1 Know you not, brethren (for I speak to them that know the law) that the law hath dominion over a man as long as it liveth?
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VERS. 1.-- *Know you not.* Thus far concerning the force of grace: now, that the law is no longer to be held to; and he treats of the end of the law and of its former uselessness: let not the Romans therefore wonder that the Apostle says: *You are not under the law, but under grace:* above it was said that it does not justify, here that it must cease; because it was given until Christ. The order: Know you not this, namely: that the natural law has dominion in a man for as long a time as he lives, which you ought not to be ignorant of; because you know the law, and I speak to them that know the law? in which law what I say is made manifest, if it be understood spiritually; or, the law of Moses has dominion in a man, that he may obey it; because you also know the law of Moses, *for to them that know,* etc. And thus the letter can be read in two ways, either of the natural law, or of the Mosaic. *He liveth.* For a law is said to be dead when its authority ceases.
2 For the woman that hath an husband, whilst her husband liveth is bound to the law. But if her husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
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VERS. 2.-- *For the woman that is under a husband.* That he may strengthen their minds, he uses the example of human law. The Romans know law, because they are not Barbarians, but have grasped natural justice, partly from the Greeks, as did the Greeks and the Hebrews.
3 Therefore, whilst her husband liveth, she shall be called an adulteress, if she be with another man: but if her husband be dead, she is delivered from the law of her husband: so that she is not an adulteress, if she be with another man.
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VERS. 3.-- *Therefore, the husband being alive,* etc. If a man, keeping a dead law, wishes to belong to faith, he is an adulterer in both, nor does Christ profit him. *But if her husband be dead.* Thus, the law being ended, he does not transgress who passes over to Christ, the figures being dismissed.
4 Therefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law, by the body of Christ: that you may belong to another, who is risen again from the dead that we may bring forth fruit to God.
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VERS. 4.-- *Through the body of Christ.* Because Christ was the fulfilment and the truth: but the things of the law were the figure and shadow of Christ, and of those things that were fulfilled in Christ.
5 For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death.
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VERS. 5.-- *For when we were.* Here he sets down four acts of man: before the law, under the law, under grace: then in the other life, where there is no warfare.
6 But now we are loosed from the law of death wherein we were detained; so that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
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VERS. 6.-- *But now,* etc. In the foregoing likeness there are three things: the husband, etc., *as far as* that they do not overcome him. *From the law of death.* For concupiscence was increased when the law forbade where there was no faith, and to the heap of sins the crime of transgression was added; because where there is no law, neither is there transgression. *In newness of spirit.* By the works of the new man, which we attain not by our own strength or by the law, but by grace, namely of the spirit, in which works we must so abide that nothing be added from the works of the law, which are old.
7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? God forbid! But I do not know sin, but by the law. For I had not known concupiscence, if the law did not say: Thou shalt not covet.
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VERS. 7.-- *What shall we say then.* Since the law is of death and increased the powers of sin, holding a man back from good working; the law therefore seems to be sin, that is, teaching to sin, or such a thing that its author sinned in giving it, as though it were an evil thing. No, but rather it is good: it made sin to be recognized, because before, certain things were not known either to be sins at all, or to be so grave, or to be punishable. *God forbid. But sin.* He shows that the law is not sin, but the indicator of sin: so that thus the soul, by anxiety over its guilt, might be turned to the receiving of grace. * God forbid.* In one word he acquits the law, etc., *as far as* great is the authority of the Apostle defending it. But those words, *I did not know,* and *I was not aware,* do not here signify ignorance altogether, but he says this: I took a more exact knowledge of natural discernment through the law. *For concupiscence.* The Apostle reads this as general, whence all things come. Good is the law, which, while it forbids this, forbids all things. *Concupiscence.* Some understand it as general. Others as that of which it is spoken in the Decalogue: *Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's thing or his wife*. As general, because from it comes every evil. *I was not aware.* In his own person he pleads a general cause.
8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
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VERS. 8.-- *But occasion being taken.* Because our carnality is such that it desires forbidden things the more ardently: which, if they were not mentioned, it would lie as though asleep. And the devil, seeing the law given for men's help, blazed up the more and pressed the more, that he might turn it to their ruin, whereas before, possessing them as it were securely, he tempted them less; or, occasion being taken in the things themselves, as at the sight of a woman or of gold. Concupiscence was less when before the law thou didst sin secure, etc., *as far as* it is entire, when it transgresses the law. * All concupiscence,* by saying this, he marks out all sins. For there was sin before, but not all sin, when the crime of transgression was still lacking. But now all sin has been added, because transgression also. For concupiscence was increased out of the prohibition of the law, when as yet the grace of him who frees was lacking.
