In Epistolas Sancti Pauli

IN THE YEAR OF THE LORD 555, PRIMASIUS, BISHOP OF ADRUMETUM.

THE COMMENTARIES OF PRIMASIUS ON THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL.

THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

CHAPTER ONE. Paul, that is, little and last; from Saul, Paul, just as from Abram, Abraham, so that even in his very name he might be new. Servant of Jesus Christ. Thus Isaiah says: It is a great thing for you to be called my servant. Called an apostle. Already in foreknowledge he was called and predestined to this, that he might be an apostle. Set apart. As in the Acts of the Apostles he says: Set apart for me Paul and Barnabas for the work to which I have chosen them. In the Gospel of God, which he had promised before. The Gospel is called good announcement, and what greater good is there than that Christ was born and suffered and rose again for us? Through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was made for him. To nourish the faith of the Jews, he asserts that he preaches him whom the prophets announced in the holy Scriptures. This whole passage works against the Manichaeans, who say that the God of the prophets is one and the God of the New Testament another. From the seed of David. From Mary, who came from the stock of David, as Isaiah said: Behold, the virgin shall conceive in her womb and bear a son. According to the flesh. And he destroyed Photinus, and the one who calls him a mere man, not understanding that in Christ there are two substances. Who was predestined to be the Son of God in power according to the spirit of sanctification by the resurrection of the dead of Jesus Christ our Lord.

He was predestined, so that he might rise first before all and open the way of resurrection to the children of God, so that just as the head, so also his body might rise. Through whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations. Grace, that we may believe and be baptized, and because it is freely given and he himself has already been justified by no merits of his own. But he received apostleship when he was sent to preach to the nations. For his name. We act in place of his name, as he himself says: As the Father sent me, I also send you; and, We act as ambassadors for Christ. Among whom you also are called of Jesus Christ. And in you Romans we have received apostleship, just as also among all nations. To all who are at Rome, beloved of God. To all the faithful of God who are at Rome, called to be saints. Sanctified by the calling of God, and by grace, not by the merits of their works. Grace to you. Such is his greeting everywhere, that he both recalls the benefits of God and prays that they remain whole in us, because our sins have been freely forgiven us, not by our merits. And peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. As he says to the Colossians: He made peace with all things that are in heaven and on earth, through his blood, and those whom he redeemed he wills to live peaceably. First indeed I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ. Because God is by nature the God of all, but by merit and will he is the God of few, therefore he said, my God. For you all. Not for the Jews alone. Because your faith is proclaimed in the whole world.

He praises them subtly, so as to stir them on to progress. And truly the faith of the Romans is renowned everywhere. Your faith, he says—he called their faith that which is without doubt God's, and was poured into them by God; but such is the custom of Scripture, as in the Gospel the Lord says: Is it not written in your law, that I said, You are gods? Or that: As it is written in their law, that they hated me without cause; and elsewhere: Does our law judge anyone unheard? So then their faith is spoken of as their law, since no one is ignorant that the law is from God, as faith also is. For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit, in the Gospel of his Son. That is, whom I serve with my whole heart in ready devotion and full truth. That without ceasing I make mention of you, always in my prayers beseeching. Here he shows that he will say all things with love, so that he may be heard by them more willingly, and he gives an example of praying without ceasing. If in some way at last I may have a prosperous journey, in the will of God, to come to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual grace.

Otherwise I too have no prosperous journey unless the will of God, which knows all things and in all good things goes before us and precedes and fosters us, has directed me there where I may have some fruit, just as we read of the apostles: wishing to go to one place, appointed to another, they did not go where they wished, but where God had sent them, knowing when and to whom they ought to go. To confirm you. Here he shows how he praised them above, since those who still need spiritual grace are to be confirmed. That is, to be comforted together in you through the faith which is mutually yours and mine. That through our common faith we may comfort one another and rejoice together over the illumination of the Holy Spirit. For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you. For through the brothers who travel back and forth you could have heard of my intention. And I have been prevented until now. That is, occupied while I preach to other provinces, or prevented by revelation, or perhaps, as he says elsewhere: Satan hindered us. That I may have some fruit in you. He calls the reward of his labor fruit. As also in the other nations, Greeks and barbarians. "I have" is understood. I am a debtor to the wise and the foolish. He calls the Greeks wise, among whom is all philosophy; he calls the barbarians foolish. So what is ready in me. It is prepared in me. And to evangelize you who are at Rome. Equally as to the wise Greeks. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel.

This pertains subtly to the censure of the pagans, who by rights ought to blush for their incestuous gods; yet they do not blush to believe that their god Jove is such, and they think it a thing to blush for that the Lord was believed on for the salvation of His image, crucified—when in the one case it is a disgrace, in the other a mark of virtue. And this is against those who deny Christ in the flesh, and blush at the Lord's nativity and cross, who think these things unworthy of God, not understanding that nothing is more worthy of God than what profits human salvation. For if to unbelievers it is foolishness, yet to believers it is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the power of God is unto salvation. There is no greater power than to have conquered death, to restore to man the life he lost, although the weakness—that is, the humanity—in the power, that is, in the divinity, seems incredible to unbelievers. To every believer, to the Jew first and to the Greek; for the righteousness of God is revealed in it. So that just as Abraham, believing, was saved for the nations through faith, so too the rest who believe may be saved. From faith unto faith, as it is written: But the just man lives by my faith. By the faith of the Old Testament the Jew is justified, by that of the New, the Gentile, when the Jew believes that the prophets foretold this beforehand. Likewise in another sense: from present faith unto future faith, because faith pertains to things invisible, which was infused by the gift of God both under the Old Testament and in the New. And therefore he says: But the just man lives by my faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven.

He speaks against the party of the gentiles, and says that the wrath of God is revealed through the Gospel. For men knew both to expect benefits and to expect blows from the heavens. Upon all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. The first ungodliness is toward God: to sin either through blasphemy or through contempt. Another is toward parents, either by injury or by disdain. The third is toward a stranger, because everything contrary to piety is ungodliness. The fourth is toward themselves, as Wisdom says: But those who sin against me do wickedly against their own souls. Or "all ungodliness," because the cults of idols are diverse, so that ungodliness refers to injury against God, and unrighteousness to all sins. Of those who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Who hold the truth of God's name in unrighteousness, in the unworthy matter of idols. Because what is known of God is manifest in them. Every creature shows that it is not God, but that there is another who made it, whom it is necessary to obey in service; for naturally it can know concerning God that he is, and that he is just, and that the creature itself is not from itself, because there is none greater in all things than all things, because all surpass one another: some by magnitude, like heaven; others by brightness, like the sun and the moon, or the most brilliant stars. For God has manifested it to them. His hidden powers are made manifest from those things which are open. For his invisible things, from the creation of the world, are understood and seen through those things which were made.

For if those things which are seen are so exceedingly glorious, and were made by him, so that certain men thought them to be gods, how much more could they have understood the eternal Maker? His eternal power also and divinity, so that they are without excuse. Therefore Christ is eternal, because he is the power and wisdom of God. Because when they had known God. How did they know him? Either from conscience through reason implanted in them, or from the fashioning of the world, because all things are mutable, God alone is immutable. They did not glorify him as God. They did not venerate him according to his greatness, but instead of God they worshiped idols. Or gave thanks. Because they were made rational by him. But they became vain in their thoughts. Thinking that they could comprehend the greatness of God. And their foolish heart was darkened. Departing, that is, from the threshold of truth, by venerating the creature instead of the Creator, they lost the true light, that is, the wisdom of God. For saying that they were wise. As if they could find how the invisible God might be worshiped in a visible image. They became fools. Not understanding that he is not God, whom man had made. And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man and of birds and of four-footed beasts and of serpents. Here he calls them worshipers of Jupiter, whom they repeatedly assert was transformed because of most shameful loves, as into a swan and a bull. For which cause God handed them over. God into the desires of their heart.

God is said to hand them over when he does not restrain transgressors in his just judgment, on account of the freedom of will, which is most prone to evil. But he abandons those who abandon him, as he says through the Prophet: But if you forsake him, he will also forsake you. And that other passage: I sent them away according to the desires of their heart, and they will walk in their own lusts. Into uncleanness, which is in the shameful mysteries of idols. So that they do dishonor to their own bodies, while they inflict brands and burns upon themselves in the consecrations of idols. In themselves: they do not spare even their own life, which they love, so that in this too they may endure the banquet of their error. Who exchanged the truth of God for a lie: they turned the worship of the true God into the lie of idols, which are falsely held to be gods; for they deceive, while they lie that they are what they are not. And they worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator. They not only said it, but also served; and whoever is conquered by the desire for any creature serves it; for by whatever a man is conquered, of that he is also the slave, to such an extent that even the belly becomes his god. Who is blessed forever. If they had served him, they too could have become blessed forever. Therefore those who have forsaken the one blessed forever have become accursed and temporal. For of such it is said: In like manner the impious man and his impiety are hateful. Amen. Truly, or faithfully. Therefore God handed them over to shameful passions.

For the causes mentioned above, they were also abandoned in these shameful acts, so that the passion of vice might already be the punishment of sin. For their women. Therefore he clearly set forth the crimes themselves, so that you may know that those who have lost the reasoning of nature—who have nonetheless been made senseless so as to pervert all things, being perverse toward God—cannot keep the order of nature, since they have forsaken the author of nature. They changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. They perverted all things, as it is written. For the worship of unspeakable idols is the head, the beginning, and the end of every evil. Likewise also the males, having forsaken the natural use of the woman. For how would they have kept the order of nature, with the author of nature forsaken? They burned in their desires, males with males working shamefulness. Unbridled lust does not know how to keep a limit. And receiving in themselves the recompense which was fitting for their error. The order runs on, so that those who had forgotten the Lord would not even know themselves. And just as they did not approve of God. They did not fail to know, but they did not at all approve. For he approves of having the Lord in his knowledge who always fears him as present and does not dare to sin. God handed them over to a reprobate mind. That is, they were left in a reprobate mind. So that they do what is not fitting. Which are not fitting for a man to do. Filled with all iniquity and malice. He shows iniquity and malice to be the principal causes of vices. Fornication, covetousness.

He joined fornication and greed together, because both passions are compared to idolatry, as he said in Exodus: They have fornicated away from their God because of the filth of an idol. For fornication for a Christian is to cling to anything other than God, and to be corrupted by many desires. Hence Paul says that he betrothed us as a chaste virgin to one man. Wickedness. Greed is therefore insatiable because, after the riches of God, however much anyone has, it is little. Full of envy, murder. He fittingly joined murder to envy, because the first matter of this crime is envy, since the first murder, that of the devil and of Cain, was born of envy. Strife. Strife is where something is defended not by reason but by stubbornness of mind, and where truth is not sought but passion is worn out. The first cause of brotherly death came from strife. Guile, malice. Guile is hidden malice adorned with flattering words. Whisperers. Murmurers, speaking not to the face but into the ear, or those of whom it is said, Do not murmur. Slanderers, hateful to God. Slanderers are hateful to God, because nothing is so hateful to God as idolatry, to which slander is compared, since both the idolater and the slanderer are said by Scripture to be rooted out. Insolent. Those who are swift in insults of words. Proud. He who wishes to go beyond what he is is called proud, like the devil, who betrayed what he was. And he who wishes to be above others will be brought below himself. Puffed up, inventors of evil things.

He is puffed up who is carried beyond his own measure. Not obedient to parents. In this place even teachers can be understood, the parents of souls. Foolish. Because they have withdrawn from the very fountain of wisdom. Disorderly. Every fool is disorderly. Without affection, without honor. Affection is the fulfillment of charity. Without mercy. How could they show mercy to others, who were unwilling to be merciful to themselves? Who, when they had known the justice of God. By this, that evil is naturally displeasing to them, they have known the justice of God. They did not understand. If they had understood, they would have feared; if they had feared, they would never have committed such things. For those who do such things are worthy of death. They will not escape the future punishment of God's judgment, even if not in the present. Not only those who do them, but also those who consent to those doing them. They consent by receiving the teaching, or by conniving [otherwise, by living together].

CHAPTER II. Therefore you are without excuse, O every man who judges. For in that you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you do the same things that you judge. All who judged in this way, but especially those who have the power of examining, are called to account—not only judges but also masters. Because by natural judgment each one pronounces a just sentence on deeds. And all know both that innocence is worthy of reward and that malice is worthy of punishment; and therefore they are without excuse, because they have known God's justice. For we know that the judgment of God is according to truth upon those who do such things. Certainly the judgment is according to truth by which such persons will be judged, who knew how to condemn others for things they did not fear to commit themselves. For if you, a sinner, judge a sinner like yourself, how much more will God, who is just, judge you, who are unjust? And therefore the judgment of God is according to truth, since we read that he spared neither his friends nor the angels who sinned, without respect of persons. Human judgment, however, is corrupted in many ways. For it is depraved by love or hatred, but also by greed and fear, and sometimes even by mercy. But do you think this, O man, who judge those who do such things and do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Surely you do not flatter yourself with impunity for this reason, because God does not repay in the present, and you despise his patience?

Not slow, he says, is the Lord concerning his promise, but he acts patiently for your sake, not willing that anyone perish, but that all be converted to repentance; for he is good in waiting; he is just in punishing. Or do you despise the riches of his goodness. The abundance. And of his patience and long-suffering? Not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? By the patience of God men greatly deceive themselves, because he does not wish to punish sinners at once. For they think that he either does not care about human affairs, or grants what he postpones. Many even slander him, asking why he does not repay in the present? Wretched men, ungrateful even in this, as in all the benefits of God, who impute to him that their destruction is overlooked, not understanding that if he repaid at once, no one of men would have remained, nor would the unjust become just. What more? The Church would not have Paul himself either. But God seems to men to wait long for sinners for this reason, because we are of small time, and we regard a hundred years as infinite. But he with whom a thousand years are as one day regards a hundred years as an hour. And therefore this is little before the Lord, since even men are accustomed to wait for a few days for their own. Notes. For it is human to transgress, human to repent of a fault. No one sins more dangerously than he who defends his sins. But according to your hardness and impenitent heart you treasure up for yourself.

