Romans 7:5Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He did not even add "that occur," but simply, "through the law," that is, made manifest or known by the law. Then, so as not to accuse the flesh either, he did not say, "the passions produced by the members."

Rather, he said, "which worked in our members," showing that there is another principle of wickedness in man. It depends not on the members that are governed, but on the thoughts that govern.

The soul occupied the place of the artist, while the nature of the flesh was like a lyre. It sounded as the artist compelled it. Therefore the discordant playing must be charged not to the lyre, but to the artist.

The passions of the flesh were not stirred in us because of the law. They arise from inborn desire and take possession of the weakened mind. He sets this forth clearly when he says: "The flesh desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. These are opposed to each other" (Gal 5:17).

Here, however, omitting this, he says that the flesh opposes the spirit, placing nothing in between. Therefore the passions of the flesh are not stirred in us because of the law, but by nature. In a paradoxical way they rise against the desires of the law.

Paul himself says: "The mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor can it be" (Rom 8:7). If fleshly thoughts war against the law, is it not derangement of mind to suppose that passions so opposed to it are set in motion by it?

What then does Paul say? He speaks with those who have died to sin, having been buried with Christ through baptism. They have already been enriched by the mortification of the passions.

For them it would be fitting to walk outside the law, because they have been freed from the passions condemned by the law. Therefore, while we still remained in fleshly thoughts, the passions listed and named through the law worked in us.

We too were under the judgment of the law, since sin still lived in us.

The fleshly mind does not believe in spiritual realities. For example, it does not believe that a virgin can conceive without fleshly union with a man (Lk 1:34). Nor that a man can be born anew of water and the Holy Spirit (Is 44:3; Jn 3:5).

Nor does it believe that the soul, when separated from the bonds of the flesh, can rise again in it (Jn 6:37-40; Rom 8:19-23; 1 Cor 15:12-57). Everyone who doubts these things is in the flesh.

Therefore the Apostle says: "Then the sinful passions, made manifest by the law, worked in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death." It is clear that whoever does not believe spiritual things acts in sin.

Captured by sin, he is drawn away by vices, so that he bears the fruit of the second death. For when he sins, death profits from it.

Paul says that sinful passions work in the members, not in the body, so as not to give an occasion to those who distort the understanding of the body.

This discussion concerns Jews and those Christians who wish to live under the law. Its purpose is to teach them that they are fleshly and that they should leave the law.

Paul says that the sinful passions ruling those who live according to the flesh are made manifest through the law, but are not caused by the law. The law is the sign of sin, not its parent. The law makes sinners guilty.

And to what did this lead? "To bring forth fruit unto death." By this the Apostle taught us that before grace, while living under the law, we were subject to the strongest assaults of sin. The law showed what should be done, but did not provide help to do it.

The difficulty of fulfilling the law in the strictness of its literal meaning led to condemnation. Many Old Testament righteous ones already understood this. They sought justification not in works of the law, but in inward purity of heart (Ps 50:18-19; Hos 6:6; Mt 23:23).

From condemnation there came deliverance through the spiritual understanding of the law and through the demand for the soul's disposition toward doing good. Therefore the Apostle says elsewhere: "the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Cor 3:6).

Explaining the part played in producing the deadly fruits of life under the law, St. John Chrysostom says: "The Apostle does not accuse the flesh. He did not say, 'the passions produced by the members,' but 'which worked in our members.' By this he shows that there is another principle of wickedness in man, namely, not the members that are governed, but the thoughts that govern. The soul was like a musician, and the bodily nature like a lyre. They gave forth whatever sound the musician made them give. Therefore the discordant playing must be blamed not on the lyre, but on the player."

As for the law's part, according to his word, "the law performed the office of a strict accuser and revealed sins." But how all these influences led to death is shown with particular clarity by His Grace Theophan in these words.

"The law accused the passions. The conscience agreed with this accusation and added its own voice to the words of the law. The man was convinced by the word of the law and by the voice of conscience. But whenever a passion rose up, he consciously and willingly gave himself over to it, against the law and conscience. By this he mercilessly killed himself morally. Blow after blow, and finally death came. This is the state in which good impulses no longer rise from the heart."

Believers in Jesus Christ are, of course, made alive by spiritual foundations. Therefore they are so disposed that they can and must work for God from inner motives, not external ones. Yet this is not given to them all at once.

Thus in the Apostle's words there is instruction for all who waver in following the gracious Spirit of life in Jesus Christ.

Further implanting in the minds and hearts of the readers of the epistle the awareness of the great beneficence of faith in Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul first depicts human moral corruption in verses 7-25. Then he describes the very brightness of the Christians' state under the beneficent action of faith in Christ (Rom 8:1-39).

This thought is also confirmed by the following verse: "But now we have been released from the law," that is, we have ceased to be in the flesh. In what sense, then, can abiding under the law be called being in the flesh?

It can be so called because service under the law was chiefly fleshly, bodily, and material. It led to bodily purity, but did not cleanse or correct the soul and heart. Blessed Theodoret understands it thus: "'When we were in the flesh,' that is, when we led life under the law.

For the Apostle called 'flesh' the ordinances given to the flesh concerning food, drink, leprosy, and the like."

