Romans · Bible in Basic English
Romans 7 Bible in Basic English
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 Is it not clear, my brothers (I am using an argument to those who have knowledge of the law), that the law has power over a man as long as he is living?
1 ¿IGNORÁIS, hermanos, (porque hablo con los que saben la ley) que la ley se enseñorea del hombre entre tanto que vive?
2 For the woman who has a husband is placed by the law under the power of her husband as long as he is living; but if her husband is dead, she is free from the law of the husband.
2 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 So if, while the husband is living, she is joined to another man, she will get the name of one who is untrue to her husband: but if the husband is dead, she is free from the law, so that she is not untrue, even if she takes another man.
3 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 In the same way, my brothers, you were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, even to him who came again from the dead, so that we might give fruit to God.
4 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 For when we were in the flesh, the evil passions which came into being through the law were working in our bodies to give the fruit of death.
5 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 free from the law, having been made dead to that which had power over us; so that we are servants in the new way of the spirit, not in the old way of the letter.
6 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 then is to be said? is the law sin? in no way. But I would not have had knowledge of sin but for the law: for I would not have been conscious of desire if the law had not said, You may not have a desire for what is another's.
7 ¿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, taking its chance through that which was ordered by the law, was working in me every form of desire: because without the law sin is dead.
8 Mas el pecado, tomando ocasión, obró en mí por el mandamiento toda concupiscencia: porque sin la ley el pecado [está] muerto.
9 And there was a time when I was living without the law: but when the law gave its orders, sin came to life and put me to death;
9 Así que, yo sin la ley vivía por algún tiempo: mas venido el mandamiento, el pecado revivió, y yo morí.
10 And I made the discovery that the law whose purpose was to give life had become a cause of death:
10 Y hallé que el mandamiento, [intimado] para vida, [para mí] era mortal:
11 For I was tricked and put to death by sin, which took its chance through the law.
11 Porque el pecado, tomando ocasión, me engañó por el mandamiento, y por él me mató.
12 But the law is holy, and its orders are holy, upright, and good.
12 De manera que la ley á la verdad es santa, y el mandamiento santo, y justo, y bueno.
13 Was then that which is good, death to me? In no way. But the purpose was that sin might be seen to be sin by working death to me through that which is good; so that through the orders of the law sin might seem much more evil.
13 ¿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 For we are conscious that the law is of the spirit; but I am of the flesh, given into the power of sin.
14 Porque sabemos que la ley es espiritual; mas yo soy carnal, vendido á sujeción del pecado.
15 And I have no clear knowledge of what I am doing, for that which I have a mind to do, I do not, but what I have hate for, that I do.
15 Porque lo que hago, no lo entiendo; ni lo que quiero, hago; antes lo que aborrezco, aquello hago.
16 But, if I do that which I have no mind to do, I am in agreement with the law that the law is good.
16 Y si lo que no quiero, esto hago, apruebo que la ley es buena.
17 So it is no longer I who do it, but the sin living in me.
17 De manera que ya no obro aquello, sino el pecado que mora en mí.
18 For I am conscious that in me, that is, in my flesh, there is nothing good: I have the mind but not the power to do what is right.
18 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 For the good which I have a mind to do, I do not: but the evil which I have no mind to do, that I do.
19 Porque no hago el bien que quiero; mas el mal que no quiero, éste hago.
20 But if I do what I have no mind to do, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin living in me.
20 Y si hago lo que no quiero, ya no lo obro yo, sino el pecado que mora en mí.
21 So I see a law that, though I have a mind to do good, evil is present in me.
21 Así que, queriendo yo hacer el bien, hallo [esta] ley: Que el mal está en mí.
22 In my heart I take pleasure in the law of God,
22 Porque según el hombre interior, me deleito en la ley de Dios:
23 But I see another law in my body, working against the law of my mind, and making me the servant of the law of sin which is in my flesh.
23 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 How unhappy am I! who will make me free from the body of this death?
24 ¡Miserable hombre de mí! ¿quién me librará del cuerpo de esta muerte?
25 I give praise to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So with my mind I am a servant to the law of God, but with my flesh to the law of sin.
25 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.
