Romans 6:18–23

Then when he says, but thanks be to God, he shows the folly of obeying sin and thereby returning to the slavery of sin: first, by considering the benefit we have received. For if someone, by another's graciousness is freed from slavery, it is unfitting to subject oneself freely to slavery. Hence, since we have been freed from sin by the grace of God, it is unfitting willfully to return again to the slavery of sin. Second, by considering the state into which we were led after freedom from sin, namely, that we are slaves to justice. But, it is not lawful for a slave to subject himself to the dominion of an opposite master; hence, it is not lawful, if we have been made slaves of justice, to return to the slavery of sin.

The Apostle touches on both of these considerations, when he says: I thank God, and you too should thank God, that you were the servants of sin, because he who commits sin, is a servant of sin (John 8:34), but have obeyed, namely, by believing: for obedience to the faith, in all nations (Rom 1:5); and this not as though compelled, but from the heart: for with the heart, we believe unto justice (Rom 10:10), unto that form of doctrine, i.e., to the doctrine of the Catholic faith: follow the pattern of the sound words you have heard from me (2 Tim 1:13), into which you have been delivered: i.e., gave yourselves entirely: but first they gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God (2 Cor 8:5). And by this being then freed from sin, so that it is not fitting to desert justice: you were bought with a price (1 Cor 7:23) and are not your own.

There are two gifts of God which he here points out. The "freeing from sin," and also the "making them servants to righteousness," which is better than any freedom. For God hath done the same as if a person were to take an orphan, who had been carried away by savages into their own country, and were not only to free him from captivity, but were to set a kind father ever him, and bring him to very great dignity. And this has been done in our case. For it was not our old evils alone that He freed us from, since He even led us to the life of angels, and paved the way for us to the best conversation, handing us over to the safe keeping of righteousness, and killing our former evils, and deadening the old man, and leading us to an immortal life.

"And being freed from sin, you have been made the servants of justice." In these words there is an exposition of the things he said above. For if you no longer serve sin, it is certain that, being freed from it, you have been made the servants of justice. But it is asked who it is that frees from sin. Without doubt, the knowledge of the truth. For thus Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him: "If you believe my word, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." It is therefore the truth that frees from sin, and the knowledge of the truth. And it is certain that everyone who has been freed from sin serves justice. But when we say, let him serve justice — since justice is one out of the choir of the virtues — it is as if we were to say that if anyone has been freed from sin, he will serve truth, and will serve wisdom, and will serve chastity, and will serve piety. For thus do I understand also that which is said: "Open to me the gates of justice, and entering into them I will confess to the Lord." For he who wishes to confess to the Lord enters not the gates of justice alone, but also of truth, and of wisdom, and of piety, and of chastity. For there is one hall of all the virtues, whose doors the just man asks to be opened to him under the name of justice.

This is according to the teaching and example of Christ, who has taught us to get rid not only of sins but also of opportunities to sin.

Two, he says, benefits you received from God: you were both freed from such dishonor and became servants of righteousness, which constitutes great glory for you.

In recalling the weakness of the flesh, Paul wants to say that he is demanding less from us than the worship of God would normally require.… In order to remove from us any reason to be afraid of coming to faith, because that might seem to us to be unbearable and rough, Paul commands us to serve God with the same amount of zeal that we previously served the devil. For as we ought to be more willing to serve God than the devil, given that God brings salvation and the devil damnation, yet the spiritual physician does not demand more from us, lest in avoiding the more difficult precepts on account of our weakness we should remain in death. Thus the Lord says: "Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Since he had required great strictness of life, charging us to be dead to the world, and to have died unto wickedness, and to abide with no notion towards the workings of sin, and seemed to be saying something great and burdensome, and too much for human nature; through a desire to show that he is not making any exorbitant demand, nor even as much as might be expected of one who enjoyed so great a gift, but one quite moderate and light, he proves it from contraries, and says, "I speak after the manner of men," as much as to say, Going by human reasonings; by such as one usually meets with. For he signifies either this, or the moderateness of it, by the term applied, "after the manner of men." For elsewhere he uses the same word. "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man," that is, moderate and small. "For as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness." And truly the masters are very different ones, but still it is an equal amount of servitude that I ask. For men ought to give a much larger one, and so much the larger as this is a greater and better mastership than the other. Nevertheless I make no greater demand "because of the infirmity," and that, he does not say of your free will or readiness of spirit, but "of your flesh," so making what he says the less severe. And yet on one side there is uncleanness, on the other holiness: on the one iniquity, and on the other righteousness. And who is so wretched, he says, and in such straits as not to spend as much earnestness upon the service of Christ, as upon that of sin and the devil? Hear then what follows, and you will see clearly that we do not even spend this little. For when (stated in this naked way) it does not seem credible or easy to admit, and nobody would endure to hear that he does not serve Christ so much as he did serve the devil, he proves it by what follows, and renders it credible by bringing that slavery before us, and saying how they did serve him.

