He receives after the justification by faith the sign of circumcision, as if it were a seal happening and diverging, a trial for those sealed, the mystery of those justified by faith; so that those who after faith become from the circumcision of Abraham, being different from his children justified by faith, or reckoned as his children, may be a different people from the one being justified by faith in uncircumcision. The seal was preserved without being broken, as long as those justified by faith and in uncircumcision had not yet come. But when the people foretold to be born, justified by faith in uncircumcision, came, then the seal and that sign was loosed, so that it could be said to the one wishing to receive that seal that if he circumcises himself, Christ will profit you nothing. For the law works wrath; for where there is no law, there is no transgression. Therefore, it is of faith that it might be of grace, to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not only to that which is of the law, but also to that which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations,” before Him whom he believed, God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who, being not weak in faith, considered his own body already dead, since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
For if we do not understand it this way, the promise will be to those from Ishmael and those from Keturah, which is not acceptable. (The same) It is necessary, he says, to examine how it follows that the promise is firm to the one from faith and the one according to grace; for if it were from the law, it could not receive the promise firmly. Therefore pay attention, just as a physician’s remedy comes about from faith concerning the soul and especially that which is reasoned into righteousness, so that through it the promise and the grace are secured because of its unfailing nature, or at least its unchangeable certainty; which does not appear concerning the works from the law. So consider, it says, that a just person is said to have once turned away from his righteousness and practiced injustice; but I do not know if it has also been written that someone has turned away from faith, once witnessed as having believed and justified through faith. Then the divine apostle confirms what has been spoken to him with the testimony. (The same) [But what he says is this: Just as God is not a partial god but the father of all, so he also is. And again, just as God is a father, not by natural kinship but by the appropriation of faith, so he also is; for obedience makes him the father of all of us. Since they did not consider this as kinship, clinging to that thicker one, he shows this one to be more legitimate by referring to God through his word. Along with these, he shows that this is also the reward of faith; so if this is not so, even if he is the father of everyone inhabiting the earth, what is opposite no longer has place; for what is opposite is what is similar. For this is the paradox, to receive those whom he did not have by nature from God’s gift.] What kinds of nations were they, he says, of which God who gave the promises made him a father? For about those who are dead because of sin, whose soul has become dead in a living body, I think he is now speaking; for the soul that sins will die. But what are the non-beings, or those deprived of being and not partaking of it, thus called in contrast to those partaking of the declaration "I am the one who is"? He calls the non-beings so that having obeyed, he grants them to be. But perhaps someone will say in response to this, how the apostle elsewhere says that God has chosen the non-beings to nullify the beings, but it is clear that this refers to something different from the being and non-being as far as the whole context there is concerned; for here the beings are those who are according to the flesh, strong and noble; the non-beings are those otherwise disposed by them as per their conception. Romans 4:18-22 Who beyond hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations according to what was spoken, “So shall your seed be.” And not being weak in faith, he considered his own body already dead, being about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. Therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness. See whether as Abraham believed in hope beyond hope, so also all who are of the faith of Abraham believe in hope beyond hope concerning everything, whether about the resurrection of the dead or about inheriting the kingdom of the heavens or the kingdom of God. For these, as far as human nature is concerned, are beyond hope, but as far as God’s power and His unfailing promises are concerned, they happen in hope to those hoping from believing.
And since the believer believes in hope, therefore remains something, hope. From which also is born the third and greatest of these, love. And I consider faith to be the principle of instruction, hope, the progress, and love, the perfection. That it is not said that the body of Abraham was dead due to old age will be clear to the one who considers how, after the death of Sarah, Abraham took a wife named Keturah, and she bore him children even after Sarah's death, who lived 127 years. Abraham is found to be clearly older than Sarah by ten years. Therefore, if Isaac was conceived by promise, as some say, how did he have children by Keturah after 127 years without a promise? Therefore, such death is said in praise of Abraham, whose members found on earth were rendered dead. When someone mortifies his earthly deeds by the spirit, he extinguishes every natural fiery inclination within him. So the birth of Isaac was not from passion but from the promise of God; his parents were worthy to be called the patriarch.
