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1Now I, Small Man (Paul) , will speak to the members of the sacred family who understand our tribal law. You must know that our law applies only to someone who is alive.
2For example, under our law of marriage a woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is released from that law.
3So if she gives herself to another man while her husband lives, she will be guilty of unfaithfulness to her husband. But if her husband is no longer alive, she would not be guilty of unfaithfulness. His death has released her from the law of marriage.
4So my sacred family members, when the Chosen One died in his human body, you died with him. This death released you from our tribal law, so you could join with the one who has been raised from the dead. So now our lives can bear much fruit for the Great Spirit.
5For when we walked in our broken human ways, the law stirred up our evil desires, so that we bore fruit for death.[#7:5 Lit. the flesh]
6But now that we have died, we have been released from the law that kept us bound. We now walk in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of a law carved in stone and written with ink on paper.[#7:6 See 2 Corinthians 3:3, 7.]
7But if you think I am saying our tribal law is at fault or that it is the reason we walk in our broken ways, you are not thinking straight. What I am saying is that the law shows us how bad our broken ways have become. I would not have known that some desires are wrong if the law had not said, “Do not desire what belongs to another.”
8But my broken ways of thinking turned the law’s instruction into a temptation that created in me all kinds of wrong desires. For if there were no law, then the temptation to walk in broken ways would not be awakened.
9I once lived my life not knowing the law, but when I heard the law’s instructions, my broken ways came to life and I died.
10So the law’s instructions, which were supposed to give me life, instead brought death to me.
11But it was my broken ways of thinking that tricked me and turned the law’s instructions into a temptation that ended up bringing death to me.
12So then, our tribal law is sacred, and its instructions are holy, upright, and good.
13Does that mean this good law brought death to me? No! It was my broken ways that did it, by using the law to stir up temptation in me, so I could see how bad my broken ways truly were.
14For we know that our tribal law is spiritual, but I am a weak human being. My broken ways rule over me as if I were their slave.
15I do not understand why I do the things I do. I want to walk in a good way, but I end up doing the things I hate.
16And if I hate doing wrong, then it is a good thing for me to agree with the law that these things are wrong.
17So the part of me that hates doing wrong is not to blame. It is the broken ways that have taken root in my heart that hold me to this wrong path.
18I can now see that there is nothing good in this weak part of me that gives in to wrong desires, for it keeps me from doing what I know to be right.[#7:18 Lit. my flesh]
19-20But since I want to do what is right but keep doing what is wrong, then it is not I but the broken ways within me that keep me doing wrong.
21I can now see that no matter how much I want to do good, evil is right there with me—a law of broken ways—taking charge and ruling over me.
22In my inner being I dance for joy in Creator’s law,
23but there is another law, rooted in my humanity, that fights against Creator’s law in my thoughts and makes me a prisoner of the law of broken ways that has taken root in my weak and broken humanity.[#7:23 Lit. flesh]
24Someone have pity on me, for I am a man trapped in sorrow! Who will set me free from my broken humanity?
25I give thanks to the Great Spirit, for he is the one who set me free through Creator Sets Free (Jesus) the Chosen One!
So then, when I set my mind on what Creator Sets Free (Jesus) has done I serve Creator’s law, even though in my broken humanity I remain a slave to broken ways.