"I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members to serve uncleanness, and iniquity unto iniquity, so now present your members to serve righteousness unto sanctification." By these words the Apostle strikes a certain shame into his hearers, so that they may at least render this much service to righteousness and sanctification as they had formerly paid to uncleanness and iniquity. What, then, is so human — that is, what is so light, what is so free of burden, and what could no weakness of the flesh whatever excuse? "Just as," he says, "you presented your members to serve uncleanness, and iniquity unto iniquity, so now present your members to serve righteousness unto sanctification." It is indeed inglorious that anyone should serve the virtues only in the same measure as he served the vices. For righteousness ought to be honored far more abundantly and far more intently. But I, he says, act humanly and after the common measure: I ask the same things, I require like things. Once your feet ran to the temples of demons; now let them run to the Church of God. Formerly they ran to shed blood; now let them run to set blood free. Formerly your hands were stretched out to plunder what belonged to others; now let them be stretched out to bestow what is their own. Formerly your eyes looked about after a woman, or after something belonging to another, that they might covet it; now let them look about after the poor, the weak, the needy, that they may show mercy. Your ears took delight in empty hearing, or in the disparagement of good men; now let them be turned to hearing the word of God, to the exposition of the law, and to receiving the discipline of wisdom. Let the tongue that has grown accustomed to insults, curses, and filthy speech now be turned to blessing the Lord at all times: let it bring forth sound and honorable discourse, that it may give grace to those who hear, and let it speak truth with its neighbor. But what need is there to pursue these things one by one, when it is plain even to you how to fit to the virtues the service of each member which it rendered to the vices, and to turn now to chastity and sanctification the activity which it rendered to uncleanness? Here he seems indeed to have named righteousness for all the virtues together, just as, on the contrary, he has put iniquity for all the vices together. He added, to be sure, "of righteousness unto sanctification," namely so as to commend the part of chastity both generally along with the rest and specifically by itself. But look also at this, that everywhere through these words he indicates the freedom of the will, and shows that each one has it in his own power that the services which he formerly rendered to iniquity unto iniquity he may, his purpose being turned to the better, render to righteousness and sanctification — which surely could not come about if either nature resisted, as some think, or the course of the stars stood in the way.

But also each and every one of the members, if they serve in the offices of the commandments of God, are to be called circumcised; but if they run riot beyond the laws divinely prescribed for them, they are to be reckoned uncircumcised. And this, I think, is what the Apostle said: "for as you presented your members to serve iniquity unto iniquity, so now present your members to serve righteousness unto sanctification." For when our members served iniquity, they were not circumcised, nor was the covenant of God in them; but when they have begun to serve "righteousness unto sanctification," the promise which was made to Abraham is fulfilled in them. For then the law of God and His covenant is sealed in them.

Paul is saying, in effect: "Although you ought to serve righteousness much more than you previously served sin, I nevertheless make allowance for your weakness so that you might serve righteousness just as much as you once served sin." Or perhaps it is this: Whatever the soul does in a carnal fashion is held against the flesh, but if the flesh performs a spiritual deed the whole person becomes spiritual.… We offered our members to serve sin; it is not the case, as the Manichaeans say, that it was the nature of the body to have sin ingrained in it.

Then, wishing to say that the Romans should serve God just as they served sin, he remarks beforehand: "I speak after the manner of men," that is, I am presenting something lowly, unworthy of the subject, proportionate to your weakness. For it was fitting to show an incomparably greater measure of service to God than to sin; but because of your weakness, he says, present at least an equal measure. Notice how clearly he showed our voluntary servitude by saying: "now present your members." Of your own accord, he says, making yourselves captives, you subjected yourselves to uncleanness, that is, adultery, fornication, the most shameful deeds, and why do I speak of uncleanness alone — to every kind of "iniquity," and moreover "as servants to iniquity," that is, so as to practice still greater iniquity: for having committed some sin, you did not stop there, but found in that very thing an incentive to further iniquity. Therefore, in the same measure present your members "as servants to righteousness," that is, to every virtue, so as to lead a life in chastity and holiness, and not in the former uncleanness.

After showing with a reason based on God's grace that we should not continue in sin but should serve God, the Apostle shows the same thing with a reason based on a condition of the former life. In regard to this he does three things: first, he describes the terms in which he will present his teaching; second, he presents the teaching, at for as you have yielded; third, he gives the reason for the teaching, at for when you were the servants.

