Origen of Alexandria — Commentary on Scripture

Romans 7:2

For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

The law of the letter must die so that, free at last, the soul may marry the spirit and receive the marriage of the New Testament.

Romans 7:3

So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

Did not the law itself contain a foreshadowing of something like this when it commanded that a widow who was childless (for her husband had been impotent) should marry his brother? For the law of the Spirit is the brother of the law of the letter, and the woman will be better able to bear fruit from him.

Romans 7:4

Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

When we were in the flesh and living according to it, we were unable to serve the newness of the Spirit on account of those sins which the law itself, which was in our members, nourished in order that they might bear fruit to death.… But when Christ died for us and we died to sin along with him, we were set free by him from the law of sin in which we were held, and now we can serve the law of God in newness of Spirit and not in the dead form of the law.

Romans 7:6

But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

Some people have wrongly interpreted “the new life of the Spirit” as if it meant that the Spirit himself was new and did not previously exist or teach the prophets of old. Such people do not realize how greatly they are blaspheming! For the same Spirit is in the law as in the gospel. He dwells eternally with the Father and the Son and is eternal just as they are. It is not that he is new but that he makes believers new when he leads them out of their former sins to a new life and a new obedience to the religion of Christ, turning carnal people into spiritual ones.

Romans 7:7

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

What Paul is really saying here is this: “Understand what law this is which I am talking about, which if it did not exist, no one would recognize sin.” Was it by the law of Moses that Adam recognized his sin and hid himself from the face of God? Was it by the law of Moses that Cain recognized his sin … or Pharaoh?… This is the law of which we have often spoken, which is written in men’s hearts not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, and which teaches everyone what he should and should not do. This is the law by which a man recognizes his sin. Here Paul says openly that the natural law was unknown to us until we were old enough to know the difference between good and evil and to hear our conscience tell us what it was.It is not that we did not have sin in us before this, but we did not know what it was. But when natural law and reason implanted itself in us as we were growing up, it began to teach us what was good and forbid us to do what was bad. Thus when it said: “You shall not covet,” we learned what we did not previously know, viz., that covetousness is wrong.

Romans 7:8

But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.

I do not know why it is, but things which are forbidden are desired all the more. Thus it happened that although the commandment is holy and just and good, since because it forbids evil it must be good, yet in forbidding covetousness it provoked and inflamed it all the more, with the result that something good wrought death in me.

Romans 7:12

Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

If the law is found to be good, undoubtedly we shall believe that he who gave it is a good God. If, however, it is just rather than good, we shall think of God as a just lawgiver. But Paul the apostle says in no roundabout terms: “The commandment is holy and just and good.” It is plain from this that Paul has not learned the doctrines of those [Gnostics] who separate the just from the good. Rather, he had been instructed by that God and illuminated by the Spirit of that God, who is holy and good and just at the same time.

Romans 7:14

For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

Someone who is carnal and sold under sin does not know that the law is spiritual, so how can Paul say this of himself? In fact, when he says that he is carnal and sold under sin he is playing the part of a teacher of the church by taking on the role of the weak, as he said elsewhere: “I became weak to the weak, so that I might win the weak.”We are taught by the Psalms that it was the custom in Holy Scripture for holy men to take on the role of sinners and for teachers to assume the weaknesses of their pupils: “I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; all the day I go about mourning. For my loins are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am utterly spent and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart.”

Romans 7:15

For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

Paul does not say that the weak man does not know what he is doing but rather that he does not understand why he is doing it.Here Paul shows that even the man who is carnal and sold under sin may try, by the instinct of natural law as it were, to resist evil, but he is overcome by sin and is subdued unwillingly. This often happens, for example, when someone decides not to react to provocation, but in the end his anger gets the better of him and he gives in to it against his will. In other words, he gets angry when he does not want to get angry.… Someone who is not yet spiritual will be defeated in instances like these, even against his own will, because that will is not yet strong or resilient enough to retain control of him even to the point of death in his struggle for truth.

Romans 7:17

Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

The law of nature is introduced as being in agreement with the law of God … For if we assent to the law of God according to our will, the evil which we do is no longer ours; rather, it is sin which is at work within us, i.e., the law and will of the flesh, which makes us captive to the law of sin which is in our members.The kind of person Paul is talking about here is not one in whom Christ does not dwell and who is a stranger to good works but rather someone who has started on the path of wanting to do what is right but has not yet been able to achieve his desires. This kind of weakness exists in those who have accepted the first stages of conversion, but although they want to do everything which is good this desire has not yet prevailed. For instance, someone might decide in himself that it is wrong to get angry and determine not to do it, but since by long custom and daily habit the vice of anger has controlled him, it resists his will and breaks out in the usual way.

