Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Romans 7:25
There are 48 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 417, footnote 11 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter VII.—The Blessedness of the Martyr. (HTML)
You see that martyrdom for love’s sake is taught. And should you wish to be a martyr for the recompense of advantages, you shall hear again. “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”[Romans 7:24-25] “But if we also suffer for righteousness’ sake,” says Peter, “blessed are we. Be not afraid of their fear, neither be troubled. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to him that asks a reason of the hope that is in you, but with meekness and fear, having a good conscience; so that in reference ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 373, footnote 1 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Methodius. (HTML)
From the Discourse on the Resurrection. (HTML)
Part III. (HTML)
A Synopsis of Some Apostolic Words from the Same Discourse. (HTML)
... me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” By which he does not mean that the body is death, but the law of sin which is in his members, lying hidden in us through the transgression, and ever deluding the soul to the death of unrighteousness. And he immediately adds, clearly showing from what kind of death he desired to be delivered, and who he was who delivered him, “I thank God, through Jesus Christ.”[Romans 7:25] And it should be considered, if he said that this body was death, O Aglaophon, as you supposed, he would not afterwards mention Christ as delivering him from so great an evil. For in that case what a strange thing should we have had from the advent ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 114, footnote 12 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
He recalls the beginning of his youth, i.e. the thirty-first year of his age, in which very grave errors as to the nature of God and the origin of evil being distinguished, and the Sacred Books more accurately known, he at length arrives at a clear knowledge of God, not yet rightly apprehending Jesus Christ. (HTML)
What He Found in the Sacred Books Which are Not to Be Found in Plato. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 573 (In-Text, Margin)
... him into captivity to the law of sin, which is in his members? For Thou art righteous, O Lord, but we have sinned and committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and Thy hand is grown heavy upon us, and we are justly delivered over unto that ancient sinner, the governor of death; for he induced our will to be like his will, whereby he remained not in Thy truth. What shall “wretched man” do? “Who shall deliver him from the body of this death,” but Thy grace only, “through Jesus ‘Christ our Lord,’”[Romans 7:24-25] whom Thou hast begotten co-eternal, and createdst in the begin ning of Thy ways, in whom the Prince of this world found nothing worthy of death, yet killed he Him, and the handwriting which was contrary to us was blotted out? This those writings ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 161, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
After premising the difference between wisdom and knowledge, he points out a kind of trinity in that which is properly called knowledge; but one which, although we have reached in it the inner man, is not yet to be called the image of God. (HTML)
The Image of the Beast in Man. (HTML)
... were, by its own weight from blessedness; and learns by its own punishment, through that trial of its own intermediateness, what the difference is between the good it has abandoned and the bad to which it has committed itself; and having thrown away and destroyed its strength, it cannot return, unless by the grace of its Maker calling it to repentance, and forgiving its sins. For who will deliver the unhappy soul from the body of this death, unless the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord?[Romans 7:24-25] of which grace we will discourse in its place, so far as He Himself enables us.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 331, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
A Treatise on Faith and the Creed. (HTML)
Of the Catholic Church, the Remission of Sins, and the Resurrection of the Flesh. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1638 (In-Text, Margin)
... the principal part in us is the spirit; next, the life whereby we are united with the body is called the soul; finally, the body itself, as it is visible, is the last part in us. This “whole creation” (creatura), however, “groaneth and travaileth until now.” Nevertheless, He has given it the first-fruits of the Spirit, in that it has believed God, and is now of a good will. This spirit is also called the mind, regarding which an apostle speaks thus: “With the mind I serve the law of God.”[Romans 7:25] Which apostle likewise expresses himself thus in another passage: “For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit.” Moreover, the soul, when as yet it lusts after carnal good things, is called the flesh. For a certain part thereof resists the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 387, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On Continence. (HTML)
Section 19 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1874 (In-Text, Margin)
... that his flesh is himself. It is not then itself that is our enemy: and when its faults are resisted, itself is loved, because itself is cared for; “For no one ever hated his own flesh,” as the Apostle himself saith. And in another place he saith, “So then I myself with the mind serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the Law of sin.” Let them hear that have ears. “So then I myself;” I with the mind, I with the flesh, but “with the mind I serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”[Romans 7:25] How “with the flesh the law of sin?” was it at all by consenting unto fleshly lust? Far be it! but by having there motions of desires which he would not have, and yet had. But, by not consenting to them, with the mind he served the Law of God, and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 121, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
Acts or Disputation Against Fortunatus the Manichæan. (HTML)
Disputation of the Second Day. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 248 (In-Text, Margin)
... voluntarily, but by the doing of that which is not subject to the law of God. For it likewise follows that "the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh; so that ye may not do the things that ye will." Again: "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and leading me captive in the law of sin and of death. Therefore I am a miserable man; who shall deliver me from the body of this death, unless it be the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ,"[Romans 7:23-25] "through whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world?"
