Romans 7
1 Surely, friends, you know (for I am speaking to people who know what Law means) that Law has power over a person only as long as they lives.
¿IGNORÁIS, hermanos, (porque hablo con los que saben la ley) que la ley se enseñorea del hombre entre tanto que vive?
2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband while he is living; but, if her husband dies, she is set free from the law that bound her to him.
Porque la mujer que está sujeta á marido, mientras el marido vive está obligada á la ley; mas muerto el marido, libre es de la ley del marido.
3 If, then, during her husband’s lifetime, she unites herself to another man, she will be called an adulteress; but, if her husband dies, the law has no further hold on her, nor, if she unites herself to another man, is she an adulteress.
Así que, viviendo el marido, se llamará adúltera si fuere de otro varón; mas si su marido muriere, es libre de la ley; de tal manera que no será adúltera si fuere de otro marido.
4 And so with you, my friends; as far as the Law was concerned, you underwent death in the crucified body of the Christ, so that you might be united to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that our lives might bear fruit for God.
Así también vosotros, hermanos míos, estáis muertos á la ley por el cuerpo de Cristo, para que seáis de otro, [á saber], del que resucitó de los muertos, á fin de que fructifiquemos á Dios.
5 When we were living merely earthly lives, our sinful passions, aroused by the Law, were active in every part of our bodies, with the result that our lives bore fruit for death.
Porque mientras estábamos en la carne, los afectos de los pecados que eran por la ley, obraban en nuestros miembros fructificando para muerte.
6 But now we are set free from the Law, because we are dead to that which once kept us under restraint; and so we serve under new, spiritual conditions, and not under old, written regulations.
Mas ahora estamos libres de la ley, habiendo muerto á aquella en la cual estábamos detenidos, para que sirvamos en novedad de espíritu, y no en vejez de letra.
7 What are we to say, then? That Law and sin are the same thing? Heaven forbid! On the contrary, I should not have learned what sin is, had not it been for Law. If the Law did not say “You must not covet,” I should not know what it is to covet.
¿Qué pues diremos? ¿La ley es pecado? En ninguna manera. Empero yo no conocí el pecado sino por la ley: porque tampoco conociera la concupiscencia, si la ley no dijera: No codiciarás.
8 But sin took advantage of the commandment to arouse in me every form of covetousness, for where there is no consciousness of Law sin shows no sign of life.
Mas el pecado, tomando ocasión, obró en mí por el mandamiento toda concupiscencia: porque sin la ley el pecado [está] muerto.
9 There was a time when I myself, unconscious of Law, was alive; but when the commandment was brought home to me, sin sprang into life, while I died!
Así que, yo sin la ley vivía por algún tiempo: mas venido el mandamiento, el pecado revivió, y yo morí.
10 The commandment that should have meant life I found to result in death!
Y hallé que el mandamiento, [intimado] para vida, [para mí] era mortal:
11 Sin took advantage of the commandment to deceive me, and used it to bring about my death.
Porque el pecado, tomando ocasión, me engañó por el mandamiento, y por él me mató.
12 And so the Law is holy, and each commandment is also holy, and just, and good.
De manera que la ley á la verdad es santa, y el mandamiento santo, y justo, y bueno.
13 Did, then, a thing, which in itself was good, involve death in my case? Heaven forbid! It was sin that involved death; so that, by its use of what I regarded as good to bring about my death, its true nature might appear; and in this way the commandment showed how intensely sinful sin is.
¿Luego lo que es bueno, á mí me es hecho muerte? No; sino que el pecado, para mostrarse pecado, por lo bueno me obró la muerte, haciéndose pecado sobremanera pecante por el mandamiento.
14 We know that the Law is spiritual, but I am earthly – sold into slavery to sin.
Porque sabemos que la ley es espiritual; mas yo soy carnal, vendido á sujeción del pecado.
15 I do not understand my own actions. For I am so far from habitually doing what I want to do, that I find myself doing the thing that I hate.
Porque lo que hago, no lo entiendo; ni lo que quiero, hago; antes lo que aborrezco, aquello hago.
16 But when I do what I want not to do, I am admitting that the Law is right.
Y si lo que no quiero, esto hago, apruebo que la ley es buena.
17 This being so, the action is no longer my own, but is done by the sin which is within me.
De manera que ya no obro aquello, sino el pecado que mora en mí.
18 I know that there is nothing good in me – I mean in my earthly nature. For, although it is easy for me to want to do right, to act rightly is not easy.
Y yo sé que en mí (es á saber, en mi carne) no mora el bien: porque tengo el querer, mas efectuar el bien no lo alcanzo.
19 I fail to do the good thing that I want to do, but the bad thing that I want not to do – that I habitually do.
Porque no hago el bien que quiero; mas el mal que no quiero, éste hago.
20 But, when I do the thing that I want not to do, the action is no longer my own, but is done by the sin which is within me.
Y si hago lo que no quiero, ya no lo obro yo, sino el pecado que mora en mí.
21 This, then, is the law that I find – when I want to do right, wrong presents itself!
Así que, queriendo yo hacer el bien, hallo [esta] ley: Que el mal está en mí.
22 At heart I delight in the Law of God;
Porque según el hombre interior, me deleito en la ley de Dios:
23 but throughout my body I see a different law, one which is in conflict with the law accepted by my reason, and which endeavours to make me a prisoner to that law of sin which exists throughout my body.
Mas veo otra ley en mis miembros, que se rebela contra la ley de mi espíritu, y que me lleva cautivo á la ley del pecado que está en mis miembros.
24 Miserable man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body that is bringing me to this death?
¡Miserable hombre de mí! ¿quién me librará del cuerpo de esta muerte?
25 Thank God, there is deliverance through Jesus Christ, our Lord! Well then, for myself, with my reason I serve the Law of God, but with my earthly nature the Law of sin.
Gracias doy á Dios, por Jesucristo Señor nuestro. Así que, yo mismo con la mente sirvo á la ley de Dios, mas con la carne á la ley del pecado.
