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is subjected; for it is not even able; but those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit,” one must say to him: Therefore, had the apostle already departed from this life, and those to whom he sent this, if he was not now renouncing the way of life according to the flesh, but the flesh itself, or was he still in the flesh? But it must not be said that he, not being in the flesh, sent these things. For it is clear that he was in the flesh, both he himself and those to whom he sent these things. How then does he say, “For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, which were through the law, worked in our members,” as if neither he himself were still in the flesh nor those to whom he sent these things? Therefore, he is discussing the way of life according to incontinence, and not the flesh itself. For it is his custom to call carnal the person living in this way, just as he also calls psychical the person who is past feeling so as to gaze at the truth and the illumination of the mystery. Since let them say that not even the soul can be saved at all; for it is written, “But the psychical man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; but he who is spiritual judges all things.” Therefore, just as there a certain psychical and a spiritual man are introduced, and the spiritual is among those being saved *, but the psychical among those perishing, and not for this reason does the soul perish, while the other things besides the soul are saved, so also here, by saying that carnal men and those who are in the flesh perish and cannot please God, he contends that not the flesh but the way of life according to the flesh is to be done away with. And having proceeded to say, “but those who are 2.480 in the flesh cannot please God,” he immediately adds, “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of Christ dwells in you,” and a little after, “But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. Therefore, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” For it must be noted that he affirmed that the impulse of the body toward pleasures, and not the body itself, is to be put to death. 51. But if they retort again, saying: How then is it said that “the mind of the flesh” is “enmity against God? For it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be,” it must be said that in this too they err. For he did not propose that the flesh itself, but that the mind of the flesh, being something other than the flesh, is not able to be subject to the law of God. Just as if he were to say: The dross of silver not well refined for the making of a suitable vessel is not subject to the craftsman. Nor indeed can it be; for it must first be cast out and melted away. And on this account he was not declaring that the silver cannot be worked into a useful vessel, but the coppery element in the silver and the other hardness. So also, in speaking of the mind of the flesh, he did not say the flesh cannot be subject to the law of God, but the mind that is in the flesh, meaning, for instance, its impulse toward its incontinences; which elsewhere he sometimes called the “old leaven” of malice and wickedness, urging it to be completely removed from us, and at other times “a law warring against the law of the mind and taking it captive.” Since, if he were saying the flesh itself cannot be subject to the law of God, in the first place, we could not have blame before a just judge for being licentious 2.481 or robbing or doing or performing whatever other things are done through the body, since the flesh is unable to be subject to the law of God. For how could the body be blameworthy for living according to its inherent nature? But neither in any other way could the body be brought to purity or virtue, being by nature not subject to the good. For if the nature of the flesh is such, not to be able to be subject to the law of God, and the law of God is righteousness and

