Romans 6

For in that He died to sin, He died once for all; but in that He liveth, to God He liveth. Thus, too, repute ye yourselves dead indeed to sin, but living to God through Christ Jesus." Therefore, Christ being once for all dead, none who, subsequently to Christ, has died, can live again to sin, and especially to so heinous a sin.

On Modesty

This is a rhetorical question which arises from what Paul said [in Romans 5:20] above.… He answers it in the next verse, saying that those in whom grace abounds have died to sin. It is clear that someone who has died to sin cannot remain a sinner.

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

The believer who returns to his former way of life rejects the kingdom of God’s grace and returns to sin, i.e., to the pattern of his previous life. For we have received mercy for two reasons: first, that the kingdom of the devil might be removed, and second, that the rule of God might be proclaimed to the ignorant, for it was by this means that we came to desire this dignity.

Commentary on Paul’s Epistles

He is again turning off to exhortation, yet introducing it not directly, lest he should seem to many to be irksome and vexing, but as if it rose out of the doctrines. For if, even so diversifying his address, he was afraid of their being offended at what he said, and therefore said, "I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort," much more would he have seemed to them, had he not done so, to be too harsh. Since then he showed the greatness of the grace by the greatness of the sins it healed, and owing to this it seemed in the eyes of the unthinking to be an encouragement to sin (for if the reason, they would say, why greater grace was shown, was because we had done great sins, let us not give over sinning, that grace may be more displayed still), now that they might not say this or suspect it, see how he turns the objection back again. First he does it by his deprecation. "God forbid." And this he is in the habit of doing at things confessed on all hands to be absurd. And then he lays down an irrefragable argument.

Homily on Romans X

Paul is speaking here of those whom faith found in sin, not of us believers, who have died to sin in order to live for grace.

Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans

The Apostle said that where sin abounded, grace appeared superabundantly. As a result, someone might reason: let us then not cease sinning, so that grace may appear more abundantly. The Apostle refutes such reasoning by expressing himself negatively: "God forbid," as he usually expresses himself about something that is, by common admission, utterly absurd.

Commentary on Romans

After showing that it is through Christ's grace that we are freed from the sin of our first parent and from that which abounded by reason of the law, the Apostle now shows that Christ's grace gives us the power to resist further sin. In regard to this he does two things: first, he raises a question suggested by the foregoing; second, he answers it, at God forbid! For we that are dead.

Above he had said that where sin abounded, grace did more abound (Rom 5:20). This could be misinterpreted by supposing that an increase of sin causes grace to abound all the more. That is why he asks: what shall we say, then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? One would have to say, yes, if increase of sin were the cause and not merely the occasion of grace abounding. Hence he had stated above: as we are slandered and as some affirm that we say, let us do evil that there may come good (Rom 3:8). Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive? (Jer 12:1).

Commentary on Romans

Offences must come, but woe to those by whom they come; sins do cause grace to abound, but we must not make that an excuse for continuing to sin.

The Problem of Pain, Ch. 7

The other set were accused of saying, 'Faith is all that matters. Consequently, if you have faith, it doesn't matter what you do. Sin away, my lad, and have a good time and Christ will see that it makes no difference in the end.' The answer to that nonsense is that, if what you call your 'faith' in Christ does not involve taking the slightest notice of what He says, then it is not Faith at all—not faith or trust in Him, but only intellectual acceptance of some theory about Him.

Mere Christianity, Book 3, Chapter 12: Faith

2–13

Likewise also Paul in the Epistle to the Romans writes: "We who are dead to sin, how shall we any longer live in it? Because our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed," down to the words, "do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin."

The Stromata Book 3

In order for this point to be clearer, let us inquire as to what it means to live to sin and what it means to die to sin. Just as living for God means living according to God’s will, so living for sin means living according to sin’s will, as the apostle says [in verse 12] below. To live to sin therefore, means to obey the desires of sin.… To die to sin is the opposite of this; it means refusing to obey the desires of sin.… If someone dies to sin, it is through repentance that he dies.Note how carefully Paul has weighed his words when he says: “Can we still live in sin?” To go on in this way means to continue something without interruption. If someone does this it is clear that he has never been converted to Christ. But it sometimes happens not that someone continues in sin but that after having broken with it he goes back to his vomit and becomes most unfortunate, since after having rejected the rule of sin and death and accepted the rule of life and righteousness he returns to the control of sin and death. This is what the apostle calls the shipwreck of faith. However, although someone may continue in sin, although he may persist in the rule and power of death, nevertheless I do not consider that this rule of death is eternal in the same way that the rule of life and of righteousness is eternal, particularly as I hear the apostle telling me that death is the last enemy which must be destroyed. For if the eternity of death were analogous to the eternity of life, then death would not be opposed to life but its equal. One eternal is not contrary to another eternal but identical with it. But it is certain that death is contrary to life, and therefore it is certain that if life is eternal, death cannot be eternal as well. For this reason, the resurrection of the dead is necessary. For when the death of the soul, which is the last enemy, is destroyed, then this common death which we have described as the shadow of that one will of necessity be abolished. Then there will be room for the resurrection of the dead, when the rule of death is destroyed along with death itself.

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

To sin is to live to sin, and not to sin is to live to God. Therefore, when the grace of God through Christ and through faith came upon us, we began by the spiritual rebirth of baptism to live to God, and we died to sin, which is the devil. This is what dying to sin means: to be set free from sin and to become a servant of God. Therefore, having died to sin, let us not go back to our earlier evils, lest by living once again to sin and dying to God we should incur the penalty from which we have escaped.

Commentary on Paul’s Epistles

What does "we are dead" mean? Does it mean that as for that, and as far as it goes, we have all received the sentence of death? or, that we became dead to it by believing and being enlightened. This is what one should rather say, since the sequel makes this clearly right. But what is becoming dead to it? The not obeying it in anything any more. For this baptism effected once for all, it made us dead to it. But this must of our own earnestness thenceforth continually be maintained, so that, although sin issue countless commands to us, we may never again obey it, but abide unmovable as a dead man doth. And indeed he elsewhere saith that sin itself is dead. But there he sets that down as wishing to show that virtue is easy, But here, as he earnestly desires to rouse the hearer, he puts the death on his side. Next, since what was said was obscure, he again explains, using what he had said also in the way of reproof.

Homily on Romans X

Paul wants the baptized person to be steadfast and virtually perfect.

Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans

Here Paul makes the point that past sins have been forgiven and that in this pardon grace so superabounded that earlier sins were remitted as well. Thus whoever tries to increase sin in order to feel an increase of grace does not understand that he is behaving in such a way that grace can do nothing in him. For the work of grace is that we should die to sin.

On Romans 31

Nothing shorter or better could be said. For what more useful gift does the grace of God confer on us than to make us die to sin?

Letter 215

Carnal people and unbelievers may live like this, but we are totally incapable of it because we have a new life, having died to sin once for all.

Pauline Commentary from the Greek Church

Then he provides proof: since we died to sin, became dead to it through baptism, so that we should no longer obey it, how then can we still live in it, have an inclination toward it, and obey it? From this we learn that through baptism every believer truly dies to sin, but through his own negligence he "resurrects" himself and immediately comes alive to it, as soon as he unites with it. On the contrary, the diligent person always preserves this deadness in himself and, whatever sin may command him, does not obey it, like a dead man.

Commentary on Romans

Then when he says God forbid, he answers the question. First, he states why we should not continue in sin; second, he ends with an exhortation, at let not sin therefore reign (Rom 6:12). In regard to the first he does two things. First, he shows why we should not continue in sin; second, he shows that we have the power not to continue in sin, at knowing this (Rom 6:6). In regard to the first he presents the following argument: if we are dead to sin, we ought not live in sin. But we are dead to sin. Therefore, we ought not live in sin. Therefore, in regard to this he does four things. First, he states the conditional proposition; second, he proves the antecedent, at know you not; third, he concludes the consequent, at that as Christ is risen; fourth, he proves that the consequent necessarily follows, at for if we have been planted.

First, therefore, he says, God forbid that we to continue in sin that grace may abound, because God has not given anyone permission to sin (Sir 15:20). And the reasoning is this: for we that are dead to sin, inasmuch as sin has been put to death in us, how shall we live any longer therein? For it is not the natural order of things to return from death to life: they are dead, they will not live (Isa 25:14); I had bathed my feet, how could I soil them? (Song 5:3).

Commentary on Romans

It follows from this, that he knew nothing of that Christ who flew away from Jesus; nor did he of the Saviour above, whom they hold to be impassible. For if, in truth, the one suffered, and the other remained incapable of suffering, and the one was born, but the other descended upon him who was born, and left him again, it is not one, but two, that are shown forth. But that the apostle did know Him as one, both who was born and who suffered, namely Christ Jesus, he again says in the same Epistle: "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized in Christ Jesus were baptized in His death? that like as Christ rose from the dead, so should we also walk in newness of life."

Against Heresies Book 3

Now it would not at all have been consistent that any rule of holiness and righteousness should be especially enjoined for the flesh, if the reward of such a discipline were not also within its reach; nor could even baptism be properly ordered for the flesh, if by its regeneration a course were not inaugurated tending to its restitution; the apostle himself suggesting this idea: "Know ye not, that so many of us as are baptized into Jesus Christ, are baptized into His death? We are therefore buried with Him by baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised up from the dead, even so we also should walk in newness of life." And that you may not suppose that this is said merely of that life which we have to walk in the newness of, through baptism, by faith, the apostle with superlative forethought adds: "For if we have been planted together in the likeness of Christ's death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.

On the Resurrection of the Flesh

But some think as if God were under a necessity of bestowing even on the unworthy, what He has engaged (to give); and they turn His liberality into slavery. But if it is of necessity that God grants us the symbol of death, then He does so unwilling.

On Repentance

If you were "in him," you have your norm; if you have passed over "into Christ," you will be bound to be (yet) better.

On Monogamy

Paul is saying by this that if we have died to sin then we must necessarily be buried with Christ in baptism, but … if we have not died to sin, then we cannot be buried with Christ. For nobody is buried while still alive. Then too, anyone who is not buried together with Christ has not been validly baptized.

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

For you are translated from your former vain and tedious mode of life and have contemned the lifeless idols, and despised the demons, which are in darkness, and have run to the "true light," [John 1:9] and by it have "known the one and only true God and Father," [John 17:3] and so are owned to be heirs of His kingdom. For since you have "been baptized into the Lord's death," [Romans 6:3] and into His resurrection, as "new-born babes," [1 Peter 2:2] you ought to be wholly free from all sinful actions; "for you are not your own, but His that bought you" [1 Corinthians 6:19-20] with His own blood.

(Book 5), Section 3, XVI

Paul says this so that we might know that once we have been baptized we should no longer sin, since when we are baptized we die with Christ. This is what it means to be baptized into his death. For there all our sins die, so that, renewed by the death we have cast off, we might be seen to rise as those who have been born again to new life, so that just as Christ died to sin and rose again, so through baptism we might also have the hope of resurrection. Therefore, baptism is the death of sin so that a new birth might follow, which, although the body remains, nevertheless renews us in our mind and buries all our old evil deeds.

Commentary on Paul’s Epistles

3–4

What does being "baptized into His Death" mean? That it is with a view to our dying as He did. For Baptism is the Cross. What the Cross then, and Burial, is to Christ, that Baptism hath been to us, even if not in the same respects. For He died Himself and was buried in the Flesh, but we have done both to sin. Wherefore he does not say, planted together in His Death, but in the likeness of His Death. For both the one and the other is a death, but not of the same subject; since the one is of the Flesh, that of Christ; the other of sin, which is our own. As then that is real, so is this. But if it be real, then what is of our part again must be contributed.