But you, imprudent and sick, abuse the very remedy itself into greater wounds, as Job says: God gave him a place of repentance, and he abuses it unto pride. For piety that is not acknowledged prepares a greater judgment, so that he may feel vengeance who disdained to feel mercy. Wrath in the day of wrath. You store up wrath upon wrath for yourself with the Lord, which will appear on defined days and fixed times, not before the day that you await. And of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who renders to each according to his works. Because it is hidden, even if it now seems to be seen through a mirror in an enigma, or is seen through a veil. To those indeed who according to patience of good work. The reward of good work is awaited through patience, because it is not rendered in the present life. For we walk by faith, and not by sight, and then will the work be perfect, if it has endured to the end. Glory. Let him speak of that glory, whereby the saints will shine as the sun, and be honored with the honor of the sons of God. For what is more honorable to the sons of God, who will even judge angels? And incorruption. By incorruption he means the glory of immortality. To those seeking eternal life. Whoever seeks eternal life will obtain all these things, and whoever has this hope in him sanctifies himself, as it says: Be holy, as he is holy. But to those who are of contention. Those who do not believe the truth of the gospel, and consent to iniquity, who, having forsaken the Creator, serve the creature, who defend against what they know, are contentious.

Fear contention, lest you suffer what follows. And those who do not consent to the truth. Of the Gospel. But they believe in iniquity. As those knew who wished to believe in iniquity; for it is not right, having forsaken the Creator of all things, to serve the creature. Wrath and indignation. All these things are prepared for sinners in judgment; then there will be great and fruitless repentance. Tribulation and distress. Of conscience and of vain repentance, as it is written: Then they will say among themselves, repenting, and groaning for the distress of spirit. Upon every soul of man that works evil. Because the soul sins first, therefore it principally feels the punishment; or the soul is put for the whole man, as he says that Jacob entered into Egypt in souls. To the Jew first, and to the Greek. First, because they first acknowledged the Lord, and first transgressed the law more grievously. Or he puts first for indeed, because he himself also says: There is no respect of persons with God, thus first in time, not in honor. But glory, and honor, and peace to everyone who works good. Glory against wrath, honor against indignation, peace against tribulation and distress, and what he named incorruption above, here he named peace. To the Jew first, and to the Greek. What he said there in the soul, of the Jew and the Greek, here he put as the man himself. And, as has been said, here he puts first for indeed, or first, in time of belief, not in honor. For there is no respect of persons with God.

Lest the Gentiles excuse themselves on the ground of ignorance, since they are endowed with the law of nature, nor let the Jews flatter themselves about the law and circumcision, because not only profession but also conduct is required. For whoever have sinned without the law will perish without the law, and whoever have sinned in the law will be judged by the law. By the law of the letter, and by the law of nature, that is, of the mind and conscience. For to perish seems worse than to be judged. But when he speaks this to those living thus and to the Jews, who would dare to say that the Jews who sin in the law will not perish, since they have not believed in Christ? Seeing that without faith in Christ no one can be saved, and on this account they will be judged thus. They will be borne to the kingdom, but they will not perish by punishment. But who doubts that either Gentiles or Jews, if they have not believed in Christ, will perish? For it is not the hearers of the law who are just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified. He gives the reason why they are not better than the Gentiles, whence we too ought to fear lest, hearing the law and not doing it, we perish with the Gentiles. Nor let the Jew say: I have lived under the law, I am better than the Gentile. The law, then, makes hearers; grace makes doers. For who would say that those who were obedient to the law from faith are not justified? Since unless they were justified, they cannot be obedient. But we say that by the law it is brought about that God is heard as to what he wills to be done; but by grace it is brought about that the law is obeyed, because not the hearers but the doers of the law will be justified.

For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law. Lest it be said: those who do not have the law of the letter, how can they be judged? They do by nature the things of the law, not having such a law. Whether he says this of those who keep the law of nature, who do not do to others what they do not wish done to themselves; or because the Gentiles also naturally praise the good and judge the wicked, which is the work of the law; or of those who even now, while they do some good, profess that they have received from God the abundance by which they are able to please God, by punishing vices. They are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law. He shows that they were not without a law, so as to make the Gentiles inexcusable and to take away from the Jews the glory of the law as their own possession. For every man is ashamed of sin in his conscience, and rejoices in a good deed. Written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them. Therefore the law of nature is in the heart through the testimony of conscience, or conscience testifies that it has a law when it sins, and rejoices when it overcomes sins. And between themselves in turn, of thoughts accusing or even defending, on the day when God will judge the hidden things of men.

He calls them the disputings of thoughts, when we decide after long deliberation what should or should not be done, and that we are to be judged on the day of the Lord according to this, because we are proved not to have been ignorant of good and evil; or else the thoughts of our conscience will be, on the day of judgment, before our eyes like histories to be acknowledged, and these will either accuse us or even excuse us. According to my gospel through Jesus Christ. According to what I announce through Jesus Christ, or through Jesus Christ God will judge the hidden things of men. But if you are a Jew. After he has addressed the side of the Gentiles, he now turns to the Jews, saying that the true Jew is proved to be the one whose good things are more hidden than public. You are called. In name, not in deed. And you rest in the law. You trust, or you are secure. And you glory in God. You glory because God is known in Judea only, because you alone know God, or you alone understand his will. And you know his will. God's is understood, whence you are blessed if the things that please God are known to us, and we do what he commands. And you approve the more useful things, instructed through the law. By reading or examining, because through nature, though weak, many useful things are approved; through the law, more useful things, because through grace, more perfect things. Again he recapitulates the exposition: You who rest in the law, how have you transgressed the law? You who glory in God, why do you dishonor God? You who know his will, why do you not do it?

You who approve the useful things, why do you pursue the useless and vain? Guide of the blind, how do you not see the right way? For if you saw it, you would surely walk along it. Light of others, how do you not cast off the works of darkness? Instructor of the foolish, why have you also abandoned the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom? Teacher of infants, you are a child in understanding, you who have the form of knowledge and truth in the law, and neither follow it yourself nor permit others to follow it by your bad example. You trust that you yourself are a guide of the blind—of those, surely, who have lost the way without the light of Me; a light of those who are in darkness, in the darkness of ignorance; an instructor of the foolish, who do not have the wisdom of God; a teacher of infants, whether in age or in the understanding of little children; one having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. You have the example, that they cannot live without the law; you have the form, by looking upon which you may always be unable to err. You, therefore, who teach another—what he said to the Gentile: In that you judge another, you condemn yourself. You do not teach yourself. Why does your life not agree with your teaching, and your work destroy your faith, and so it comes about that the law, not kept, not only profits you nothing but even holds you guilty of a greater crime, as its despiser? You who preach that one must not steal, steal. Some say: You steal Christ, that is, you hide him from men, or you wish to withdraw the sacred Scriptures, if you can. You who say that one must not commit adultery, commit adultery.

It is not one kind of adultery; for whatever you owe wholly to God, if you render it to anyone other than God, you commit adultery—whether love, or fear, or service, or obedience, or hope. And therefore he sins more grievously from whom perfection is preached. You who abominate idols, you commit sacrilege. Sacrilege is what is properly committed against God, as it were a violation of a sacred thing, or a transgression of the commandments. You who glory in the law. Saying that you are blessed because you know the will of God. By the transgression of the law you dishonor God. He has explained sacrilege, for the name of God is blasphemed among you Gentiles, as it is written. Woe to those by whose evil works the name of the Lord has been blasphemed, as it is written: They have polluted my holy name among the Gentiles, while they are called the people of God, who linger among the Gentiles as captives, their sins bringing it about, so that the Gentiles would say that the Lord could not defend his people, and that they had become victors through their idols, not understanding that if Israel had held fast to the Lord, he would always have ruled over them, and through this been their defender. Circumcision indeed profits, if you observe the law; but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. It profits in its own time, either because it makes a Jew live, and not be exterminated. It can also be understood thus: Circumcision profits, because it makes it understood that it exists; because, once perceived, it is found that when the circumcision of the flesh ceases, the true circumcision of the heart is to come.

He is a transgressor of the law, since he does not follow what was foretold there. The sign is of benefit if the reality is present; otherwise the sign without the reality will be superfluous. For even the sign that Cain received signified this: that circumcision would distinguish the Jews from the rest. And just as he, wandering and fugitive, endured with that very sign even to death, so the Jews, dispersed throughout the world even to the end with this now empty sign of circumcision, run about full of zeal and fear, and no one takes circumcision away from them; whether under pagan or under Christian rulers they bear that very sign, murderers of Christ, just as Cain the fratricide bore it. If, therefore, the foreskin keeps the righteous deeds of the law. Visible things need invisible things; invisible things do not need visible things, because visible things are images of invisible things. Circumcision of the flesh needs circumcision of the heart, but circumcision of the heart does not need circumcision of the flesh, because the truth does not need the image, but the image needs the truth. Why, then, was circumcision given, if it is of no benefit by itself? First, so that the people of God might be recognized among the nations, or in war.

But the reason we are marked with such a member is first this: that no other member might be disfigured, one that would be horrifying to look at; then because of the promise of grace, in which one had to please by chastity, or so that Christ might be signified as coming from circumcision, up to whom carnal circumcision was to last, bearing whose type Jesus the son of Nave is commanded to circumcise the sons of Israel a second time. But this was a figure, to such an extent that it was said: In the last days God will circumcise your heart. And: Circumcise the foreskins of your heart. And so that original sin might be punished in that member where it had been implanted, even in the time of the law. Will not his foreskin be reckoned as circumcision? and will judge what is from nature. Because he has righteousness, of which circumcision is the sign. The foreskin consummates the law. Fulfilling. You who through the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law? While you pursue the circumcision of the letter, you do not deserve to receive that of the spirit. For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly. All the things that were formerly done concerning the outer man prefigured the outer man. Nor is circumcision that which is manifest in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly. He is the true Jew. And circumcision of the heart in the spirit. Concerning which it is written in the law: In the last days God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed. In the spirit, he says, that is, according to the new testament, which seeks the inner things, which God alone sees, and this is true circumcision.

Not the letter, whose praise is not from men but from God. The letter kills, but the spirit gives life. The law of the letter was not given to the just but to the unjust, and therefore it deserved the praise of men. But the law of Christ no longer threatens sinners with the sword, but promises a reward to those who serve freely, and therefore it has praise from God, who alone sees the heart, because one prays from faith.

CHAPTER III. What then is the advantage of the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? He gives the reason: that the law was not in vain, but that the prerogative of carnal circumcision is vain, supported by no works. He asks what advantage the Jew has. He answers, whether from himself or in the person of the Jews, Much in every way. For if this is his meaning, Much in every way; and, Every man is a liar, how does it later fit when he says: But if our iniquity, and the rest. Finally, how does he deny that the Jews excel much in every way? That benefit will be great if they strive to keep the oracles which they were deemed worthy to receive. First indeed, because the oracles of God were entrusted to them. Which is nothing to the Gentiles. What then if some of them did not believe? Has their unbelief made void the faith of God? By no means. For the unbelief of transgressors does not prejudice those who believe, and the promise of God, which was made to Abraham, if it is made void for the prevaricators, is fulfilled for the obedient, because the truth cannot lie, as it is written: But God is true, and every man is a liar.

Because no one is without sin except that one alone who neither had sin by being born nor contracted it by living. Therefore he alone is truthful, fulfilling what he promised—that the nations would be blessed in his seed, and they are blessed in Christ and through Christ, because they believed in him through his grace. For even if for the unbelieving Jews it was made void in them, yet in those from that same people who believed by the gift of the Lord, it has been fulfilled and is being fulfilled, and is daily more fully fulfilled even to the end, because he who promised is truthful and can in no way deceive. But God is truthful, and every man is a liar, as it is written: That you may be proved just when you take vengeance on sinners; that you may be justified in your words, and overcome when you are judged. You overcome when you are judged, when, as I confess and condemn my sins, you forgive me. That you may be justified, he says, in your words, for God is truthful. For even if the blessing of apostleship was made void in the traitor Judas, yet in Peter, who kept the faith, it was fulfilled. The promise was made void in the people who perished in the wilderness because of their transgressions; it was fulfilled in those who, by the gift of the Lord and with faith cooperating, were led into the holy land. He also adds testimony from Psalm 50: That you may be justified, he says, in your words, and overcome when you are judged.

In the order of the psalm the prophet's utterance stands as follows: Lord, you declared that without respect of persons you would take vengeance on sinners, and indeed now while you forgive me, they judge your patience a lie; but you overcome when you are judged, when, as I confess and condemn my sins, you forgive them, because you do not judge the same thing twice. That is, when a man himself, as his own judge, pursues his guilt within himself with lamentation and contrition, the indulgence of your loving-kindness is not proven to be unjust. When you, through the prophet, convict me, guilty of a monstrous deed, you prove that you have care for our works, and you overcome those who judged you to be unconcerned about human affairs. Therefore, from this understanding of the Apostle I have set down the whole exposition of a certain holy man, so that the reader's diligence might be more fully imbued, and wherever you find full pages of this kind, I have placed this for instruction. That you may be justified, he says, in your words, and overcome when you are judged. Let us see how in this place the Apostle's discourse agrees with the testimony which he took up from the prophet to confirm his discourse.

The Apostle sets down this sentence evidently in that sense which David had long before brought forth in the voice of penitence, saying: Lord, you promised that the Savior of the human race would come from my seed; now, while your people see me wounded by a twofold crime, I have caused the children of Israel to blaspheme, so that, when they perceive my guilt in adultery and homicide, they think that you have lied; and therefore accept the prayer of satisfaction, and you forgive what I myself condemn, so that when you have restored me by the granted propitiation and have made me worthy of your promise, you may appear just in your words and may overcome when you are judged by your critics. And so now the Apostle follows this line, saying: Although the transgressing Jews have caused the name of the Lord to be blasphemed, by which it is said, "This was that holy nation and chosen people," which now involves itself in transgression and inexpiable sacrilege and the crime of impiety—behold, through the wickedness of the depraved, the promises of God have been made void. But it is not so; for if the transgressors have fallen from grace, the truthful promise of the Lord is fulfilled by the obedience of the faithful, and thus, with those confounded who boasted that the divine oracles had been brought to nothing, the Lord is justified in his words and overcomes when he is judged, while he confers on believers the grace that has been rejected by unbelievers.

