And so, he says, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be another's, who rose again from the dead, that we may bring forth fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, he says—that is, held bound by carnal desires—the passions of sins, which were through the law, wrought in our members, so that they bore fruit unto death. Concupiscence being increased, which the law forbids, where there was no faith, and to the heaping up of sins the crime of transgression was added: because where there is no law, neither is there transgression. He calls these passions, which are through the law, those that wrought in our members, so that they bore fruit unto death. Under these passions, as under a dominating husband, the soul acted before grace came through faith.
To these passions, therefore, he dies who already serves the law of God with the mind; although those passions are not yet dead, so long as he serves the law of sin with the flesh. There remains, therefore, still something in him who is under grace, which does not conquer him, nor lead him captive, until all be mortified that has been strengthened by an evil habit, and whereby the body is even now said to be dead, so long as it does not perfectly serve the spirit. But it will come to pass that it serves perfectly, when even the mortal body itself shall have been quickened. 3. From which we comprehend that there are four differences even in one man, which, being passed through by degrees, one abides in eternal life.
For because it behooved, and this was just—that after our nature sinned, spiritual blessedness being lost, which is signified by the name of paradise, we should be born animal and carnal—the first action is before the Law, the second under the Law, the third under grace, the fourth in peace. The action before the Law is when we are ignorant of sin, and follow carnal concupiscences. The action under the Law is when we are now forbidden from sin, and yet, overcome by the habit of it, we sin, because faith does not yet aid us.
The third action is when we now most fully believe in our Liberator, and attribute nothing to our own merits, but, loving His mercy, are now no longer overcome by the delight of an evil habit when it strives to lead us to sin; but nevertheless we still suffer it importuning us, although we are not surrendered to it. The fourth is the action when there is absolutely nothing in a man that resists the spirit, but all things, harmoniously joined and connected together, keep some one thing in firm peace: which will come to pass when the mortal body is quickened, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality (1 Cor. XV, 54, 55). 4. For demonstrating the first action, these testimonies meanwhile occur:
Through one man sin entered into this world, and through sin death; and so it passed upon all men, in whom all men sinned. For until the Law sin was in this world. But sin was not imputed, when there was no law (Rom. V, 12, 13). And again: For without the law sin was dead; but I lived at one time without the law. For what he here says, was dead, is the same as what he says above, was not imputed, that is, lay hidden. Which he makes manifest in what follows, saying: But sin, that it might appear sin, through good wrought death in me: that is, through the law; for the law is good, if anyone use it lawfully (1 Tim. I, 8). If therefore he here says, that sin might appear;
It is manifest that above he therefore called it dead and not reckoned, because it did not appear before it was disclosed by the prohibiting law. 5. To the second action these testimonies apply: 'But the law entered in, that sin might abound' (Rom. 5:20). For transgression also was added, which was not there before. And that which has already been mentioned: 'For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins which were through the law wrought in our members, so as to bring forth fruit unto death.' And this: 'What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid: but I did not know sin except through the law. For I would not have known concupiscence, unless the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.'
'But sin, taking occasion, wrought in me through the commandment all concupiscence.' And a little after: 'When the commandment came,' he says, 'sin revived. But I died, and the commandment which was unto life was found to be unto death for me. For sin, taking occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.' Therefore when he says, 'I died,' he wishes it understood: I recognized that I was dead; because he already sins even by transgression, who sees through the law what he ought not to do, and yet does it. But when he says, 'Sin deceived me, taking occasion through the commandment': either because the enticement of delight toward sin is more vehement when a prohibition is present;
or because, even if a man does something according to the commands of the law, if there is not yet faith, which is in grace, he wishes to attribute this to himself and not to God, and by being proud sins the more. It follows therefore, and he says: 'And so the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid: but sin, that it might appear sin, wrought death in me through that which is good, that it might become sinful above measure, or sin transgressing through the commandment. For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal,' that is, I consent to the flesh, not yet freed by spiritual grace: 'sold under sin,' that is, sinning for the price of temporal pleasures. 'For what I work, I know not:'
that is, I do not recognize it to be among the precepts of truth, where true knowledge is. According to this manner of speech the Lord says to sinners, 'I know you not.' For nothing is hidden from Him, but because sins are not found in the rules of the precepts which Truth holds, therefore Truth itself says to sinners, 'I know you not.' For just as darkness is perceived by the eyes through not seeing, so sins are perceived by the mind through not knowing. From this manner of speech I judge it is said in the Psalms, 'Who understands his faults?' (Ps. 18:13). 'For it is not what I will that I do; but what I hate, that I do. Now if what I will not, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good. Now then it is no longer I that work it, but the sin that dwells in me.'
