1 Do you not know, brothers--for I am speaking to men who know the law--that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives?
知道吗，弟兄们？因为我是在对懂律法的人讲话。而律法只管活着的人。
2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.
比如，女人嫁汉，丈夫活着，她就受法律制约；若夫亡，她就不再受婚姻法制约。
3 So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.
倘若丈夫活着她又嫁人，就是淫妇。但丈夫死了，她就自由了，尽管再嫁，也非淫妇。
4 So, 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.
同样的道理，我的弟兄们。你们借着耶稣的身体向律法死，会重新归于那位死里复活的，从而在神那里结果实。
5 For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death.
因为我们受有罪的本性控制时，律法引起的邪欲在我们里面发动，以致结成死亡的果子。
6 But now, by dying to what once 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.
如今，向一度约束我们的律法死，脱离它，我们以新的精神面貌服事，而无需旧的成文法典。
7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet."
怎么说好呢？难道律法是罪？当然不是。不看律法条文，我真不知何为罪。因为有明文规定：不可起贪心。不然，我真不知何谓“贪心”。
8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead.
戒律把条文罗列得一清二楚，罪便有机可乘，反倒唤醒了我的贪念。因为，没有律法，罪是死的。
9 Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.
我一度活在律法之外。但戒律到来之时，罪活了，我死了。
10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.
我发现，本该带来生的戒律实际上带来了死。
11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.
因为罪钻了戒律的空子，迷惑我，置我于死地。
12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
如此一来，律法和戒律本为圣，公正且良善。
13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
本为良善的对我却成为死吗？断然不是！叫我死的乃是罪。但罪借着那良善的叫我死，就显出真是罪。罪钻诫命的空子更显得恶极了。
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
我们晓得律法是属乎灵的，但我是属乎肉体的，已经卖给罪了。 
15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
我所作的，我自己不明白。因为我所愿意的，我并不作；我所恨恶的，我倒去作。
16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
若我所作的，是我所不愿意的，说明我承认律法为善。
17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.
既然如此，就不是我作的，乃是住在我里头的罪作的。 
18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
我也知道，在我里头，即我败坏的本性中，没有良善。因为立志为善由得我，只是行出来由不得我。
19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing.
故此，我所愿行的善，我反不作。我所不愿行的恶，我倒去作。
20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
若我去作所不愿作的，就不是我作的，乃是住在我里头的罪作的。
21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
所以，我觉得律法是脱不了干系的：就是我愿意为善的时候，便有恶如影随形。 
22 For in my inner being I delight in God's law;
因为就本质而言，我喜欢神的律。
23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
但我觉得肢体中另有个律，和我心中的律交战，把我掳去叫我附从那肢体中犯罪的律。
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
我真是苦阿！谁能救我脱离这得死的身体呢？ 
25 Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
感谢神，靠着我们的主耶稣基督就能脱离这苦！这样看来，我以内心顺服神的律，而败坏的本性却顺服罪的律了。