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 303, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)
Faustus states his objections to the morality of the law and the prophets, and Augustin seeks by the application of the type and the allegory to explain away the moral difficulties of the Old Testament. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 921 (In-Text, Margin)
... and that by him sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And our experience gives abundant evidence, that in punishment for this sin our body is corrupted, and weighs down the soul, and the clay tabernacle clogs the mind in its manifold activity; and we know that we can be freed from this punishment only by gracious interposition. So the apostle cries out in distress, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord."[Romans 7:24-25] So much we know; but the reasons for the distribution of divine judgment and mercy, why one is in this condition, and another in that, though just, are unknown. Still, we are sure that all these things are due either to the mercy or the judgment of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 32, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
From the Epistle to the Romans. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 355 (In-Text, Margin)
... not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:14-25] Let them, who can, say that men are not born in the body of this death, that so they may be able to affirm that they have no need of God’s grace through Jesus Christ in order to be delivered from the body of this death. Therefore he adds, a few ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 51, footnote 11 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
No One Righteous in All Things. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 532 (In-Text, Margin)
... not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.” Observe how he too after the inward man is separate from every evil work, because such work he does not himself effect, but the evil which dwells in his flesh; and yet, since he does not have even that ability to delight in the law of God except from the grace of God, he, as still in want of deliverance, exclaims, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? God’s grace, through Jesus Christ our Lord!”[Romans 7:24-25]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 59, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
The Corruption of Nature is by Sin, Its Renovation is by Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 596 (In-Text, Margin)
From this law of sin is born the flesh of sin, which requires cleansing through the sacrament of Him who came in the likeness of sinful flesh, that the body of sin might be destroyed, which is also called “the body of this death,” from which only God’s grace delivers wretched man through Jesus Christ our Lord.[Romans 7:24-25] For this law, the origin of death, passed on from the first pair to their posterity, as is seen in the labour with which all men toil in the earth, and the travail of women in the pains of childbirth. For these sufferings they merited by the sentence of God, when they were convicted of sin; and we see them fulfilled not only in them, but ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 94, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)
The Passage in Romans. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 819 (In-Text, Margin)
... dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ out Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”[Romans 7:7-25]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 142, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Nature and Grace. (HTML)
Paul Asserts that the Flesh is Contrary Even in the Baptized. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1277 (In-Text, Margin)
... the flesh which are expressly named in the passage before us. Yet observe, even in the baptized, how contrary is the flesh. And in what way contrary? So that, “They do not the things which they would.” Take notice that the will is present in a man; but where is that “capacity of nature?” Let us confess that grace is necessary to us; let us cry out, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” And let our answer be, “The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!”[Romans 7:24-25]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 144, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Nature and Grace. (HTML)
Pelagius’ Admission as Regards the Unbaptized, Fatal. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1282 (In-Text, Margin)
... beg your pardon, I ought not to have said that the flesh cannot be contrary to the spirit in any baptized person, as if I meant to imply that it is contrary in the unbaptized; but I ought to have made my statement general, to the effect that the flesh in no man’s case is contrary. Now see into what a corner he drives himself. See what a man will say, who is unwilling to cry out with the apostle, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24-25] “But why,” he asks, “should I so exclaim, who am already baptized in Christ? It is for them to cry out thus who have not yet received so great a benefit, whose words the apostle in a figure transferred to himself,—if indeed even they say so much.” ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 144, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Nature and Grace. (HTML)
'This Body of Death,' So Called from Its Defect, Not from Its Substance. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1290 (In-Text, Margin)
... pray, let him entreat for the help of the mighty Physician. Why gainsay that prayer? Why cry down that entreaty? Why shall the unhappy suitor be hindered from begging for the mercy of Christ,—and that too by Christians? For, it was even they who were accompanying Christ that tried to prevent the blind man, by clamouring him down, from begging for light; but even amidst the din and throng of the gainsayers He hears the suppliant; whence the response: “The grace of God, through Jesus Christ out Lord.”[Romans 7:25]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 192, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Work on the Proceedings of Pelagius. (HTML)
The Same Continued. Pelagius Acknowledges the Doctrine of Grace in Deceptive Terms. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1655 (In-Text, Margin)
... by his own exertion and God’s grace be without sin; and yet not even thus would he be incapable of change afterwards.” Now it is quite uncertain what he means in these words by the grace of God; and the judges, catholic as they were, could not possibly understand by the phrase anything else than the grace which is so very strongly recommended to us in the apostle’s teaching. Now this is the grace whereby we hope that we can be delivered from the body of this death through our Lord Jesus Christ,[Romans 7:24-25] [VII.] and for the obtaining of which we pray that we may not be led into temptation. This grace is not nature, but that which renders assistance to frail and corrupted nature. This grace is not the knowledge of the law, but is that of which the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 192, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Work on the Proceedings of Pelagius. (HTML)
The Same Continued. Pelagius Acknowledges the Doctrine of Grace in Deceptive Terms. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1664 (In-Text, Margin)
... holy law of God, but still his evil concupiscence is not cured. He has a good will within him, but still what he does is evil. Hence it comes to pass that, amidst the mutual struggles of the two laws within him,—“the law in his members warring against the law of his mind, and making him captive to the law of sin,” —he confesses his misery; and exclaims in such words as these: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24-25]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 192, footnote 11 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Work on the Proceedings of Pelagius. (HTML)
The Same Continued. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1665 (In-Text, Margin)
It is not nature, therefore, which, sold as it is under sin and wounded by the offence, longs for a Redeemer and Saviour; nor is it the knowledge of the law—through which comes the discovery, not the expulsion, of sin—which delivers us from the body of this death; but it is the Lord’s good grace through our Lord Jesus Christ.[Romans 7:25]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 210, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Work on the Proceedings of Pelagius. (HTML)
The History Continued. Cœlestius Condemned at Carthage by Episcopal Judgment. Pelagius Acquitted by Bishops in Palestine, in Consequence of His Deceptive Answers; But Yet His Heresy Was Condemned by Them. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1767 (In-Text, Margin)
... free from the perversity of this heresy; while yet without hesitation condemning the heresy itself. They approved indeed of his answer to the objections, that “a man is assisted by a knowledge of the law, towards not sinning; even as it is written, ‘He hath given them a law for a help;’” but yet they disapproved of this knowledge of the law being that grace of God concerning which the Scripture says: “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24-25] Nor did Pelagius say absolutely: “All men are ruled by their own will,” as if God did not rule them; for he said, when questioned on this point: “This I stated in the interest of the freedom of our will; God is its helper, whenever it makes choice ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 231, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin. (HTML)
On the Grace of Christ. (HTML)
The Forgiveness of Sins and Example of Christ Held by Pelagius Enough to Save the Most Hardened Sinner. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1891 (In-Text, Margin)
... their long habit of sinning; not the inspiration of love by His Holy Spirit, but the contemplation and copy of His example in the inculcation of virtue by the gospel. Now here, at any rate, there was the very greatest call on him to say plainly what grace he meant, seeing that the apostle closed the very passage which formed the ground of discussion with these telling words: “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:25] Now, when he places this grace, not in the aid of His power, but in His example for imitation, what further hope must we entertain of him, since everywhere the word “grace” is mentioned by him under an ambiguous generality?
