Chapter 7

Theophylact of Ohrid, Exposition of the Epistle of St Paul to the Romans — Chapter Seven

¹ Chapter Seven. Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to them that know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long a time as he lives? For the woman that is under a husband is bound by law to the living husband; but if the husband die, she is loosed from the law of the husband. So then if, while the husband lives, she be joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if the husband die, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be joined to another man. Having let go of the moral, he passes over to the doctrinal, and shows that they ought no longer to be under the law. For the law, he says, which you also know, has dominion over a man for as long a time as he lives. For to the dead it no longer gives ordinances. So that you also have died to it, and henceforth it no longer has dominion over you. In the beginning, then, he thus hinted this; but next he says the same thing in another way—that, when the husband is dead, the woman has authority to be joined to another. Therefore here too the law is like a husband, and you are like a woman. Then it were consequent to say: So then, brethren, the law has no dominion over you; for it is dead. But he did not so speak, lest he strike the Jews, but he brings in the woman as having died—that is, themselves—so that they enjoy a double freedom. For if, when the husband is dead, she is set free from the authority of the law, much more is she freed when she herself also appears to have died.

² So that, my brethren, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you should be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. If you have become dead, he says, you are not under the law. For if, when the husband is dead, the woman is not accountable, much more is she, having herself died, set free from the yoke of the law. And mark the wisdom, how he shows that the law itself wills the departing from it. You were set free, then, you also, from the law through the body of Christ, who was crucified on our behalf. For that body was made dead for this cause, that you might die indeed to the law, but come to be under another, namely him who died on our behalf, and then also rose. For the law, having died, lives no more; but Christ, having died, lives. So that you have no authority to depart from him who lives. And what is the gain? That we should bring forth fruit unto God, that is, that out of this conjunction with Christ we might bear children unto God, namely good deeds.

³ For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, which were through the law, wrought in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death. Showing that the law contributed nothing to us toward fleeing the carnal passions, but only made these manifest. When we were, he says, in the carnal life and in wicked deeds, the passions of sins, which were made manifest and known through the law, were wrought by the soul in our members. He did not say that the members wrought the wickedness, lest he give place to accuse the flesh. For the soul is like a certain harper, and the members a harp. When, therefore, the harper strikes badly, the harp sounds badly. Being then under the law, since we could not flee the passions, we begot wicked deeds unto death.

⁴ But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to that wherein we were held, so that we serve in newness of Spirit, and not in oldness of letter. He did not say that the law was abolished, lest he strike the Jews, but, We were delivered—we ourselves—from the law; which is, We were loosed, set free, having died, and become dead and immovable toward that thing wherein we were held, which was sin; for in it, as in a certain bond, we were held. And we died toward this, that we might serve—God, namely—in newness of Spirit, and not in oldness of letter. For of old virtue was hard to accomplish, inasmuch as Adam, in the mortal body, had taken on many natural defects; but now, by the grace of Christ in baptism, our nature was strengthened through the Spirit, which made us new and young, and freed us from the oldness and weakness of the letter. Wherefore, even under the law, virginity was rare, but now in the Church there are thousands of those who walk uprightly therein; and the like also in the contempt of death.

⁵ What shall we say then? That the law is sin? God forbid; but I did not know sin, except through the law. For I had not known lust, except the law had said: You shall not covet. Having said many things which seemed to bring a slander against the law—such as, Sin shall not have dominion over you; for you are not under law, but under grace; and, But the law entered in, that the offence might abound; and, a little before, that The passions of sins, which were through the law; and, Oldness of letter;—he heals this suspicion, bringing in as it were an objection, in a deliberative manner, and saying: What shall we say then concerning the law? That it is sin? Then, resolving this, first by way of denial, as he is wont to speak concerning things exceedingly absurd, and then also setting forth reasonings: It is not sin, he says, but a discloser of sin; for I had not known lust, except the law had said, You shall not covet. And how then came the flood to pass? How were the Sodomites burned, if even before the law lust was not known to be evil? It was known indeed, but not the intensified lust, nor so exactly and with the testimony from the law. For formerly it was discerned by the natural law alone, but afterward through the written law, becoming the occasion of greater punishment—yet not by reason of the teaching of the law, but by reason of the heedlessness of those who gave no attention; which he also makes plain through what follows.

⁶ But sin, taking occasion through the commandment, wrought in me all manner of lust; for without the law sin is dead. He did not say that the law wrought the lust, but sin (which is, according to Chrysostom, the heedless and corrupted choice), or the devil (for this some understood to be sin), or the love of pleasure and the impulse toward the worse, used the teaching of the law toward the contrary. For just as, if some physician should forbid cold water to one in a fever, and the sick man should the more desire it, the physician would not be blamed; for it belongs to the physician to forbid, and to the sick man not to be persuaded; so also the law taught, that it might lead away from lust; but the sin-loving choice increased the lust, and wrought not one lust, but all manner of lust, working the evil with intensity. For when one is hindered, then the more is he inflamed. And then also sin appeared, when the law was transgressed. For without the law, sin is dead; that is, it is not reckoned to be. But when there is a law that prescribes what is due, sin lives—that is, it subsists and seems sin, since those who transgress the law stumble knowingly.

