ACC ~ Romans 7 v14 - 25

OVERVIEW:

In Romans 7:15 and the following verses Paul describes the plight of persons who know that they are sinners but who cannot escape from the sins they commit. Most of the Fathers believed that here Paul was adopting the persona of an unregenerate man, not describing his own struggles as a Christian. As far as they were concerned, becoming a Christian would deliver a person from the kind of dilemma the apostle is outlining here. Romans 7:22 would appear to create a difficulty for those who believe that Paul was describing the unregenerate person, but some of the Fathers resolved it by saying that the inmost self was the rational intellect. As far as they were concerned, any rational person would automatically take delight in the law of God because it is supremely rational. The difficulty comes in trying to move from theory to practice. The dilemma of unregenerate persons is insoluble apart from the grace of God given to us in Christ. This sets us free from the law of sin and death and allows us to serve the law of God as right reason dictates.

7:14 | The Law Is Spiritual, We Are Carnal

THE TEACHER MAY PLAY THE PART OF A WEAK PUPIL (SOLD UNDER SIN). ORIGEN: Someone who is carnal and sold under sin does not know that the law is spiritual, so how can Paul say this of himself? In fact, when he says that he is carnal and sold under sin he is playing the part of a teacher of the church by taking on the role of the weak, as he said elsewhere: “I became weak to the weak, so that I might win the weak.”

We are taught by the Psalms that it was the custom in Holy Scripture for holy men to take on the role of sinners and for teachers to assume the weaknesses of their pupils: “I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; all the day I go about mourning. For my loins are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am utterly spent and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart.” COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

LAW GIVEN BY THE SPIRIT. DIODORE: The law is spiritual and makes the person who keeps it spiritual as well. It was given by the Holy Spirit so that those who obeyed it might receive the Spirit and be cleansed by the law’s teaching. Paul was not sold under sin by anyone else but by his own breaking of the law. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

PAUL SPEAKS OF MAN PRIOR TO FAITH. AMBROSIASTER: Paul is speaking here to those who were under the law. For they would not have submitted to it if they did not know that it was spiritual. … Paul calls man carnal, because he sins.

To be sold under sin means to trace one’s origin to Adam, who was the first to sin, and to subject oneself to sin by one’s own transgression. … For Adam sold himself first, and because of this all his descendants are subjected to sin.

The law is firm and just and without fault, but man is weak and bound either by his own or by his inherited fault, so that he cannot obey the law in his own strength. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

THE LAW IS SPIRITUAL. CHRYSOSTOM: Not only does Paul clear the law of all blame; he bestows very great praise on it as well. For by calling it spiritual he shows that it is a teacher of virtue and hostile to vice, for this is what being spiritual means—taking people away from any kind of sin. This is what the law did by frightening, admonishing, chastening, correcting and recommending every kind of virtue. How then was sin produced, if the teacher was so admirable? It was from the laziness of the pupils. This is why Paul went on to say that he was carnal, giving us here the portrait of a man as he was under and before the coming of the law. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 13.

AT ONE WITH THE LAW. AUGUSTINE: The law can only be fulfilled by spiritual men, and these only the grace of God can produce. For the man who has been made spiritual like the law will easily do what it commands. He will not be under the law but at one with it. He will also be someone who is not ensnared by temporal goods or frightened by temporal evils. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 41.

SOLD UNDER SIN. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: At this point Paul reverts to the role of a person who has attained his majority. For when he says: “The law is spiritual,” he condemns himself for sinning by the power of his own will. Thus he adds: “But I am carnal, sold under sin,” in order to show that although he is free, he has sold himself to sin. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

PELAGIUS: Paul says he was carnal because, although he accepted the law, he was in the habit of living carnally. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

THE STRUGGLE OF SPIRIT AND FLESH. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: The will of the Spirit is one thing, that of the flesh is another. These two wills fight against each other and can never reach agreement. Man is carnal, but the law is spiritual. How then can the law ever become tolerable to those who struggle so hard against the sickness of sin? There is wisdom here, for if a man is carnal he is in some sense captive and reduced to the condition of slavery. EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

IN PRAISE OF THE LAW. THEODORET OF CYR: Once again, Paul covers the law with praise. For what could be nobler than what he says about it here? He says in effect that the law was written by the Holy Spirit. Moses was given a share in his grace and thus wrote the law. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

7:15 | Actions Contradict Will

I DO NOT UNDERSTAND MY OWN ACTIONS. ORIGEN: Paul does not say that the weak man does not know what he is doing but rather that he does not understand why he is doing it.

Here Paul shows that even the man who is carnal and sold under sin may try, by the instinct of natural law as it were, to resist evil, but he is overcome by sin and is subdued unwillingly. This often happens, for example, when someone decides not to react to provocation, but in the end his anger gets the better of him and he gives in to it against his will. In other words, he gets angry when he does not want to get angry. … Someone who is not yet spiritual will be defeated in instances like these, even against his own will, because that will is not yet strong or resilient enough to retain control of him even to the point of death in his struggle for truth. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

DIODORE: Paul is not condemning himself here but describing the common lot of mankind, which he sees in himself. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

SIN MADE CLEAR BY RIGHTEOUSNESS. AUGUSTINE: This may appear to the less discerning to contradict [verse 13]. How can sin be made manifest if it is not understood? But here “I do not understand” means “I do not approve.” For instance, darkness cannot be seen, but it is perceived in contrast to light; in other words, to perceive darkness is not to see it. Likewise sin, because it is not made clear by the light of righteousness, is discerned by not understanding in the way that darkness is perceived by not seeing. “Who understands his own transgressions? AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 43.”

I DO THE VERY THING I HATE. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: What does Paul say now? “For I do not understand what I do,” that is, he does not want to discern; he does harm but does not want to be harmed. He desires things which are wrong but does not want to be cheated by his own. He indicates this when he says: “For I do not do what I want,” that is, to obtain what is good for me, “but what I hate, that I do,” that is, to obtain what is bad for me. … Sin is odious to any normal person’s judgment; therefore those who commit it either deny it or pretend that it is not evil. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

PELAGIUS: Paul says that he subjected himself to sin of his own accord and then, as if drunk, he did not know what he was doing. Or perhaps he meant that he did not understand that what he accepted against his will was evil. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

SIN IS WILLED. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: It appears that this refers to the ignorant Gentiles, whose thoughts Paul is reproducing. For having consigned their destiny and future to their own lusts even to the point of regarding vain idols as having some power over our lives, they deprive man of his glory, which is the ability to live freely, and to have full and complete control over his own will to do whatever he wishes. … It may be that someone who is forced to act against his will cannot be blamed for it, but at the same time no rational person will praise him for his godliness and righteousness either. For why should somebody be praised for doing things against his own will, even if he is forced to do so by a power over which he has no control? EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

THEODORET OF CYR: We do not sin from necessity or by compulsion; rather we are overcome by desire and do things which in principle we detest. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

7:16 | The Law Is Right

THE VOICE IS OF ONE UNDER THE LAW, PRIOR TO GRACE. AUGUSTINE: The law is defended against every accusation, but we must be careful not to think that these words deny our free will, which is not true. The man being described here is under the law, before the coming of grace. Sin overpowers him when he attempts to live righteously in his own strength, without the help of God’s liberating grace. For by his free will a man is able to believe in the Deliverer and to receive grace. Thus with the deliverance and help of him who gives it, he will not sin and will cease to be under the law. Instead, being at one with the law or in the law, he will fulfill it by the love of God which he could not have done through fear. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 44.

WHY I DO WHAT I DO NOT WANT. [PSEUDO-] CONSTANTIUS: If I should want to keep the commandments of the law, which are contrary to the will of the flesh, then according to the flesh I do what I do not want to do, but at the same time, according to the will of the Spirit, I agree that the law of God is spiritual and good. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

PELAGIUS: Paul says that if he does not want to do the particular evil which he does, at least he agrees with the law, which does not desire evil and prohibits it. But it can also be understood thus: if a man sins, he subjects himself to the severity of the law. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

THE LAW IS GOOD. THEODORET OF CYR: Paul says that he learned to hate what he does from the law, and therefore he defends the law and says that it was right. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

7:17 | Sin Dwells Within Us

NO LONGER I THAT DO IT. ORIGEN: The law of nature is introduced as being in agreement with the law of God. . . For if we assent to the law of God according to our will, the evil which we do is no longer ours; rather, it is sin which is at work within us, i.e., the law and will of the flesh, which makes us captive to the law of sin which is in our members.

