Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Romans 3:20
There are 27 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 355, footnote 4 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Chapter VII.—The Utility of Fear. Objections Answered. (HTML)
... death (not that which severs the soul from the body, but that which severs the soul from truth). For these are vices in reality, and the workings that proceed from them are dreadful and terrible. “For not unjustly,” say the divine oracles, “are the nets spread for birds; for they who are accomplices in blood treasure up evils to themselves.” How, then, is the law still said to be not good by certain heresies that clamorously appeal to the apostle, who says, “For by the law is the knowledge of sin?”[Romans 3:20] To whom we say, The law did not cause, but showed sin. For, enjoining what is to be done, it reprehended what ought not to be done. And it is the part of the good to teach what is salutary, and to point out what is deleterious; and to counsel the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 410, footnote 7 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter III.—The True Excellence of Man. (HTML)
... the peculiar function of man? He is like, it appears to me, the Centaur, a Thessalian figment, compounded of a rational and irrational part, of soul and body. Well, the body tills the ground, and hastes to it; but the soul is raised to God: trained in the true philosophy, it speeds to its kindred above, turning away from the lusts of the body, and besides these, from toil and fear, although we have shown that patience and fear belong to the good man. For if “by the law is the knowledge of sin,”[Romans 3:20] as those allege who disparage the law, and “till the law sin was in the world;” yet “without the law sin was dead,” we oppose them. For when you take away the cause of fear, sin, you have taken away fear; and much more, punishment, when you have ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 214, footnote 22 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Archelaus. (HTML)
The Acts of the Disputation with the Heresiarch Manes. (HTML)
Chapter XL. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1889 (In-Text, Margin)
... I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.” Further, he averred that the same apostle made this statement most obviously on the subject of the resurrection of the flesh, when he also said that “he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh,” and that according to the letter the law has in it no advantage. And again he adduced the statement, that “Abraham has glory, but not before God;” and that “by the law there comes only the knowledge of sin.”[Romans 3:20] And many other things did he introduce, with the view of detracting from the honour of the law, on the ground that the law itself is sin; by which statements the simpler people were somewhat influenced, as he continued to bring them forward; and in ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 263, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of the punishment and results of man’s first sin, and of the propagation of man without lust. (HTML)
Of Carnal Life, Which is to Be Understood Not Only of Living in Bodily Indulgence, But Also of Living in the Vices of the Inner Man. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 640 (In-Text, Margin)
... after the flesh. For by flesh it means not only the body of a terrestrial and mortal animal, as when it says, “All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, another of birds,” but it uses this word in many other significations; and among these various usages, a frequent one is to use flesh for man himself, the nature of man taking the part for the whole, as in the words, “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified;”[Romans 3:20] for what does he mean here by “no flesh” but “no man?” And this, indeed, he shortly after says more plainly: “No man shall be justified by the law;” and in the Epistle to the Galatians, “Knowing that man is not justified by the works of the law.” ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 265, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of the punishment and results of man’s first sin, and of the propagation of man without lust. (HTML)
What It is to Live According to Man, and What to Live According to God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 657 (In-Text, Margin)
... unto spiritual, but as unto carnal.” And this is to be interpreted by the same usage, a part being taken for the whole. For both the soul and the flesh, the component parts of man, can be used to signify the whole man; and so the animal man and the carnal man are not two different things, but one and the same thing, viz., man living according to man. In the same way it is nothing else than men that are meant either in the words, “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified;”[Romans 3:20] or in the words, “Seventy-five souls went down into Egypt with Jacob.” In the one passage, “no flesh” signifies “no man;” and in the other, by “seventy-five souls” seventy-five men are meant. And the expression, “not in words which man’s ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 423, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of the last judgment, and the declarations regarding it in the Old and New Testaments. (HTML)
That Proofs of the Last Judgment Will Be Adduced, First from the New Testament, and Then from the Old. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1321 (In-Text, Margin)
... Old acts the part of herald to the New. We shall therefore first cite passages from the New Testament, and confirm them by quotations from the Old Testament. The Old contains the law and the prophets, the New the gospel and the apostolic epistles. Now the apostle says “By the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; now the righteousness of God is by faith of Jesus Christ upon all them that believe.”[Romans 3:20-22] This righteousness of God belongs to the New Testament, and evidence for it exists in the old books, that is to say, in the law and the prophets. I shall first, then state the case, and then call the witnesses. This order Jesus Christ Himself ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 249, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
