Romans 7:9

Plain English Version

And you know, some people didn’t know that law at first, but after they heard it, that bad part in them made them want to do those bad things.

Cross References

Psalm 40:12

And I have lots of troubles now. It feels like there are troubles all around me, lots of troubles, so I can’t count them all. It’s like all the bad things I did are here with me, and I don’t know the right thing to do. I did lots of bad things, more bad things than the number of hairs on my head, so now I feel weak inside.

Luke 15:29

But the oldest son said, ‘No. It’s not fair. Look, I worked for you for years and years, and I always did everything you told me to do. But you never gave me a party. You didn’t even give me a young goat for me to kill and cook its meat, and have a good time with my friends.

Romans 10:5

It’s like this. A long time ago, Moses wrote that people will be all right if they follow all of God’s law. He wrote, “If anybody always does everything in God’s law, they will live.”

Romans 7:10

So then they had to die. You see, it’s like this. That law’s job is to show us how to live, but we don’t do everything it says, so the law tells us that we have to die.

Romans 7:11

That bad part of us uses that law to trick us, so that we do bad things. And then we have to die.

Romans 7:4

You know that Jesus died for us. His body was dead on the cross. And, my friends, you believe in Jesus, so it is like you died too. So that old law is not for you any more. You belong to Jesus now. He came alive again, and it’s like you have a new life now too. God gave you that life so that you can do a lot of good things for him.

Romans 7:6

But now we believe in Jesus, we don’t have to live that old way any more. It’s like we died to that old way, so we don’t have to follow that old law any more. We have the Holy Spirit in us now, and he helps us to do what God wants us to do. So we live that new way now.

Romans 7:8

And, you know, we all have a bad part in us that wants to do bad things, so when that bad part in us hears the law, it makes us want to do that same wrong thing that the law talks about. But if we don’t hear that law, that bad part in us can’t get us to go wrong like that.

Romans 8:7

That bad part inside us fights against God, so if we do whatever it says, we don’t do the things that God wants us to do. If we are like that, we can never follow God’s laws. If we live like that, we can never make God happy.

Galatians 2:19

You see, I used to try to follow that law, so that law controlled me. I tried to do everything in that law, but I couldn’t do it, so the law said that I had to die. But then I stopped thinking about that law, and I turned around to follow Jesus, and now he controls me, and God makes me properly alive. And you know that Jesus died on a cross. Well, I believe in Jesus, so it is like I died there too. But Jesus is alive now, so I’m alive now too. You see, Jesus lives inside me, right here in my body. And he gets me to do the things that God wants me to do. He is God’s son. He loved me, and he gave up his life and died for me.

Galatians 3:10

You see, God will make trouble for those people that reckon they are all right by just following the law. They think that, in the end, God will agree that they are all right. But they are wrong. God says this in his book, “You have to keep on doing everything in the law book, or God will punish you.”