27 iv 23–25: It was not written for his sake that it was credited to him, but also for our sake, to whom it will be credited, to those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Now, "for his sake only" was taken instead of "about him only," but also "for our sake" instead of "about us." For it was not so that Abraham, encountering Moses who was earlier, benefited from the later writing of him. But if it is not written for the sake of Abraham only that it was credited to him as righteousness, but also regarding us, as if the scripture pre-announcing the righteousness to be reckoned by faith to those who believe in the One who raised Jesus Christ from the dead, be mindful more diligently unless alone everyone believes upon the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, having been raised with Christ, so that one could say, "and raised with Him and seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ." Raised with Christ is the one conformed to His resurrection and, because of dying together with Him, lives with Him. For if we die together, we also live together. He died together with Christ because Christ, having died to sin, died once; and having died to sin, lives together with Christ. Lives together with Christ, the one walking in newness of life.
28 v 5–9: The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us. For while we were still weak, Christ died for the ungodly at the right time. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man, someone might dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having been now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Where he calls us weak or sinners, he included himself among such; but where he says ungodly, no longer. And rightly so, the one under the law, who is weak through the flesh, is both weak and a sinner, but not by habitual practice of the scriptures also ungodly, as those under the law who sinned against God; for even if we sin, we do not know the power. Those who worshipped other gods than the gods of their fathers are ungodly. Before we came to godliness, love was not yet established in us, for we loved everything more than God. But when Christ died for us while we were still such, then was established and brought love from God to us when all hindrances to establishing God's love for us were removed by Jesus' death.
According to this account, one must listen to the one who establishes, establishing and positioning God’s love within us, which properly belongs to God alone. (Origen) [For we not only await eternal life but also take pride in our present life as we become closely related to God, considering the things concerning our Lord Christ, who, becoming our mediator, accomplished peace.] For if we have grown together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be of his resurrection. He fashioned the name, considering the death of Jesus as a plant bearing fruits that remove sin; by which plant, the Word cultivates within those who have accepted the teaching of Christ, making them united in the likeness of death; for the human nature can take on some form of that death, but the death of one who did no sin and knew no sin, but died for the cleansing not of his sin but of ours, is not something that any sinner can die; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely, and the following. Elsewhere he says: He raised us and seated us together in heavenly places in Christ; and if you were raised with Christ, seek the things above; how then does he now say, we shall also be of his resurrection? To this, it must be said that the apostle names the resurrection in two ways: one is the already occurring resurrection in which the saint has risen with Christ and seeks the things above; the other is the when the perfect shall come, concerning which Daniel also prophesying says many of those sleeping in the dust of the earth shall awake, these to eternal life, and those to disgrace and everlasting contempt; so the holy ones are said to have risen with Christ in the first resurrection and shall also rise in the other. If we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him; knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has dominion over him; for he who died, died to sin once for all; but the life that he lives, he lives to God; thus you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Boldly he adds, death no longer has dominion over him, which is pejorative; for most say he died not by being overpowered by death but by willingly laying down his life for his sheep, or for his friends; for even the Savior says no one takes my life from me but I lay it down of myself. So one might say about this that death is now spoken of as the intermediate and indifferent, which he died according to the common view when, as Paul says, he died according to the scriptures. But how can this account agree with the statement we died with Christ and the bit about for he who died, died to sin once? But perhaps one will say that scripture uses identical terms doubly, sometimes referring to the physical, sometimes to the spiritual; as also it is written about the Samaritan woman, in which water and drinking seem to be set both in the physical and the spiritual sense; and it says the same about the harvest. So it will be no wonder if the apostle also uses this pattern, placing we died with Christ not referring to the common death, but the death no longer has dominion over him, naming death now the intermediate. Another will say that death here means not a different one ruling over Christ but his enemy, whose type was foretold concerning the whale that swallowed Jonah and by Job, who said rather let him curse it who is ready to subdue the great whale. Approaching this death at the time of the intermediate death, he said, not for the intermediate death but for that one, now my soul is troubled and my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even to death.