The Enchiridion. (HTML)
The Ineffable Mystery of the Birth of Christ the Mediator Through the Virgin Mary. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1147 (In-Text, Margin)
... consistent words this single statement, that “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,” so that we may believe on the only Son of God the Father Almighty, born of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary. The meaning of the Word being made flesh, is not that the divine nature was changed into flesh, but that the divine nature assumed our flesh. And by “flesh” we are here to understand “man,” the part being put for the whole, as when it is said: “By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified,”[Romans 3:20] that is, no man. For we must believe that no part was wanting in that human nature which He put on, save that it was a nature wholly free from every taint of sin,—not such a nature as is conceived between the two sexes through carnal lust, which is ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 381, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On Continence. (HTML)
Section 7 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1823 (In-Text, Margin)
... themselves, save such as war on the side of the virtues, and war down the vices: nor doth any thing storm the evil of lust, save the good of Continence. But there are, who, being utterly ignorant of the law of God, account not evil lusts among their enemies, and through wretched blindness being slaves to them, over and above think themselves also blessed, by satisfying them rather than taming them. But whoso through the Law have come to know them, (“For through the Law is the knowledge of sin,”[Romans 3:20] and, “Lust,” saith he, “I knew not, unless the Law should say, Thou shalt not lust after,” and yet are overcome by their assault, because they live under the Law, whereby what is good is commanded, but not also given: they live not under Grace, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 383, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On Continence. (HTML)
Section 11 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1843 (In-Text, Margin)
... is Christ, that Man was taken unto Himself by the Word of God, not surely without a rational soul, as certain heretics will have it; and yet we read, “The Word was made flesh.” What is to be here understood by “flesh,” but Man? “And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” What can be understood, but all men? “Unto Thee shall all flesh come.” What is it, but all men? “Thou hast given unto Him power over all flesh.” What is it, but all men? “Of the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified.”[Romans 3:20] What is it, but no man shall be justified? And this the same Apostle in another place confessing more plainly saith, “Man shall not be justified of the works of the Law.” The Corinthians also he rebukes, saying, “Are ye not carnal, and walk after ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 88, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)
In What Respect the Pelagians Acknowledge God as the Author of Our Justification. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 754 (In-Text, Margin)
“But,” say they, “we do praise God as the Author of our righteousness, in that He gave the law, by the teaching of which we have learned how we ought to live.” But they give no heed to what they read: “By the law there shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God.”[Romans 3:20] This may indeed be possible before men, but not before Him who looks into our very heart and inmost will, where He sees that, although the man who fears the law keeps a certain precept, he would nevertheless rather do another thing if he were permitted. And lest any one should suppose that, in the passage just quoted from him, the apostle had meant to say that ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 88, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)
In What Respect the Pelagians Acknowledge God as the Author of Our Justification. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 755 (In-Text, Margin)
... precept, he would nevertheless rather do another thing if he were permitted. And lest any one should suppose that, in the passage just quoted from him, the apostle had meant to say that none are justified by that law, which contains many precepts, under the figure of the ancient sacraments, and among them that circumcision of the flesh itself, which infants were commanded to receive on the eighth day after birth; he immediately adds what law he meant, and says, “For by the law is the knowledge of sin.”[Romans 3:20] He refers then to that law of which he afterwards declares, “I had not known sin but by the law; for I had not known lust except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” For what means this but that “by the law comes the knowledge of sin?”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 88, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)
The Righteousness of God Manifested by the Law and the Prophets. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 757 (In-Text, Margin)
Here, perhaps, it may be said by that presumption of man, which is ignorant of the righteousness of God, and wishes to establish one of its own, that the apostle quite properly said, “For by the law shall no man be justified,”[Romans 3:20] inasmuch as the law merely shows what one ought to do, and what one ought to guard against, in order that what the law thus points out may be accomplished by the will, and so man be justified, not indeed by the power of the law, but by his free determination. But I ask your attention, O man, to what follows. “But now the righteousness of God,” says he, “without the law is manifested, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 92, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)
The Law of Works and the Law of Faith. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 795 (In-Text, Margin)