Romans 7:25

I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Perhaps someone will say that here the apostle Paul abandons the role of the weak man, which he assumed in the preceding [verses], and talks directly about himself. For he says that he serves the law of God with his mind but the law of sin with his flesh, as if to imply that the power of sin is so great that even an apostle cannot escape it. Moreover, he also said elsewhere: “I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” But someone who takes this interpretation seems to me to be inflicting every soul with despair, because then there would be nobody who did not sin in the flesh. In other words, everyone would be serving the law of sin in the flesh. Rather, it seems to me that here Paul maintains the role he has adopted and plays the part of the weak man, whom we have already described.It appears that in this passage Paul is teaching us that the mortification of the flesh, of which he has already spoken, is not something which happens overnight but rather is a gradual process, because the force of habit is such and the attraction of s…

Perhaps someone will say that here the apostle Paul abandons the role of the weak man, which he assumed in the preceding [verses], and talks directly about himself. For he says that he serves the law of God with his mind but the law of sin with his flesh, as if to imply that the power of sin is so great that even an apostle cannot escape it. Moreover, he also said elsewhere: “I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” But someone who takes this interpretation seems to me to be inflicting every soul with despair, because then there would be nobody who did not sin in the flesh. In other words, everyone would be serving the law of sin in the flesh. Rather, it seems to me that here Paul maintains the role he has adopted and plays the part of the weak man, whom we have already described.It appears that in this passage Paul is teaching us that the mortification of the flesh, of which he has already spoken, is not something which happens overnight but rather is a gradual process, because the force of habit is such and the attraction of sin is so great that, even though our mind may want to do what is right and has decided to serve the law of God, yet the lusts of the flesh continue to urge him to serve sin and obey its laws instead.

Romans 8:1

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

After having taught what conflict there is in those who are caught in the struggle between a mind which lives according to the law of God and the desires of the flesh which lead them into sin, Paul now goes on to talk not about those who are partly in the flesh and partly in the Spirit but about those who are wholly in Christ. He declares that there is nothing in them worthy of condemnation.

Romans 8:2

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

The law of the Spirit of life is the same thing as the law of God.… For to serve the law of God and to be under the law of the Spirit is to serve Christ. To serve Christ is to serve wisdom, which is to serve righteousness, which is to serve truth and all related virtues.

Romans 8:3

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

In my opinion, Paul here as in many other passages divides the law of Moses into two parts, one of which is carnal and the other spiritual. Moreover, he calls the literal observance of the law its carnal meaning.… This observance is both impossible and inadequate. For what is more impossible than observance of the sabbath according to the letter of the law? For it is commanded that no one should go outside his house, nor move away from his place, nor carry any burden. When the Jews, who observed the letter of the law, realized that these things were impossible, they glossed the law in silly and ridiculous ways.… And what can I say about the system of sacrifices, which is now totally impossible to observe since there is no temple, no altar and no place to perform the sacrifices? In these instances I would say that the law is not just impossible or inadequate; it is dead!Paul shows that Jesus had the likeness of sinful flesh but not that he had sinful flesh in the same way we do. For we are all human beings who have been born from the seed of a man who has slept with a woman, and we ca…

In my opinion, Paul here as in many other passages divides the law of Moses into two parts, one of which is carnal and the other spiritual. Moreover, he calls the literal observance of the law its carnal meaning.… This observance is both impossible and inadequate. For what is more impossible than observance of the sabbath according to the letter of the law? For it is commanded that no one should go outside his house, nor move away from his place, nor carry any burden. When the Jews, who observed the letter of the law, realized that these things were impossible, they glossed the law in silly and ridiculous ways.… And what can I say about the system of sacrifices, which is now totally impossible to observe since there is no temple, no altar and no place to perform the sacrifices? In these instances I would say that the law is not just impossible or inadequate; it is dead!Paul shows that Jesus had the likeness of sinful flesh but not that he had sinful flesh in the same way we do. For we are all human beings who have been born from the seed of a man who has slept with a woman, and we can only say, along with David, that: “In sin my mother conceived me.” But the one who was born without contact with a male but only because the Holy Spirit came upon a virgin and covering her with the power of the Most High gave birth to a spotless body which had the same nature as ours but without the corruption of sin which is passed on by the act of conception.

Romans 8:5

For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

Those who live according to the flesh are the Jews, whom Paul says are Israel according to the flesh. They know what belongs to the law of the flesh because they interpret the law according to the flesh. Those who live according to the Spirit are the people whom Paul calls Jews in spirit, not in the letter.

Romans 8:6

For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Whoever interprets the law according to the flesh, i.e., according to the letter, does not come to Christ, who is life.

