17. But I am not really the one who is doing these hated things; it is sin living in me that does them.
18. Yes, I know that nothing good lives in me—I mean nothing good lives in the part of me that is earthly and sinful. I want to do the things that are good, but I do not do them.
19. I do not do the good things I want to do, but I do the bad things I do not want to do.
20. So if I do things I do not want to do, then I am not the one doing them. It is sin living in me that does those things.
21. So I have learned this rule: When I want to do good, evil is there with me.
22. In my mind, I am happy with God’s law.
23. But I see another law working in my body, which makes war against the law that my mind accepts. That other law working in my body is the law of sin, and it makes me its prisoner.
24. What a miserable man I am! Who will save me from this body that brings me death?
25. I thank God for saving me through Jesus Christ our Lord!So in my mind I am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful self I am a slave to the law of sin.