Глава седьмая

Rom.7:1. Do you not know, brothers (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has power over a person while he lives? Rom.7:2. A married woman is bound by law to her living husband; and if her husband dies, she is freed from the law of marriage. Rom.7:3. Therefore, if she marries another while her husband is alive, she is called an adulteress; if her husband dies, she is free from the law, and will not be an adulteress if she marries another husband. Having abandoned moral teaching, he returns to dogmatic teaching and proves that his listeners should no longer remain under the law. The law, he says, as you also know, has power over a person as long as a person remains alive; for it does not extend to the dead. So you too, he says, died to the law, and therefore it finally no longer had power over you. So he hints at this at the beginning, and then talks about it from a different angle. Namely: when a husband dies, the wife has the power to marry another. Here he likened the law to a husband, and his hearers to a wife. Then it was necessary to say: therefore, brethren, the law has no power over you: for it is dead. But the apostle did not say this so as not to upset the Jews, but represents the deceased wife, that is, the Jews themselves, who therefore enjoy double freedom. For if a wife is free from the power of the law, when her husband dies; then she is all the more free when she herself has died. Rom.7:4. So you too, my brothers, died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, who was raised from the dead, so that we may bear fruit to God. If you, he says, are dead, then you are not under the law. For if a wife is not subject to liability after the death of her husband, then all the more is she free from the yoke of the law when she herself has died. Notice how wisely he proves that the law itself wants him to be left behind. So, you too have been freed from the law by the body of Christ, who was crucified for us. For this is why the body was put to death, so that you might die to the law and be under the authority of another, who died for you and then rose again. For the law does not live after it has died, but Christ lives even after he has died, so that you have no power to depart from Him who lives. What's the use of this? “Let us bear fruit to God,” that is, so that from the marriage in which we were united with Christ, we may bear children for God, that is, good deeds. Rom.7:5. For when we lived according to the flesh, then the passions of sin, revealed by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit in death. Proving that the law does not help us at all in avoiding carnal passions, but only shows them, he says: when we were in the carnal life and in bad deeds, then sinful passions acted in our members, revealed by the law and recognizable through the law. He did not say that the members produce vices, so as not to give room for the accusation of the flesh. For the soul is like a musician, and the members are like harps. If a musician plays badly, then the harp also makes bad sounds. So, when we were under the law and could not avoid passions, we gave birth to evil deeds to death. Rom.7:6. But now, having died to the law by which we were bound, we have been freed from it, so that we could serve God in the renewal of the spirit, and not according to the old letter. In order not to upset the Jews, he did not say: the law was abolished, but: “we were freed from it,” that is, we renounced, freed ourselves, died and became dead and motionless in relation to the leash on which they kept us. And this tether is a sin; for we were held on to him as if by a chain. We died to sin, so that we could “serve God in the renewal of the spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.” In ancient times, virtue was difficult because Adam received many natural deficiencies in his mortal body; and now, by the grace of Christ in baptism, our nature has received help from the Spirit, who made us new and young and freed us from the decay and weakness of the letter. Therefore, during the time of the law, virginity was rare, but now in the Church there are thousands who piously lead a virgin life. The same should be said about contempt for death. Rom.7:7. What shall we say? Is it really sin from the law? No way. But I knew sin no other way than through the law. For I would not understand desire if the law did not say: do not desire. The Apostle said many things that could seem to be an accusation of the law: namely: “sin must not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:14), and: “the law came after, and thus the transgression was multiplied” (Rom. 5:20) and also: “the old letter” (Rom. 7:6). Therefore, in order to eliminate such suspicion, he introduces an objection in the form of a question and says: what shall we say about the law? Is it that he is a sin? Then he resolves this objection, first answering in the negative, as usual, he speaks of something extremely absurd, and then offers evidence. The law, he says, is not sin, but an indicator of sin; for I would not have known desire, “if the law had not said: Thou shalt not covet.” How did the flood finally happen? How was Sodom burned if before the law they did not know that desire was evil? They knew then, but then the desire was not strengthened and therefore they did not recognize it with the same thoroughness with which they began to understand it when the law was given. Initially they knew the desire according to one natural law, but later also according to the written one, which is why it became a reason for greater punishment, and this did not happen from the teachings of the law, but from the carelessness of those who did not pay attention to the prescriptions of the law, as the Apostle shows further. Rom.7:8. But sin, taking occasion from the commandment, produced in me every desire: for without the law sin is dead. He did not say that the law “produced desire,” but: “sin” (which, according to Chrysostom, is a careless and corrupted will), and the devil (for some understood him by sin), or the inclination to pleasure and the desire for the worst, the very teaching of the law, was used for evil. It would be unfair to blame a doctor who does not allow a patient with fever, who is ready to constantly drink water, to drink and thereby increases his desire to drink; for the doctor’s job is to prohibit, and the patient himself should not