The kind of person Paul is talking about here is not one in whom Christ does not dwell and who is a stranger to good works but rather someone who has started on the path of wanting to do what is right but has not yet been able to achieve his desires. This kind of weakness exists in those who have accepted the first stages of conversion, but although they want to do everything which is good this desire has not yet prevailed. For instance, someone might decide in himself that it is wrong to get angry and determine not to do it, but since by long custom and daily habit the vice of anger has controlled him, it resists his will and breaks out in the usual way. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

SIN DWELLS WITHIN ME. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: Paul means by this that it is wrong for a rational man to live like irrational animals, and by the addition of “sin which dwells within me” he taught that he had given himself over totally to the passions of the flesh, which are at enmity with God. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

SIN BECOMES A HABIT. PELAGIUS: Paul means that he did it willingly before it became a habit. Sin then lived in him as a guest or as one thing inside another … in other words, as an accidental quality, not as a natural one. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

GENNADIUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE: All this is reminiscent of what was said by the Lord in the Gospels: “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

7:18 | Willing and Doing

NOTHING GOOD DWELLS WITHIN ME. AMBROSIASTER: Paul does not say that the flesh is evil, as some think, but that what dwells in the flesh is not good, i.e., sin. How does sin dwell in the flesh when it is not a substance but the perversion of what is good? Since the body of the first man was corrupted by sin and became dissolvable, this same corruption of sin remains in the body because of the state of transgression, retaining the strength of the divine judgment given in Adam, which is the sign of the devil, at whose prompting Adam sinned. Because of this sin is said to dwell in the flesh, to which the devil comes as if to his own kingdom. For the flesh is sinful and sin remains in it in order to deceive man by evil temptations, so that man will not do what the law commands.

Man can agree that what the law commands is good; he can say that it naturally pleases him and that he wants to do it. But in spite of all that, the power and the strength to carry out his wishes is lacking because he is so oppressed by the power of sin that he cannot go where he wants nor can he make contrary decisions, because another power is in control of him. For man is burdened by his habit of sinning and succumbs to sin more readily than to the law, which he knows teaches what is good. For if he wants to do what is good, habit backed by the enemy prevents him. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

THE SOUL GOVERNS THE BODY. CHRYSOSTOM: Paul is not attacking the flesh when he says this. The fact that nothing good dwells in it does not mean that it is evil. … Paul is not finding fault with the body but pointing out that the soul is superior to it. It is the soul which governs the body and is responsible for sin, not the flesh. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 13.

AUGUSTINE: It is possible for a good to be performed when there is no yielding to evil lust, but the good is completed or perfected only when evil lust itself no longer exists. CONTINENCE 3.6.

AUGUSTINE: Paul says that the evil of the flesh is not good but that when this evil has ceased to exist the flesh will still be there, but … then it will not be defective or corrupt. CONTINENCE 8.19.

PELAGIUS: Paul does not say that his flesh is not good. The will is there but not the action, be-cause carnal habit opposes the will. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

I CANNOT DO IT. PROSPER OF AQUITAINE: Although Paul has received the knowledge of right willing, he cannot find in himself the power to do what he wills. It is not until he receives a good will as a gift that he finds the power for the virtues which he seeks. GRACE AND FREE WILL 4.2.

7:19 | Wanting to Do Good, Doing Evil

AMBROSE: Do you think that anyone with a knowledge of sin can avoid it? PARADISE 12.60.

AMBROSIASTER: Paul repeats this often in order to make it clear. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

I DO NOT DO THE GOOD I WANT. PELAGIUS: Think of someone who has sworn so much for such a long time that now he does it even when he does not want to. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

THE VOICE IS OF ONE IN THE HABIT OF SINNING. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: Paul here assumes the role of a person who is in the habit of sinning and who is held bound to the vices of the flesh. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

7:20 | Acts of Will

BY HIS OWN FAULT. AMBROSIASTER: Is the sinner compelled to sin by a power outside himself? Not at all. For it was by his own fault that these evil things began, for whoever binds himself to sin voluntarily is ruled by its law. Sin persuades him first, and when it has conquered him it takes control. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

WILLING AND RESPONSIBILITY REMAIN OURS. CHRYSOSTOM: Here Paul clears both the flesh and the soul from responsibility for sin, putting all the blame on the actions themselves. For if the soul does not want to sin it is cleared of guilt, and if it does not perform the action itself the body too is let off the hook. Everything may thus be blamed on the evil moral choice. The essence of the soul and body and that of choice are not the same, for the first two are God’s works and the third is a motion from within ourselves which may go in whatever direction we choose to let it. Of course, willing is natural and God-given, but willing in this way is from us and depends on our own mind. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 13.

