While almost all of the works in this vault use Victorian translations, due to the English translations of this commentary being in copyright, it was machine-translated (by Claude, 2026) from the public-domain Latin. It has not been checked by a human translator.
Commentary on Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, long printed among the works of Ambrose. Its author, whom Erasmus first called “Ambrosiaster”, wrote at Rome while Damasus was bishop there (366–384). Chapter 7 of the Epistle; the verse numbers are the Benedictine editors’.
(Verse 1.) Know ye not, brethren (for I speak to them that know the law)? To strengthen their minds in the divine teaching he uses the example of human law, so as once more to commend heavenly things by means of earthly ones, just as God is known from the creation of the world. For since the whole belongs to One, things, though different, are nevertheless in some respect like one another. The Romans, then, know the law, since they are not barbarians; but they grasped natural justice partly of themselves and partly from the Greeks, for laws were brought to the Romans from Athens, as they were to the Greeks from the Hebrews. For before Moses the Law was not hidden, but it had no order and no authority. To those, then, who are not ignorant of the law he says: That the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth. It is no secret that the whole life of man is under the law of nature, which was given to the world; this law is general. But now he puts forward another, a particular one — although it too is general, yet, since it is not received by all, it becomes particular — by which he means to prove his assertion; for he wishes to hand on the truth by degrees. So he says:
(Verse 2.) For the woman which is under a husband is bound by the law of the husband so long as the husband liveth. This law is from the Gospel, not from Moses, nor from earthly justice. Having learned something, then, under the guidance of nature, and something from the law of Moses, they were made perfect through the Gospel of Christ. By the following example, therefore, he makes the case more openly that Christianity has been released from the law of deeds — not from every law — and that it is no longer expedient to be under the law, lest a man make void the grace of God by going back under the law; because the grace of God has set man free from the law, so that he may serve God in the spirit, that is, in the mind. For as a woman, when her husband is dead, is set free from the law of her husband, though not from the law of nature, so too those who by the grace of God have been set free from the law, by which they were held guilty, are freed in such a way that the law is dead to them, so that, being joined to Christianity, they are not adulterers. For if the law is alive among them, they are adulterers, and it will profit them nothing to be called Christians, because they will be liable to punishment. For he who, the law being dead, has been joined to the Gospel, and afterwards goes back to the law, will be an adulterer not against the law but against the Gospel. For the law is said to be dead when the one it held guilty is no longer known to it, the authority of the law having ceased.
(Verse 3.) But if her husband be dead, she is free from the law of her husband; so that she is no adulteress, though she be joined to another man. Those who have been taken out from under the Law, have received the remission of sins and been joined to the Gospel, are not adulterers against the Law, because it is dead among them. But if, while keeping the Law, they think they are coming to the Gospel, they will be guilty and adulterers; because they have joined themselves to the faith while the law is alive, and they will be adulterers on both counts.
(Verse 4.) Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the Law by the body of Christ. Since our Saviour allowed His body to be crucified by the devil, knowing that this was for us and against him, he therefore says that we have been saved through the body of Christ. For to die to the law is to live to God, because the Law has dominion over sinners. He, then, whose sins are forgiven dies to the Law, that is, is set free from the Law. It is through the body of Christ, then, that we obtain this benefit; for by giving up His body the Saviour overcame death and condemned sin. For the devil sinned in Him when he killed Him though innocent, one who knew no sin at all; for while he claimed man for himself on account of sin, he was found guilty in the very matter in which he was accusing. Hence it came about that all who believe in Christ are rescued from the law, sin having been taken away; because sin, which is the devil, having been overcome through the body of Christ, has no authority over those who belong to Him by whom it was overcome. For in that He did not sin, and yet was put to death as though guilty, He overcame sin by sin; that is, He condemned the devil by his own sin, the sin he committed against Him; and He blotted out the handwriting which had been decreed because of Adam’s sin (Colossians 2:14), when He rose again from the underworld, giving this pattern to those who believe in Him, that they could not be held by the second death. And so we have died to the Law through the body of Christ; for he who has not died to the Law is guilty, and he who is guilty cannot escape the second death. That ye should be another’s, even His who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. He says this because we have died to the Law for this reason, that from now on we may be the servants of Christ alone; and this will be to bring forth fruit unto God. For he is gained for God who abides in His grace, worthy of the promised resurrection.