"Do you not know, brethren, that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?" [Romans 7:1]
He who is not led by the Spirit of God cannot say: "I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me." [Galatians 2:20] He is subject to the servitude and curse of the law [Galatians 3:10], which he cannot fulfill without grace. Let the law of grace, the law of the Gospel, the law of charity rule over us as long as we live; may we never depart from it, lest all iniquity rule over us.
"For the woman who is under a husband is bound by the law…" [Romans 7:2]
Let the wife be subject to her husband as the husband is subject to the law, that he may be directed by it to what is good, love it, and obey it — not by fear of punishment, but by chaste love, keeping fidelity to it. But the Christian husband should deal with his wife as grace deals with the will of man: with the sweetest kindness and the rule of charity, governing her, caring for her, sympathizing with her, and condescending to her as to a weaker vessel [1 Peter 3:7], so that she may delight in his guidance and never think of casting it off or departing from it as long as she lives.
"Therefore, while her husband lives, she shall be called an adulteress if she be with another man…" [Romans 7:3]
The soul, betrothed to Christ who lives forever and will never die again [Romans 6:9], is corrupted and becomes adulterous if it admits other lovers, if it clings to creatures. It cannot divide its heart with them, for it owes it wholly to the Bridegroom. To love anything besides God more than Him, or to rest in the love of any created thing, is spiritual adultery, for which the soul deserves to be repudiated by God and to hear from Him: "She is not my wife, and I am not her husband" (Hosea 2). [Hosea 2:2]
Adultery is a monstrous crime subject to public penance, as long as in the Church a most wholesome discipline flourished, whereby those guilty of this crime were formerly separated from Communion in certain Churches even perpetually, indeed deprived of sacramental absolution — not from despair of pardon but from the rigor of discipline. This was at one time observed in the African Church by some bishops before the rise of the Novatian heresy, to express abhorrence of the crime and to prevent its contagion among the faithful, as St. Cyprian testifies.
They did not think peace should be given lightly to adulterers; rather they restricted the place of penance. A stricter observance prevailed: penance was granted but Communion denied, since it seemed unworthy that those who had inflicted a singular and most grievous injury upon Christ, the Spouse of the Church — whose most sacred and indivisible union with the Church is signified by marriage, as the Apostle says, "This is a great sacrament, I speak in Christ and in the Church" [Ephesians 5:32] — should be admitted to the Communion of Christ's Body.
While the husband lives, the woman should not be with another man, not only in body (over which she has not power [1 Corinthians 7:4]) but not even in heart, love, or excessive familiarity. Let her not receive sweet letters or gifts from another man that bind her affections, nor listen to flattering words which chaste love neither utters nor willingly hears; for these are signs of dying chastity and preludes to adultery. Let her seek to please no one but her husband. If wives seek to please others — whether by artificial beauty or worldly adornment — they are in some way adulteresses, as Tertullian says: "You ought to please only your husbands."
Addressing Christian women, he says: "No wife is unattractive to her husband; she pleased him when she was chosen." The desire to please by adornment does not arise from a pure conscience, since we know such decoration naturally invites lust.
"If her husband dies, she is freed from the law of her husband…" [Romans 7:3]
The Apostle hints that the state of marriage is in a certain sense a kind of servitude: marriage is a bond by which the woman is bound and loosed. It is good because of mutual love, yet it is a form of service. The woman does not have power over her own body but the husband; likewise the husband does not have power over his own body but the wife (cf. 1 Corinthians). [1 Corinthians 7:4] Thus great is the necessity of marriage, which subjects each even to the other. By mutual needs each serves the other.
If this is the case in good marriages, how great is the burden in bad ones, when spouses cannot sanctify one another but harm one another? Marriage is mutual service.
Second marriage sometimes purchases at great price a miserable servitude. As St. Ambrose says: "You do not seek children whom you have, but a servitude you do not have." This is true servitude, where love is weaker and concord more fragile.