But further, precisely because the law, as a material and bodily service, leads only to bodily purity and does not correct the heart, it consequently leaves sin and passions to rule there. Therefore abiding under the law is equivalent to abiding in fleshly life, in a life of desire and self-pleasing.

Saint Chrysostom understands it thus: "'In the flesh,' that is, in evil deeds, in the fleshly life. For he does not mean to say that until now we were in the flesh, but have now become bodiless."

Whether one accepts the first or the second meaning, the thought of the word is the same. The Apostle wished to express the spirit and force of the law and the character of life under the law. Therefore he said, "in the flesh," instead of "under the law." Saint Chrysostom says that he did this so as not to give any occasion to heretics who judged the law wrongly.

Second: what do the words mean, "the sinful passions, which were through the law, were at work"? How are sinful passions through the law? Are they aroused, protected, or given strength by it? Did the law dispose one toward passions or indulge them? On the contrary, it condemned them, forbidding even improper desires.

How, then, are sinful passions through the law? Sinful passions were not implanted in us by the law. God created our nature pure from passions. But when we fell away from God and stopped at ourselves instead of God, we began to love ourselves and please ourselves in every way.

Then in this selfhood we received all the passions, which are rooted in it and spring from it. The law came afterward, not to indulge the passions, but to bridle them. For it contained commandments directly opposed to the passions, saying, for example: Do not kill, do not steal, do not commit adultery, and even do not desire a woman who is not your wife.

How, then, are sinful passions through the law? The Apostle said only, "through the law," leaving us to understand for ourselves: what through the law? They were not begotten through the law. They are not indulged through the law. What, then, through the law? They are revealed, known, and convicted.

So say all our holy interpreters. Saint Chrysostom says: "The law fulfilled the office of a strict accuser and revealed sins. Therefore the Apostle did not say, 'the sinful passions that were under the law,' but says, 'which were through the law,' that is, revealed or known through the law."

Blessed Theodoret writes: "The law did not incite to sin, but condemned sin. Sin, however, made evil use of what was good."

With this understanding, the words, "the sinful passions, which were through the law, were at work in our members," can be retold otherwise: the sinful passions, revealed and known through the law, or despite being revealed, convicted, and known through the law, acted in our members.

The passions are presented as certain masters against whom there was no remedy. Convulsions or spasms occur when some alien power enters our members and twists them in its own way. So the passions act in our members when they are stirred up self-willedly.

Where, then, are freedom and self-activity? They are right there. Man freely gave himself over to the passions and himself acted intensely to please them. Did man not see the evil from the passions? And what of conscience? Conscience, strengthened and supported by the law, also rose up against the passions.

Man himself saw their destructive action, and yet he voluntarily gave himself over to the passions and gave them power to act self-willedly in his members. In the passions there is the quality of sinful pleasure. The fallen man has taken self-pleasing as his principle, and self-pleasing is always of one mind with sinful pleasure.

Therefore, as soon as any passion rises up with its inherent pleasure, self-pleasing immediately takes its side. It draws along consciousness, freedom, and self-activity before conscience has time to give a sobering voice.

When in this way the human person is joined to the passion before the voice of conscience, then afterward, whatever conscience may say, the man breaks through and acts according to the passion. This is what the Apostle depicts when he says: "the sinful passions... were at work in our members," as certain masters or tyrants.

Theodoret writes: "Our members did not produce sin. Rather, in our members the inclination of the soul toward the worse gave freedom to the activity of sin. Living under the law, or despite the force of the law, we were subject to the strongest assaults of sin, because the law showed what had to be done, but did not give help to do it."

Saint Chrysostom speaks more fully: "The Apostle does not accuse the flesh either. He did not say, 'the passions that were produced by the members,' but, 'which were at work in our members.' By this he shows that there is another principle of wickedness in man, namely, not the members governed, but the thoughts that govern.

The soul was like the musician, and the bodily nature like the harp. They gave forth the sound that the musician compelled them to give. Therefore the discordant playing must be blamed not on the harp, but on the player."

What was the consequence of such an order of things? It was that by our life and deeds we only bore fruit to death. Thus it could seem that the purpose of such an order, intentionally considered, was that we should bear fruit to death: "in order to bear fruit to death."

But this follows only from the expression. The Apostle's thought is only to show what was the consequence of the passions' dominion over us. Otherwise one may retell it thus: and in this way we only bore fruit to death.

This stands in contrast to what was said in the preceding verse, that we were joined to the Lord and Savior so as to bear fruit to God. It is as though he answers the question: we were joined to the Lord so as to bear fruit to God, but what was there before?

Before, he says, sinful passions acted in our members, despite the accusation and prohibition of the law. We did nothing but bear fruit to death.

The expression "to bear fruit to death" means to do such deeds as only put to death and do not make alive. Moral deadening is meant, which flowed directly from the disorder that characterized the inside of man because of the dominion of the passions.

The law accused the passions. Conscience agreed with this accusation and gave its voice to the words of the law. Man was convinced by the word of the law and the voice of conscience. Yet every time a passion rose up, he consciously and voluntarily gave himself over to the passion, contrary to the law and conscience.

By this he mercilessly struck and killed himself morally. Every sin, as a deed done to please passion against conscience, is a murderous blow to our spirit. Blow after blow, and the final death comes. This is the state when good impulses no longer rise from the heart.