Romans
Chapter 7
1 1 Are you unaware, brothers (for I am speaking to people who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over one as long as one lives?
弟兄们！我现在是对明白法律的人说话：难道你们不知道：法律统治人，只是在人活着的时候吗？
2 Thus a married woman is bound by law to her living husband; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law in respect to her husband.
就如有丈夫的女人，当丈夫还活着的时候，是受法律束缚的；如果丈夫死了，她就不再因丈夫而受法律的束缚。
3 Consequently, while her husband is alive she will be called an adulteress if she consorts with another man. But if her husband dies she is free from that law, and she is not an adulteress if she consorts with another man.
所以，当丈夫活着的时候，她若依附别的男人，便称为淫妇；但如果丈夫死了，按法律她是自由的；她若依附别的男人，便不是淫妇。
4 In the same way, my brothers, you also were put to death to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might belong to another, to the one who was raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God.
所以，我的弟兄们！你们借着基督的身体已死于法律了，为使你们属于另一位，就是属于由死者中复活的那一位，为叫我们给天主结果实，
5 For when we were in the flesh, our sinful passions, awakened by the law, worked in our members to bear fruit for death.
因为我们还在肉性权下的时候，那借法律而倾向于罪恶的情欲，在我们的肢体内活动，结出死亡的果实。
6 But now we are released from the law, dead to what held us captive, so that we may serve in the newness of the spirit and not under the obsolete letter.
但是现在，我们已死于束缚我们的势力，脱离了法律，如此，我们不应再拘泥于旧的条文，而应以新的心神事奉天主。
7 2 3 What then can we say? That the law is sin? Of course not! Yet I did not know sin except through the law, and I did not know what it is to covet except that the law said, ＂You shall not covet.＂
那么，我们能说法律本身有罪吗？绝对不能！然而借着法律，我才知道罪是什么。如果不是法律说：＂不可贪恋！＂我就不知道什么是贪情。
8 But sin, finding an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetousness. Apart from the law sin is dead.
罪恶遂乘机借着诫命，在我内发动各种贪情；原来若没有法律，罪恶便是死的。
9 I once lived outside the law, but when the commandment came, sin became alive;
从前我没有法律时，我是活人；但诫命一来，罪恶便活了起来，
10 then I died, and the commandment that was for life turned out to be death for me.
我反而死了。那本来应叫我生活的诫命，反叫我死了，
11 For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it put me to death.
因为罪恶借着诫命乘机诱惑了我，也借着诫命杀害了我。
12 So then the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
所以法律本是圣的，诫命也是圣的，是正义和美善的。
13 4 Did the good, then, become death for me? Of course not! Sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin, worked death in me through the good, so that sin might become sinful beyond measure through the commandment.
那么，是善事使我死了吗？绝对不是！而是罪恶。罪恶为显示罪恶的本性，借着善事为我产生了死亡，以致罪恶借着诫命成了极端的凶恶。
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold into slavery to sin.
我们知道：法律是属神的，但我是属血肉的，已被卖给罪恶作奴隶。
15 What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate.
因为我不明白我作的是什么：我所愿意的，我偏不作；我所憎恨的，我反而去作。
16 Now if I do what I do not want, I concur that the law is good.
我若去作我所不愿意的，这便是承认法律是善的。
17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
实际上作那事的已不是我，而是在我内的罪恶。
18 For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not.
我也知道，善不在我内，即不在我的肉性内，因为我有心行善，但实际上却不能行善。
19 For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.
因此，我所愿意的善，我不去行；而我所不愿意的恶，我却去作。
20 Now if (I) do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
但我所不愿意的，我若去作，那么已不是我作那事，而是在我内的罪恶。
21 So, then, I discover the principle that when I want to do right, evil is at hand.
所以我发见这条规律：就是我愿意为善的时候，总有邪恶依附着我。
22 For I take delight in the law of God, in my inner self,
因为照我的内心，我是喜悦天主的法律；
23 but I see in my members another principle at war with the law of my mind, taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 5
可是，我发觉在我的肢体内，另有一条法律，与我理智所赞同的法律交战，并把我掳去，叫我隶属于那在我肢体内的罪恶的法律。
24 Miserable one that I am! Who will deliver me from this mortal body?
我这个人真不幸呀！谁能救我脱离这该死的肉身呢？
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore, I myself, with my mind, serve the law of God but, with my flesh, the law of sin.
感谢天主，借着我们的主耶稣基督。这样看来，我这人是以理智去服从天主的法律，而以肉性去服从罪恶的法律。
Footnotes(注解)
1 [1-6] Paul reflects on the fact that Christians have a different understanding of the law because of their faith in Christ. Law binds the living, not the dead, as exemplified in marriage, which binds in life but is dissolved through death. Similarly, Christians who through baptism have died with Christ to sin (cf Romans 6:2-4) are freed from the law that occasioned transgressions, which in turn were productive of death. Now that Christians are joined to Christ, the power of Christ's resurrection makes it possible for them to bear the fruit of newness of life for God.
2 [7-25] In this passage Paul uses the first person singular in the style of diatribe for the sake of argument. He aims to depict the disastrous consequences when a Christian reintroduces the law as a means to attain the objective of holiness pronounced in Romans 6:22.
3 [7-12] The apostle defends himself against the charge of identifying the law with sin. Sin does not exist in law but in human beings, whose sinful inclinations are not overcome by the proclamation of law.
4 [13-25] Far from improving the sinner, law encourages sin to expose itself in transgressions or violations of specific commandments (see Romans 1:24; 5:20). Thus persons who do not experience the justifying grace of God, and Christians who revert to dependence on law as the criterion for their relationship with God, will recognize a rift between their reasoned desire for the goodness of the law and their actual performance that is contrary to the law. Unable to free themselves from the slavery of sin and the power of death, they can only be rescued from defeat in the conflict by the power of God's grace working through Jesus Christ.
5 [23] As in Romans 3:27 Paul plays on the term law, which in Greek can connote custom, system, or principle.