Let Christian widows hear the Apostle's counsel and remain in that state [1 Corinthians 7:8, 40], using the freedom given by God, serving Him alone — all the more freely since they are servants of Christ alone.
"So, my brethren, you also have been put to death to the law through the body of Christ, that you may belong to another, who has risen from the dead, that we may bear fruit to God." [Romans 7:4]
All the oldness of Adam and the letter that kills [2 Corinthians 3:6] died with Christ on the cross. In His resurrection all things are made new [2 Corinthians 5:17; Revelation 21:5]: a new man, a new state of grace, a new covenant of nuptials with the Church, whose new fruits are justice and good works. Both Gentiles and Jews are called to these holy nuptials.
Those under the law lived as under a husband's authority; but when the fullness of time came [Galatians 4:4], the law grew weak in the flesh [Romans 8:3] and death followed. Many who had lived under its power, like a woman, now marry the Spirit by believing in Christ. Those from the Gentiles who believed had not lived under that husband — that is, the law — as Isaiah says: "Rejoice, O barren one… for more are the children of the desolate than of her who has a husband" (Isaiah 54). [Isaiah 54:1; cf. Galatians 4:27]
Through Christ we were called, having died to the law through His body in which He bore our sins [1 Peter 2:24]. We died with Him and were buried in baptism [Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:12], made one body with Him — one Christ. Let us therefore cling to Christ risen from the dead as faithful spouses with chaste love: loving nothing but what He loves, acquiring nothing except for Him, and bearing fruit in good works through Him and for Him.
Before grace we were slaves of sinful passions which bore fruit for death [Romans 7:5]. But now, made children of God and members of Christ by the Spirit [Romans 8:14–16; Galatians 4:5–7], we must offer works worthy of God leading to eternal life. Through grace we are freed not only from the law but from sin and death [Romans 8:2], devoted to God's service — not as slaves through fear, but as friends through charity [John 15:15; Romans 8:15], serving justice freely, not in the oldness of the letter but in the newness of the Spirit. [Romans 7:6]
"Is the law sin? By no means. Yet I did not know sin except through the law…" [Romans 7:7]
The law is God's grace, but it teaches outwardly; it enlightens the intellect but does not help the will; it terrifies the conscience but does not cleanse or justify — it shows sin but does not remove it. Its general prohibition is: "You shall not covet" [Romans 7:7; Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21]; its general command is: "You shall love." [Matthew 22:37–39; Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18] As the Apostle says: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind." [Romans 12:2]
By not coveting we are stripped of the old man [Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9]; by loving we are clothed with the new. [Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10] But no one can be continent unless God grants it and pours His charity into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. [Romans 5:5; Wisdom 8:21]
The law commands so that when man fails he may not grow proud but flee to grace; thus the law, by frightening, leads to loving Christ as a pedagogue. [Galatians 3:24]
"Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, worked in me all manner of concupiscence…" [Romans 7:8]
Because of the corruption of our nature, which abuses God's gifts, the law becomes harmful unless accompanied by the Savior's grace. It inflames concupiscence; it awakens sin that lay dormant; it makes man more guilty, since one sins more grievously knowing than ignorant. Thus the commandment meant for life becomes death. [Romans 7:10]
How many seem alive yet are dead before God, loving ignorance of Christian duties and resting in the shadow of sin! Let us pray: "Teach me your statutes… give me understanding… quicken me." [Psalm 119:26, 34, 37]
"Sin, taking occasion, deceived me…" [Romans 7:11]
The law is a pure light for the humble [Psalm 19:9; Psalm 119:105], but for the proud an occasion of deception, since trusting in free will they do not seek grace. The law, by commanding what cannot be fulfilled without grace, shows weakness so that one may seek the Savior. The law leads to faith [Galatians 3:24]; faith obtains the Spirit [Galatians 3:14]; the Spirit pours charity [Romans 5:5]; charity fulfills the law. [Romans 13:10]
Thus the law is holy — let us venerate it; just — let us love it; good — let us observe it faithfully. [Romans 7:12] "The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver" (Psalm). [Psalm 119:72]
"We know the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin." [Romans 7:14]
If we do not humble ourselves, tremble, and groan because of the struggle of concupiscence, we do not truly love God's law. The Apostle laments being sold under sin; the spiritual man disciplines his body lest he serve sin [1 Corinthians 9:27], while the carnal exposes himself to occasions of desire.