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 246, footnote 10 (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 1968 (In-Text, Margin)
... propagation and domination of sin, but also convicted by the additional guilt of breaking the law itself: not in order that any one might perish who in the mercy of God understood this even in that early age; but that, destined though he was to punishment, owing to the dominion of death, and manifested, too, as guilty through his own violation of the law, he might seek God’s help, and so where sin abounded, grace might much more abound, even the grace which alone delivers from the body of this death.[Romans 7:24-25] [XXV.] Yet, notwithstanding this, although not even the law which Moses gave was able to liberate any man from the dominion of death, there were even then, too, at the time of the law, men of God who were not living under the terror and conviction ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 278, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
On Marriage and Concupiscence. (HTML)
On Marriage and Concupiscence (HTML)
Even Now While We Still Have Concupiscence We May Be Safe in Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2181 (In-Text, Margin)
But the apostle pursues the subject, and says, “So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin;”[Romans 7:25] which must be thus understood: “With my mind I serve the law of God,” by refusing my consent to the law of sin; “with my flesh, however,” I serve “the law of sin,” by having the desires of sin, from which I am not yet entirely freed, although I yield them no assent. Then let us observe carefully what he has said after all the above: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” Even now, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 292, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
On Marriage and Concupiscence. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
What Covenant of God the New-Born Babe Breaks. What Was the Value of Circumcision. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2253 (In-Text, Margin)
... uncircumcision, Abraham was himself justified by faith, being the father of those nations which should also imitate his faith. In former times, however, the sacramental mystery of justification by faith lay concealed in every mode. Still it was the self-same faith in the Mediator which saved the saints of old, both small and great—not the old covenant, “which gendereth to bondage;” not the law, which was not so given as to be able to give life; but the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.[Romans 7:25] For as we believe that Christ has come in the flesh, so they believed that He was to come; as, again, we believe that He has died, so they believed that He would die; and as we believe that He has risen from the dead, so they believed that He would ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 369, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin. (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
He Passes on to the Second Question About the Soul, Whether It is Called Spirit. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2510 (In-Text, Margin)
... present contention is not about the things themselves; mainly because I on my side certainly admit, and you on your part say the same, that that is properly called spirit by which we reason and understand, and yet that these things are distinguishingly designated, as the apostle says “your whole spirit, and soul, and body.” This spirit, however, the same apostle appears also to describe as mind; as when he says, “So then with the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”[Romans 7:25] Now the meaning of this is precisely what he expresses in another passage thus: “For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.” What he designates mind in the former place, he must be understood to call ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 384, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
No Condemnation in Christ Jesus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2580 (In-Text, Margin)
Then he adds the reason why he said all these things: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!” And thence he concludes: “Therefore I myself with the mind serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”[Romans 7:24-25] To wit, with the flesh, the law of sin, by lusting; but with the mind, the law of God, by not consenting to that lust. “For there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” For he is not condemned who does not consent to the evil of the lust of the flesh. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made thee free from the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 16, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. (HTML)
Explanation of the First Part of the Sermon Delivered by Our Lord on the Mount, as Contained in the Fifth Chapter of Matthew. (HTML)
Chapter XII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 119 (In-Text, Margin)
... itself for the base pleasure of the lower nature as its reward (so to speak), is thereby corrupted? And therefore let every one who feels carnal pleasure rebelling against right inclination in his own case through the habit of sinning, by whose unsubdued violence he is dragged into captivity, recall to mind as much as he can what kind of peace he has lost by sinning, and let him cry out, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ.”[Romans 7:24-25] For in this way, when he cries out that he is wretched, in the act of bewailing he implores the help of a comforter. Nor is it a small approach to blessedness, when he has come to know his wretchedness; and therefore “blessed” also “are they that ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 41, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. (HTML)
On the Latter Part of Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Contained in the Sixth and Seventh Chapters of Matthew. (HTML)
Chapter VI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 292 (In-Text, Margin)