For having gone as it were into his own land for the sake of those that are held captive by him, as if for this reason it were said, "You have brought me down to the gates of death." And he made himself subject to him, being obedient up to death. For because he was condemned in him by him, he judged sin existing in that death. Just as someone for the sake of an example, being free, gives himself as a slave to the commander of the enemies, so that by being with him he may free his fellow citizens from the danger under him by killing the commander and those enemies under him by some stratagem; for he who did this was mastered not as a captured prisoner but as one acting with noble strategy. Thus also Christ gave himself to slavery, so that none of his disciples would become a slave of death by the word; for as the scripture says, he destroyed the one who held the power of death, that is, the devil, and the rest. Perhaps he also gave himself to death to be mastered, rescuing those held by him and giving himself in their place, so that afterwards he might overthrow and destroy death. Therefore let not sin reign in your mortal body, to obey its lusts; neither present your members as weapons of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as weapons of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you; for you are not under law but under grace. Earlier he said that sin might reign in death, but now he did not say this, but let not sin reign in your mortal body, teaching that just as the throne and kingdom of sin is our mortal body; for the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, and again the mind of the flesh is death. But also all the sins are works of the flesh, which the apostle made manifest by naming. And having classified heresies among them, he taught that these too are works of the flesh, setting us free from distraction, so that we might not think that some are works of the flesh, and some sins are not fleshly but either of the soul or of the mind. But if anyone asks how even heresies are counted among the works of the flesh, it must be said to them that heresies come from the mind of the flesh, of which Paul somewhere says, "vainer, puffed up by the mind of his flesh and not holding the Head." Perhaps even when we sin with sin ruling in our mortal body, we are nothing else than the mortal body and flesh; for he says, "Yet my Spirit shall not remain with these men forever, for they are flesh." And the soul itself seems not to remain, but either through wickedness becomes flesh or through virtue becomes spirit; for when it adheres to harlotry it becomes one flesh with it, but he who adheres to the Lord is one spirit. And he has already said this, so you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Some will take this as being said in distinction from others who lived to God but not in Christ Jesus. We declare it impossible to live to God in Christ Jesus since he saw the day of Christ and rejoiced. Whether Moses lived to God, he lived in Christ Jesus, who considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt; but also many prophets and righteous men longed to see what the apostles saw and to hear what they heard; they would not have longed for such things, nor desired them, had they not lived to God in Christ Jesus. And you will inquire whether it is necessary to affirm that everyone living to God in Christ Jesus is dead to sin.
To this it could be said, if one as dead to sin ever lived to sin; but if anyone, enlightened by the Spirit who searches everything and the depths of God, finds some who lived to God in Christ Jesus without ever living in sin, it would signify that if one lives to God in Christ Jesus, he is indeed dead to sin. But if all sinned because he died for all, it is clear that everyone living in Christ Jesus once lived in sin, and later, becoming dead to it, lived to God in Christ Jesus. Another might say that it is possible that some granted to live to God in Christ Jesus never existed in sin, but nonetheless, they are dead to sin, just as without the law sin is dead, not from once living to becoming dead. The divine apostle also shows the ease of victory from another argument, for he says, "Sin will no longer be your master, because you are not under law but under grace." Pay attention here to the apostolic precision, how he assigns mastery over the Savior and over us. To the Savior, he said, death no longer rules; to us, sin will not rule. It was not fitting to say that sin would not master Him, nor for us that death would not rule, so as not to say the same about the Savior and us as if they were similar. After this, presenting the cause that sin does not rule over us, he says, "Because you are not under law but under grace." For according to Paul, the power of sin is the law, and the law came to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Now we are under the abounding grace, because we are no longer under law but under grace. For a right law is not imposed, because it does not need the legal teaching from the letter to keep God's commandments, being taught by God, as Paul teaches, saying, "Concerning love, you have no need that anyone should write to you, because you are taught by God to love one another." Therefore, if God's law has grown together with someone, so that the law and the human will are not separate, such a person is not under law but under grace; thus, it must be understood that his will was in the Lord's law. For just as you once offered your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves to sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
Since, as we have noted in many places, the name of righteousness is sometimes taken in place of virtue, it must be said that even now the saying is of this kind: when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to virtue. And it follows that in this, the general name of sin, the general name of virtue, righteousness, is being called. It will seem to specifically speak about sanctification, encouraging purity and cleanness of life for those able to receive it.