First, therefore, he says: I have advised that you yield yourselves to God. I speak to you a human thing, i.e., as suited to human feebleness. For man is sometimes so presented in Scripture as to signify a weakness of the human condition: I am a weak man, and of a short time, and falling short of the understanding of judgment and laws (Wis 9:5); since there are jealousy and strife among you, are you not carnal and walking as mere men? (1 Cor 3:3). He assigns the cause, when he adds, because of the infirmity; for it is to the mature that the more perfect precepts are given: wisdom, however, we speak among those who are mature (1 Cor 2:6); solid food is for the mature (Heb 5:14). Lighter precepts are given to weaker men: as to little ones in Christ, I fed you with milk, not with solid food (1 Cor 3:1); you have become such as have need of milk and not of solid food (Heb 5:12). But this weakness comes not from the spirit but from the flesh, because the corruptible body is a load on the soul (Wis 9:15); hence, he adds: of your flesh: the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matt 26:41).

Then when he says, for as you have yielded, he presents the teaching he called human, in which he teaches that the body must be yielded to the slavery of justice in the same measure as we yielded it to the slavery of sin. And this is what he says: for as you have yielded your members to serve, namely, by doing evil works, uncleanness and iniquity born in the heart. Here uncleanness refers to sins of the flesh: but immorality and every uncleanness, let it not even be named among you (Eph 5:3), and iniquity to spiritual sins, particularly those that harm one's neighbor: he plots iniquity while on his bed (Ps 36:4). Which sins having been born in the heart, the members serve unto iniquity, namely to the work of committing iniquity. And here the Psalmist uses iniquity to mean uncleanness and iniquity, for all sin is iniquity (1 John 3:4). And this in so far as it is discordant with the justice of the divine law. So now, set free from sin, yield your members, namely, by performing good works, to serve justice proposed to us in the divine law: and this unto sanctification, i.e., for the performance and increase of holiness: let the holy still be holy (Rev 22:11). He calls this human, because right reason demands that man serve justice more than he previously served sin: for as it was your mind to go astray from God; so when you return again, you shall seek him ten times as much (Bar 4:28).

It is clear that whoever is free of God is a slave of sin. For as long as he sins he goes away from God and comes under sin.

Now what he says is somewhat of this kind, When ye lived in wickedness, and impiety, and the worst of evils, the state of compliance ye lived in was such that ye did absolutely no good thing at all. For this is, "ye were free from righteousness." That is ye were not subject to it, but estranged from it wholly. For ye did not even so much as divide the manner of servitude between righteousness and sin, but gave yourselves wholly up to wickedness. Now, therefore, since ye have come over to righteousness, give yourselves wholly up to virtue, doing nothing at all of vice, that the measure you give may be at least equal. And yet it is not the mastership only that is so different, but in the servitude itself there is a vast difference. And this too he unfolds with great perspicuity, and shows what conditions they served upon then, and what now. And as yet he says nothing of the harm accruing from the thing, but hitherto speaks of the shame.

"For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with respect to righteousness. What fruit therefore did you have then in those things of which you are now ashamed? For their end is death. But now, having been freed from sin and made slaves to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end, eternal life." How anyone is a slave of sin has already been sufficiently said in what went before, when we were expounding that passage: "Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as slaves for obedience — you are slaves of him whom you obey, whether of sin or of righteousness?" When, therefore, anyone serves sin, he is free with respect to righteousness, that is, a stranger to righteousness. For here he calls "free" one who is a stranger, and rightly so. For no one can at the same time serve both sin and righteousness, just as the Savior also said, that "no one can serve two masters." But of these things we have spoken more fully above. This indeed is to be noted, that there is both a blameworthy freedom and a praiseworthy servitude. For to be free with respect to righteousness is a crime; but to be its slave is praiseworthy. And when he says that one becomes a slave of righteousness, understand at the same time a slave of wisdom too, and of piety, and of modesty, and of all the virtues together: just as, on the contrary, he who is a slave of sin is at the same time a slave of evil desire, and of anger, and of rage, and of unchastity, and of robbery; and he serves all the vices and crimes together. Wherefore we ought always to examine ourselves in each single thing we do, and in every act to consider whom we are serving, whether sin unto iniquity, or righteousness unto sanctification.

As you are in no way slaves to sin inwardly, you should become free of every sin.

He who serves the devil is free from God, but he who being freed serves God is free from the devil. As a result it is apparent that a false liberty could have been had from a defect of the human will but that a true liberty could not have been received without the help of the liberator.

When you lived in vices, he says, you were estranged from righteousness; at that time you did not submit to it, you did not at all wish to serve it, and you freed yourselves from it. Therefore now too, serving righteousness, do not submit to sin.

