Chapter 22.—Why the Passage Referred to Must Be Understood of a Man Established Under Grace.

And it had once appeared to me also that the apostle was in this argument of his describing a man under the law.57    See Augustin’s Exposition of Certain Propositions in the Epistle to the Romans, 44, 45; also his Commentary on Galatians, v. 17; also his letter to Simplicianus, book i. 7, 9. But afterwards I was constrained to give up the idea by those words where he says, “Now, then, it is no more I that do it.” For to this belongs what he says subsequently also: “There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” And because I do not see how a man under the law should say, “I delight in the law of God after the inward man;” since this very delight in good, by which, moreover, he does not consent to evil, not from fear of penalty, but from love of righteousness (for this is meant by “delighting”), can only be attributed to grace.

22. Visum autem aliquando etiam mihi fuerat, hominem sub lege, isto Apostoli sermone describi . Sed vim mihi fecerunt postea ista verba, quod ait, Nunc autem jam non ego operor illud. Ad hoc enim pertinet illud quod ait et postea, Nulla ergo condemnatio est nunc his qui sunt in Christo Jesu. Et quia non video quomodo diceret homo sub lege, Condelector legi Dei secundum interiorem hominem: cum ipsa delectatio boni, qua etiam non consentit ad malum, non timore poenae, sed amore justitiae (hoc est enim condelectari), nonnisi gratiae deputanda sit.