It is important to notice the parallels between verses 5 and 6, and at the same time their relation to what follows. Verse 5 describes the pre-Christian experience, and has its parallel in 7.7-25; verse 6 describes the present life of faith under the leadership of God’s Spirit, and has its parallel in 8.1-11.
For when we lived according to our human nature is literally “for when we were in the flesh.” A number of translations render this clause literally, though others try to make some meaning of it: “when we were unspiritual” (Moffatt); “while we lived on the level of our lower nature” (New English Bible); “for when we were living mere physical lives” (An American Translation*). In the present passage “life in the flesh” is life lived apart from the control of God’s Spirit (see v. 6); it describes life lived according to one’s own human nature, and which is under the law, sin, and death. In 8.9 (see also Galatians 5.24) Paul uses this phrase with the same meaning; while in a passage such as Galatians 2.20 the phrase has no sinful overtones, but merely describes human existence in general.
In many languages there is simply no general expression such as human nature. Accordingly, the first clause in verse 5 must be rather drastically modified as far as its form is concerned, but not in terms of its content—for example, “when we live just as we ourselves want to,” “when we live just as people generally like to live,” or “when we live just as most people desire to live.” In this manner one can describe the attitudes of most people and thus signify what human nature is.
The sinful desires translates a genitive expression in Greek (literally “the desires of sin”) and may mean either “desires which lead to sin” or sinful desires; most translations seem to take this in the same sense that the Good News Translation does. The most common equivalent is, of course, “desire to sin,” and in the larger context “the Law causes us to desire to sin.”
Were at work in our bodies may be expressed as “the desires which are in our bodies” or “the desires which our bodies have” or “what we desire in our bodies.”
We were useful in the service of death may be translated simply as “all we did ended in death.” However, the underlying Greek expression may be understood also in the sense of “caused us to die”; that is to say, “the desires … at work in our bodies killed us” or “because we had these desires … in our bodies, we died.” This death must be clearly distinguished from “dying to the law” (v. 4). For this reason in some translations the future tense is preferred—for example, “all we do will end in death” or “these desires … will cause us to die.”
Stirred up by the Law is the meaning of the phrase that Paul uses here; to change this into a negative expression (Jerusalem Bible “quite unsubdued by the Law”) is to miss the impact of what Paul is saying. He is not trying to indicate that the Law failed to control one’s sinful desires, but rather that the Law encouraged one’s sinful desires (see 7.8). An equivalent of stirred up by the Law may be in some languages “because there was the Law, our desires to sin came to life” or “… became strong.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1973. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .