(Verse 5.) For when we were in the flesh. Although he is in the flesh — for he is in the body — he denies that he is in the flesh; because he is said to be in the flesh who follows something forbidden by the law. Being in the flesh, then, is understood in many ways. For every unbeliever is in the flesh, that is, carnal; and a Christian living under the law is in the flesh; and he who puts any hope in men is in the flesh; and he who understands Christ wrongly is in the flesh; and if any Christian leads a life of self-indulgence, he is in the flesh. In this place, however, we understand being in the flesh thus: that before faith we were in the flesh, for we lived under sin; that is, following carnal ways of thinking, we lay subject to vices and sins. And it is the mind of the flesh not to believe spiritual things: that a virgin gave birth without union with a man, that a man is born again of water and the Holy Spirit, and that the soul, released from its bond with the flesh, rises again in the flesh. He who distrusts these things is in the flesh. Hence he says: The vices of sins, which were shown through the Law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. It is plain that he who does not believe lives under sin and is dragged captive to the committing of vices, so as to bear fruit for the second death; for death makes its gain whenever sin is committed. Yet he says that the vices work in the members, not in the body, lest occasion be given to those who maltreat the body; because in evil-speaking it is the tongue that is blamed, and in theft the hand that is punished, and in one who pretends not to hear it is the ears that are rebuked, and so with the rest — things which, although they come out of the heart, as the Lord testifies in the Gospel (Matthew 15:18), are nevertheless carried out in deed by the service of the members. This argument touches the Jews, and those who are called Christians and yet wish to live under the Law, so that, learning that they are carnal, they may depart from the Law. Yet he shows that the vices of sins, which he says have dominion over those who live in the flesh, are shown through the Law, not caused through the Law; for the Law is the informer of sin, not its mother, making sinners guilty.

(Verse 6.) But now we are loosed from the law of death, wherein we were held. We have been loosed from the Law in that we have received the remission of sins; for it no longer has power over us, since it has dominion over the faithless and over sinners. And it is called the law of death because it punishes the guilty and puts sinners to death; it is not, then, evil, but just. For although what the Law inflicts is an evil for those who suffer it, the Law is not evil, because it inflicts wrath justly. So it is not evil to sinners but just, while to the good it is spiritual. For who would doubt that it is a spiritual thing to forbid sin? But because it could not do this — save man by forgiving sins — the law of faith was given, to set believers free from the dominion of the Law, so that those whom the Law held guilty unto death might be able to restore themselves to life. For the Law is a law of death to those in whom it works wrath because of sin. So that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. Here he is thought to strike at the Law, which he does indeed make inferior by comparison with the law of faith; yet he does not judge it hostile. For he says that we have been rescued from the law of death for this reason, that we may serve the law of faith, which has brought us saving protection, which the old law could not, lest by serving the old law we should seem to make void the benefit of grace. “Old” is certainly not a name of reproach for the law, but of time or age; for it grew old because it ceased. And the law of the spirit is the law of faith itself; because faith is in the mind, and is not learned by works but believed with the heart; and the mind itself understands that what it believes belongs to its own nature, and is not seen with the eyes or handled with the hands; and the gifts that are hoped for are not visible, nor earthly, but spiritual. The old law, then, was shaped on tables of stone; but the law of the spirit is written spiritually on the tables of the heart, so that it may be eternal, whereas the letter of the old law is worn away by age. There is also another interpretation of “the law of the spirit”: since the former law restrained men from the evil deed, whereas this one says that one must not sin even in the heart, it is called the law of the spirit, so as to make the whole man spiritual.