Then he assigns the reason for this teaching, saying, for when you were the servants. In regard to this he does two things: first, he presents a reason for the teaching; second, he proves something he had presupposed, at for the wages of sin is death. The reason behind the above teaching is that the state of grace is preferable to the state of sin. For if more benefits accrue to us from the state of justice than from sin, we should be more eager to serve justice than we were to serve sin. First, therefore, he describes the state of sin; second, the state of justice, at but now being made free. In regard to the first he does three things: first, he describes the condition of the sinner; second, the effect of sin, at what fruit therefore; third, its end, at for the end of them is death.

In regard to the first it should be considered that man is by nature free because of his reason and will, which cannot be forced but can be inclined by certain things. Therefore, in regard to the freedom of the will man is always free of compulsion, although he is not free of inclinations. For the free judgment is sometimes inclined to the good through the habit of grace or justice; and then it is in slavery to justice but free from sin. But sometimes the free judgment is inclined to evil through the habit of sin; and then it is in slavery to sin and free from justice. Now, slavery to sin consists in being drawn to consent to sin against the judgment of reason: everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin (John 8:34). And in regard to this he says, for when you were the servants of sin. Freedom from justice, on the other hand, implies that a man rushes headlong into sin without the restraint of justice; in regard to this he says, you were free men to justice. This happens especially in those who sin of set purpose. For those who sin out of weakness or passion are restrained by some bridle of justice, that they do not seem to be freed from justice altogether: long ago you broke your yoke and burst your bonds; and you said, 'I will not serve' (Jer 2:20); a vain man is lifted up into pride, and thinks himself born free like a wild ass' colt (Job 11:12).

Yet it should be noted that this state involves true slavery and only apparent freedom. For since man should act according to reason, he is truly a slave when he is led away from what is reasonable by something alien. Furthermore, if he is not restrained by the yoke of reason from following concupiscence, he is free only in the opinion of those who suppose that the highest good is to follow one's concupiscence.

What are the fruits of sin? Learning from them what a good life is we are ashamed by the way we lived so wickedly before. And it is not only that the opinion of the pagans is wicked but also the heresy which is found most of all in Phrygia, to which only a morally corrupt person would belong, in which there is no sacrament and Christian piety has died out. Behold a freedom full of sins and bound by wickedness, whose deeds have only shame as their reward and whose end is death! Our departure is the end of this life and its deeds, and either death or life will succeed it. But here the word death has a double meaning, for it shifts from one kind of death to another.

But unless Christianity is wholly false, the perception of ourselves which we have in moments of shame must be the only true one; and even Pagan society has usually recognised "shamelessness" as the nadir of the soul. In trying to extirpate Shame we have broken down one of the ramparts of the human spirit, madly exulting in the work as the Trojans exulted when they broke their walls and pulled the Horse into Troy. I do not know that there is anything to be done but to set about the rebuilding as soon as we can. It is mad work to remove hypocrisy by removing the temptation to hypocrisy: the "frankness" of people sunk below shame is a very cheap frankness.

So great was the slavery, that even the recollection of it now makes you ashamed; but if the recollection makes one ashamed, the reality would much more. And so you gained now in two ways, in having been freed from the shame; and also in having come to know the condition you were in; just as then ye were injured in two ways, in doing things deserving shame, and in not even knowing to be ashamed. And this is worse than the former. Yet still ye kept in a state of servitude. Having then proved most abundantly the harm of what took place then from the shame of it, he comes to the thing in question. Now what is this thing? "For the end of those things is death." Since then shame seems to be no such serious evil, he comes to what is very fearful, I mean death; though in good truth what he had before mentioned were enough. For consider how exceeding great the mischief must be, inasmuch as, even when freed from the vengeance due to it, they could not get free of the shame. What wages then, he says, do you expect from the reality, when from the bare recollection, and that too when you are freed from the vengeance, you hide your face and blush, though under such grace as you are! But God's side is far otherwise.

"What fruit, therefore," he says, "did you have then in those things of which you are now ashamed? For their end is death." Divine Scripture teaches that there is fruit both of good things and of evil, as the Savior himself says in the Gospels: "Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree evil, and its fruit evil. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruits, nor an evil tree good fruits." In these words the purpose and will of a man seems to be called the tree, either good or evil, while his works are the fruit. If anyone turns his mind and purpose to righteousness, he is without doubt ashamed, and he himself brands himself for his former deeds which he did while placed under sin, because "their end is death." But I ask, what death? It is certain that it is not this common death. For no one is converted to righteousness after death, or is ashamed for past deeds done badly. What then is it? Does he perhaps seem to be speaking of the death of sin, since "the soul that sins, it shall die"? Or can it rather be understood that he is speaking of that death by which we die with Christ to sin, and put an end to vices and crimes, so that on this account he seems to have said that "their end is death"?