drink. Likewise, the law intended by teaching to distract a person from lust, but the sin-loving will strengthened the desire and produced not just one, but every desire, with effort doing evil. For when someone is forbidden to do something, then he becomes more furious. So sin will then be revealed when the law has been broken. “For without the law sin is dead,” that is, it is not considered to exist. When there is a law that prescribes what is due, then sin lives, that is, it exists and appears as sin to those who break the law and sin consciously. Rom.7:9. I once lived without law; but when the commandment came, sin came to life, Before Moses, he says, I lived without the law, which is why I was not subjected to strict condemnation (here in the person of himself he means human nature); but when the commandment came, it was discovered that sin was sin: for although people had sinned before, they did not realize it. And this is the benefit of the law, that it made people aware that they were sinning. Understand the words “I died” in two ways: both: “I sinned,” and so: “I became guilty of a greater punishment,” for which it is not the law that is guilty, but the one who heeds it. Imagine, for example: someone is sick and does not realize that he is sick; then the doctor comes to the patient and reveals to him that he is sick, and that he should abstain from such and such food, as it intensifies the disease; the patient did not listen to the doctor and died. Rom.7:10. And thus the commandment given for life served me for death, Rom.7:11. because sin, taking a pretext from the commandment, deceived me and killed me with it. He did not say: the commandment became death for me, but: “served,” thereby explaining the unusualness and strangeness of such incongruity. The purpose of the commandment is to lead to life, which is why it was given. If death resulted from this, then the commandment is not to blame: for sin deceived me and killed me through the commandment, that is, the desire for the worst and a corrupt and sin-loving heart, or better yet, pleasure. For if there were no commandment showing sin, then I would not be considered by those who commit sin, and I would not be subject to punishment; for the word “killed” should be understood about both, both about sin and about punishment, as was said above about the word “I died.” The whole essence of the apostle’s thought is this: when there is no law, then sin is not imputed; when the law came and was broken, sin was revealed and revived, so that through the violation of the commandment, sin, that is, the discovery and state of sin appears, whereas before it did not exist and was not imputed, because there was no law. Therefore the law itself was not the cause of sin; but he could not free us from it, so that due to this weakness of the law we needed grace. Rom.7:12. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Here the lips of the Marcionites, Manichaeans, Simonians and all those who condemn the Old Testament were very clearly blocked; for it clearly declares that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good. He distinguishes the law from the commandment, as the general from the particular; for in the law one thing constitutes dogmas, and the other commandments. So, the dogmas of the law are holy, and the commandments regarding activities are holy and righteous and good. Consequently, they are the laws of the good and righteous God, although the heretics mentioned above blaspheme that the law comes from an evil God. Rom.7:13. So, has what is good become deadly to me? No way; but sin, which turns out to be sin because through good it causes me death. The law, he says, did not become death for me, but sin killed me, so that it would become clear what evil sin is, and that, despite the healing of the law, it became worse. And by sin, as we said above, we mean both the will inclined to pleasure, and the desire for sin, and therefore the devil, and activity itself, carried away by pleasure. Thanks be to Christ, who freed us from such evil! So sin becomes extremely sinful through the commandment. What destruction sin is, this was revealed through the commandment; for sin took advantage of the commandment to death. So about a disease, when it comes to a worse state through medical aids, we can say that it discovered its malignancy through medical art, although it did not receive any benefit from it. Rom.7:14. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. The Apostle said that sin was revealed through the commandment. Therefore, so that you do not think that the law is the cause of sin, he pronounces a general sentence and says: “for we know that the law is spiritual.” Everyone, he says, knows and is recognized by everyone that the law is by no means the cause of sin, but that it is “spiritual,” that is, the teacher of virtue and the enemy of vice. Where did the sin come from under such a wondrous mentor? From the negligence and weakness of the disciples. For “I,” he says, “are carnal,” which means: all human nature, both before the giving of the law and during the time of the law, was filled with many passions; for as a result of Adam’s crime, we not only became mortal, but our nature received passions, gave in to sin and became a slave, so that we could not even raise our heads. Rom.7:15. Because I don’t understand what I’m doing. Here he is not talking about complete ignorance, for if they sinned in ignorance, then why would they be punished? What does he say? I am in darkness, I am carried away, I do not know how sin carries me away. Therefore, when he says: “I don’t understand,” he does not indicate ignorance of what he should do, but to dangers, entanglements, seduction, infatuation. All this speaks of people who lived before the coming of Christ in the flesh, although he presented himself. Because I'm not doing what I want. This is how it is expressed instead of the following: for the people of that time did not do what they wanted. Expressed this way, it does not inspire necessity or compulsion. But what does he say? Here's the thing: what they didn't approve of, what they didn't accept, what they didn't like, they did it. For he further adds: and what I hate, I do. Do you see that it introduces neither compulsion nor necessity? For otherwise I would have added: what I am forced to do by necessity, I do. But he didn’t say that, but said: “that I hate.” How did the