Christians freed from the Law 1 KNOW you not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) that the law has dominion over a man, as long as it lives? 2 For the woman that has an husband, while her husband lives is bound to the law. But if her husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3 Therefore, while her husband lives, 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. 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. 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. 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.
The Law became the occasion of sin 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: You shalt not covet. (Ex 20:17; Dt 5:21) 8 But sin taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. 9 And I lived some time without the law. But when the commandment came, sin revived, 10 And I died. And the commandment that was ordained to life, the same was found to be unto death to me. 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.
Sin is the cause of death 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. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. 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. 17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that there dwells 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. 19 For the good which I will, I do not; but the evil which I will not, that I do. 20 Now if I do that which I will not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21 I find then a law, that when I have a will to do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I am delighted with the law of God, according to the inward man: 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.
Deliverance due to the grace of God 24 Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 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.
Commentary on Romans 7
7:1 them that know the law: Some say that since the Romans were Gentiles and ignorant of the Law of Moses, it seems that what is said here does not apply to them... But this interpretation does not seem to agree with the intention of the Apostle who always has in mind the Law of Moses, when he speaks of the Law with no modifying qualifications. Therefore, it is better to say that the Roman believers were not only Gentiles; there were many Jews among them. (St. Thomas Aquinas)
7:2 Paul shows by using the example of marriage how the obligation of the law is dissolved by death. (St. Thomas Aquinas)
7:3 In this verse, he applies the foregoing example to the point in question, that is, ‘you have become dead to the law;’ Paul avoids saying ‘the law is dead in you,’ in order not to offend and to spare the feelings of the Jews, among whom the law was held in such veneration; although this would better suit the foregoing example, in which the husband is the party supposed to die, and the law is regarded by the Apostle as ‘the husband,’ in reference to the Jews. The meaning, however, comes to the same, as the relation is dissolved, no matter which party dies, ‘by the body of Christ,’ sacrificed for the abolition of the law, on the cross; or it may mean, by being engrafted on the body of Christ in baptism. (Bishop John McEvilly)
7:4 The Old Law was a figure of the New Testament, and therefore it had to cease on the advent of truth. (St. Thomas Aquinas Sum Theo 2.104.6.r2)
7:5 flesh: that is to say, in carnal understanding, when we were doing things that are of the flesh. (Interlinear Gloss) Also the Scriptures calls flesh anything that in any way is subject to corruption, and possesses life that is not its own, and is dissoluble in any way. (Ishodad of Merv)
7:6 law of death: It is called the law of death because if offered the occasion for spiritual death. (St. Thomas Aquinas) The Mosaic law had been the occasion of increasing, in consequence of not furnishing the grace necessary to resist our passions. (Bishop John McEvilly)
7:7 But I do not know sin: That is, Paul would not have acquired this knowledge from God through the law; or he would not have known that it was going to be punished. (Interlinear Gloss) You shall not covet: It is a good law which prescribes, ‘You shall not covet’, but when the Spirit does not help by breathing into us a good desire in place of an evil desire, that is, pouring charity into our hearts, then the law, although good, increases our evil desire by prohibiting it. Somehow or other what is desired is made more attractive when it is forbidden. (William of St. Thierry)
7:9 I lived some time: It is clear that the apostle is not speaking of himself but in the person of humanity in general. (Glossa Ordinaria) sin revived: He says, revived, because in paradise man had full knowledge of sin, although he did not have it through experience. Or sin revived as to its power, because after the Law was given, the opportunity was given for the power of sin to increase. (St. Thomas Aquinas) |
7:10 I died: That is, Paul became a transgressor, or he knew he was dead, or the sure penalty of death hung over him as the result of his transgression. (William of St. Thierry)
7:12 The Law is holy because it teaches correctly, and because it commands and prohibits according to what is right. (Glossa Ordinaria)
7:13 wrought death in me: That is to say, it was to me a cause of death. In all this long discourse he is bearing the person of Adam; and just as before the commandment, he was living without sin, but by means of the commandment he died, from laxity and morality and natural depravity. (Ishodad of Merv)
7:14 law is spiritual: For by calling it spiritual, he shows it to be a teacher of virtue and hostile to vice; for this is what being spiritual means, leading off from sin of every kind. And this the Law did do, by frightening, admonishing, chastening, correcting, recommending every kind of virtue. (St. John Chrysostom) sold under sin: namely, of the first parent or of the self. He says, sold, because the sinner sells himself into the slavery of sin as payment for fulfilling his own will. (St. Thomas Aquinas)
7:15-17 Paul describes the struggle that exists in the just man, between the sensual appetite, corrupted and deranged by original sin, and the superior faculties of the soul, when aided and assisted by divine grace... He explains how it is that he did the evil which he did not wish to do. He himself was not the principle of these actions, or rather passions, and motions of concupiscence, but it was rather the evil of concupiscence, which had been implanted, and which dwelt in his nature; and so, these motions being involuntary, are no longer attributed to him, as free, human actions. (Bishop John McEvilly)
7:18 there dwells not in me... that which is good: For the Apostle is not discussing a good of nature but the good of grace, by which we are freed from sin. (St. Thomas Aquinas)
7:21 The construction of this verse has been a source of perplexity to commentators generally. The easiest and the most natural construction appears to be as such, ‘I find a law opposing or contradiction me when I have a wish to do good.’ (Bishop John McEvilly)
7:23 law of my mind: that is with the Law of Moses, which is called the law of the mind, inasmuch as it agrees with the mind or with the natural law, which is called the law of the mind, because it is present by nature in the mind. (St. Thomas Aquinas)
7:24 In this verse are conveyed the exclamation and groans of a just man battling with his corrupt passions, and aspiring, after the glorious liberty of the children of God, when this mortal shall put on immortality, and this corruptible shall be endued with incorruptibility. (Bishop John McEvilly)
|
Catechism Cross-references
|