Fathers

Romans 7

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Or don’t you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives? For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband. So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man. Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might produce fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law worked in our members to bring out fruit to death. But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin, except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting, unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead. I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. The commandment which was for life, this I found to be for death; for sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good. Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, was producing death in me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin. For I don’t know what I am doing. For I don’t practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do. But if what I don’t desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good. So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing that which is good. For the good which I desire, I don’t do; but the evil which I don’t desire, that I practice. But if what I don’t desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the law that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present. For I delight in God’s law after the inward man, but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve God’s law, but with the flesh, sin’s law.

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What the Fathers say

Romans 7:12

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

But, if ye be so minded, we will bring before you the language of those who wrest these declarations. For this will make our own statements clearer. For there are some that say, that he is not here saying what he does of the Law of Moses, but some take it of the law of nature; some, of the commandment given in Paradise. Yet surely Paul's object everywhere is to annul this Law, but he has not any question with those. And with much reason; for it was through a fear and a horror of this that the Jews obstinately opposed grace. …

Homily on Romans 12 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

Here he very clearly shut the mouths of the Marcionites, Manichaeans, Simonians, and all who condemn the Old Testament; for he clearly proclaims that the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and just, and good. He distinguishes the law from the commandment as the general from the particular; for in the law, one part constitutes doctrines and another commandments. Thus, both the doctrines of the law are holy, and the commandments concerning conduct are holy and just and good. …

Commentary on Romans ↗

Clement of Alexandria

And that he knows that what is just is good, appears by his saying, "So that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." Wherefore the law is productive of the emotion of fear. "So that the law is holy," and in truth "spiritual," according to the apostle.

The Stromata Book 4 ↗

Western Saints

Thomas Aquinas

Then when he says, wherefore the law, he reaches the main conclusion, namely, that the law is not only not sin but furthermore is good, making sin to be known and forbidding it. First he concludes with respect to the whole law, saying: as is clear from the foregoing, the law indeed is holy: the law of the Lord is without blemish (Ps 19:7); we know that the law is good (1 Tim 1:8). …

Commentary on Romans ↗

Bonaventure

The second appropriation is made to the Eternal Sun insofar as it is the medium that governs all things. In this regard, three [attributes] are appropriated, to wit, piety, truth, and holiness, for all [rightful] governing and law-giving is pious, true, and holy. As it is said in Romans: The law indeed is holy and the commandment holy and just and good. Out of these three come forth three laws, and there cannot be more; that is, [the laws] of nature, of Scripture, and of grace. …

Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 21 ↗