But as for what he says: "But God is true, and every man a liar," and again: "But if our iniquity commends the justice of God," let the faithless take both of these testimonies in a rational sense. "But if our iniquity commends the justice of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust, who inflicts wrath?" But if our iniquity commends the justice of God, he says, it is unjust if he takes vengeance on those who sinned precisely so that he might appear more just; for by what justice will he condemn injustice, if, according to you, he is made more just by human iniquity? In this passage, as the teacher of the Gentiles discusses, the reasoning of two persons is turned about, that is, under the ignorance of one who misinterprets, and under the teaching of the Apostle who refutes, and as if the opposing party, foolishly believing, were to say to the Apostle: Apostle, you have brought great comfort to our sins by saying that God is justified in the forgiveness of our transgressions, and that our lies commend the truth of God, and that our sins supply God with material for mercy, so that through our iniquities his goodness may be exercised and his glory enlarged—[then] our sins are unjustly punished, which profit toward manifesting God's patience and benevolence; he immediately adds.

Up to this point the objection was on the opposing side; here the Apostle responds to their way of thinking: "God is unjust," he says, "if he takes vengeance on those through whose sins he appears benign, and I ought not to be judged, I who lie, because by my lie the truth of God, gathered together, is found more worthy of praise." And therefore the greater the evils we have done, the greater the goods we shall receive from him for whose praise we sinned. Perhaps the foolish thought this ought to be understood in that way because we read: "Where sin abounded, grace superabounded," as if it granted merit to sin while it supplies an increase of God's mercy. But that statement must be understood far otherwise. And [they say] that the abundance of sins has been consumed through satisfaction and amendment, so that those amended merited not only pardon but even rewards: "that you may be justified," he says, "in your words." The opposing side set forth this testimony as though David had said: "For this reason I have sinned, so that while you judge me, you may appear just, or merciful while you forgive; and therefore you ought to spare me, because my iniquity commends either your mercy or your justice." From this the Apostle refutes their error, and by the statements inserted in between he destroys it, saying: "If, as certain ones claim that we say, our iniquity commends the justice of God, then God is unjust, who brings wrath, since our iniquity proclaims his mercy. I speak after the manner of men. Far be it.

That is, according to your carnal sense, or according to you, who judge so ignorantly and understand so foolishly from your perverse opinion. For by what justice will he condemn injustice, if according to your opinion he is more just by human iniquity? But it is not so. For our God is glorified not so much by sins as by the deeds of good works, and therefore in punishing sins he is acknowledged just, who delights in holy works. Otherwise how will God judge the world now, if he does not repay good things to the good and evil things to the evil, so that he gives to the just a reward for justice, and to sinners what they deserve? For if the truth of God has abounded in my lie unto his glory, what? That is, why am I judged as an evildoer? and not as certain ones say that we say, that the greater the evils we have done, the more abundant the good things we receive. Still. Moreover. And I as a sinner. A man who lies. I am judged. By God on the day of judgment. This is the sense, as if he were saying: O unbeliever, from my words you assert a defense of your sins, saying that our iniquity commends the justice of God, and that his truth grows from our lies, and compared to our weakness, appears greater and greater. But while you thus flatter your evils with hostile severity, you are to be punished by just condemnation by him who will judge the world according to the works of each one.

Hence this passage seems more difficult for the reason that it is obscured by the questions of the unskilled of the other party, just as in another place the Apostle sets forth and rejects irrational objections: For what do we say—shall we remain in sin, that grace may abound? By no means. And a little later: What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? By no means. Finally the Apostle, emptying out the question by the sense of truth, says thus: And not as we are blasphemed, and as some say that we say: Let us do evil, that good may come. And this is the objection of fools, which, subjoining, he destroys, saying: Whose condemnation is just. For what is more just than that anyone should feel the punishment of his own sin? Which they have falsely claimed that we deny, who preach nothing more than the just judgment of God. What then? Do we excel them? We Jews—that is, I find no cause from which either party may excel, because we judge that all are under sin; for reason itself apprehends this, that Jews and Gentiles are under sin, as is also confirmed by the testimony of the psalm. By no means. He himself answered himself. For we have made the charge. We have reasoned. That Jews and Greeks. All are under sin. And Gentiles. As it is written: Because there is no just one. The psalm from which he took this testimony speaks of the fool, which he shows to have been fulfilled at the coming of Christ, at which time no just one was found. Anyone. Neither Jew nor Greek. There is none who understands, there is none who seeks God.

Because he does not understand, he does not seek. But God is then sought, when his will is inquired into and fulfilled. All have turned aside. It is necessary that he turn aside who refused to seek the firmament. Together they became maimed. For the work for which they had been created. There is none who does good. Therefore there was none who did good, since the transgression of the commandments condemned the Jews, and the law of nature condemned the Gentiles. When therefore someone from either side has done good, let him know that he owes it to grace, not to nature, as the prophet says, referring to the Lord: With whom no one is innocent by himself. And Isaiah says in his song: Lord our God, you will give peace to us: for you have accomplished all our works in us. There is not even one. Some say, even to Christ. Their throat is an open sepulcher. They exaggerate violence of pestilential odor by the stench of their teaching. Every odor of death proceeds from their mouth: that is, truly pestilential and flattering words which kill the hearers. For this reason sepulchers are closed, lest by their exhalation they breed pestilence in those placed in life. With their tongues they acted deceitfully. Bringing forth one thing with the mouth, meditating another in the heart. The poison of asps. The poison of these serpents is said to be more pernicious than the rest. Under their lips. That is, in the heart. Whose mouth is full of cursing. For whatever is said with an evil wish is without doubt said evilly. And it is full of bitterness. The bitterness of Antichrist is contrary to the sweetness of the word of God. Their feet are swift to shed blood.

Not to free souls but to destroy them, or rather to kill souls, not by announcing their sins to them but by confirming them in those very sins through flattery. Hence Paul says: I am clean from the blood of all. Contrition and misery are in their ways. Souls are crushed and made miserable in their ways, that is, in the teachings or in the examples of their conduct. And they have not known the way of peace. They have not known the teaching of the Father, by which God was to be reconciled to men, because our peace is Christ. He has done this from the beginning of the epistle, to show that all need the mercy of God, but mercy is in the power of the one who gives it. For no one can say that he ought to have received more. There is no fear of God before their eyes. He concluded with the fear of God, because if they had always kept the fear of God before their eyes, they surely would not have sinned; for a servant does not dare to sin in his master's presence. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are in the law. Lest the Jews should say, This was said of the Gentiles—as the Jews said, There is no God, certainly not in word but in deed. For they confess that they know the Lord, but they deny him by their deeds. Therefore he does not touch on the Gentiles here, but he had already spoken earlier about the Gentiles, and no one doubted their crimes. Lest they should say that this was written about the Gentiles, he shows that everything said in the law about the Gentiles is said also of the Jews themselves, because their case is the principal one. That every mouth may be stopped.

Not only of the Gentiles, but also of the Jews, since they have nothing of which they can boast. And let every mouth be stopped before God, that the world may know it cannot be saved without the grace of God—or at least, in the confession of sin, hope for mercy, recognizing itself to be in sins. Who is from the works of the law. This works against the Pelagians, who say that the law justifies. But by works of the law he means circumcision, and the sabbath, and the rest. No one will be justified. No one will be justified, because the law brought nothing to perfection. Hence he begins to dispute against those who boasted in the law and believed they were justified through the law and not through grace, with a great and long-lasting conflict, teaching that the law could not remove the stain but rather increased sin, which grace removes; because the law knows how to command, to which infirmity succumbs, just as grace knows how to help, by which charity is infused. We do not say that those who were obedient to the law were justified, but unless they were justified, they would not be obedient. Flesh. Man. In his sight. Not every righteousness justifies before the Lord, but that which proceeds from the pure will of God, not that whose precept flatters human infirmity—as with those to whom the righteousness of God could not then be revealed, but only the knowledge of sin was shown to them, because, seeking to establish their own, they were not subject to the righteousness of God. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

Not a remission, not a consumption, but a knowledge—either because the law of nature was in oblivion, or because before the law of the letter, whatever sins were lighter were not recognized as sins, such as concupiscence and the rest which harmed no one else but the person himself. But now without the law, the righteousness of God. Which has been freely given to us by God, not sought by our own labor. It is manifest. Which was hidden. Testified by the law and the prophets. This righteousness was proclaimed by the oracles of the law as about to come in the last times. But the righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ. This righteousness, which is conferred through faith, faith itself is poured in secretly by the inspiration of God's grace as a gift, not acquired by human labor nor by the work of the Old Testament, because, as has been said, it is his gift that we believe. Over all who believe. Not over Jews alone. He shows that they received such a law for this reason, because they did not believe, wherefore in the present they were bringing forward the merit either of sin or of righteousness. For there is no distinction. For all have sinned and need the glory of God. That is, between Jew and Gentile, because both parties have been shut up in unbelief, and they need the glory of the Redeemer, which is spread abroad for the salvation of believers. For the Jews, by transgressing the law of the letter, and the Gentiles, the law of nature, have been found equally sinners, both through original sin and through actual sin. Justified freely. Without any preceding merits, through the baptism of justification.

Since he freely forgave the sins of all who did not deserve it, hear this freely and be silent about merits. Through his grace. Because he paid what he did not owe on our behalf, so that he might save us freely redeemed. Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. We were redeemed from the captivity of sin, not by nature, because by nature we were always his, since he who redeems shows that the one he redeems was his own, as the prophet shows: You were sold for nothing, and you will be redeemed without money. Christ therefore redeemed us, as Peter says: Knowing that you were redeemed from your vain way of life not with corruptible silver and gold, and the rest; and Paul: For you were bought with a great price. We were therefore redeemed from death, to which we had been sold through sin, according to Isaiah saying: Who is the bill of divorce? For you were sold for your sins. Christ conquered that death, he who committed no sin, because we were all debtors to death through sin. But he handed himself over to death, to which he owed nothing, so that by his blood he might redeem us from death. He did not buy us, because we were his by nature; but he redeemed us, because we were held as captives. Whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood. He set him forth openly, because he gives freely, so that no one may despair, nor exalt himself over his own merits, because the propitiation and remission of sins were conferred through the blood of Christ, in whose figure even in the Old Testament the blood of victims was offered for the sins of the people.

For the showing forth of his righteousness. In this he says that he showed his righteousness, in that he kept his patience undefended in expectation of our amendment; thus the mercy of forgiveness comes to us, while he suffers who committed no sin, because God does all things justly. Justly, therefore, the devil lost his debtor, because he unjustly killed the innocent one. For the remission of former sins. Why former? Unless of original debts. In the sustaining of God. The sustaining of God had advanced to greater sins. For the showing forth of his righteousness. That he might reveal the righteousness which is of faith, that is, Christ, in this most recent time. That he himself might thus be just and justifying. He who alone was found just, and those whom he himself justified, because he knew no sin, and therefore condemned sins. Him who is of the faith of Jesus. Of the faith, he says, of Jesus, which Jesus himself gave, and not of the works of the law or of nature. Where then is your boasting? It is excluded. He speaks to the Jews. Where is your elation, in which you boasted that you were better through carnal circumcision? Your boasting is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. It follows: Is it by works, that is, the works of the law? And he answers: No, but the law of faith. He calls the grace of faith a law, through which we come to Christ, through which we receive faith. For we reckon that a man is justified by faith. We define, we are certain, we judge this. Without the works of the law. By adding "of the law," he shows that there are also works of faith.

How then does James say, Faith without works is dead? But Paul speaks of the works of the law, whereas James speaks of the works that prove a man to be faithful, as he himself sets out in what follows: Show me your faith from your works. Works are the things by which faith is recognized. Is he the God of the Jews only? Did not God make all, and is his care not likewise for all? Christ came promised by the law not only to you but also to the Gentiles—indeed, more to them. Only. As if the Jews were saying, But the Gentiles have forsaken God, and it be answered to them: And so have you. They sinned, and so did you. But we are converted, and so are they. Christ came promised to us, and to them. Therefore God is not yours only, nor is it as though you did not know that all are born of Adam, and that it is written that the Gentiles would believe in Christ, as he says: My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. And again: Hear the sound of the trumpet, and they said: We will not hear. For this cause the Gentiles shall hear. Is he not also the God of the Gentiles? Of the Gentiles who believe, because the prophets often spoke of their calling. Indeed, also of the Gentiles. That is, much more also of the Gentiles, because before the law the saints pleased God. And he kept the manner of expression excellently in his words: indeed, he said, to show the Gentiles the more, because those of the uncircumcision were saints before those of the circumcision, and Abraham, before circumcision, believed and was justified. Since indeed there is one God who justifies the circumcision by faith.

He declares that both peoples are to be saved through faith in Christ, that is, by faith. For neither uncircumcision nor circumcision is justified without faith. And uncircumcision is justified through faith, as with Abel, Noah, and the others. Do we therefore destroy the law through faith? By no means. Do we therefore destroy the law through faith, the law that taught circumcision? By no means. So much so that he says Moses was nearly killed because of his circumcised son. So then, let them not say: You are therefore destroying the law, in which all who believed were justified—circumcised before the law, uncircumcised, yet no one uncircumcised under the law. Not only, he says, do I not destroy it, but I confirm it, when I preach this circumcision which he foretold: In the last days, he says, the Lord God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, to love the Lord your God. This is faith. I would then destroy the law if I said it had lied, that is, that it would not cease, when it promised that it would cease, as Jeremiah says: I will give you a new covenant. And Isaiah: Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. But we establish the law. We make it stand, when we prove that what it said about the ancient righteous and about the Gentiles who would believe is true, and that a spiritual circumcision would come, when faith accomplishes what the law commands; if that faith is not present, the law only commands, and holding guilty those who do not fulfill its commands, it is not fulfilled except through love, which the Holy Spirit pours in through his grace.

