24. [30.] When he says: The law entered in secretly, that sin might abound , by this very word he sufficiently indicated that the Jews did not know by what dispensation the law was given. For it was not given as something that could give life, since grace gives life through faith; rather the law was given to show by how great and how tight bonds of sins those were constrained who presumed to fulfill righteousness by their own strength. Thus sin abounded, since both concupiscence became more ardent from the prohibition, and to those sinning against the law was added the charge of transgression. This is understood by one who considers the second stage among those four stages.
25. [31.] When he says: What then shall we say? Shall we remain in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid! We who are dead to sin, how shall we live in it? By this he shows that it was done regarding past sins, that they should be forgiven, and that in this grace superabounded—that past sins should be remitted. Therefore whoever still seeks increases of sin in order to feel an increase of grace does not understand that he is acting so that grace works nothing in him. For it is the work of grace that we die to sin.
26. [32.-34.] When he says: Knowing this, that our old man was crucified together with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed , this refers to what was said through Moses: Cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree . For the crucifixion of the old man was signified in the cross of the Lord, just as the renewal of the new man was signified in the resurrection. And it is clear that we enact the old man—the one who is cursed—on account of whom, in respect of sin, no one doubts that it was said even of the Lord that he bore our sins , and was made sin for us , and from sin condemned sin . But what is it "to destroy the body of sin"? He himself explained it: That we should no longer serve sin ; and that which he says: If we are dead with Christ —that is, if we have been crucified with Christ. For he says in another place: For those who are Christ Jesus' have crucified their flesh with its vices and concupiscences . Moses, therefore, did not curse the Lord, but prophesied what his crucifixion would show.
27. [35.] When he says: For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under grace , this surely pertains now to that third stage, where a man already serves the law of God with his mind, although with the flesh he serves the law of sin. For he does not obey the desire of sin, although concupiscences still solicit and provoke him to consent, until the body too is made alive and death is swallowed up in victory. Since, therefore, we do not consent to evil desires, we are in grace, and sin does not reign in our mortal body; and altogether, from that passage where he says: We who are dead to sin, how shall we live in it? he describes the one who is established under grace. But he over whom sin has dominion, although he may wish to resist sin, is still under the law, not yet under grace.
28. [36.] When he says: For a woman, while her husband lives, is bound by the law to her husband; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband , etc., it must be noted that this comparison differs in this from the matter for which it was employed: that here he says the husband dies, so that the woman may marry whom she wishes, being freed from the law of her husband; but there, when he sets up the soul as the woman, and the passions of sins as the husband—which work in our members so as to bring forth fruit unto death, that is, so that from such a union offspring worthy of death may be born—and the law that was given not to take away sin or for liberation from sin, but to reveal sin before grace, through which it came about that those placed under the law were swept away by a more vehement desire of sinning and sinned still more by transgression; since, then, there too there are three: the soul as the woman, the passions of sins as the husband, and the law as the law of the husband—yet there he does not say that the soul is freed by the sins dying, as by the husband dying, but that the soul itself dies to sin and is freed from the law, so that it may belong to another husband, that is, Christ, once it has died to sin, although sin itself is as it were still living; which happens when, with the desires and certain incitements to sinning still remaining in us, we nevertheless do not obey nor consent, serving the law of God with our mind, because we are dead to sin. But sin too will die when the reformation of the body takes place in the resurrection, of which he afterward says: He will give life to your mortal bodies also, on account of his Spirit remaining in you .
29. [37. 1.] When he says: But sin, having taken occasion, worked in me through the commandment every concupiscence , it must be understood that it was not the whole of concupiscence before it was increased by the prohibition. For concupiscence is increased by the prohibition when the grace of the Liberator is absent; and therefore it is not yet "all" before it is prohibited. But when it has been prohibited, grace being absent, as we have said, concupiscence grows so much that thus in its own kind it becomes "all," that is, consummated—so that it is even done against the law and heaps up the charge by transgression.
