ACC ~ Romans 7 v1 - 6

OVERVIEW:

As long as persons are living their old lives they are bound to the law. But if that tie is broken by death, then the person concerned is free to bind himself or herself to someone or something else—in this case, eternal life in Christ. Without passing through death such a change is impossible, because it would mean serving two masters at once, which is analagous to adultery. The link with sin and the law must be destroyed in order for the new life to begin, but this is precisely what has happened in the case of Christians. For a Christian to go back to the law is the same thing as going back to his or her previous life of sin. Paul’s analogy of the woman and her husband is invariably interpreted, as some of the Fathers pointed out, but the general intention of the passage is clear. If we reject Christ and cling to the law, then we shall be tempted by lust and fall into sin. The new life we now live in the Spirit has changed everything. The Fathers laid great stress on this complete alteration of our circumstances. The law was not evil but it was obsolete, and therefore it had to be abandoned.

7:1 | Human Law an Argument for Heavenly Things

THE LAW WAS SPIRITUAL. ORIGEN: This is similar to what Paul says later on [in verse 14]: “We know that the law is spiritual.” It was not only Paul who knew that the law was spiritual but these people too, who had been taught by it and who were spiritual themselves. … Before the coming of Christ there were many Jews who grew in spiritual knowledge and saw God’s glory, e.g., Isaiah, of whom John testifies when he says: “Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke of him.” COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

AN EXAMPLE FROM HUMAN LAW. AMBROSIASTER: In order to strengthen their minds in the divine teaching, Paul uses an example drawn from human law, in order once again to argue for heavenly things on the basis of earthly ones, just as God also is known by the creation of the world. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

MOVING TO GRACE. PELAGIUS: Now Paul begins to point out problems with the law in order to encourage his readers to move over to grace without the fear which belongs to the law. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

7:2 | The Law of the Letter, the Law of the Gospel

THE LETTER OF THE LAW MUST DIE. ORIGEN: The law of the letter must die so that, free at last, the soul may marry the spirit and receive the marriage of the New Testament. HOMILIES ON GENESIS 6.3.

MOSAIC LAW ILLUMINED BY THE GOSPEL. AMBROSIASTER: This law comes from the gospel, not from Moses or from human justice. For those who learned something from the guidance of nature and those who learned something from the law of Moses have both been made perfect by the gospel of Christ. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

WHEN THE HUSBAND (LAW) DIES, THE WOMAN (SOUL) IS FREE. AUGUSTINE: Note how this analogy is different from the subject it refers to. Paul says that the husband dies, so that the woman, freed from the law of her husband, can marry whomever she likes. Paul compares the soul to the woman and thinks of the husband as the passions of sin which work in our members to produce the fruits of death, which are the offspring worthy of such a marriage. The law is given not to take away sin nor to deliver us from it but to reveal what sin is before grace comes. The result is that those who are placed under the law are seized by an even stronger desire to sin and sin even more because of the trespass. But in making this triple analogy—the soul as the woman, the passions of sin as the man and the law as the law of the husband—Paul does not conclude that the soul is set free when its sins are put to death in the way that the woman is set free when her husband is dead. Rather, he says that the soul itself dies to sin and is set free from the law in order that it might belong to another husband, who is Christ. The soul has died to sin, but in a sense sin is still alive. Thus it happens that although desires and certain encouragements to sin remain in us, we do not obey or give in to them because we have died to sin and now serve the law of God. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 36.

AS LONG AS THE HUSBAND (LAW) LIVES, SHE REMAINS BOUND. AUGUSTINE: The apostle says that as long as a man lives in sin he lives under the law, just as the woman lives under her husband’s law as long as he is alive. QUESTIONS 66.1.

THE LAW (HUSBAND) IS ALREADY DEAD. PELAGIUS: By analogy, Paul calls the commandment of the law a “husband” in order to demonstrate that, without the power to punish, the law (being already dead, as it were) cannot stop us (who have already been put to death) from going over completely to Christ, who has risen from the dead. For the law would quite rightly go on living in us if it could find something in us to punish. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

7:3 | The Limitations of the Law

MOSAIC MARRIAGE LAW ITSELF FORESHADOWS THE GOSPEL. ORIGEN: Did not the law itself contain a foreshadowing of something like this when it commanded that a widow who was childless (for her husband had been impotent) should marry his brother? For the law of the Spirit is the brother of the law of the letter, and the woman will be better able to bear fruit from him. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

“CHRISTIANS” WHO LET THE LAW REMAIN ALIVE IN THEM ARE LIKE ADULTERERS. AMBROSIASTER: For just as a woman is freed by the death of her husband from the law of her husband but not from the law of nature, so also they will be set free by the grace of God from the law by which they were held captive, so that it will be dead for them and they will not be adulterers by being joined to Christianity. For if the law lives in them they are adulterers and have no right to be called Christians, since they will be subject to punishment. Nor will he who is joined to the gospel after the death of the law and later returns to the law be an adulterer to the law but to the gospel. For when the law’s authority ceases, it is said to be dead. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

ONCE THE HUSBAND IS DEAD, THE WOMAN IS FREE. PELAGIUS: As long as her husband is alive, a woman must live according to his will alone, but once he is dead and she is married to another man, she should no longer live in the manner of her former husband. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

7:4 | Dead to the Law

YOU HAVE DIED TO THE LAW. ORIGEN: When we were in the flesh and living according to it, we were unable to serve the newness of the Spirit on account of those sins which the law itself, which was in our members, nourished in order that they might bear fruit to death. … But when Christ died for us and we died to sin along with him, we were set free by him from the law of sin in which we were held, and now we can serve the law of God in newness of Spirit and not in the dead form of the law. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

THEODORET OF CYR: In order not to offend the Jews or to give those heretics who reject the Old Testament any encouragement, Paul did not say that the law had come to an end but rather that we have died to the law by the saving grace of baptism. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

YOU ARE NOW FREE TO BELONG TO ANOTHER. AMBROSIASTER: Since the Savior allowed the devil to crucify his body knowing that this was for us and against him, Paul says that we have been saved by the body of Christ. For to die to the law is to live to God, since the law rules over sinners. Therefore the one whose sins are forgiven dies to the law; this is what it means to be set free from the law. We receive this blessing through the body of Christ, for by giving up his body the Savior conquered death and condemned sin. The devil sinned against him when it killed him even though he was innocent and entirely without sin. For when the devil claims a man for himself because of sin, he is found to be guilty of the thing he accuses him of. Thus it happens that all who believe in Christ are delivered from the law, because sin has been condemned. For sin, which is of the devil, has been conquered by the body of Christ. Now he has no authority over those who belong to Christ, by whom he has been conquered. For because Christ was sinless yet was killed as if he were guilty, he conquered sin by sin—that is to say, he defeated the devil by his own sin. And what he allowed to get into the devil he condemned, thereby destroying the penalty which had been decreed because of the sin of Adam. When he rose again from the dead an image of new life was stamped upon those who believe in him, so that they cannot be bound by the second death. For this reason we have died to the law by the body of Christ. Thus whoever has not died to the law is still guilty, and whoever is guilty cannot escape the second death. … Whoever perseveres in the grace of Christ belongs to God and is worthy of the promised resurrection. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

CHRYSOSTOM: Paul’s conclusion does not tally with his premise, for what the context would require is: “so the law does not rule over you, for it is dead.” Instead of saying this openly, Paul only hints at it by expressing himself the other way round. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 12.

THAT YOU MAY BEAR FRUIT. PELAGIUS: Paul was reluctant to tell the Jews that the law was dead, but what he dared not say out loud he leaves to be understood. … A man bears fruit for God when his works of righteousness like fruit break out in blossom, then grow into fruit, and finally become fully ripe, for no fruit is forever in blossom. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

DIED TO THE LAW THROUGH THE BODY OF CHRIST. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: The phrase “in order that we” should be read as: “and so we shall”. … For Paul wants to say that once we have been established in this life we shall bear the fruits of righteousness for God, since we have been changed from our behavior under the law.

It is most remarkable that Paul says that we have died not through baptism but through the body of Christ. For Adam was the beginning of this life, and Christ is the beginning of the life to come. So, just as in this life we have everything in common with Adam, so also in the next life we shall have everything in common with Christ, beginning with his resurrection. We are said to be a part of the Lord’s body because we share this with him. So just as we have been metaphorically born again by baptism, Paul says that we have become a part of Christ’s body by sharing in the resurrection which is typified by baptism. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

7:5 | The Law Reveals Sin

LIVING IN THE FLESH. AMBROSIASTER: Although he is in the flesh Paul denies that he is “living in the flesh,” even though he is in the body. In this passage “living in the flesh” means following something which is forbidden by the law. Therefore “living in the flesh” can be understood in many different ways. For every unbeliever is in the flesh, i.e., is carnal. A Christian living under the law is in the flesh. Anyone who puts his trust in men is in the flesh. Anyone who does not properly understand Christ is in the flesh. If a Christian leads an extravagant life he is in the flesh. Nevertheless, in this passage we should understand “being in the flesh” as meaning that before we believed we were under the power of the flesh. For then we lived under the flesh, i.e., following our carnal desires we were subject to wickedness and sin. For the mind of the flesh is not to understand spiritual things, e.g., that a virgin might conceive without intercourse with a man, that a man may be born again of water and the Spirit, and that a soul delivered from the bondage of the flesh may rise again in it. Anyone who doubts these things is in the flesh.

It is clear that whoever does not believe acts under sin and is led by his captivity to indulge in wickedness and to bear fruit worthy of the second death. When such a person sins, death makes a profit.

This discussion concerns the Jews and all those who say they are Christians yet still want to live under the law. Its purpose is to teach them that they are carnal so that they will abandon the law. Nevertheless, Paul says that the sins which rule over those who commit them in the flesh are revealed by the law; they are not caused by the law. For the law is the yardstick of sin, not its cause, and it makes sinners guilty. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

THE ANALOGY OF THE PERFORMER (SOUL) AND THE SOUR NOTE (SIN). CHRYSOSTOM: You see what we had to gain from our former husband! Paul does not say: “when we were in the law,” because that would merely lend a hand to heretics [who wanted to deny the oracles of the Old Testament] but “when we were in the flesh,” that is, when we were living a sinful and carnal life. … In order to not accuse the flesh Paul does not say that our members were at work but that sinful passions were at work in our members. This was to show that the origin of the trouble was not in our members but in the thoughts which made use of them. … The soul ranks as a performer and the flesh as a harp which produces sound according to the performer’s direction. If the tune is discordant, the fault is with the performer, not with the instrument. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 12.

NO LONGER OBEDIENT TO THE FLESH. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: A person living in the flesh is one who obeys the will of the flesh and is prevented from obeying the law of God, because he cannot serve two masters. But now, having been taught by the grace of the Holy Spirit how to overcome our passions, we are no longer in the flesh, since we are dead to the law, which does not contain the doctrine of grace. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TOTHE ROMANS.

PASSIONS AT WORK IN OUR MEMBERS. PELAGIUS: When we were still living carnally the passion of lust worked in our eyes, and the other passions worked in the rest of our bodies. It was the law which showed us that these passions were sinful, and the severity of the law killed us. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

FLESH DOES NOT INHERIT. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Holy Scripture sometimes calls our human nature “flesh,” and sometimes it goes beyond this and includes the concept of mortality as well. … In any case, the flesh is never said to inherit or to be capable of inheriting eternal life in the age to come. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

THE LAW DOES NOT HELP US DO WHAT IT REQUIRES. THEODORET OF CYR: “In the flesh” means “under the law.” Paul calls those laws regarding food, drink, leprosy and so on “flesh.” … Paul teaches us that before grace came, while we were still under the law, we suffered ever more serious attacks of sin because, although the law showed us what it was we should be doing, it did not give us any help in doing it. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

7:6 | Not the Written Law but New Life in the Spirit

NEW LIFE IN THE SPIRIT. ORIGEN: Some people have wrongly interpreted “the new life of the Spirit” as if it meant that the Spirit himself was new and did not previously exist or teach the prophets of old. Such people do not realize how greatly they are blaspheming! For the same Spirit is in the law as in the gospel. He dwells eternally with the Father and the Son and is eternal just as they are. It is not that he is new but that he makes believers new when he leads them out of their former sins to a new life and a new obedience to the religion of Christ, turning carnal people into spiritual ones. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

DISCHARGED FROM THE LAW. CHRYSOSTOM: Once again Paul spares the flesh and the law. He does not say that the law was discharged or that sin was discharged but that we were discharged. How did this happen? It happened because the old man, who had been held down by sin, died and was buried. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 12.

THE OLD LAW CONSUMED WITH AGE. AMBROSIASTER: The law is called the “law of death” because it punishes the guilty and puts sinners to death. It is therefore not evil but righteous. For although evil is inflicted on its victims by the law, the law itself is not evil, because it executes wrath justly. Therefore it is not evil to sinners but just. But to good people it is spiritual. For who would doubt that it is spiritual to forbid sin? But because the law could not save men by forgiving sin the law of faith was given, in order to deliver believers from the power of sin and bring those whom the law had held in death back to life. For to them it is a law of death and it works wrath in them because of sin.

Although Paul regards the law as inferior to the law of faith, he does not condemn it. … The law of Moses is not called old because it is evil but because it is out of date and has ceased to function. … The old law was written on tablets of stone, but the law of the Spirit is written spiritually on the tables of the heart that it might be eternal, whereas the letter of the old law is consumed with age. There is another way of understanding the law of the Spirit, which is that, where the former law restrained evil deeds, this law which says that we ought not to sin even in our hearts is called “the law of the Spirit,” because it makes the whole person spiritual. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

NOT UNDER THE OLD WRITTEN CODE. AUGUSTINE: The law is only a written code to those who do not fulfill it in the spirit of charity to which the New Testament belongs. TO SIMPLICIAN ON VARIOUS QUESTIONS 1.17.

NATURAL AND WRITTEN LAW. [PSEUDO-] CONSTANTIUS: Here the word law means both the natural and the written law. … Paul now makes mention of both the written and the natural law, because the written law contains the natural law as well. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

DEAD TO THAT WHICH HELD US CAPTIVE. PELAGIUS: We have died to the sin for which we were held by the law, and now we serve according to the demands of spiritual grace, not according to the written law. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Now everything has changed, Paul says. We have died to this life and are no longer under any obligation to keep the law. Our life no longer has anything in common with that, because we have been renewed by the power of the Spirit and have become different people. We have crossed over from this present life to life eternal and cannot tolerate any captivity of the flesh. … What is more, we who follow Christ are much better off than those who are governed by the law. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

THEODORET OF CYR: Paul continues in his cautious manner, for he does not say that the law is abolished but rather that we have been set free from it. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

GENNADIUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE: Paul sets “Spirit” against “letter,” “newness” against “oldness,” and by these names shows us how different the two things are. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.