me into life was cleverly used to trip me up, throwing me headlong. So sin was plenty alive, and I was stone dead. But the law code itself is God’s good and common sense, each command sane and holy counsel.
Romans 7:13 - I can already hear your next question: “Does that mean I can’t even trust what is good [that is, the law]? Is good just as dangerous as evil?” No again! Sin simply did what sin is so famous for doing: using the good as a cover to tempt me to do what would finally destroy me. By hiding within God’s good commandment, sin did far more mischief than it could ever have accomplished on its own.
2 Corinthians 3:7 - The Government of Death, its constitution chiseled on stone tablets, had a dazzling inaugural. Moses’ face as he delivered the tablets was so bright that day (even though it would fade soon enough) that the people of Israel could no more look right at him than stare into the sun. How much more dazzling, then, the Government of Living Spirit?
2 Corinthians 3:9 - If the Government of Condemnation was impressive, how about this Government of Affirmation? Bright as that old government was, it would look downright dull alongside this new one. If that makeshift arrangement impressed us, how much more this brightly shining government installed for eternity?
Romans 8:9 - But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!
Colossians 3:5 - And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That’s a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. It’s because of this kind of thing that God is about to explode in anger. It wasn’t long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better. But you know better now, so make sure it’s all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk.
Romans 5:20 - All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.
1 John 3:4 - All who indulge in a sinful life are dangerously lawless, for sin is a major disruption of God’s order. Surely you know that Christ showed up in order to get rid of sin. There is no sin in him, and sin is not part of his program. No one who lives deeply in Christ makes a practice of sin. None of those who do practice sin have taken a good look at Christ. They’ve got him all backward.
James 4:1 - Where do you think all these appalling wars and quarrels come from? Do you think they just happen? Think again. They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves. You lust for what you don’t have and are willing to kill to get it. You want what isn’t yours and will risk violence to get your hands on it.
Galatians 5:16 - My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are contrary to each other, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence? * * *