4 Likewise, my fellow believers, just like people are free from having to obey any law after they die MET, you and I have been freed { God has freed you and me} from having to obey all the Jewish rituals and laws MET. That is because it is as though we died with Christ when he was crucified. Now you and I belong to someone else MET, like a woman who marries again after her husband dies belongs to another man. Specifically, you and I belong to Christ, who has come back to life {whom God has caused to live again after he died}, in order that we may live righteously IDM to honor God.
5 When our self-directed nature controlled us, desires that led us to sin were acting in our bodies. Those desires were increased because of our knowing God's laws PRS. As a result we did evil things IDM that caused us to be separated from God.
6 But now we are freed {free} from having to obey all the Jewish rituals— it is as though we have died. The result is that now we are not controlled by those rituals {those rituals do not control us now}. So we serve God, not by having to obey those rituals, which is the old way, but in the new way, as God's Spirit helps us to serve him.
7 Someone might object, saying, “◄The laws that God gave Moses must be evil if our sinful desires are increased because of our knowing those laws. MTY/Are not the laws that God gave Moses evil if they stir up our sinful desires?►” MTY, RHQ I would reply that they certainly are not evil, even though our sinful desires are increased. What I would reply is that I, for example, realized that what I was doing was sinful only because of what is written { Moses wrote} in those laws. For example, I realized that coveting is sinful only because he wrote in those laws PRS, “You must not covet.”
8 And because of what that commandment stated, my sinful desire to have things that belong to others PRS caused me to covet in many ways. Our desire to sin is not stimulated MET when there is no law that prohibits our doing sinful things.
9 Formerly, when I did not know what God's laws required, I used to live without worrying about what I was doing. But when I became aware that God commanded, “You must not covet,” I suddenly realized PRS that I was sinning,
10 and I realized that I was separated from God. The laws that I thought would enable me to live eternally as a result of my obeying them caused me to realize that I was separated from God!
11 My desire to sin found a way PRS to deceive me by making me think wrongly that I could keep on sinning and at the same time obey those laws enough so that I would live eternally, and thus it caused me to be separated from God PRS.