evil happen? Because of passion, because of the weakness that they had from Adam’s crime. It was this weakness that the law could not heal, although it said what should be done; Christ came and healed her. So, here in everything that he said and that he intends to say, the apostle’s goal is to prove that human nature has come to an incurable state and that no one will heal it except Christ. Rom.7:16. If I do what I do not want, then I agree with the law that it is good. That the law is good, he says, is evident from the fact that by nature I know what I should do, and that my mind is not damaged, although I indulge in vice. Rom.7:17. Therefore, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that lives in me. Rom.7:18. For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. He did not say that the flesh does this, but “sin,” that is, the torment of sin that carries me away. What are they talking about who take up arms against the flesh and exclude it from among God’s creations? They present: after all, the apostle says: “no good thing lives in me, that is, in my flesh.” Listen to the way in which he expressed this. Man consists of two parts: soul and flesh; of these, the first, that is, the soul, rules over everything, and the flesh is a slave. Therefore, the expression: “no good thing dwells in my flesh” means: it is not in the power of the flesh, but in the power of the soul; whatever the soul chooses, that is what the flesh does. It’s the same as if someone says that a harmonious sound is not in the harp, but in the harpist, he does not humiliate the harp, but shows the superiority of the artist over the instrument. Because the desire for good is in me, but I don’t find it to do it. Rom.7:19. I don’t do the good that I want, but I do the evil that I don’t want. Rom.7:20. If I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin living in me. The words “I do not find” denoted the attack and machinations of sin; for he places the blame on both the being of the soul and the being of the flesh and attributes everything to vicious activity and will. When he says: “which I don’t want,” he takes the guilt away from the soul, and when he says: “It’s no longer I who do it,” he takes the guilt off the body. Who does evil? Sin, which, according to John Chrysostom, is a vicious and sin-loving will. And this will is not the creation of God, but our movement. The will itself is a creation of God; but the will directed towards a certain goal is something of our own, the action of our will. It was said above what sin is, that is, the torment of sin, captivating our mind through pleasure. Rom.7:21. So I find a law that when I want to do good, evil is present to me. The expression is unclear; there is something missing in it. It should be said: so, when I want to do good, I find myself a protector in the law, but I do not do good, because evil is present with me. The meaning of this passage is this: the knowledge of good from the beginning was implanted in me; I also find that the law protects it and praises it, and I want to do good, but I am drawn into it by some other force, and evil is attached to me, that is, the effect of evil is not destroyed in me. However, Saint John Chrysostom, having interpreted the present passage as incomplete, suggests that it can be understood differently, precisely this way: I find that the law was not given to anyone else, but to me, who wants to do good; for the law is a law only for those who wish to do good, as one who desires the same thing that he also desires. This will become clear from what follows. Rom.7:22. For according to the inner man I delight in the law of God; Rom.7:23. but in my members I see another law, warring against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. I knew good before the law, and when I find it depicted in writing, I praise the law and agree with it “according to the inner man,” or according to my mind. “But I see another law,” that is, sin, which I called law because those deceived by it submit to it and are afraid to leave it, as a law that must be fulfilled. This law opposes “the law of my mind,” that is, the natural law (I called it the inner man above, but now clearly calls it the mind), and prevails, even makes me a prisoner, defeating both natural and written law. How does he become a prisoner? “The law of sin,” that is, by force, torment. He did not say: by the desire of the flesh, or by the nature of the flesh, but by the “law of sin” that rules in my members. This means that the flesh is not to blame for this. If a robber occupies the royal palace, then the palace is not at all to blame. So it is here: if sin dwells in my members, then the flesh is not evil. Some notice here four laws: one is God’s, who taught us decent things, the other is opposing, coming to us through the action of the devil, the third is the law of the mind, that is, natural, the last is found in our members, that is, the sin-loving will and inclination to evil, making us insensitive and hardened in heart through habit. Rom.7:24. Poor man I am! who will deliver me from this body of death? The natural law became insufficient, the written law turned out to be powerless, both of them defeated the torment of sin. Where can we hope for salvation? “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” , that is, guilty of death. For the body, having become subject to suffering as a result of crime, thereby became susceptible to sin. Someone will say: if the body was susceptible to sin, then why were sinners punished before the coming of Christ? Because they were given such commandments that they could fulfill even while in the power of sin. Rom.7:25. I thank my God Jesus Christ our Lord. Placed in a hopeless situation and unable to find another savior, he, of necessity, found Christ as the Savior. Therefore, he thanks “God” the Father “Jesus Christ our Lord,” that is, the reason for thanksgiving, Christ. He, he says, fulfilled what the law could not do: He delivered me from the weakness of the flesh, strengthening it, so that it is no longer under the torment of sin, but just as through the crime of Adam, having become mortal, it became surmountable for sin, so, through the obedience of the Crucified and Risen One, having received the guarantee of incorruptibility, it courageously resists sin. So with my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh the law of sin. You might be interested in: