Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Romans 8:2

There are 20 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 395, footnote 7 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2568 (In-Text, Margin)

... inhabitat in me peccatum:” quod “repugnans,” inquit, “legi” Dei et “mentis meæ, captivat me in lege peccati, quæ est in membris meis. Miser ego homo, quis me liberabit de corpore morris hujus?” Et rursus (nunquam enim quovis modo juvando defatigatur) non veretur veluti concludere: “Lex enim spiritus liberavit me a lege peccati et morris:” quoniam “per Filium Dens condemnavit peccaturn in carne, ut justificatio legis impleatur in nobis, qui non secundum carnem ambulamus, seal secundum spiritum.”[Romans 8:2-4] Præterhæc adhuc declarans ea, qum prius dicta sunt, exclamat: “Corpus quidem mortunto propter peccatum:” significans id non esse templum, sed sepulcum animæ. Quando enim sanctificatum fuerit Deo, “Spiritus ejus,” infert, “qui suscitavit Jesum a ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 396, footnote 1 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2573 (In-Text, Margin)

... is, qui est in matrimonio perfectus, est conjugii necessitudo, ut qui omnium curam ac providentiam in domo communi ostenderit. Ac proinde “episcopos,” inquit, oportet constitui, qui ex domo propria toti quoque Ecclesiæ præ esse sint meditati. “Unusquisque” ergo, “in quo vocatus est” opere ministerium peragat, ut liber in Christo fiat, et debitam ministerio suo mercedem accipiat. Et rursus de lege disserens, utens allegoria: “Nam quæ sub viro est mulier,” inquit, “viventi viro alligata est lege,”[Romans 8:2] et quæ sequuntur. Et rursus: “Mulletest alligata, quandiu vivit vir ejus; sin autem mortuus fuerit, libera est ut nubat, modo in Domino. Beata est autem si sic permanserit, mea quidem sententia.” Sed in priore quidem particula, “mortificati estis,” ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 93, footnote 5 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)

On Modesty. (HTML)

Consistency of the Apostle in His Other Epistles. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 894 (In-Text, Margin)

... anew admissible, Christ withal will be able anew to die. Moreover, the apostle is urgent in prohibiting “sin from reigning in our mortal body,” whose “infirmity of the flesh” he knew. “For as ye have tendered your members to servile impurity and iniquity, so too now tender them servants to righteousness unto holiness.” For even if he has affirmed that “good dwelleth not in his flesh,” yet (he means) according to “the law of the letter,” in which he “was:” but according to “the law of the Spirit,”[Romans 8:2] to which he annexes us, he frees us from the “infirmity of the flesh.” “For the law,” he says, “of the Spirit of life hath manumitted thee from the law of sin and of death.” For albeit he may appear to be partly disputing from the standpoint of ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 93, footnote 6 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)

On Modesty. (HTML)

Consistency of the Apostle in His Other Epistles. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 895 (In-Text, Margin)

... he knew. “For as ye have tendered your members to servile impurity and iniquity, so too now tender them servants to righteousness unto holiness.” For even if he has affirmed that “good dwelleth not in his flesh,” yet (he means) according to “the law of the letter,” in which he “was:” but according to “the law of the Spirit,” to which he annexes us, he frees us from the “infirmity of the flesh.” “For the law,” he says, “of the Spirit of life hath manumitted thee from the law of sin and of death.”[Romans 8:2] For albeit he may appear to be partly disputing from the standpoint of Judaism, yet it is to us that he is directing the integrity and plenitude of the rules of discipline,—(us), for whose sake soever, labouring (as we were) in the law, “God hath ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 340, footnote 2 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen De Principiis. (HTML)

Book III (HTML)
On Human Temptations. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2636 (In-Text, Margin)

... being drawn away, we are not allowed to have leisure for divine things, which are to be eternally advantageous. So again, the soul, devoting itself to divine and spiritual pursuits, and being united to the spirit, is said to fight against the flesh, by not permitting it to be relaxed by indulgence, and to become unsteady through the influence of those pleasures for which it feels a natural delight. In this way, also, they claim to understand the words, “The wisdom of the flesh is hostile to God,”[Romans 8:2] not that the flesh really has a soul, or a wisdom of its own. But as we are accustomed to say, by an abuse of language, that the earth is thirsty, and wishes to drink in water, this use of the word “wishes” is not proper, but catachrestic,—as if we ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 373, footnote 2 (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)
CCEL Footnote 2929 (In-Text, Margin)

... world? And, therefore, O Aglaophon, he says not that this body was death, but the sin which dwells in the body through lust, from which God has delivered him by the coming of Christ. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death;” so that “He that raised up Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you;” having “condemned sin” which is in the body to its destruction; “that the righteousness of the law”[Romans 8:2] of nature which draws us to good, and is in accordance with the commandment, might be kindled and manifested. For the good which “the law” of nature “could not do, in that it was weak,” being overcome by the lust which lies in the body, God gave ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 122, footnote 2 (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 256 (In-Text, Margin)