Here he hints, along with the duty of a careful walk, at the subject of the resurrection. In what way? Do you believe, he means, that Christ died, and that He was raised again? Believe then the same of thyself. For this is like to the other, since both Cross and Burial is thine. For if thou hast shared in Death and Burial, much more wilt thou in Resurrection and Life. For now the greater is done away with, the sin I mean, it is not right to doubt any longer about the lesser, the doing away of death.

But this he leaves for the present to the conscience of his hearers to reason out, but himself, after the resurrection to come had been set before us, demands of us another, even the new conversation, which is brought about in the present life by a change of habits. When then the fornicator becomes chaste, the covetous man merciful, the harsh subdued, even here a resurrection has taken place, the prelude to the other. And how is it a resurrection? Why, because sin is mortified, and righteousness hath risen again, and the old life hath been made to vanish, and this new and angelic one is being lived in.

Homily on Romans X

Do you not know about this sacrament of baptism? In the Scriptures baptism is received in three ways: with water, with the Holy Spirit (who is also called “fire”) and with blood in martyrdom. We who are believers have died with Christ in our baptism.

Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans

Since we are baptized we confess that we have died to the world and have been buried to sin and the devil. .

To be baptized into the death of Christ is nothing else but to die to sin, just as he died in the flesh.

Against Julian 1.7.33

Christ died to sin once, but in that he lives, he lives to God. We have undergone a death like his and have practically been buried together with him. For in that we carry his mortification about in our bodies, we have been buried together with him.

Explanation of the Letter to the Romans

He explains how we died to sin, and says: through baptism. We were baptized into the death of Christ; therefore, we too must die, as He died. For what the cross and the tomb are for Christ, baptism is for us, though in a different respect.

Commentary on Romans

Then when he says, know you not, he proves the antecedent, namely, that the faithful are dead to sin: first, he presents the fact he uses to prove his point; second, he proves it, at for we are buried together.

First, therefore, he says: know you not, as if to say: what I am about to propose to you is so obvious that you cannot fail to see it—if anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized (1 Cor 14:38)—namely, that all we who are baptized in Christ Jesus: which can be interpreted in three ways. First, as indicating that baptism was instituted by Jesus Christ: make disciples of all nations, baptizing them (Matt 28:19); second, as indicating that it is conferred in the name of Christ: in the name of Jesus Christ they were baptized (Acts 8:12); third, in Christ Jesus, i.e., as indicating baptism into some likeness of Christ Jesus: for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Gal 3:27). Are baptized in his death, i.e., into a likeness of his death as re-presenting in ourselves the very death of Christ: always carrying in the body the death of Jesus (2 Cor 4:10); I bear on my body the marks of Jesus (Gal 6:17). Or in his death, i.e., by virtue of his death: he freed us from our sins by his blood (Rev 1:5). Hence, from the side of Christ hanging on the cross flowed blood and water after his death (John 19:34). Therefore, just as we are configured to his death, inasmuch as we have died to sin, so he has died to his mortal life, in which there was the likeness of sin, although no sin was there. Therefore, all we who are baptized are dead to sin.

Commentary on Romans

Every soul, then, by reason of its birth, has its nature in Adam until it is born again in Christ; moreover, it is unclean all the while that it remains without this regeneration; and because unclean, it is actively sinful, and suffuses even the flesh (by reason of their conjunction) with its own shame. Now although the flesh is sinful, and we are forbidden to walk in accordance with it, and its works are condemned as lusting against the spirit, and men on its account are censured as carnal, yet the flesh has not such ignominy on its own account. For it is not of itself that it thinks anything or feels anything for the purpose of advising or commanding sin. How should it, indeed? It is only a ministering thing, and its ministration is not like that of a servant or familiar friend-animated and human beings; but rather that of a vessel, or something of that kind: it is body, not soul. Now a cup may minister to a thirsty man; and yet, if the thirsty man will not apply the cup to his mouth, the cup will yield no ministering service. Therefore the differentia, or distinguishing property, of man by no means lies in his earthy element; nor is the flesh the human person, as being some faculty of his soul, and a personal quality; but it is a thing of quite a different substance and different condition, although annexed to the soul as a chattel or as an instrument for the offices of life. Accordingly the flesh is blamed in the Scriptures, because nothing is done by the soul without the flesh in operations of concupiscence, appetite, drunkenness, cruelty, idolatry, and other works of the flesh,-operations, I mean, which are not confined to sensations, but result in effects. The emotions of sin, indeed, when not resulting in effects, are usually imputed to the soul: "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after, hath already in his heart committed adultery with her." But what has the flesh alone, without the soul, ever done in operations of virtue, righteousness, endurance, or chastity? What absurdity, however, it is to attribute sin and crime to that substance to which you do not assign any good actions or character of its own! Now the party which aids in the commission of a crime is brought to trial, only in such a way that the principal offender who actually committed the crime may bear the weight of the penalty, although the abettor too does not escape indictment. Greater is the odium which falls on the principal, when his officials are punished through his fault. He is beaten with more stripes who instigates and orders the crime, whilst at the same time he who obeys such an evil command is not acquitted.

A Treatise on the Soul

If we have been buried together with Christ in the way we outlined above, i.e., because we have died to sin, it follows that just as Christ was raised from the dead we shall rise together with him. Just as he ascended into heaven we shall also ascend with him, and just as he sits at the right hand of God, we shall also sit with him, as the apostle himself says elsewhere: (He has) made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.Christ rose from the dead by the glory of the Father, and if we have died to sin and are buried together with Christ, and all who see our good works glorify our Father who is in heaven, we shall rightly be said to have risen together with Christ by the glory of the Father so that we may walk in newness of life. For newness of life occurs when we have “put off the old man with his deeds and put on the new man who has been created according to God” and “who is renewed in the knowledge of God according to the image of him who created him.” Nor should you think that this renewal of life, which is said to take place once for all, is enough by itself. Constantly and daily this newness must be renewed, if it can be put that way. When Paul said: “that we too might walk in newness of life,” it seems that he was revealing the spiritual principle that as long as we are making progress we may be said to be walking. For it must not be thought that it is being said that they walk about aimlessly. Rather, those who are making progress will eventually come to the place where they ought to be.

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

But the image of the heavenly is the resurrection from the dead, and in corruption, in order that "as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life."

From the Discourse on the Resurrection

First of all, this means that Christ raised his own body from the dead. For he is the power of God the Father, as he said: “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days.” He was saying this about the temple of his own body.… It also means that we now have a new way of life which has been given to us by Christ. For by baptism we have been buried together with Christ in order that we may henceforth live according to the life into which Christ rose from the dead. Therefore baptism is the sign and symbol of the resurrection, which means that we ought to abide in the commandments of Christ and not go back to what we were before. For the person who dies does not sin; death is the end of sin. This is symbolized by water, because just as water cleanses the dirt of the body, so we believe that we have been spiritually cleansed by baptism from every sin and renewed, for what is incorporeal is cleansed invisibly.

Commentary on Paul’s Epistles

As Jesus died in taking away the sins of the world, that, by doing sin to death, he might rise in righteousness, so too, when you go down into the water and are, in a fashion, entombed in the water as he was in the rock, you may rise again to walk “in newness of life.”

Catechetical Lecture 3.12

So likewise in baptism, since it is a likeness of death, without a doubt, when you are immersed and rise again, it becomes a likeness of resurrection. Therefore, according to the interpretation of the apostle Peter, just as that resurrection was a regeneration, so is this resurrection a regeneration.

On the Sacraments, Book 3, Chapter 1

Here Paul hints at the subject of the resurrection along with the duty of a careful walk. In what way? He means: Do you believe that Christ died and that he rose again? If so, then believe that the same will happen to you.… For if you have shared in his cross and burial, how much more will you share in his resurrection as well? For now that the greater is done away with (i.e., sin), it is not right to go on doubting about the lesser, viz., the doing away of death.

Homilies on Romans 10

Paul shows that we were baptized so that through the sacrament we are buried with Christ, dying to our sins and renouncing our former life. So just as the Father is glorified in the resurrection of the Son, so too on account of the newness of our lifestyle he is glorified by us all, as long as none of the signs of the old self is recognizable in us. For now we should no longer want or desire anything that those who are not yet baptized and are still trapped in the errors of their old life want or desire.

Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans

“Newness of life” means that we have put off the old life of sin and that our rebirth promises a new way of life.

Pauline Commentary from the Greek Church

As we have been buried, so we must rise with Christ in a spiritual sense. For if to be buried together with Christ means dying to sin, then it is clear that rising with him means living in righteousness.

Explanation of the Letter to the Romans

The sacrament of baptism itself teaches us to turn away from sin. For baptism is a type of the death of Christ. In it we have become participants in the death and resurrection of Christ. Therefore, because we have shared in Christ’s resurrection, we ought to live a new life now.

Interpretation of the Letter to the Romans

Christ died and rose again in the flesh, while we die to sin and rise again to virtue, so that just as Christ rose from the dead in the flesh "by the glory of the Father," that is, by His own Divinity (for the glory of the Father is the Son), so we too rise by another resurrection, that is, by a new way of life. Thus, when a fornicator becomes chaste, he represents death and resurrection — the death of vice and the resurrection and revival of virtue in the person.

Commentary on Romans

Then when he says, for we are buried together, he proves that we are all baptized in conformity with the death of Christ, saying, we are buried together with him by baptism into death. As if to say: burial is only for the dead. Let the dead bury their dead (Matt 18:22). By baptism, however, men are buried with Christ, i.e., conformed to his burial. For just as a buried man is put under the earth, so one being baptized is submerged under water. Hence, there are three immersions in baptism not only to indicate belief in the Trinity but also to represent the three days of Christ's burial. And just as the three days of burial were one burial, so the triple immersion constitutes one baptism. That is also why solemn baptism is celebrated in the Church on Holy Saturday, when the burial of Christ is commemorated and on the vigil of Pentecost in honor of the Holy Spirit, from whom the water of baptism derives its power to cleanse: unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven (John 3:5).

Yet it must be noted that in the body one dies before he is buried, but in the spiritual order the burial of baptism causes the death of sin, because the Sacraments of the new law bring about what they signify. Hence, since the burial which occurs through baptism is a sign of the death of sin, it produces such a death in the baptized. And this is what he says, namely, that we are buried . . . into death, so that in receiving in ourselves the sign of Christ's burial we might obtain death to sin.

Then when he says, that, as Christ, he infers the consequent, namely, that we should not live in sin. To this end he adduces a likeness to the resurrection of Christ, saying that, as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, i.e., by the Father's power, whereby the Father himself is glorified: let your glory be over all the earth (Ps 57:5), so we also may walk in newness of life, i.e., advance in the spiritual life through good works. For the life of sin carries with it the weakness of old age, because it leads to dissolution: what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away (Heb 8:13); hence it is said: why is it, O Israel, that you are in the land of your enemies (Bar 3:10); but whatever leads to restoration, i.e., to being without sin, is called newness of life: your youth is renewed like the eagle's (Ps 103:5); be renewed in the spirit of your minds (Eph 4:25).

Commentary on Romans

We die figuratively in our baptism, but we shall rise again in reality in our flesh, even as Christ did.

