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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
"But if, while we sought to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found sinners is Christ a minister of sin?" If faith in Him, says he, avail not for our justification, but it be necessary again to embrace the Law, and if, having forsaken the Law for Christ's sake, we are not justified but condemned for such abandonment,-then shall we find Him, for whose sake we forsook the Law and went over to faith the author of our condemnation. Observe how, he has resolved the matter to a necessary absurdity. …
Theophylact of Ohrid
We sought to obtain justification in Christ, he says, having abandoned the law. How then do you say that it is sinful to abandon the law: for it turns out that Christ led us into such a sin, since for His sake we abandoned everything pertaining to the law. Thus Christ, as you say, not only did not justify us, but even became for us the cause of greater condemnation by having persuaded us to depart from the law. …
Oecumenius
"If, seeking to be justified in Christ." If, then, wishing to be justified through Christ, we have been found sinners by abandoning the law, he says, has Christ therefore become a promoter of sin to you? Do you see how by pushing to an absurd conclusion he exposes the law? If then you hold to the law and wish also to be justified through Christ, you are found sinners in abandoning the law. Has Christ therefore advocated this? By no means. The absurdity has been removed by the refutation of the proposition.
Western Saints
Jerome
Therefore, by the works of the Law, all flesh will not be justified. But if we seek to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found to be sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? Certainly not! For if the things that I destroyed, I build again, I make myself a transgressor. That flesh, of which it is written, 'All flesh is grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field' (Isaiah 40:6), will not be justified by the works of the Law. …
Thomas Aquinas
After proving by the apostles' manner of life that the works of the Law ought not to be observed, the Apostle raises a question to the contrary. About this he does three things: First, he raises the question; Secondly, he solves it (v. 17): "God forbid"; Thirdly, he explains his solution (v. 19). The first point can be developed in two ways according to a Gloss. First, thus: Someone could say that the apostles sinned by abandoning the Law and turning to the faith of Christ. …
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