Let us sigh for that blessed state where the whole man will be spiritual and free from sin — not only able not to sin (as now in struggle) but unable to sin (as then in triumph).
Alas, how many thoughts, desires, and movements concupiscence produces even in the just! Therefore we must daily say: "Forgive us our debts." [Matthew 6:12]
"For I do not do the good that I want, but the evil that I do not want—that I do. [Romans 7:19]
I want not to lust, and yet I lust. I do this in the flesh, not in the mind. It is one thing not to lust, another thing not to follow one's lusts. Not to lust at all belongs to the perfect; not to follow lust belongs to one who fights, who struggles, who labors. Where there is struggle, why despair of victory? When will victory come? When death is swallowed up in victory. [1 Corinthians 15:54] Then will be the voice of one triumphant, not the sweat of one fighting.
But if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good. [Romans 7:16] My weakness does not fulfill the law, yet my will praises the law. For what does the law say? "You shall not covet." [Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21; Romans 7:7] And I do not want to covet, yet I covet—though I do not give consent to my lust, nor follow after it. I resist, I turn away my mind, I refuse, I hold my members in check—yet what I do not want still occurs in me. What the law does not will, I also do not will; therefore I consent to the law.
This is the voice of the saints who fight against their lusts—not of the impure, not of those who are carnal in mind and heart, who are dragged along and even willingly follow. Hear the voice of the Apostle: "Walk by the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the desires of the flesh." [Galatians 5:16] It would indeed be better to fulfill what the law says, "You shall not covet" [Exodus 20:17]—this is the fullness of virtue, the perfection of righteousness, the crown of victory. But since this cannot now be fulfilled, let at least this be fulfilled: do not go after your lusts. [Sirach 18:30] It is better not to have them; but since they are present, do not follow them.
They do not wish to follow you—do not follow them. If they follow you, they will not prevail, for they will not rebel against your mind. They rebel, they fight—then fight; they attack—then resist. Only see that they do not conquer. We must always fight, because the concupiscence with which we are born cannot be ended as long as we live; it can be diminished daily, but not ended.
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. [Romans 7:18]
For to will is present with me, but I do not find how to accomplish the good. [Romans 7:18] The appetite of the carnal man resists the will of the spiritual man—desire against charity, flesh against spirit. [Galatians 5:17] Let us groan, pray, watch, fight; let us crucify the flesh with its vices and desires. [Galatians 5:24]
"To will is present with me"—not from myself, for no good will, no beginning of a good will, is from us but from the grace of God, who works in us both to will and to act. [Philippians 2:13] "But to accomplish I do not find." [Romans 7:18] Evil desires arise in us when what is not permitted pleases us; yet they are not fulfilled when, serving the law of God with the mind, we restrain them. Good is done when evil delight is overcome by a better delight; yet the perfection of good is not fulfilled when, though restrained, desire still moves.
There will be a time when good is perfected, when evil is consumed—then the highest good and no evil. If we think this is to be hoped for in this mortal life, we are mistaken. It will be when death is no more, where eternal life is. [Revelation 21:4] There will be the highest love of wisdom and no toil of continence.
Therefore the flesh is not evil if it lacks evil—that is, the vice by which man is corrupted. Man was not made evil but made himself evil. From both parts—soul and body—created good by the good God, man made himself evil by sin. [Genesis 3; Romans 5:12] Though absolved from guilt through mercy, he still fights against his vice through continence. Let it never be thought that any vices will remain in that future peace; they are diminished daily in those who advance.