What fruit then did you have at that time, from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now, having been set free from sin and enslaved to God, you have your fruit to sanctification, and the end, eternal life.
He belittles the fruit of those who are slaves of sin as being worthy of no account saying this: for in the things someone formerly did in sin and ignorance, later coming to awareness of the sins he is ashamed of, these would be fruit useless, unripe for food and not fit for anything. For indeed, the end of such works is none other than death, the enemy of Christ who said “I am the life,” having dominion over those who bore such fruits. In this death, no one remembers God; indeed, everyone in it is dead to God and lives in death, which is the same as living in sin.
Our fruit is unto sanctification; not ours and not according to our nature, the one bearing the awareness of its shame. For what is better belongs to us, yet what is worse does not belong to us, as the Savior says: “If you are faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?” For even if we do not become worthy of what is better, we do not receive it as our own due to sin.
One may say here that the fruit unto sanctification of those enslaved to God is complete abstinence from sexual impurities. And someone of such an opinion says that for those in marriage it fits to say “freed from sin but enslaved to righteousness,” while for those in purity it is greater to say “but now freed from sin and the rest.” Therefore, to have former fruits unto sanctification due to being enslaved to God means to have been much earlier enslaved to righteousness, not always having fruits unto sanctification due to the reason of forgiveness.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The distinction is good, wages being set upon sin, but gift upon God. For God does not give wages as something owed but a gift; sin does not offer a gift but owed wages. The gift of God is not simply eternal life, for this is perceived as incomplete if not in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It is shown that sin gives death to those ruled by it, and not God imposing the enemy of Christ which is death; for God did not make death and what follows. If anyone opposes this by saying “I kill and make alive, and the Lord kills and brings to life,” we will say that God kills sin to bring to life the one who died to sin.
Or do you not know, brothers, for I speak to those who know the law, that the law rules over a person as long as he lives? For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives; but if the husband dies, she is released from the law of the husband.
Therefore, while her husband lives, she will be called an adulteress if she becomes another man's wife; but if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress if she becomes another man's wife. Knowing the law certainly knows the difference between the oldness of the letter and the newness of the spirit that subsists in its doctrines; for this is what it means to truly know the law. He also brings a very appropriate example: For the married woman is bound by law to her living husband; but if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. The law is the husband; clearly, it is the one according to the letter, for this exhibited even dying because it is the oldness of the letter. What is old and aging is near vanishing. Moreover, it is said to die, and it is so, even when those who wish to keep it and thus choose, if I may say so, to live. But now we have been released from the law, having died to that which held us, so that we serve in newness of the spirit and not in oldness of the letter. The Holy Spirit is always in newness, neither becoming old nor aging but rather renewing our inner person day by day. The oldness of the letter was never new, nor was our old man ever new, who, on coming into being, became old, not by time but by such thoughts and works making him old. What then? Is the law sin? Although the word law is one, the discourse on the law throughout the scripture is not everywhere the same. Therefore, it is necessary to consider carefully each place, now understanding what is signified by the word law, and now what should be thought about such a thing. But regarding many other things: there are also synonymous terms in scripture about other things, which confuse those who think that just as the name is one, so too is that which it signifies one, wherever it may be named. That the word law is used in many senses, passing over many things requiring preparation and having an answer needing solution, we will present all that can in any way placate, as the word law is set upon many things. For example, when it is said in the Epistle to the Galatians, "For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written: Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things written in the book of the law to do them," it is clear that the law according to the letter of Moses is meant, commanding what must be done and forbidding what must not be done by those subject to it. The same is signified in the same epistle where it says, "The law was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made, ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator," and in "The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus."
The history written by Moses is also indicated by the voice of the law, as it is possible to take from the same letter: "Tell me, those who wish to be under the law, do you not hear the law?" For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the one by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, while the one by the free woman was born through promise. I also know that the Psalms are named the law, as is clear from "That the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated me without a cause.'" But the prophecy of Isaiah is also called law by the apostle, who says, "It is written in the law, 'With foreign tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me,' says the Lord." For I found equivalent words to this saying in the translation of Aquila. The more mystical and divine interpretation of the law is also called law, as in "For we know that the law is spiritual." Furthermore, the law is called that which is sown in the soul according to common notions and, as the scripture names it, the word written on the heart, commanding what must be done and prohibiting what must not be done. This is also indicated in "For when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness." For the law written on hearts and performed by nature in Gentiles is not different from that which according to common notions is innately written on our ruling part, and it becomes clearer with the completion of the word day by day. This was the indication of the law also in "sin is not accounted where there is no law" and in "I would not have known sin if it had not been for the law." For even before the law of Moses, sin was accounted to Cain and to those who perished in the flood, and yet also to the Sodomites and countless others; many recognized sin even before the law of Moses. And do not marvel if two meanings of the same name "law" are received in the same place; for we will find this custom also in other scriptures, such as, "Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, then comes the harvest?' Lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are white for harvest." For the harvest having been mentioned twice, the first refers to the physical, and the second to the spiritual. You will also find the same in the case of the man born blind who was healed; to whom, when physically healed, he adds the saying, "I have come into this world for judgment, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind."
Thus then even now separate from the law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. And we might say to those still hesitant to accept the dual meaning of the law, that if indeed the same law is taken in both the current instance where the righteousness of God is manifested apart from the law and in the instance where it is witnessed by the law and the prophets: if it is manifested apart from the law, it is not witnessed by the law; if it is witnessed by the law, it is not manifested apart from the law. Therefore, the righteousness of God being manifested by Jesus Christ is not at all witnessed by the law of nature, for it is inferior; but it is witnessed by the law of Moses, not the letter but the spirit, and by the prophets according to the spirit of the law, and by the spiritual word among them. Hence, it is necessary for the reader of the divine scripture to carefully observe that the scriptures do not always use the same terms for the same things; this they do sometimes by homonymy, sometimes by metaphor, and sometimes by the context requiring the term to be used differently in certain instances than as it appears elsewhere. By carefully observing this, we avoid many errors and false interpretations. It is therefore necessary to know that what has been seen is not always in the same sense, but sometimes it is seeing physically, and sometimes it is seeing mentally. For this must be understood in general: since the spirit of truth in the prophets and the word of Christ in the apostles aims to hide and not openly present the thoughts of truth, it often is concealed by the phrasing and is not said with a single continuity, so that the unworthy may not find what is beneficial for their souls hidden in them and thus bring judgment upon themselves. This is often the reason why the scripture as a whole seems to lack structure and continuity, especially, as we mentioned before, the prophetic and apostolic writings, and especially the apostolic letter to the Romans, in which the matters concerning the law are named diversely and are in different senses, so that it seems Paul does not follow a consistent aim in the text of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not; but I would not have known sin except through the law; for I would not have known lust unless the law said, "You shall not covet." Here we understand the law not only as the law of Moses prohibiting lust but also the natural law; for lust as a passion is naturally sown in us, and the law concerning it, and sin took occasion not only through the written commandment but also through the natural one. And Adam also knew this even before the law of Moses.
"For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. Not in Paul only, but in every soul, when sin stands up, every desire wages war against the kind. For it is impossible for the human soul not to fall under passions, even if through later diligence it becomes, as it were, without passion. Here, Paul speaks of every desire as passive and sinful (which the law forbids, teaching You shall not covet), which is an irrational craving occurring according to an impulse beyond reason, whereby we cling to life, desiring the median and indifferent life as good, being attached to wealth and glory and women and other desires, as sin's intention makes us stretch out for what we desire as if it were good. For desire becomes a semblance of good.