CHAPTER IV. What then shall we say that Abraham our father found? He calls them back to the source of circumcision, so that what was established at the beginning may be held in the whole. Circumcision is in the flesh, but faith consists in the mind. Abraham according to faith through uncircumcision is the father of the Gentiles; according to the flesh he is the father of circumcision. But the faith by which he is the father of the Gentiles consists not in the flesh but in the mind. According to the flesh, that is, according to circumcision of the flesh. For if Abraham was justified by works, he has glory. How by works, when he himself also came from the Gentiles? But not before God. But he has it before himself, because he fulfills the commands; otherwise, nothing. God gave to him, but from himself, but from his own works he had glory. But because the faith given to him by God justifies him without presumption of works, he gives glory not to himself but to the Lord from gratuitous bounty. He says, therefore, that blessed Abraham found righteousness not from works (because he was before the law), but from faith (because he believed the promises of God), and because faith through the grace of God justifies not only the sinner but even the ungodly, according to the goodness of God, since he has confidence not from works but understands himself in all things to be a debtor to God, because he finds nothing that he can claim for himself from merits. For what does the Scripture say? Let us question the Scripture. Abraham believed God. He proved it, and therefore he has glory before God.

So great was the faith of Abraham by the gift of God that his former sins were forgiven him, and it alone was reckoned to him for all righteousness, and he burned with such great love, having been accepted, that thereafter he always pleased God. And it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Faith alone made the compensation. But to the one who works, the reward is not imputed according to grace, but according to debt. He sets forth this very example. And because the law requires works, by which the Pharisee was puffed up; when, therefore, the divine mercy justifies the ungodly, presumption cannot have a place of merit. For he is a debtor before he obeys the commandments, and unless he has obeyed, he is condemned. But if he has done them, he has no glory, because he is an unprofitable servant, who does nothing more. But if the one who does not work. He speaks of circumcision, and other things of this kind. But to the one who believes in him who justifies the ungodly. He justifies the ungodly through faith alone, not by works, which he did not have; for if according to works, he is to be punished, not set free. At the same time it must be noted that it is not the sinner who is justified by faith, but the ungodly. His faith is reckoned as righteousness, according to the purpose of the grace of God: as David also says. As to Abraham; so also to us, his sons, through grace. The blessedness of the man. Great is the blessedness, without the labor of the law or of penitence, to obtain faith through grace alone, according to the purpose of God, by which he purposed freely to forgive sins. To whom God imputes righteousness without works.

To him who has received it, righteousness is reckoned without works, since through the faith by which he first believed God he is both absolved of the past and justified in the present and prepared for future works of faith. He wishes to prove that this is also foretold in the law itself—that righteousness without works is profitable—and that he does not defend this by his own authority but confirms it by the example of the prophet. What is remitted is not; what is covered is not open; and therefore it is not imputed either. Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven. This is against the arrogance of the Jews, because blessedness and the remission of sins are the work of believing, not of laboring. Some say that sins are remitted through baptism, covered by the tears of penitence, and not imputed at all in martyrdom. Although the whole can be understood in the faith of baptism, yet when sins have been forgiven, God is loved. For to whom more is forgiven, he loves more, and therefore charity covers a multitude of sins, so that love may overcome former contempt. But he does not impute, so long as he takes delight in his good works thereafter, which are done through charity, and does not remember his former deeds. And whose sins are covered. By charity. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord has not imputed sin. Lest it be remembered. Is this blessedness then in circumcision, or also in uncircumcision? Some wish to assign this blessedness to three times—Nature, Circumcision, and Christianity—but in order to exclude them from the glory of privilege, he himself says, not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.

For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness. Because we both confess that he was justified; therefore, since we are treating of Abraham, what reasoning finds in his case let us accept in the case of all, let us all hold without doubt that this faith profited not Abraham alone, but all who follow the example of his believing, as we read in the following verses, that it might be reckoned to him as righteousness. How then was it reckoned, in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Let us see whether he was righteous because he was circumcised, or was circumcised because he was found righteous: whether circumcision was born of righteousness, or righteousness of circumcision. Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. He was justified before he was circumcised. Therefore he was not justified on account of circumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision. Lest they should say: Why then was he circumcised, if he did not need circumcision? It is a sign, he says, of righteousness, not an increase. Again, in another sense: to show how righteous and faithful he was, who did not hesitate to inflict pain on himself at God's command, not thinking superfluous what was commanded by the Lord of knowledge, just as neither did he think the impious parricide [to be] what the fount of piety had commanded. A seal of the righteousness of faith. To signify the righteousness of Christ, which is from faith, which now is in uncircumcision, or which was born to him in uncircumcision. Again, in another sense: so perfect was his faith that it deserved a seal; a thing is always sealed when it is full and great. Which is in uncircumcision.

Now in the case of those who believe from among the Gentiles. That he might be the father of all who believe through uncircumcision. That all who believe from among the Gentiles may, according to faith, be sons of Abraham: since faith alone is reckoned to them also for righteousness, and they too are circumcised not in the flesh but in the heart: or because before circumcision he was righteous, the father of the righteous uncircumcised. That it might be reckoned to them also for righteousness, and that he might be the father of circumcision. When they have been justified, they are circumcised: because if one uncircumcised is righteous, his uncircumcision will be reckoned as circumcision. For now there is no need of a sign by which he may be recognized by men. For the people of God is not one nation, but a congregation from all: because Christ, the expectation of the Gentiles, has now come. Not only to those who are of the circumcision and are faithful, but also to those who follow the footsteps of the faith which is in the uncircumcision of our father Abraham. If they imitate him. For not through the law. Not through the law, but before the law: because in the law indeed belief was placed in the faith and promise of Abraham: but Moses, who wrote the law, came afterward. Then he says to the Galatians: Because after four hundred and thirty years the law was made, which does not make void so as to evacuate the promise. The promise to Abraham, or to his seed, that he should be heir of the world. Not through circumcision. But through the righteousness of faith.

So that in the seed of Abraham, that is, in Christ, all the Gentiles might be blessed, to whom the Gentiles were given by the Father as an inheritance; or so that the Gentiles might rest with him, as the Savior says: They will come from the East and the West, and will recline with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. For if those who are of the law are heirs. If from circumcision, according to you: if they alone, as you wish, are heirs, then God did not fulfill for Abraham what he promised through righteousness, that he should be the father of many nations, and he seems to have believed without cause. But it is not so: for God fulfilled the promise to Abraham, because from every part of the world the Gentiles believe in Christ. Faith is emptied out, the promise is abolished. Therefore no one is justified by faith, not even Abraham himself. But since faith cannot be emptied out, nor can the promise be abolished, it remains that the inheritance is not from the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For the law does not forgive sins, but points them out [otherwise it avenges or judges]. And therefore it cannot make sons of Abraham, because insofar as all are found under sin, all were to be punished. Therefore it is by faith, so that sins being forgiven through grace, they may become sons of Abraham. For the law opens up wrath. It is appointed for the unjust, which weighed down more heavily on those who sin, it did not absolve, because it is appointed for the unjust: for in the present it brought punishment upon transgressors. For what else is the law but the bare letter to those who know how to read it and cannot fulfill it?

For such a letter is not a helper to those who read it, but a witness against those who sin. For this reason indeed the law works wrath, so that, once a man is terrified and converted to fulfilling the justice of the law, God's mercy may bestow grace through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is the wisdom of God; of whom it is written: He bears law and mercy in his tongue. Law, which terrifies; mercy, which comes to his aid. The knowledge of the law, therefore, makes a man a proud transgressor; but through the gift of love he delights to be a doer of the law. The law, he says, works wrath—for this reason, because the wrath of God is greater against the transgressor, who through the law knows his sin and yet commits it. For where there is no law, neither is there transgression. Which was set in place because of transgression: for where the precept came through the law, the occasion of transgression also abounded. Therefore by faith. Heirs by faith, not by law. That it might be according to grace. Carefully take note that he said according to grace, so that presumption may cease, which flatters itself on its merits. Let the promise be firm to all the seed. Not to him only who is of the law, but also to him who is of the faith of Abraham. Because all the nations believe, and the promise to Abraham is fulfilled. Who is the father of us all, as it is written. The father of the uncircumcised and of the circumcised. In this place, where Abraham is called the father of many nations, the pride of the Jews is confounded, because he is the father of the Jews according to the flesh, and of the Gentiles according to faith. Because I have made you the father of many nations before God, in whom you believed.

Because by himself he could not be the father even of one son. He who gives life to the dead. He speaks of begetting from the dead, so that it applies especially to Sarah, especially to her who was closed: because the fruit of offspring, which her age had not obtained, perfect faith merited. And he calls those things that are not, as though they were. Although in the beginning he called those things that were not, and at his commanding nod they immediately began to be, yet here he signifies concerning the desperate conception of a son. Who against hope. It was against the hope of nature that an old woman should give birth, and that his seed should be as the stars of heaven: he believed in hope. In the hope of God's power. That he might become the father of many nations. Because he was still the father of one son. According to what was said: So shall your seed be as the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea. Because the Apostle was speaking to those who know the law, he signified the Jews by the sand and the nations that believe by the stars: understand those as earthly, these as heavenly; because even from the very race of the Jews the Church of the firstfruits, which believed, is deservedly compared to heaven and the stars. And he was not weakened in faith, nor did he consider his own body dead, when he was almost a hundred years old, and the dead womb of Sarah. Faith considers nothing of nature: because in those things that God promises, nature easily serves its author. It is asked how Abraham afterwards begot sons from Keturah, who could not before from Sarah. For this reason he did not beget from Sarah, because she was old and barren.

But as for her who was placed in the youth of age, it could easily have been brought about. Yet in the promise of God he did not waver with distrust, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. He doubted neither the impossibility of old age nor the greatness of the promise, because he looked not to his own years but to the promises of the Almighty, giving glory to God, as one giving thanks for what he had received. Knowing most fully that whatever God has promised, he is able also to do. That is, most certainly. He therefore who is able to do what he promised makes the faith of the nations; he therefore works faith in our hearts in a wondrous and ineffable way, so that we may believe. Therefore it was also reckoned to him as righteousness. But it was not written for his sake alone, that it was reckoned to him. Because if he believed. And in another sense, it must be noted that with God not only the devotion of the work has merit, but also firm and perfect belief. But also for our sake, to whom it shall be reckoned. Not so that we should know only what sort he was, but so that he might be an example to us all, as a father to his sons: just as all the examples of the saints, or their trials, were so that they might know themselves, and we might follow their examples. Therefore the saints are tried, so that they may know themselves; therefore the proven are justified, so that we may follow their footsteps. To those who believe in him who raised Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead.

Let us see in what order he has passed over in this place to the resurrection of Christ: that is, it will also be reckoned to us, if we have believed as perfectly that Christ rose from the dead, as he believed that the dead body of Sarah could be made alive for conceiving. Who was handed over for our offenses. In the handing over, mercy was shown; in the resurrection, power: and so that an example of the new life from the resurrection, which is our justification, might be given to us; to bear our sins, he died: he rose again so that through his resurrection he might show the glory of our justification. And he rose again for our justification. For this reason he died, that he might restore life to the dead. For this reason he appeared in the very body in which he was crucified, that he might confirm the faith and righteousness of believers, when in the fullness of the promise he acknowledged the fruit of belief.

CHAPTER V. Justified therefore. When the Jews and the Gentiles were disputing among themselves, and the former presumed on the works of the ancient law, the latter on the new calling of Christ, the matter having been examined, because none of them was justified by his own merit, but all through grace, which pours in faith and shows the truth; and that neither lineage nor circumcision, but faith, makes sons of Abraham, who before circumcision was justified by belief alone: for this reason, having concluded peace, he urges them to have peace with God, because no one is saved by his own merits, but all by the grace and mercy of God. By faith.

Which is from God, that we may believe; as he also says to the Galatians: But when faith came, we are no longer under a pedagogue. And to the Hebrews: Looking to Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of faith. Let us have peace with God. Or let us be subject to God: or let us have the peace of God, not of the world. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Not from works, through whom we have access by faith into this grace. Through whom we have drawn near, who were far off. In which we stand. Because before grace we lay fallen. And we glory in the hope of the glory of the children of God. In this, which seems incredible, we glory through faith that we hope for the adoption as children of God, and what we hope for is as great as no one would dare to presume on his own, because it is in the power of God alone that a man can ascend to the number of the children of God; he shows that we also have reason to glory rightly and without danger. For it is great glory to be received by faith and hope into the number of the children of God. In the hope of the glory of the children of God that is promised to us which, as has been said, no one dared to hope for: but if perhaps it had entered anyone's mind, he might have thought that he had fallen into blasphemy: which is so great that by many, because of its very greatness, it seems incredible: in that we hope that we shall obtain the glory of the children of God. Not only so, but we glory also in tribulations.

Therefore he glories in tribulations, because through them the virtue of patience is shown, and from patience the approval of faith is born; but hope is nourished by the proving of an unconquered spirit. Therefore the saints glory in the endurance of tribulation without the danger of vanity. For not only in the glory of hope, but also in tribulations most healthful for us, we glory, knowing how great a recompense it has, as James says: Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations. And that: Blessed is the man who endures temptation, because when he has been proved, he will receive the crown of life. For from glorious tribulation it is permitted us to glory; and if we have done so, it is such as if someone, despising a bronze or lead coin, obtains a royal gem. Although the comparison is not worthy: because here, however much the value differs, the corruption of both remains; there great things are set against small, and things that pass away succeed one another. Knowing that tribulation. To be known is now said of that which is most firmly believed. It works patience. In tribulation patience appears or is increased. The faithful desire to suffer something for the name of the Lord, that from tribulation they may acquire rewards that will endure without end. But patience works proof: proof truly hope. He who has been patient in all things has been proved. For the furnace proves the vessels of the potter, and the temptation of tribulation proves just men. But hope does not confound.

