1 ¶ ¿O ignoráis, hermanos (hablo con los que saben la ley), que la ley solamente se enseñorea del hombre entre tanto que vive?

Do you not know, brethren—for I am speaking to men who are acquainted with the Law—that legal claims have power over a person only for as long as he is alive?

2 P orque la mujer que está sujeta a marido, mientras el marido vive está obligada a la ley; mas muerto el marido, ella es libre de la ley del marido.

For a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is loosed and discharged from the law concerning her husband.

3 A sí que, viviendo el marido, se llamará adúltera si fuere de otro varón; mas si su marido muriere, es libre de la ley (del marido); de tal manera que no será adúltera si fuere de otro marido.

Accordingly, she will be held an adulteress if she unites herself to another man while her husband lives. But if her husband dies, the marriage law no longer is binding on her; and if she unites herself to another man, she is not an adulteress.

4 A sí también vosotros, hermanos míos, sois muertos a la ley en el cuerpo del Cristo, para que seáis de otro, del que resucitó de los muertos, para que fructifiquemos a Dios.

Likewise, my brethren, you have undergone death as to the Law through the body of Christ, so that now you may belong to Another, to Him Who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.

5 P orque mientras vivíamos en la carne, los afectos de los pecados que eran por la ley, obraban en nuestros miembros fructificando a muerte.

When we were living in the flesh (mere physical lives), the sinful passions that were awakened and aroused up by the Law were constantly operating in our natural powers (in our bodily organs, in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh), so that we bore fruit for death.

6 P ero ahora somos libres de la ley de la muerte en la cual estábamos detenidos, para que sirvamos en novedad de Espíritu, y no en vejez de letra.

But now we are discharged from the Law and have terminated all intercourse with it, having died to what once restrained and held us captive. So now we serve not under the old code of written regulations, but of the Spirit in newness.

7 ¶ ¿Qué pues diremos? ¿La ley es pecado? En ninguna manera. Pero yo no conocí el pecado sino por la ley; porque (tampoco) conocería la concupiscencia, si la ley no dijera: No codiciarás.

What then do we conclude? Is the Law identical with sin? Certainly not! Nevertheless, if it had not been for the Law, I should not have recognized sin or have known its meaning. I would not have known about covetousness if the Law had not said, You shall not covet and have an evil desire.

8 E ntonces el pecado, cuando hubo ocasión, obró en mí por el mandamiento toda concupiscencia. Porque sin la ley el pecado estaba como adormecido.

But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, got a hold on me and aroused and stimulated all kinds of forbidden desires (lust, covetousness). For without the Law sin is dead.

9 A sí que, yo sin la ley vivía por algún tiempo; mas venido el mandamiento, el pecado revivió, y yo morí;

Once I was alive, but quite apart from and unconscious of the Law. But when the commandment came, sin lived again and I died (was sentenced by the Law to death).

10 y hallé que el mismo mandamiento, que era para vida, para mí era mortal;

And the very legal ordinance which was designed and intended to bring life actually proved death.

11 p orque el pecado, habida ocasión, me engañó por el mandamiento, y por él me mató.

For sin, seizing the opportunity and getting a hold on me from the commandment, beguiled and entrapped and cheated me, and using it, killed me.

12 D e manera que la ley a la verdad es santa, y el mandamiento santo, y justo, y bueno.

The Law therefore is holy, and commandment is holy and just and good.

13 ¿ Luego lo que es bueno, a mí me es hecho muerte? No; sino el pecado, que para mostrarse pecado por lo bueno, me obró la muerte, haciéndose pecado sobremanera pecaminoso por el mandamiento.

Did that which is good then prove fatal to me? Certainly not! It was sin, working death in me by using this good thing, in order that through the commandment sin might be shown up clearly to be sin, that the extreme malignity and immeasurable sinfulness of sin might plainly appear.

14 ¶ Porque ya sabemos que la ley es espiritual; mas yo soy carnal, vendido a sujeción del pecado.

We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am a creature of the flesh, having been sold into slavery under sin.

15 P orque lo que cometo, no lo entiendo; y ni el (bien) que quiero, hago; antes lo que aborrezco, aquello hago.

For I do not understand my own actions. I do not practice or accomplish what I wish, but I do the very thing that I loathe '> which my moral instinct condemns].

16 Y si lo que no quiero, esto hago, apruebo que la ley es buena.

Now if I do what is contrary to my desire, I acknowledge and agree that the Law is good (morally excellent) and that I take sides with it.

17 D e manera que ya yo no obro aquello, sino el pecado que mora en mí.

However, it is no longer I who do the deed, but the sin which is at home in me and has possession of me.

18 Y yo sé que en mí (es a saber, en mi carne) no mora el bien, porque tengo el querer, mas efectuar el bien no lo alcanzo.

For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it.

19 P orque no hago el bien que quiero; pero el mal que no quiero, éste hago.

For I fail to practice the good deeds I desire to do, but the evil deeds that I do not desire to do are what I am doing.

20 Y si hago lo que no quiero, ya no obro yo, sino el pecado que mora en mí.

Now if I do what I do not desire to do, it is no longer I doing it, but the sin which dwells within me '> fixed and operating in my soul].

21 A sí que, queriendo yo hacer el bien, hallo esta ley: Que el mal me es propio.

So I find it to be a law (rule of action of my being) that when I want to do what is right and good, evil is ever present with me and I am subject to its insistent demands.

22 P orque con el hombre interior, me deleito con la ley de Dios;

For I endorse and delight in the Law of God in my inmost self.

23 m as veo otra ley en mis miembros, que se rebela contra la ley de mi mente, y que me lleva cautivo a la ley del pecado que está en mis miembros.

But I discern in my bodily members '> in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh] a different law (rule of action) at war against the law of my mind (my reason) and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells in my bodily organs '> in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh].

24 ¡ Miserable hombre de mí! ¿Quién me librará del cuerpo de esta muerte?

O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from this body of death?

25 L a gracia de Dios, por Jesús, el Cristo, Señor nuestro. Así que, yo mismo con la mente sirvo a la ley de Dios, pero con la carne a la ley del pecado.

O thank God! through Jesus Christ (the Anointed One) our Lord! So then indeed I, of myself with the mind and heart, serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.