Commentary on Romans 7.4–7.24

“And so, my brothers, you too have been put to death to the law through the body of Christ.” Since our Saviour allowed his body to be crucified by the devil, knowing that this was for us and against him, therefore he says we have been saved through the body of Christ. For to die to the law is to live to God, because the law rules over sinners. One whose sins are forgiven, then, dies to the law, that is, is freed from the law. So we obtain this benefit through the body of Christ; for the Saviour, giving up his body, conquered death and condemned sin. For the devil sinned in him when he killed him who was innocent and knew no sin at all; for when he claimed man for himself on account of sin, he was found guilty in the one whom he was accusing. Hence it came about that all who believe in Christ are rescued from the law, sin being taken away; because sin, which is the devil, conquered through the body of Christ, has no authority over those who belong to him by whom it was conquered. For while he does not sin and is killed as if guilty, he conquered sin by sin; that is, he condemned the devil by his own sin, which he committed against him; and he blotted out the bond which had been decreed by the sin of Adam (Col 2:14), when he rose from the underworld, giving such a pattern to those who believe in him that they cannot be held by the second death. And therefore we have died to the law through the body of Christ; for one who has not died to the law is guilty, and one who is guilty cannot escape the second death. “That you may belong to another, who rose from the dead, so that we may bear fruit to God.” He says this because we died to the law for this purpose, that henceforth we might be servants of Christ alone; and this will be to bear fruit to God. For one who remains in his grace is gained for God, worthy of the promised resurrection.

“For when we were in the flesh.” Though he is in the flesh, for he is in the body, he denies that he is in the flesh; because a person is said to be in the flesh who follows something that is forbidden by the law. Being in the flesh, then, is understood in many ways: for every unbeliever is in the flesh, that is, carnal; and the Christian who lives under the law is in the flesh; and one who hopes for something from men is in the flesh; and one who understands Christ wrongly is in the flesh; and if any Christian leads a dissolute life, he is in the flesh. In this place, however, we shall understand being in the flesh thus: that before faith we were in the flesh; for we lived under sin, that is, following carnal senses we lay subject to vices and sins. And the sense of the flesh is not to believe spiritual things, namely, that a virgin gave birth without union with a man, that a person is born anew of water and the Holy Spirit, and that the soul, released from its union with the flesh, rises again in the flesh. One who distrusts these things is in the flesh. Hence he says: “The passions of sins, which are shown through the law, were at work in our members, to bear fruit for death.” It is plain that one who does not believe lives under sin and is dragged captive to commit vices, so as to bear fruit for the second death; for death makes gain when the sinner … Yet he says that the vices work in the members, not in the body, lest there be an occasion for those who treat the body badly; for in evil speaking the tongue is charged, in theft the hand is rebuked, in one who pretends not to hear the ears are reproved, and so in other things, which, though they come out of the heart, as the Lord testifies in the Gospel (Matt 15:18), are yet carried out in deeds by the service of the members. This discussion touches the Jews and those who are called Christians and wish to live under the law, so that, learning that they are carnal, they may withdraw from the law. Yet he shows that the vices of sins, which he says rule over those who live in the flesh, are shown by the law, not caused by the law; for the law is the indicator of sin, not its mother, making sinners guilty. (Verse 6.) “But now we have been released from the law of death, in which we were held.” We have been released from the law when we received remission of sins; for it no longer has power over us, for it rules over the faithless and sinners. It is called the law of death because it punishes the guilty and puts sinners to death; it is not, then, bad, but just. For though what the law inflicts is evil for those who suffer it, the law is not evil, because it inflicts wrath justly. And so it is not evil for sinners but just, and for the good it is spiritual. For who would doubt that it is spiritual to forbid sinning? But because it could not save man by forgiving sins, the law of faith was given, to free believers from the dominion of the law, so that those whom the law held guilty unto death might restore themselves to life. For to them the law is a law of death, for whom it works wrath because of sin. “So that we may serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of the letter.” Here he is thought to touch the law, which indeed he makes inferior in comparison with the law of faith, though he does not judge it hostile. For he says that we were rescued from the law of death so that we may serve the law of faith, which has given us the saving protection which the old law could not, lest we seem to make void the benefit of grace by serving the old law. “Old law” is certainly not the name of a crime, but of time or age; for it has grown old because it has ceased. The law of the spirit is the law of faith itself; for faith is in the mind, and is not learned by works, but believed with the heart; and the mind itself understands that what it believes belongs to its nature, and it is not seen with the eyes or touched with the hands; and the gifts that are hoped for are not visible nor earthly, but spiritual. The old law, then, was formed on tablets of stone; but the law of the spirit is written spiritually on the tablets of the heart, so as to be another; and the letter of the old law is worn out by age. There is also another interpretation of the law of the spirit: since the former law restrained from evil deeds, while this one says that one ought not to sin even in the heart, it is called the law of the spirit, so as to make the whole person spiritual.