30. [37. 2.] When he says: For without the law sin is dead , he said it is dead not because it does not exist, but because it lies hidden—which he makes clear in what follows, when he says: But sin, that it might appear as sin, worked death in me through what is good. For the law is good, but without grace it only shows sins, it does not take them away.
31. [38.] When he says: But I once lived without the law , it must be understood: I seemed to myself to live, because before the commandment sin lay hidden. And when he says: But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died , it must be understood: sin began to appear, and I recognized that I was dead.
32. [39.] When he says: For sin, having taken occasion through the commandment, deceived me and through it slew me , this was said because the fruit of a forbidden desire is sweeter. Hence too whatever sins are done secretly are the sweeter, though this sweetness is deadly. Hence it is that, in Solomon, a woman, sitting as the image of deceitful teaching and inviting the foolish to come to her, is written to say: Gladly eat hidden bread and drink stolen sweet water . This sweetness is the occasion of sin found through the commandment, which, when it is desired, surely deceives and turns into greater bitterness.
33. [40.] When he says: Did then that which is good become death to me? God forbid! But sin, that it might appear as sin, worked death in me through what is good —here he evidently shows that what he had said above, For without the law sin is dead , he said because it lies hidden, since he now says that it was not that good thing, that is, the law, that became death to him, but that sin worked death through the good of the law, that is, so that the sin which lay hidden without the law might appear. For then each one recognizes that he is dead, when he cannot fulfill what he confesses to have been rightly commanded, and by the charge of transgression sins more than if he were not forbidden. This is what he says in what follows: That the sinner, or sin, might become beyond measure sinful through the commandment —which before the commandment was less, because where there is no law, neither is there transgression.
34. [41.] When he says: We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal , he sufficiently shows that the law cannot be fulfilled except by the spiritual, such as the grace of God makes. For anyone who has become like the law itself easily fulfills what it commands; nor will he be under it but with it—and such is he who is no longer captivated by temporal goods, nor terrified by temporal evils.
35. [42.] When he says: I was sold under sin , it must be understood that each one, by sinning, sells his soul to the devil, having received, as it were as a price, the sweetness of temporal pleasure. Hence our Lord too was called Redeemer, because in this way, as has been said, we had been sold.
36. [43.] When he says: For what I do, I know not , it may seem to those who understand less to be contrary to that statement in which he said: Sin, that it might appear as sin, worked death in me through what is good. For how does it appear, if it is not known? But I know not is said in this place so that it may be understood: I do not approve. For just as darkness is not seen but is perceived by comparison with light—and to perceive darkness is precisely not to see—so also sin, because it is not illumined by the light of righteousness, is discerned by not understanding, just as darkness was said to be perceived by not seeing. And to this pertains what is said in the Psalm: Who understands his faults?
37. [44.] When he says: For what I will, that I do not, but what I hate, that I do. But if I do what I do not will, I consent to the law, that it is good —the law is indeed sufficiently defended from every accusation; but care must be taken lest anyone suppose that by these words free will is taken from us, which is not so. For now a man is described as placed under the law before grace; for at that time he is conquered by sins, while he tries to live justly by his own strength without the help of God's liberating grace. But by free will he has it to believe in the Liberator and to receive grace, so that now, with him who bestows it liberating and helping, he does not sin, and thus ceases to be under the law, but is with the law or in the law, fulfilling it by the love of God, which he could not do by fear.
38. [45.-46.] When he says: I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and taking me captive under the law of sin which is in my members , he calls the law of sin that by which each one, entangled by carnal habit, is bound fast. He says that this wars against the law of his mind and takes him captive under the law of sin—from which it is understood that the man being described is one who is not yet under grace. For if carnal habit only warred and did not take captive, there would be no condemnation. For condemnation lies in this: that we submit to and serve evil carnal desires. But if such desires exist and are not lacking, yet we do not obey them, we are not taken captive, and we are already under grace—of which he will speak, when he has cried out and implored the help of the Liberator, so that through grace charity may accomplish what through the law fear could not. For he said: Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? And he added: The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Then he begins to describe the man established under grace, which is the third of those four stages we distinguished above. To this stage now belongs what he immediately adds: Therefore I myself with my mind serve the law of God, but with my flesh the law of sin ; for although carnal desires exist, he no longer serves by consenting so as to commit sin—he who, established under grace, serves the law of God with his mind, but with his flesh the law of sin. And by the law of sin he means the mortal condition arising from Adam's transgression, by which we were made mortal. For from this taint of the flesh carnal concupiscence solicits us, and according to this he says in another place: We too were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest .
39. [47.] When he says: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus , he sufficiently shows that there is no condemnation if carnal desires exist, but only if one obeys them so as to sin. This happens to those who are established under the law, not yet under grace. For those established under the law not only have concupiscence warring against them, but are also led captive when they submit to it. But this does not happen to those who serve the law of God with their mind.
40. [48.] When he says: For what was impossible for the law, in that it was weakened through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, even from sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit —he teaches most clearly that these very precepts of the law were for this reason not fulfilled, although they ought to have been fulfilled: because those to whom the law was given before grace were given over to carnal goods and desired to acquire happiness from them, and feared nothing except when adversity threatened such goods; and therefore, when those temporal goods were disturbed, they easily withdrew from the precepts of the law. The law, therefore, was weakened by not fulfilling what it commanded, not by its own fault but through the flesh—that is, through those men who, in desiring carnal goods, did not love the righteousness of the law but preferred temporal advantages to it. Therefore our Liberator, the Lord Jesus Christ, by taking on mortal flesh, came in the likeness of sinful flesh. For to sinful flesh death is owed. But that death of the Lord was of condescension, not of debt; and yet the Apostle calls even this "sin"—the assumption of mortal flesh, though not sinful flesh—because, being immortal, he as it were enacts sin when he dies. But from sin , he says, he condemned sin in the flesh . For the Lord's death accomplished this: that death should not be feared, and that thereafter temporal goods should no longer be sought nor temporal evils feared—in which lay that carnal prudence in which the precepts of the law could not be fulfilled. But when this prudence is destroyed and removed in the Lord's manhood, the righteousness of the law is fulfilled, when one walks not according to the flesh but according to the spirit. Hence it was most truly said: I came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it . Love, therefore, is the fullness of the law . And love belongs to those who walk according to the spirit. For this belongs to the grace of the Holy Spirit. For when there was not the love of righteousness but fear, the law was not fulfilled.
41. [49.] When he says: Because the prudence of the flesh is hostile toward God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be , he shows what he meant by hostile —lest anyone suppose that, as from an opposing principle, some nature which God did not create wages enmity against God. He is therefore called an enemy of God who does not submit to his law, and this through the prudence of the flesh, that is, when he desires temporal goods and fears temporal evils. For the definition of prudence is usually set out in the desiring of goods and the avoiding of evils. Wherefore the Apostle rightly calls it the prudence of the flesh , by which these things are desired as if they were great goods, though they do not endure with a man, and by which it is feared that these may be lost, which must one day be lost. But such prudence cannot submit to the law of God; rather the law is submitted to only when this prudence has been extinguished, so that the prudence of the spirit may succeed it, by which our hope is neither in temporal goods nor our fear in temporal evils. For the same nature of the soul both has the prudence of the flesh, when it pursues lower things, and the prudence of the spirit, when it chooses higher things—just as the same nature of water both freezes with cold and melts with heat. Thus, then, it was said: The prudence of the flesh is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be —just as it would rightly be said that snow cannot be made warm, nor indeed can it; but when, heat being applied, it is dissolved and the water grows warm, now no one can call it snow.
42. [50.] When he says: The body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness , the body is called dead in the sense of mortal. For from its mortality the need of earthly things solicits the soul and stirs up certain desires, which, so as to sin, he does not obey who now serves the law of God with his mind.
43. [51.] When he says: If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus Christ from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit dwelling in you , he now shows the fourth of those four stages which we distinguished above. But this stage is not found in this life. For it pertains to the hope by which we await the redemption of our body, when this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortal shall put on immortality. There peace is perfect, because the soul suffers no troubles from the body, now made alive and transformed into a heavenly quality.