The hope of future things expels all confusion of present things; hence it is proved that he has no hope who is crushed by the precepts of Christ. Because the love of God. From this we know how God loves us, because he not only forgave us our sins through the death of his Son, but also conferred upon us the gift of the Holy Spirit, who purifies and illuminates the hidden things of hearts, and now reveals the glory of future things. It has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. The greatness of benefits stirs up in itself the greatness of love, which, being perfect, knows not how to fear, nor is it confounded; yet it is given in us not through our own merit, but through the Holy Spirit, because this same love is recognized to be the fullness of the law. And therefore let no one glory in himself, but in God, whose gift it is, nor let him say: I believed the natural law, and so I received the Holy Spirit; because no one precedes God, but we are always preceded by his mercy. For why did Christ, when we were still weak. He wishes to show from this that he died for the ungodly, and to commend the greatness of his benefits, so that we may see that, having been loved by him beyond what we deserve, we ought to love him in return, or whether anything is to be preferred to so holy and so great a benefit, since he did not prefer his own life to us who were ungodly, nor deny his death. At the appointed time he died for the ungodly.

Whether because Christ suffered at the end of the age, or whether at the present time, or for the space of three days, as it was preached, he died. He therefore who died for the ungodly, in saying this, shows that we ought to love the pious Lord even unto death, whom we know endured the torment of death for ungodly servants; and at the same time it must be noted that he said "for the ungodly," so that human presumption may be restrained, lest it attribute anything to its own merits. For scarcely does anyone die for a just man. This works against Pelagius, who denies original sin; for if it had not bound man, the death of Christ would not have been necessary. But it is fitting that man should pour out his life without hesitation for the confession of the good Lord, who died not for the just but for the ungodly, and even so let us cease to presume of ourselves. For if scarcely anyone dies for a just man, who would die for the wicked and ungodly, except he who had come to save what had perished: to whom no one first gave, but from whom he received, that he might believe? For perhaps someone might dare to die for a good man. So readily: for this good is what is just, according to that commandment, "just and good." But he commends his own love. When something is repaid undeservedly, then love is commended. What therefore is so undeserved as that the pious Lord should die without sin for an ungodly servant? God in us. How much he loves us we know from his death. For while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more therefore, now justified in his blood, we shall be saved.

If he loved sinners so much, how much more will he guard those whom he has already made righteous? And if he interceded for strangers, much more does he not allow his own to perish. If he gave himself for the ungodly, how can he deny his own? Not now through the blood of animals, as in the law, but through the blood of the Son of God he reminds us that we are debtors. And so that we may understand how greatly he loves those he has received, he who reconciled enemies. From wrath. The wrath of judgment. Through him. Through him we shall be saved, not through ourselves: that is, if we are his members; for when all things burn, only the body of the one who judges will be saved. For if, when we were enemies. We were enemies before the gift of his grace, and before the sacrament of baptism; but those also are known to be enemies who after baptism entangle themselves in shameful deeds and crimes, and do not wish to correct their errors by repentance, as James says: Friendship with this world is enmity with God. Enemies, then, not by nature, but by a contrary will. We have been reconciled. Because we had been alienated and made enemies through transgression. For no one is reconciled except from enmity. But the transgression of our first parent made us enemies. Through the death of his Son: much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved in his life. If through the death of Christ we have been saved, how much more shall we be glorified in his life, if we imitate both his life and his death, and strive to remain in the help of his precepts and in his keeping. Not only so, but we also glory in God.

Not only will the life of Christ be given to us in that change of the resurrection, but glory also, as the Apostle John says: It has not yet appeared what we shall be; we know that when it has appeared, we shall be like him. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. That through his grace we may deserve to be like him, and may be in the glory of God the Father. Through whom we have now received reconciliation. Now reconciliation, then glory. Therefore, just as through one man into this world. From this he wishes to show that Christ suffered for this reason: that we, who had departed from God through Adam, might be reconciled through Christ. Sin entered. Draw the example from this: for just as, when there was no sin, it came in through Adam, so also, when righteousness was already in no one, it was recalled through Christ; and just as death came through that man's sin, so life through this man's righteousness. And through sin. In this place, against the abrupt error of Pelagian impiety, he is eager to show that death was not made by God, but brought in through the guilt of transgression: because just as salvation was lost through the sin of the first Adam, so it was repaired through the righteousness of the second. Here the Apostle intends to assert this: that Adam's transgression was great, but Christ's redemption is richer; and hence he said: And not as through one man the sin, so also the gift. From one sin that man brought in death; this man from the abolition of many restored life. And therefore righteousness prevailed more in giving life than sin in killing. Death.

That [death] of which he says: When you were dead in your sins, he made you alive together with Christ. Death took its name from the bite of the serpent. And so. Just as in him. Death passed into all men. Death of both soul and body passed over from original sin, both into Abraham and into Isaac and into Jacob, but they were made alive by the grace of God, of whom it is said: He is not the God of the dead; as the Apostle also says even of those who did not sin: that is, capital sin thus passed into men, because not only did he die who transgressed, but also those who were procreated from transgressors are held liable through the bond of nature, that is, through all the branches the corrupted root transmitted its vice. Adam killed, Christ gave life. In whom all sinned. Whether by the sin of disobedience, or in Adam the punishment of all who sin was foretold. For until the law sin was in the world. It must be asked what sin: that is, that one sin alone prevailed until the law, which the transgression of the first parent brought in. For the offense of transgression ceased before the coming of the law. In the first age sinners more securely enjoyed the freedom of the present life. There was indeed sin before the law from action, but it was not so imputed, because the knowledge of nature had by now been almost obscured, whose understanding, as if dead, revived from the law. The law came as the avenger of sin. But sin was not imputed, when there was no law.

It was, but it was not imputed to rustic men, nor was it believed by others to be sin. But death reigned from Adam until Moses. That is, death, coming from the original evil, reigned alone until the law. Therefore he said: It reigned, because it had generally occupied the whole world. But other sins did not at all seem to reign, because iniquity did not reign generally through all. For a certain small natural justice flourished in very many, as in many philosophers; and other offenses, although from a corrupted nature, were nevertheless voluntary. There followed another new offense, that is, the offense of transgression by contempt of the law. Therefore the liability of the first man alone, working death through itself until Moses, reigned. But from the time of the law another kind of offenses was added to the guilt of neglected law, which could not be imputed before its promulgation. And so, as new precepts entered, iniquity was multiplied. For the law came not to take away sin, but to demonstrate or judge it; and therefore the Apostle's teaching here commends the abundance of grace, because the goodness of the Redeemer gave back not only the debt of Adam, which alone had reigned as if with tyrannical domination until the law, but also the innumerable offenses of transgression and of reprobate conduct. For this reason he said: For judgment indeed was from one unto condemnation.

But when he says, "until Moses," that is, until the end of the law and the beginning of grace, the natural debt reigned; just as we say, for example: "The Huns existed until Attila." We are certainly not designating the beginning of his reign, but the end; so also "until Moses," that is, until the end of the law and the beginning of grace. The remaining offenses, which were not understood to be sins until the beginning of the law—until the law said, "You shall not covet"—came to life again through the law. For the original [sin] reigns even today until baptism, but it has lost the use of its interest, after the blood of Christ wiped out the original record of debt. But someone will say: Why does the evil of origin still reign in many nations? To him it is answered: Then truly the widely spread plague reigned, when the physician was absent, when general mortality was devastating all. But where forgiveness sent from heaven opens the gate of paradise, death has lost its power; and thus it does not reign, because its kingdom has been destroyed through the grace of Christ. Even in those who did not sin, in the likeness of Adam's transgression, who is the form of the one to come. The form of the one to come, a form by contrast; as he is of sin, so this one is of righteousness: whether he in a living soul, this one in a life-giving spirit. Adam was the form of Christ, because just as Adam was made by the hands of God without marital commerce, so also Christ came forth from the virgin, with God working. But not as the offense, so also the gift.

For if by the offense of the one many died, much more the grace of God and the gift in the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abounded unto many. And not as through the one sin, so also the gift. That is, justice prevailed more in giving life than sin in killing, because the sin of Adam killed both himself and his posterity; but Christ saved both those whom he found in the body and his own man and his posterity. But perhaps someone says: The flesh, which comes from a transgressor, justly draws original sin; but the soul, which is born innocent, whence does it draw original sin, so that if an unbaptized infant dies, it is condemned forever? Let him hear and acknowledge that it was rather the soul that first sinned in Adam, at the prompting of the desire for divinity, and then your flesh. But in this place we must altogether beware of the opinion that says: Just as the flesh comes from the flesh of Adam, so our soul is created from the soul of Adam by the hidden operation of God.

As someone has said: By a hidden law nature pours forth its own work, and unless it has been set free here through grace, it will be condemned to perpetual punishment forever. For judgment—death is understood. From one unto condemnation—that is, from the one man sinning, or from the first sin. But grace from many offenses unto justification. As if the first obligation of the old offense held dominion up to Christ. But other offenses before the prohibition of the law did not seem, or were not understood, to be so grave; therefore when grace arrived, it forgave through baptism not only the original debt but also actual sins. And therefore it justified from many offenses. For if by the offense of one death reigned through one—that is, through Adam's transgression—much more the abundance of grace. Greater is the redemption of the Savior than the ruin of the transgressor, because through Christ all sins have been forgiven, not only original but also actual. And those who receive the gift and of righteousness unto life will reign through one Jesus Christ. Because both that we may live justly and that we may reign with him has been granted by the generosity of his gift. We hear gifts; let us be silent about our own merits. Therefore as through the offense of one unto all men unto condemnation, so also through the righteousness of one unto all men unto justification of life. Death reigned—this is to be understood. Therefore let him who is freed from this condemnation love grace; let him who is not freed acknowledge his debt.

If in forgiving debt goodness is understood, and in exacting it equity—for nowhere is iniquity found in God. For just as through the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man many are made righteous. As by the example of Adam's disobedience many sinned, so also by Christ's obedience many are justified. Great is the crime of disobedience, which, if a Christian has it, empties out whatever good he has done. Obedience, he says, I prefer to sacrifice. But the law entered in, that the trespass might abound. Lest they should say to us: The law forgave sins—No, he says, it came not to forgive but to show; and when it was despised, the trespass began to abound through knowledge; as if he were saying: As I see it, the law did not diminish sins but added them—yet not by its own fault, but by theirs. The law, he says, entered in, that the trespass might abound: which was emptied out by the largess of supervening grace. Openly, then, from this testimony we perceive that the Apostle speaks of two kinds of sins, those which came either from the transgression of the natural law—where he set forth the natural cause, he subjoined the legal, saying: Where sin abounded, grace did superabound. But where sin abounded—the whole sense is this: the old Adam by one trespass brought in death; the new Adam by the forgiveness of countless trespasses granted salvation. Where, he says, sin abounded: because, once the law was received, sin is committed not with ignorance but with knowledge.

Therefore sin begins to abound. Grace has superabounded. So that just as sin reigned unto death, in the same way the Savior says: To whom more is forgiven, he loves more. The quantity of sin has been made manifest, so that they might know the greatness of grace, and return the greatness of love, and that from the indulgence of remission the debt of love might grow. Thus also grace may reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The benefits are made manifest when they are compared with the contrary merits of the unworthy: for death reigned through Adam, life through Christ. So that just as the kingdom of sin was confirmed through the despised law, which took away the excuse of ignorance, so also the kingdom of grace may be confirmed through the remission of the sins of many.

CHAPTER VI. — What then shall we say? Shall we remain in sin, that grace may abound? Here the objection of those is introduced who, still understanding little, could say: If grace will increase in the greatness of sins, we ought to sin, that grace may abound, so that its munificence may be able to abound more and more in sinners. Far be it. Far be it. Those speak so ignorantly who are still found weak. But let us reject the persuasion of this ignorance, who have already died to sin, that we might live to grace. For we who have died to sin, how shall we still live in it?

He wants the baptized to be as firm and as perfect as one who is reckoned, in a manner of speaking, dead to the committing of capital sins, so that he ought no longer to sin, that is, to commit a crime. Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus? Or do you not know the sacrament of baptism itself? In the Scriptures there are three kinds of baptisms: of water, as John's; of the Spirit, which is also fire, as in the Acts of the Apostles. The Holy Spirit descended like fire, concerning whose divinity he shows elsewhere: Our God, he says, is a consuming fire. The third kind is the baptism in blood, by which martyrs are baptized. Hence the Lord himself, already baptized in the Gospel, declares: I have a baptism to be baptized with, which you do not know. As we read in the epistle of John the apostle: There are three that bear witness: water, blood, and Spirit. One in ministry, not in nature. Water is a witness by figure of the Lord's burial; blood is a witness of his death; the Spirit is a witness of his resurrection, because the Spirit is the author of life. In his death we have been baptized. We are baptized into the death of Christ, so that, believing in his death, we might live as though dead—we, that is, for whom there would be nothing in common with this world. And for whom the whole world was to die, by the example of the Author, as many of the saints have done or are doing, because Christ died for all. Therefore all have died, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them.

But I live, now not I: truly Christ lives in me. And, The world is crucified to me, and I to the world. For it cannot be otherwise than that, the head being dead, all the members die with it. For the head endured punishments for all the members, so that all the members might die in him, and thus, dead to sin, live to God. For just as a dead man cannot sin, so we also, who have died with Christ, ought not to be entangled in capital sins. He who is crucified does nothing else but await the hour of death and commend his spirit into the hands of the Father. It must be more fully examined what ought to be understood by "we were baptized into his death." The Apostle instructs that, because Christ was crucified, died, and was buried for us, and rose again, we too, in the likeness of his passion, should crucify our wills and desires, and in the mystery of baptism imitate the example of his death, burial, and resurrection, so that if we have been sharers in his sufferings, we may also be sharers in his consolations. But it must be asked how one who is placed in life can die, and, not yet dead, be buried; and, not yet buried, how he can be raised up. In this way, surely, while we are made from children of perdition into children of adoption, we die beforehand to our former nature by a second birth; and while we are submerged beneath the kindred element of earth, we are buried; while we rise from the bosom of the font, we are raised up: and herein is the greatest sacrament of baptism.

