What the Law Could Not Do
…guide into the mysteries, and most penetrating in contemplation, yet he says he is unskilled in speech (2 Corinthians 11:6). That is why we say without blushing that in the arrangement of the words before us something small is missing for full clarity. For he ought to have said, “For the law’s inability, in that it was weak through the flesh, has been undone,” perhaps, or “has ceased”; then to supply the conclusion of the matter and attach the manner of its undoing, adding in turn, “For God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, has abolished sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3), and what follows.
Since the arrangement of the words stands thus, at least according to the purpose he has in mind, let us consider the manner of the healing that comes through Christ: how the law’s inability has ceased, what the law’s inability should be understood to be at all, and of which law; for the herald of God argues very finely here.
He approves, then, as able to help, both the law of God (I mean the written law) and the law of the spirit, by which we have come to will the good, even if the power to do it may not lie close at hand. For he said, “For willing lies close at hand for me, but accomplishing the good does not” (Romans 7:18), clearly because sin gains the upper hand and the law of the flesh turns the mind, against its will, toward its own ends. In this same way, I think, one may rightly understand the law’s inability: both of the law that is written and given through Moses, as I said just now, and also of the law that is inborn and within us, by which even the Gentiles, though they do not have the written law, are seen to do by nature what the law requires and are a law to themselves (Romans 2:14); “for they show the work of the law written in their hearts” (Romans 2:15), as it is written.
Now is the time to examine what the inability in both consists of. The written law was a teacher of good order and a guide to what is best, but it justified no one at all; while the inborn law within us, which he also calls the law of the spirit, inclines toward the good but is thoroughly defeated by the law that calls us toward what is more shameful. So the inability, that is, the weakness, whether of the written law or of the inborn law, has come to an end through Christ. For once the flesh has in a certain way been put to death, and the pleasure within us has been, as it were, destroyed, the law of the spirit, or of the mind, will in no way be weak.
How the sin within us has been put to death, let us say as far as we can. The Word of God, by the good pleasure of God the Father, came to be in the likeness of sinful flesh, so that he might condemn sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3). For he became man, lowering himself into self-emptying (Philippians 2:7); and that his body was of the same form and the same nature as our bodies, how could anyone doubt? Yet the bodies of all others might be called flesh of sin, because by nature they suffer the rise of disordered pleasures; but one would say that the body of Christ is not flesh of sin, by no means, but rather the likeness of sinful flesh, that is, resembling…