And what fruit did you have from impurity? None, except dishonor — and why do I speak of dishonor? You had death as your fruit: "for the end of those things is death," both bodily very often, and spiritual always. But from death you have been delivered by the grace of Christ, and the shame still remains not without benefit; for now you are ashamed of those sins.

Then when he says, what fruit therefore, he shows the effect of sin. One effect he excludes, namely, a fruitful return, when he says, what fruit therefore had you, namely, when you were committing those sins. For the works of sin are unfruitful, because they do not help man to obtain happiness: their works are unprofitable works (Isa 59:6); woe to you that devise that which is unprofitable and work evil in your beds (Mic 2:1). The effect he mentions is confusion, saying, in those things, namely, the sins, of which you are now, in the state of repentance, ashamed because of their baseness. After you instructed me, I struck my thigh; I was confounded and ashamed (Jer 31:19). You shall be ashamed of the gardens (Isa 1:29), namely, of the pleasure you had chosen.

Then he mentions the end of sin, saying, for the end of them, namely of sins, is death. This of course is not the objective in the mind of the sinner, because he does not intend to incur death by sin; nevertheless, it is the end of those sins, because of their very nature they bring temporal death. For when the soul separates God from itself, it deserves to have its body separated from it. Sins also bring eternal death, because when one wills to be separated from God for a time, he deserves to be separated from him forever; and this is eternal death: they who do such things are worthy of death (Rom 1:32).

If when we receive the forgiveness of sins we become imitators of good deeds, we shall acquire holiness and we shall obtain eternal life at the end, for we shall pass from death, which Paul said was the end, to life, which is without end.

But on us it is incumbent to reach the unaccomplished end, obeying the commands-that is, God-and living according to them, irreproachably and intelligently, through knowledge of the divine will; and assimilation as far as possible in accordance with right reason is the end, and restoration to perfect adoption by the Son, which ever glorifies the Father by the great High Priest who has deigned to call us brethren and fellow-heirs. And the apostle, succinctly describing the end, writes in the Epistle to the Romans: "But now, being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life."

Of the former, the fruit was shame, even after the being set free. Of these the fruit is holiness, and where holiness is, there is all confidence. But of those things the end is death, and of these everlasting life. Do you see how he points out some things as already given, and some as existing in hope, and from what are given he draws proof of the others also, that is from the holiness of the life. For to prevent your saying (i.e. as an objection) everything lies in hope, he points out that you have already reaped fruits, first the being freed from wickedness, and such evils as the very recollection of puts one to shame; second, the being made a servant unto righteousness; a third, the enjoying of holiness; a fourth, the obtaining of life, and life too not for a season, but everlasting. Yet with all these, he says, do but serve as ye served it. For though the master is far preferable, and the service also has many advantages, and the rewards too for which ye are serving, still I make no further demand. Next, since he had mentioned arms and a king, he keeps on with the metaphor.

