1 What shall we say, then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
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VERS. 1.-- *Shall we continue.* This perverse men take from that word: *Where the offence abounded, grace also did more abound.* To say this is to be ungrateful to grace. And because grace is strong where the offence abounded, one must not continue in sin, as some reckon, for the sake of greater grace. For grace did more abound where the offence abounded, not by the merit of him who sins, but by the help of him who succours. One must not therefore continue in sin, but rather we ought and are able to be, as it were, dead to sin and buried through that same grace, and to rise again unto justice, and afterwards unto eternal life.
2 God forbid! For we that are dead to sin, how shall we live any longer therein?
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VERS. 2.-- *We are dead.* That is, freed from sin through baptism, so that it may no longer have dominion in us, through grace. For to die to sin is to be freed from sin. *How shall we yet,* etc. For since grace has granted this, that we should die to sin, what else do we do if we live in it, but that we should be ungrateful to grace?
3 Know you not that all we who are baptized in Christ Jesus are baptized in his death?
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VERS. 3.-- *Know you not.* Being dead to sin, which is done in baptism, we ought not to live to it again, so that it should be necessary to die to it again: because in the death of Christ, that is, in the likeness of the death of Christ, that as he died once in the flesh and lives always, so we, having died once to evil through baptism, may always live to good. Or he says *in the death:* because death is the cause of this purification.
4 For we are buried together with him by baptism into death: that, as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life.
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VERS. 4.-- *Buried together.* Whatever was done in the cross of Christ, in the burial, in the resurrection, in the ascension, in the sitting at the right hand, was so done that the Christian life might be conformed to these things, which were mystically not only spoken but also done. Consider the several things of Christ, in whom the old man had lived according to punishment, hunger, thirst and the like, not according to fault: in this manner he ended and disposed the oldness, so that, enduring the pain of the cross, he had his limbs thus stretched out and fastened, that they might not be moved to their former acts, from which, buried also, he rested, withdrawn from human sight, requiring of us that we lay aside the oldness of sins with the sorrow and groaning of penance: that our limbs be fastened together through continence and justice, lest we return to our former evils, from which we should so perfectly rest that neither the sight nor the memory of them be had: and not only does he require this of us in the sacrament of the passion, but he also brings it about, if we will to imitate him. *He rose again from the dead.* The death and the resurrection of Christ are also sacraments.
5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.
6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin may be destroyed, to the end that we may serve sin no longer.
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VERS. 6.-- *The old man.* That is, the old acts are crucified, that is, dead. Our oldness and our curse consist in two things, namely in fault and in punishment. But Christ by his single oldness consumed our twofold one. For in the sepulchre he rested one day and two nights. By the one day his single oldness is signified, but by the two nights our twofold one; whence: Christ blotted out our fault, present, past, and future. The past by forgiving it, the present by drawing us back from it, the future by conferring grace that we might avoid it. The punishment likewise he consumed, wholly blotting out the punishment of Gehenna, so that they who truly repent may not feel it. The temporal punishment, however, he did not entirely take away: for hunger, thirst, death and the like remain; but he cast down its reign and dominion, and at the last he will utterly destroy it.
7 For he that is dead is justified from sin.
8 Now, if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall live also together with Christ.
9 Knowing that Christ, rising again from the dead, dieth now no more. Death shall no more have dominion over him.
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VERS. 9.-- *Knowing that Christ. (AUG)*. One rose again now not to die. Lazarus rose again, but to die; the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue rose again, but to die; the son of the widow rose again, but to die: Christ rose again not to die. Hear the Apostle, *Christ rising again,* etc. Hope for such a resurrection, and for the sake of this be a Christian, not for the sake of the happiness of this earth.
10 For in that he died to sin, he died once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
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VERS. 10.-- *For in that he died to sin.* The Apostle commends the sacrament of baptism, that as he, by dying once, is preached as having died by a likeness of sin, so whoever has been baptized in him may die to that same thing of which that was the likeness, that is, to sin; and may live by being born again from the font, as he lived by rising again from the sepulchre.
11 So do you also reckon that you are dead to sin, but alive unto God, in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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VERS. 11.-- *So do you also.* Whatever he said above belongs to men through the grace of Christ, here he attributes to the Romans.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, so as to obey the lusts thereof.
