Romans 7:14-17
- Scimus enim quod Lex spiritualis est: ego
autem carnalis sum, venditus sub peccato. - For me know that the law is spiritual: but
I am carnal, sold under sin. - Quod enim operor, non intelligo;
siquidem non quod volo, hoc ago: sed quod odi,
hoe facio. - For that which I do I allow not: for what
I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. - Si vero quod nolo, hoe facio, consentio
Legi Dei quod sit bona. - If then I do that which I would not, I
consent unto the law that it is good. - Nunc vero non jam illud operor ego, sed
quod habitat in me peccatum. - Now then it is no more I that do it, but
sin that dwelleth in me.
14.For we know that the law,etc. He now begins more closely to compare the law with what
man is, that it may be more clearly understood whence the evil of death proceeds. He then sets
before us an example in a regenerate man, in whom the remnants of the flesh are wholly contrary
to the law of the Lord, while the spirit would gladly obey it. But first, as we have said, he makes
only a comparison between nature and the law. Since in human things there is no greater discord
than between spirit and flesh, the law being spiritual and man carnal, what agreement can there be
between the natural man and the law? Even the same as between darkness and light. But by calling
the law spiritual, he not only means, as some expound the passage, that it requires the inward
affections of the heart; but that, by way of contrast, it has a contrary import to the word carnal^219
These interpreters give this explanation, “The law is spiritual, that is, it binds not only the feet and
hands as to external works, but regards the feelings of the heart, and requires the real fear of God.”
But here a contrast is evidently set forth between the flesh and the spirit. And further, it is
sufficiently clear from the context, and it has been in fact already shown, that under the term flesh
is included whatever men bring from the womb; and flesh is what men are called, as they are born,
and as long as they retain their natural character; for as they are corrupt, so they neither taste nor
desire anything but what is gross and earthly. Spirit, on the contrary, is renewed nature, which God
forms anew after his own image. And this mode of speaking is adopted on this account — because
the newness which is wrought in us is the gift of the Spirit.
The perfection then of the doctrine of the law is opposed here to the corrupt nature of man:
hence the meaning is as follows, “The law requires a celestial and an angelic righteousness, in
which no spot is to appear, to whose clearness nothing is to be wanting: but I am a carnal man, who
can do nothing but oppose it.”^220 But the exposition of Origen, which indeed has been approved
(^219) This is evidently the case here. As carnal means what is sinful and corrupt, so spiritual imports what is holy, just, and good.
As the works of the flesh are evil and depraved works, so the fruits of the Spirit are good and holy fruits. See Galatians 5:19,
22, and particularly John 3:6. — Ed.
(^220) “He is ‘carnal’ in exact proportion to the degree in which he falls short of perfect conformity to the law of God.” — Scott
It has been usual with a certain class of divines, such as Hammond and Bull, to hold that all the Fathers before Augustine
viewed Paul here as not speaking of himself. But this is plainly contradicted by what Augustine declares himself in several parts
of his writings. In his Retractations, B. 1, chapter 23, he refers to some authors of divine discourses (quibusdam divinorum
tractatoribus eloquiorom) by whose authority he was induced to change his opinion, and to regard Paul here as speaking of
himself. He alludes again in his work against Julian, an advocate of Pelagianism, B. 6, chapter 11, to this very change in his
view, and ascribes it to the reading of the works of those who were better and more intelligent than himself, (melioribus et
intelligentioribus cessi.) Then he refers to them by name, and says, “Hence it was that I came to understand these things, as