If, however, I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good. What does this mean: If I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good? You would agree with the law if you did what it wanted: you do what the law hates, how do you agree with the law? Absolutely: If I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good. How? Because the law commands: You shall not covet. What do I want? Not to covet? By wanting what the law wants, I agree with the law that it is good. If the law said: You shall not covet, and I wanted to covet; I would not agree with the law, and I would be entirely different from that perverse will. For if the law says: You shall not covet, and I wanted to covet; I do not agree with the law of God. What now? What do you say, O law? You shall not covet. And I do not want to covet, and I do not want; I do not want what you do not want; therefore, I agree because I do not want what you do not want. My weakness does not fulfill the law; but my will praises the law. Therefore, if I do what I do not want; I agree with the law because I do not want what it does not want, not because I do what I do not want. For doing itself is coveting, not consenting to covetousness: lest anyone now seeks an example of sinning for himself in the Apostle and gives a bad example. I do not do what I want. For what does the law say? You shall not covet. And I do not want to covet, and yet I covet; although I do not give my consent to my coveting, although I do not follow after it. For I resist, turn my mind away, refuse weapons, hold back my members; and yet what I do not want happens in me. What the law does not want, I do not want with the law; what it does not want, I do not want: therefore, I agree with the law.
To be ignorant of sin.
But because I am in the flesh, I am in the mind; but more so I am in the mind than in the flesh. For since I am in the mind, I am in the ruler; for the mind rules, the flesh is ruled; and I am more in that which rules than in that which is ruled. Therefore, because I am more in the mind: Now then it is no longer I who do it. Now then, what is it? Now then, redeemed, who was previously sold under sin, having now received the grace of the Savior, so that in my mind I delight in the law of God, it is not I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that no good dwells in me. Again therefore: in me; hear what follows: That is, in my flesh, good does not dwell. For to will is present with me. I know. What do you know? That no good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. You had already said: What I do, I do not understand. If you do not understand, how do you know? You now say: I do not understand; you now say: I know; how am I to understand, I do not know. Or is this what I understand? For when he says: What I do, I do not understand; he says: I do not understand, I do not approve, I do not accept, it does not please me, I do not consent, I do not praise. For Christ will also not know those to whom he will say: I do not know you. Indeed this too I understand: For what I do, I do not understand; because what I do not do, I do not understand. For it is not I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. Therefore I do not understand: because it is not I who do it, as it is said of the Lord: He who did not know sin. What is it: did not know? Therefore did he not know what he judged? did he not know what he punished? If therefore he did not know what he punished, he punished unjustly. Because truly he punished justly, he knew what he punished. And yet he did not know sin, because he did not commit sin. For what I do, I do not understand: for it is not what I want to do that I do; but what I hate, that I do. But if I do what I do not want, I consent to the law that it is good. Now then, having already received grace, it is not I who do it; the mind is free, the flesh captive. It is not I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that no good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.
It is not permitted for the saints to fulfill the law in this life.
For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. The desire is present within me, but the ability to carry it out is not. He did not say: to do; but: to carry out. For you do not do nothing. Desire rebels, and you do not consent; another's wife attracts, and you do not agree, you avert your mind, you enter the inner chamber of your mind. You see desire bustling outside, you pronounce judgment against it, cleansing your conscience. You say, I do not want, I do not act. Assume that it attracts, I do not act, I have someone with whom I delight. For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man. Why do you stir up with your flesh? Why do you suggest foolish, transient, fleeting, vain, harmful delights tumultuously, and narrate them to me as if prattling? The unrighteous have narrated delights to me. From there also comes this desire. It narrates delights to me, but not like your law, O Lord. For I delight in the law of God: not from myself, but from the grace of God. You desire tumultuously in the flesh, you do not submit the mind to yourself. I will hope in God; I will not fear what the flesh does to me. Myself, myself, that is, with the mind not consenting, the flesh stirs up turmoil. "In God," it says, "I will hope; I will not fear what the flesh does to me." Neither another's, nor my own. Therefore, does one who acts in himself these things do nothing? He does much: he does a great thing, but still he does not carry it out. For what is: to carry out? Where, O death, is your contention? Therefore, the desire is present within me, but not the ability to carry out what is good.
The same argument is being discussed.
For I do not do the good I want; but the evil I do not want, this I practice. And he repeats: But if I do what I do not want, that is, if I desire; it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that when I want to do good. I find the law to be good; the law is good, the law is a good thing. Where do I prove it? Because I want to fulfill it. I find then a law that, when I want to do good; for evil lies close at hand to me. And this is mine. For it is not that my flesh is not mine, or the flesh is of another substance, or the flesh has another principle, or the soul is from God, and the flesh is from the race of darkness. God forbid! Illness opposes health. The half-dead lies on the road, still being healed, all his illnesses are healed. For I do not do what I want; but what I hate, that I do. If then I do what I do not want; I find then a law that when I want to do good, for evil lies close at hand to me. What evil?
There is still conflict in man.
For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin, which is in my members; captive, yet from the flesh; captive, yet in part. For the mind resists and delights in the law of God. Thus we should understand, if the Apostle speaks of himself. Therefore now, if the mind does not consent to the sin that titillates, suggests, and entices; if the mind does not consent because it has other inner pleasures incomparable to the pleasures of the flesh: if therefore it does not consent, and there is something dead in me, and something alive, death still contends, but the living mind does not consent. Is not that very death in you? Is not that which is dead still concerning you? You still have a contention. What, then, is to be hoped for from this?
The same argument is treated.
Wretched man that I am: even if not in mind, yet in flesh, I am a wretched man. For indeed, a man in mind, and not in flesh, is not a man. For who has ever hated his own flesh? Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? What is this, brothers? As if he wishes to be without a body. Why do you hurry? If your intention is so much to be without a body; death will come someday, and the coming of the last day will undoubtedly deliver you from this body of death. Why do you groan greatly? Why do you say: Who will deliver me? You speak as a mortal, you speak as one who will die. The separation of the mind from the flesh will someday come: because of the brevity of life it is never far away; because of daily misfortunes, you do not know when it will be. Therefore, whether you hurry or delay, all human life is brief: why do you groan greatly and say: Who will deliver me from this body of death?
In the resurrection, only the just are freed from the body of death.
And he adds: The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Do pagans, who do not have the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, not die? Will they not, on the final day, be released from the flesh? Will they not be freed from the body of this death on that day? What is it that you consider a great matter of the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, that you will be freed from the body of this death? The Apostle answers you, if we have grasped his sense—rather, with the Lord's help, we have undoubtedly grasped it—the Apostle answers you, and says: I know what I am speaking of. You say that pagans are freed from the body of this death, because the last day of this life will come, and they will be temporarily released from the body of this death. The day will come when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice; and those who have done good will come forth to the resurrection of life; behold, they are freed from the body of this death. But those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment: behold, they return to the body of this death. The body of this death returns to the impious, and they will not be released from it at any time. Then there will not be eternal life, but eternal death, because of eternal punishment.
The body of the saints after resurrection is immortal.
But you, O Christian, beg as much as you can, cry out and say: Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? It is answered to you: You will be made secure, not by yourself, but by your Lord; you will be made secure by your guarantee. Hope for the kingdom of Christ with Christ, for you already hold the pledge of Christ’s blood. Say, say: Who will deliver me from this body of death? So that it may be answered to you: The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. For you will not be delivered from this body of death so as not to have this body. You will have it, but it will no longer be of this death. It will be the same, but it will not be the same. It will be the same because it will be the same flesh; it will not be the same because it will not be mortal. Thus, thus you will be delivered from this body of death, so that this mortal body will put on immortality, and this corruptible body will put on incorruption. By whom? Through whom? By the grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Because through one man death came, and through one man the resurrection of the dead. As in Adam all die; that is why you groan. In Adam all die: that is why you groan, that is why you struggle with death, that is why there is the body of death. But as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. Having been made alive, receiving the immortal body, where you say: Where is your sting, O death?, you will be delivered from this body of death; not by your own virtue, but by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Turned to the Lord, etc.