Know (1) ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law), how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? (1) By expounding the similitude of marriage, he compares together the state of man both before and after regeneration. The law of matrimony, he says, is this, that as... [ Continue Reading ]
So then if, while [her] husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be (a) called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. (a) That is, she will be an adulteress, by the consent and judgmen... [ Continue Reading ]
(2) Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the (b) body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, [even] to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth (c) fruit unto (d) God. (2) An application of the similitude of marriage. "So", he says, "it is the s... [ Continue Reading ]
(3) For when we (e) were in the flesh, the (f) motions of sins, which were by the (g) law, did (h) work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. (3) A declaration of the former saying: for he says that the fleshly desires which the law stirred up in us were in us as if they were a husband, f... [ Continue Reading ]
But now we are delivered from the law, that (i) being dead (k) wherein we were (l) held; that we should serve in (m) newness of spirit, and not [in] the oldness of the (n) letter. (i) As if he said, "The bond which bound us is dead, and has disappeared, in as much that the sin which held us does no... [ Continue Reading ]
(4) What shall we say then? [Is] the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known (o) lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. (4) An objection: What then? Are the law and sin the same thing, and do they agree together? No, he says: sin is reproved... [ Continue Reading ]
But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin [was] (p) dead. (p) Though sin is in us, yet it is not known as sin, neither does it rage in the same way that it rages after the law is known.... [ Continue Reading ]
(5) For I was alive without the (q) law once: but when the commandment (r) came, sin revived, and I (s) died. (5) He sets himself before us as an example, in whom all men may behold, first what they are by nature before they earnestly think upon the law of God: that is, stupid, and prone to sin and... [ Continue Reading ]
(6) Wherefore the law [is] holy, and the (t) commandment holy, and just, and good. (6) The conclusion: that the law is holy in itself, and that all the fault is in us, the ones who abuse the law. (t) Concerning the commandment, not to covet.... [ Continue Reading ]
(7) Was then that which is good (u) made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might (x) appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might (y) become exceeding sinful. (7) The proposition: that the law is not the cause of death, but our corrupt nature be... [ Continue Reading ]
(8) For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. (8) The law is the cause of this matter because the it requires a heavenly purity, but when men are born, they are bondslaves of corruption, which they willingly serve.... [ Continue Reading ]
(9) For that which I do I (10) allow not: for what I (11) would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. (9) He sets himself before us as an example, since he has been regenerated, and in whom may easily appear the strife of the Spirit and the flesh, and therefore of the law of God, and our wick... [ Continue Reading ]
Now then it is no more I that do it, but (z) sin that dwelleth in me. (z) That natural corruption, which adheres strongly even to those that are regenerated, and is not completely gone.... [ Continue Reading ]
(12) For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but (a) [how] to perform that which is good I find not. (12) This vice, or sin, or law of sin, wholly possesses those men who are not regenerated, and hinders them or holds those back who are... [ Continue Reading ]
(13) I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. (13) The conclusion: as the law of God exhorts to goodness, so does the law of sin (that is, the corruption in which we are born) force us to wickedness: but the spirit, that is, our mind, in that it is regenerated, coexis... [ Continue Reading ]
For I delight in the law of God after the (b) inward man: (b) The inner man and the new man are the same, and are compared and contrasted with the old man; and neither do these words "inward man" signify man's mind and reason, and the "old man" the physical body that is subject to them, as the phil... [ Continue Reading ]
But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my (c) mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. (c) The law of the mind in this place is not to be understood as referring to the mind as it is naturally, and as our mind is from our birth, but of... [ Continue Reading ]
(14) O (d) wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (14) It is a miserable thing to be yet in part subject to sin, which of its own nature makes us guilty of death: but we must cry to the Lord, who will by death itself at length make us conquerors, as we are already... [ Continue Reading ]
I (e) thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I (f) myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. (e) He recovers himself, and shows us that he rests only in Christ. (f) This is the true perfection of those that are born again, to confess that they are impe... [ Continue Reading ]