23. That other interpretation also is not absurd, nay, it is thoroughly accordant with both our faith and hope, that we are to take heaven and earth in the sense of spirit and flesh. And since the apostle says, “With the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin,”[Romans 7:25] we see that the will of God is done in the mind, i.e. in the spirit. But when death shall have been swallowed up in victory, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, which will happen at the resurrection of the flesh, and at that change which is promised to the righteous, according to the prediction of the same apostle, let the will of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 276, footnote 5 (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 Lord’s Prayer in St. Matthew’s Gospel, Chap. vi. 9, etc. to the Competentes. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1980 (In-Text, Margin)
8. But what is “in heaven and in earth,” or, “as in heaven so in earth?” The Angels do Thy will; may we do it also. “Thy will be done as in heaven so in earth.” The mind is heaven, the flesh is earth. When thou dost say (if so be thou do say it) with the Apostle, “With my mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin;”[Romans 7:25] the will of God is done in heaven, but not yet in earth. But when the flesh shall be in harmony with the mind, and “death shall be swallowed up in victory,” so that no carnal desires shall remain for the mind to be in conflict with, when strife in the earth shall have passed away, the war of the heart be over, and that be gone ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 476, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
Again in John v. 2, etc., on the five porches, where lay a great multitude of impotent folk, and of the pool of Siloa. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3691 (In-Text, Margin)
... in the law of sin.” This derived from the punishment of sin, from the propagation of death, from the condemnation of Adam, “resists the law of the mind, and brings it into captivity in the law of sin which is in the members.” He was convinced; he received the Law, that he might be convinced: see now what profit it was to him that he was convinced. Hear the following words, “Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24-25]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 478, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
Again in John v. 2, etc., on the five porches, where lay a great multitude of impotent folk, and of the pool of Siloa. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3713 (In-Text, Margin)
... even hitherto:” they are troubled. “And I work:” He hath made Himself equal with God: they are troubled. But be not alarmed. The water is troubled, now the sick man is to be cured. What meaneth this? Therefore are they troubled, that the Lord may suffer. The Lord doth suffer, the precious Blood is shed, the sinner is redeemed, grace is given to the sinner, to him that saith, “Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24-25] But how is he cured? If he step down. For that pool was so made, that men should go down, and not come up to it. For there might be pools of such a kind, so constructed, that men must go up to them. But why was this made in such a way that men must ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 542, footnote 10 (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, John xvi. 24, ‘Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name;’ and on the words of Luke x. 17, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject unto us in thy name.’ (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4304 (In-Text, Margin)
... this death?” What did I say above? The Law alarmeth him that relieth upon himself. Behold, man relied upon himself, he attempted to fight, he could not get the better, he was conquered, prostrated, subjugated, led captive. He learnt to rely upon God, and it remaineth that him whom the Law alarmed while he relied upon himself, grace should assist now that he trusteth in God. In this confidence he saith, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God by Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24-25] Now see the sweetness, taste it, relish it; hear the Psalm, “Taste and see that the Lord is sweet.” He hath become sweet to thee, for that He hath delivered thee. Thou wast bitter to thine own self, when thou didst rely upon thyself. Drink ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 204, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter VIII. 12. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 645 (In-Text, Margin)
... the Spirit against the flesh.” Behold thou art thyself, thou art alone, thou art with thyself; behold, thou art bearing with no other person, but yet thou seest another law in thy members warring against the law of thy mind, and taking thee captive in the law of sin, which is in thy members. Cry aloud, then, and cry to God, that He may give thee peace from the inner strife: “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”[Romans 7:23-25] Because, “He that followeth me,” saith He, “shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” All strife ended, immortality shall follow; for “the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed.” And what peace will this be? “This corruptible ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 234, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter VIII. 31–36. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 766 (In-Text, Margin)
... that which so remains? What, but to look to Him who has said, “If the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free indeed”? Indeed he also who thus spake so looked to Him: “O wretched man that I am,” he says, “who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Therefore “if the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” And then he concluded thus: “So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”[Romans 7:23-25] I myself, he says; for there are not two of us contrary to each other, coming from different origins; but “with the mind I myself serve the law of God, and with the flesh the law of sin,” so long as languor struggles against salvation.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 7, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 63 (In-Text, Margin)