Romans 8:9

But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Is the Spirit of God somehow different from the Spirit of Christ, or are the two one and the same? As far as I can follow the logic of this passage, not to mention what the Savior says of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel, viz., that “he proceeds from the Father” and “he receives of me,” to which he adds by way of explanation: “Father, everything which is mine is yours, and everything which is yours is mine; wherefore I said, that he receives of me.” When, I say, I consider the logic of this unity between the Father and the Son, it seems to me that the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ are one and the same Spirit.We can understand this to mean that someone who is not of such a character as to deserve to have the Spirit of Christ is not recognized as belonging to him.… It may also be understood to mean that anyone who does not act in the Spirit, who is not prepared for righteousness, for truth, for the proclamation of the Word of God, for the preaching of the kingdom of heaven, for rejecting the letter of the law and for opening up its spirit, for resisting sin, for everything which…

Is the Spirit of God somehow different from the Spirit of Christ, or are the two one and the same? As far as I can follow the logic of this passage, not to mention what the Savior says of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel, viz., that “he proceeds from the Father” and “he receives of me,” to which he adds by way of explanation: “Father, everything which is mine is yours, and everything which is yours is mine; wherefore I said, that he receives of me.” When, I say, I consider the logic of this unity between the Father and the Son, it seems to me that the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ are one and the same Spirit.We can understand this to mean that someone who is not of such a character as to deserve to have the Spirit of Christ is not recognized as belonging to him.… It may also be understood to mean that anyone who does not act in the Spirit, who is not prepared for righteousness, for truth, for the proclamation of the Word of God, for the preaching of the kingdom of heaven, for rejecting the letter of the law and for opening up its spirit, for resisting sin, for everything which will prevent him from coming to death, is not Christ’s disciple.

Romans 8:11

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

If the Spirit of Christ dwells in you, it seems essential that his dwelling place (i.e., your body) will be given back to him and his temple restored.This is how you can know whether you have the Spirit of Christ or not. Christ is wisdom, so if you are wise according to Christ and know what is his, then by this wisdom you have the Spirit of Christ. Likewise, Christ is righteousness; therefore, if you have the righteousness of Christ, by that righteousness you have the Spirit of Christ. Christ is peace; if you have Christ’s peace in you, then through the Spirit of peace you have the Spirit of Christ. So it goes with love, with sanctification and with all that belongs to Christ. The one who has these things may be confident of having the Spirit of Christ in him and can hope that his mortal body will be restored to life on account of the Spirit of Christ dwelling in him.

Romans 8:12

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

God did not make us in his image in order for us to be bound to the service of the flesh but rather that our soul, serving its Creator, might make use of the service and ministry of the flesh for that purpose.

Romans 8:13

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

Putting to death the deeds of the body works like this: Love is a fruit of the Spirit, but hate is an act of the flesh. Therefore hate is put to death and extinguished by love. Likewise, joy is a fruit of the Spirit, but sadness is of this world, and because it brings death it is a work of the flesh. Therefore it is extinguished if the joy of the Spirit dwells in us. Peace is a fruit of the Spirit, but dissension or discord is an act of the flesh; however, it is certain that discord can be eliminated by peace. Likewise the patience of the Spirit overcomes the impatience of the flesh, goodness wipes out evil, meekness does away with ferocity, continence with intemperance, chastity with license and so on.By “death” and “life,” Paul does not mean physical death and life but the death of sin and eternal life, which everyone who is mature in the Spirit and who has put to death the works of the flesh will attain. But we must also realize that this mortification of the deeds of the flesh comes through patience—not suddenly but step by step. At first they start to wilt in those who have been…

Putting to death the deeds of the body works like this: Love is a fruit of the Spirit, but hate is an act of the flesh. Therefore hate is put to death and extinguished by love. Likewise, joy is a fruit of the Spirit, but sadness is of this world, and because it brings death it is a work of the flesh. Therefore it is extinguished if the joy of the Spirit dwells in us. Peace is a fruit of the Spirit, but dissension or discord is an act of the flesh; however, it is certain that discord can be eliminated by peace. Likewise the patience of the Spirit overcomes the impatience of the flesh, goodness wipes out evil, meekness does away with ferocity, continence with intemperance, chastity with license and so on.By “death” and “life,” Paul does not mean physical death and life but the death of sin and eternal life, which everyone who is mature in the Spirit and who has put to death the works of the flesh will attain. But we must also realize that this mortification of the deeds of the flesh comes through patience—not suddenly but step by step. At first they start to wilt in those who have been converted, but then, as they progress in their faith and become more dedicated, the deeds of the flesh not only wilt, they start to die out. But when they reach maturity to the point that there is no longer any trace in them of any sinful thought, word or deed, then they may be reckoned to have completely mortified the deeds of the flesh and passed from death to life.