Glad you’re back to share some more Daily Bread. You’re gonna find that the more you read Paul’s writings, and the more you get to know his character, you’ll relate to him so clearly that you won’t believe that you’ve never met one another.

Now, in this chapter, Paul starts out by talking about the law, and using an example of marriage.

Don’t you know, brethren,

(for I speak to them that know the law,)

is bound by the law to her husband so long as he lives;

but if the husband be dead,

she be married to another man,

she shall be called an adulteress:

but if her husband be dead,

she is free from that law;

so that she is no adulteress,

For this reason, my brethren,

you also have become dead to the law by the body of Christ;

that you should be married to another (Jesus),

That is, Him who is raised from the dead,

the desires of sins, which were by the law,

that being dead in which we were held;

that we should serve in newness of spirit,

and not in the oldness of the letter.

Be careful now. Nobody said anything about carousing around or that you’re released from righteous living by saying this. It doesn’t give anyone excuse or reason to divorce, or to condemn themselves or anyone else for divorce. The newness of spirit is the cool part, that’s all. I’m going to repeat the last verse, because I think after reading it again, you’ll be a little more understanding of it now, and then we’ll move right along with Paul’s letter.

But now we’re released from the law,

that being dead in which we were held;

that we should serve in newness of spirit,

By no means.

No, I wouldn’t have known sin, if it wasn’t for the law:

for I wouldn’t have known covetousness, if the law hadn’t said,

Thou shalt not covet.

But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment,

brought about in me all manner of desire.

but when the commandment (law) came,

sin revived, and I died.

And the commandment (law),

which was appointed to life,

I found to be unto (serving) death.

For sin, taking opportunity by the law,

deceived me, and slew me.

Therefore, the law is holy,

Was the law then, which is good, made death unto me?

By no means.

But sin, that it might appear sin,

was producing death in me by that which is good;

so that sin by the law might become exceeding sinful.

          Okay, this gets kind of complicated but let’s look at this closely. How could satan make sin even more sinful? By using something holy to deceivingly bring evil to people.

For we know that the law is spiritual:

but I am carnal (human, fleshly), sold under sin.

This is an interesting phrase that Paul uses “sold under sin”. It means that we as humans, inherited sin, because Adam and Eve sold their purity for it. We inherently do it. Now, I encourage you to read the next part ever so slowly, because Paul explains this so well, that you may just be speechless when you’re done reading it.

The things which I do,

I allow not (I don’t approve of):

but what I want to do,

that, I do not do;

but what I hate,

I agree with the law that it is good.

Now then, it is not really I that do it,

(that is, in my flesh,)

lives no good thing:

Genesis 6:5

for to want to do good, is within me;

but how to perform that which is good,

I do not do:

but the evil which I don’t want to do,

it is not really I that do it,

that, when I want to do good, evil comes calling.

For I delight in the law of God in my mind,

but I see another law in my body,

warring against the law of my mind,

Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So then with the mind,

I myself serve the law of God;

but with the flesh, the law of sin.

          Friends, you’ve just got to suppose that Paul went through a whole lot of papyrus trying to word that stuff just right, because it’s something that we all feel, often, and yet we think that nobody understands us because we’re that way. When really, everyone is that way, they just don’t know how to explain it either.

          Next time you’re beating yourself up and saying in your mind, Why did I do that!? You can recall what Paul said, O wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this misery? And then, remember the answer that he answered himself with. I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, my intent is to serve God with my mind.