⁷ And I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. Before Moses, he says, I was alive without the law; and I was not even greatly condemned (and in his own person he speaks of human nature); but when the commandment came, sin appeared as sin. For those of former times, even if they sinned, yet they did not know it. And this too is a good thing of the law, that it made men know that they sin. And the word, I died, you shall understand in two ways, both in the sense of, I sinned, and in the sense of, I became liable to a more vehement chastisement; which is no charge against the law, but against him who gives no heed to it. As for example: a man was sick, and did not even know that he was sick; then a physician came, and taught him that he is sick, and that he must abstain from a certain food, as increasing the sickness. But he did not hearken, and then he died.

⁸ And the commandment, which was unto life, this I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it slew me. He did not say that the commandment became death to me, but It was found, thus interpreting the strange and paradoxical nature of the absurdity. For its aim led unto life, and for this it was given. But if death came out of it, the charge is not against it. For sin—that is, the impulse toward the worse, and the corrupted and sin-loving mind, or rather, to speak more properly, pleasure—deceived me, and slew me through the commandment. For had the commandment not been there to point out sin, I would neither have reckoned myself as doing it as sin, nor have been liable to chastisement. For the word, It slew, one must understand in both senses, both of the sinning and of the being chastised, just as above the word, I died, was also said. The whole conclusion, then, of the apostolic thought is of this kind: When there is no law, sin is not reckoned; but when the law has come and is transgressed, sin appeared and revived. So that through the commandment, when transgressed, sin—that is, the manifestation and subsistence of sin—comes to subsist, though formerly it did not subsist nor was reckoned, in that there was no law. The law, then, in itself was not the cause of sin; nor yet had it strength to redeem from it. So that we had need of grace, because of the law’s want of strength.

⁹ So that the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Behold, here most manifestly he stopped the mouths of the Marcionites, and Manichaeans, and Simonians, and all who slander the Old Testament. For he plainly proclaims the law holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. And law differs from commandment as the more universal from the more particular. For of the law some things are doctrines, and some commandments. The doctrines, then, of the law are holy, and the commandments concerning deeds are holy, and just, and good. So that they are ordinances of the good and just God, even though the aforesaid heretics blaspheme, saying that the law is of the evil god.

¹⁰ Did then that which is good become death to me? God forbid! But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me through that which is good. The law, he says, did not become death to me, but sin slew me, that it might appear how great an evil it is, and that, even when it was being healed by the law, it became worse. And by sin, as we said above, you shall understand both the pleasure-loving mind, and the impulse toward sinning, and now also the devil, and the very deed itself, which draws one down through pleasure. Thanks, then, be to Christ, who delivered us from so great an evil.

¹¹ That sin might become exceeding sinful through the commandment. The word, That it might become, stands for, that it might appear how great a destruction sin is; just as also the word, But let God be true, stands for, let him appear. And this was shown through the commandment; for it used the commandment unto death; just as a disease also, when through the physician’s remedies it becomes worse, might be said to disclose its own malignity through the physician’s art, as being in no way benefited by it.

¹² For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. Since he said that already through the commandment sin appeared, lest you suppose the law to be the cause of this, he makes his defense on its behalf, putting forth a common verdict, and saying: We know that the law is spiritual. For this is acknowledged, he says, and known to all, that the law is so far from being the cause of sin that it is even a teacher of virtue, and an enemy of vice; for this is the meaning of spiritual. Whence then came sin to be, if the teacher is so admirable? From the heedlessness and weakness of the disciples. For I, he says, am carnal, that is, the whole of human nature, both that before the law and that under the law, had all the throng of passions brought in upon it. For not only did we become mortal through the transgression of Adam, but nature also received the passions, being sold under sin, and become a slave, so that it could in no way lift up its head.

¹³ For that which I work, I know not. For he does not here speak of an utter ignorance. For if they sinned in ignorance, how were they thereafter chastised? But what does he say? I am darkened, I am carried away, I know not how sin carries me away. So that the words, I know not, show not an ignorance of what must be done, but a perplexity, and a plot, and a deceit, and a being carried away. And all these things he says concerning the men before the coming of Christ, even though he has set down his own person.

¹⁴ For what I would, that I do not. That is, For what the men of that time would, that they did not do. But he does not bring in necessity, nor force, through such words. But what does he say? In the sense of, What I did not approve, what I did not accept, what I did not love, that I did; for he adds next:

¹⁵ But what I hate, that I do. Do you see that he brings in neither force nor necessity? For he would have added, But what I am compelled to, that I do. But now he did not so speak, but, What I hate. So that the words, What I would not, you shall understand as they have been taken. How then came the evil things to be? By a being carried away, by a weakness which they had from the transgression of Adam. And this weakness the law had no strength to heal, though it prescribed what must be done; but Christ, having come, healed it. This, then, is the aim of the Apostle throughout, both in what he has said and in what he is about to say: to show that human nature suffered incurably, and was healed by no other than by Christ.