(Verse 7.) What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? God forbid. Since he calls this the law of death, and gives thanks that we have been rescued from it, and denies that we serve God in it, he clears this up, lest he be thought to be declaring it unjust, when he says: God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the Law. The Law, then, is not sin, but the informer of sin; for it showed both the sins that were hidden, and that they would not go unpunished before God. When he learned this, man was made guilty; and so he does not seem to give thanks to the Law. For who would gladly welcome one who tells him that punishment hangs over him? But he gives thanks to the law of faith, because he who was made guilty by the law of Moses has been reconciled to God by the law of faith; although the former too is just and good, for it is a good thing to point out a danger that threatens. But he gives thanks rather to the one through whom he has been snatched from danger and lives. For I had not known covetousness, except the Law had said in Exodus: Thou shalt not covet (Exodus 20:17). He has not distinguished this covetousness from sin but has mingled them, meaning this: that when there was not even a suspicion that this was unlawful before God, “I came to know,” he says, “that it is sin.” In his own person he pleads, as it were, a general case. So the Law forbids covetousness, which, because it gives delight, was not thought to be sin. For it seemed a harmless thing to covet something of one’s neighbour’s; but the Law revealed that it is sin. For to worldly men nothing seems so free of punishment, and so agreeable, as pleasure.

(Verse 8.) But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of covetousness. By saying “all manner of covetousness” he means all sins. For above he mentioned covetousness as the Law speaks of it; now, adding the other vices to it, he has said that all manner of covetousness was wrought in man at the prompting of the devil, whom he means by “sin”; so that the Law, which had been given to do man good, should turn against him. For the devil, seeing that help had been provided for man through the Law — man whom he rejoiced to hold in his bondage, both because of Adam’s sin and because of man’s own — understood that this had been done against himself. For he held it for certain that whoever he saw placed under the Law had been taken out of his dominion; for man had learned how to escape the punishment of hell. Hence his anger blazed up against man, so as to turn the Law against him; so that, by committing what was forbidden, man might offend God once more and fall again into the power of the devil. He began not to command but to deceive with subtlety; since, once the Law was given, the devil lost his dominion, knowing that from then on man belonged to the judgement of God. For without the Law sin was dead. This is to be understood in two ways, so that you may know that by “sin” is meant both the devil and that very thing which is called sin. The devil is said to have been dead because before the Law he left off deluding man, and was, as it were, at rest; for he was secure of his possession of him. And he said that sin was dead because it was thought that it was not imputed before God; and so it was dead in man’s eyes, as though one could sin with impunity. For sin was not hidden, as I said above; but this was not known, that God is going to judge. When this was made plain by the giving of the Law, sin revived. Why did it revive, unless because it had been alive before, and afterwards, through men’s negligence, was reckoned dead while it was alive? For it was thought that sin was not imputed, when it was imputed. So it was alive and was taken for dead.

(Verse 9.) For I was alive without the Law once. What does “without the Law” mean, when the Law has always existed, as I have recalled above, unless that man lived without the fear of God, secure that God would not judge human deeds? But when the commandment came, sin revived. He said that sin revived to signify that it had been alive before; but afterwards, through men’s negligence, it was reckoned dead while it was alive, as a false report often arises about those who are abroad. He means this, then: that in the beginning it was not hidden that sin is imputed before God — that is, sin was alive; but when the habit of sinning had blotted this out, it was reckoned dead, so that the crime was thought to pass away with the person. But when the Law had been given, or rather restored, sin revived among those with whom it had been reckoned dead; for they began to know that sin is imputed.

(Verse 10.) And I died. Man died, because he saw that he was guilty before God, who before had thought that he would not be liable for the things in which he sinned. And the commandment, which was given unto life, I found to be unto death. It is true that the Law was given unto life; but since it made man guilty when he sinned, not only in respect of the past but also of the future, the Law that was given unto life came to be unto death — but, as I have said, to the one who sins; for to those who obey it, it profits unto life.

(Verse 11.) For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. In this place understand by “sin” the devil, who is the author of sin. He found through the law an occasion for glutting his cruelty with the killing of man: so that, since the Law threatened sinners, man, at his prompting, ever committing what was forbidden, might offend God and incur the punishment of the Law, and be condemned by that which had been given to do him good. For because the Law was given against his will, his envy blazed up against man, so as to stain him the more with vicious pleasures, lest he should escape his hands.

(Verse 12.) Wherefore the Law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. So that no hostile suspicion should remain against the Law, he commends it in such a way as to declare it not only just but also holy and good. For that “the commandment” is to be understood as the Law the word of the Gospel bears witness, for it says: If thou wilt come unto life, keep the commandments (Matthew 19:17).

(Verse 13.) Is that then which is good death unto me? God forbid. Truly, God forbid; for how can it be that what is proved to be good should be understood as death? But sin, that it might appear sin, wrought death in me by that which is good. He says that the devil took occasion by what is good to work evil for man, in leading him astray to death. For the Law was given, set forth in writing, so that the things which had been done wrongly before the Law, through the allurement of desire, might be proved to be sins and be avoided from then on. Then Satan was inflamed — through what was good, plainly; for he saw that provision was being made for man, and he urged on him what was forbidden, so that instead of life, death should come to him from the Law. This, indeed, is to be ascribed to human negligence; for man so weakened the vigour of his nature by the desire to sin that he could not hold back the suggestions of the adversary. Yet the enemy, whom he means by “sin”, took occasion through the Law to work death for man, so that he might appear to be an enemy. For in urging him to what was forbidden, he shows himself to be an enemy. And although even before the Law he contrived death for man — leaving aside the first case, that of Adam — yet after the Law he devised greater punishments for him in the underworld, where the second death is. For it is less of a crime to have sinned before the Law was made known than after the Law. That sin itself, sinning by the commandment, might become beyond measure. What does “beyond measure” mean — as if a measure had been granted to those who offend, when it is not lawful to sin at all? But there are words of God which say: The sins of the Amorites are not yet full (Genesis 15:16). By this He shows that there is a certain measure of offences, and when sinners have filled it they are judged not at all worthy of life; as with Pharaoh too, because he had filled up this measure, God’s mighty works and signs were displayed against him, by which others might be terrified and exert themselves towards what profits life, so that life might be learned from one who was dead. But it is another measure that the Apostle is treating of. For in order to show that sin is greater under the Law than it had been before the Law, he indicates that beyond this measure of sins a fuller measure grew up after the Law through the envy and cunning of Satan, so that the providence of God turned against man, though through fear of the Law he ought not to have sinned at all. Therefore God, to overcome the envy of the devil and to make His providence for man stand firm, changed the order of things, sending Christ the Saviour, who would both overcome the devil and make fast the decrees of God towards man.

(Verse 14.) For we know that the Law is spiritual. Since he is speaking to those who know the Law, he therefore says: We know that the Law is spiritual; for they would not place themselves under the Law unless they acknowledged it to be spiritual. He calls spiritual the law of Moses, which was given on tables; it is spiritual because it forbids sin, inasmuch as it forbids the worship of visible and carnal things. These words serve to commend the Law, lest perhaps anyone should think it deserving of blame because it exercised severity against sinners. But I am carnal, sold under sin. He calls man carnal when he sins. Sold under sin. To be sold under sin is this: to draw one’s origin from Adam, who sinned first, and to become subject to sin by one’s own offence, as the prophet Isaiah says: Ye have been sold, he says, by your sins (Isaiah 50:1). For Adam first sold himself, and for this reason all his seed is subject to sin. That man is weak, therefore, for keeping the precepts of the Law, unless he is fortified by divine help, is the reason why he says: The Law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. That is: the Law is firm and just and free of fault, but man is frail and in bondage to his father’s offence or to his own, so that he cannot use his own power in obeying the Law. And so he must take refuge in the mercy of God, so as to escape the severity of the Law, and, relieved of his offences, resist the enemy thereafter with God’s favour. For what is it to be subject to sin, but to have a body corrupted by the fault of the soul, into which sin may insinuate itself and drive the man like a captive into offences, so that he does its will? Hence the Lord says among other things: Then cometh the devil, and taketh away that which was sown in their heart, lest they should be saved (Luke 8:12). Hence the same Apostle says in another epistle: We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12) — and it is evident that these are the henchmen of Satan. For before man’s transgression, before he made himself over to death, these had no power to reach the inner parts of man and implant hostile thoughts. That is why, by his cunning, it came about that he got round man by talking with him through the serpent (Genesis 3:1). But after he had got round him and brought him under the yoke, he received power over him to assail the inner man, joining himself to his mind, so that man cannot tell what in his thinking is his own and what is the devil’s, unless he looks to the law.

(Verse 15.) For that which I do I understand not. He does not understand what he does, because he sees that he knows one thing through the Law and does another. For what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. One who is subject to sin plainly does what he does not will.

(Verse 16.) If then I do that which I hate, I consent unto the Law. He proves that the Law rightly forbids, since he confesses that he does unwillingly what the law forbids. And he says that what the Law commands belongs to his nature, because what he does outside it he says is hateful to him.

(Verse 17.) Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For he sees that what he does is forbidden by the law, and he agrees that it ought not to be done; and so he declares that there is something else at whose prompting these things are done, that is, sin. And he always gives it the name of sin, though it is known to be the devil with his angels, because these things would not have come about had not the first man sinned; and for this reason it is sin that does all these things.

(Verse 18.) For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. He does not say, as some think, that the flesh is evil, but that what dwells in the flesh is not good, but sin. How does sin dwell in the flesh, when it is not a substance but a transgression of the good? Because the body of the first man was corrupted through sin, so that it can be dissolved. That very corruption of sin, by the condition of the offence, remains in the body, holding the force of the divine sentence given in Adam, which is the mark of the devil, at whose prompting he sinned. Because, then, the consequence of the deed remains, sin is said to dwell in the flesh; and the devil approaches it as though by his own law, and there abides, as it were, sin within sin — for the flesh now belongs to sin — so as to deceive man with evil suggestions, lest man do what the law commands. For to will is present with me. He declares that the things which the Law commands are so good that he says they please him by nature, and he wishes to do them. But how to perform that which is good I find not. What the Law commands pleases him, then, and there is a will to do it; but the power and strength to fulfil it are lacking, because he is so pressed down by the power of sin that he cannot go where he wills, nor is he able to gainsay it; for another is lord of his power. For man is now weighed down by the habit of sinning, and yields more easily to sin than to the law, though he knows that the law teaches what is good; and if he wishes to do good, habit presses upon him, with the enemy to help it.

(Verse 19.) For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. He often repeats himself in order to make things clear. This, then, is what was said above: that like a captive, for the reasons given above, he is compelled to do what sin wills.

(Verse 20.) Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. This is what he has already recalled above: that, pressed down and brought under the yoke of sin, he carries out not his own will but its will. Because he says that man sins unwillingly, must he therefore be thought free from guilt, since he does what he does not will, pressed down by the force of a power? Certainly not; for these things began through his own fault and negligence. For because he made himself over to sin by consenting, it has dominion over him by right; for it first persuades, so that it may then lord it over one already conquered. But the Apostle sets these things out in order to exalt the grace of God: from what great evils it has set man free, what ruin man inherits from Adam, and what benefits he has obtained through Christ; so as to show that he was one whom not even the Law could help.

(Verse 21.) I find then the Law, when I would do good, because evil is present in me. He declares that the law of Moses gives its consent to his will, against the sin which dwells in the flesh, which compels him to do something other than what man and the Law will.

(Verse 22.) For I delight in the Law of God after the inward man. He says that the mind takes delight in the things the Law teaches; this is the inner man. For sin does not dwell in the mind, but in the flesh, which is derived from the origin of the flesh of sin; and by transmission all flesh becomes flesh of sin. For if the soul too were derived by transmission, sin would dwell in it as well; for Adam’s soul sinned more than his body did, but the sin of the soul corrupted the body. Sin dwells, then, in the flesh, as it were at the doors of the soul, so as not to let it go where it wills. But if it dwelt in the soul, man would never know himself; as it is, he knows himself and delights in the law of God.

(Verse 23.) 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. He mentions two laws, one of which he insists that he sees in his members, that is, in the outer man, which is the flesh or body. This is the hostile law, this the one at war with the mind, dragging it captive into the bondage of sin, so that once it has entered there it may find no one to claim its freedom. The other is the law of the mind, which is the law of Moses, or the natural law, which is in the mind. This is pressed down by the violence of sin, through its own negligence, indeed; because in loving vices it subjects itself to sin, so as to be held captive by habit itself; for habit lords it over man. He names, indeed, four laws: first the spiritual law, which is also the natural law, which was restored through Moses and set in authority — this is the Law of God; then the law of the mind, consenting to the Law of God; third, the law of sin, which he says dwells in the members by reason of the first man’s transgression; and fourth, the law that is seen in the members, when it suggests evil and then withdraws. But these laws, by repetition, seem to be four, though they are two, that is, a good one and an evil one. 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; while the law of sin is the same as that which he says is seen in the members, which opposes the law of our mind.