On Resurrection of the Flesh 47

In saying that we have been united (i.e., planted together) with Christ, Paul compares the death of Christ to a plant to which we have been joined, so that drawing on the sap of his root our root may bring forth branches of righteousness and bear the fruits of life. If you want to know what plant it is that Scripture says we ought to be planted together with and what type of tree it is, listen to what is said about wisdom: “She is a tree of life to those who hope in her and who trust in her as in the Lord.” Therefore it is Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, who is the tree of life with whom we must be planted, for by some new and lovely gift of God his death has become for us the tree of life.…Therefore Paul wants us to be planted together in the likeness of Christ’s death, so that we may also be planted together in his resurrection. For “planted together” (i.e., united) must be understood of both. Consider how necessary it was for him to adopt the image of planting. For every plant, after the death of winter, awaits the resurrection of spring. Therefore, if we have been planted in Christ’s death in the winter of this world and this present life, so too we shall be found in the coming spring bearing the fruits of righteousness from his root.

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

Let him who lays his hands upon him adore God, the Lord of the whole world, and thank Him for His creation, for His sending Christ His only begotten Son, that He might save man by blotting out his transgressions, and that He might remit ungodliness and sins, and might "purify him from all filthiness of flesh and spirit," and sanctify man according to the good pleasure of His kindness, that He might inspire him with the knowledge of His will, and enlighten the eyes of his heart to consider of His wonderful works, and make known to him the judgments of righteousness, that so he might hate every way of iniquity, and walk in the way of truth, that he might be thought worthy of the layer of regeneration, to the adoption of sons, which is in Christ, that "being planted together in the likeness of the death of Christ," in hopes of a glorious communication, he may be mortified to sin, and may live to God, as to his mind, and word, and deed, and may be numbered together in the book of the living.

Constitutions of the Holy Apostles Book 7

Happily Paul says that we can rise again if we have been united with Christ in the likeness of his death, i.e., if we have laid aside all our wickedness in baptism and, having been transferred into a new life, no longer sin. In this way we shall be like him in his resurrection, because the likeness of his death presupposes a similar resurrection.… The likeness does not mean that there will be no difference at all between us, of course. We will be like him in the glory of his body, not in the nature of his divinity.

Commentary on Paul’s Epistles

Those who have been validly baptized into Christ’s death have been united to him by faith.

Pauline Commentary from the Greek Church

Paul did not say "in death" but "in a death like his." For both the first and the second are death but not the death of the same thing. The first is the death of the body, the second is the death of sin.

Baptismal Instructions 10.10

What I had before occasion to remark, that I mention here too, that he continually digresseth into exhortation, without making any twofold division as he does in the other Epistles, and setting apart the former portion for doctrines, and the latter for the care of moral instruction. Here then he does not do so, but blends the latter with the subject throughout, so as to gain it an easy admission. Here then he says there are two mortifyings, and two deaths, and that one is done by Christ in Baptism, and the other it is our duty to effect by earnestness afterwards. For that our former sins were buried, came of His gift. But the remaining dead to sin after baptism must be the work of our own earnestness, however much we find God here also giving us large help. For this is not the only thing Baptism has the power to do, to obliterate our former transgressions; for it also secures against subsequent ones. As then in the case of the former, thy contribution was faith that they might be obliterated, so also in those subsequent to this, show thou forth the change in thine aims, that thou mayest not defile thyself again. For it is this and the like that he is counselling thee when he says, "for if we have been planted together in the likeness of His Death, we shall be also in the likeness of His Resurrection." Do you observe, how he rouses the hearer by leading him straightway up to his Master, and taking great pains to show the strong likeness? This is why he does not say "in death," lest you should gainsay it, but, "in the likeness of His Death." For our essence itself hath not died, but the man of sins, that is, wickedness. And he does not say, "for if we have been" partakers of "the likeness of His Death;" but what? "If we have been planted together," so, by the mention of planting, giving a hint of the fruit resulting to us from it. For as His Body, by being buried in the earth, brought forth as the fruit of it the salvation of the world; thus ours also, being buried in baptism, bore as fruit righteousness, sanctification, adoption, countless blessings. And it will bear also hereafter the gift of the resurrection. Since then we were buried in water, He in earth, and we in regard to sin, He in regard to His Body, this is why he did not say, "we were planted together in His Death," but "in the likeness of His Death." For both the one and the other is death, but not that of the same subject. If then he says, "we have been planted together in His Death, we shall be in that of His Resurrection," speaking here of the Resurrection which is to come. For since when he was upon the subject of the Death before, and said, "Know ye not, brethren, that so many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into His Death?" he had not made any clear statement about the Resurrection, but only about the way of life after baptism, bidding men walk in newness of life; therefore he here resumes the same subject, and proceeds to foretell to us clearly that Resurrection.

Homily on Romans 11

If we are buried with Christ now, we shall be united with him in his resurrection then, and if we have already become new and been changed in our way of life now, we shall likewise be new and changed in glory then.

Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans

Emmanuel gave up his soul for us; he died in the flesh. We also were buried together with him when we were baptized. Does this mean that our flesh died in the same way as his did? Hardly. Come, let me explain in what sense we were buried with him in a death like his. Christ died in the flesh in order to remove the sin of the world, but we do not die to the flesh so much as to guilt, as it is written. Thus now we have to break down the power of sin within us by mortifying our earthly members.… As we have died a death like his, so we shall also be conformed to his resurrection, because we shall live in Christ. It is true that the flesh will come to life again, but still we shall live in another way, by dedicating our souls to him and by being transformed into holiness and a kind of glorious life in the Holy Spirit.

Explanation of the Letter to the Romans

Christ’s baptism in the Jordan was a type of the mystery of his resurrection.

Pauline Commentary from the Greek Church

See the goodness of God. We have died Christ’s death metaphorically, but we shall share his resurrection truly.

Pauline Commentary from the Greek Church

He did not say: partook of the likeness of His death, but says "united," indicating by the word "union" the fruit of Christ's death in us. The body of Christ, buried in the earth, brought forth the fruit of salvation. Since we are buried in water, while Christ in the earth, and moreover we are buried to sin, while He in body, he did not say "death," but "the likeness of death." Therefore we shall also be partakers of the resurrection, inheriting eternal life, as those who have shown forth the resurrection consisting in good works.

Commentary on Romans

Then when he says, for if we, he shows how the consequence follows necessarily. For after he died, Christ arose; hence it is fitting that those who are conformed to Christ's death in baptism should be conformed also to his resurrection by leading a blameless life. And that is what he says: for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, i.e., if we are incorporated into his death as a branch is grafted to a tree, then, as we are united with Christ in his passion, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection, so as to live blamelessly in our present life and to attain to a glory similar to his in the future life: he will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body (Phil 3:21); if we have died with him, we shall also live with him (2 Tim 2:11). Thus, after using our likeness to the death of Christ to prove that we are dead to sin, the Apostle uses our likeness to the resurrection of Christ to show that we should not live in sin; which he introduces above as a consequence.

Commentary on Romans

The perfect surrender and humiliation were undergone by Christ: perfect because He was God, surrender and humiliation because He was man. Now the Christian belief is that if we somehow share the humility and suffering of Christ we shall also share in His conquest of death and find a new life after we have died and in it become perfect, and perfectly happy, creatures.

Mere Christianity, Book 2, Chapter 5: The Practical Conclusion

And then, after being thus killed—killed every day in a sense—the human creature in Him, because it was united to the divine Son, came to life again. The Man in Christ rose again: not only the God. That is the whole point. For the first time we saw a real man. One tin soldier—real tin, just like the rest—had come fully and splendidly alive.

Mere Christianity, Book 4, Chapter 5: The Obstinate Toy Soldiers

But to us the apostle says, "Now we know this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.". For "to bring themselves into captivity "and to slay themselves, putting to death "the old man, who is through lusts corrupt "and raising the new man from death, "from the old conversation "by abandoning the passions, and becoming free of sin, both the Gospel and the apostle enjoin.

The Stromata Book 4

This refers not to our body structure but to our moral behavior.… It is not our bodily frame which has been transformed, nor has our flesh endured the cross of Christ. The sinful body is destroyed by amendment of life, not by the destruction of our fleshly substance.

On Resurrection of the Flesh 47

For that must be living after the world, which, as the old man, he declares to be "crucified with Christ," not as a bodily structure, but as moral behaviour.

On the Resurrection of the Flesh

Besides, if we do not understand it in this sense, it is not our bodily frame which has been transfixed (at all events), nor has our flesh endured the cross of Christ; but the sense is that which he has subjoined, "that the body of sin might be made void, " by an amendment of life, not by a destruction of the substance, as he goes on to say, "that henceforth we should not serve sin; " and that we should believe ourselves to be "dead with Christ," in such a manner as that "we shall also live with Him.

On the Resurrection of the Flesh

Besides, if we do not understand it in this sense, it is not our bodily frame which has been transfixed (at all events), nor has our flesh endured the cross of Christ; but the sense is that which he has subjoined, "that the body of sin might be made void, " by an amendment of life, not by a destruction of the substance, as he goes on to say, "that henceforth we should not serve sin; " and that we should believe ourselves to be "dead with Christ," in such a manner as that "we shall also live with Him.

On the Resurrection of the Flesh

I think it should be noticed that when the apostle says something must be destroyed he calls it the body of sin, but when he does not use this expression he refers not to the body of sin but to our own selves, who ought not to be serving sin. He does this to show that if the body of sin were to be destroyed we would not now be serving sin, which however we serve as long as our body is not destroyed and our members on earth are not put to death.…The “sinful body” is our body, for it is written that Adam did not know his wife Eve, nor did he father Cain, until after he had sinned. In the law it is commanded that sacrifices of a pair of turtledoves or two pigeons shall be offered for a newborn child. One of these is a sin offering and the other is a burnt offering. For what sin is this first pigeon offered? How can a newborn child have sinned already? And yet the child has sin, for which the sacrifice is commanded to be offered.… For the same reason the church has received a tradition from the apostles to baptize even infants. For they, to whom the secrets of the divine mysteries had been committed, knew that there are real stains of sin in everyone which must be cleansed by water and the Spirit. It is because of these stains that the body is called a sinful body and not because of sins which the soul in that body may have committed in a previous life, as some who believe in reincarnation like to think.

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

By these words we are taught that he who is baptized in Christ is baptized in his death and is not only buried with Christ and planted together with him but is first of all crucified with him. Thus we are instructed that, as he who is crucified is separated from the living, so also he who has been crucified with Christ in the likeness of his death is completely set apart from those who live according to the old man.

Concerning Baptism 1.2

Paul underlines and repeats a good deal in order to teach the baptized that they must not sin and above all that they must not return to idolatry, which is a very serious crime and the root of all errors, lest they lose the grace which they have received through Christ. He calls our former behavior “our old self” because, just as the man who has a pure life through Christ and faith in him is said to be new, so the same man is said to be old through unbelief and evil deeds. Paul says that these deeds have been crucified, which means that they are dead, that the body of sin (i.e., all our misdeeds) has been destroyed. Paul calls all our sins a body, which he says has been destroyed by a good life and by orthodox belief.

Commentary on Paul’s Epistles

Until, therefore, this price should have been paid for all men which by the shedding of the Lords Blood had to be so paid for the absolution of all, the blood of every man, who, by the Law and solemn custom were to follow the precepts of holy religion, was required. But, since one Lord Christ suffered, seeing that the ransom is now paid for all, there is now no longer any need that the blood of every man one by one should be shed by circumcision, for in the Blood of Christ the circumcision of all has been solemnized, and in His Cross we are all crucified together with Him, and buried in His sepulchre, and planted together in the likeness of His death, that henceforth we should not serve sin: for he that is dead, is free from sin.

Letter 72, To Constantius

Get for yourself none of the things that are on earth, and do not be active in the affairs of the present life. For your life is hidden now and unseen by those who do not believe, but the time will come when it will be seen. But now is not your time. Since you have died once for all, refuse to mind the things that are on earth. The greatness of your virtue is seen especially when you have prevailed over the arrogance of the flesh and act toward the good things of the world just as if you were dead to this life.