¹⁶ But if what I would not, that I do, I consent unto the law that it is good. So that the law too is good; which is plain from the fact that I myself also know by nature what must be done, and am not corrupted in my judgment, even though I pursue vice.

¹⁷ But now it is no longer I that work it, but sin that dwells in me. And I know that there dwells in me, that is, in my flesh, no good thing. He did not say that the flesh works it, but sin, that is, the tyranny of sin which carries me away. So that why do they babble who accuse the flesh and the workmanship of God? And how, they say, does he speak? that There dwells in me, that is, in my flesh, no good thing? Hear how he says this. Man is composed of two things, soul and flesh; and of these the soul has the dominion in all things, while the flesh is a slave. There dwells not, then, in the flesh the good? That is, it does not lie in the flesh’s authority, but in the soul’s. Whatsoever, then, the soul chooses, that the flesh does. As if one should say that the good playing is not in the harp, but in the harper. For he does not slander the harp, but shows the superiority of the craftsman over the instrument.

¹⁸ For to will is present with me; but to work that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do. But if I do that which I would not, it is no longer I that work it, but sin that dwells in me. In saying, I find not, he disclosed the insolence and the plotting of sin; for he frees both the substance of the soul and the substance of the flesh from blame, and transfers the whole to the wicked deed and choice. For in saying, What I would not, he frees the soul from blame; and in saying, It is no longer I that work it, he keeps the flesh unslandered. Who then works the evil? Sin, which is, as Chrysostom says, the wicked and sin-loving choice. And this is not a workmanship of God, but a movement of our own. For will simply is a work of God; but such-and-such a will is our own, and of our judgment. And it has been said above what sin is: the tyranny of sin which carries away our mind through pleasure.

¹⁹ I find then the law, that, to me who would do good, evil is present with me. What is said is obscure, as being defective; for it ought to have been said thus: I find then the law agreeing with me, who would indeed do the good, but do it not, because evil is present with me. And what he means is of this kind: The knowledge of the good I had from the beginning laid up together with me; and I find also the law agreeing with me and approving, and I would indeed do it, except that I am hindered, and the evil is present with me—that is, The doing of the evil is not done away from me. Yet the blessed John, after interpreting it, as has been said, as defective, hints that it may also be understood otherwise; namely, I find then the law to be not for any other, but for me who would do the good. For the law is a law only for him who would do the good, willing the same things as it. Which is plain also through what follows.

²⁰ For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. I knew the good even before this; but finding it laid down in writing, I praise the law, and consent to it after the inward man, that is, after my mind. But I see another law, that is, sin; which he called a law, because those who are deceived are persuaded by it, and cannot leave it, as though it were a certain irresistible law. This, then, wars against the law of my mind, that is, against the natural law (and what above he named the inward man, this he plainly names mind), and it conquers; or rather it brings me into captivity, conquering both the natural and the written law. How does it bring into captivity? By the law of sin, that is, by its power, by its tyranny. And he did not say, By the impulse of the flesh, or by nature, but, By the law of sin, which has gained the mastery of my members. And this is no slander of the flesh. For just as a robber, if he seize a palace and dwell in it, this is no slander of the house; so here too, if sin dwell in our members, the flesh is not on that account wicked; for it was tyrannized over. And some say that there are here four laws: one, that of God, which teaches us what is due; a second, that which wars against it, which is the one that enters in upon us by the working of the devil; a third, the law of the mind, that is, the natural; a fourth, the one that is in the members, that is, the sin-loving choice and the disposition toward evil, hardened in us through habit.

²¹ O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The natural law did not suffice, the written law had no strength, but the tyranny of sin conquered them both. Whence then is there hope of salvation? Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? that is, from the body that is subject to death. For since it became passible from the transgression, and thereafter easily assailable by sin, it was over—[1] [But someone will say: And since the flesh was easily assailable by sin, why were the first sinners chastised? Because such things were enjoined upon them as they were able to accomplish even while sin held sway.]

²² I give thanks to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Since he was at a loss, and found no other to deliver him, of necessity he found Christ. Wherefore he also gives thanks to God and the Father, through Jesus our Lord, that is, Christ being the cause of the thanksgiving. For he, he says, accomplished what the law could not; he delivered me from the weakness of the body, strengthening it, so that it is no longer tyrannized over by sin. But just as, having become mortal through the transgression of Adam, it was set as an easy prey to sin; so, through his obedience, when he was crucified and then rose again, it received the rose-gardens of incorruption, and stands nobly against sin.