Commentary on Romans

and the righteousness of the law. From this case, also, a proof as to the other clause may more fitly
be sought, than from the mere consideration of human nature; for the law, as it produces only death
in a man wholly carnal, is in him more easily impeached, for it is doubtful whence the evil proceeds.
In a regenerate man it brings forth salutary fruits; and hence it appears, that it is the flesh only that
prevents it from giving life: so far it is from producing death of itself.
That the whole, then, of this reasoning may be more fully and more distinctly understood, we
must observe, that this conflict, of which the Apostle speaks, does not exist in man before he is
renewed by the Spirit of God: for man, left to his own nature, is wholly borne along by his lusts
without any resistance; for though the ungodly are tormented by the stings of conscience, and cannot
take such delight in their vices, but that they have some taste of bitterness; yet you cannot hence
conclude, either that evil is hated, or that good is loved by them; only the Lord permits them to be
thus tormented, in order to show to them in a measure his judgment; but not to imbue them either
with the love of righteousness or with the hatred of sin.
There is then this difference between them and the faithful — that they are never so blinded
and hardened, but that when they are reminded of their crimes, they condemn them in their own
conscience; for knowledge is not so utterly extinguished in them, but that they still retain the
difference between right and wrong; and sometimes they are shaken with such dread under a sense
of their sin, that they bear a kind of condemnation even in this life: nevertheless they approve of
sin with all their heart, and hence give themselves up to it without any feeling of genuine repugnance;
for those stings of conscience, by which they are harassed, proceed from opposition in the judgment,
rather than from any contrary inclination in the will. The godly, on the other hand, in whom the
regeneration of God is begun, are so divided, that with the chief desire of the heart they aspire to
God, seek celestial righteousness, hate sin, and yet they are drawn down to the earth by the relics
of their flesh: and thus, while pulled in two ways, they fight against their own nature, and nature
fights against them; and they condemn their sins, not only as being constrained by the judgment of
reason, but because they really in their hearts abominate them, and on their account loathe
themselves. This is the Christian conflict between the flesh and the spirit of which Paul speaks in
Galatians 5:17.
It has therefore been justly said, that the carnal man runs headlong into sin with the approbation
and consent of the whole soul; but that a division then immediately begins for the first time, when
he is called by the Lord and renewed by the Spirit. For regeneration only begins in this life; the
relics of the flesh which remain, always follow their own corrupt propensities, and thus carry on a
contest against the Spirit.
The inexperienced, who consider not the subject which the Apostle handles, nor the plan which
he pursues, imagine, that the character of man by nature is here described; and indeed there is a
similar description of human nature given to us by the Philosophers: but Scripture philosophizes
much deeper; for it finds that nothing has remained in the heart of man but corruption, since the
time in which Adam lost the image of God. So when the Sophisters wish to define free-will, or to
form an estimate of what the power of nature can do, they fix on this passage. But Paul, as I have
said already, does not here set before us simply the natural man, but in his own person describes
what is the weakness of the faithful, and how great it is. Augustine was for a time involved in the
common error; but after having more clearly examined the passage, he not only retracted what he
had falsely taught, but in his first book to Boniface, he proves, by many strong reasons, that what