Romans 7:18Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The lyre and the ship are not opposed to those who govern and use them. Rather, they are wholly in harmony, though not equal in dignity to the craftsman. Likewise, when someone says that the art is not in the lyre or the ship, but in the helmsman and the lyre-player, he does not dishonor those objects. He shows the difference between the craftsman and the art. So also Paul, when he said, "In my flesh no good thing dwells," did not dishonor the body, but showed the soul's superiority. For it is the soul that directs everything, including the art of steering a ship or playing a lyre. Paul shows the same here, assigning the ruling role to the soul. Having divided man into these two halves, soul and body, he affirms that the flesh is more irrational, lacking understanding, and is something governed, not governing. The soul, however, is wise and able to know what should and should not be done. Yet it does not have enough strength to govern the horse as it wishes. In this, the blame may belong not to the flesh alone, but also to the soul. The soul knows what should be done, but does not put into action what it recognizes. "For to will," says the Apostle, "is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find." Here again, by saying "I do not find," he means not ignorance or doubt, but the assault and snares of sin. Expressing this more clearly, he added: "For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I do. But if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me" (Rom 7:19-20).

For this reason he says, "But if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me." But someone may say: "Suppose certain impious barbarians devastate a city or country, then carry off some of the captured inhabitants and place on them the yoke of slavery. Suppose those who suffer this submit, by the necessity of captivity, to the laws of those ruling over them. Will they deserve reproach and condemnation because they do not prove stronger than compulsion? Are they blameworthy because they do not try to do what pleases them, disregarding the power of their oppressors?" I think that no one would justly reproach them, for those in slavery have no power to free themselves. As I have said, they yield to an involuntary concurrence of circumstances. Although they are tormented by being deprived of freedom, they are in slavery against their will, having yielded by compulsion to those stronger than themselves. If this is indeed not far from a just judgment, let the human mind be freed from accusation for the weaknesses of the flesh. But, they will say, it depended on the mind not even to accept what it does. The mind itself holds the reins of desires. Therefore let it be stronger than violence and not subject to sins. Yet if the nature of the flesh is unbearable and unfriendly, opposing to the mind an untamable desire, and if the law is powerless to help, since it cannot put sins to death, then no one can justly accuse the mind. It is not blameworthy for failing to act better when it permits what is shameful, even though it holds the reins of our desires.

"For to will the good is present with me." Man regards as good what the law prescribes. He can say that it is naturally pleasing to him, and that he wants to do it. "The good that I will to do, I do not do." Therefore the commandments of the law are pleasing, and the desire to fulfill them is present. But to fulfill them, authority and strength are lacking. He is so seized by the power of sin that he cannot go where he desires, nor can he contradict it, because he is under another master. The habit of sin weighs upon man. It is easier for him to submit to sin than to the law, which he knows teaches the good. Even if he wishes to do good, habit, inflamed by the enemy, prevents him.

But such an evil and lamentable discord has arisen in us, that when we wish with the mind to serve the law of God, and never turn our gaze from divine vision, we are covered with fleshly darkness. As though by the law of sin, we are compelled to be torn away from what we recognize as good. From the height, we fall in mind to earthly thoughts and cares. The law of sin, that is, the decree of God, condemned us to these. Therefore the blessed Apostle clearly testifies that he and all the saints are bound by the inevitability of this sin. Yet he boldly declares that none of them may be condemned because of it, saying, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed me from the law of sin and death" (Rom 8:1-2). That is, the grace of Christ frees all His saints from this law of sin and death when they ask the Lord for the remission of their debts. Therefore you see that the blessed Apostle uttered this saying not in the person of sinners, but in the person of the truly holy and perfect: "The good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I do. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members" (Rom 7:19-23).

In serving spiritual demands, it became weak and even hostile to them. The Mosaic Law, given to determine the action of the will, could only prove more clearly the inner division and weakness of fallen man. It also awakened in him a thirst for the help of grace. This law helped the natural law of man's conscience. By positive external punishments it restrained man's sinful inclinations, and by rewards it encouraged the fulfillment of the good. But the weaknesses of the flesh, the inborn inclinations, and acquired habits of sin became so customary and constant that the Apostle directly calls them, taken together, the law of sin. According to the chief place of their activity, he calls them the law of the flesh, the law of the members, which opposes the law of the mind, or conscience. The opposition of this law to the law of the mind is so strong that man does what he does not will. For what he wills, he does not find sufficient strength in himself. Therefore the Apostle cries out on behalf of all suffering mankind: "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" The Western Church, following the opinion of Augustine, Ambrose, and others, confirmed by the canons of the Council of Trent, applies the state of man described above to regeneration. Yet even among Western interpreters, some, for example Calmet, Allioli, and Bisping, rely on the opinions of Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, and other Eastern Fathers. They find it more consistent to see here the state of man before regeneration.

Nevertheless, the Apostle has sufficiently explained in what part of us no good thing dwells, adding, "in my flesh." It is not in human nature that no good dwells, for as God's creation it is good. Rather, it is "in the flesh." By this word the Apostle usually means that not-good thing formed in us because of the fall, hovering there in the intervals of nature. In the present epistle he calls this fleshliness, and in the Epistle to the Corinthians, psychicness. Joining the two, we get soul-and-fleshly mindedness as an expression of the corruption of the fallen. Soul and flesh, as creatures of God, are good. But because of the fall they became the seat of everything not good. Selfhood with the passions settled in them, turning all their powers and needs toward self-pleasing. There, in the midst of nature, a certain special body was formed, self-centered, passionate, and self-pleasing. In this foreign body no good thing dwells. "For to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find." This is why, he says, I know that something not good dwells in me. Or, I know that no good dwells in the self-centered and pleasure-loving body formed in me after the fall, because I do not succeed in doing the good. I desire to desire it, but when it comes to the deed, it is not there. "I do not find" again points to experience. I see good desires in myself. But I do not see or find deeds proceeding according to these desires. How this happens was explained under the preceding verse. The good deed set before us is desired, but a passion opposed to it is stirred up by it, deceives, and the desired deed is not done. "I desire, but I do not do, because sin carries me away with it. It carries me away, so that I do not do what I approve," writes Oecumenius. "When the Apostle said, 'I do not find,' he means not ignorance or doubt, but the assault and snares of sin," says St. Chrysostom. All this is caused by "the predominance of the passions," Theodoret explains. "He removes the blame both from the substance of the soul and from the substance of the flesh, and attributes everything to the corrupt will, to the action of sin," Theophylact adds. "What is lawful is pleasing, and there is desire to do it, but the authority and strength to fulfill it are lacking. Fallen man is so constrained by the power of sin that he cannot run where he wishes, nor is he strong enough to contradict it. Sin has become his master. Moreover, sinful habit weighs upon man, and he falls into sin more easily than he knows how to follow the good. Although he desires to do good, that habit does not allow him to do it. The enemy also becomes a helper of evil." Thus Ambrosiaster interprets.