Baptismal Instructions 7.22

So putting together both the cause and the demonstration of the Resurrection which is to come. And he does not say is crucified, but is crucified with Him, so bringing baptism near to the Cross. And on this score also it was that he said above, "We have been planted together in the likeness of His Death that the body of sin might be destroyed," not giving that name to this body of ours, but to all iniquity. For as he calls the whole sum of wickedness the old man, thus again the wickedness which is made up of the different parts of iniquity he calls the body of that man. And that what I am saying is not mere guesswork, hearken to Paul's own interpretation of this very thing in what comes next. For after saying, "that the body of sin might be destroyed," he adds, "that henceforth we should not serve sin." For the way in which I would have it dead is not so that ye should be destroyed and die, but so that ye sin not. And as he goes on he makes this still clearer.

Homily on Romans 11

Through baptism you who have been made a member of Christ’s body were crucified with Christ. He hangs his innocent body so that you may have the power to restrain your guilty body from sin. Similarly, Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the wilderness so that every form of wickedness might be torn down, because each vice is a member of the body of sin. Christ was not crucified in part but in whole. Or perhaps we should read this as meaning that our body should be torn away from slavery to sin and that what used to be the property of transgression should now become the property of righteousness, for “everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.”

Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans

This refers to Deuteronomy [21:23]: “Cursed be every man hanged from a tree.” For as the crucifixion of the old man is symbolized in the cross of the Lord, so the rebirth of the new man is signified in the resurrection. It is clear that according to Paul we are in the place of the old man who is accursed. No one doubts that it was because of him that the Lord was called “sin,” because “he bore our sins” and “he was made sin for us,” and “by sin he condemned sin.”

On Romans 32-34.”

Perhaps some people will think that “the body of sin” is meant to refer to our earthly flesh, which has been joined to the soul as a kind of punishment, in that the soul sinned before bodies were created. Some people think and talk like this, but as it is a pagan idea we must reject it as being incompatible with the truth. Therefore, Paul says that our earthly body is the body of sin and our old man, because it has inherited the necessity of corruption from the old Adam.… Moreover, because of its weakness it has contracted a love for wickedness, and thus sin appears in the flesh as a congenital defect.We were crucified with Christ at the moment when his flesh was crucified, because it somehow included universal human nature in itself, just as universal human nature contracted the sickness of the curse in Adam at the same time that he incurred the curse.

Explanation of the Letter to the Romans

The “old man” does not refer to our nature but to our evil mind. It is this which has been put to death in baptism, so that the body would not continue to serve sin.

Interpretation of the Letter to the Romans

“Our old self” refers to our perishable and passible bodies.

Pauline Commentary from the Greek Church

"Our old man," that is, wickedness, "is crucified with Him," that is, like the body of Christ, is buried in baptism; "that the body of sin might be destroyed," that is, the wickedness composed of various kinds, or our body inclined to sin, which is why he adds: "that we should no longer be slaves to sin." I desire, he says, that the body be dead, not in the sense that it be destroyed, but that it not sin.

Commentary on Romans

After showing that we should not continue to sin after baptism has made us dead to sin, the Apostle now shows that we have the means to do this. Concerning this he does two things. First, he indicates the benefit we have received; second, the effect of this benefit, at for he that is dead. Concerning the first he does two things. First he sets out the benefit we obtain; Second, the effect of this benefit, at that the body of sin.

First, therefore: we have said that the baptized should walk in newness of life, namely, by desisting from sin. To anyone who says that this is impossible he responds, knowing this, that our old man, i.e., the oldness caused by sin, is crucified, i.e., put to death by the cross of Christ, with him, namely, with Christ. For as was stated above, man's oldness was brought about by sin—in the sense that the goodness of his nature was corrupted by sin—and is predominant as long as he continues in sin. But because what is predominant in a man characterizes the man himself, it follows that the oldness of sin in a man subject to sin is an apt description of the man himself. That is why he says the old self.

Now the oldness of sin can refer to the guilt of sin or to the stain of actual sins or even to the habit of sinning, which engenders a sort of compulsion to sin, or even to the fomes, or concupiscence, deriving from the sin of the first parent. Thus, therefore, our old self is said to be crucified together with Christ, inasmuch as the aforesaid oldness is removed by the power of Christ; either because it has been entirely removed, as the guilt and stain of sin are entirely removed in baptism, or because its force has been diminished, i.e., the force of the fomes or even of the custom of sinning: having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross (Col 2:14).

Then when he says, that the body of sin, he mentions the twofold effect of this benefit, the first of which is the removal of previous sins. Hence he says: that the body of sin may be destroyed. The body of sin is the assemblage of evil deeds, just as the assemblage of members makes one natural body: his body is like molten shields (Job 41:6). The second effect is that it makes us beware of future sins; hence, he adds: to the end that we may serve sin no longer. For a man is a slave of sin, when he obeys the concupiscence of sin by consenting to and doing the sin: everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin (John 8:34).

Commentary on Romans

Wherefore also He drove him out of Paradise, and removed him far from the tree of life, not because He envied him the tree of life, as some venture to assert, but because He pitied him, [and did not desire] that he should continue a sinner for ever, nor that the sin which surrounded him should be immortal, and evil interminable and irremediable. But He set a bound to his [state of] sin, by interposing death, and thus causing sin to cease, putting an end to it by the dissolution of the flesh, which should take place in the earth, so that man, ceasing at length to live to sin, and dying to it, might begin to live to God.

Against Heresies Book 3

But He set a bound to his [state of] sin, by interposing death, and thus causing sin to cease, putting an end to it by the dissolution of the flesh, which should take place in the earth, so that man, ceasing at length to live to sin, and dying to it, might begin to live to God.

Against Heresies 3.23.6

He is set free, he is delivered, he is cleansed of all sin, and not sin in word and deed only but also of all irrational movements of the mind.

Concerning Baptism 1.2

This he says of every man, that as he that is dead is henceforth freed from sinning, lying as a dead body, so must he that has come up from baptism, since he has died there once for all, remain ever dead to sin. If then thou hast died in baptism, remain dead, for any one that dies can sin no more; but if thou sinnest, thou marrest God's gift. After requiring of us then heroism of this degree, he presently brings in the crown also.

Homily on Romans 11

Freed means “alienated” from sin, for the dead do not sin in any way. “No one born of God commits sin,” for since he has been crucified and all his members are filled with regret, he will hardly be able to sin.

Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans

Whoever saw a dead man sleeping in some harlot’s bed, or bloodying his hands with murder, or doing anything else which is sinful?

Interpretation of the Letter to the Romans

"For he who has died has been freed from sin." This he says of the whole man. As "he who has died has been freed from sin," that is, has been delivered, is free, so also you, who have been baptized and have died to sin, remain dead.

Commentary on Romans

Then when he says, for he that is dead, he clarifies what he had said: first, in regard to the first effect; second, in regard to the second, at now, if we be dead.

In regard to the first it should be noted that the assemblage of sins is destroyed when a man has his sins remitted. So he clarifies how the body of sin is destroyed when he says, he that is dead to sin through baptism, in which we die together with Christ, is justified from sin, i.e., transferred to the state of justice: and such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified (1 Cor 6:11). Therefore, because man dies to sin through the cross of Christ, he is freed from sin in such a way that the body of sin is destroyed.

Commentary on Romans

Paul writes that we shall live with him in order to show that, while death works in the present, life will come in the future.

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

It is clear that those who have crucified the body, i.e., the world with its vices and lusts, die to the world and die together with Christ, and that they are also conformed to his eternal and saving life so that they might deserve to be made like Christ in his glory. But the flesh, i.e., the body, is crucified in such a way that the lusts which arise in it as a result of the sin in it, which comes from the transgression of the first man, are trampled underfoot. For the devil is crucified in our flesh; it is he who deceives us through the flesh. But note how the word flesh is sometimes to be understood as the world, i.e., the elements, sometimes as the human body and sometimes as the soul which follows corporeal vices.

Commentary on Paul’s Epistles

And indeed even before the crown, this is in itself the greater crown, the partaking with our Master. But he says, I give even another reward. Of what kind is it? It is life eternal. For "we believe," he says, "that we shall also live with Him." And whence is this clear?

Homily on Romans 11

If we have not died with him we shall not live with him, because then we are not his members.

Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans

Those of us who were buried with Christ ought to die to sin, because we are waiting for the resurrection.

Interpretation of the Letter to the Romans

Here, it would seem, there is a repetition of what was said; but in reality there is not. Above, the apostle said that we must always remain dead to sin, and now he reasons about the resurrection of the new life according to God, which we must always have. If through baptism we died with Christ, then we believe that we shall always have the resurrection belonging to us, consisting in the new life.

Commentary on Romans

Then when he says, now, if we be dead, he clarifies the second effect by showing how it conforms one to the life of Christ. The reasoning is this: one who dies with the dying Christ also lives with the rising Christ. But Christ rose from the dead, in such a way that he will never die again. Therefore, one who has died to sin lives with the risen Christ in such a way that he has the faculty of never returning to sin.

In regard to this he does three things: first, he shows the believer's conformity to the risen Christ; second, he gives a condition of this life, at knowing that Christ; third, he draws the intended conclusion, at so do you also.

First, therefore, he says, now, if we be dead with Christ, i.e., if we are dead to sin by virtue of Christ's death, we believe that we shall live also together with Christ, i.e., in the likeness of his life. We shall live, I say, the life of grace here and the life of glory in the future: when we were dead through sin, he made us alive together with Christ (Eph 2:5).

Commentary on Romans

He declares in the plainest manner, that the same Being who was laid hold of, and underwent suffering, and shed His blood for us, was both Christ and the Son of God, who did also rise again, and was taken up into heaven, as he himself [Paul] says: "But at the same time, [it is] Christ [that] died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God." And again, "Knowing that Christ, rising from the dead, dieth no more:" for, as himself foreseeing, through the Spirit, the subdivisions of evil teachers [with regard to the Lord's person], and being desirous of cutting away from them all occasion of cavil...

Against Heresies Book 3

If Christ were to die again, it follows that those who have died with him and who will be raised with him will also die again along with him! Therefore the apostle makes it clear that Christ will never die again, so that those who will live with him may be sure of having eternal life.…Paul was right to say that “death no longer has dominion over him.” For he will never again give himself up to the rule of the tyrant, nor will he again empty himself in order to take the form of a servant and be made obedient unto death. Nor will he ever again endure the rule of the tyrant and of death in the form of a servant, even though he assumed it voluntarily and not because he was forced into it.

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

In taking upon Him manhood, He gave a testimony in the world, wherein also having suffered, He freed us by His blood from sin; and having vanquished hell, He was the first who rose from the dead and "death shall have no more dominion over Him."

Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John

And notice again his undauntedness, and how he makes the thing good from opposite grounds. Since then it was likely that some would feel perplexed at the Cross and the Death, he shows that this very thing is a ground for feeling confident henceforward. For suppose not, he says, because He once died, that He is mortal, for this is the very reason of His being immortal. For His death hath been the death of death, and because He did die, He therefore doth not die. For even that death...

Homily on Romans 11

We shall not fear the second death if we have died willingly. Or it may mean: “You cannot be baptized a second time because Christ cannot be crucified for you a second time,” as Paul writes to the Hebrews. He does not say that these people cannot repent, but he does not allow them to repeat their baptism.

Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans

When death first had dominion over Christ, it was only with his consent.