“What, then, shall we say? Is the law sin? By no means.” Since he calls this the law of death, and rejoices that we have been rescued from it, and denies that God is served in it, lest he be thought to assert that it is unjust, he clears this up when he says, “By no means.” “But I did not know sin except through the law.” The law, then, is not sin, but the indicator of sin; for it showed both the sins that lay hidden and that they would not go unpunished before God. When man learned this, he became guilty; and therefore he does not seem to give thanks to the law. For who would gladly have one who announces to him that punishment is impending? But he gives thanks to the law of faith; because one who was made guilty through the law of Moses has been reconciled to God through the law of faith; though that law too is just and good; for to show impending danger is good. But he gives thanks rather to the one through whom, snatched from danger, he lives. “For I would not have known covetous desire unless the law had said,” in Exodus, “You shall not covet” (Exod 20:17). He did not separate this desire from sin but joined them, signifying that, when there was not even a suspicion that this was not permitted before God, “I learned,” he says, “that it is sin.” In his own person he pleads, as it were, the general case. So the law forbids desire, which, because it gives delight, was not thought to be sin. For it seemed a simple matter to desire something of one’s neighbour, but the law disclosed that this is sin; for to worldly people nothing seems so free of punishment and so agreeable as pleasure.

“Sin, then, taking occasion through the commandment, worked in me every desire.” In saying “every desire” he signifies all sins. For above he mentions desire according to the law, to which he now adds the other vices and says that every desire was worked in man by the impulse of the devil, whom he signifies by sin; so that the law, which had been given to profit man, turned to his harm. For the devil, seeing help provided for man through the law, whom he rejoiced to hold in his condition both because of the sin of Adam and because of man’s own, understood that it had been done against himself. For he held for certain that one whom he saw placed under the law had been taken from his dominion; for man had learned how to escape the punishment of the underworld. Hence he blazed with anger against man, to turn the law against him, so that by committing forbidden things he might offend God again and fall once more into the devil’s power. He began not to command but to deceive subtly; since with the giving of the law the devil lost his dominion, knowing that man would henceforth belong to the judgment of God. “For without the law sin was dead.” This is to be understood in two ways: so that you may see the devil signified by sin, and also sin itself, which is called sin. The devil is said to have been dead because before the law he ceased from mocking man, but was as it were at rest; for he was secure about his possession of him. And he said sin was dead because it was thought not to be reckoned before God; therefore with man it was dead, as if one sinned with impunity. For sin was not hidden, as I said above; but this was not known, that God will judge. When the law was given this was made manifest, and sin revived. Why did it revive, unless because it had lived before, and afterwards, through people’s negligence, was thought dead while it lived? For sin was thought not to be reckoned, when it was reckoned. Living, then, it was held to be dead.

“But I was once living without the law.” What does “without the law” mean, since the law always existed, as I mentioned above, except that man lived without the fear of God, secure that God would not judge human acts? “But when the commandment came, sin revived.” He said that sin revived to signify that it had lived before; but afterwards, through people’s negligence, it was thought dead while it lived, as false rumour usually arises about people abroad. This, then, he signifies: that in the beginnings it was not hidden that sin is reckoned before God, and this is to have lived; but when the habit of sinning had blotted this out, it was thought dead, so that the crime was thought to fail with the person. But when the law was given or renewed, it revived among those among whom it had been thought dead; for they began to know that sin is reckoned.

“But I died.” Man died because he sees that he is guilty before God, who before thought that he would not be liable for the things he sinned. “And the commandment which was given for life was found by me to be unto death.” It is true that the law was given for life; but when it made man guilty when he sinned, not only for the past but also for the future, the law given for life came to be unto death, that is, as I said, for the one who sins; for to those who obey it profits for life.

