Romans 7 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 Brothers and sisters (I'm speaking here to people who know the law), don't you see that the law has authority over someone only while they're alive?
1 ¿IGNORÁIS, hermanos, (porque hablo con los que saben la ley) que la ley se enseñorea del hombre entre tanto que vive?
1 Or don’t you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives?
2 For example, a married woman is bound by the law to her husband while he's alive, but if he dies, she's released from this legal obligation to him.
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.
2 For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband.
3 So if she lives with another man while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery. However, if her husband dies and then she marries another man, she wouldn't be guilty of adultery.
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.
3 So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man.
4 In the same way, my friends, you've become dead to the law through the body of Christ, and so now you belong to someone else—Christ, who was raised from the dead so that we could live productive lives for 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.
4 Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might produce fruit to God.
5 While we were controlled by old nature, our sinful desires (as revealed by the law) were at work within us and resulted in 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.
5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law worked in our members to bring out fruit to death.
6 But now we've been set free from the law, and have died to what kept us in chains, so that we can serve in the newness of the spirit and not the old letter of the law.
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.
6 But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.
7 So what do we conclude? That the law is sin? Of course not! I wouldn't have known what sin was unless the law defined it. I wouldn't have realized that wanting to have other people's things for myself was wrong without the law that says, “Don't desire for yourself what belongs to someone else.”
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.
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”
8 But through this commandment sin found a way to stir up in me all kinds of selfish desires—for without 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.
8 But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead.
9 I used to live without realizing what the law really meant, but when I understood the implications of that commandment, then sin came back to life, and I died.
9 Así que, yo sin la ley vivía por algún tiempo: mas venido el mandamiento, el pecado revivió, y yo morí.
9 I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
10 I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life brought death instead,
10 Y hallé que el mandamiento, [intimado] para vida, [para mí] era mortal:
10 The commandment which was for life, this I found to be for death;
11 because sin found a way through the commandment to deceive me, and used the commandment to kill me!
11 Porque el pecado, tomando ocasión, me engañó por el mandamiento, y por él me mató.
11 for sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.
12 However, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, right, and good.
12 De manera que la ley á la verdad es santa, y el mandamiento santo, y justo, y bueno.
12 Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, righteous, and good.
13 Now would something that is good kill me? Of course not! But sin shows itself to be sin by using good to cause my death. So by means of the commandment, it's revealed how evil sin really is.
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.
13 Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, was producing death in me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful.
14 We realize that the law is spiritual; but I'm all-too-human, a slave to sin.
14 Porque sabemos que la ley es espiritual; mas yo soy carnal, vendido á sujeción del pecado.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin.
15 I really don't understand what I'm doing. I do the things I don't want to do, and what I hate doing, that's what I do!
15 Porque lo que hago, no lo entiendo; ni lo que quiero, hago; antes lo que aborrezco, aquello hago.
15 For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I don’t practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do.
16 But if I'm saying that I do what I don't want to, this shows that I admit the law is good and right.
16 Y si lo que no quiero, esto hago, apruebo que la ley es buena.
16 But if what I don’t desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good.
17 So it's no longer me who does this, but sin living in me—
17 De manera que ya no obro aquello, sino el pecado que mora en mí.
17 So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.
18 for I know that there's nothing good in me as far as my sinful human nature is concerned. Even though I want to do good, I'm just not able to do it.
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.
18 For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing that which is good.
19 The good I want to do, I don't do; while the evil I don't want to do, that's what I end up doing!
19 Porque no hago el bien que quiero; mas el mal que no quiero, éste hago.
19 For the good which I desire, I don’t do; but the evil which I don’t desire, that I practice.
20 However, if I'm doing what I don't want to, then it's no longer me doing it, but sin living in me.
20 Y si hago lo que no quiero, ya no lo obro yo, sino el pecado que mora en mí.
20 But if what I don’t desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.
21 This is the principle I've discovered: if I want to do what's good, evil is always there too.
21 Así que, queriendo yo hacer el bien, hallo [esta] ley: Que el mal está en mí.
21 I find then the law that, while I desire to do good, evil is present.
22 My inner self is delighted with God's law,
22 Porque según el hombre interior, me deleito en la ley de Dios:
22 For I delight in God’s law after the inward person,
23 but I see a different law at work within me that is at war with the law my mind has decided to follow, making me a prisoner of the law of sin that is within me.
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.
23 but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.
24 I'm totally miserable! Who will rescue me from this body that's causing my death? Thank God—for he does this through Jesus Christ our Lord!
24 ¡Miserable hombre de mí! ¿quién me librará del cuerpo de esta muerte?
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?
25 Here's the situation: while I myself choose with my mind to obey God's law, my human nature obeys 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.
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve God’s law, but with the flesh, sin’s law.
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, …