44. [52.] When he says: For you have not received a spirit of servitude unto fear, but you have received the Spirit of the adoption of sons, in whom we cry: Abba, Father! —the times of the two Testaments are most clearly distinguished; for that one pertains to fear, but the New to love. But it is asked, what is the spirit of servitude? For the Spirit of the adoption of sons is surely the Holy Spirit; the spirit of servitude in fear, then, is he who has the power of death, because by that very fear those were held liable to servitude throughout their whole life who lived under the law, not under grace. Nor is it to be wondered at that those who pursued temporal goods received him through divine providence—not that the law and the commandment are his. For: The law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good ; but that spirit of servitude, which is surely not good, is received by those who cannot fulfill the precepts of the given law, while they serve carnal desires, not yet taken up by the grace of the Liberator into the adoption of sons; for that spirit of servitude too holds no one in its power except him who, by the order of divine providence, has been handed over to it, God's justice assigning to each his own. This power the Apostle had received, when he says of certain persons: Whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme ; and again of another: I have already judged , he says, to hand over such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the soul may be saved . Those, therefore, who are not yet under grace and, established under the law, are conquered by sins so as to obey carnal desires, and by transgression increase the guilt of their crimes, have received the spirit of servitude, that is, the spirit of him who has the power of death. For if we understand by the spirit of servitude the very spirit of man, then the spirit of adoption too begins to be understood as that same spirit changed for the better. But since we take the Spirit of adoption to be the Holy Spirit—which he clearly shows when he says: The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit —it remains that we understand the spirit of servitude to be that one whom sinners serve, so that, just as the Holy Spirit delivers from the fear of death, so the spirit of servitude, which has the power of death, holds the guilty by the terror of that same death, so that each one may turn himself to the help of the Liberator—even against the will of the devil himself, who desires always to hold him in his power.
45. [53.] When he says: For the expectation of the creature awaits the revelation of the sons of God; for the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly , etc., down to what he says: And we ourselves groan within ourselves, awaiting the adoption, the redemption of our body —this is to be understood in such a way that we neither suppose that there is a sense of grieving and groaning in trees and vegetables and stones and other creatures of this kind (for this is the error of the Manichaeans), nor think that the holy angels are subjected to vanity, or judge of them that they will be freed from the servitude of destruction, since they surely are not going to perish; but let us understand the whole creation as being in man himself, without any distortion. For no creature can exist except either spiritual, which is preeminent in the angels, or animal, which appears well enough also in the life of beasts, or corporeal, which can be seen or touched; and all of these are also in man, because man consists of spirit and soul and body. Therefore the creature awaits the revelation of the sons of God—whatever now in man labors and lies subject to corruption awaits that manifestation of which the same Apostle says: For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God; when Christ, your life, shall appear, then you also shall appear with him in glory . John too says: Beloved, now we are the sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is . This revelation of the sons of God, then, the creature awaits, which in man is now subjected to vanity, as long as it is given over to temporal things, which pass away like a shadow. Hence too it is said in the Psalm: Man has become like vanity; his days pass away like a shadow . Solomon too speaks of vanity, when he says: Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity; what abundance has a man in all his labor with which he labors under the sun? Of which David likewise says: Why do you love vanity and seek a lie? He says the creature was subjected to vanity not willingly, because this subjection is penal. For man, though he sinned willingly, was not likewise condemned willingly—yet this condemnation was inflicted upon our nature not without hope of restoration. And therefore: On account of him , he says, who subjected it in hope, because the creature itself also shall be freed from the servitude of destruction into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God —that is, even that which is only creature, not yet gathered by faith into the number of the sons of God; yet in those who were going to believe the Apostle saw what he says: that the creature shall be freed from the servitude of destruction, so that it may not serve destruction, which all sinners serve. For to the sinner it was said: You shall die the death . But it shall be freed into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God —that is, so that it too may attain to the liberty of