And therefore he said: We are buried with him through baptism into death. And in what follows: If, he says, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live together with Christ. And so we must labor that nothing of the filth of the old man be found in us. Whence if any one of us is perhaps overtaken beforehand, let him be washed clean by the gift of the Lord through repentance. If therefore we have been made new and changed in our conduct, we shall likewise be made new and changed in glory. Knowing that our old man has been crucified together with him. The old man is said to be he who either does not yet appear to have put off the old and earthly Adam, or, having relapsed into the mire of his former life, imitates the same. But just as that Redeemer hung up an innocent body, so let us suspend our guilty body from vices. In which mystery of the cross Moses hung up the bronze serpent on a pole, that the body of sin may be destroyed. That is, that not in part, but every vice may be destroyed. For we are buried together with him through baptism into death. In the example of Christ, for imitating him, we are buried together in baptism, so that, dead to our old crimes, we may renounce the devil and his pomps. He shows that we are so baptized as to be buried together with Christ. That just as Christ rose from the dead through the glory of the Father. That just as the Father is glorified through the resurrection of the Son, so also may he be glorified through the newness of our conduct. So let us also walk in newness of life.

He shows how we who are living can be dead, and that we ought not to will or desire anything that those who are not new [in Christ] will or desire. For if we have been made partakers of the likeness of his death, we shall also be partakers of the resurrection. If we have been buried together, we shall also be partakers of the resurrection. If we have not been made partakers, neither shall we rise together; and if we have been made new in life, we shall be in glory. If we have had the likeness of his death, we shall also have that of the resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified together with him—those who sinned by imitating the old and earthly man. For the old man is understood as Adam, just as the new man is Christ. That the body of sin may be destroyed. One vice is a member of sin; but the body is the whole mass of transgressions, whose beginning is original sin. But Christ was crucified not in part, but whole, so that we may die wholly to sin and live to God; or that our body may be destroyed from the slavery of sin and become the servant of righteousness, which it used to be of transgression. That we may no longer serve sin. For everyone who commits sin is the servant of sin. For he who has died has been justified from sin. That is, he has been alienated from sin, and can no longer sin; for one who is crucified, with all his members occupied by pain, cannot sin, but contradicts his desires and passions. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live together with Christ.

As he also says elsewhere: If we have died together, we shall also live together. Knowing that Christ, rising from the dead, dies no more. So we too, if we have died to vices, will not fear the second death. Or certainly it is thus: just as Christ can no longer be crucified again for you, if you have lived criminally, so you also cannot be baptized again, as he says elsewhere: It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened and have been made partakers to be renewed again to repentance, crucifying again in themselves the Son of God; to whom he forbids not repentance but renewal, that is, the repetition of baptism. Death shall no longer have dominion over him. If it shall no longer have dominion, therefore it has already had dominion, against the Manichaeans, because they deny that Christ had true flesh. For that he died, he died to sin. Whether because he died for the sin of the human race, or because he died to death itself, which could have no further place in him. He died once. That is, just as your head has died once, so you also, having been made his members, follow the examples of his life, so that you may owe nothing further to death, that is, so that the second death may have no place in you. For whoever believes that baptism can be repeated believes that Christ can be crucified again. But that he lives, he lives to God. He lives in the Godhead, himself man and God. So you also reckon yourselves. Understand yourselves as his sons or members. Dead indeed to sin.

As his imitator was saying: But I now live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me. But those who are living. That is, following his life, we do not yet live in ourselves, but we all already live in Christ. For we have died, and our life is hidden with Christ in God. To God in Christ Jesus. But that one lives to God who follows the footsteps of Christ in humility, sanctification, and piety. Therefore let not sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires. He shows how it reigns. For that one reigns to whom all obey. He has explained how sin reigns in the body, that is, if we offer obedience and consent to a corrupted nature. He did not say: Let it not be, because it is already there; but: Let it not reign, that is, let what it commands not be done. Anger rises up: do not give anger a tongue for cursing, not a hand for striking, not members to lust: which would not rise up unless sin were in our members. Sin is indeed present in our members; but it does not reign, if its desires are not obeyed. And therefore, while it does what it does not will, that is, it does not will to desire, yet desires, it consents to the law, because it is good: for it itself wills what the law wills, because it itself wills not to desire, and the law said: You shall not desire. But neither should you exhibit your members as weapons of iniquity to sin.

Each member, if it turns its own function to evil uses, becomes a weapon of iniquity for fighting against righteousness: if the hand turns to theft, the tongue to lying or blasphemy; if the eye serves lust for fighting against chastity, and so on. But present yourselves to God as those living from the dead. As if you had already risen; but after the resurrection one does not live carnally, nor does one sin. And your members as weapons of righteousness to God—so that the eye which before looked to sin, now looks to the service of good works; which before looked to despoiling, now looks to clothing; so also observe concerning the remaining members, that they be changed from iniquity to mercy. For sin will not have dominion over us. Let sin not conquer you: for you are not little children, but perfect; as a tutor might say to a boy: Do not commit a fault of speech, for you are not yet listening to the grammarian, but to the orator. Or, it will not have dominion—it does not have the right to rule. For you are not under the law, but under grace. That is, under the benevolence of the Redeemer, who both gave the effort of fighting and conquering, and provided teaching; but also, in addition, gave an example, and granted power through the consolation of the Holy Spirit, through which we are freed from the dominion of sin. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law? He who is under the law is pressed by the law, while he does not fulfill the law; he is not under the law, but with the law. But under grace? Far be it.

Do you not know that to whomever you present yourselves as servants to obey, you are servants of him whom you obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? Lest the unlearned and those untrained in the faith object: Therefore, when the punishment of the law ceases, we shall sin with impunity. Far be it. The grace that has also granted us the means by which we may conquer does not wish us to sin at all: if you wish to sin, the sentence of the law will rule over you, which takes vengeance on those who sin. But if you serve righteousness, you are not under the law, but under grace. For, he says, you cannot serve two masters. Here, in what he said, "we shall sin," let us understand criminal and capital sins, not the minor ones, without which we cannot be. Understand this also everywhere where we are forbidden to sin; because he was speaking also of those very sins which the law was accustomed to condemn, according to that saying: If we say that we have no sin, etc. But thanks be to God that you were servants of sin. Thanks be to God, because you were, but with him freeing and helping you, you now are not: because you obey, because you resist with God as your helper. But you have obeyed. So that by the gift and example of Christ you may live, who granted and taught us to take away not only sins but also the occasions of sins. Be, he says, imitators of me, as I also am of Christ, from the heart, from faith. Into that form of doctrine in which you were delivered. Of the New Testament. But freed from sin. Made free. You have been made servants of righteousness. Through the grace of God. I speak after the manner of men. Because you cannot yet hear what is divine.

Or thus: what I say is worthy of human nature, since it has reason even among men and can be easily understood. That is: I ought indeed to demand greater things from you in return for divine service; but condescending and accommodating myself to your weakness, I preach and persuade what is human and possible: that just as you were prompt to follow base and contrary things, so you may be eager to accomplish what is useful and friendly to salvation. I speak on account of the weakness of the flesh. The body that is corrupted weighs down the soul, because whatever the soul does carnally is attributed to the flesh; and when the soul does heavenly things, the whole man is spiritual. He is carnal if he is conquered by desires; he is spiritual when, by the gift of God, he conquers desires. For just as you presented your members to serve, so now, with your will changed, let us present ourselves to serve righteousness—not as the Manichaeans say, who claim that the nature of the body has sin so implanted in itself by its condition that it cannot be overcome; but, renewed by grace, let us not present our members to evil: for the body is not evil of itself, but the wills which we are commanded to change, which are known to be present in the nature as a defect through the guilt of the transgressor, not by condition. To uncleanness and iniquity. To luxury or idolatry. To iniquity. To doing iniquity. So now present your members to serve righteousness.

So that just as you were perfect in evil, from original sin, so you may be perfect in good, by the gift of grace; so that the hand that previously seized may now extend mercy; and the feet that previously ran to evil may now run to visit the sick and to the prison for a good work; the eyes that previously looked to lust, to plunder, may now look to pity, to give generously. Behold, thus let our members be changed. Unto sanctification. That you may receive sanctification, or possess it. For when you were servants of sin, you were free to righteousness. That is, you served righteousness in nothing. So also now be free from sin, that you may serve it in nothing. Behold, it is shown that they could not even [serve] sin except by serving under another liberty. Therefore they are not free from righteousness, except by the judgment of the will. But they are not made free from sin except by the grace of the Savior. He called them free to righteousness, not freed; but from sin, not free, lest they attribute this to themselves, but freed: that is, if the Son has freed you, then you will truly be free. What fruit therefore did you have then, in those things of which you are now ashamed? What sort of fruit did you have in the action of that thing, at the recollection of which there is also shame? Whoever has known himself to be good is ashamed that he was evil. And whoever is ashamed that he is good, is evil, because he has no fruit even in the present, and his end is death. For the end of those, namely of the evil, is death. Everlasting punishment. But now, freed from sin.

Attend, because he said "you have been set free," so that we may give glory not to ourselves but to God. "But having become servants of God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, but the end everlasting life." To remain in God's service—this very fact that you live is already fruit, having been sanctified through baptism. But the servant of God does not repay his enemies in kind, like Joseph, who said to his brothers: "Do not fear, for I am a servant of God." But the servants of God in the present have as fruit the gift of the Holy Spirit, and as their end everlasting life, or the sanctification of a good life. Therefore in this life, insofar as we are still servants of God, we are free from sin; insofar as we still serve the law, we are still servants of sin. And therefore he said: "For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man." Behold from what source we are free, from what source we delight in the law of God. For freedom gives delight; for as long as you do what is just out of fear, God does not give you delight. "For the wages of sin is death." A stipend is called a recompense. Rightly, therefore, it is a stipend, because eternal death is rendered to the malice of the devil as though it were a debt. He who serves as a soldier for sin receives death as his pay. "But the grace of God is everlasting life, in Christ Jesus our Lord"—the grace under which you are. And at the same time it must be noted that he did not say "the stipends of righteousness," because we do not have that from ourselves. Therefore, although it is not ours but belongs to grace, nevertheless, guarded by God's help, it gives everlasting life, once the time of this life has passed.

CHAPTER VII. — Do you not know, brothers—for I speak to those who know the law. Here he begins to show the difficulty of the law, so as to exhort them to live under grace without fear: because now, with the action ceasing, the law does not live for us, but for itself; and it lives in the New Testament, through which it is reformed. Because the law rules over a man for as long as it lives. For the woman who is with her husband, while her husband lives, is bound to the law. But if her husband has died, she is freed from the law of her husband. He introduces a comparison: he calls the commandment of the law the husband; but the people, or the soul, the woman, so as to show that the law, which works wrath, being without effect, as if dead, cannot hinder us, now that we have been put to death, from being able to belong to him who rose from the dead: which law would rightly live for us, if it found something in us to punish. For he says that a man is under the law for as long as he lives in sin. But this sin is to be understood as that which came in through the law. For where the grace of the liberator is not present, the prohibition of sins increases the desire to sin. Therefore, while the husband lives, she will be called an adulteress if she is with another man; but if her husband has died, she is freed from the law, so that she is not an adulteress if she is with another man. For as long as the husband lives, for that long it is necessary for her to live according to his will. But if the husband has fallen asleep, and the woman has been joined to another husband, she must no longer live according to the custom of her former husband. Therefore, my brothers, you also have been put to death to the law.

Accordingly, he did not wish to say, "The law is put to death for you," but left it to the understanding, as in many places. By way of comparison, he ought to have said that the law was dead to them rather than they to the law, but because saying this among the Jews still seemed unmanageable, he left it to the understanding, showing clearly enough that the law could not take away sin but rather had increased it, which grace takes away; since the law knows how to command, to which weakness yields, not how to help, which the grace of Christ does. From this place, and through this whole reading, up to "Who will deliver me from the body of this death," the Apostle sees that the man placed under the law has been transfigured in himself, in whose words he speaks in his own person, and who had said: "We have been discharged from the law of death, in which we were held, so that we may serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." Through these words he seems to have reproached the law, but it is not so, because he added: "Is the law sin? Far be it," and the rest. But this is no deceitful ear. The flesh having been crucified, through which sin used to rule over us by condemning us, it no longer has any hold. Before, they were imitators of Moses; now truly of Christ; thus it was said: "You have died to the law," as if it were said, "You have died to the punishment of the law." Why have we died to the law through the body of Christ, if the law is good? Because we have died to the law that dominates: freed from that effect which the law punishes and condemns. For more commonly it is called the law when it threatens and terrifies, and takes vengeance.

Therefore the same commandment is law to those who fear, and grace to those who love. Through the body of Christ, by dying together with Christ, who condemned sin in the flesh. That you may be another's who rose from the dead. Another man is to be understood. That you may bear fruit to God. He bears fruit by whose example the people of God grow, as he says: That we may have some fruit among you. For when we were in the flesh. When we were in carnal conduct, the passion of concupiscence worked in the eyes and the other members, which nonetheless were shown by the law to be sins, so that they might bear fruit to the death of sin. In the flesh, he says: that is, we were held bound by carnal desires. The passions of sins, which were through the law, we worked in our members. He dies to these passions who already serves the law of God in his mind, although those passions are not yet dead. He says that concupiscence is increased when the law forbids. The increase of concupiscence comes from the prohibition, and the guilt of punishment from transgression. That is, because through the good it worked death. That they might bear fruit to death. That is, that the severity of the law might kill us as we are placed in these same passions, and offer fruit to death from our perdition, because the fruit of sin is death. We bear fruit to death when we do what is forbidden. But now we have been released from the law, dying. The law of death, which kills sinners, that is, the guilty; but it is also called the law of sin, not because it is itself sin, but because it is imposed on sinners.