“For sin, taking occasion through the commandment, seduced me, and through it killed me.” In this place understand sin as the devil, who is the author of sin. He found an occasion through the law by which to satisfy his cruelty with the slaying of man; so that, because the law threatened sinners, man, always committing forbidden things at his instigation, might offend God and incur the punishment of the law, so as to be condemned by that which had been given to profit him. For since the law was given against his will, his envy blazed against man, to stain him the more with vicious pleasures, so that he might not escape his hands.

“So the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.” So that no hostile suspicion might remain about the law, he commends it so as to declare it not only just but also holy and good. For the word of the Gospel testifies that by commandment the law is understood. For it says: “If you wish to come to life, keep the commandments” (Matt 19:17).

“Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means.” Truly by no means; for how can it be that what is shown to be good should be understood as death? “But sin, that it might appear as sin, worked death in me through the good.” He says that the devil took occasion through the good to work evil for man, when he seduces him to death; because the law was given, made manifest in writing, so that the things done badly before the law through the enticement of desire might be shown to be sins and avoided thereafter. Then Satan was inflamed, through the good, certainly; for he saw that man was being provided for, and he persuaded him to unlawful things, so that instead of life death came to him from the law. This indeed must be ascribed to human negligence, which so weakened the vigour of its nature by the desire of sinning that it could not repress the suggestions of the adversary. Yet the enemy, whom he signifies by sin, took occasion through the law to work death for man, so that he might appear to be an enemy. For when he persuaded him to unlawful things, he appears to be an enemy. Though even before the law he procured death for man, apart from the first case of Adam, yet after the law he devised greater punishments for him in the underworld, where the second death is. For it is less of a crime to have sinned before the law was made manifest than after the law. “So that sin itself might become sinful beyond measure through the commandment.” What does “beyond measure” mean, as if a measure had been given to offenders, when it is not lawful to sin? But they are the words of God, who says: “The sins of the Amorites are not yet complete” (Gen 15:16). By this he shows that there is a certain measure of offences, which when sinners have filled up, they are judged in no way worthy of life; as also with Pharaoh: because he had filled up this measure, the powers and signs of God were shown against him, by which the rest, terrified, might exert themselves for the gains of life, so that life might be learned from one who died. But it is another measure that the apostle treats; for to show that sin is greater under the law than it had been before the law, he signifies that beyond this measure of sins a fuller measure grew after the law through the envy and cunning of Satan, so that the providence of God became contrary to man, though through fear of the law he ought not to have sinned at all. Therefore God, to conquer the envy of the devil and make his providence for man effective, changed the order, sending the Saviour Christ to conquer the devil and confirm the statutes of God toward man.

“For we know that the law is spiritual.” Since he speaks to those who know the law, he says: “We know that the law is spiritual”; for they would not put themselves under the law unless they acknowledged it to be spiritual. He calls the law of Moses spiritual, which was given on tablets; which is spiritual because it forbids sinning, since it forbids that visible and carnal things be worshipped. These things serve to commend the law, lest perhaps someone should think it worthy of blame because it exercised severity against sinners. “But I am carnal, sold under sin.” He calls man carnal when he sins. “Sold under sin.” To be sold under sin is to draw one’s origin from Adam, who sinned first, and to become subject to sin by one’s own offence, as the prophet Isaiah says: “You were sold,” he says, “for your sins” (Isa 50:1). For Adam sold himself first, and therefore all his seed is subject to sin. Therefore man is weak for keeping the precepts of the law unless he is fortified by divine help; hence he says, “The law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin,” that is, the law is firm and just and without fault, but man is frail and subjugated by the ancestral or his own offence, so that he cannot use his own power for obedience to the law. Therefore one must flee to the mercy of God, so as to escape the severity of the law and, unburdened of offences, with God’s favour resist the enemy thereafter. For what is it to be subject to sin but to have a body corrupted by the vice of the soul, into which sin may insert itself and drive the person, as a captive, to offences, so that he does its will? Hence the Lord says among other things: “The devil comes and takes away what was sown in their heart, lest they be saved” (Luke 8:12). Hence the same apostle says in another letter: “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavens” (Eph 6:12), who, it is agreed, are the attendants of Satan. For before the transgression of man, before he enslaved himself to death, they had no power to approach the inner parts of man and insert hostile thoughts. Hence it was by his cunning that he got round man by conversation through the serpent (Gen 3:1). But after he got round him and subjugated him, he received power over him to strike at the inner man, joining himself to his mind, so that he cannot recognize what in his thought is his own and what is the devil’s, unless he looks to the law.