9 And I lived some time without the law. But when the commandment came, sin revived,
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VERS. 9.-- *But I lived.* It is plain: because he speaks not out of his own person, but generally out of the person of man. *But I lived.* Note two men in the same man, the inward and the outward, that is, reason and the *fomes*, which is in the flesh. He says that the inward man consents to the law, and by his testimony he approves the law to be good. But the outward man fights against the inward and against the law, and takes it captive, and through the law has a greater power of sinning. *But when it came,* etc. Here is the second act, under the law. That is: Here the Apostle speaks in the state of a man placed under the law. *It revived.* It began to appear and to rebel. *It revived,* he says, not *it lived*. For it had lived once in paradise, when against the precept given the thing admitted appeared plainly enough. But while men born sinners lived without a commandment, it lay hidden as though dead, without knowledge, because without restraint: but when the law was given, it revived in the knowledge of man, which had once lived in the knowledge of the first man.
10 And I died. And the commandment that was ordained to life, the same was found to be unto death to me.
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VERS. 10.-- *Was found.* Before, he was a sinner unknown to himself; but now he is made a transgressor manifest to himself. *For.* As if he should say: How was it given me unto death? Because through it I was seduced by a false sweetness. *Occasion being taken,* etc. What is coveted becomes sweeter while it is forbidden, and thus sin deceives through the commandment. For out of the prohibition, where charity fails, the desire of evil grows: and this being done, what is forbidden becomes sweeter, and so it deceives by a false sweetness. For that sweetness is deceitful which more and greater bitternesses of punishments follow. *It seduced.* It drew from good to evil, and through this led on to eternal damnation. *It killed.* With thine own sword, which thou wast carrying, etc., *as far as* be therefore humble and thou shalt be able to conquer.
11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, seduced me: and by it killed me.
12 Wherefore the law indeed is holy: and the commandment holy and just and good.
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VERS. 12.-- *Therefore the law indeed.* It is holy, teaching soundly. *And the commandment,* that is, what through it is commanded. *Holy,* in itself. *And just,* that is, justifying the sinner. *And good.* That is, useful, acquiring life. And since it is established for me that the law is good, and yet from it comes death to me, as was said above, therefore that which is good, has it been made death, that is, is it given me by God, so that it is the efficient cause of death? No: but the *fomes* is the efficient cause, which turns a good thing into evil.
13 Was that then which is good made death unto me? God forbid! But sin, that it may appear sin, by that which is good, wrought death in me: that sin, by the commandment, might become sinful above measure.
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VERS. 13.-- *That sin might appear.* I do not say, that it might be, because it also was, when it did not appear, as above. I did not know concupiscence. He did not say, I did not have it. *Through the good.* The law. Not indeed effecting sin, but rather showing it and forbidding it. *That it might become above measure.* Because through the law it did not fail, but grew rather beyond its accustomed desires.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual. But I am carnal, sold under sin.
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VERS. 14.-- *But I.* Thus far he has excused the law, that the fault ought not to be poured back upon it; here he says that neither ought it upon the principal nature, that is, upon reason, according to what it has here from God; and so not upon the Creator, but upon men, who are corrupted of themselves, so that they cannot resist depraved motions. *I am carnal.* Not unfittingly does the Apostle say this even of himself, according to the flesh so long as he lives here, on account of the motions of the flesh. And every holy man says this rightly. *Sold under sin.* And this from the fault of the first man, who for the delight of forbidden food sold himself and all others. Or, *under sin,* that is, that they may be servants of sin. Or each one has sold himself by the habit of his own will.
15 For that which I work, I understand not. For I do not that good which I will: but the evil which I hate, that I do.
16 If then I do that which I will not, I consent to the law, that it is good.
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VERS. 16.-- *For that which I work.* He proves that he is a servant of sin: because what I work according to the outward man, by leaving good undone or by doing evil, I understand according to the inward man that it ought not to be worked. Truly I work what I understand not, because I both leave undone the good that I will, and do the evil that I will not. *I understand not.* Because I see that I know one thing through the law, and do another. *For not the good which I will, this I do; but what.* Being subject to sin, he does what he wills not. *I do.* I covet; not that the Apostle goes after concupiscence, and that it drags him to evils: he wrestled, he was not subjugated: he sets this forth to thee concerning himself, lest thou despair of this in thyself.