'For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwells no good. For to will is present with me, but to accomplish the good I find not. For it is not the good that I will that I do; but the evil that I will not, that I do. Now if what I will not, this I do; it is no longer I that work it, but the sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, to me who would do good, since evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and taking me captive in the law of sin, which is in my members.' Thus far are the words of a man set under the law, not yet under grace; who, even if he wills not to sin, is overcome by sin.
For the carnal habit has grown strong, and the natural bond of mortality by which we are propagated from Adam. Let him therefore who is so situated implore help, and let him know that what fell was his own, but that what rises is not his own. For now, being freed and recognizing the grace of his Liberator, he says: 'Wretched man that I am, who shall free me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.' 6. And now begin to be spoken the words of a man set under grace, in the action which we have shown to be the third, which indeed has the mortality of the flesh reluctant, but not conquering and taking captive unto consent to sinning. For thus he says: 'Therefore I myself with the mind serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.'
'There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed me from the law of sin and death. For what was impossible to the law, in that it was weakened through the flesh,' that is, through carnal desires: for the law was not fulfilled for this reason, that the charity of its own justice was not yet present, which by an inner delight might hold the mind fast, lest it be drawn to sin by the delight of temporal things. Therefore the law was weakened through the flesh, that is, it did not make just those given over to the flesh. 'But God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.' For it was not the flesh of sin, since it was not born of carnal delight;
but yet there was in it the likeness of sinful flesh, because it was mortal flesh: for Adam did not merit death except by sinning. But what did the Lord do? 'By sin He condemned sin in the flesh': that is, by taking up the flesh of a sinful man and teaching how we should live, He condemned sin in that very flesh, that the spirit, burning with the charity of eternal things, might not be led captive into consent to lust. 'That the justice of the law,' he says, 'might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.' And so the precepts of the law were fulfilled through charity, which through fear could not be. 'For they who are according to the flesh mind the things of the flesh': that is, they covet carnal goods as the highest goods.
'But they who are according to the spirit mind the things of the spirit. For the prudence of the flesh is death: but the prudence of the spirit is life and peace. Because the prudence of the flesh is an enemy to God.' He himself shows what he meant by 'enemy,' lest anyone should think that some opposing principle came from the other side. For he adds, and says: 'For it is not subject to the law of God; neither indeed can it be.' Therefore to act against the law is to be an enemy to God: not because anything can harm God, but because whoever resists the will of God harms himself; for this is 'to kick against the goad,' as was divinely said to Paul the apostle when he was still persecuting the Church (Acts 9:5). But it is thus said, 'For it is not subject to the law of God; neither indeed can it be:'
as if it were said, 'Snow does not warm; neither indeed can it.' For as long as it is snow, it does not warm: but it can be dissolved and grow hot, so as to warm; yet when it does this, it is no longer snow. So also the prudence of the flesh is so called when the soul covets temporal goods in place of great goods. For as long as such an appetite is in the soul, it cannot be subject to the law of God; that is, it cannot fulfill what the law commands. But when it begins to desire spiritual goods and to despise temporal ones, it will cease to be the prudence of the flesh, and will not resist the spirit. For the same soul, when it desires lower things, is said to have the prudence of the flesh; when higher things, the prudence of the spirit: not because pru-
-dence of the flesh is a substance with which the soul is clothed or unclothed; but it is an affection of the soul itself, which will altogether cease to be when it shall have turned itself wholly to things above. 'But they who are in the flesh,' he says, 'cannot please God': that is, those who acquiesce in the pleasures of the flesh. For lest anyone should think this was said of those who have not yet departed from this life, he very opportunely added: 'But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.' Certainly he is speaking to those still set in this life. For they were in the spirit, because they rested in faith and hope and charity of spiritual things. 'If yet,' he says, 'the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.'