"But now, having been freed from sin and made slaves to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end, eternal life." He compares fruits with fruits: and the fruits of sin, for which the saints are now — that is, after they have been freed from sin and made slaves to God — ashamed, he declares to be ended in death; but the fruits of righteousness, which are unto sanctification, he says receive as their end eternal life. In this, first of all, this must not be passed over: that he was unwilling to name in what those fruits consist for which we are now ashamed, whereas he says that the fruit of those who have been freed from sin and made slaves to God is unto sanctification. For the memory of good things is to be kept more often than that of evil ones. And as to his mentioning first the evil fruits and their end, but afterwards the fruits which are unto sanctification and their end, which is eternal life — see how this is like that prophetic saying in which he himself says: "I will kill, and I will make alive"; and again: "I will strike, and I will heal"; and once more in Job: "He himself causes pain, and gives the remedy: he strikes, and his hands heal." All these things look to this, that one must first die with Christ, and so live together with him; and first suffer with him, and so reign together with him. For unless we first die to sin through repentance, we cannot live to God through righteousness. Moreover, as to what he said above: "But having been freed from sin, you were made slaves of righteousness" — now, when he has said in like manner, "But having been freed from sin," he did not in like manner say, "you were made slaves of righteousness," but, "you were made slaves of God": the distinction is not idle. For by this it is shown that after anyone has been freed from sin, he ought first to serve righteousness and all the virtues together, so that from there he may ascend by progress to this, that he may become a slave of God — although to serve righteousness is also to serve God. For Christ is righteousness, and to serve Christ is to serve God. Yet there is an order of advances, and there are degrees among the virtues: and therefore Christ is said to reign, doubtless according to this, that he is righteousness, until in each one the fullness of the virtues is completed; but when the measure of perfection has been fulfilled, then he is said to hand over "the kingdom to God and the Father," so that now "God may be all in all." But I think this too must still be observed (since we have said that the Apostle made a comparison of evil fruits and good fruits): that there, where he was speaking of the evil fruits, he did not say, You had your fruit "in those things of which you are now ashamed," but he said, "What fruit therefore did you have?" — whereas where he speaks of the good fruits, he adds "your." For thus he writes: "You have your fruit unto sanctification": by which he seems to me to indicate that evil fruit, fruit to be ashamed of and repented of, is not our fruit. For God did not plant in us an evil tree that would bring forth evil fruits, as he himself also says through the prophet: "I planted you a fruitful vine, wholly true; how have you been turned into the bitterness of an alien vine?" Therefore, even if we bring forth evil fruits, they are not ours but another's, that is, sin's; but if we bring forth good fruits unto sanctification, they are our own fruits. For human nature received it from its Creator that it should bear these fruits. But those alien ones were not sown in us by God. And do you wish to know that the Lord does not sow evil fruits? Hear him saying in the Gospel: "Did we not sow good seed in the field? Whence then has it tares? And answering he said: An enemy man has done this." And do you wish to learn still further that these fruits of the flesh are not ours, but another's? The Lord himself again says in the Gospel: "If you have not been faithful in what is another's, who will give you what is your own?" Thus, then, by the mystery of a profound reasoning, in the case of evil fruit the Apostle did not add "your"; but of the good he says: "You have your fruit unto sanctification." And that he calls those more perfect whom he names as serving God than those whom he had first said served righteousness, is proved also from this, that he placed their fruit "unto sanctification"; and these may be understood to be those who have devoted themselves to chastity and continence; whereas those whom he said were slaves of righteousness may also be seen to be those who, though placed in marriage, nevertheless devote their labor to righteousness and to all the virtues. But concerning eternal life, although it has often been discussed by us in other places, nevertheless in the present passage it must be briefly touched upon, that eternity in the Scriptures is sometimes put in the sense that it knows no end, but sometimes in the sense that it has no end indeed in the present age, yet has one in the age to come. Sometimes the span of a certain time, or even of one man's life, is called eternity, as is that which is written in the law concerning the Hebrew slave: "If he loves," it says, "his wife and his children, and wishes to remain in servitude for their sake, you shall pierce his ear with an awl at the doorpost, and he shall be your slave forever." Here without doubt he has put "forever" for the time of a man's life. And again in Ecclesiastes it is said: "A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth stands forever": here "forever" indicates the time of the present age. But where he says "eternal life," we must look to what the Savior himself said: "But this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent"; and again: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life." And the Apostle himself says in other places, that "we shall be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord." Therefore, just as to be always with the Lord has no end, so also eternal life is to be believed to have no end.

Doubtless there is no blessing in something for which one feels shame when repenting of it. Everyone who comes to know goodness is ashamed of his former actions, but anyone who is ashamed of righteousness is not aware of its fruit. Therefore, those who sin get nothing out of it in the present, and in the future they will reap eternal death. But those who serve God have the gift of the Holy Spirit in the present and eternal life in the future. Or perhaps it should be read like this: what have you got out of doing things which make you feel ashamed whenever you think of them? The return you have already received is that, having been sanctified by baptism, you are alive.

Throughout this chapter, while withdrawing our members from unrighteousness and sin and applying them to righteousness and holiness, and transferring the same from the wages of death to the gift of eternal life, Paul undoubtedly promises to the flesh the reward of salvation. Now it would not have been consistent for a rule of holiness and righteousness to be especially enjoined for the flesh if the reward of such a discipline were not also within its reach; nor could even baptism be ordered for the flesh if by its regeneration a course were not inaugurated tending to its restitution.

The fruit of the works of sin is shame; the fruit of righteousness is sanctification, purity, innocence. The end of the former is death; the end of the latter is eternal life.

Then when he says, but now, he describes the state of justice: first, he describes a condition of this state; second, the effect, at you have your fruit; third, the end, at and the end life.

In regard to the first it should be noted that just as when one is by sin inclined to evil, he is free from justice, so when one is by the habit of justice and grace inclined to good, he is free from sin, so that he is not overcome by it to the point of consenting to it. Hence he says: but now in the state of justice, being made free from sin: if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed (John 8:36). On the other hand, just as in the state of sin one is a slave of sin which he obeys, so in the state of justice one is a slave of God and obeys him willingly: serve the Lord with gladness (Ps 100:2). And this is what he adds: and become servants to God: O Lord, I am your servant (Ps 116). But this is true freedom and the best form of slavery, because by justice man is inclined to what befits him and is turned from what befits concupiscence which is distinctively bestial.