Sermon 69.2

For this sacrifice doth especially save our souls from everlasting damnation, which in mystery doth renew unto us the death of the Son of God: who although being risen from death, doth not now die any more, nor death shall not any further prevail against him: yet living in himself immortally, and without all corruption, he is again sacrificed for us in this mystery of the holy oblation: for there his body is received, there his flesh is distributed for the salvation of the people: there his blood is not now shed betwixt the hands of infidels, but poured into the mouths of the faithful.

Dialogues, Book 4, Chapter 58

For Christ too, having risen from the dead, lives always and will die no more.

Commentary on Romans

Then when he says, knowing, he describes the condition of life of the risen Christ: first, he states it; second, he proves it, at for in that he died.

First, therefore, he says: we believe this, I say, because we know that Christ, rising again from the dead, dies now no more, but will live an everlasting life: I died, and behold I am alive forevermore (Rev 1:18). What is more, death shall no more have dominion over him, but it does over man: not only when his soul and body are separated when he dies, but also before he dies, when he is subject to sickness, hunger, thirst, and such things as lead to death. From all these things the life of the risen Christ is free. Consequently, he is not subject to the dominion of death; rather, he has dominion over death: I have the keys of death and Hades (Rev 1:18).

Commentary on Romans

Since Christ died once for all, no one who has died to Christ since then can live again to sin.

On Modesty 17

Paul shows that in the Savior’s resurrection we have the assurance of eternity, to which we shall attain if we live a better life. For whoever lives to God by doing good is truly alive here and now and has eternal life.

Commentary on Paul’s Epistles

Paul is saying that if Christ had died for sinners two or three times, there would be no danger in going back to our old sinful ways. But as he only died once, we who have been buried and risen again with him will not die to sin again. There will be no second baptism, no second death of Christ. Therefore we must be careful to stay alive.

Pauline Commentary from the Greek Church

In the Scriptures we learn that there are three kinds of death. The first is when we die to sin and live to God. Blessed is that death which, escaping from sin and devoted to God, separates us from what is mortal and consecrates us to him who is immortal. The second death is the departure from this life.… The third death is that of which it is said: “Let the dead bury their dead.”

On the Death of Satyrus 2.36

Mindful of him, do ye by all means know that Jesus the Lord was truly born of Mary, being made of a woman; and was as truly crucified. For, says he, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus." And He really suffered, and died, and rose again. For says [Paul], "If Christ should become passible, and should be the first to rise again from the dead." And again, "In that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God." Otherwise, what advantage would there be in [becoming subject to] bonds, if Christ has not died? what advantage in patience? what advantage in [enduring] stripes? And why such facts as the following: Peter was crucified; Paul and James were slain with the sword; John was banished to Patmos; Stephen was stoned to death by the Jews who killed the Lord? But, [in truth, ] none of these sufferings were in vain; for the Lord was really crucified by the ungodly.

Epistle of Pseudo-Ignatius to the Tarsians

What does "unto sin" mean? It means that He was not subject even to that one, but for our sin, that He might destroy it, and cut away its sinews and all its power, therefore He died. Do you see how he affrighteth them? For if He does not die again, then there is no second laver, then do thou keep from all inclinableness to sin. For all this he says to make a stand against the "let us do evil that good may come. Let us remain in sin that grace may abound." To take away this conception then, root and branch, it is, that he sets down all this. But in that "He liveth, He liveth unto God," he says,-that is, unchangeably, so that death hath no more any dominion over Him. For if it was not through any liability to it that He died the former death, save only for the sin of others, much less will He die again now that He hath done that sin away. And this he says in the Epistle to the Hebrews also, "But now once," he says, "in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgment; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." And he both points out the power of the life that is according to God, and also the strength of sin. For with regard to the life according to God, he showeth that Christ shall die no more. With regard to sin, that if it brought about the death even of the Sinless, how can it do otherwise than be the ruin of those that are subject to it?

Homily on Romans 11

Christ carried our sins and suffered for us so that in the future we might not sin. Christ now lives in the glory of his divinity.

Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans

"For in that He died, He died unto sin once" means: Christ died for our sin, whereas He Himself was not subject to death. "And in that He lives, He lives unto God," that is, He lives by divine power; for He always lives in the power of God the Father.

Commentary on Romans

Then when he says, for in that he died to sin, he proves his statement, namely, that the risen Christ will not die again. And he proves this in two ways. First he proves it with a reason based on the death he underwent, saying: for in that he died to sin, he died once. This must not be taken to mean that he died to sin he committed or contracted, because sin had no place whatever in him: who did no sin (1 Pet 2:22). But he is said to have died to sin in two ways: in one way, because he died to take away sin: for our sake he made him who knew no sin to be sin (2 Cor 5:21), i.e., a victim for sin. In another way, because he died to the likeness of sinful flesh, i.e., to a suffering and mortal body: God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom 8:3). In both ways it can be concluded that Christ died once, from the fact that he died to sin. In regard to the first it is clear that he wiped out all sins through one death: by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified (Heb 10:14). Therefore, he does not need to die again for sin: for Christ also died for sins once for all (1 Pet 3:18). In regard to the second the same can be concluded. For if Christ endured death in order that the likeness of death disappear from him, his death ought to have been like that of others, who wear the flesh of sin and die but once. Hence, it is said: just as it is appointed for men to die once, so Christ also was offered once to bear the sins of many (Heb 9:27).

Second, he shows the same thing by considering the condition of life he obtained by rising. Hence he says: but in that he lives, he lives unto God, i.e., conformed to God. For it is said: he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God (2 Cor 13:4). Now the effect is conformed to the cause. Hence, the life which the rising Christ acquired is deiform. Therefore, just as God's life is everlasting and without decay: who alone has immortality (1 Tim 6:16), so Christ's life is immortal.

Commentary on Romans

Whoever thinks or considers that he is dead will not sin. For example, if lust for a woman gets hold of me or if greed for silver, gold or riches stirs me and I say in my heart that I have died with Christ … the lust is immediately quenched and sin disappears.The addition of “alive to God in Christ Jesus” does not seem to me to be superfluous. It is as if Paul were saying that we are alive to God in wisdom, peace, righteousness and sanctification, all of which Christ is. Living to God in these is the same as living to God in Christ Jesus. For as nobody lives to God without righteousness, peace, sanctification and the other virtues, so it is certain that no one can live to God except in Christ Jesus.

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

Paul attributes death to sin, i.e., to our body, but life to God, to whose nature it belongs that he lives, so that we must die to our body in order to live in Christ Jesus. While assuming the body of our sin, Christ already lives wholly for God, since he has united the nature that he shared with us in a mutual participation in the divine immortality.

The Trinity 9.13

He well says, "reckon," because there is no setting that, which he is speaking of, before the eyes as yet. And what are we to reckon? one may ask. That we "are dead unto sin, but alive unto God. In Jesus Christ our Lord." For he that so liveth will lay hold of every virtue, as having Jesus Himself for his ally. For that is what, "in Christ," means, for if He raised them when dead, much more when alive will He be able to keep them so.

Homily on Romans 11

As members of Christ you should understand that having died with him once for all you ought now always to live for God in Christ. In him our life is hidden with God, and since we have been clothed with him we should follow his example.

Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans

Since Christ does not die a second time, neither do we die a second time through a second baptism (that is, for us there is no second baptism). Therefore, let us remain in the former, that is, in the death of sin, but in the resurrection of life according to God. And this we received in Christ Jesus, that is, with His help: for He Who raised us when we were still dead will all the more preserve us in life now that we have become alive.

Commentary on Romans

Then when he says, so do you also, he reaches the intended conclusion that we are conformed to the life of the risen Christ both with respect to its death to sin, i.e., to the mortal life which has the likeness of sin, never to return to it, and with respect to living conformed to God. In regard to the first he says: so do you also reckon that you are dead to sin, i.e., as never to return to sin: let not the dead live (Isa 26:14). In regard to the second he says: but alive unto God, i.e., to the honor and in the likeness of God, that we never die through sin: the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God (Gal 2:20). So he adds, in Christ Jesus our Lord, i.e., through Jesus Christ, through whom we die to sin and live to God; or in Christ Jesus, i.e., as incorporated into Christ Jesus, that by his death we may die to sin and by his resurrection live to God: he made us alive together with Christ, by whose grace you have been saved through Christ (Eph 2:5).

Commentary on Romans

If, therefore, flesh and blood are the things which procure for us life, it has not been declared of flesh and blood, in the literal meaning (proprie) of the terms, that they cannot inherit the kingdom of God; but [these words apply] to those carnal deeds already mentioned, which, perverting man to sin, deprive him of life. And for this reason he says, in the Epistle to the Romans: "Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, to be under its control: neither yield ye your members instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves to God, as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." In these same members, therefore, in which we used to serve sin, and bring forth fruit unto death, does He wish us to [be obedient] unto righteousness, that we may bring forth fruit unto life.

Against Heresies Book 5

In these same members, therefore, in which we used to serve sin, and bring forth fruit unto death, does He wish us to [be obedient] unto righteousness, that we may bring forth fruit unto life. Remember, therefore, my beloved friend, that thou hast been redeemed by the flesh of our Lord, re-established by His blood; and "holding the Head, from which the whole body of the Church, having been fitted together, takes increase" -that is, acknowledging the advent in the flesh of the Son of God, and [His] divinity, and looking forward with constancy to His human nature, availing thyself also of these proofs drawn from Scripture -thou dost easily overthrow, as I have pointed out, all those notions of the heretics which were concocted afterwards.

Against Heresies 5.14.4

Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men."

The apostle declares that all sins are works of the flesh.… Now if it were not in our power that sin should not reign in us, he would not have given us this command. How then is it possible that sin should not reign in our flesh? It is possible if we do what the apostle says—“Put to death what is earthly in you”—and if we always carry around in our body the death of Christ. For it is certain that where the death of Christ is carried around sin cannot reign. For the power of the cross of Christ is such that if it is placed before our eyes and kept faithfully in mind in such a way that the eye of the mind may keep its gaze fixed on the death of Christ, no lust, no desire, no passion and no envy will be able to overcome it. At its presence the whole host of sin and the flesh will always flee.Why does Paul add that the body is “mortal,” when this seems to be obvious? Perhaps, but I think there is a reason for this addition. For Paul was showing by this how it is possible for sin not to reign in our bodies.… If we realize that our body can be put to death and be dead to sin, it may happen that sin will not reign in it. Insofar as it is dead, it is said to be justified from sin. Nor does a dead man lust or get angry or have passions or steal what is not his. Therefore, if we suppress all these desires in our bodies they may be said to be dead to sin. This is what the apostle appears to be telling us by adding the adjective mortal in this context.

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

The body is mortal because of the sin of Adam, but by faith in Christ we believe that it will be immortal. But in order for it to inherit the promise, Paul says that it must not listen to the voice of sin, so that sin may not reign in our mortal body. For it reigns as long as it is in control. But if it does not reign, the body will no longer appear to be mortal, because it dwells in the hope of eternal life. Paul did not say that the body is mortal because it will disintegrate but because of the pain of hell, so that the man who is sent to hell is said to be mortal because whoever hearkens to sin will not escape the second death, from which the Savior has delivered those who believe in him. Therefore, the mortal body refers to the entire human being because those who hearken to sin are said to be mortal. For Scripture says: “The soul which sins shall surely die,” which means the whole human being. For nobody will be judged apart from his body.

Commentary on Paul’s Epistles

What sin is this? The sin committed before baptism, of course.