... men. Nor does it follow, “And upon Thy people” be “Thy blessing,” in such wise as that the whole is spoken to men, but there is a change into prayer addressed to God Himself, for the very people to whom it was said, “Salvation is of the Lord.” What else then doth he say but this? Let no man presume on himself, seeing that it is of the Lord to save from the death of sin; for, “Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24-25] But do Thou, O Lord, bless Thy people, who look for salvation from Thee.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 7, footnote 17 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 79 (In-Text, Margin)
... taker.” For this is our hope, that He hath vouchsafed to take the nature of man in Christ. “My glory;” according to that rule, that no one should ascribe ought to himself. “And the lifter up of my head;” either of Him, who is the Head of us all, or of the spirit of each several one of us, which is the head of the soul and body. For “the head of the woman is the man, and the head of the man is Christ.” But the mind is lifted up, when it can be said already, “With the mind I serve the law of God;”[Romans 7:25] that the rest of man may be reduced to peaceable submission, when in the resurrection of the flesh “death is swallowed up in victory.” “With my voice I have cried unto the Lord;” with that most inward and intensive voice. “And He heard me out of His ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 9, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm IV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 96 (In-Text, Margin)
... worthy to be heard? or how shall the sinner not cry in vain unto the Lord? Therefore, “Be ye angry,” saith he, “and sin not.” Which may be taken two ways: either, even if ye be angry, do not sin; that is, even if there arise an emotion in the soul, which now by reason of the punishment of sin is not in our power, at least let not the reason and the mind, which is after God regenerated within, that with the mind we should serve the law of God, although with the flesh we as yet serve the law of sin,[Romans 7:25] consent thereunto; or, repent ye, that is, be ye angry with yourselves for your past sins, and henceforth cease to sin. “What you say in your hearts:” there is understood, “say ye:” so that the complete sentence is, “What ye say in your hearts, that ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 18, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm VI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 183 (In-Text, Margin)
... therein, from whence none but the soul that is made whole can rise. As for what he says, “each night,” he would perhaps have it taken thus: that he who, ready in spirit, perceives some light of truth, and yet, through weakness of the flesh, rests sometime in the pleasure of this world, is compelled to suffer as it were days and nights in an alternation of feeling: as when he says, “With the mind I serve the law of God,” he feels as it were day; again when he says, “but with the flesh the law of sin,”[Romans 7:25] he declines into night: until all night passeth away, and that one day comes, of which it is said, “In the morning I will stand by Thee, and will see.” For then he will stand, but now he lies down, when he is on his couch; which he will wash each ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 87, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XXXVI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 819 (In-Text, Margin)
... incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality.” Before this come to pass, there is a delighting in sin in the body, but greater is the delighting and the pleasure in the Word of Wisdom, in the Commandment of God. Overcome sin and the lust thereof. Sin and iniquity do thou hate, that thou mayest join thyself to God, who hateth it as well as thou. Now being joined in mind unto the Law of God, in mind thou servest the Law of God. And if in the flesh thou therefore servest the law of sin,[Romans 7:25] because there are in thee certain carnal delightings, then will there be none when thou shalt no longer fight. It is one thing not to fight, and to be in true and lasting peace; another to fight and overcome; another to fight and to be overcome; ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 317, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3093 (In-Text, Margin)
6. “O God, deliver me from the hand of the sinner” (ver. 4). Generally, sinners, among whom is toiling he that is now to be delivered from captivity: he that now crieth, “Unhappy man I, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24-25] Within is a foe, that law in the members; there are without also enemies: unto what cryest thou? Unto Him, to whom hath been cried, “From my secret sins cleanse me, O Lord, and from strange sins spare Thy servant.” …But these sinners are of two kinds: there are some that have received Law, there are others that have not received: all the heathen have not ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 403, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXXIV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3892 (In-Text, Margin)
... understanding which has many thoughts.” The Spirit calls upward, the weight of the flesh calls back again downward: between the double effort to raise and to weigh down, a kind of struggle ensues: this struggle goes toward the pressure of the winepress. Hear how the Apostle describes this same struggle of the winepress, for he was himself afflicted there, there he was pressed.…“Miserable man that I am: who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24-25] …“For I delight in the Law of God according to the inner man.” But what shall I do? how shall I fly? how shall I arrive thither? “I see another law in my members,” etc.…And as in the words of the Apostle, that difficulty and that almost inextricable ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 405, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXXV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3918 (In-Text, Margin)
... mean by the words, “Thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob”?…This Psalm hath prophesied in song. “Thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob.” To whom did it speak? To Christ; for it said, “for the end, for the sons of Core:” for He hath turned away the captivity of Jacob. Hear Paul himself confessing: “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” He asked who it should be, and straightway it occurred to him, “The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24-25] Of this grace of God the Prophet speaketh to our Lord Jesus Christ, “Thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob.” Attend to the captivity of Jacob, attend, and see that it is this: Thou hast turned away our captivity, not by setting us free from ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 672, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXLVII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5953 (In-Text, Margin)