(Verses 24–25.) O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. He calls man wretched because he is born under sin. Is not man truly wretched, who has come into this inheritance of transgression, having sin within him as an enemy, through which Satan has access to him? For Adam built the steps by which the despoiler climbs up to his sons — had not the most merciful Lord, moved by mercy, given His grace through Christ, so that the human race, relieved by receiving the remission of sins, might thereafter come to its senses, sin being checked and condemned. For, unburdened of evils and cleansed, a man can resist the adversary, having recovered power against him, while he is helped by God. Here he brings in, as it were, a third law, the law of faith, more powerful, which he also calls grace; yet it takes its origin from the spiritual law, since it is through this that man has been set free: so that, since Moses gave a law and the Lord also gave one, they are called two, yet are understood as one as regards their meaning and providence. For the one is the beginning of salvation, the other its completion. But I do not mean that part of the law which concerns new moons and circumcision and foods, but that which belongs to the mystery of God and to discipline. By the grace of God through Christ, then, man has been set free from the body of this death. He calls that death the one which he showed above was devised in the underworld, through sin, for the destruction of man, and which is called the second. And the body of death is all sins together; for many make up one body, each one being, as it were, a member devised by one author; and man, rescued from these by the grace of God through baptism, has escaped the death spoken of above. For while still set in a fleshly body, he would not say he had been rescued from that very body; but he called “body” that which he indicated above is destroyed through baptism and the keeping of the Law. For when he says “from the body of death”, he also shows that there is another body which is not of death. So then with the mind I myself serve the Law of God. When he says “the Law of God”, he means both the law of Moses and the law of Christ. But with the flesh the law of sin. “I myself”, that is, I who have been set free from the body of death. He is in a body; how, then, has he been set free from the body of death, unless because he has been set free from all evils? For the remission of sins takes away all sins. Set free from the body of death by the grace of God through Christ, then, “with the mind or soul I serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin” — that is, of the devil, who through the flesh made subject to him thrusts evil suggestions upon the soul. Since, then, man is twofold, made up of flesh and soul, he said that he serves the Law of God with the mind, because the soul is devoted to God, and, having recovered its own power, can fight against sin, which works through the flesh. For since the flesh is corrupted and subject to death — though it had been so made that, through its fellowship and union with the soul, it would not die — it has taken on desires, the burden of which, as it were, it passes on to the mind, so that the mind too is weighed down. But what casts this off? The death brought about by the grace of God. “With the mind I serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin,” as has been said. For the mind, now free and called back to good habit, can with the help of the Holy Spirit spurn evil suggestions; for the authority has been given back to it by which it may dare to resist the enemy. For he who is no longer liable can never be hunted down against his will. But the flesh, because it has no judgement and is not capable of discernment (for it is a brute nature), cannot close the door to the enemy so as to keep him from coming in and urging on the mind what is contrary; and so he says: With the flesh I serve the law of sin. For since one man consists of flesh and soul, with the part by which he is wise he serves God, and with the other part, in which he is dull, the law of sin. But if man had remained as he was made, the enemy would have no power to approach his flesh and to whisper contrary things to his soul. But that the whole man was not restored by the grace of Christ to his original state, the sentence given in Adam stood in the way (Genesis 3:17); for it would have been unjust to undo a sentence justly pronounced. Therefore, while the sentence remains, a remedy was found by the providence of God, by which man might have restored to him the salvation he had lost by his own fault; so that, healed here, he might believe that his adversary, overcome by the power of Christ, would not dare — once the sentence of the first death has been passed through — to claim man for himself, when the race of Adam is gathered together, so as to keep him from being restored to the making of his first origin, abiding henceforth wholly immortal.