'But if Christ is in you, the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of justice.' He calls the body dead as long as it is such that the want of bodily things troubles the soul, and by certain motions arising from that very want solicits it to seek earthly things. Yet although these exist, the mind does not consent to do unlawful things, since it now serves the law of God and is set under grace. For to this avails what was said above: 'With the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.' And that man is now described as being under grace, who does not yet have perfect peace, which is to come by the resurrection and transformation of the body. 7.
It remains therefore that he should speak of that very peace of the resurrection of the body, which is the fourth action; if indeed that ought to be called an action which is the highest rest. For it follows, and he says: 'If therefore the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you; He who raised Jesus from the dead will quicken also your mortal bodies, through His Spirit dwelling in you' (Rom. 8:11). Here there is most evident testimony concerning the resurrection of the body, and it sufficiently appears that, as long as we are in this life, troubles through mortal flesh are not lacking, nor certain titillations of carnal delights. For although he who is set under grace and serves the law of God with the mind does not yield, yet with the flesh he serves the law of sin.
When by these steps the man is made perfect, no substance is found to be evil; nor is that law evil which shows a man in what bonds of sins he lies, so that through faith, the help of the Liberator being implored, he may deserve both to be loosed and to be raised up and to be most firmly established. In the first action therefore, which is before the Law, there is no struggle with the pleasures of this world; in the second, which is under the Law, we fight but are conquered; in the third we fight and conquer; in the fourth we do not fight but rest in perfect and eternal peace. For that which is lower than us is subjected to us, which for this reason was not being subjected, because we had forsaken God who is above us. LXVII.
On that which is written, 'For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory which shall be revealed in us'; as far as that which is said, 'For by hope we are saved' (Rom. 8:18-24). 1. This chapter is obscure, because it does not sufficiently appear here what he now calls 'creature.' Now according to catholic teaching that is called creature which God the Father made and founded through the only-begotten Son, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Therefore not only bodies, but also our souls and spirits are contained under the name of creature. But it is thus said, 'The creature itself shall be freed from the servitude of corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the children of God:'
as if we were not creature, but children of God, into the liberty of whose glory the creature shall be freed from servitude. Likewise he says, 'For we know that every creature groans and travails until now; and not only it, but ourselves also': as if we were one thing and every creature another. The whole chapter therefore must be considered piece by piece. 2. 'For I reckon,' he says, 'that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy of the future glory which shall be revealed in us': this is manifest. For he had said above, 'But if by the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live.' Which cannot be done without trouble, for which patience is necessary.
To which pertains also what he said a little before, 'If yet we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together' (ibid. 13, 17). And so that which he says, 'For the expectation of the creature waits for the revelation of the children of God'; this I think he means. For this very thing which grieves in us, when we mortify the deeds of the flesh—that is, when we hunger or thirst through abstinence, while we bridle the delight of intercourse through chastity, while we bear the tearings of injuries and the stings of insults through patience, while, our pleasures being neglected and cast aside, we labor for the fruit of our mother the Church—whatever in us grieves in this and suchlike wearing-down, is creature.
