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Pelagius

Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500 · 465 passages across 8 books

Commentary

241–260 of 465
Romans 7:17

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

Paul means that he did it willingly before it became a habit. Sin then lived in him as a guest or as one thing inside another … in other words, as an accidental quality, not as a natural one.

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Romans 7:18

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

Paul does not say that his flesh is not good. The will is there but not the action, because carnal habit opposes the will.

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Romans 7:19

For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Think of someone who has sworn so much for such a long time that now he does it even when he does not want to.

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Romans 7:20

Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

What was once an act of will has become so habitual that now it is involuntary.

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Romans 7:21

I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

Paul means that he has a law which will help him do good, even though “evil lies close at hand.”

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Romans 7:22

For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

Paul’s “inmost self” is the rational and intelligent soul which agrees with the law of God, for its law is to live rationally and not to be led about by the passions of irrational animals.The outer self, on the other hand, is the body. Its law is the wisdom of the flesh, which instructs one to eat and drink and enjoy the other sensual pleasures. These war against reason, and if they gain the upper hand, subject it to the law of sin. For if it is true that we do what we do not want to do, Paul would not have said that he sees another law in his members, fighting against the law of his mind. He agrees to the law with his mind.

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Romans 7:23

But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

The law of natural conscience, or the divine law which resides in the mind, fights against habitual desires.

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Romans 7:24

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Who will set me free, says Paul, prisoner that I am, from this fatal habit of the body?

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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.

Grace sets free the man whom the law could not free. Was Paul at this time not yet set free by the grace of God? Of course! This shows that here he is speaking of somebody else. He then reviews the main points in order to conclude his argument. In a sense the carnal person is made up of two people and is divided within himself.

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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.

There is nothing which deserves condemnation in those who have been crucified to the works of the flesh.

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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.

Note that Paul calls the law “grace.”

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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:

The law was weakened in the flesh, not in itself. In saying “God sent his Son” Paul counters Photinus, who denied the Son’s existence before the incarnation.… The Son took flesh like that of the rest of humanity and “he condemned sin in the flesh,” i.e., he overcame like by like. Just as the sacrificial victims which the Jews offered under the law were given in the name of sin, although they had no sin themselves … so also Christ’s flesh, which was offered for our sins, took the name of sin. Some people say that by the sin of the Jews, whereby they killed the Lord, Christ condemned in his humanity the sin of the devil, by which the devil had deceived mankind, as Paul says to the Hebrews: “so that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death.” Or it may mean that through the substance of that flesh which previously was a slave to sin, Christ conquered sin by never sinning himself, and in his flesh he condemned sin to show that it was the will which was on trial, not human nature, which God created in such a way that it could avoid sinning.

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Romans 8:4

That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Although the law could not be fulfilled in those in whom carnal habit fights back, at least it can be fulfilled in us, who have mortified the flesh according to Christ’s example.

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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.

Man is composed of spirit and flesh. When a man performs carnal deeds he is called “flesh,” but when he performs spiritual deeds he is called “Spirit.” For when one of these substances brings the other under its control, the subordinate substance in effect loses both its power and its name. For each substance desires what is connected and related to it.

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Romans 8:6

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

Paul says elsewhere that it is human wisdom to repay evil for evil. Such wisdom obtains death because it transgresses the commandment. But the wisdom of the Spirit enjoys peace now because it does not repay in kind, and in the future it will obtain eternal life.

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Romans 8:7

Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

The flesh is not in itself hostile to God, as the Manichaeans say, but the carnal mind is. For everything which is not subject is hostile, and anyone who wants to clear himself may sometimes go beyond the limit of the old law. Paul says that this carnal wisdom can never be subject to the law of God in order to call men back from the desires of the flesh.

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Romans 8:8

So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

This proves that Paul did not find fault with the flesh itself but with the works of the flesh, because those to whom he was writing were undoubtedly living in the flesh in the physical sense. Once one has given himself over to the flesh (in the spiritual sense) it is impossible to avoid sin.

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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.

You are in the Spirit because you are occupied with spiritual things. The Spirit of God dwells in those in whom his fruit is manifest, as Paul says to the Galatians: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, etc.” The Spirit of Christ, who loved his enemies and prayed for them, is the Spirit of humility, patience and all the virtues.

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Romans 8:10

And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

If you imitate Christ the carnal mind offers no resistance, because it is effectively dead. The spirit lives in order to produce righteousness, for the aim is not just to stop doing carnal things but to start doing spiritual ones.

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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.

God will not allow the temple of his Spirit to perish. In the same way as he raised Jesus from the dead he will also restore your body.

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