Greek
μυσταγωγὸς καὶ ἰσχνὸς ἄγαν εἰς θεωρίας, ἰδιώτης δὲ εἶναί φησι τῷ λόγῳ. ταύτῃτοί φαμεν ἐρυθριῶντες οὐδὲν, ὅτι τῇ συνθήκῃ τῶν προκειμένων λέξεων λείπει τι βραχὺ πρὸς ἐντελῆ διασάφησιν· ἔδει γὰρ εἰπεῖν Τὸ γὰρ ἀδύνατον τοῦ νόμου ἐν ᾧ ἠσθένει διὰ τῆς σαρκὸς λέλυται τυχὸν ἢ πέπαυται· εἶτα προσεπενεγκεῖν τοῦ πράγματος τὴν ἀπόδοσιν, καὶ τοῦ λελύσθαι συνάψαι τὸν τρόπον, προστιθέντα πάλιν Ὁ γὰρ Θεὸς τὸν ἑαυτοῦ υἱὸν πέμψας ἐν ὁμοιώματι σαρκὸς ἁμαρτίας καὶ περὶ ἁμαρτίας κατήργηκε τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἐν τῇ σαρκί· καὶ τὰ τούτοις ἐφεξῆς. ἐχούσης δὲ ὧδε τῆς τῶν λέξεων συνθήκης, κατά γε τὸν ἐνόντα σκοπὸν αὐτῷ, φέρε καταθρήσωμεν τῆς διὰ Χριστοῦ θεραπείας τὸν τρόπον, πέπαυται δὲ ὅπως τὸ ἀδύνατον τοῦ νόμου, καὶ ποῖον ἂν ὅλως τὸ ἀδύνατον νοοῖτο τοῦ νόμου, καὶ ποίου νόμου· λεπτομυθεῖ γὰρ λίαν ὁ θεηγόρος ἐν τούτοις. 16 ἀποδέχεται τοίνυν ὡς ὠφελεῖν εἰδότας, τόν τε τοῦ Θεοῦ νόμον, φημὶ δὲ δὴ τὸν ἐν γράμμασι, καὶ τόν γε τοῦ πνεύματος, καθ' ὃν ἐσχήκαμεν τὸ θέλειν τὸ ἀγαθὸν, κἂν εἰ μὴ παρακέοιτο τυχὸν τὸ δύνα 212 σθαι δρᾶν αὐτό· ἔφη γὰρ ὅτι "Τὸ γὰρ θέλειν παράκειταί "μοι, τὸ δὲ κατεργάζεσθαι τὸ καλὸν οὔ·" πλεονεκτούσης δηλονότι τῆς ἁμαρτίας, καὶ τοῦ τῆς σαρκὸς νόμου καταστρέφοντος εἰς τὰ οἰκεῖα καὶ οὐχ ἑκόντα τὸν νοῦν· κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν δὲ οἶμαι τουτονὶ τρόπον νοοῖτ' ἂν εἰκότως τὸ ἀδύνατον τοῦ νόμου, τοῦ τε ἐν γράμμασι καὶ διὰ Μωυσέως, καθάπερ ἔφην ἀρτίως, καὶ μέντοι τοῦ ἐμφύτου καὶ ἐν ἡμῖν, καθ' ὃν καὶ τὰ ἔθνη, καίτοι τὸν γραπτὸν οὐκ ἔχοντα νόμον, φύσει τὰ τοῦ νόμου ποιοῦντα φαίνεται, καὶ νόμος εἰσὶν ἑαυτοῖς· "ἐνδείκνυνται γὰρ τὸ ἔργον τοῦ νόμου γραπτὸν ἐν ταῖς "καρδίαις αὐτῶν," καθὰ γέγραπται. ποῖον δὲ τὸ ἐν ἀμφοῖν ἀδύνατον, βασανίσαι καιρός· ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἐν γράμμασι νόμος διδάσκαλος ἦν εὐκοσμίας καὶ τῶν ἀρίστων εἰσηγητὴς, δεδικαίωκε δὲ παντελῶς οὐδένα· ὁ γεμὴν ἔμφυτός τε καὶ ἐν ἡμῖν, ὃν καὶ ὀνομάζει τοῦ πνεύματος, ἀπονένευκε μὲν εἰς τὸ ἀγαθὸν, ἡττᾶται δὲ λίαν τοῦ πρὸς τὰ αἰσχίω καλοῦντος νόμου. οὐκοῦν τὸ ἀδύνατον, τουτέστι τὸ ἀσθενοῦν, εἴτε τοῦ ἐν γράμμασιν εἴτε τοῦ ἐμφύτου νόμου, πέπαυται διὰ Χριστοῦ. νενεκρωμένης γὰρ τρόπον τινὰ τῆς σαρκὸς, καὶ οἷον ἀνῃρημένης τῆς ἐν ἡμῖν ἡδονῆς, κατ' οὐδένα τρόπον ὁ τοῦ πνεύματος ἤτοι τοῦ νοὸς ἀσθενήσει νόμος· νενέκρωται δὲ τίνα τρόπον ἡ ἐν ἡμῖν ἁμαρτία, φέρε λέγωμεν ὡς ἔνι· ὁ γὰρ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος ἐν εὐδοκίᾳ τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Πατρὸς ἐν ὁμοιώματι γέγονε σαρκὸς ἁμαρτίας, ἵνα κατακρίνῃ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἐν τῇ σαρκί· γέγονε γὰρ ἄνθρωπος, καθεὶς ἑαυτὸν εἰς κένωσιν, καὶ ὁμοειδὲς μὲν ὅτι καὶ ὁμοφυὲς τοῖς ἡμετέροις σώμασι τὸ αὐτοῦ, πῶς ἂν ἐνδοιάσειέ τις; πλὴν τὰ μὲν τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων σώματα σάρκες ἂν λέγοιντο τῆς ἁμαρτίας, διά τοι τὸ πεφυκέναι νοσεῖν τῶν ἐκτόπων ἡδονῶν τὴν γένεσιν· τὸ δέ γε σῶμα Χριστοῦ φαίη τις ἂν οὐχ ἁμαρτίας εἶναι σάρκα· μὴ γένοιτο· ὁμοίωμα δὲ μᾶλλον σαρκὸς ἁμαρτίας· τουτέστι 213 προσεοικὸς μὲν τοῖς