Rom 7:20

“Even if the heretics who are opposed to the Creator suppose that in the next sentence Paul was speaking against him when he says, "I know that in me, that is in my flesh, there dwells no good thing," yet let them read what precedes and follows this. For before it he says, "But sin which dwells in me," which explains why it was appropriate for him to say, "in my flesh dwells no good thing." In what follows he continues, "But if I do that which I do not wish to do, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells in me," which being at war with the law of God and "of my mind," he says, "makes me captive by the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death." And again (for he does not become in the least weary of being helpful) he does not hesitate to add, "For the law of the Spirit has set me free from the law of sin and death," since by his Son "God condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit." In addition to this he makes the point still clearer by saying emphatically, "The body is dead because of sin," indicating that if it is not the temple, it is still the tomb of the soul. For when it is dedicated to God, he adds, "the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, who shall also make alive your mortal bodies through his Spirit dwelling in you."”

“"For 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 through sin condemned sin in the flesh " -not the flesh in sin, for the house is not to be condemned with its inhabitant. He said, indeed, that "sin dwelleth in our body." But the condemnation of sin is the acquittal of the flesh, just as its non-condemnation subjugates it to the law of sin and death.”

“When he says, "it is no longer I who do it," he removes the blame from the body. Who then does evil? Sin, which, according to John Chrysostom, is a vicious and sin-loving will. And this will is not a creation of God, but our own movement. The will in itself is a creation of God; but the will directed toward a particular end is something of our own, an act of our free choice. It was said above what sin is, that is, the tyranny of sin, which carries away our mind through pleasure.”

“Then, when he says, now if I do that which I will not, he concludes to what he had previously proposed, saying, now if I do that which I will not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. This, too, has been explained earlier. But it should be noted that in virtue of the same middle term, i.e., which I will not, the Apostle concludes to the two things he had proposed above, namely, the goodness of the law, when he said, now if I do that which I will not, I consent to the law, that it is good, and the dominion of sin in man, when he says here, now if I do that which I will not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. The first of these conclusions pertains to his statement that the law is spiritual; the second to the statement: but I am carnal, sold under sin. But he draws the first conclusion, which is about the goodness of the law, from that middle term by reason of I do not will, because his mind does not want what the law forbids, which shows that the law is good. But in virtue of the phrase that I do he concludes that sin, which functions against reason's will, holds sway over man.”