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of the present life we have community of nature with Adam, so in the future we receive the likeness to Christ, having from there the starting points of the resurrection. We are therefore called a part of the Lord's body, inasmuch as we receive communion with him. Wherefore, since we believe we have been born figuratively in those things through baptism, this means that we become a part of the body of Christ through the communion of the resurrection, for which we believe we fulfill the types in baptism. You are now dead to the present life, and you stand outside the polity under the law, bringing no accusation against yourself, if you should not live according to it, since it is its nature to have dominion over those who live the present life. Ro+m 7,5 The divine scripture sometimes calls nature itself flesh, but at other times not nature simply, but it so names it from its mortality, as if it could no longer be so called, if indeed it should cast off death, as when it says that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, as if that which has become immortal in the age to come is no longer flesh nor able to be so named. But there are times when it knows to call the passion itself flesh, as when it says: who in the days of his flesh, so that it might say: in the time of the passion, when he was about to come to death itself. And indeed it knows to call everything temporary and easily dissolved thus, as when saying in the one to the Corinthians: but God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and the weak to shame the strong, and the despised and the things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are, he added: so that no flesh should boast before him, although not mentioning different living beings, but so that it might say, that all temporary things might appear powerless for the knowledge of piety, while he who lives the immortal life is never called 125 by this name. But since flesh is sometimes said of nature, and at other times the appellation is not taken for nature but for the meaning of the mortality under which we happen to be, and at other times of everything temporary, it calls it that which is placed under the rule of death, as in flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Thus he says when we were in the flesh instead of when we were mortal, saying that to be in the flesh is to be mortal; for he no longer considers as mortal those who have believed in Christ and have already received the promise concerning the things to come, and indeed have been deemed worthy of the type of grace in baptism, which is why in the one to the Thessalonians he calls those who are dying "asleep." So then what is this: the passions of sins which were through the law were at work in our members? For just as various passions are by nature apt to happen to our body, even if not all happen to all nor at all times, so also various passions of sins are by nature apt to trouble us, even if not all are accomplished by all nor at all times; for as in the body one falls into passions less and another more, so also in the case of sins one sins more and another less. Since, therefore, sins are judged by some law, whether according to natural discernment or according to the ordinances given from without, he says this, that all the passions of sins, as many as happen to arise in us being discerned by some law, whenever we do something contrary to what appears to us or is proclaimed to be good, all these things were also done by us; so that he might say that being mortal by nature and for this reason having a great inclination toward sinning, we committed every kind of sin, although we were taught by various laws from which it was fitting for us to abstain. And what came from this? to bear fruit for death. And he says that from this the punishment of death was sealed for us; for just as by mortality we endured a greater vexation of sinning, so the punishment was sealed for us by our stumbling, and the law could not help us at all, but on the contrary also

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παρόντος βίου τὴν πρὸς τὸν Ἀδὰμ κοινότητα τῆς φύσεως ἔχομεν, οὕτως ἐπὶ τοῦ μέλλοντος τὴν πρὸς τὸν Χριστὸν ὁμοιότητα λαμβάνομεν, ἐκεῖθεν τὰς ἀφορμὰς τῆς ἀναστάσεως ἔχοντες. μέρος οὖν τοῦ σώματος λεγόμεθα τοῦ κυρίου ἅτε δὴ τὴν πρὸς αὐτὸν κοινωνίαν δεχόμενοι. ὅθεν ἐπειδὴ τυπικῶς ἐν ἐκείνοις διὰ τοῦ βαπτίσμα τος γεγενῆσθαι πιστεύομεν, τοῦτο λέγει ὅτι μέρος γενόμενοι τοῦ σώματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ διὰ τῆς κατὰ τὴν ἀνάστασιν κοινωνίας ἧς ἐν τῷ βαπτίσματι πληροῦν τοὺς τύπους ἡγούμεθα. νεκρὸς μὲν εἶ τῷ παρόντι βίῳ λοιπόν, ἔξω δὲ τῆς ὑπὸ τὸν νόμον πολιτείας καθέστηκας, οὐδεμίαν φέρων ἑαυτῷ διαβολήν, εἰ μὴ κατ' αὐτὸν πολιτεύοιο, ἐπειδὴ φύσις αὐτῷ τὸ κρατεῖν ἐπὶ τῶν τὴν παροῦσαν ζώντων ζωήν. Ro+m 7,5 Ἡ θεῖα γραφὴ ποτὲ μὲν σάρκα λέγει τὴν φύσιν αὐτήν, ποτὲ δὲ οὐ τὴν φύσιν ἁπλῶς, ἀλλ' ἀπὸ τῆς θνητότητος οὕτως αὐτὴν ὀνομάζει, ὡς ἂν οὐκέτι δυναμένην οὕτω καλεῖσθαι, εἰ δὴ ἀπωθοῖτο τὸν θάνατον, ὡς ὅταν λέγῃ τὸ σὰρξ καὶ αἷμα βασιλείαν θεοῦ κληρο νομῆσαι οὐ δύνανται, ὡς ἂν οὐκέτι σαρκὸς οὔτε οὔσης οὔτε ὀνομάζεσθαι δυναμένης τῆς ἐπὶ τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος γεγονυίας ἀθανάτου. ἔστι δὲ ὅτε καὶ τὸ πάθος αὐτὸ σάρκα οἶδε καλεῖν, ὡς ὅταν λέγῃ· ὃς ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ, ἵνα εἴπῃ· ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τοῦ πάθους, ὅτε πρὸς αὐτῷ ἔμελλε γενέσθαι τῷ θανάτῳ. καὶ μὴν καὶ τὸ πρόσκαιρον καὶ εὐδιάλυτον ἅπαν οἶδεν οὕτω καλεῖν, ὡς ἐν τῇ πρὸς Κορινθίους εἰπών· ἀλλὰ τὰ μωρὰ τοῦ κόσμου ἐξελέξατο ὁ θεός, ἵνα καταισχύνῃ τοὺς σοφούς, καὶ τὰ ἀσθενῆ ἵνα καταισχύνῃ τὰ ἰσχυρά, καὶ τὰ ἐξουθενημένα καὶ τὰ μὴ ὄντα ἵνα τὰ ὄντα καταργή σῃ, ἐπήγαγεν· ὅπως μὴ καυχήσηται πᾶσα σὰρξ ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ, καίτοιγε οὐ διαφόρων ζώων μνησθείς, ἀλλ' ἵνα εἴπῃ, ὥς τε πάντα τὰ πρόσκαιρα φανῆναι ἄτονα πρὸς τὴν τῆς εὐσεβείας ἐπίγνωσιν, οὕτω δὲ τοῦ μὲν ἀθανάτου ζῶντος ζωὴν οὐδέποτε ταύτῃ καλουμένου 125 τῇ φωνῇ. σαρκὸς δὲ ποτὲ μὲν τῆς φύσεως λεγομένης, ποτὲ δὲ τῆς προσηγορίας οὐκ ἐπὶ τῆς φύσεως λαμβανομένης ἀλλ' ἐπὶ σημασίᾳ τῆς θνητότητος ὑφ' ἣν εἶναι συμβέβηκεν ἡμᾶς, ποτὲ δὲ τοῦ προσκαίρου παντός, τὴν ὑπὸ τὸν ὅρον τοῦ θανάτου κειμένην καλεῖ, ὡς τὸ σὰρξ καὶ αἷμα βασιλείαν θεοῦ κληρονομῆσαι οὐ δύναν ται. οὕτως λέγει τὸ ὅτε ἦμεν ἐν τῇ σαρκὶ ἀντὶ τοῦ ὅτε ἦμεν θνητοί, ἐν σαρκὶ λέγων εἶναι τὸ εἶναι θνητούς· τοὺς γὰρ πεπιστευ κότας Χριστῷ καὶ τὴν περὶ τῶν μελλόντων ἐπαγγελίαν ἤδη κομισαμέ νους, καὶ μὴν καὶ τοῦ τύπου τῆς ἐν τῷ βαπτίσματι χάριτος κατ αξιωθέντας οὐκέτι λογίζεται εἶναι θνητούς, ὅθεν καὶ κοιμωμένους ἐν τῇ πρὸς Θεσσαλονικεῖς καλεῖ τοὺς ἀποθνήσκοντας. τό τε τοίνυν τί· τὰ παθήματα τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν τὰ διὰ τοῦ νόμου ἐν ηργεῖτο ἐν τοῖς μέλεσιν ἡμῶν; ὥσπερ διάφορα πάθη τῷ σώματι τῷ ἡμετέρῳ συμβαίνειν πέφυκεν, κἂν μὴ πάντα πᾶσιν μηδὲ πάντοτε ἐγγίνεται, οὕτω καὶ ἁμαρτιῶν διάφορα πάθη πέφυκεν ἡμῖν ἐνοχλεῖν, κἂν μὴ πάντα παρὰ πάντων ἐπιτελεῖται μηδὲ πάντοτε· ὡς γὰρ κατὰ τὸ σῶμα ὁ μὲν ἧττον ὁ δὲ μᾶλλον τοῖς πάθεσι περιπίπτει, οὕτω καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων ὁ μὲν πλείονα ὁ δὲ ἐλάττονα ἁμαρτάνει. ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν νόμῳ τινὶ τὰ ἁμαρτήματα κρίνεται, εἴτε κατὰ τὴν φυσικὴν διάκρισιν εἴτε κατὰ τὰς δεδομένας ἔξωθεν διατάξεις, τοῦτο λέγει ὅτι πάντα τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν τὰ πάθη, ὅσαπερ νόμῳ τινὶ διακρινόμενα ἐγγίνεσθαι ἡμῖν συμβαίνει, ὅταν τι παρὰ τὸ φαινόμενον ἡμῖν ἢ διηγορευμένον καλὸν διαπραττώμεθα, ταῦτα δὴ πάντα καὶ ἐπράττετο παρ' ἡμῶν· ἵνα εἴπῃ ὅτι θνητοὶ τὴν φύσιν ὄντες καὶ περὶ τὸ ἁμαρτάνειν πολλὴν διὰ τοῦτο τὴν ῥοπὴν ἔχοντες, ἅπαν εἶδος ἐπετε λοῦμεν ἁμαρτίας, καίτοιγε διαφόροις τοῖς νόμοις παιδευόμενοι ὧν ἀπέχεσθαι προσῆκον ἦν ἡμᾶς. καὶ τί τὸ ἐντεῦθεν γινόμενον; εἰς τὸ καρποφορῆσαι τῷ θανάτῳ. λέγει δὲ ὅτι ἐντεῦθεν ἡμῖν ἐπεσφίγγετο τοῦ θανάτου ἡ τιμωρία· ὡς γὰρ ὑπὸ τῆς θνητότητος μείζονα τοῦ ἁμαρτάνειν τὴν ἐνόχλησιν ὑπεμένομεν, οὕτως ἡ τιμωρία ὑπὸ τοῦ πταίειν ἡμῖν ἐπεσφίγγετο, καὶ ὁ νόμος οὐδὲν ἡμᾶς ὠφελεῖν ἠδύνατο, τοὐναντίον δὲ καὶ