For this reason it is also called death, because the wages of sin is death, and the sting of death is sin; but the strength of sin is the law. In which we were held. We were held by sin. So that we may serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. Obedient to the precepts of spiritual grace, not following the letter of the law. What then shall we say, is the law sin? Because he had said that the passions through the law bore fruit for death, therefore he objects to himself, is the law sin? and he answers: By no means. He does this against the Manichaeans, who deny the Old Testament. But if they should say: For this reason he asserts the law here on account of the Jews, because he feared scandal, it must be answered: Therefore he always feared scandal, because he never spoke against the law. Since therefore in many places he has destroyed the works of the law, now with good reason he praises it in that in which it is spiritual, and by its implication confounds the Manichaeans. By no means. For lest anyone on account of these testimonies should disparage the law and contend that it is evil, the Apostle foresaw what could occur to those who understand badly, and he himself proposed to himself the same question. What then do we say, he says: is the law sin? By no means. But I did not know sin except through the law. He had already said this above, that through the law comes the knowledge of sin. Therefore it is not the removal, but the knowledge. Which was given for this reason, not that it might take away sin nor that it might be eradicated, but only that it might be shown, so that, since sin cannot be conquered without the grace of God, the very anxiety of guilt might compel us to fly to grace.

But I did not know sin except through the law. For I did not know covetousness, unless the law had said: You shall not covet. Here the Apostle begins, as it were, to speak of himself and to give an example from himself, who had lived under the law, which does not save by itself but shows sin; for it neither takes it away nor justifies, but takes vengeance on transgressors. He did not say, I did not commit sin except through the law, but, I did not know sin except through the law, which shows that covetousness is sin: which I did not know to be sin. Covetousness, he says, I did not know. He did not say, I did not have it, or I did not do it, but I did not know it to be sin. From this it appears that covetousness was not implanted by the law but demonstrated by it, which teaches what each person ought to do or avoid. But the true man is still drawn by the habit of sinning; for covetousness belongs to our nature, coming through sin, not to God's creation. And therefore that evil itself is not to be separated out by God's rejection but healed by God's mercy. But taking occasion. Here the Apostle recalls his past life, when he lived under the law, and the struggle of his youth. And what he says: But I was alive without the law, he indicates his first age: When the commandment came, he says, sin revived. But I died: he now testifies that he had become capable of the precept but not effective.

And therefore, to show himself a transgressor of the law, in those inner matters the Apostle knew himself to have been such before the grace of God, which is through Jesus Christ our Lord. And to the Ephesians he confesses this most openly: Among whom, he says, we all once lived, in the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest, and the rest. And to Titus: We also, he says, were once foolish and unbelieving, going astray, and the rest that follows there. Such was he before grace. Sin, worked through the commandment. Just as one who envies then more greatly receives an occasion of doing harm, when something is believed by the one whom he wishes to harm. In me all covetousness. All that is written in the law: You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his field, nor anything of your neighbor's, and the rest. The weakness of the human mind has this through transgression, that forbidden things can be observed with greater difficulty. For without the law sin was dead: that is, it lay hidden, it did not appear, it was unknown, it seemed dead to me: or the natural law was in oblivion, which showed what sin was. Therefore the law of the letter was also given, which would call to mind the law of nature. But I once lived. I seemed to myself to live as righteous and free from sin. Without the law. Hence he makes clear that he speaks not properly in his own person, but generally in the person of man.

But when the commandment had come: that is, sin had come into forgetfulness; but when the commandment came, it was recognized that there was sin, so that everyone who has done it may know himself to be dead. It revived. That is, it shone forth and appeared. It revived, he says; it did not live; for it had once lived in Paradise, when against the given commandment the offense was quite apparent. Sin reigned, but I died. That is, what had been hidden appeared, because it had lived through natural knowledge, and had been dead through forgetfulness: because I had already transgressed knowingly, and I perceived that I was dead by the manifestation of sin: because he now sins by transgression, who sees through the law what he ought not to do, and yet does it, whether by titillation or by delight, even if not by consent: or because the guilt of transgression threatens the certain punishment of death. And the commandment was found to me. What, when kept, was profitable unto life, this, when neglected, they lose unto death: because knowing it, I did not keep it. All this for this reason, that he may show that the law was indeed given unto life, but because it did not give help, how we might be saved, so that it may lead us to grace, which has everything: both mercy and help and example. What was unto life, this is unto death. If you wish to come unto life, keep the commandments. A commandment kept bestows life; one not kept, death, which is transgression. For sin, having taken occasion.

If it seems to say anything against the law, it imputes it to those who were unable to receive the more perfect things. Therefore he said that it was an occasion of sin through the commandment, because the persuasion to transgress is more vehement when prohibition is present, and it makes a person not only a sinner but also a transgressor. Since, therefore, by men who have not yet received spiritual grace that which is forbidden is more sweetly admitted, sin deceives by a false sweetness; but because the guilt of transgression befalls, it also kills, since the price of deadly pleasure embraces that sweetness by which it is deceived, and it delights even to act against the law, and the less it is permitted, the more it pleases. It seduced me, and through it killed me. For no sin is committed except by concupiscence. Accordingly, the law that forbids this is good and praiseworthy. But where the Holy Spirit helps, inspiring a good concupiscence in place of evil concupiscence—that is, pouring love into our hearts—then surely that law, though good, increases the evil desire by forbidding it. Just as the force of water, if it does not cease flowing in that direction, becomes more vehement when an obstacle is placed against it, and when it has overcome the mass of that obstacle, it is carried down more violently with a greater surge. For I know not in what way the very thing that is desired becomes more pleasant while it is forbidden. And this is what sin does: it deceives through the commandment, and through it kills, when transgression also befalls, which is nothing. Therefore the law is indeed holy, and the commandment holy and just.

Against the opponents of the law, and against those who separate righteousness from goodness, the law is called both holy and good, and grace righteous. For unless your righteousness abounds, and the rest. But God is also sometimes called good in the Old Testament, and righteous in the New, as in that passage, Righteous Father. And this is against the Marcionites. Yet nothing is done rightly from it without grace, because it was not given as something that could give life, but was set as the cause of transgression, so that it might shut up those who were convicted under sin—set as the cause of transgression not for justifying the ungodly, but for convicting the proud. And it is against the Manichaeans, because it is praised; and against the Pelagians, because no one is justified from the law; and therefore, for those whom the letter kills, to give them life, the Spirit of grace helps freely. For nothing is done rightly from it, as has been said, without grace, because it was not given as something that could give life. And good. To those who keep it. What then, was that which is good made death to me? Far be it. The commandment did not of itself become the cause of death to me; but I make it so for myself, who by sinning commit things worthy of death. For in the one who uses it badly, the fault lies in the vices, not in the commandment itself, which is good, since the law is good. But sin, so that it might appear as sin, worked death in me through what is good. Through the law sin appears, and through it sin is punished. Therefore through what is good, that is, through the law, which is good—if anyone uses it lawfully—it works death in me, when I become a transgressor of it.

So that sin might become exceedingly sinful through the commandment. The magnitude of iniquity demands that man be called no longer a sinner, but sin itself. Before the law, the appetite for sin had a limit through ignorance; what is admitted knowingly is beyond measure. For we know. That is, that the law is arduous, but it commands spiritual things, yet when I am weighed down according to carnal custom, I dissent from its perfection; the perfect destroys the imperfect. That the law is spiritual. This has been explained. It commands the works that are of the spirit; hence it shows that the law cannot be fulfilled except by a spiritual man. But I am carnal. I who receive the law have been accustomed to live carnally: that is, consenting to the flesh, not yet freed by spiritual grace. For it is good not to covet; and this good the righteous man wills, who lives by faith, and yet he does what he hates, because he covets, although he does not go after his covetous desires. But if he does so, then truly he himself does it, so as to yield, to consent, to obey the desire of sin. Sold under sin. That is, the price of temporal pleasure. But between the seller and the buyer in this place this commerce is shown to be: the enemy proposes the counsel of iniquity, and receives the assent of the will. I receive, therefore, as the price of lost innocence, the very pleasure of sinning and the death-bearing sweetness from iniquitous delight.

You were sold, he says, under your sins, lest anyone think that he has not yet been redeemed by the blood of Christ; but he awaits redemption, that is, immortality. Or he was sold under sin in the first transgression of the commandment, so that he might have a corruptible body, which weighs down the soul. But now, like a purchased slave, he is compelled to serve lust. For what I do, I do not understand. Surely I do not fail to understand that what I commit unwillingly is evil? How does he not understand, who does what he does not will, and does the very thing he hates? It is no small indication of understanding to hate the offense. Therefore, what I do, I do not understand—that is, I do not consent, I do not approve, I do not do it, and however much I am overcome, I judge the opposite to be true; and I clearly understand that it is not right, and I do not acknowledge it to be among the precepts of truth. For the good that I will, that I do not do. Up to this point, as some think, these are the words of a man established under the law, not yet under grace: so that even if someone does not wish to sin, he is overcome by sin, for carnal custom has prevailed, and the natural bond of mortality. Lest perhaps from these words someone suspect that the blessed Apostle consents to carnal concupiscence for evil works, let him consider what he added: But if I do what I do not will, I consent to the law, that it is good. For he says that he consents to the law rather than to the concupiscence of the flesh; for this he calls by the name of sin. Therefore he said that he does it, not by the affection of consenting and fulfilling, but by the very motion of concupiscence.

But that which I hate, that I do. For it is good not to covet; and this good the righteous man wills, who lives by faith, and yet he does what he hates, because he covets, although he does not go after his covetous desires; for if he should do so, then he truly himself does it, so as to yield, to consent, to obey the desire of sin. But if what I hate, that I do. That is, while I do not wish to do what I commit, I certainly agree with the law, which both hates evils and forbids them; and therefore I consent to it in mind, I contradict it in deed, and thus in me conscience does one thing and weakness another, which yields to the yoke of sin while judgment contradicts it; therefore he said that he does and works it, not by the affection of consenting and fulfilling, but by the very motion of coveting. I consent to the law, since it is good. Because I do not will what it does not will, I consent to it by the law of conscience; because what I do not will, I do. But now. Now already under grace, which has freed me from consenting. Now it is no longer I who work that. That is, I do not consent. For if he both covets and consents and acts, how is it not he himself who works it? even if he himself grieves that he works it, and groans heavily that he is conquered. It is not I who work: that is, not the inner mind; nor do I consent to present my members as weapons of iniquity. Before the law forbade, I myself did it willingly; but after the law came, I sin unwillingly, because I am conquered by habit. But the sin that dwells in me. It dwells as a guest, and rules, and as one thing in another—not as one—the carnal affection still dwells in me.

For I know that it no longer dwells in me. Insofar as he knows, he consents to the law; insofar as he does, he yields to sin, so that it prevails in me as though it seemed innate—which indeed does not proceed from God as created, but from corrupted nature. Here he begins to say that he himself had the titillation of the flesh. It should also be noted that the Apostle testifies that he himself felt that very titillation. This is in my flesh, good. He did not say: My flesh is not good; but the good does not dwell in my flesh, which the habit of sin weighs down, which I cannot overcome, because while I rely on the work of the law, I do not seek the aid of grace. But this which dwells, comes upon all men from the transmission of mortality through the transgressor. For to will is present with me. There is indeed in me the will prepared and given by God, but the effect is not, because carnal habit resists that very will, still in this mortal life. Some think that these utterances are those of a man placed under the law, not yet under grace. But to perfect the good I do not find. Without the support of grace I do not find the effect of good will. For that the willing may be, the will has already been prepared by God, because it is he who works in us both to will. And this should be noted, that he did not say: To do the good I do not find, but to perfect it; for what is the perfection of good, except the extinction of evil? The perfection of good is not to covet; for what is easier for a man placed under the law than to will the good and to do the evil?

For this is to accomplish the good, that a man not even desire. The good is imperfect when he desires, even if he does not consent to the desire for evil. I do not find, that is, I cannot. For the good that I will, this I do not do; but the evil that I do not will, this I do. With habit prevailing, I do what I do not will, as when someone has grown accustomed to swear, he falls into it when he does not think of it. But if what I do not will, that I do. He said, then, that he does and works it, not by the affection of consenting and fulfilling, but by the very motion of desiring. Now I no longer work that. Not I, because unwilling; but I, because I myself have imposed this necessity on myself through the force of habit. But the sin that dwells in me. The habit of sin dwells in me, which has been transmitted to me through the transgression of the first parent from a corrupted nature. I find, therefore, the law, for me who wills to do good. In the mind I find the law to do good against the evil that is in my flesh. I have a law agreeable to the inner man, that the evil which is in me through corrupted nature may be excluded; but this cannot be done without the grace of God. Therefore I say: Who will deliver me from the body of this death? Because evil lies close to me. That is, evil desires, or the counsels of the enemy, or the wars of the flesh, which by long-standing consent I have been accustomed to obey. But evil lies close from concupiscence, to which he does not consent, who said: Now I no longer work that. For I delight in the law of God.

Here he sets down two laws: the law of the spirit and the law of the flesh, which resists the law of the mind—that is, either the natural conscience or the divine law, which consists in the mind. For freedom gives delight; for as long as you do what is just out of fear, God does not delight you; as long as he does not delight you, you are still acting as a slave. Let him delight you, and you will be free. The law delights me—let it delight! What the law commands, that very justice delights me. According to the inner man. According to the mind. But I see another law in my members. This is the infirmity that has remained. Resisting the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin, which is in my members. From this part he feels captivity, where justice has not been fulfilled. But I see another law in my members: the desires of the flesh and the motions of a corrupted nature—that is, concupiscence. But if this concupiscence is called sin, it is so called because it was made by sin; just as the writing is called the hand of each person, because the hand made it. But the sins are those things which are done unlawfully according to the concupiscence of the flesh. He calls the law in his members that very burden of mortality, under which we groan, weighed down. The body that is corrupted weighs down the soul; through which it often happens that what is not lawful delights us against our will; and he calls this burden a law because it was imposed by the right of punishment. Resisting the law of my mind. Which elsewhere he commands to be mortified in the members. Mortify, he says, your members.

