by many before our time, is not worthy of being refuted; he says, that the law is called spiritual by
Paul, because the Scripture is not to be understood literally. What has this to do with the present
subject?
Sold under sin. By this clause he shows what flesh is in itself; for man by nature is no less the
slave of sin, than those bondmen, bought with money, whom their masters ill treat at their pleasure,
as they do their oxen and their asses. We are so entirely controlled by the power of sin, that the
whole mind, the whole heart, and all our actions are under its influence. Compulsion I always
except, for we sin spontaneously, as it would be no sin, were it not voluntary. But we are so given
up to sin, that we can do willingly nothing but sin; for the corruption which bears rule within us
thus drives us onward. Hence this comparison does not import, as they say, a forced service, but a
voluntary obedience, which an inbred bondage inclines us to render.
15.For what I do I know not, etc. He now comes to a more particular case, that of a man already
regenerated;^221 in whom both the things which he had in view appear more clearly; and these were,
— the great discord there is between the Law of God and the natural man, — and how the law does
not of itself produce death. For since the carnal man rushes into sin with the whole propensity of
his mind, he seems to sin with such a free choice, as though it were in his power to govern himself;
so that a most pernicious opinion has prevailed almost among all men — that man, by his own
natural strength, without the aid of Divine grace, can choose what he pleases. But though the will
of a faithful man is led to good by the Spirit of God, yet in him the corruption of nature appears
conspicuously; for it obstinately resists and leads to what is contrary. Hence the case of a regenerated
man is the most suitable; for by this you may know how much is the contrariety between our nature
Hilary, Gregory, Ambrose, and other holy and known doctors of the Church, understood them, who thought that the Apostle
himself strenuously struggled against carnal lusts, which he was unwilling to have, and yet had, and that he bore witness as to
this confiict in these words,” (referring to this very text,) — Hinc factum est. ut sic ista intelligerem, quemadmodum intellexit
Hilarius, Gregorius, Ambroslus, et cœteri Ecclsiœ sancti notique doctores, qui et ipsum Apostolum adversus carnales
concupiscentias, quas habere nolebat, et tamen habebat, strenue conflixisse, eundemque conflictum suum illis suis verbis
contestatum fuisse senserunt — Ed.(^221) It appears from this, that Calvin did not apply the foregoing words, “I am carnal, sold under sin,” in the same way: but they
are evidently connected together. They are indeed strong words, and some explain them in such a way as to be wholly unsuitable
to a renewed man; but we ought to take the explanation as given by the Apostle himself in what follows, for he handles the
subject to the end of the chapter.
Various fictions have been resorted to by critics on this point. The Apostle has been supposed by some to speak of himself
as under the law, or as Stuart terms it, “in a law state,” and such is the scheme of Hammond Others have imagined, that he
personates a Jew living during the time between Abraham and the giving of the law; and this was Locke’s idea. A third party
have entertained the notion, that the Apostle, speaking in his own person, represents, by a sort of fiction, as Vitringa and some
others have imagined, the effects of the law in Jews and proselytes, as opposed to the effects of the gospel, as delineated in the
next chapter. And a fourth party maintain, that the Apostle describes a man in a transition state, in whom God’s Spirit works for
his conversion, but who is as yet doubtful which way to turn, to sin or to God.
All these conjectures have arisen, because the language is not taken in its obvious meaning, and according to the Apostle’s
own explanation. As soon as we depart from the plain meaning of the text and the context, we open a door to endless conjectures
and fictions. The Apostle says nothing here of himself, but what every real Christian finds to be true. Is not a Christian, yea, the
best, in this world carnal, as well as spiritual? Is he not “sold under sin?” that is, subjected to a condition, in which he is continually
annoyed, tempted, hindered, restrained, checked, and seduced by the depravity and corruption of his nature; and in which he is
always kept far below what he aims at, seeks and longs for. It was the saying of a good man, lately gone to his rest, whose
extended pilgrimage was ninety-three years, that he must have been often swallowed up by despair, had it not been for the seventh
chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. The best interpreter of many things in Scripture is spiritual experience; without it no right
judgment can be formed. Hence it is that the learned often stumble at what is quite plain and obvious to the illiterate when
spiritually enlightened. Critics sometimes find great difficulties in what is fully understood by a simpler minded Christian, taught
from above. “Wayfaring men” are far better divines than any of the learned, who possess nothing more than natural talents and
natural acquirements. — Ed.