The emotions of sins,^206 which are through the law, etc.; that is, the law excited in us evil
emotions, which exerted their influence through all our faculties; for there is no part which is not
subject to these depraved passions. What the law does, in the absence of the inward teacher, the
Spirit, is increasingly to inflame our hearts, so that they boil up with lusts. But observe here, that
the law is connected with the vicious nature of man, the perversity of which, and its lusts, break
forth with greater fury, the more they are checked by the restraints of righteousness. He further
adds, that as long as the emotions of the flesh were under the dominion of the law they brought
forth fruit to death; and he adds this to show that the law by itself is destructive. It hence follows,
that they are infatuated, who so much desire this bondage which issues in death.
6.But now we have been loosed from the law, etc. He pursues the argument derived from the
opposite effect of things, — “If the restraint of the law availed so little to bridle the flesh, that it
became rather the exciter of sin; then, that we may cease from sin, we must necessarily be freed
from the law.” Again, “If we are freed from the bondage of the law for this end, that we may serve
God; then, perversely do they act who hence take the liberty to indulge in sin; and falsely do they
speak who teach, that by this means loose reins are given to lusts.” Observe, then, that we are then
freed from the law, when God emancipates us from its rigid exactions and curse, and endues us
with his Spirit, through whom we walk in his ways.^207
Having died to that, etc. This part contains a reason, or rather, indicates the manner in which
we are made free; for the law is so far abrogated with regard to us, that we are not pressed down
by its intolerable burden, and that its inexorable rigor does not overwhelm us with a curse.^208 —
In newness of spirit; He sets the spirit in opposition to the letter; for before our will is formed
according to the will of God by the Holy Spirit, we have in the law nothing but the outward letter,
which indeed bridles our external actions, but does not in the least restrain the fury of our lusts.
And he ascribes newness to the Spirit, because it succeeds the old man; as the letter is called old,
because it perishes through the regeneration of the Spirit.
(^206) “Affectus peccatorum — affections of sins;” μ , etc., — “cupiditates — desires,” or lusts, Grotius.. The word is
commonly taken passively, as signifying afflictions, sufferings; Romans 8:18; 2 Corinthians 1:5; Colossians 1:24; but here, and
in Galatians 5:24, it evidently means excitements, commotions, emotions, lusts or lustings. “Passion” in our language admits of
two similar meanings — suffering, and an excited feeling, or an inward commotion.
These “emotions” are said to be through the law, — “made known by the law,” says Chrysostom; but “occasioned by the
law,” is more correct, as it appears from Romans 7:8, or, “made to abound by the law,” as in Romans 5:20. The law, instead of
making men holy, made them, through the perversity of human nature, to sin the more. “Emotions of sins” is an Hebraism for
“sinful emotions” — “The members” are those of the “old man,” and not those of the material body, though it is commonly
thought that they are the latter, and mentioned, because they are employed as the instruments of sin: but there are many sins,
and those of the worst kind, which are confined to the mind and heart. It is therefore more consistent to regard them as the
members of “the body of sin,” Romans 6:6. — Ed.
(^207) That the moral, and not the ceremonial law, is meant here, is incontestably evident from what the Apostle adds in the
following verses. He quotes the moral law in the next verse; he calls this law, in Romans 7:10, the commandment, , which
was unto life, see Matthew 19:16; and he says, that “by it” sin “slew” him, which could not have been said of the ceremonial
law. — Ed.
(^208) Our common version is evidently incorrect as to this clause. The pronoun or , is to be supplied. There is an exactly
similar ellipsis in Romans 6:21Beza and several others, as well as our version, have followed a reading, , which Griesbach
disregards as of no authority; and it is inconsistent with the usual phraseology of the Apostle. See Romans 7:4, and Galatians
2:19. — Ed.