Romans 7:22Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"I find then a law, that when I want to do good, evil is present with me." What is said is unclear. What does it mean?

Paul is saying, "I praise the law according to conscience, and when I want to do good, I find in it a defender for myself, one who strengthens my will. As I delight in the law, so it approves my disposition."

Do you see how the Apostle proves that an understanding of good and evil was implanted in us from the beginning? He also proves that the Law of Moses praises this understanding and is itself praised by it.

Earlier he did not say, "I learn from the law," but, "I praise the law" (Rom 7:16). So now he does not say, "I am educated by the law," but, "I delight in the law."

I knew the good even before the law. When I find it set forth in writing, I praise the law and agree with it according to the inner man, or according to my mind.

As I have already said, the mind thirsts for freedom. It wants to be delivered from what is hateful to it, and it crowns with the highest honors the law that teaches the most beautiful truths.

But the nature of the flesh compels it toward shameful pleasures, because the law of sin wages war and presses hard against it.

By "the law of sin" he means the inborn movement and what may be understood as the passion of fleshly love. By "the law of the mind" he also means its inclination and will toward the good.

Notice where we are free and where our delight in the law of God lies. Freedom gives delight. As long as you do what is righteous out of fear, your delight is not from God. As long as you act as a slave, your delight is not from God. Let it become from God, and then you too will become free.

Let us attend to the Apostle's words, concerning why there are two nous in us, that is, two minds; cf. Rom 7:23.

Perhaps one belongs to the outward man, who is being destroyed, and the other to the inward man, who is renewed through the mysteries; cf. 2 Cor 4:16.

Perhaps the first is worse, for he exalts himself and is vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, "not holding fast to the Head" (Col 2:18-19).

He turns aside from keeping the saving commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Head of all; cf. Col 2:10. For He is the Creator of all.

The other mind is more steadfast. It loves humility, seeks wisdom, and does not abandon mercy. It is a good sower: "He has dispersed, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever" (Ps 111:9).

Paul says that the soul rejoices in what the law teaches. This is the inner man, for sin does not dwell in the soul, but in the flesh, which is sinful from birth. By birth all flesh becomes sinful. Adam's soul sinned more than his body, since sin in the soul corrupted the body. Yet sin dwells in the body as at the entrance to the soul, so as to prevent the soul from receiving what it wants. If sin dwelt in the soul, a man could not know himself. But now he knows himself and rejoices together with the law of God.

The Apostle depicts the condition of the unregenerate man, in whom an inward struggle takes place between mind and will, between spirit and flesh.

With man's fall, the will ceased to heed the suggestions of reason. Reason still preserved the knowledge of the good and desires it, striving toward it. Yet it lacks the power to move the will to accomplish what it wants.

The voice of conscience, the inward judge of man's actions, is likewise too weak to guide and restrain human activity. It too becomes confused and irresolute, so that it is difficult even to follow its indications.

To awaken in us the greatest possible revulsion and hatred toward sin, the Apostle depicts the grievous violence which sin works upon us. He also depicts the unnatural division that arises in our nature because of sin: "I do not understand what I do. For I do not do what I will, but what I hate, that I do. But if I do what I do not will, I agree with the law that it is good. Now then, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me... According to the inward man I delight in the law of God. But in my members I see another law, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin."

The inner man is the spirit. The manifestations of its life are the fear of God, the demand of conscience, and dissatisfaction with anything created. It remains whole even in the fallen man, and it makes itself known even in the greatest sinner. It always stands on the side of what is pleasing to God, lawful, and good. It sympathizes with this and delights in this together with it. There is no one who does not experience this. In his ordinary, calm state, a man stands on this side, and he reasons and feels well. Look at the man of whom we speak: today he is in a good spirit, almost a saint. But later something appears from somewhere, and he is unrecognizable.