WHAT IS WILLED BECOMES HABIT. PELAGIUS: What was once an act of will has become so habitual that now it is involuntary. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

7:21 | Evil Lies Close at Hand

LAW AND WILL AGREE. AMBROSIASTER: Paul says that the law of Moses agrees with his will against sin, which dwells in his flesh and forces him to do something other than what he and the law want to do. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

HELP FROM A LAW. PELAGIUS: Paul means that he has a law which will help him do good, even though “evil lies close at hand.” PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

THEODORET OF CYR: Paul says that “evil lies close at hand” because our body is mortal and passible, and our soul is sluggish and weak. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

LAW DOES NOT FREE FROM SIN. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: If sin inheres in my flesh and corrupts it, it may well be that the law offers help and gives advice, but even so it does not set me free from sin. Yet for those who are bound by the weakness of sin, it is hardly enough to know that they should be doing better; what they need is the strength to do what is right and in accordance with the law. EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

7:22 | Delight in the Law

THE COMMON LOT OF HUMANITY, EXCEPTING THE FAITHFUL. DIODORE: Here Paul is describing the common lot of man. For the ordinary person can see in his mind what ought to be done but cannot achieve it. But the man who has believed in Christ with his mind can achieve it with the help of the Holy Spirit. Such a person is therefore called “spiritual.” PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

I DELIGHT IN THE LAW. AMBROSIASTER: Paul says that the mind delights in the things which are taught by the law. This is “our inmost self,” because sin does not dwell in the mind but in the flesh. … It is prevented from dwelling in the mind by free will. Therefore sin dwells in the flesh, at the door of the soul as it were, so as to prevent the soul from doing what it wants to do. If it dwelt in the mind it would derange it, so that man would not know himself. As it is, he does know himself and takes delight in the law of God. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

AUGUSTINE: See wherein we are free, wherein we are delighted with the law of God. Freedom delights. For as long as you do what is just out of fear, God does not delight you. As long as you do it still a slave, he does not delight you. Let him delight you and you are free. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 41.10.3.

MY INMOST SELF. PELAGIUS: Paul’s “inmost self” is the rational and intelligent soul which agrees with the law of God, for its law is to live rationally and not to be led about by the passions of irrational animals.

The outer self, on the other hand, is the body. Its law is the wisdom of the flesh, which instructs one to eat and drink and enjoy the other sensual pleasures. These war against reason, and if they gain the upper hand, subject it to the law of sin. For if it is true that we do what we do not want to do, Paul would not have said that he sees another law in his members, fighting against the law of his mind. He agrees to the law with his mind. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

THEODORET OF CYR: The “inmost self” is the mind. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

7:23 | Two Laws at War

TWO LAWS IN STRUGGLE. AMBROSIASTER: Paul mentions two laws here. One of these he sees in his members, i.e., in the outer self, which is the flesh or the body. This law is hostile to us. It wars with his mind, leading him captive in a state of sin and preventing him from getting out of it and finding help. The other law is the law of the mind, which is either the law of Moses or the law of nature which is innate in the mind. This law is attacked by the violence of sin and by its own negligence, for in that it loves evil it subjects itself to sin and is held captive by the habit of sinning. For man is a creature of habit.

For Paul, there are here four kinds of law. The first is spiritual. This is the law of nature, which was reworked by Moses and made authoritative; it is God’s law. Then there is the law of the mind, which agrees with God’s law. Third, there is the law of sin, which is said to dwell in man’s members because of the transgression of the first man. The fourth appears in our members and tempts us to sin, before retreating. But these four laws can be reduced to two—the law of good and the law of evil. For the law of the mind is the same as the spiritual law or the law of Moses, which is called the law of God. But the law of sin is the same as the law which appears in our members, which contradicts the law of our mind. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

CHRYSOSTOM: Paul calls sin a law not because it establishes good order but because those who are under it obey it completely. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 13.

THE MAN DESCRIBED NOT YET UNDER GRACE. AUGUSTINE: Everyone is bound by carnal habit to the law of sin. Paul says that this law wars against his mind and captures him under the law of sin, by which it may be understood that the man being described here is not yet under grace. For if carnal habit were merely to wage war but not to triumph, there would be no condemnation. Condemnation lies in the fact that we freely submit to and serve depraved carnal lusts. But if such lusts exist and we do not give in to them, then we are not en-snared by them, and are under grace instead. Paul speaks of this grace when he calls upon the Deliverer and pleads for his help, that love might accomplish by grace what fear could not achieve through the law. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 45-46.