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VERS. 12.-- *Let it not therefore.* Because above he said that we are dead to sins, and ought not to live in it, since no one is without sin: he determines what things are most of all to be guarded against, as though he concluded what was asked above: Shall we continue in sin. *That you should obey its concupiscences.* Concupiscence is sometimes a name for the *fomes*, namely for the inborn vice; sometimes for the inward act, which is present both in the first motion, which is called *propassio*, and in the second, which is called delight, and in the third, which is called consent. Here he does not forbid the concupiscence that is in the first motion, because it is not in our power when it rises: but by the grace of God we can restrain it, that it may not come as far as delight and consent, which he does forbid.
13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of iniquity unto sin: but present yourselves to God, as those that are alive from the dead; and your members as instruments of justice unto God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace.
15 What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid!
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VERS. 15.-- *What then?* Because the law is from God, he sins who forsakes it for grace. *What then? Shall we sin.* Because we are not under the law, which terrifies, but under grace, which promises well? what then? shall we sin? This certain men [say], who preach that the law is, as it were, cleaving to us or coercing us, and is to be held to.
16 Know you not that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are whom you obey, whether it be of sin unto death or of obedience unto justice.
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VERS. 16.-- *Know you not that,* etc. Lest, professing God in words, we should be made the devil's, he forewarns us that we are the servants of him whose will we do.
17 But thanks be to God, that you were the servants of sin but have obeyed from the heart unto that form of doctrine into which you have been delivered.
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VERS. 17.-- *But thanks be to God,* etc. He both shows their change, and has disclosed how pleasing this is to him, offering a hymn to God. For you were, he says, the servants of sin: but of your own accord and by the free will of your mind you shook off his dominion, and embraced the spiritual doctrine. *The form of doctrine.* Our doctrine is a form, which restores the deformed image of God.
18 Being then freed from sin, we have been made servants of justice.
19 I speak an human thing, because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as you have yielded your members to serve uncleanness and iniquity, unto iniquity: so now yield your members to serve justice, unto sanctification.
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VERS. 19.-- *A human thing,* etc. Thus far the Apostle has shown that one must not sin. Here he says what is to be done thenceforward, namely that justice be served, concerning which there is no one who can excuse himself, because there is no one who cannot work well, at least in will: which is the same thing through grace. *For as you have yielded,* etc. If not more, at least as much as then, lest the faith should be shunned as harsh and insupportable. As then no fear compelled, but the lust and pleasure of sin led, so now the delight of a justice grown up leads, though not yet perfect; whence he said: *A human thing.* *So now.* Because justice ought even to be loved more than iniquity then was, so that for justice a man may bear pains, and despise all things, even death.
20 For when you were the servants of sin, you were free men to justice.
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VERS. 20.-- *Free.* It is the servant's liberty when it delights him to sin, which comes of free choice. He serves freely who gladly does the will of the Lord; and so he serves justice freely who loves, who rejoices.
21 What fruit therefore had you then in those things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of them is death.
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VERS. 21.-- *What fruit therefore.* This recalling makes former things abhorrent, and makes us the more beholden to grace. *You are ashamed.* For there is a certain temporal confusion, namely a disturbance of the mind looking back upon its own sins, and shuddering at the sight, and blushing at the shudder, and correcting itself by the blush. *The end of them,* etc. Because death is the worthy recompense for sin: but eternal life, which is the end of the just, is given by grace alone through Christ, because both the merits are from grace, and grace will be rendered for grace.
22 But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end life everlasting.
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VERS. 22.-- *But now being made free.* He said *free* with respect to justice, not *made free*: now, with respect to sin, not *free*, lest they ascribe this to themselves, but he accordingly says *made free*, according to the sentence of the Lord: *If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed*. *The wages.* Rightly a wage, because to the devil's warfare eternal death is rendered as a debt. To whom would the just Judge render a crown, if the merciful Father had not bestowed grace? how would that debt be rendered, unless that grace were first freely bestowed? Since sins had far separated the human race from God, we had to be reconciled through a mediator, who alone was born without sin, lived and was slain, so that human pride might both be reproved and healed through the humility of God, and it might be shown to man how far he had withdrawn from God, etc.
23 For the wages of sin is death. But the grace of God, life everlasting in Christ Jesus our Lord.