For the body and the soul grieve, which certainly is creature, and it awaits the revelation of the children of God; that is, it awaits when that which is called shall appear, in that glory to which it is called. For because the only-begotten Son of God cannot be called creature, since through Him were made all things whatsoever God made, we too are distinctly called creature before that manifestation of glory, and are distinctly called children of God, although we merit this by adoption: for that Only-begotten is Son by nature. Therefore the expectation of the creature, that is, our expectation, waits for the revelation of the children of God; that is, it awaits when that which was promised shall appear, when by the very reality that shall be made manifest which now we are in hope.
'For we are the children of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be. But we know that when it shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is' (1 John 3:2). This is the revelation of the children of God, which now the expectation of the creature awaits: not that the creature awaits the revelation of another nature which is not creature; but the creature itself, such as it now is, awaits when it shall be such as it is to be: as if it were said, When the painter is working with the colors subjected to him and prepared for his work, the expectation of the colors awaits the manifestation of the image: not because they are then some other colors, and others they will be, or will not be colors; but only that they will have another dignity. 3. 'For the creature,' he says, 'was made subject to vanity.' This is that:
'Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity. What profit has a man of all his labor which he labors under the sun?' (Eccl. 1:2, 3). To whom it was said, 'In labor shalt thou eat thy bread' (Gen. 3:19). Therefore the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly. Well is it added, 'not willingly.' For man indeed sinned willingly, but was not willingly condemned. The sin therefore was voluntary, namely to act against the precept of truth; but the penalty of sin is to be subjected to deceit. Not willingly therefore was the creature made subject to vanity, but by reason of Him who subjected it in hope; that is, by reason of His justice and clemency, who neither left sin unpunished, nor willed the sinner to be incurable. 4.
Because even the creature itself, that is, man himself, when, having lost the seal of the image because of sin, he remained only creature—even that creature therefore, that is, that which is not yet called the perfected form of the children, but is only called creature, 'shall be freed from the servitude of corruption.' And so that which he says, 'and it itself shall be freed,' makes it understood that it also, just as we—that is, that neither are they to be despaired of who are not yet called children of God, because they have not yet believed, but are only creature; for they too are going to believe, and will be freed from the servitude of corruption, just as we who are already children of God, although it has not yet appeared what we shall be.
They shall be freed therefore from the servitude of corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the children of God; that is, they too shall be free instead of servants, and glorious instead of dead, in the perfect life which the children of God shall have. 5. 'For we know that every creature groans and travails until now.' Every creature is numbered in man, not because in him are all the Angels and the supereminent Virtues and Powers, or heaven and earth and sea and all things that are in them; but because every creature is partly spiritual, partly animal, partly corporeal. Which, that we may consider from the lower things: corporeal creature is extended through places; animal creature vivifies the corporeal;
spiritual creature rules the animal, and then rules well, when it subjects itself to God to be ruled; but when it transgresses His precepts, it is entangled with labors and hardships through those very things which it was able to rule. He therefore who lives from the body is called a carnal or animal man: carnal, because he follows carnal things; animal, because he is carried away by the dissolute wantonness of his soul, which the spirit does not rule, nor restrain within the bounds of natural order, because he too does not submit himself to God to be ruled. But he who rules the soul by the spirit, and the body through the soul (which he cannot do unless he too have God also as his ruler, since as the head of the woman is the man, so the head of the man is Christ [1 Cor. 11:3]), is called spiritual.