Pauline Commentary from the Greek Church

He does not say, let not the flesh live or act, but, "let not sin reign," for He came not to destroy our nature, but to set our free choice aright. Then to show that it is not through any force or necessity that we are held down by iniquity, but willingly, he does not say, let it not tyrannize, a word that would imply a necessity, but let it not reign. For it is absurd for those who are being conducted to the kingdom of heaven to have sin empress over them, and for those who are called to reign with Christ to choose to be the captives of sin, as though one should hurl the diadem from off his head, and choose to be the slave of a frantic woman, who came begging, and was clothed in rags. Next since it was a heavy task to get the upper hand of sin, see how he shows it to be even easy, and how he allays the labor by saying, "in your mortal body." For this shows that the struggles were but for a time, and would soon bring themselves to a close. At the same time he reminds us of our former evil plight, and of the root of death, as it was from this that, contrary even to its beginning, it became mortal. Yet it is possible even for one with a mortal body not to sin. Do you see the abundancy of Christ's grace? For Adam, though as yet he had not a mortal body, fell. But thou, who hast received one even subject to death, canst be crowned. How then, is it that "sin reigns?" he says. It is not from any power of its own, but from thy listlessness. Wherefore after saying, "let it not reign," he also points out the mode of this reigning, by going on to say "that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof." For it is not honor to concede to it (i.e. to the body) all things at will, nay, it is slavery in the extreme, and the height of dishonor; for when it doth what it listeth, then is it bereft of all liberties; but when it is put under restraints, then it best keeps its own proper rank.

Homily on Romans 11

You should live in your mortal body as if you were immortal. Paul also explains how sin reigns in the body—by obedience and consent.

Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans

Because men are not my masters, because sin is not my lord—for sin does not reign in my mortal body—I am your servant.

Homilies on the Psalms 40

[Daniel 5:19] "'He slew whomever he would and smote to death whomever he wished to; those whom he wished he set on high, and brought low whomever he would.'" Thus he sets forth the example of the king's great-grandfather, in order to teach him the justice of God and make it clear that his great-grandson too was to suffer similar treatment because of his pride. Now if Nebuchadnezzar slew whomever he would and smote to death whomever he wished to; if he set on high those whom he would and brought low whomever he wished to, there is certainly no Divine providence or Scriptural injunction behind these honors and slayings, these acts of promotion and humiliation. But rather, such things ensue from the will of the men themselves who do the slaying and promoting to honor, and all the rest. If this be the case, the question arises as to how we are to understand the Scripture: "The heart of a king reposes in the hand of God; He will incline it in whatever direction He wishes" (Proverbs 21:1). Perhaps we might say that every saint is a king, for sin does not reign in his mortal body, and his heart therefore is kept safe, for he is in God's hand (Romans 6:1-23). And whatever has once come into the hand of God the Father, according to the Gospel, no man is able to take it away (John 10:28). And whoever is taken away, it is understood that he never was in God's hand at all.

St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER FIVE

The reign of sin is overthrown and destroyed, partly by such an amendment on the part of men that the flesh is made subject to the spirit and partly by the condemnation of those who are persevering in sin, in order that they might be so justly restrained that they cannot be troublesome to the righteous, who reign with Christ.

Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.22.77

We must engage in a constant, daily struggle not to obey those desires which are forbidden or improper. For from this sort of fault it comes about that the eye is turned to where it ought not to look, and if this fault grows strong and prevails, even bodily adultery is carried out, which is committed in the heart as much more quickly as thought is quicker than action and has nothing to hinder or delay it.

On Nature and Grace 38.45

A reign is different from a tyranny in that a tyrant rules without the consent of his subjects, whereas a reign applies in those cases where the subjects have assented to it. Therefore Paul is urging his hearers not to assent any longer to the reign of sin, for the Lord destroyed sin’s reign when he took on human flesh.

Interpretation of the Letter to the Romans

Here Paul shows that the reason we no longer sin is not that after baptism we are no longer made of flesh. Up to this point, we claim Christ’s perfection by faith only and not by experience. For we have not yet become impassible or immortal.… Therefore Paul does not say: “Do not sin,” but rather: “Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies.”

Pauline Commentary from the Greek Church

Paul did not say: “Let sin not exist,” but “Let it not reign.” Sin is within you if you take delight in it; it reigns if you consent to it.

Sermon 134.3

Wishing to show that we are held in the power of vices not by force and compulsion, but by our own free will, he did not say "let it not tyrannize," but says, "let it not reign," for a kingdom is the lot of those who have will. And by the expression "in your mortal body," he first showed that neither is what is pleasant for the body lasting (for the body is subject to death), so that one ought not to serve the body in its pleasures, nor is what is difficult permanent, so that one ought not to flee from what is sorrowful and from struggles against pleasures; and second, he reminds us that mortality is a consequence of sin, and urges us not to be subservient any longer to sin, as that which causes death. In what way then does sin reign? If we obey it in its bodily "lusts," so that it is not the body that causes harm by its nature, but obedience to sin. Note the grace of Christ: Adam sinned even though he had a body that was not mortal, yet we conquer sin in a mortal body.

Commentary on Romans

After showing that we ought not remain in sin and that we have the faculty for this, the Apostle concludes with a moral exhortation. And concerning this he does three things: first, he proposes an admonition; second, he assigns a reason, at for sin shall not; third, he raises and solves a question, at what then? Shall we sin. In regard to the first he does two things: first, he proposes the admonition; second, he clarifies it, at so as to obey.

First, therefore, he says: we have said that our old self was crucified once, so that the body of sin may be destroyed. This means that the power of sin has been so weakened that it cannot rule us. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body any longer. He does not say: let not sin be in your mortal body, because as long as our body is mortal, i.e., bound to the necessity of death, it is not possible for sin not to be in our body, i.e., the inclination to sin. But since we have been freed from the kingdom of sin by God, we must struggle in order that sin not recover its dominion now lost in our body. And this is what he says: let not sin reign in your mortal body. This is something about which one must be on his guard, as long as we wear the mortal body: the corruptible body is a load upon the soul (Wis 9:15).

Commentary on Romans

Note carefully the subtle distinctions which Paul makes here. When he talks about yielding to sin, he does not talk about us but about our members. However, when he talks about yielding to God, it is not our members which he mentions but our very selves. By this he means that we must give our souls and our whole persons to God so that, as we present ourselves before him as godly people and cling to him, we shall be making our members instruments of righteousness at the same time.

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

This injunction would be successfully carried out, I believe, if we were willing always to keep the same disposition of mind as we had at the time of danger. For surely we realized to some degree the vanity of life, as well as the unreliability and instability of human affairs, which change so easily. And in all likelihood we felt contrition for our past faults and promised that for the future, if we were saved we would serve God with watchful exactitude.

Letter 26

Paul shows that the devil fights against us by using our members. For the opportunity is given to him by our sins, so that when God abandons us he acquires the power to deceive and destroy us. Therefore we must protect our members from every work of iniquity so that our enemy may be left defenseless and subdued. Paul did not say: “Present your bodies,” but “Present your members,” for a person goes wrong when his members and not his whole body lead him wherever sin dictates.“Death” in this context means ignorance and unbelief, combined with an evil life, because “life” is to know God through Christ. Just as nobody acquires life without a parent, everyone has obtained life through Christ. Therefore whoever does not recognize that God is the Father of all through Christ is said not to have life, i.e., what he has here on earth does not count as life. For such a person denies himself as long as he thinks he can live without God as his Father. Therefore ignorance and a wicked life are death. For wickedness obtains death, not the death which is common to us all but the death of hell, as I mentioned above. Likewise, knowledge of God the Father and holy behavior are life, not that life which is subject to death but the life of the world to come which is called eternal. For this reason Paul says that you should present yourselves to God, for by knowing him you will go on to salvation. Having turned away from an evil life you will be like people who have risen from the dead. Such great modesty ought to govern our conduct that our behavior will lead to the righteousness of God, not to earthly righteousness. For the righteousness of this world is without faith in Christ, and without that it is death, not life. Let us then yield our members to him so that he can defend us. For when we yield our members to him through good works, we make ourselves worthy to be aided by God’s righteousness, because that righteousness is not given to those who are unworthy to receive it. Where God’s righteousness is, there the Holy Spirit dwells and helps our infirmity. Just as we yield our members to sin when we act wrongly, so we yield them to righteousness when we behave rightly, protecting them from all wickedness.

Commentary on Paul’s Epistles

The body then is indifferent between vice and virtue, as also instruments (or arms) are. But either effect is wrought by him that useth it. As if a soldier fighting in his country's behalf, and a robber who was arming against the inhabitants, had the same weapons for defence. For the fault is not laid to the suit of armor, but to those that use it to an ill end. And this one may say of the flesh too which becomes this or that owing to the mind's decision, not owing to its own nature. For if it be curious after the beauty of another, the eye becomes an instrument of iniquity, not through any agency of its own (for what is of the eye, is but seeing, not seeing amiss), but through the fault of the thought which commands it. But if you bridle it, it becomes an instrument of righteousness. Thus with the tongue, thus with the hands, thus with all the other members. And he well calls sin unrighteousness. For by sinning a man deals unrighteously either by himself or by his neighbor, or rather by himself more than by his neighbor. Having then led us away from wickedness, he leads us to virtue, in these words: "But yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead." See how by his bare words he exhorts them, on that side naming "sin" and on this "God." For by showing what a difference there is between the rulers, he casts out of all excuse the soldier that leaveth God, and desireth to serve under the dominion of sin. But it is not only in this way, but also by the sequel, that he establishes this; by saying, "as alive from the dead." For by these he shows the wretchedness of the other, and the greatness of God's gift. For consider, he says, what you were, and what you have been made. What then were ye? Dead, and ruined by a destruction which could not from any quarter be repaired. For neither was there any one who had the power to assist you. And what have ye been made out of those dead ones? Alive with immortal life. And by whom? By the all-powerful God. Ye ought therefore to marshal yourselves under Him with as much cheerful readiness, as men would who had been made alive from being dead. "And your members as instruments of righteousness." Hence, the body is not evil, since it may be made an arm of righteousness. But by calling it an arm, he makes it clear that there is a hard warfare at hand for us. And for this reason we need strong armor, and also a noble spirit, and one acquainted too with the ways of this warfare; and above all we need a commander. The Commander however is standing by, ever ready to help us, and abiding unconquerable, and has furnished us with strong arms likewise. Farther, we have need of a purpose of mind to handle them as should be, so that we may both obey our Commander, and take the field for our country.

Homily on Romans 11

Every part of the body can become a weapon of wickedness which will defeat righteousness if it turns its purpose to bad use. At the same time, note that it is by freedom of choice that a man offers his members to the side of his choice.

Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans

By telling us to yield our members to God as instruments of righteousness, Paul teaches that the body is not evil but the creation of a good God. Therefore if it is properly and correctly controlled by the soul it can serve God.

Interpretation of the Letter to the Romans

Where are the Manicheans who say that the body is sinful by nature? The body is an instrument, and an instrument is a means for both virtue and vice. Thus a sword serves the warrior as a weapon for the defense of citizens, while for a robber it is a weapon against citizens. "Do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness." For whoever sins acts unjustly often toward his neighbor, and always toward himself. "But present yourselves to God," considering what a difference there is between God and sin, and to whom it is better to submit: to sin, which has brought death, or to God, Who has given life. Having said that the members are instruments of unrighteousness, he showed, on the one hand, that the body, as stated above, is not something evil, since it can be an instrument of righteousness, and on the other hand, that a battle has commenced and that we need to be under the command of God and take up arms in defense of our soul.

Commentary on Romans

Then when he says, so as to obey, he clarifies this admonition. In regard to this it should be noted that sin reigns in man in two ways: in one way, through internal consent of the mind. To remove this he says, so as to obey the lusts thereof. For it is by obeying the passions of sin with our minds that sin reigns in us: go not after your lusts (Sir 18:30). In a second way sin reigns in us through the performance of the act. To exclude this, he adds, neither yield your members unto sin, i.e., to the inclination to sin, as instruments of iniquity, i.e., as instruments for committing sin. For when man commits sin through his members, he yields to sin. In this way he seems to fight to restore sin's dominion, which grows in us through the habit of sinning: they went down to hell with their weapons (Exod 32:27).

Then when he says, but yield yourselves to God, he urges them to the opposite, namely, to yield themselves to God. And first with regard to the internal faculties when he says, but yield yourselves to God by submitting your mind to God: and now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but that you fear the Lord your God and walk in his ways (Deut 10:12). And you ought to do this as those that are alive from the dead, i.e., as led from the death of sin to the life of grace. Hence it is fitting, since he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised (2 Cor 3:15). Second, with respect to outward actions; hence he says, yield your members . . . unto God, i.e., to his service, as instruments of justice with which to fight against God's enemies: put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil (Eph 6:11).

Commentary on Romans

Those who hold that for them there is no difference between right and wrong force a few passages of Scripture and think they favour their own immoral opinions. In particular they quote the saying: "Sin shall not have dominion over you; for you are not under the law but under grace," and others of this sort, which there is no reason to add, for I am not proposing to fit out a pirate ship. Let us then briefly put a stop to their argument. The noble apostle himself refutes the charge against him implied in their false exegesis by the words with which he continues after the saying just quoted: "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? God forbid." In this inspired and prophetic way he at once destroys the device of these licentious sophists.

The Stromata Book 3

Mistake is a sin contrary to calculation; and voluntary sin is crime; and crime is voluntary wickedness. Sin, then, is on my part voluntary. Wherefore says the apostle, "Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace." Addressing those who have believed, he says, "For by His stripes we were healed."

The Stromata Book 2

So faith, illumined by patience, when it was becoming propagated among the nations through" Abraham's seed, which is Christ," and was superinducing grace over the law, made patience her pre-eminent coadjutrix for amplifying and fulfilling the law, because that alone had been lacking unto the doctrine of righteousness.

Of Patience

Once again note the subtlety of Paul’s language. When he talks about us he says that “sin” will have no dominion over us, but when he talks about Christ he says that it is “death” which will have no dominion over him, for there was room for death in Christ but not sin.The law of which he speaks here is the law in our members, which is opposed to the law of the mind. It is clear that those who have put to death their members will not be under the law of their members but under the grace of God. If someone wants to read this as referring to the law of Moses, the text will doubtless mean that we are not under the law of the letter, which kills, but under the law of the Spirit, which gives life and which Paul here calls grace.

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

If we walk according to the commandments which he gives, Paul says that sin will not rule over us, for it rules over those who sin. For if we do not walk as he commands we are under the law. But if we do not sin we are not under the law but under grace. If, however, we sin, we fall back under the law, and sin starts to rule over us once more, for every sinner is a slave to sin. It is necessary for a person to be under the law as long as he does not receive forgiveness, for by the law’s authority sin makes the sinner guilty. Thus the person to whom forgiveness is given and who keeps it by not sinning anymore will neither be ruled by sin nor be under the law. For the authority of the law no longer applies to him; he has been delivered from sin. Those whom the law holds guilty have been turned over to it by sin. Therefore the person who has departed from sin cannot be under the law.

Commentary on Paul’s Epistles

If then sin hath no more dominion over us, why does he lay so great a charge upon them as he does in the words, "Let not sin reign in your mortal body," and, "yield not ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin?" What does that here said mean then? He is sowing a kind of seed in this statement, which he means to develop afterwards, and to cultivate in a powerful argument. What then is this statement? It is this; that our body, before Christ's coming, was an easy prey to the assaults of sin. For after death a great swarm of passions entered also. And for this cause it was not lightsome for running the race of virtue. For there was no Spirit present to assist, nor any baptism of power to mortify. But as some horse that answereth not the rein, it ran indeed, but made frequent slips, the Law meanwhile announcing what was to be done and what not, yet not conveying into those in the race anything over and above exhortation by means of words. But when Christ had come, the effort became afterwards more easy, and therefore we had a more distant goal set us, in that the assistance we had given us was greater. Wherefore also Christ saith, "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." But this he says more clearly in the sequel. But at present he alludes here briefly to it, to show that unless we stoop down very low to it, sin will not get the better of us. For it is not the Law only that exhorteth us, but grace too which also remitted our former sins, and secures us against future ones. For it promised them crowns after toils, but this (i.e. grace) crowned them first, and than led them to the contest. Now it seems to me that he is not signifying here the whole life of a believer, but instituting a comparison between the Baptism and the Law. And this he says in another passage also "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." For the Law convinceth of transgression, but grace undoes transgression. As then the former by convincing establisheth sin so the latter by forgiving suffereth us not to be under sin. And so thou art in two ways set free from this thraldom; both in thy not being under the Law, and in thy enjoying grace.

Homily on Romans 11

Sin will not overcome you, for you are not children but adults. It is like the teacher who says to a student: “Avoid stylistic errors; you are no longer learning from a primary school teacher but from a professor.” Paul offered teaching and example as a way to overcome sin by grace.

Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans

Having shown that they should avoid sinning for the sake of future benefits, Paul goes on to add that they should live as though they were incapable of sinning at all. For if the time was coming when they would be transformed and act as sinless people, then here and now they ought to cleanse their minds of any thought of sin and earnestly try to do what is good.

Pauline Commentary from the Greek Church

This refers to the third state of man, when in his mind he serves the law of God even though his flesh still serves the law of sin. For he does not obey the desire to sin, even though lusts will continue to court him and urge him to surrender until the body is raised to new life and death is swallowed up in victory. Because we do not give in to evil desires we are under grace, and sin does not reign in our mortal bodies. But the man who is controlled by sin even if he wants to resist it is still under the law and not yet under grace.

On Romans 35

Grace causes sin not to have power over you. Therefore do not trust in yourself, lest sin thereby have much more power over you.

On Continence 5.12

It is not that the law is evil but that it makes those under it guilty by giving commands without providing help to fulfill them. In fact, grace helps one to become a doer of the law, for without such grace one living under the law will be no more than a hearer of the law.

Grace and Free Will 12.24

In other words, nature is no longer struggling on its own but has the Holy Spirit to help it.

Interpretation of the Letter to the Romans

Before the coming of Christ, he says, your body was easily conquered by sin. At that time there was neither the assisting Spirit nor baptism capable of putting sin to death. Therefore the law too, by prescribing what to do, made no progress. But after the coming of Christ the struggle became easier, which is why the labors required of us, as those who have received greater help, are harder. So then, sin will not have dominion over us if we do not yield to it too much. Now it is not the law, which only gives commandments but renders not the slightest help, but grace, which forgives former sins and strengthens for the future.

Commentary on Romans

Then when he says, for sin shall not, he assigns the reason for this admonition. For someone might excuse himself, alleging that sin's dominion is an obstacle to obeying the admonition. But the Apostle excludes this, saying, for sin shall not have dominion over you, i.e., if you begin to resist sin and yield yourself to God: draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Resist the devil and he will flee from you (Jas 4:8). As if to say: you can observe my admonition, because you do not find sin dominating and holding you. For we have been freed by Christ, as John says: if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed (John 8:36).

Then he clarifies what he had said, saying, for you are not under the law, but under grace. Here it should be noted that he is not speaking of the law merely with respect to its ceremonial precepts, but even with respect to moral matters. For one is said to be under the law in two ways. In one way, as voluntarily subject to the observance of the law. Even Christ was under the law in this way according to Galatians: born under the law (Gal 4:4), namely, because he observed the law, not only the moral but also the ceremonial precepts. But the faithful of Christ are under the law in this way, with respect to the moral precepts but not the ceremonial. In another way, one is said to be under the law as though compelled by the law. In this way, one is under the law when he does not obey it voluntarily from love but is compelled by fear. But such a one lacks grace which, if it were present, would incline the will to observe the law and fulfill its moral precepts from a motive of love. Therefore, as long as one is under the law in such a way that he does not fulfill it voluntarily, sin has dominion over him. As a result, such a man's will is inclined to choose what is contrary to the law. But through grace such dominion is removed; consequently, a man observes the law not as existing under the law but as free: we are not children of the slave but of the free woman, by the freedom with which Christ has set us free (Gal 4:31).

This grace, making men freely obey the law, was not conferred by the sacraments of the old law, but Christ's sacraments conferred it. Consequently, those who submitted themselves to the ceremonies of the law were not, so far as the power of those sacraments was concerned, under grace but under the law, unless they happened to obtain grace through faith. But one who submits to Christ's sacraments obtains grace from his power, so as not to be under the law but under grace, unless they enslaved themselves to sin through their own fault.

Commentary on Romans

The noble apostle himself refutes the charge against him implied in their false exegesis by the words with which he continues after the saying just quoted: "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? God forbid." In this inspired and prophetic way he at once destroys the device of these licentious sophists.

The Stromata Book 3

Paul repeats here what he said [in verse 1] above. The only difference is that [in verse 1] he posed the question as if he were speaking to people who had not yet abandoned their sinning, and so he appears to be telling them not to persist in what they had been doing up till then. Here, on the other hand, he seems to be talking to those who have already given up sinning. [In verse 1] he spoke as if abundant grace did not yet exist, but here he speaks as if grace is already present, because “we are not under law but under grace.”

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

Although it was right for the law to be given—for it was given in order to show that those who sinned against it were guilty before God and in order to dissuade people from continuing to sin—yet because of the weakness of its infirmity the human race was unable to restrain itself from sin and had become subject to the death of hell. God was moved by the righteousness of his mercy, by which he always comes to the aid of the human race, and through Christ he provided a way by which he could reward those who were without hope. By forgiving their sins he released them from the law which had held them subject. Restored and made whole again by the help of God, they could reject the sins by which they had previously been held down. Therefore we did not sin in rejecting the law but rather we followed the providence of God himself through Christ.

Commentary on Paul’s Epistles

So he first adopted a form of adjuration, because it was an absurd thing he had named. And then he makes his discourse pass on to exhortation, and shows the great facility of the struggle.

Homily on Romans 11

If you sin, you will not be under grace.

Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans

I think that Paul is saying this to the Jews because it is the nature of the law to tell us what we should and should not do. If we find ourselves outside the law, there is nothing to stop us from doing what we like, but if there is some way of determining what should and should not be done, then we are back under the law again, and what is said here will easily apply to us. Paul has expressed himself in this seemingly contradictory way because he is saying that since we are free of sin we are no longer under the law. He does not mean that the outpouring of grace has given us license to sin.

Pauline Commentary from the Greek Church

The apostle always proposes such objections, which is why he both raises and resolves them, as he does with the present objection, answering it: "God forbid."

Commentary on Romans

Then when he says, what then, he raises a question against what he has said. And concerning this he does three things: first, he raises the question; second, he answers it, at God forbid! Know you not; third, he shows how unfitting it would be to misinterpret his statement, at but thanks be to God.

In regard to the first it should be noted that his statement could be falsely interpreted, namely, that Christ's faithful are not under the law with respect to being obliged to obey its moral precepts. For it would follow that Christ's faithful could lawfully commit sin and act against the moral precepts. Therefore, in this context he raises the question: what then? Shall we sin, i.e., shall we act against the moral precepts, because, as has been said, we are not under the law, but under grace? This interpretation the Apostle rejects in Galatians: for you were called to freedom, brethren, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh (Gal 5:13).

Commentary on Romans

This is what the apostle is teaching in this passage: that each person has it in his control and in the power of his will to be either a servant of sin or a servant of righteousness. He proves himself to be a slave of whatever side he chooses to obey and of whatever side he inclines toward.Note that Paul assumes that anyone who yields himself to sin is a slave of sin, but he does not go on to add that anyone who yields himself to righteousness is a slave of righteousness.… It would not have been right to phrase it like that, because although God himself does what is righteous he cannot for that reason be said to be a slave of righteousness! On the contrary, he is the Lord of righteousness. Therefore it is not true to say that everyone who does what is righteous is a slave to righteousness in the same way that everyone who sins is a slave to sin. For even the devil himself is a slave to sin, because he departed from the obedience of righteousness and rebelled in the face of Almighty God, for which reason he is called an apostate.

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

Paul warns us not to say one thing and do another, so that when we are said to be servants of God we should be found by our actions to be servants of the devil. He proclaims that we are servants of the one whose will we do and that it is not fair to confess God as Lord but do the works of the devil. For God himself notices this and attacks it: “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me,” and the Lord says in the Gospel: “No man can serve two masters,” and in the law it is written: “God is not mocked.”

Commentary on Paul’s Epistles

I do not, he would say, mention hell as yet, nor that great punishment, but the shame it is in this world, when ye become slaves, and slaves of your own accord too, and sin's slaves, and when the wages are such as a second death. For if before baptism, it wrought death of the body, and the wound required so great attendance, that the Lord of all came down to die, and so put a stop to the evil; if after so great a gift, and so great liberty, it seize thee again, while thou bendest down under it willingly, what is there that it may not do? Do not then run into such a pit, or willingly give thyself up. For in the case of wars, soldiers are often given up even against their will. But in this case, unless thou desertest of thyself, there is no one who will get the better of thee. Having then tried to shame them by a sense of duty, he alarms them also by the rewards, and lays before them the wages of both; righteousness, and death, and that a death not like the former, but far worse. For if Christ is to die no more, who is to do away with death? No one! We must then be punished, and have vengeance taken upon us forever. For a death preceptible to the senses is not still to come in this case, as in the former, which gives the body rest, and separates it from the soul. "For the last enemy, death, is destroyed," whence the punishment will be deathless. But not to them that obey, for righteousness, and the blessings springing from it, will be their rewards.

Homily on Romans 11

Righteousness and sin are mutually incompatible. As the Lord himself said in the holy Gospel: “No man can serve two masters.”

Interpretation of the Letter to the Romans

Then he proves that it is not difficult for us not to sin. Consider, he urges, in your mind which is better: to be slaves of sin, having surrendered to it of your own will (this is what "you yield" means), and to receive as a reward death, that is, eternal punishment (for the sin of Adam produced bodily and temporal death, but sin committed now subjects a person to eternal death, that is, eternal punishment), or to obey God and receive as a reward righteousness and the blessings that flow from it?

Commentary on Romans

In the same fashion he answers here, God forbid that we should sin, because we have been set free from the law; because if we were to sin, we would once more be reduced to the slavery of sin. Hence, he continues, know you not that to whom you yield yourselves of your own will as servants to obey voluntarily, his servants you are whom you obey. For obedience is a debt which slaves owe to their masters: slaves, be obedient to your earthly masters (Eph 6:5). Hence, when someone obeys another, he admits that he is his slave by obeying. But different masters are obeyed for different remunerations. For the one who obeys sin is led to death through the slavery of sin. And this is what he says: whether it be of sin, i.e., you are its slaves by obeying it, unto death, i.e., to the eternal damnation of the one who falls. Concerning this death it is said: he who conquers shall not be hurt by the second death (Rev 2:11). But the one who obeys God is made a slave of this obedience, because through the habit of obeying the mind is inclined more and more to obeying and as a result achieves holiness. Therefore, he says: or of obedience, namely, of the divine precepts, unto justice: the doers of the law shall be justified (Rom 2:13). Sin and obedience are fittingly presented as opposites, because, as Ambrose says, sin is a transgression of the divine law and a disobedience against the heavenly commands.

Commentary on Romans

It appears that Paul is saying this to those whose eternal life and spiritual progress are assured. These are the same people of whom he spoke [in 1:8] above. Then he goes on to point out that, to begin with, all men were slaves of sin.… But what follows is said to a few, to those who have been converted.We all were slaves to sin, but when the standard of teaching was handed down to us and we chose to follow it, not in any which way nor in words only but from the heart, from the mind, with complete devotion, we were set free from the slavery of sin and made servants of righteousness.

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

As it is right to obey Christ, for he is himself righteousness and what he commands is righteous, Paul therefore says that we have become servants of righteousness “from the heart,” not from the law. We do this voluntarily and not out of fear, so that our confession of faith might find expression in the judgment of our mind. For by nature we have been led to faith, not by the law, in which standard of teaching we have been made for the rule of God, who created nature. For by nature we know by whom and through whom and in whom we were created. Therefore the standard of teaching is that into which our Creator has led us naturally. This is what he said above: “They are a law unto themselves,” when their own natures see what they believe, that what the law and the Prophets predicted to the Jews concerning Christ is what the Gentiles have confessed from the heart. For this reason Paul gives thanks to the Lord, because when we were still servants of sin we obeyed from the heart, believing in Christ, so that we might serve God not according to the law of Moses but according to the law of nature.

Commentary on Paul’s Epistles

After shaming them by the slavery, after alarming them by the rewards, and so exhorting them, he again rights them by calling the benefits to mind. For by these he shows that they were great evils from which they were freed, and that not by any labors of their own, and that things henceforth would be more manageable. Just as any one who has rescued a captive from a cruel tyrant, and advises him not to run away back to him, reminds him of his grievous thraldom; so does Paul set the evils passed away most emphatically before us, by giving thanks to God. For it was no human power that could set us free from all those evils, but, "thanks be to God," who was willing and able to do such great things. And he well says, "Ye have obeyed from the heart." Ye were neither forced nor pressed, but ye came over of your own accord, with willing mind. Now this is like one that praises and rebukes at once. For after having willingly come, and not having had any necessity to undergo, what allowance can you claim, or what excuse can you make, if you run away back to your former estate? Next that you may learn that it came not of your own willing temper only, but the whole of it of God's grace also, after saying, "Ye have obeyed from the heart," he adds, "that form of doctrine which was delivered you." For the obedience from the heart shows the free will. But the being delivered, hints the assistance from God. But what is the form of doctrine? It is living aright, and in conformity with the best conversation.

Homily on Romans 11

We “were” slaves to sin, but we “are” no longer.

Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans

You who once were slaves to sin have broken away from it by the free will of your mind and have embraced spiritual teaching instead.

Interpretation of the Letter to the Romans

"Thanks be to God." Our deliverance from those evils is not a matter of human strength, but of God's; which is why one must give thanks. Then you became obedient not by compulsion, but by your own heartfelt disposition; therefore do not return to the worse things, from which you withdrew voluntarily. As proof that although they themselves came, yet all this depended also on the grace of God, he added: "you delivered yourselves," that is, you were guided by God to the form of teaching. And what is the form of teaching? To live in a devout and well-ordered manner.

Commentary on Romans

17–18

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.

Commentary on Romans

What is it which sets us free from sin? Knowledge of the truth, of course! This is what Jesus said to the Jews: “If you believe my word, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

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.

Homily on Romans 11

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.

Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans

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.

Commentary on Romans

What is there so human, so trivial, so light that no weakness of the flesh can excuse it?… It is hardly cause for boasting that someone should serve virtue in the same way as he once served vice. Righteousness ought to be honored much more fully and much more seriously than that! But here Paul says: “I am speaking in human terms,” meaning that he requires the same zeal from the convert as was present in him as a sinner. Once your feet ran to the temples of demons; now they run to the church of God. Once they ran to spill blood; now they run to set it free. Once your hands were stretched out to steal what belonged to others; now they are stretched out for you to be generous with what is your own. Once your eyes looked at women or at something which was not yours with lust in them; but now they look at the poor, the weak and the helpless with pity in them. Your ears used to delight in hearing empty talk or in attacking good people; now they have turned to hearing the Word of God, to the exposition of the law and to the learning of the knowledge of wisdom. Your tongue, which was accustomed to bad language, cursing and swearing has now turned to praising the Lord at all times; it produces healthy and honest speech, in order to give grace to the hearers and speak the truth to its neighbor.

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

But our members must be said to be circumcised if they are devoted to the service of God. But if they go beyond the laws divinely ordained for them, they must be considered uncircumcised.… For when our members served iniquity they were not circumcised, nor was the covenant of God in them. But when they began to serve righteousness unto sanctification, the promise which was made to Abraham is fulfilled in them.

Homilies on Genesis 3.6

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.”

Commentary on Paul’s Epistles

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.

Homily on Romans 12

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.

Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans

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.

Commentary on Romans

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).

Commentary on Romans

Here free means “alien,” and rightly so. For no one can serve sin and righteousness at the same time, as the Savior said: “No one can serve two masters.”

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

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.

Commentary on Paul’s Epistles

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.

Homily on Romans 12

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

Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans

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.

Grace and Free Will 9.5

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.

Commentary on Romans

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.

Commentary on Romans

Someone who turns his heart and mind to righteousness will undoubtedly blush and condemn himself when he thinks back on what he did before, when he was acting under the power of sin, for “the end of those things is death.” But what death, I ask? Certainly not the death that is common to us all.… Is it perhaps that which is called the death of sin, as when Scripture says: “The soul which sins will surely die.” Or should it rather be understood as referring to that death by which we die with Christ to sin and put an end to wickedness and crimes, so that it can be said, as it is here, that death is the end of them? Paul compares fruits with fruits and declares that the fruits of sin for which we are now ashamed because we have been set free from sin and become servants of God end in death, whereas the fruits of righteousness, which lead to sanctification, end in eternal life.

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

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.

Commentary on Paul’s Epistles

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.

Homily on Romans 12

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.

Commentary on Romans

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).

Commentary on Romans

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.

The Problem of Pain, Chapter 4: Human Wickedness

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."

The Stromata Book 2

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.

On Resurrection of the Flesh 47

Paul repeats what he has already said [in verse 18] but with an important difference. There he said that we have become slaves to obedience, which leads to righteousness, but here he says that we have become slaves to God. By saying this, Paul shows that after someone has been set free from sin he ought to serve righteousness and perform all the virtues in the first instance and then ascend by the way of spiritual progress to the point where he becomes a slave of God, even though to be a slave of righteousness is also to be a slave of God. For Christ is righteousness, and to serve Christ is to serve God. Nevertheless, there is a scale of spiritual perfection, and there are different levels of virtue. For this reason Christ is said to reign, because he is righteousness, until such time as the fullness of all virtue is complete in everyone. Then, when the measure of perfection is reached, it is said that he will give up the kingdom to God the Father, so that God may be all in all.

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

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.

Commentary on Paul’s Epistles

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.

Homily on Romans 12

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.

Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans

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.

Commentary on Romans

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).

Commentary on Romans

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.

Against Heresies Book 3

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.

The Stromata Book 4

Paul employs a military metaphor to good effect by saying that death is the wage due to those who fight under King Sin. But God does not give his soldiers a wage, as if they have something owing to them. Rather, he gives them the gift of grace, which is eternal life in Christ.The death being referred to here is not the death which separates the body from the soul but the death by which because of sin the soul is separated from God.

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

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.

Commentary on Paul’s Epistles

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.

Homily on Romans 12

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.

Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans

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

Homilies on the Gospels 1.2

"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.

Commentary on Romans

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).

Commentary on Romans