Then when he says, you have your fruit, he mentions the effect of justice, saying, you have your fruit unto sanctification, i.e., the fruit of sanctity by good works is your return, inasmuch as these please you in a spiritual and holy way: my flowers are the fruit of honor and riches (Sir 24:23); but the fruit of the Spirit is joy, peace (Gal 5:22).

After that he mentions the end, saying, and you have the end, life everlasting, which is the goal of just men who do all their works for the sake of obtaining eternal life: seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you (Matt 6:33). It is also the end of the works themselves which merit eternal life, since they are done out of obedience to God and in imitation of God: my sheep hear my voice, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life (John 10:27).

Paul says that the wages of sin is death because death comes through sin, and thus whoever refrains from sin will receive eternal life as his reward. Those who do not sin will not undergo the second death.Just as those who follow sin obtain death, so those who follow the grace of God, that is, the faith of Christ which pardons sins, will have eternal life. They will therefore rejoice at being dissolved for a time, knowing that they will obtain this life which is free of all care and has no end. It was when he saw this from afar that St. Simeon asked to be released from this world that he might go into peace, that is, into life which allows no disturbance. And he bears witness that this gift is given to us by God through Christ our Lord, so that we should offer thanks to God through no one other than his Son.

Eternal life is unjustly given for good merits. Rather, merit is first given freely by a benevolent Savior.

The third fruit of grace is the attainment of eternal beatitude. Whence the Apostle to the Romans: "The wages of sin is death: but the grace of God is life eternal." You have the planting of life and of death. The grace of God is life eternal. But what is sin? Surely nothing other than the tree of death. Here is the tree of death, and here is the tree of life; place yourself in the garden where the tree of life is. Foolish would he be who plants the tree of death: if you planted a tree on which you were to be hanged, you would be foolish. The wicked therefore plant that tree of sin.

We must, then, as is fit, in investigating the nature of the body and the essence of the soul, apprehend the end of each, and not regard death as an evil. "For when ye were the servants of sin," says the apostle, "ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things in which ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death: but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." The assertion, then, may be hazarded, that it has been shown that death is the fellowship of the soul in a state of sin with the body; and life the separation from sin.

But again, those who assert that He was simply a mere man, begotten by Joseph, remaining in the bondage of the old disobedience, are in a state of death having been not as yet joined to the Word of God the Father, nor receiving liberty through the Son, as He does Himself declare: "If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." But, being ignorant of Him who from the Virgin is Emmanuel, they are deprived of His gift, which is eternal life; and not receiving the incorruptible Word, they remain in mortal flesh, and are debtors to death, not obtaining the antidote of life. To whom the Word says, mentioning His own gift of grace: "I said, Ye are all the sons of the Highest, and gods; but ye shall die like men." He speaks undoubtedly these words to those who have not received the gift of adoption, but who despise the incarnation of the pure generation of the Word of God, defraud human nature of promotion into God, and prove themselves ungrateful to the Word of God, who became flesh for them. For it was for this end that the Word of God was made man, and He who was the Son of God became the Son of man, that man, having been taken into the Word, and receiving the adoption, might become the son of God. For by no other means could we have attained to incorruptibility and immortality, unless we had been united to incorruptibility and immortality. But how could we be joined to incorruptibility and immortality, unless, first, incorruptibility and immortality had become that which we also are, so that the corruptible might be swallowed up by incorruptibility, and the mortal by immortality, that might receive the adoption of sons?

After speaking of the wages of sin, in the case of the blessings, he has not kept to the same order: for he does not say, the wages of good deeds, "but the gift of God;" to show, that it was not of themselves that they were freed, nor was it a due they received, neither yet a return, nor a recompense of labors, but by grace all these things came about. And so there was a superiority for this cause also, in that He did not free them only, or change their condition for a better, but that He did it without any labor or trouble upon their part: and that He not only freed them, but also gave them much more than before, and that through His Son. And the whole of this he has interposed as having discussed the subject of grace, and being on the point of overthrowing the Law next. That these things then might not both make them rather listless, he inserted the part about strictness of life, using every opportunity of rousing the hearer to the practice of virtue. For when he calls death the wages of sin, he alarms them again, and secures them against dangers to come. For the words he uses to remind them of their former estate, he also employs so as to make them thankful, and more secure against any inroads of temptations.