... there is a fallacy in this distinction, the greatness of which I have for some time been endeavoring to expose; and to such as are acute in appreciating distinctions, especially to yourself and those like you, I have possibly succeeded in my effort. Since, however, the subject is an important one, it will not be unsuitable, if with a view to its illustration, we linger over the many testimonies which again and again meet our view. Now, the apostle says that that law by which no man is justified,[Romans 3:20] entered in that the offence might abound, and yet in order to save it from the aspersions of the ignorant and the accusations of the impious, he defends this very law in such words as these: “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 92, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)
The Law of Works and the Law of Faith. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 799 (In-Text, Margin)
... Christ upon all them that believe; for there is no difference: seeing that all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God: being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare His righteousness at this time; that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”[Romans 3:20-26] And then he adds the passage which is now under consideration: “Where, then, is your boasting? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay; but by the law of faith.” And so it is the very law of works itself which says, “Thou shalt not covet;” ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 94, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)
The Passage in Corinthians. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 815 (In-Text, Margin)
... to suppose that “the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones,” is not said equally of all the ten commandments, but only of the solitary one touching the Sabbath-day? In which class do we place that which is thus spoken of: “The law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression?” and again thus: “Until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law?” and also that which we have already so often quoted: “By the law is the knowledge of sin?”[Romans 3:20] and especially the passage in which the apostle has more clearly expressed the question of which we are treating: “I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet?”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 220, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin. (HTML)
On the Grace of Christ. (HTML)
The Law One Thing, Grace Another. The Utility of the Law. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1799 (In-Text, Margin)
... more firmly and manifestly “concluded under sin,” so that none may pre-sumptuously endeavour to accomplish their justification by means of free will as if by their own resources; but rather “that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Because by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.”[Romans 3:19-21] How then manifested without the law, if witnessed by the law? For this very reason the phrase is not, “manifested without the law,” but “the righteousness without the law,” because it is “the righteousness of God;” that is, the righteousness which ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 247, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin. (HTML)
On Original Sin. (HTML)
The Righteous Men Who Lived in the Time of the Law Were for All that Not Under the Law, But Under Grace. The Grace of the New Testament Hidden Under the Old. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1981 (In-Text, Margin)
... were not themselves partakers of them. The Apostle Peter says, “Why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.” Now on what principle does he make this statement, if it be not because even they were saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and not the law of Moses, from which comes not the cure, but only the knowledge of sin?[Romans 3:20] Now, however, the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. If, therefore, it is now manifested, it even then existed, but it was hidden. This concealment was symbolized by the veil of the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 301, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
On Marriage and Concupiscence. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
The Reign of Death, What It Is; The Figure of the Future Adam; How All Men are Justified Through Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2291 (In-Text, Margin)
But what else is meant even by the apostle’s subsequent words? For after he had said the above, he added, “For until the law sin was in the world,” as much as to say that not even the law was able to take away sin. “But sin,” adds he, “was not imputed when there was no law.” It existed then, but was not imputed, for it was not set forth so that it might be imputed. It is on the same principle, indeed, that he says in another passage: “By the law is the knowledge of sin.”[Romans 3:20] “Nevertheless,” says he, “death reigned from Adam to Moses;” that is, as he had already expressed it, “until the law.” Not that there was no sin after Moses, but because even the law, which was given by Moses, was unable to deprive death of its power, which, of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 381, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
The Fifth Calumny,—That It is Said that Paul and the Rest of the Apostles Were Polluted by Lust. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2557 (In-Text, Margin)
... hand. On which subject he says: “Because by the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all them that believe. For there is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”[Romans 3:20] And again: “Where is boasting? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No; but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law.” And again: “For the promise that he should be the heir of the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 408, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Why One of the Covenants is Called Old, the Other New. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2728 (In-Text, Margin)
... proud might be convicted who were desirous of establishing their own righteousness, as if they had no need of divine help, and being made guilty of the letter, might flee to the Spirit of grace, not to be justified by their own righteousness, but by that of God—that is, by the righteousness which was given to them of God. For as the same apostle says, “By the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and by the prophets.”[Romans 3:20-21] Because the law, by the very fact that in it no man is justified, affords a witness to the righteousness of God. For that in the law no man is justified before God is manifest, because “the just by faith lives.” Thus, therefore, although the law ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 432, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book IV (HTML)
The Testimonies of Ambrose Concerning God’s Grace. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2899 (In-Text, Margin)
... could stop the mouth of all men; it could not convert their mind.” In another place also, in the same treatise, he says: “The law condemns the deed; it does not take away its wickedness.” Let them see that this faithful and catholic man agrees with the apostle who says, “Now we know that what things soever the law says, it says to those who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Because by the law no flesh shall be justified in His sight.”[Romans 3:19-20] For from that apostolic opinion Ambrose took and wrote these things.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 452, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Grace and Free Will. (HTML)
Abstract. (HTML)
Who is the Transgressor of the Law? The Oldness of Its Letter. The Newness of Its Spirit. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3072 (In-Text, Margin)
Therefore, brethren, you ought by free will not do evil but do good; this, indeed, is the lesson taught us in the law of God, in the Holy Scriptures—both Old and New. Let us, however, read, and by the Lord’s help understand, what the apostle tells us: “Because by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”[Romans 3:20] Observe, he says “ the knowledge,” not “the destruction,” of sin. But when a man knows sin, and grace does not help him to avoid what he knows, undoubtedly the law works wrath. And this the apostle explicitly says in another passage. His words are: “The law worketh wrath.” The reason of this statement ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 453, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Grace and Free Will. (HTML)
Abstract. (HTML)
Who is the Transgressor of the Law? The Oldness of Its Letter. The Newness of Its Spirit. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3077 (In-Text, Margin)
... to be here understood by “the oldness of the letter,” and what else by “newness of spirit” than grace? Then, that it might not be thought that he had brought any accusation, or suggested any blame, against the law, he immediately takes himself to task with this inquiry: “What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? God forbid.” He then adds the statement: “Nay, I had not known sin but by the law;” which is of the same import as the passage above quoted: “By the law is the knowledge of sin.”[Romans 3:20] Then: “For I had not known lust,” he says, “except the law had said, ‘Thou shalt not covet.’ But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 347, footnote 15 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xvii. 1, ‘After six days Jesus taketh with Him Peter, and James, and John his brother,’ etc. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2653 (In-Text, Margin)
... when you hear the Prophet Isaiah saying, “Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow”? Moses and Elias, that is, the Law and the Prophets, what avail they, except they converse with the Lord? Except they give witness to the Lord, who would read the Law or the Prophets? Mark how briefly the Apostle expresses this; “For by the Law is the knowledge of sin; but now the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested:” behold the sun; “being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,”[Romans 3:20-21] behold the shining of the Sun.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 582, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXIX (HTML)
Pe. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5321 (In-Text, Margin)
... give life. For it was given for this end, that it might make thee a little one instead of great, that it might show that thou hadst not strength to do the law of thine own power: and that thus, wanting aid and destitute, thou mightest fly unto grace, saying, “Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak.” …Let all be little ones, and let all the world be guilty before Thee: because “by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified” in Thy sight; “for by the Law is the knowledge of sin,” etc.[Romans 3:19-21] These are Thy wonderful testimonies, which the soul of this little one hath searched; and hath therefore found, because he became humbled and a little one. For who doth Thy commandments as they ought to be done, that is, by “faith which worketh ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 584, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXIX (HTML)
Tadze. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5337 (In-Text, Margin)
... righteousness of God; but he, the younger, hath not forgotten, for he hath not wished to have a righteousness of his own, but that of God, of which he now also saith, “Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Thy law is the truth” (ver. 142). For how is not the law truth, through which came the knowledge of sin, and that which giveth testimony of the righteousness of God? For thus the Apostle saith: “The righteousness of God is manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets.”[Romans 3:20-21]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 277, footnote 8 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Ctesiphon. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3850 (In-Text, Margin)
... produce nobody or hardly anybody who is without sin, yet have to admit that everybody may be sinless if he likes. God’s commandments, it is argued, are possible to keep. Who denies it? But how this truth is to be understood the chosen vessel thus most clearly explains: “what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh;” and again: “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified.”[Romans 3:20] And to shew that it is not only the law of Moses that is meant or all those precepts which collectively are termed the law, the same apostle writes: “I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring ...