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For since he has shown from future things that they ought not to sin, he consistently added that it is among the impossible things for sin to rule over you at all; for there will be a future time in which you will live freed from all sin, so that if your minds were sound now, turning away from every form of sin and desiring with zeal to do good things, you need not fear the inclination to what is worse; for this will certainly receive healing at the proper time, and your labors are not needed for this, and what is greater: for you are not under law but under grace. For you will then be so far from fearing any such thing, that you will not even need laws to show you what you ought to do, and by the grace and generosity of the Giver you will enjoy the gift of the Spirit. Ro+m 6,15 It was especially possible for Jews to say this, that the nature of law defines what ought to be done and what ought not. If, then, we happen to be outside the law, nothing would prevent everyone from doing whatever comes to mind, but if there is some distinction between things to be done and things not to be done, we are again under law, and what is said by you has a mere appearance. Therefore, setting up this 123 objection for himself, he says how it was fitting for us, not being under law, to be apart from sin, and how the enjoyment of grace does not provide us with license to sin. And immediately he adds according to his custom: may it not be, considering even the name of sinning to be something to be avoided. But he makes the resolution of the objection in this way: every person, he says, to whomever one chooses to obey, has made oneself a slave to that one, so as to obey him and to do all things that seem good to that one. Either, then, having chosen to obey sin you have the necessity to do the things that seem good to it, expecting the death that results from it, or having assigned yourselves to righteousness it will be altogether necessary to fulfill its will, awaiting the good things from it. Ro+m 6,17 And so the "but thanks be to God" is most necessary; for it was necessary for one about to explain the gift of so many good things that came to us from God to begin with thanksgiving. And most opportunely the "to which you were delivered as a pattern of teaching"; for the apostles everywhere continued saying that the old things have been dissolved, death has ceased, sin has been quenched, in deed later, but in promise already. And we fulfill a certain type and symbols of those things in baptism through the gift of the Spirit given to us in it, as if being reborn in imitation of the things that will be then. Therefore, he says this, that by your judgment you chose our teaching through which we brought you, and we almost handed you over to the type of future things through baptism. Having been persuaded by these things, it is necessary to act in accordance, imitating in life those things into which you have been placed by the type. Ro+m 6,19 It is clear then, he says, that it was fitting to have so much greater zeal for these things, by as much as virtue is better than vice. But so that, having measured my discourse to your weakness, which has a greater inclination toward what is worse, I may not say something great or superhuman, I want you at least to have as much abundant virtue as you have paid attention to sin Ro+m 6,21 The "what fruit therefore did you have then?" must be read as a question; then, as an answer, "of which you are now ashamed"; for we have seen the profit, he says, of the zeal for those things of which you are ashamed even when others speak of them

124. Ro+m 7,4 Showing the benefit of the things according to Christ, he adds: "that we might bear

fruit to God." He does not say "that" for a cause, but what follows the matter according to his custom; for he means to say that having come into this life we will bear the continuous fruits of righteousness to God, having been freed from the way of life according to the law. And his most wonderful point is not saying "you were put to death through baptism" but "through the body of Christ"; for Adam became the beginning of the present life for all people, but Christ of the future life. Just as therefore in the case of the

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ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἀπὸ τῶν μελλόντων μὴ δεῖν αὐτοὺς ἁμαρτάνειν ἔδειξεν, ἀκολούθως ἐπήγαγεν ὅτι κρατῆσαι ὑμῶν καθόλου τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τῶν ἀδυνάτων· ἔσται γὰρ καιρὸς ὁ μέλλων ἐν ᾧ πάσης ἁμαρτίας ἀπηλλαγμένοι πολιτεύσεσθε, ὥστε εἰ νῦν τὰ τῆς γνώμης ὑμῶν ὑγιαίνοι, ἅπαν εἶδος ἁμαρτίας ἀποστρεφομένων καὶ σπουδῇ τὰ καλὰ ποιεῖν ἐθελόντων, οὐ δεῖ δεδοικέναι τὴν ἐπὶ τὸ χεῖρον ῥοπήν· λήψεται γὰρ ἴασιν τοῦτο πάντως ἐν καιρῷ τῷ προσήκοντι, καὶ οὐ χρεία τῶν ὑμετέρων πρὸς τοῦτο πόνων, καὶ τὸ μεῖζον· οὐ γάρ ἐστε ὑπὸ νόμον ἀλλ' ὑπὸ χάριν. τοσοῦτον γὰρ ἀφέξετε τότε καί τι τοιοῦτον δεδοικέναι, ὥστε οὐδὲ νόμων ὑμῖν δεήσει τῶν ὑποδεικνύντων ἃ πράττειν προσήκει, χάριτί τε καὶ φιλοτιμίᾳ τοῦ δεδωκότος τῆς τοῦ πνεύματος ἀπολαύσετε δωρεᾶς. Ro+m 6,15 Τοῦτο Ἰουδαίοις μάλιστα λέγειν ἐνῆν, ὅτι νόμου φύσις διορίζει, τί μὲν πράττειν προσήκει, τί δὲ μή. εἰ μὲν οὖν ἔξω νόμου τυγχάνομεν, οὐδὲν ἂν κωλύοι τὸ προστυχὸν ἅπαντας πράττειν, εἰ δὲ ἔστι τις πρακτέων καὶ μὴ τοιούτων διάκρισις, ὑπὸ νόμον πάλιν ἐσμέν, καὶ σχῆμα ψιλὸν ἔχει τὰ λεγόμενα παρ' ὑμῶν. ταύτην τοίνυν ἀντιθεὶς 123 ἑαυτῷ τὴν ἀντίρρησιν, λέγει μὲν πῶς ἁμαρτίας ἐκτὸς εἶναι προσῆκεν ἡμᾶς οὐχ ὑπὸ νόμον ὄντας, ὅπως δὲ ἡ τῆς χάριτος ἀπόλαυσις οὐκ ἄδειαν ἡμῖν τοῦ ἁμαρτάνειν παρέχεται. καὶ εὐθὺς μὲν ἐπάγει κατὰ τὸ σύνηθες αὐτῷ· μὴ γένοιτο, τοῦ ἁμαρτάνειν καὶ τὴν προσηγορίαν φευκτὴν εἶναι ἡγούμενος. τὴν δέ γε λύσιν τῆς ἀντιθέσεως οὕτω ποιεῖται· πᾶς ἄνθρωπος ὅτῳπερ ἂν ὑπακούειν ἕληται, φησί, δοῦλον ἑαυτὸν ἐκεί νου κατέστησεν εἰς τὸ πείθεσθαί τε αὐτῷ καὶ τὰ ἐκείνῳ δοκοῦντα πράττειν ἅπαντα. ἢ τοίνυν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ πείθεσθαι ἑλόμενοι τὰ ἐκείνῃ δοκοῦντα ποιεῖν ἀνάγκην ἔχετε, τὸν ἐπιγινόμενον ἐντεῦθεν θάνατον ἐκδεχόμενοι, ἢ τῇ δικαιοσύνῃ προσνείμαντας ἑαυτοὺς δεήσει πάντως τὸ ταύτης βούλημα πληροῦν, τὰ ἐκεῖθεν ἀγαθὰ περιμένοντας. Ro+m 6,17 Ἀναγκαιότατον μὲν οὖν καὶ τὸ χάρις δὲ τῷ θεῷ· ἔδει γὰρ ἀπ' εὐχαριστίας ἄρξασθαι τόν γε τοσούτων ἀγαθῶν δόσιν παρὰ θεοῦ ὑπάρξασαν ἡμῖν ἐξηγεῖσθαι μέλλοντα. καιριώτατα δὲ τὸ εἰς ὃν παρεδόθητε τύπον διδαχῆς· οἱ γὰρ ἀπόστολοι διετέλουν ἁπανταχοῦ λέγοντες ὅτι λέλυται τὰ παλαιά, πέπαυται θάνατος, ἔσβεσται ἁμαρτία, ἔργῳ μὲν ὕστερον, ἐπαγγελίᾳ δὲ ἤδη. τύπον δέ τινα καὶ σύμβολα πληροῦμεν ἐκείνων ἐπὶ τοῦ βαπτίσματος διὰ τῆς δεδομένης ἡμῖν ἐν αὐτῷ τοῦ πνεύματος δωρεᾶς, ὥσπερ ἀναγεννώμενοι κατὰ μίμησιν τῶν ἐσομένων τότε. τοῦτο οὖν λέγει ὅτι γνώμῃ τὴν ἡμετέραν διδασκαλίαν εἵλεσθε δι' ἧς προσηγάγομεν ὑμᾶς, καὶ μονονουχὶ παρεδώ καμεν τῷ τύπῳ τῶν μελλόντων διὰ τοῦ βαπτίσματος. τούτοις δὴ πεισθέντας ἀνάγκη σύμφωνα διαπράττεσθαι, μιμουμένους ἐκεῖνα τῷ βίῳ εἰς ἃ τῷ τύπῳ κατέστητε. Ro+m 6,19 ∆ῆλον μὲν οὖν, φησίν, ὅτι τοσούτῳ μείζονα περὶ ταῦτα ἔχειν προσῆκεν τὴν σπουδὴν ὅσῳ κακίας κρείττων ἀρετή. ἵνα δὲ τῇ ὑμετέρᾳ ἀσθενείᾳ τὸν λόγον μετρήσας, πλείονα περὶ τὸ χεῖρον ἐχούσῃ τὴν ῥοπήν, μὴ μέγα τι φθέγξομαι μηδὲ ὑπὲρ ἀνθρώπινον, τοσοῦτον γοῦν ὑμᾶς περιττὴν ἀρετὴν ἔχειν βούλομαι ὅσον τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ προσεσχήκατε Ro+m 6,21 Κατ' ἐρώτησιν ἀναγνωστέον τὸ τίνα οὖν καρπὸν εἴχετε τότε; εἶτα κατ' ἀπόκρισιν ἐφ' οἷς νῦν ἐπαισχύνεσθε· εἴδομεν γὰρ τὸ κέρδος, φησί, τῆς περὶ ἐκεῖνα σπουδῆς ἃ καὶ λεγόντων ἑτέρων αἰσχύνεσθε

124. Ro+m 7,4 ∆εικνὺς τῶν κατὰ Χριστὸν τὸ ὠφέλιμον ἐπάγει· ἵνα καρ

ποφορήσωμεν τῷ θεῷ. οὐκ ἐπ' αἰτίας δὲ λέγει τὸ ἵνα, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἑπόμενον τῷ πράγματι κατὰ τὸ σύνηθες αὐτῷ· βούλεται γὰρ εἰπεῖν ὅτι ἐν ταύτῃ γενόμενοι τῇ ζωῇ διηνεκεῖς οἴσομεν τῆς δικαιοσύνης τῷ θεῷ τοὺς καρπούς, τῆς κατὰ νόμον πολιτείας ἀπηλλαγμένοι. θαυμασιώ τατον δὲ αὐτοῦ τὸ μὴ εἰπεῖν ἐθανατώθητε διὰ τοῦ βαπτίσματος ἀλλὰ διὰ τοῦ σώματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ· ἀρχὴ μὲν γὰρ τῆς παρούσης ζωῆς ὁ Ἀδὰμ πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις ἐγένετο, τῆς δὲ μελλούσης ὁ Χριστός. ὥσπερ οὖν ἐπὶ τοῦ