the glory of the sons of God through faith; and when this faith was not in it, it was called only creature. And to this he refers what follows: For we know that the creature groans together and is in pain until now. For there were still those going to believe, who even in spirit lay subject to laborious errors. But lest anyone should think it was said only of their labor, he adds a further word about those who had already believed. For although they served the law of God with the spirit, that is, with the mind, yet because the flesh serves the law of sin, as long as we suffer the troubles and solicitations of our mortality, therefore he added, saying: And not only so, but we ourselves also, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves. Not only, then, he says, does that which is called merely creature in those men who have not yet believed—and therefore are not yet established in the number of the sons of God—groan together and grieve, but we ourselves also, who believe and have the firstfruits of the Spirit, because we already cleave to God in spirit through faith, and therefore are no longer called creature but sons of God—yet we ourselves also groan within ourselves, awaiting the adoption, the redemption of our body. For this adoption, which has already been accomplished in those who have believed, was accomplished in spirit, not in body. For the body has not yet been reformed into that heavenly transformation, as the spirit has already been changed, being turned from its errors to God by the reconciliation of faith. Therefore even in those who have believed, that manifestation is still awaited which will come about in the resurrection of the body, which pertains to that fourth stage, where peace will be wholly perfect and rest eternal, with no corruption on any side resisting us or trouble soliciting us.
46. [54.] When he says: Likewise the Spirit also helps our weakness; for what we should pray as we ought, we do not know , it is clear that he speaks of the Holy Spirit, which is plain in what follows, where he says: Because he intercedes for the saints according to God. We, therefore, do not know what we should pray as we ought, for two reasons: both because that which we hope to be future and toward which we tend does not yet appear; and because in this very life many things can seem to us favorable which are adverse, and adverse which are favorable. For even tribulation, when it comes upon a servant of God for testing or amendment, sometimes seems useless to those who understand less; but if it is referred to what was said: Give us help from tribulation, and vain is the salvation of man , it is understood that God very often helps us out of tribulation, and that safety is vainly desired which is sometimes adverse, when it entangles the soul with delight and love of this life. Hence too is that saying: I found tribulation and sorrow, and I called upon the name of the Lord . For when he says I found , he signifies something useful; for we do not rightly rejoice at having found anything except what we were seeking. Therefore we do not know what we should pray as we ought. For God knows both what is expedient for us in this life and what he is going to give after this life. But the Spirit himself intercedes with unutterable groanings. He says the Spirit groans in the sense that he makes us groan, arousing by love the desire of the life to come, just as he says: The Lord your God tests you, that he may know whether you love him , that is, that he may make you know. For nothing is hidden from God.
47. [55.] When he says: Whom he called, them he also justified , it may prompt the question whether all who are called are justified. But elsewhere we read: Many are called, but few are chosen . Yet because the chosen too are surely called, it is clear that none are justified except the called—though not all the called, but those who are called according to purpose , as he said above. And the purpose is to be understood as God's, not their own. And he himself explains what according to purpose means, when he says: For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. For not all who are called are called according to purpose; for this purpose pertains to the foreknowledge and predestination of God. Nor did he predestine anyone except him whom he foreknew would believe and would follow his calling, whom he also calls the chosen. For many do not come when they have been called, but no one comes who has not been called.
48. [56.] When he says: That he might be the firstborn among many brethren , he teaches well enough that our Lord is to be understood in one way as only-begotten, in another as firstborn. For where he is called Only-begotten, he has no brethren and is by nature the Son of God, the Word in the beginning, through whom all things were made. But according to the assumption of manhood and the dispensation of the incarnation—through which he deigned to call even us, who are not sons by nature, into the adoption of sons—he is called firstborn, with the addition of brethren. For where he is called first, he is surely not alone, but has brethren who are to follow into that which he himself has gone before. Hence in another place too he calls him the firstborn from the dead, that he himself might hold the primacy. For the resurrection of the dead, so that they die no more, was before him in no one, but after him is of many saints, whom he is not ashamed to call brethren on account of that very sharing of humanity.