17 Now then it is no more I that do it: but sin that dwelleth in me.
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VERS. 17.-- *But now.* Now redeemed: now, the grace of Christ having been received by him who before was sold under sin. *Not I.* The mind is free, the flesh captive. *It dwelleth,* although, by not consenting to it, he lives by faith. There are desires, but if they do not reign he himself does not do the thing; but he would do it if he consented. *But sin that dwelleth in me.* How does it dwell, since it is not a substance but a privation of good? Behold, the body of the first man was corrupted through sin. And that corruption, by the condition of the offence, remains in the body, holding the force of the divine sentence given in Adam, by whose fellowship the soul is stained with sin.
18 For I know that there dwelleth not in me, that is to say, in my flesh, that which is good. For to will is present with me: but to accomplish that which is good, I find not.
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VERS. 18.-- *For to will.* To will, not: because to will the good lies close by me, because it lies beside the flesh and rests, powerless to rise from the working of the good. *Close by:* because it is in a manner natural to will the good through reason, but this willing is such that it is always overcome by the force of the flesh: but the willing of God overcomes the flesh. *To will.* The things the law commands are good, so much so that he naturally loves them, and wills to do them, but the strength to accomplish is lacking. *To will.* The good man always wills not to covet at all, but he never accomplishes this in this life. *To accomplish.* He does not say *to do*, but *to accomplish*, because he does not do nothing. He does good: because he does not consent to concupiscence; but he does not accomplish it so as not to covet at all. So also the enemy does evil, while he stirs desire, but does not accomplish it, because he does not drag him through to evil.
19 For the good which I will, I do not: but the evil which I will not, that I do.
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VERS. 19.-- *For not the good which I will.* I do not find how to accomplish the good, because neither that good which I will. From the side on which it would seem the less he shows it, but on the contrary the evil, because even that which I will not, etc. Or: I do not find the good, because it is not there. For many foolish men do not find the good in a thing, which nevertheless is there. It is one thing not to covet, another not to go after one's own concupiscences. Not to covet belongs to the wholly perfect; not to go after one's own concupiscences belongs to the man fighting, to the man wrestling. Where the fight is hot, why is the victory despaired of?
20 Now if I do that which I will not, it is no more I that do it: but sin that dwelleth in me.
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VERS. 20.-- *But if,* etc. He concludes the foregoing sentence: therefore I do not work it, namely the evil; from which the former question is concluded, namely that he consents to the law of God. *But sin that dwelleth in me.* Pressed by sin, he does its will, which nevertheless is by the fault of man. He says this, that he may mark from how great things God rescues man.
21 I find then a law, that when I have a will to do good, evil is present with me.
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VERS. 21.-- *I find therefore.* He had said that the law is good, that nature is good, which wills the same thing and consents to it: here he joins the good law as a helper to the good nature; and yet the outward man conquers those two joined together: so that a man, seeing that he can escape by neither, may be beholden to grace. *To him that willeth.* Only: because I cannot accomplish it, because the evil is near to reason, lying in wait in the flesh as it were at the doors of the soul, and it forces him to do another thing than the man and the law will.
22 For I am delighted with the law of God, according to the inward man:
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VERS. 22.-- *According to the inward.* Because the flesh is drawn by descent from Adam it has sin in itself; if the soul were drawn by descent, sin would dwell in it also: because Adam's soul sinned. But if the soul had sin in itself, man would not know himself.
23 But I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind and captivating me in the law of sin that is in my members.
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VERS. 23.-- *But I see.* It belongs to the body of death that the law of the members fight against the law of the mind, while the flesh lusts against the spirit. But the law of sin does not reign, when its desires are not obeyed. *The law in the members.* Rightly is the tinder of sin called a law: because it was lawfully brought about that he who did not obey his superior should not be served by his inferior, that is, the flesh. *Captive.* From the flesh, in part: because the mind fights back, and delights together in the law of God. So it is read of the Apostle himself: the mind consents not to sin, death contends, the mind consents not. There is in me something dead, something alive: what is to be hoped from thence?
24 Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
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VERS. 24.-- *Unhappy.* Not in the mind, but in the flesh. *Who shall deliver me?* He shall be delivered when this mortal shall put on immortality, where no concupiscence shall remain.
25 The grace of God, by Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore, I myself, with the mind serve the law of God: but with the flesh, the law of sin.
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VERS. 25.-- *Therefore I myself.* Here is the third act in the law of the spirit. But because he says that he has been delivered by grace, lest anyone grow slack in his security, as though sin should hurt no further, he determines in what way the deliverance is, if he shall have remained in grace. Otherwise sin will seize him again. *I myself.* I in the flesh, I in the mind: not two, but one out of both; with the mind I consent not, with the flesh I lust.