Romans 7:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

It is altogether contrary to reason to receive harm from what brings benefit. Therefore the Apostle also said, "And the commandment, which was for life, was found to be unto death for me."

He did not say that it became death or produced death, but "was found to be unto death." By this he explained the unusual and strange character of such an incongruity, and turned everything upon the heads of men.

If you wish to know the aim of the law, says the Apostle, it led to life and was given for this purpose. If death resulted from it, the fault lies with those who received the commandment, not with the commandment itself, which leads to life.

The Apostle expressed this still more clearly in the following words.

In these places he speaks in the first person. I think he wishes to show approximately the following. Although transgression through ignorance is admittedly subject to condemnation, the Savior confirms that punishment will be heavier for those who know.

He says: "The one who knew his master's will and did not do it will be beaten with many blows. The one who did not know and did not do it will be beaten with few" (cf. Lk 12:47-48).

Therefore it is beyond dispute that to sin in ignorance is better than with knowledge of the law. If someone, having once lived apart from the law, has already come under the law, and then decides to despise its ordinances, Scripture convicts him of sin.

He has fallen under condemnation. Then he is tormented because of his carelessness and almost accuses the law aloud, saying: "I was once alive apart from the law. But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died."

If sin is truly dead apart from the law, is it not persuasive to think that sin is in some way revived through the law? The law makes it evident and as if gives it soul, although it was formerly unknown, even if it was in us.

For we were not righteous. But since sin remained as though dead, because there happened to be no condemning law, we were alive. We found a convenient excuse for ourselves in ignorance, because "where there is no law, there is no transgression" (Rom 4:15), as the Apostle said.

Thus, when the commandment appeared before all, sin as if came to life. Death, curse, and condemnation were prepared for those who fall into transgressions because of their weakness.

What then? Something contrary to expectation and unforeseen happened to us. Paul says that the commandment, which was given for life, was found to serve unto death.

Sunlight also harms everyone whose eyes are weak, although by nature it is sweet and thrice desirable. It does not itself harm. Rather, in the injury suffered one must see the accusation of the disease from which they suffer.

In an equal sense, I think, he says that the commandment gave occasion to sin, allowing it to deceive through the commandment and to lead to death. But it can also be said another way.

Pleasure-loving very readily opposes the ordinances of the law. When corrupt dispositions are checked by self-control, they rise up still more strongly. Sometimes they take the mind captive, overthrowing it into transgression and leading it to the punishments imposed by the law.

Yet they had the law itself as the occasion for this hostility. Therefore, being wise, Paul says that we were deceived by the commandment and died through it. For it almost killed us by encouraging the desires in us to revolt in the manner already described.

For he says: "The commandment is the giver of life, but the turning toward evil produced death." For this reason he specifically said, "was found," wishing to show that the aim of the law was one thing, while another thing happened because of sin.

Here are examples of the Apostle's paraphrases: "Sin, taking occasion through the commandment, produced in me every desire" (Rom 7:7). "When the commandment came, sin revived" (Rom 7:9). "Sin, taking occasion through the commandment, deceived me" (Rom 7:11).

"Sin becomes exceedingly sinful through the commandment" (Rom 7:13), and the like. The holy Apostle uses all these expressions for one purpose. He wishes to arouse and direct our hatred not against the law, but against sin.

Through the law, sin has been accused and revealed in all its poison and harmfulness.

Concerning the law itself, he speaks thus: "The law is holy, and the commandment holy and righteous and good. Has then what is good become death to me? By no means!" (Rom 7:12-13).

The Apostle wishes to free the law from blame and even to inspire respect for it in us. Being perfect and spiritual, it speaks to men as though they were pure spirits.

It is not the law's fault if it became clear that man is "fleshly and sold under sin" (Rom 7:14).

Although those who received the law, that is, the people of the Old Testament, became worse, St. Chrysostom says in explanation of the Apostle's words: Consider that the law not only did not wish to increase evil, but on the contrary sought to cut off the evil that existed before it. And if it could not accomplish this, crown it for its intention.

"For this reason," says blessed Theodoret, "the Apostle specifically said, 'was found,' wishing to show that the aim of the law was one thing, while another thing happened because of sin," that is, self-pleasing.

"He did not say that it became death or produced death, but 'was found to be unto death,' thereby explaining the unusual and strange character of such an incongruity. Only men themselves are guilty of it. If you wish to know the aim of the law, it led to life and was given for that purpose. If death resulted from it, those who received the commandment are to blame, not the commandment itself, which leads to life," says St. Chrysostom.

"The Apostle brings everything in defense of the law and the commandment, while he exposes the wickedness of sin. For he says: the commandment is the giver of life, but the turning toward evil produced death," says blessed Theodoret.

Let no one pass over without attention the Apostle's word: "the commandment which was for life." Although the Apostle is plainly reasoning about the Old Testament law, by this expression he also marks the power of commandment in general.

The essence of commandment is to introduce into life and to pour forth life from itself for those who live by it. Commandment is the expression of God's will concerning how we ought to act.

All that exists lives by the will of God. In creation, the laws of God's will were implanted in everything. In providence, they are preserved by the same will of God, and everything is directed toward its final end by this same will.

Commandment reigns everywhere. Whoever enters the path of the commandments enters into harmony with all that exists. He enters into harmony with the noetic angelic world, with the material world, and first of all with the Godhead Himself.

He is immersed in the stream of universal life, moved and produced by the all-quickening will of God. This is why the Apostle said, "which was for life." The nature of commandment is to grant a taste of life.

The Gospel and the whole divine economy of salvation are life-bearing precisely because they give the believer the possibility of abiding in that order of life which the commandment requires. The word of God is directed to this, and grace is directed to this.

The Apostle brings a shadow, as it were, over the law and the commandment not to arouse aversion to them. Rather, he wishes to urge us to hasten to Christ by faith and, having received justification and sanctification from Him, to become capable of living according to the commandment.

This means living according to the will of God, or even living in no other way than this.