I read," he says, "the law of God, which is in the mind, and it takes me captive." He laments that he is captive, because he feels desires rising within him contrary to the purity of the mind, against which he implores the grace of the liberator. And this can be understood as meaning that he called it captivity with respect to the flesh, not the mind; by occasion, not by consent; and therefore "taking me captive," because even in the flesh itself it is not an alien nature, but our own. The Apostle can also be seen to be describing the man who still lives under the law, not yet under grace. What he says, "taking me captive," means my flesh: "to the law of sin, which is in my members." But even if this is taken of him, it is not that he himself was polluted by unrestrained lust, but that he was free from depraved consent; yet he groaned with such humility and piety over the concupiscence of the flesh, which he restrained by governing it, that he wished not to have it rather than to tame it. "In the law of sin, which is in my members." Which condemns sin, or evil habit, which is in the members; as if he were saying, "and taking me captive in its own law." Therefore he is a captive, because he does not do what he wishes. As long as the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. "Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me?" Who is thus tempted. These are the words of a man established under grace, whose action indeed has the resisting mortality of the flesh, but not one that prevails unto consent to sin. Who would deny that the Apostle, when he said these things, was still in this body of death?

From which, indeed, the impious are not freed, since their same bodies are handed over to eternal torments. To be freed, then, from this body of death is, once every sickness of fleshly concupiscence has been healed, to receive the body not for punishment but for glory; as he says elsewhere: And we ourselves groan within ourselves, awaiting adoption, the redemption of our body. For he prays that he may be freed from bodily and deadly vices. If the Son, he says, has freed us, you will be truly free. From this body of death? By the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The body of death is the letter that kills. The body of death is deadly pleasure, and carnal delight, and bodily infirmity, and the violence of habit, which drags one to death. From this habit not the law but grace frees, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Before the law there was no struggle with the pleasures of this world, because everything was permitted; under the law, however, there is struggle, but we are conquered; under grace, however, we struggle, and with God's help we conquer, because we serve not from fear but from love. From this body of death not everyone who ends this life is freed, but he who has received grace in this life, and, lest he receive it in vain, has performed good works and has cooperated. For it is one thing to depart from this body, another to be freed from this body of death, which the grace of God alone imparts. Therefore I myself. He recapitulates or concludes. With the mind I serve the law of God. As long as I am carnal, I am twofold.

But in the flesh. He serves the law of sin in the flesh by lusting; in the mind he serves the law of God by not consenting to that same lust. Man is of a twofold and double will—that is, either carnal or spiritual—in a certain manner divided within himself according to the quality of his works. The law is indeed one, but there are two kinds of commandments: one that teaches good, another that forbids evil. What teaches good is God's; what forbids evil is our own vice, for whom the law needs to be given, we who sin. To the law of sin. That is, to habit, or to corrupted nature, for as long as the sickness struggles against health, and the flesh lusts against the spirit.

CHAPTER VIII. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For no one is condemned except he who consents to the lust of the flesh unto evil; for when the flesh is dead, it has nothing in itself that can be condemned. Who walk not according to the flesh. Who have learned from Christ to crucify the flesh, and do not live carnally. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed me. It must be noted that he calls grace a law. The grace of the New Testament frees us from the habit of sin and death, by taking away even the occasions, and by giving help and an example of living, so that, namely, the lust of the flesh may not claim my consent for itself. From the law of sin and death. Which kills and mortifies sinners; that is, the law of the letter, or from that law which he had said above reigns in the members. For what was impossible for the law.

Because the law brings nothing to perfection, it was impossible for the law to make carnal men keep the righteousness of faith; but Christ made this possible by precept, by example, and by help. For it is impossible to fulfill the law through the flesh, in which men, proud and ignorant of the righteousness of God—that is, the righteousness which comes from God so that man may be righteous—and wishing to establish their own, as though the law could be fulfilled through their own free will unaided by God, are not subject to the righteousness of God. Therefore the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in those who do not walk according to the flesh—that is, according to man ignorant of the righteousness of God—but walk according to the spirit. In which it was weak through the flesh. It was weak through lusts, that is, through carnal desires; therefore the law was not fulfilled, because the love of righteousness itself was not yet present, which would hold the mind by inward delight, so that it would not be drawn to sin by delight in temporal things. Therefore the law was weak through the flesh—that is, it did not make righteous those given over to the flesh. God, sending his Son in the likeness. He took flesh like that of other men, without sin, because it was born neither of lust nor of intercourse, but of a virgin. This is directed against Photinus, who denies that the Son existed before the virgin gave birth. Of the flesh of sin. It was not flesh of sin, since it was not born of carnal delight; yet the likeness of the flesh of sin was in it, because it was mortal flesh. And of sin he condemned sin.

And concerning the flesh, which in us formerly served sin, he conquered sin by not sinning: as if someone from among the barbarians should conquer barbarians. The victims which they offered for sin in the law were called by the name of sin, although they themselves knew not sin: so also the flesh of sin, which was offered for our sins, received the name of sin. Some say that by the sin of the Jews, who killed the Lord, he condemned the sin of the devil by which he entangled man: as it is written to the Hebrews, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death. And rightly is death called sin, which is established to have been begotten from sin. Some say that by the sin of the Jews, who had crucified him, it was brought about that he shed his blood for the remission of sins. In the flesh. In that very flesh he conquered sin, so that the nature which had been good by condition, and was corrupted by transgression, he might reform through his grace, so that by its help it might be able to conquer sin: which had first been so made that it could not sin if it wished. But before transgression this was so, as I said: for now through the grace of God it can either avoid sin or conquer it: yet in such a way that it always implores its helper. That the justification of the law might be fulfilled in us.

Here he calls either grace itself the law, or certainly that justification of the law which is made manifest by the Spirit hidden within the letter: so that, since in them, with the flesh alive and resisting, the justification of the law could not be fulfilled, it may be fulfilled in us, who by the help of Christ put to death the flesh with its vices. The precepts of the law are fulfilled through love, which through fear could not be fulfilled. We who do not walk according to the flesh. We conduct ourselves. But according to the spirit. The flesh was made from the earth, but the spirit was given by God. Both, therefore, desire those things from which they are: the flesh earthly things, the spirit heavenly things. If, then, the spirit has overcome the flesh, heavenly things are wrought; but if it has consented, earthly things will prevail. But who walks according to the spirit, except he who is led by the Spirit of God? For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For he who. One man consists of spirit and flesh: when, therefore, he walks according to the flesh, he is flesh; when according to the spirit, he is spirit. Those who are according to the flesh. The works of the flesh are manifest. Those who are of the flesh savor the things of the flesh. They desire earthly and carnal goods as the highest goods. But those who are according to the spirit perceive the things of the spirit. That is, divine things. For God is spirit: whoever does not resist the will of God perceives the things of the spirit. For the prudence of the flesh is death. Prudence is so called from providing. He says elsewhere that human prudence is to return evil for evil.

Such prudence therefore prepares death by transgressing the commandment. So the prudence of the flesh is that each one wishes to avenge himself. But the prudence of the spirit is not to return evil for evil. When the soul desires lower things, it is said to have the prudence of the flesh; when higher things, the prudence of the spirit. Not because the prudence of the flesh is a substance with which the soul is clothed or stripped, but it is an affection of the soul itself, which will altogether cease to be when it has turned itself wholly to higher things. But the prudence of the spirit is life and peace. The prudence of the spirit even in the present has peace, by not returning evil for evil; and for eternity it merits eternal life, on account of obedience and peace, while through its patience it does not allow sin to grow. For the wisdom of the flesh—not the flesh, but a carnal act—is enmity against God. For everything that is not subject to God is hostile; and whoever wishes to avenge himself exceeds the measure even of the old law: not because he can harm God in any way, but he harms himself. For it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be. He said "impossible" altogether, so as to recall them from the enticements of the flesh and from luxury even in this way: as if we should say, injustice cannot be just; as if it were said: snow does not warm, nor indeed can it; for as long as it is snow, it does not warm; but it can be melted, and it can also boil so as to warm, but when it does this, it is already not snow.

Thus also it is called the prudence of the flesh when it desires worldly things instead of heavenly ones; but when it has begun to desire heavenly things, it ceases to be carnal prudence. But those who are in the flesh. From this it is proved that he did not speak of the substance of the flesh. They cannot please God. Because it cannot happen that those who live carnally and yield to the desires of the flesh do not sin. But you are not in the flesh. That is, in carnal desires, but in spiritual ones. But in the spirit. In spiritual action those live spiritually who have the Spirit of God; the Spirit of God is in those in whom its fruit has appeared, as he says to the Galatians, the fruit of the Spirit. If indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. He who loves his enemies will understand that the Holy Spirit proceeds as from the substance of the Father, so also from that of the Son: because he who has his Spirit is of one and the same substance. And therefore, as he is called the Spirit of the Father, so also of the Son. And therefore he said in the Gospel, he will receive from what is mine. If anyone, he says, does not have the Spirit of God: that is, so as to pray for his persecutors, to love his enemies, to imitate him in all things, as the apostle Peter says: Christ suffered for you, he left you an example, etc. For he himself says to his disciples: You do not know of what spirit you are; they were of his spirit, because they lived in faith, and hope, and love. But if Christ. If we always imitate Christ.

The body is, as it were, dead: even if it resists, it does not conquer, as David says: But I, like a deaf man, did not hear; and you will hear me, O Lord my God. In you. By his grace. The body indeed. The spirit lives and gives life, that we may do righteousness; but the body is dead, so that we may not be conquered by it. It is not only sought that the flesh die, but also that the spirit be given life. At the same time observe that the life of the soul is righteousness; therefore it is necessary that we not only cease from carnal things, but also do spiritual things. It is dead because of sin. He calls the body dead as long as it is such that the lack of bodily things troubles the soul, and disturbs and unsettles it with certain motions. For sin is for this reason called concupiscence, because it came about by the merit of sin; just as we are called the hand of each person by Scripture, because the hand made it. But the spirit lives because of justification. Here that man is described who lives under grace, and does not yet have the perfect faith which will be in the resurrection and change of the body. For as long as we are in this life, neither titillation nor delight is absent; for even if the one who lives under grace does not yield, and serves the law of God in his mind, yet in the flesh he serves the law of sin. But if his Spirit, who raised Jesus from the dead, dwells in you, he who raised Jesus Christ from the dead.

If you present yourselves in such a way as to be worthy to be those in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, God will not allow the temple of his Spirit to perish; but just as he raised Jesus from the dead, so he has also given us life. He will give life to your mortal bodies, because of his Spirit who dwells in you. Therefore, with your mortal bodies given life, not only will there be no consent to sin, but not even the concupiscence of the flesh to which consent might be given. Therefore, brothers, we are debtors. He does all this to show that the old law is not necessary for the faithful, which was given to the carnal and to sinners. Not to the flesh, so that we should live according to the flesh. That is, we are no longer subject to carnal custom. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. If according to the reasoning set out above, that carnal men cannot keep righteousness. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh, you will live. He has explained what he said above, that the flesh, that is, you have subjected carnal works to spiritual acts. For whoever are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. Whoever are governed by the grace of God and the Holy Spirit. Then you act well, if you are led by him; on the contrary, the sons of the devil are led by his spirit, who sinned from the beginning. For you did not receive again the spirit of slavery in fear.

The Jews received the spirit in fear, which drove them to slavery; for he who fears is a servant, but he who loves is a son: as it is written: The servant fears his master, and the son loves his father. If I am a father, where is my honor? If I am a lord, where is my fear? Therefore, as they were unwilling to do good works out of love, they are compelled by fear and necessity; but we ought to do all things voluntarily out of love, as sons. But you have received the spirit of adoption as sons of God. We are adopted then, when we are reborn through baptism: for before that we were children of wrath; and if we are sons, where is the faith of nature? In whom we cry, Abba, Father. He who calls him father shows himself to be a son. In all things, therefore, he ought to imitate the father, lest, on account of the name unworthily usurped, he be subject to a greater punishment. Crying out, that is, making us cry out. The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit, that we are sons. It is the testimony of adoption, that we have the Spirit, through whom we thus pray. No one could receive so great a gift, except by the grace of the Son, which is the pledge, that is, the gift of the Holy Spirit. But if we are sons, we are also heirs, heirs indeed of God, but co-heirs with Christ. He who is made a son through grace will deserve to be an heir, and to become a co-heir with the Son. If indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified.

If we suffer with him, there is patience, and also perseverance: because if we place before our eyes the gifts of God, which he endured for us who were impious, with such a helper, we ought not to fear to suffer for him, so that we may be glorified together, as Saint John says: Now we are sons of God; when he appears, we shall be like him. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory that shall be revealed in us. What worthy thing can man suffer for heavenly glory, even if that life were such as this present life is? Whatever he has suffered from death is no more than what he also deserved beforehand on account of his sin. But now both sins are forgiven, and then eternal life will be given, and the splendor of the sun, etc. He shows the reward, by which even death may be more easily despised, so that one may come to it more safely. For we know that men, which is worse, have of their own accord crept in among beasts for the sake of gold. This we ought to do with God as our helper in tribulations for the sake of the Lord: which, since they are temporal, bestow eternal salvation. If he says this, what should we do? For the expectation of the creature awaits the revelation of the sons of God. For the creature has been subjected to vanity. Some wish to understand the creature as Adam and Eve, whom the serpent, by the hope of divinity, subjected to vanity, and made to serve corruption, though they were unwilling: that is, not of themselves, because by sinning they were condemned by just judgment; because they themselves (they say) will be freed from the slavery of corruption.

But they say that every creature means all men, because even the just existed until the coming of Christ, since they too have not yet received, but await it in hope. Not only they, however, but we ourselves also, in whom these things have been fulfilled, still hope, to whom it was said: Many prophets and just men desired to see the things which you see, and did not see them. Therefore he says: They await the revelation of the sons of God; for as long as there is a resurrection, all things will be thus, afterwards they will cease from activity and be changed, according to the Scriptures. For the creature was made subject to vanity: that is, to men who have become vain, whom other men serve. Whatever has an end is vain in comparison with eternal life. Vanity of vanities, he says, all is vanity. Nor should you think that it has bestowed anything on you, since it has given even things that will perish and are worldly. Not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. Not of its own accord. Others say that the angels, since they too are a creature, await that men be changed into the dignity of angels. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God. Those who wish to understand the creature of the world in this way say this: When the sons of God are to be glorified, then the creature itself will also be made free from bondage, because it too feels labor, just as the earth, continually sown, is made barren. For we know that every creature groans and travails until now.