... man is death, through man also is resurrection of the dead." As long therefore as we bear the image of the earthly man, that is, as long as we live according to the flesh, which is also called the old man, we have the neces sity of our habit, so that we may not do what we will. But when the grace of God has breathed the divine love into us and has made us subject to His will, to us it is said: "Ye are called for freedom," and "the grace of God has made me free from the law of sin and of death."[Romans 8:2] But the law of sin is that whoever has sinned shall die. From this law we are freed when we have begun to be righteous. The law of death is that by which it was said to man: "Earth thou art and into earth thou shalt go." For from this very fact we ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 239, footnote 2 (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 is willing to admit that Christ may have said that He came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them; but if He did, it was to pacify the Jews and in a modified sense.  Augustin replies, and still further elaborates the Catholic view of prophecy and its fulfillment. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 661 (In-Text, Margin)

2. There are three laws. One is that of the Hebrews, which the apostle calls the law of sin and death.[Romans 8:2] The second is that of the Gentiles, which he calls the law of nature. "For the Gentiles," he says, "do by nature the things contained in the law; and, not having the law, they are a law into themselves; who show the work of the law written on their hearts." The third law is the truth of which the apostle speaks when he says, "The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." Since, then, there are ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 239, 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 is willing to admit that Christ may have said that He came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them; but if He did, it was to pacify the Jews and in a modified sense.  Augustin replies, and still further elaborates the Catholic view of prophecy and its fulfillment. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 663 (In-Text, Margin)

... One is that of the Hebrews, which the apostle calls the law of sin and death. The second is that of the Gentiles, which he calls the law of nature. "For the Gentiles," he says, "do by nature the things contained in the law; and, not having the law, they are a law into themselves; who show the work of the law written on their hearts." The third law is the truth of which the apostle speaks when he says, "The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."[Romans 8:2] Since, then, there are three laws, we must carefully inquire which of the three Christ spoke of when He said that He came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. In the same way, there are prophets of the Jews, and prophets of the Gentiles, and ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 278, footnote 5 (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 2183 (In-Text, Margin)

... 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, says he, when the law in my members keeps up its warfare against the law of my mind, and retains in captivity somewhat in the body of this death, there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. And listen why: “For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” says he, “hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”[Romans 8:2] How made me free, except by abolishing its sentence of guilt by the remission of all my sins; so that, though it still remains, only daily lessening more and more, it is nevertheless not imputed to me as sin?

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 374, footnote 10 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

Treatises. (HTML)

Against Jovinianus. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4520 (In-Text, Margin)

... fruit to God, that we may belong to Him who rose from the dead. And elsewhere, having previously said, “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 death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” And again, “So then I myself with the mind serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” And,[Romans 8:1-2] “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death.” And more clearly in what follows he teaches that ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 36, footnote 10 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)

Proof of the absurdity of the refusal to glorify the Spirit, from the comparison of things glorified in creation. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1210 (In-Text, Margin)

57. Now it is urged that the Spirit is in us as a gift from God, and that the gift is not reverenced with the same honour as that which is attributed to the giver. The Spirit is a gift of God, but a gift of life, for the law of “the Spirit of life,” it is said, “hath made” us “free;”[Romans 8:2] and a gift of power, for “ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” Is He on this account to be lightly esteemed? Did not God also bestow His Son as a free gift to mankind? “He that spared not His own Son,” it is said, “but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” And in another ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 44, footnote 6 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)

That our opponents refuse to concede in the case of the Spirit the terms which Scripture uses in the case of men, as reigning together with Christ. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1292 (In-Text, Margin)

... the dispensation of the Gospel; will they bring an indictment for impiety against us, if we apply the term “fellow-labourer” to the Holy Spirit, through whom in every creature under heaven the Gospel bringeth forth fruit? The life of them that have trusted in the Lord “is hidden,” it would seem, “with Christ in God, and when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall” they themselves also “appear with Him in glory;” and is the Spirit of life Himself, “Who made us free from the law of sin,”[Romans 8:2] not with Christ, both in the secret and hidden life with Him, and in the manifestation of the glory which we expect to be manifested in the saints? We are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,” and is the Spirit without part or lot in the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 120, footnote 12 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

The Letters. (HTML)

To the Cæsareans.  A defence of his withdrawal, and concerning the faith. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1846 (In-Text, Margin)

... is a servant, His holiness is acquired; and everything of which the holiness is acquired is receptive of evil; but the Holy Ghost being holy in essence is called “fount of holiness.” Therefore the Holy Ghost is not a creature. If He is not a creature, He is of one essence and substance with the Father. How, tell me, can you give the name of servant to Him Who through your baptism frees you from your servitude? “The law,” it is said, “of the Spirit of life hath made me free from the law of sin.”[Romans 8:2] But you will never venture to call His nature even variable, so long as you have regard to the nature of the opposing power of the enemy, which, like lightning, is fallen from heaven and fell out of the true life because its holiness was acquired, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 212, footnote 3 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

The Letters. (HTML)

To Eupaterius and his daughter. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2521 (In-Text, Margin)

... Father and the Son, from the conviction that He is not separated from the Divine Nature; for that which is foreign by nature does not share in the same honors. All who call the Holy Ghost a creature we pity, on the ground that, by this utterance, they are falling into the unpardonable sin of blasphemy against Him. I need use no argument to prove to those who are even slightly trained in Scripture, that the creature is separated from the Godhead. The creature is a slave; but the Spirit sets free.[Romans 8:2] The creature needs life; the Spirit is the Giver of life. The creature requires teaching. It is the Spirit that teaches. The creature is sanctified; it is the Spirit that sanctifies. Whether you name angels, archangels, or all the heavenly powers, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 101, footnote 4 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)

On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)

Book I. (HTML)
Chapter IV. The Holy Spirit is one and the same Who spake in the prophets and apostles, Who is the Spirit of God and of Christ; Whom, further, Scripture designates the Paraclete, and the Spirit of life and truth. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 862 (In-Text, Margin)

57. The same is also the Spirit of Life, as the Apostle says: “For the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath delivered me from the law of sin and death.”[Romans 8:2]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 124, footnote 21 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)

On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)

Book II. (HTML)
Chapter VIII. St. Ambrose examines and refutes the heretical argument that because God is said to be glorified in the Spirit, and not with the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is therefore inferior to the Father. He shows that the particle in can be also used of the Son and even of the Father, and that on the other hand with may be said of creatures without any infringement on the prerogatives of the Godhead; and that in reality these prepositions simply imply the connection of the Three Divine Persons. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1115 (In-Text, Margin)

78. What, then, moves you to say that to God the Father or to His Christ there is glory, life, greatness, or power, in the Holy Spirit, and to refuse to say with the Holy Spirit? Is it that you are afraid of seeming to join the Spirit with the Father and the Son? But hear what is written of the Spirit: “For the law of the Spirit is life in Christ Jesus.”[Romans 8:2] And in another place God the Father says: “They shall worship Thee, and in Thee they shall make supplication.” God the Father says that we ought to pray in Christ; and do you think that it is any derogation to the Spirit if the glory of Christ is said to be in Him?

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 136, footnote 6 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)

On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)

Book III. (HTML)
Chapter I. Not only were the prophets and apostles sent by the Spirit, but also the Son of God. This is proved from Isaiah and the evangelists, and it is explained why St. Luke wrote that the same Spirit descended like a dove upon Christ and abode upon Him. Next, after establishing this mission of Christ, the writer infers that the Son is sent by the Father and the Spirit, as the Spirit is by the Father and the Son. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1237 (In-Text, Margin)

... the Son, and the Son in the Father, so the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ is both in the Father and in the Son, for He is the Spirit of His mouth. For He Who is of God abides in God, as it is written: “But we received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is of God.” And He abides in Christ, Who has received from Christ; for it is written again: “He shall take of Mine:” and elsewhere: “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death.”[Romans 8:2] He is, then, not over Christ according to the Godhead of Christ, for the Trinity is not over Itself, but over all things: It is not over Itself but in Itself.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 527, footnote 2 (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 XIII. Of this also: “But I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.” (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2274 (In-Text, Margin)

... to which the law of sin, i.e., the sentence of God, which the first delinquent received, has not without reason condemned us. And hence it is that the blessed Apostle, though he openly admits that he and all saints are bound by the constraint of this sin, yet boldly asserts that none of them will be condemned for this, saying: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus: for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath set me free from the law of sin and death,”[Romans 8:1-2] i.e., the grace of Christ day by day frees all his saints from this law of sin and death, under which they are constantly reluctantly obliged to come, whenever they pray to the Lord for the forgiveness of their trespasses. You see then that it was ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 528, footnote 1 (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)
CCEL Footnote 2278 (In-Text, Margin)

... groans over this law of sin under which against his will he had fallen, and at once has recourse to Christ and is saved by the present redemption of His grace. Whatever of anxiety therefore that law of sin, which naturally produces the thorns and thistles of mortal thoughts and cares, has caused to spring up in the ground of the Apostle’s breast, that the law of grace at once plucks up. “For the law,” says he, “of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath set me free from the law of sin and death.”[Romans 8:2]

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