Which life, though now it is passed with some trouble, afterward will suffer none. And since the highest Angels live spiritually, but the lowest animally, while beasts and all cattle live carnally, and the body does not live but is vivified; every creature is in man, because he both understands by the spirit, and feels by the soul, and is moved locally by the body. And so every creature groans and travails in man. For he did not say 'the whole,' but 'every': as if one should say that all men who are sound see the sun, but do not see with the whole, because they see only with the eyes: so in man is every creature, because he both understands and lives and has a body;
but not the whole creature is in him, because there are besides him also Angels, who understand and live and are, and beasts which live and are, and bodies which only are; since to live itself is more than not to live, and to understand itself is more than to live without understanding. When therefore wretched man groans and travails, every creature groans and travails until now. And 'until now' he rightly said: because even if there are some already in the bosom of Abraham (Luke 16:23), and that thief set with the Lord in paradise (ibid. 23:43), on the day on which he believed, has ceased to grieve;
yet until now every creature groans and travails, because in those who are not yet freed it is every creature, on account of the spirit and the soul and the body. 6. 'And not only,' he says, 'does every creature groan and travail, but ourselves also': that is, not only in man do the body and soul and spirit grieve together from the difficulties of the body, but we ourselves also, apart from our bodies, groan within ourselves, having the firstfruits of the spirit. And well he said, 'having the firstfruits of the spirit': that is, those whose spirit has already been offered, as it were, as a sacrifice to God, and has been seized by the divine fire of charity. These are the firstfruits of man; because truth first obtains our spirit, that through it the rest may be seized.
Therefore he already has firstfruits offered to God who says: 'With the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin' (Rom. 7:25). And who says: 'God whom I serve in my spirit' (Rom. 1:9). And of whom it is said: 'The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak' (Matt. 26:41). But since he still says, 'Wretched man that I am, who shall free me from the body of this death?' (Rom. 7:24), and to such it is still said, 'He will quicken also your mortal bodies, on account of the Spirit remaining in you' (Rom. 8:11); it is not yet a holocaust: but it will be, when death shall be swallowed up in victory; when it shall be said to it, 'Where, O death, is thy strife? where, O death, is thy sting?' (1 Cor. 15:54, 55).
'Now therefore,' he says, 'not only every creature,' that is, with the body, 'but even ourselves, having the firstfruits of the spirit': that is, we souls, who have already offered our minds as firstfruits to God, 'groan within ourselves,' that is, apart from the body, 'awaiting the adoption, the redemption of our body'; that is, that the body itself also, receiving the benefit of the adoption of the children by which we have been called, may show us wholly freed, all troubles being past, to be on every side children of God. 'For by hope we are saved: but hope which is seen is not hope.' Then therefore will that be a reality which now is hope, when it shall appear what we shall be; that is, like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 7.
If this chapter be opened in this way, as it has been treated, we do not fall into those troubles by which very many men are compelled to say that all the Angels and sublime Virtues are in grief and groanings before we are wholly freed, since it is said, 'Every creature groans and travails.' For although they help us according to their sublimity, while they obey God, who for us deigned even to send His only Son; yet they are to be believed to do this without groaning and griefs, lest they be thought wretched, and lest that Lazarus who already rests in Abraham's bosom be happier than one of our number. Especially since he said that the same creature which groans and travails is made subject to vanity;
which it is wicked to believe concerning the highest and excellent creatures of the Virtues and Powers. Then he said it must be freed from the servitude of corruption; into which we cannot believe those to have fallen who lead a most blessed life in the heavens. Yet nothing must be rashly affirmed, but the divine words must be handled with pious diligence again and again; lest perhaps that which groans and travails and is made subject to vanity may in some other way be understood, so that concerning the highest angels—as long as by the command of our Lord they aid our infirmity—it may not impiously be supposed. But whether that exposition which we have pursued, or some other of this chapter, be brought forward; this only must be guarded against, lest it violate or wound the catholic faith.
For I know that vain heretics have hurled many impious and foolish things about this chapter. LXVIII. On that which is written: 'O man, who art thou that repliest against God?' (Rom. 9:20). 1. Since the Apostle seems to have rebuked the curious by saying, 'O man, who art thou that repliest against God?' they raise a question about this very thing, and in that very opinion by which curiosity itself was chided they do not cease to be curious: and the impious indeed do so with insult, so as to say that the Apostle failed in solving the question, and rebuked the inquirers because he could not expound what was asked.