Augustine of Hippo — Commentary on Scripture

Romans 7:12

Man needed to be shown the foulness of his malady. Against his wickedness not even a holy and good commandment could avail; by it the wickedness was increased rather than diminished.

THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 9.6

Romans 7:13

Here Paul elaborates on what he said [in verse 8]. It is not that a good thing (i.e., the law) had become death for him but rather that sin worked death through the law’s goodness, i.e., that it became apparent whereas without the law it had lain hidden. For everyone recognizes that he is dead if he cannot fulfill a precept which he recognizes as just, and because of the criminal offense of the trespass he sins even more than he would have if it had not been forbidden. Before the coming of the law the offense was less, because without the law there is no transgression.

AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 40

Romans 7:14

The law can only be fulfilled by spiritual men, and these only the grace of God can produce. For the man who has been made spiritual like the law will easily do what it commands. He will not be under the law but at one with it. He will also be someone who is not ensnared by temporal goods or frightened by temporal evils.

AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 41

Romans 7:15

This may appear to the less discerning to contradict [verse 13]. How can sin be made manifest if it is not understood? But here “I do not understand” means “I do not approve.” For instance, darkness cannot be seen, but it is perceived in contrast to light; in other words, to perceive darkness is not to see it. Likewise sin, because it is not made clear by the light of righteousness, is discerned by not understanding in the way that darkness is perceived by not seeing. “Who understands his own transgressions?

AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 43.”

Romans 7:16

The law is defended against every accusation, but we must be careful not to think that these words deny our free will, which is not true. The man being described here is under the law, before the coming of grace. Sin overpowers him when he attempts to live righteously in his own strength, without the help of God’s liberating grace. For by his free will a man is able to believe in the Deliverer and to receive grace. Thus with the deliverance and help of him who gives it, he will not sin and will cease to be under the law. Instead, being at one with the law or in the law, he will fulfill it by the love of God which he could not have done through fear.

AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 44

Romans 7:18

It is possible for a good to be performed when there is no yielding to evil lust, but the good is completed or perfected only when evil lust itself no longer exists.

On Continence 3.6

Romans 7:18

Paul says that the evil of the flesh is not good but that when this evil has ceased to exist the flesh will still be there, but … then it will not be defective or corrupt.

On Continence 8.19

Romans 7:22

See wherein we are free, wherein we are delighted with the law of God. Freedom delights. For as long as you do what is just out of fear, God does not delight you. As long as you do it still a slave, he does not delight you. Let him delight you and you are free.

TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 41.10.3

Romans 7:23

Paul perceives imprisonment where righteousness has not been fulfilled; for when he is delighted with the law of God he is not a prisoner but a friend of the law and thus free, because he is a friend.

TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 41.11.1

Romans 7:23

Look what damage has been done to human nature by the disobedience of the will!

ON NATURE AND GRACE 53.62

Romans 7:23

See what a fight we have with our dead sins, as that active soldier of Christ and faithful teacher of the church shows. For how is sin dead when it works many things in us while we struggle against it? What are these many things except foolish and harmful desires which plunge those who consent to them into death and destruction? And to bear them patiently and not give into them is a struggle, a conflict, a battle. And between what parties is this battle if not between good and evil, not of nature against nature but of nature against fault, which is already dead but still to be buried, that is, entirely healed?

AGAINST JULIAN 2.9.32

Romans 7:23

Paul sees another law in his members fighting against the law of his mind. He sees it is there, not remembers that it was there. He is pressed by what is present, not recalling what is past. And he not only sees this law warring against him but even taking him captive to the law of sin, which is (not was) in his members.

ON NATURE AND GRACE 55.65

Romans 7:23

Everyone is bound by carnal habit to the law of sin. Paul says that this law wars against his mind and captures him under the law of sin, by which it may be understood that the man being described here is not yet under grace. For if carnal habit were merely to wage war but not to triumph, there would be no condemnation. Condemnation lies in the fact that we freely submit to and serve depraved carnal lusts. But if such lusts exist and we do not give in to them, then we are not ensnared by them, and are under grace instead. Paul speaks of this grace when he calls upon the Deliverer and pleads for his help, that love might accomplish by grace what fear could not achieve through the law.

AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 45-46

Romans 7:23

In this life it cannot happen to anyone that a law warring against the law of the mind should be entirely absent from his members, because that law would still be waging war even if man’s spirit were offering it such resistance as not to fall into line with it.

THE RETRACTIONS 1.19.1

Romans 7:24

Here Paul begins to describe the man renewed under grace, the third of the four states we distinguished above.

AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 45-46

Romans 7:25

These are the words of one who is now under grace but still battling against his own lust, not so that he consents and sins but so that he experiences desires which he resists.

AGAINST JULIAN 6.23.73

Romans 7:25

Though his carnal desires still exist, the man who is renewed by grace by not giving in to sin does not serve them. With his mind he serves the law of God, even though with his flesh he serves the law of sin. Paul calls the law of sin the mortal condition which stems from the transgression of Adam, because of which we are born mortal. It is because the flesh has fallen that the lusts of the flesh entice us.

AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 45-46

Romans 8:1

There is no condemnation just because carnal desires exist; it is only if we give in to them and sin that we are condemned.

AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 47

Romans 8:3

The reason why grace was bestowed on us through our mediator is that we who were polluted by sinful flesh might be purified by the “likeness of sinful flesh.”

City of God 10.22

Romans 8:3

What does sinful flesh have? Death and sin. What does the likeness of sinful flesh have? Death without sin. If it had sin it would be sinful flesh; if it did not have death it would not be the likeness of sinful flesh. As such he came—he came as Savior. He died but he vanquished death. In himself he put an end to what we feared; he took it upon himself and he vanquished it—as a mighty hunter he captured and slew the lion.

SERMONS FOR EASTER SEASON, HOMILY 233.3