Cross references (25)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Romans 6:14; Romans 7:6; Romans 6:3; Proverbs 6:23; Romans 10:1
- 2 Genesis 2:23–24; 1 Corinthians 7:4; 1 Corinthians 7:39; Numbers 30:7–8
- 3 Exodus 20:14; Matthew 5:32; Mark 10:6–12; 1 Timothy 5:11–14; John 8:3–5
- 4 1 Peter 2:24; Galatians 5:22–23; Isaiah 54:5; Ephesians 5:23–27; Romans 8:2
- 5 Ephesians 2:3; Galatians 5:16–17; Galatians 5:24; Galatians 3:10; Romans 6:13
- 6 Galatians 3:23–25; 2 Corinthians 3:6; Romans 7:4; Romans 6:4; Galatians 2:19–20
- 7 Romans 3:20; Romans 4:15; Exodus 20:17; 1 Corinthians 15:56; Deuteronomy 5:21
- 8 Romans 7:11; 1 Corinthians 15:56; Romans 4:15; James 1:14–15; Romans 7:13
- 9 Galatians 3:10; Romans 8:7; Romans 7:4; James 2:10–11; Galatians 2:19
- 10 Leviticus 18:5; 2 Corinthians 3:7; Galatians 3:12; Romans 10:5; Ezekiel 20:21
- 11 Genesis 3:13; Romans 7:8; Jeremiah 17:9; Hebrews 3:13; James 1:26
- 12 1 Timothy 1:8; Psalm 119:137; Psalm 19:7–12; Romans 7:14; Psalm 119:172
- 13 James 1:13–15; Galatians 3:21; Romans 8:3; Romans 7:8–11; Romans 5:20
- 14 1 Kings 21:25; 2 Kings 17:17; Isaiah 52:3; 1 Kings 21:20; Romans 7:18
- 15 Galatians 5:17; Romans 7:19–20; Ecclesiastes 7:20; James 3:2; Nahum 1:7
- 16 Romans 7:12; 1 Timothy 1:8; Romans 7:14; Romans 7:22; Psalm 119:127–128
- 17 Romans 7:20; Romans 7:18; Philippians 3:8–9; James 4:5–6; Romans 4:7–8
- 18 John 3:6; Psalm 51:5; Galatians 5:17; Psalm 119:115–117; Romans 7:25
- 19 Romans 7:15
- 20 Romans 7:17
- 21 Ephesians 6:11–13; Romans 8:2; Romans 6:14; Romans 7:23; Romans 6:12
- 22 Psalm 1:2; Psalm 40:8; Psalm 119:35; Psalm 119:47–48; Hebrews 8:10
- 23 Galatians 5:17; James 4:1; Romans 8:2; Romans 6:19; Romans 7:25
- 24 Romans 6:6; 2 Timothy 4:18; Titus 2:14; Romans 8:2; 2 Corinthians 12:7–9
- 25 Galatians 5:17–24; Colossians 3:17; 2 Corinthians 12:9–10; 1 Peter 2:5; Romans 6:17
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
After having said that great evils had taken place, and that sin, taking occasion by the commandment, had grown stronger, and the opposite of what the Law mainly aimed at had been the result, and after having thrown the hearer into a great deal of perplexity, he goes on next to give the rationale of these events, after first clearing …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 11 (1889)
… sign of our salvation, since it was the Lord Himself who saved them, because they could not be saved by their own instrumentality; and, therefore, when Paul sets forth human infirmity, he says: "For I know that there dwelleth in my flesh no good thing," showing that the "good thing" of our salvation is not from us, but from God.
For though a man "delight in the law of God after the inward man," what shall he do with that other law in his members which warreth against the law of his mind, and bringeth him into captivity to the law of sin, which is in his members?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
The Devil had used the flesh as an instrument against us; and Paul knowing this, saith, But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity, and the rest.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
And again: "Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Then he introduces the Deliverer, [saying,] "The grace of Jesus Christ our Lord." And Isaiah declares this also, [when he says:] "Be ye strengthened, ye hands that hang down, and ye feeble knees; be ye encouraged, ye feeble-minded; be comforted, fear not: behold, …