"For the wages of sin is death; but the grace of God is eternal life, in Christ Jesus our Lord." What he said here, "The wages of sin is death," is like what he had said above, "But their end is death." But whose end? Doubtless of those things "for which you now blush," whose fruit he does not even judge worthy to name. And again: "But the grace of God is eternal life, in Christ Jesus our Lord," is like that which he said: "You have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end indeed eternal life." And he rightly preserves the metaphor, that is, the figure of military service proposed from the beginning, so that he says the wages due are paid out as death to those soldiering under sin as king — or rather to those obeying its tyranny. But it was not fitting that God give wages to his own soldiers as though some debt, but rather a gift and grace, which is "eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." I do not think that this too is empty, that to eternal life he added "in Christ our Lord"; but perhaps because he wished it to be known that it is one thing to have eternal life alone, and another to have eternal life in Christ Jesus. For those also who shall rise unto confusion and everlasting reproach will indeed have eternal life, yet not in Christ Jesus, but in eternal confusion and reproach; but the just, who shall rise unto eternal life in Christ Jesus, will have eternal life. Sin therefore bestows upon its own soldiers, in whom it reigns, the wages it deems worthy — death. But we call death not this bodily death, but that of which it is written, that "the soul that sins, that soul shall die." And although we have often already spoken about the diversity of death, nevertheless, since the present passage has prompted it, to repeat the same things more openly, and to gather into one what has been said in scattered places, would be neither irksome to me nor burdensome to my readers. Death in the Scriptures is indeed one name, but it signifies many things. For the separation of the body from the soul is called death. But this can be called neither evil nor good: for it is intermediate, which is termed indifferent. And again, the separation of the soul from God is called death, which comes through sin. This is plainly evil, and it is also named the wage of sin. This death God did not make, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living; but by the envy of the devil this death entered into the world. And again the very author of this death, the devil, is called death, and he it is who is said to be the last enemy of Christ to be destroyed. But also the place of hell, in which souls were held by death, is itself likewise called death. There is spoken of also that praiseworthy death by which one dies to sin and is buried together with Christ, through which the amendment of the soul is effected and eternal life is acquired. Since therefore there is so great a difference contained in this one name of death, if you hear God saying, "I will kill, and I will make alive," you ought to understand what sort of death it befits God to inflict: that one, doubtless, which confers life — that is, that one should die to sin and live to God. "When he slew them," it says, "they sought him, and they returned." Teaching most plainly through this, that whomever God slays, he slays for this reason, that he may die to sin and seek God. So do I understand also that which is written, that God slew Her the son of Judah, since he was wicked; and whatever else of this kind we read written about God. So too the Apostle handed over the sinner unto the destruction of the flesh, that he might make the spirit safe — that is, that he might die to sin and live to God. And so in the present passage too the wages that sin gives are said to be death: not that death which separates the body from the soul, but that by which through sin the soul is separated from God. And again we are said to be baptized into the death of Christ — into that death, doubtless, by which he died to sin once for all, so that we too may be separated from sin and live to God. For whoever dies by such a death is said to be justified from sin. Thus therefore the distinction must be held, that even if God is said to kill and to hand over to death, the death that is given by God is of such a kind as to confer life. For nothing evil is given by the Good; though it be sorrowful, though full of pain, yet it is inflicted with a view to healing and with regard for health, so that the soul which the allurement and sweetness of sin had separated from God, the austerity of severity may separate from sin. But on the contrary, whatever sin gives, whatever it confers, is death to the soul, even if it bestows wages.

One who does military service for sin receives death as his wages. Paul does not use the term "wages of righteousness" because there was no righteousness in us before our baptism which God could repay. Righteousness is not obtained by our effort but is a gift of God.

"For the wages of sin is death." Thus, he says, to you also, who served sin, sin gave "wages" — death. "But the gift of God." He did not say: wages from God, but: "gift." For you did not receive it as a reward or recompense for labors, but all of that came from grace in Christ Jesus: for all was accomplished by Him.

Then when he says, for the wages of sin, he clarifies what he had said about the ends of evil and of good. First, in regard to evil he says: we have stated that the end of sins is death: for the wages of sin is death. Wages or stipends were the salaries paid soldiers. These were paid in money. Therefore, because by sinning one makes war by using his members as arms for sin, death is said to be the wages of sin, i.e., the return paid to those who serve it. Death, therefore, is the return which pays those who are its slaves. It is not the end they seek but the end paid to them: on the wicked he will rain coals of fire and brimstone; a scorching wind will be the portion of their cup (Ps 11:6).

In regard to the good he says, but the grace of God, life everlasting. For since he had said that just men have eternal life, which it is certain cannot be had except through grace, then the very fact that we do what is good and that our works are worthy of eternal life is the result of God's grace: he bestows grace and glory (Ps 84:11). Thus, therefore, if our works are considered in themselves and as coming from our free will they do not merit eternal life condignly, but only as coming from the grace of the Holy Spirit. Hence it is said: the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:14). And this in Christ Jesus our Lord, i.e., through Christ or inasmuch as we exist in him through faith and love: every one who sees the Son and believes in him has eternal life (John 6:40).