“For what I do, I do not understand.” He does not understand what he does, because he sees that he knows one thing through the law and does another. “For I do not do what I will, but what I hate, that I do.” Being subject to sin, he certainly does what he does not will.

“But if I do what I hate, I agree with the law.” He proves that the law rightly forbids, when he professes that he does unwillingly what the law forbids; and he says that what the law commands belongs to his nature, because what he does outside it he calls hateful to himself.

“But now it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me.” Since he sees that what he does is forbidden by the law, and agrees that it ought not to be done, he declares that it is therefore something else by whose impulse these things are done, that is, sin. He always names sin, though it is known to be the devil with his angels, because if the first man had not sinned, these things would not happen; and therefore it is sin that does all these things.

“For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh.” He does not say, as some think, that the flesh is evil, but that what dwells in the flesh is not good but sin. How does sin dwell in the flesh, since it is not a substance but the transgression of good? Because the body of the first man was corrupted through sin so that it could be dissolved; the very corruption of sin remains in the body through the condition of the offence, keeping the force of the divine sentence given in Adam, which is the sign of the devil, at whose instigation he sinned. By this, then, which remains because of the deed, sin is said to dwell in the flesh, to which the devil comes as to his own law, and remains as sin in sin; because the flesh is now of sin, so that he may deceive the person with evil suggestions, so that the person does not do what the law commands. “For to will is present with me.” He asserts that the things the law commands are so good that he says they naturally please him and he wills to do them. “But to accomplish the good I do not find.” What the law commands pleases, then, and there is the will to do it; but to fulfil it power and strength are lacking, because he is so pressed by the power of sin that he cannot go where he wills, nor is he able to resist; for another is lord of his power. For man is already weighed down by the habit of sinning and succumbs more easily to sin than to the law, which he knows teaches good things; and if he wishes to do good, habit presses him, with the enemy as its helper.

“For I do not do the good that I will, but the evil that I do not will, this I do.” He repeats often in order to make it clear. This, then, is what was said above: that, as a captive, for the reasons given above, he is compelled to do what sin wills.

“But if I do what I do not will, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me.” This is what he mentioned above: that, pressed and subjugated by sin, he accomplishes not his own will but its will. Because he says that man sins unwillingly, should he therefore be thought free of guilt, since he does what he does not will, pressed by the force of power? Certainly not; for these things began through his own fault and sloth. For since he enslaved himself to sin by assent, it rules over him by right; for first it persuades, so as to rule over one already conquered. The apostle sets out these things in order to extol the grace of God: from how great evils it has freed man, what ruin he draws from Adam, and what benefits he has obtained through Christ; to show that it came to the help of one whom not even the law could help.

“I find, then, the law for me when I will to do good, because evil is present with me.” He asserts that the law of Moses gives assent to his will against the sin that dwells in the flesh, which compels him to do something other than what the man and the law will.

“For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man.” He says that the mind delights in the things handed down by the law: this is the inner man; because sin dwells not in the mind but in the flesh, which is from the origin of the flesh of sin, and by propagation all flesh becomes flesh of sin. For if the soul too were by propagation, sin would also dwell in it; for Adam’s soul sinned more than his body; but the sin of the soul corrupted the body. In the flesh, then, sin dwells as at the doors of the soul, so as not to let it go where it wills. But if it dwelt in the soul, man would never know himself; but now he knows himself and delights in the law of God.

“But I see another law in my members fighting against the law of my mind, and leading me captive into the law of sin which is in my members.” He mentions two laws, one of which he declares he sees in his members, that is, in the outer man, which is the flesh or body. This is the adverse law, this the one fighting against the mind, dragging it captive into the condition of sin, so that, entering, it may no longer find a defender. The other is the law of the mind, which is the law of Moses, or the natural law, which is in the mind. This has been pressed down by the violence of sin, indeed by its own negligence; because while it loves vices it subjects itself to sin, so as to be held captive by habit itself; for habit rules over man. He names four laws: first the spiritual law, which is also the natural law, which was renewed through Moses and set in authority; it is the law of God. Then the law of the mind, agreeing with the law of God. The third, the law of sin, which he says dwells in the members from the transgression of the first man. The fourth, that which is seen in the members, when it suggests evils and withdraws. But these laws, repeated, seem four, though they are two, that is, good and evil. For the law of the mind is itself the spiritual law, or that of Moses, which is called the law of God; and the law of sin is the same as the one he says is seen in the members, which contradicts the law of our mind.

“Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” He calls man wretched because he is born under sin. Is not man truly wretched, who has succeeded to this inheritance of transgression, having with him sin as an enemy, through which Satan has access to him? For Adam built steps by which the despoiler climbs up to his sons; had not the most merciful Lord, moved by mercy, given his grace through Christ, so that the human race, relieved by receiving remission of sins, might thereafter come to its senses, sin being repressed and condemned. For unburdened of evils and cleansed, he can resist the adversary, having regained power against him, while he is helped by God. Here he brings in as it were a third law, the law of faith, more powerful, which he also calls grace; which nevertheless has its origin from the spiritual law; for through it man has been freed, so that, since Moses gave a law and the Lord gave one, they are called two, yet are understood as one as regards sense and providence. For that is the beginner of salvation, this its completer. But I do not mean that part of the law which concerns new moons and circumcision and foods, but that which pertains to the sacrament of God and to discipline. By the grace of God through Christ, then, man has been freed from the body of this death. He calls this death the one which he showed above to have been devised for the slaying of man through sin, in the underworld, which is called the second; and the body of death is all sins; for many are one body, each as it were members devised by one author; and man, snatched from them by the grace of God through baptism, has escaped the death mentioned above. For while placed in a body of flesh he would not say he was snatched from that very body; but he called this the body which above he signifies is destroyed through baptism and the observance of the law. For when he says, “from the body of death,” he shows that there is another body which is not of death. “So I myself with the mind serve the law of God.” When he says “the law of God” he signifies both the law of Moses and that of Christ. “But with the flesh the law of sin.” “I myself,” that is, I who have been freed from the body of death. He is in the body; how has he been freed from the body of death, except that he has been freed from all evils? For the remission of sins takes away all sins. Freed, then, from the body of death by the grace of God through Christ, with mind or soul I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin, that is, of the devil, who through the flesh subject to him thrusts evil suggestions on the soul. Since man is double, made up of flesh and soul, he said he serves the law of God with the mind; because the soul is devoted to God and, having recovered its own power, can fight against the sin which we work through the flesh. For since the flesh is corrupted and subject to death, though it had been made so as not to die through its fellowship and union with the soul, it has received desires, the burden of which it transfers, as it were, to the soul, so that the soul too is weighed down. But what rejects it? The death brought by the grace of God. I serve the law of God with the mind, but with the flesh the law of sin, as has been said. For the soul, now free and called back to good habit, with the Holy Spirit helping, can spurn evil suggestions; for authority has been restored to it by which it may dare to resist the enemy. For one who is no longer liable cannot be tracked down against his will. But the flesh, because it has no judgment and is not capable of discerning (for it is a brute nature), cannot shut the door to the enemy, lest he come in and persuade the soul to contrary things; and therefore he says: “With the flesh I serve the law of sin.” For since one man consists of flesh and soul, with that part by which he is wise he serves God; with the other, by which he is dull, the law of sin. But if man had remained in that in which he was made, the enemy would have no power to approach his flesh and whisper contrary things to the soul. That the whole man was not restored by the grace of Christ to his former state, the sentence given in Adam stood in the way (Gen 3:17–19); for it would have been unjust to dissolve a sentence pronounced by right. Therefore, while the sentence remains, a remedy was found by the providence of God, so that the salvation which man had lost by his own fault might be given back to him; so that, healed here, he might believe that his adversary, conquered by the power of Christ, would not dare, the sentence of the first death having been pierced through, to claim man for himself; the race of Adam being united, so that, remaining wholly immortal, he would be restored to the making of his first origin.