ANOTHER LAW AT WAR. AUGUSTINE: In this life it cannot happen to anyone that a law warring against the law of the mind should be entirely absent from his members, because that law would still be waging war even if man’s spirit were offering it such resistance as not to fall into line with it. THE RETRACTIONS 1.19.1.

AUGUSTINE: Paul sees another law in his members fighting against the law of his mind. He sees it is there, not remembers that it was there. He is pressed by what is present, not recalling what is past. And he not only sees this law warring against him but even taking him captive to the law of sin, which is (not was) in his members. ON NATURE AND GRACE 55.65.

MAKING ME CAPTIVE. AUGUSTINE: Paul perceives imprisonment where righteousness has not been fulfilled; for when he is delighted with the law of God he is not a prisoner but a friend of the law and thus free, because he is a friend. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 41.11.1.

AUGUSTINE: Look what damage has been done to human nature by the disobedience of the will! ON NATURE AND GRACE 53.62.

OUR PRESENT FIGHT WITH DEAD SINS. AUGUSTINE: See what a fight we have with our dead sins, as that active soldier of Christ and faithful teacher of the church shows. For how is sin dead when it works many things in us while we struggle against it? What are these many things except foolish and harmful desires which plunge those who consent to them into death and destruction? And to bear them patiently and not give into them is a struggle, a conflict, a battle. And between what parties is this battle if not between good and evil, not of nature against nature but of nature against fault, which is already dead but still to be buried, that is, entirely healed? AGAINST JULIAN 2.9.32.

JEROME: If Paul feared the lusts of the flesh, are we safe? HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 41.

PELAGIUS: The law of natural conscience, or the divine law which resides in the mind, fights against habitual desires. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

I SEE IN MY MEMBERS ANOTHER LAW. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Paul was right to refer to his members here, because sin takes many forms according to the nature of our members. There are sins of the eyes, sins of the tongue, sins of other parts of the body as well. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

CAESARIUS OF ARLES: This law in me was born when the former law was transgressed; it was born, I repeat, when the former law was despised. SERMON 177.1.

7:24 | The Body of Death

THE REMEDY OF GRACE. AMBROSE: We have a physician—let us follow his remedy! Our remedy is the grace of Christ, and the body of death is our body. Let us therefore be exiled from the body lest we be exiled from Christ. Even if we are in the body let us not follow what is of the body. Let us not neglect the rights of nature, but let us prefer the gifts of grace. ON THE DEATH OF HIS BROTHER SATYRUS 2.41.

WRETCHED MAN THAT I AM! AMBROSIASTER: Paul says that a man born in sin is wretched. For indeed how could man not be wretched when he has succeeded to this inheritance of sin, having this enemy sin with him, through which Satan has access to him? For Adam invented steps by which the despoiler came up to his descendants. Yet the most merciful God, moved by pity, gave us his grace through Christ so that it might be revealed that the human race, once it accepted the forgiveness of sins, might repent and put sin to death. For a man who is pardoned for his sins and cleansed can resist the power of the enemy which is aimed against him, provided that God continues to help him. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

LAW AND CONSCIENCE HAVE FAILED. CHRYSOSTOM: The law has failed, and conscience has proved to be unequal to the task, even though it praised what is good and even fought against evil. … Where then, is salvation going to come from? HOMILIES ON ROMANS 13.

RENEWED UNDER GRACE. AUGUSTINE: Here Paul begins to describe the man renewed under grace, the third of the four states we distinguished above. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 45-46.

THIS BODY OF DEATH. JEROME: Paul uses the term “the body of death” because the body is subject to vices and sickness, disorders and death until it rises in glory with Christ, and what was once fragile clay is purified in the fire of the Holy Spirit into a very solid rock, changing its glory, not its nature. AGAINST RUFINUS 1.25.

THEODORET OF CYR: Paul calls the body a “body of death” because it has been made subject to death and is therefore mortal. The soul, on the other hand, is immortal. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

WHO WILL DELIVER ME? PELAGIUS: Who will set me free, says Paul, prisoner that I am, from this fatal habit of the body? PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

SEVERIAN: Having considered the struggle which was taking place in the body against the soul and how man was imprisoned by this, Paul now seeks a way to escape and tries to rescue man, so that the body of death may be transformed into a body of life. … For Paul wants his body to be a body of life and not a body of death or of sin. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

GENNADIUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE: Paul did not say “bad” or “evil man” but rather “wretched man” … for having shown that this person contemplated the good with his mind but was drawn toward evil by the passion of the flesh, he presents him as more deserving of mercy than of punishment. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

7:25 | Thanks Be to God!