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ὑποτάσσεται· οὐδὲ γὰρ δύναται· οἱ δὲ ἐν σαρκὶ ὄντες θεῷ ἀρέσαι οὐ δύνανται. ὑμεῖς δὲ οὐκ ἐστὲ ἐν σαρκί, ἀλλὰ ἐν πνεύματι», λεκτέον αὐτῷ· πότερον οὖν ἤδη ἀναλύσας ὁ ἀπόστολος ἦν ἐκ τοῦ βίου καὶ οἷς ταῦτα ἐπέστελλεν, εἰ μὴ τὴν κατὰ σάρκα νῦν παρῃτεῖτο πολιτείαν, ἀλλὰ τὴν σάρκα, ἢ ἔτι ἐν σαρκὶ ἦν; ἀλλὰ ἐν σαρκὶ μὴ ὄντα αὐτὸν ἐπεσταλκέναι ταῦτα, οὐ λεκτέον. φανερὸν γὰρ ὅτι ἦν ἐν σαρκὶ καὶ αὐτὸς καὶ οἷς ταῦτα ἐπέστελλεν. πῶς οὖν «ὅτε γὰρ ἦμεν ἐν σαρκί, τὰ παθήματα τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν τὰ διὰ τοῦ νόμου ἐνηργεῖτο ἐν τοῖς μέλεσιν ἡμῶν» ὡς οὐκ ὢν οὔτε αὐτὸς ἔτι ἐν σαρκὶ οὔτε οἷς ταῦτα ἐπέστελλεν, λέγει; οὐκοῦν περὶ τῆς κατὰ ἀκρασίαν πολιτείας διαλέγεται καὶ οὐ περὶ τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτῆς. ἔθος γὰρ αὐτῷ σαρκικὸν τὸν οὕτως ζῶντα ἄνθρωπον λέγειν, καθάπερ καὶ ψυχικὸν ἄνθρωπον τὸν ἀπηλγηκότα πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἀτενίσαι καὶ τὸν φωτισμὸν τοῦ μυστηρίου. ἐπεὶ λεγέτωσαν μηδὲ τὴν ψυχὴν δύνασθαι σῴζεσθαι τὸ σύνολον· γέγραπται γάρ «ψυχικὸς δὲ ἄνθρωπος οὐ δέχεται τὰ τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ θεοῦ· μωρία γὰρ αὐτῷ ἐστιν· ὁ δὲ πνευματικὸς πάντα ἀνακρίνει». ὥσπερ οὖν ἐκεῖ ψυχικὸς εἰσάγεταί τις καὶ πνευματικὸς ἄνθρωπος, καὶ ὁ μὲν πνευματικὸς τῶν σῳζομένων *, ὁ δὲ ψυχικὸς τῶν ἀπολλυμένων, καὶ οὐ παρὰ τοῦτο δὴ ψυχὴ μὲν ἀπόλλυται, τὰ ἄλλα δὲ παρὰ τὴν ψυχὴν σῴζεται, οὕτω δὴ καὶ ἐνθάδε σαρκικοὺς καὶ ἐν σαρξὶν ὑπάρχοντας ἀπόλλυσθαι λέγων καὶ μὴ δύνασθαι ἀρέσαι θεῷ, οὐ τὴν σάρκα ἀλλὰ τὴν κατὰ σάρκα πολιτείαν ἀναιρεῖσθαι ἀγωνίζεται. ὑποβὰς δὲ καὶ εἰπών «οἱ δὲ ἐν σαρκὶ 2.480 ὄντες θεῷ ἀρέσαι οὐ δύνανται» εὐθέως ἐπιφέρει «ὑμεῖς δὲ οὐκ ἐστὲ ἐν σαρκὶ ἀλλὰ ἐν πνεύματι, εἴπερ πνεῦμα Χριστοῦ οἰκεῖ ἐν ὑμῖν» καὶ μετ' ὀλίγον «ὅτι δὲ τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ ἐγείραντος Ἰησοῦν ἐκ νεκρῶν οἰκεῖ ἐν ὑμῖν, ὁ ἐγείρας Χριστὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν ζωοποιήσει καὶ τὰ θνητὰ σώματα ὑμῶν διὰ τοῦ ἐνοικοῦντος αὐτοῦ πνεύματος ἐν ὑμῖν. ἄρα οὖν, ἀδελφοί, ὀφειλέται ἐσμὲν οὐ τῇ σαρκὶ τοῦ κατὰ σάρκα ζῆν. εἰ γὰρ κατὰ σάρκα ζῆτε, μέλλετε ἀποθνῄσκειν· εἰ δὲ πνεύματι τὰς πράξεις τοῦ σώματος θανατοῦτε, ζήσεσθε». προσεκτέον γὰρ ὡς τὴν τοῦ σώματος πρὸς τὰς ἡδονὰς ὁρμὴν καὶ οὐχὶ τὸ σῶμα θανατοῦσθαι διεβεβαιώσατο. 51. Ἐὰν δὲ πάλιν ἀνθυποφέρωσι λέγοντες· πῶς δὴ οὖν «τὸ φρόνημα τῆς σαρκός» εἶναι εἴρηται «ἔχθρα εἰς θεόν; τῷ γὰρ νόμῳ τοῦ θεοῦ οὐχ ὑποτάσσεται· οὐδὲ γὰρ δύναται», λεκτέον ὡς ἄρα καὶ ἐνθάδε διαπίπτουσιν. οὐ γὰρ τὴν σάρκα αὐτήν, ἀλλὰ τὸ φρόνημα τῆς σαρκὸς ὑποτάσσεσθαι μὴ δύνασθαι τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ θεοῦ ὑπέθετο, ἕτερον παρὰ τὴν σάρκα ὑπάρχον. καθάπερ εἰ ἔλεγεν· ὁ ῥύπος τοῦ μὴ καλῶς ἀργύρου καθαρισθέντος εἰς τὸ γενέσθαι σκεῦος ἐπιτήδειον οὐχ ὑποτάσσεται τῷ δημιουργῷ. οὐδὲ γὰρ δύναται· ἐκβληθῆναι γὰρ αὐτὸν πρότερον καὶ ἐκτακῆναι δεῖ. καὶ οὐ παρὰ τοῦτο τὸν ἄργυρον ἀπεφαίνετο μὴ δύνασθαι εἰς σκεῦος πονηθῆναι χρήσιμον, ἀλλὰ τὸ χαλκῶδες τὸ ἐν τῷ ἀργύρῳ καὶ τὴν ἄλλην σκληρότητα. οὕτω καὶ τὸ φρόνημα τῆς σαρκὸς εἰπὼν οὐ τὴν σάρκα ἔφη μὴ δύνασθαι ὑποτάσσεσθαι τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ θεοῦ, ἀλλὰ τὸ φρόνημα τὸ ἐν τῇ σαρκί, οἷον τὸ πρὸς τὰς ἀκρασίας αὐτῆς λέγων ὅρμημα· ὅπερ ἀλλαχοῦ ὁτὲ μὲν «παλαιὰν ζύμην» κακίας καὶ πονηρίας ἐκάλεσεν, ἐπισπέρχων αὐτὸ τελείως ἀφ' ἡμῶν ἀιστωθῆναι, ὁτὲ δὲ «νόμον ἀντιστρατευόμενον τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ νοὸς καὶ αἰχμαλωτίζοντα». ἐπεί, εἰ αὐτὴν τὴν σάρκα ἔλεγε μὴ δύνασθαι ὑποτάσσεσθαι τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ θεοῦ, πρῶτον οὐδὲ μέμψιν ἀσελγαί2.481 νοντες ἢ λῃστεύοντες ἢ τὰ ἄλλα ὅσ' ἄττα διὰ σώματος πράσσοντες ἢ ποιοῦντες ἔχειν ἐδυνάμεθα παρὰ δικαίῳ κριτῇ, ἀδυνάτως ἐχούσης τῆς σαρκὸς ὑποτάσσεσθαι τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ θεοῦ. πῶς γὰρ ἂν μεμπτέον ἐδύνατο τὸ σῶμα κατὰ τὴν προσοῦσαν αὐτῷ φύσιν βιοῦν εἶναι; ἀλλὰ οὐδὲ ἄλλως εἰς ἁγνείαν ἢ ἀρετὴν ὑπαχθῆναι τὸ σῶμα ἐδύνατο, πεφυκὸς μὴ ὑποτάσσεσθαι τῷ ἀγαθῷ. εἰ γὰρ ἡ φύσις τοιαύτη τῆς σαρκός, μὴ δύνασθαι ὑποτάσσεσθαι τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ θεοῦ, νόμος δὲ θεοῦ δικαιοσύνη καὶ