For without the law sin is dead. For I was living without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died, and the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Then it could be said about such a one that he lives without the law; for to this state, Paul and every man can refer, 'I was living without the law once,' since there once was a time without the law where, according to what he says, circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, a Hebrew of Hebrews; for a child still irrational cannot live under the law. Every man was once living without the law when he was a child; when there was no reproof; for ignorance is not subjected to punishment. And to every man came once the commandment; but when did it complete the reason, and understood the commandment prescribing such things and forbidding such things? At the arrival of the commandment for the first time wickedness arises, or, as Paul named it, sin revives being previously dead; but since it is not possible for sin and the living man to coexist, it is for this reason that when the commandment came, sin revived and the soul died, according to ‘the soul that sins, it shall die.’ For ‘I’ refers to the soul and the living man. Therefore, the life-giving good, the command of the law, stands as a pretext for death; for without it, it is not possible for the sin to be identified as sin, nor to condemn man to death, through which indeed both the charge of wickedness and the punishment of penalty are established."
Do not think that the first death of sin is similar in any way to its second death; for as there is much difference when sin is dead apart from the law and when sin is dead with the members upon the earth being mortified by the Word, so there is also much difference in the life of sin's deadness in each case, and the difference in living is not comparable one to the other; for it is clear that dead sin lives when the members upon the earth are not yet mortified by the Word, and before the law and the coming of the commandment, it lived being dead. Therefore has the good become death to me? Never! But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me through that which is good; that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. If anyone objects saying "Did the holy law become death to man? For when the commandment came, sin revived but man died; one will hear that the good did not become death, but it was necessary for sin to appear how great an evil it is; for when the good is present to the soul, the evil manifests; and if anyone sins thereafter, it is found that the commandment revealed the evil and showed what must be avoided, becoming, therefore, an instrument of death, and sin, not simply as sin but exceedingly sinful through the holy commandment, enters and works death in us. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. A question arises from this entire passage as to how Paul, saying these things, does not seem to contradict his own words, saying "You were bought with a price and Christ redeemed us, and I no longer live but Christ lives in me." Unless we should say that different aspects of the argument involve personifications, and the passages conform to different qualities of persons, where the wicked act against their former intention. The present argument is fitting to be said by those who have learned about the law that it is divine, and see its commandments as good, but no less, being sold under sin and being carnal, do not understand how they fall under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.
It is fitting to speak these words to those who have wrestled against desires but have fallen due to weakness of reason, and to those sometimes overcome by anger and fear and doing what they do not want and what they hate; but when we are defeated by the argument of pride, being conquered from what seems to be good, although not truly good, we agree with the law that it is good, but we do what is pleasant. 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 bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. In those who have not yet strengthened their habit towards better things, Paul describes this present discourse: Just as a soldier, having captured enemies, leads them away as captives, so in the aforementioned persons, there is the law in their members warring against the law of their mind, capturing the wretched soul and leading it to the law of sin in the bodily members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. As he reproaches human weakness that drags and distracts reason and provokes to contrary things, he says "Wretched man that I am!" And as being saved by divine assistance from the body that is called the body of death for the aforementioned reasons, he adds, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ." For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for 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. Rather, here he speaks of the impossibility of the law of sin and death; for just as virtue is powerful by its own nature, so is vice and the things thereof weak and powerless; for it prevails not over the strong but over the weak, not by its own power but by their negligence; the nature of such a law is impotent; therefore it operated in the weak flesh. This law, God condemned by sending his own Son not in sinful flesh of the kind that serves the law of sin, but in the likeness of such flesh. Therefore, the flesh of the Son of God was not sin but a likeness, since it was not from the seed of a man and woman coming together in sleep.
Therefore, God judged sin, being exceedingly sinful, and through the flesh the divine law's righteousness was fulfilled in us, when we do not walk according to the flesh, in which the flesh the impossibility and weakness of the law, which is wickedness, operates. But following God according to His spirit, we do all things, receiving unto ourselves the Son of God. For the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it does not submit to the law of God, nor indeed can it. So those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
From this Paul teaches us to understand who are according to the flesh, those who think on the things of the flesh, and who are according to the spirit, those who think on the things of the spirit. The thoughts of the flesh are fornication, impurity, idolatry, and the like, which themselves are death; but the things of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, and the like, which are life. Such people are already in life and rejoice in peace; consequently, those sowing to the flesh reap corruption, while those living by the spirit sow to the spirit, from which is reaped eternal life.