THE VOICE CONTINUES TO PLAY THE ROLE OF THE WEAK MAN IN A GRADUAL PROCESS. ORIGEN: Perhaps someone will say that here the apostle Paul abandons the role of the weak man, which he assumed in the preceding [verses], and talks directly about himself. For he says that he serves the law of God with his mind but the law of sin with his flesh, as if to imply that the power of sin is so great that even an apostle cannot escape it. Moreover, he also said elsewhere: “I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” But someone who takes this interpretation seems to me to be inflicting every soul with despair, because then there would be nobody who did not sin in the flesh. In other words, everyone would be serving the law of sin in the flesh. Rather, it seems to me that here Paul maintains the role he has adopted and plays the part of the weak man, whom we have already described.

It appears that in this passage Paul is teaching us that the mortification of the flesh, of which he has already spoken, is not something which happens overnight but rather is a gradual process, because the force of habit is such and the attraction of sin is so great that, even though our mind may want to do what is right and has decided to serve the law of God, yet the lusts of the flesh continue to urge him to serve sin and obey its laws instead. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

I OF MYSELF SERVE THE LAW OF GOD. AMBROSIASTER: “The law of God” means both the law of Moses and the law of Christ. … A free mind which has been called back to good habits by the help of the Holy Spirit can repulse evil temptations. For it has recovered its power to resist the enemy. If it is no longer subject then Satan cannot appear uninvited. Flesh, though, has no judgment, nor is it able to discern anything, because it is brute nature. It cannot close the door to the enemy, nor can it come in and persuade the mind to do the opposite to what the mind intends.

Because man consists of both soul and flesh, the part which knows serves God and the part which is mute serves the law of sin. But if man perseveres in the form in which he was created, the enemy would have no power to reach the flesh and persuade it to act against the will of the soul. But because the whole man was not restored to his pristine state by the grace of Christ the sentence pronounced on Adam remains in force, for it would be unjust to abolish a sentence which was rightly pronounced. So although the sentence remains in force, a cure has been found by the providence of God, so that the salvation which man had lost by his own fault might be given back to him. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

EQUIPPED FOR STRUGGLES. CHRYSOSTOM: Christ not only set us free without demanding any payment for his services; he also equipped us for greater struggles in the future. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 13.

WITH MY FLESH I SERVE THE LAW OF SIN. AUGUSTINE: Though his carnal desires still exist, the man who is renewed by grace by not giving in to sin does not serve them. With his mind he serves the law of God, even though with his flesh he serves the law of sin. Paul calls the law of sin the mortal condition which stems from the transgression of Adam, because of which we are born mortal. It is because the flesh has fallen that the lusts of the flesh entice us. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 45-46.

UNDER GRACE BUT BATTLING STILL. AUGUSTINE: These are the words of one who is now under grace but still battling against his own lust, not so that he consents and sins but so that he experiences desires which he resists. AGAINST JULIAN 6.23.73.

CRUCIFYING THE FLESH. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: Paul is right to thank God at this point, because what the law of Moses and the natural law did not teach was taught by our Lord Jesus Christ: to despise the world and to overcome evil. The blessed apostle teaches this when he says: “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh, with its passions and desires.” Here again Paul is speaking in the role of the person who was previously under the law. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

PAUL STILL SPEAKS NOT OF HIMSELF BUT IN ANOTHER VOICE. PELAGIUS: Grace sets free the man whom the law could not free. Was Paul at this time not yet set free by the grace of God? Of course! This shows that here he is speaking of somebody else. He then reviews the main points in order to conclude his argument. In a sense the carnal person is made up of two people and is divided within himself. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

ASKING DELIVERANCE FROM SIN. LIBER GRADUUM: We should be eager to try to become without any sins, asking our Lord to deliver us from sin. LIBER GRADUUM 2.2.

THE RESURRECTED BODY FINALLY FREE. CAESARIUS OF ARLES: The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord will free you from the body of this death; it will deliver you from the law of death. But … this is going to take place at the resurrection, when you will possess a body in which no evil inclination remains. SERMON 177.4.