What the flesh lusts against the spirit, what good does not dwell in our flesh, what law in our members resists the law of our mind [Romans 7:23]—this is not a mixture of two natures from opposing principles, but a division within one nature due to sin. This was not man's first condition but a punishment following condemnation. [Romans 5:12, 18] From this condemnation, those freed by grace through Jesus Christ struggle with their penalty—free, though not yet fully saved, having received the pledge of salvation. [2 Corinthians 1:22; 5:5; Ephesians 1:14]
After this life, punishment will remain eternally for the guilty; but for the liberated, neither guilt nor punishment will remain—only the good substances of spirit and flesh, created good by God, remaining forever, changed for the better and never again for the worse, all evil utterly consumed.
But if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin dwelling in me. [Romans 7:20]
A man is not guilty merely because he experiences rebellious desires and struggles; nor is he just who never feels them. Let the one fear lest he be conquered; let the other not despair as if rejected by God. Evil motions and desires do not make a man guilty unless he consents. Even the Apostles, free from consent to evil desires, groaned with humility and piety, wishing rather not to have concupiscence than merely to restrain it.
Sometimes this concupiscence so besets the saints that it troubles even their sleep. [Psalm 4:4 LXX; cf. Ephesians 4:26] The force of turbulent desire is well known. Jerome recounts how, in the desert, though living austerely, he was assailed by memories of worldly pleasures; though fasting and weeping, he struggled with the fires of desire.
Whoever fights against concupiscence without consenting may say: "If I do what I do not want, it is not I who do it, but sin dwelling in me." [Romans 7:20] He who, suffering violence from desire, uses violence against it—armed with faith, prayer, and fortitude—speaks truly.
For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man. [Romans 7:22]
The inner man is the regenerated man, grafted into Christ [Romans 11:17–24], healed, animated by the Spirit of God. To him alone the law is sweet, for it is written in his heart through charity. [Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 8:10] This delight comes from great grace; the inner man is renewed day by day as he perseveres [2 Corinthians 4:16]—not by tormenting fear but by willing love. There we are truly free, where we are not unwillingly constrained. [2 Corinthians 3:17; John 8:36]
But I see another law in my members resisting the law of my mind. [Romans 7:23]
This resisting law harms insofar as it exists, even if not leading to ruin when not consented to; it diminishes spiritual delight by engaging the mind in battle. Yet this struggle guards against pride, reminding the soul of its weakness until full healing comes, where neither corruption nor pride will be feared. "Power is made perfect in weakness." [2 Corinthians 12:9]
Only those who fight virtues and conquer vices experience this struggle; others, ignorant of God's law, serve their desires blindly and think themselves happy. The law of sin is the force of habit by which the soul is drawn and held captive. [Romans 7:23]
O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. [Romans 7:24–25]
This body of death was not in paradise before sin; now, even without consent, it troubles the resisting mind. The conflict is miserable because it lacks peace, though not condemnable if sin is not fulfilled. He who groans under this bondage begins to be freed and advances toward the liberty of the children of God. [Romans 8:21]
Confess daily your need of liberating grace; implore it with fervent prayer. None frees from the wounds of that destroyer except the grace of the Savior; none frees those sold under sin [Romans 7:14] except redeeming grace. Perfect freedom will come when concupiscence is no more—not restrained but gone.
Thus the law's usefulness is to convince man of his weakness and drive him to seek grace in Christ. [Galatians 3:24]
Therefore I myself with the mind serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. [Romans 7:25]
This is the triumph of grace—to make a man conquer sin even while the law of sin resists. A good will serves God while opposing inclinations pull toward evil. A war begins within; in the part where you displease yourself, you are joined to God, and thus you overcome yourself because He is with you.
Yet when you say this, do not presume on your own strength lest pride destroy you—for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble." [James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5; Proverbs 3:34]
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