... cannot. Wherefore can he not? “In the face of His cold who shall stand?” Behold him then growing harder, and saying, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Behold, I am growing cold, behold, I am growing hard, what heat shall thaw me that I may run? “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?.…In the face of His cold who shall stand?” And who shall free himself, if God abandon him? Who is it that freeth? “The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24-25] Are we then to despair? God forbid. For it goeth on, “He shall send out His Word, and melt them” (ver. 18). Let not then the snow despair, nor the mist, nor the crystal. For of the snow, as of wool, a garment is being made. That mist findeth safety ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 277, footnote 9 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Ctesiphon. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3851 (In-Text, Margin)
... shall no flesh be justified.” 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 against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am: who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:22-25] Other words of his further explain his meaning: “we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I know not: for what I would that do I not, but what I hate that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 374, footnote 9 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against Jovinianus. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4519 (In-Text, Margin)
... the law, having died to that wherein we were holden; so that we serve in newness of the Spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.” “When,” he says, “we were in the flesh, and not in the newness of the Spirit but in the oldness of the letter,” we did those things which pertained to the flesh, and bore fruit unto death. But now because we are dead to the law, through the body of Christ, let us bear fruit to God, that we may belong to Him who rose from the dead. And elsewhere, having previously said,[Romans 7:24-25] “I know that the law is spiritual,” and having discussed at some length the violence of the flesh which frequently drives us to do what we would not, he at last continues: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 94b, footnote 11 (Image)
Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus
John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. (HTML)
An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. (HTML)
Book IV (HTML)
Concerning the law of God and the law of sin. (HTML)
The Deity is good and more than good, and so is His will. For that which God wishes is good. Moreover the precept, which teaches this, is law, that we, holding by it, may walk in light: and the transgression of this precept is sin, and this continues to exist on account of the assault of the devil and our unconstrained and voluntary reception of it. And this, too, is called law[Romans 7:25].
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 180, footnote 4 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus. (HTML)
Book II. On the Belief in the Resurrection. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1525 (In-Text, Margin)
41. But what remedy? “Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24-25] We have a physician, let us use the remedy. Our remedy is the grace of Christ, and the body of death is our body. Let us therefore be as strangers to our body, lest we be strangers to Christ. Though we are in the body, let us not follow the things which are of the body, let us not reject the rightful claims of nature, but desire before all the gifts of grace: “For to be dissolved and to be with Christ is far better; yet to abide in ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 525, footnote 5 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Conferences of John Cassian. Part III. Containing Conferences XVIII.-XXIV. (HTML)
Conference XXIII. The Third Conference of Abbot Theonas. On Sinlessness. (HTML)
Chapter X. How those who are on the way to perfection are truly humble, and feel that they always stand in need of God's grace. (HTML)
... experience that through the hindrance of the burden of the flesh they cannot by human strength reach the desired end, nor be united according to their heart’s desire with that chief and highest good, but that they are led away from the vision of it captive to worldly things, they betake themselves to the grace of God, “Who justifieth the ungodly,” and cry out with the Apostle: O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”[Romans 7:24-25] For they feel that they cannot perform the good that they would, but are ever falling into the evil which they would not, and which they hate, i.e., wandering thoughts and care for carnal things.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 527, footnote 4 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Conferences of John Cassian. Part III. Containing Conferences XVIII.-XXIV. (HTML)
Conference XXIII. The Third Conference of Abbot Theonas. On Sinlessness. (HTML)
Chapter XV. The answer to the objection raised. (HTML)
... carnal sins. And since you have already separated these from the number of sinners, it follows that you must shortly admit them into the ranks of the faithful and holy. For what kinds of sin do you say that those can commit, from which, if they are involved in them after the grace of baptism, they can be freed by the daily grace of Christ? or of what body of death are we to think that the Apostle said: “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord”?[Romans 7:24-25] Is it not clear, as truth compels you yourselves also to admit, that it is spoken not of those members of capital crimes, by which the wages of eternal death are gained; viz., murder, fornication, adultery, drunkenness, thefts and robberies, but of ...