I find then a law, that when I have a will to do good, evil is present with me.

“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."”

“What he says is not very clear. What then is it that is said? I praise the law, he says, in my conscience, and I find it pleads on my side so far as I am desirous of doing what is right, and that it invigorates this wish. For as I feel a pleasure in it, so does it yield praise to my decision. Do you see how he shows, that the knowledge of what is good and what is not such is an original and fundamental part of our nature, and that the Law of Moses praises it, and getteth praise from it? For above he did not say so much as I get taught by the Law, but "I consent to the Law;" nor further on that I get instructed by it, but "I delight in" it. Now what is "I delight?" It is, I agree with it as right, as it does with me when wishing to do what is good. And so the willing what is good and the not willing what is evil was made a fundamental part of us from the first. But the Law, when it came, was made at once a stronger accuser in what was bad, and a greater praiser in what was good. Do you observe that in every place he bears witness to its having a kind of intensitiveness and additional advantage, yet nothing further? For though it praises and I delight in it, and wish what is good the "evil is" still "present with me," and the agency of it has not been abolished. And thus the Law, with a man who determines upon doing anything good, only acts so far as auxiliary to him, as that it has the same wish as himself. Then since he had stated it indistinctly, as he goes on he gives a yet more distinct interpretation, by showing how the evil is present, how too the Law is a law to such a person only who has a mind to do what is good.”

“After the Apostle has shown that the law is good from the fact that it agrees with reason, here he draws two conclusions according to the two things he had set down; the second is set down where he says, "But I see another law," etc. Concerning the first he does two things. First he draws the conclusion from what has been said; second he sets down a sign for the greater manifestation of it, where he says, "I am delighted," etc. Now he had set down two things above. The first indeed, that the law is spiritual; this having now been proved, he concludes thus: "I find then" — that is, by experience — that the law of Moses is in accord with me willing to do good, that is, with my reason, by which I approve the good and detest the evil, since that law itself also commands the good and forbids the evil. Deuteronomy 30:14: "The word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it." And in this way it was necessary that — that is, because evil, that is, sin or the tinder of sin, is present to me — that is, lies alongside my reason, as it were inhabiting my flesh. Micah 8:5: "From her that sleeps in your bosom, guard the closures of your mouth," that is, from the flesh. Then when he says, "For I am delighted," etc., he sets down a sign by which it is shown that the law agrees with reason. For no one is delighted except in that which is fitting to him. But man according to reason is delighted in the law of God; therefore the law of God is fitting to reason. And this is what he says: "I am delighted with the law of God according to the interior man," that is, according to reason and mind, which is called the interior man — not because the soul is figured according to the form of a man, as Tertullian held, or because it alone is the man, as Plato held, that man is a soul using a body; but because that which is more principal in man is called man, as was said above. Now in man that which is more principal according to appearance indeed is that which is exterior, namely the body so figured, which is called the exterior man; but according to truth, that which is intrinsic, namely the mind or reason, is what is here called the interior man. Psalm 118:103: "How sweet are your words to my throat." 1 Maccabees 12:9: "Having for our solace the holy books that are in our hands." Then when he says, "But I see," etc., he sets down another conclusion which corresponds to what he had said above, saying, "But I am carnal," etc. Saying, "I see another law in my members," which is the tinder of sin, which indeed can be called law for a twofold reason. In one way on account of similar effects, because just as the law induces to doing good, so the tinder induces to sinning. In another way by comparison to its cause. Now since the tinder is a certain punishment of sin, it has a twofold cause: one indeed sin itself, which took dominion in the sinner and imposed on him a law, which is the tinder, just as a lord imposes a law on a conquered servant. The other cause of the tinder is God, who placed this punishment on man when he sinned, so that the lower powers should not obey his reason. And according to this, the very disobedience of the lower powers, which is called the tinder, is called law insofar as it is introduced through the law of divine justice, like the sentence of a just judge, which has the force of law, according to that saying, 1 Kings 30:25: "And this was done from that day forward, and it was appointed and determined, and became as it were a law in Israel unto this day." But this law consists originally indeed in the sensitive appetite, but is found diffusively in all the members, which serve concupiscence unto sinning. Above, Romans 6:19: "Just as you presented your members to serve uncleanness," etc. And therefore he says, "in my members." Now this law has two effects in man. For first it resists reason, and as to this he says, "fighting against the law of my mind," that is, against the law of Moses, which is called the law of the mind insofar as it accords with the mind, or against the natural law, which is called the law of the mind because it is naturally implanted in the mind. Above, Romans 2:15: "Who show the work of the law written in their hearts." And concerning this fighting it is said, Galatians 5:17: "The flesh lusts against the spirit." The second effect is that it reduces man into servitude. And as to this he adds, "and captivating me," or according to another reading, "leading me captive," "in the law of sin, which is in my members," that is, in myself, after the manner of Hebrew speech, according to which nouns are put in place of pronouns. But the law of sin takes man captive in two ways: in one way, the sinning man, through consent and operation; in another way, the man established under grace, as to the movement of concupiscence. Concerning this captivity it is said in Psalm 125:1: "When the Lord turned the captivity of Sion." Then when he says, "Unhappy man that I am," etc., he deals with liberation from the law of sin, and does three things concerning this. First indeed he poses the question; second he gives the answer, where he says, "the grace of God," etc.; third he draws the conclusion, where he says, "therefore I myself," etc. Concerning the first he does two things. One thing indeed he confesses, namely his own misery, when he says, "Unhappy man that I am" — which indeed is on account of the sin which dwells in man, whether only as to the flesh, as in the just man, or also as to the mind, as in the sinner. Proverbs 14:34: "Sin makes peoples miserable." Psalm 37:7: "I have been made miserable and bowed down even to the end." The other thing he asks, saying, "Who will deliver me from the body of this death?" This indeed seems to be the question of one desiring, according to that saying, Psalm 141:10: "Bring my soul out of prison." It must be known, however, that in the body of man one can consider both the very nature of the body, which is fitting to the soul, whence the soul does not wish to be separated from it — 2 Corinthians 5:4: "We do not wish to be stripped, but to be clothed over" — and again the corruption of the body, which weighs down the soul, according to that saying, Wisdom 9:15: "The body which is corrupted weighs down the soul," etc. And therefore he says pointedly, "from the body of this death." Then when he says, "The grace of God," etc., he answers the question. For man cannot by his own powers be freed from the corruption of the body, nor even of the soul, although he consents with reason against sin, but only through the grace of Christ, according to that saying, John 8:36: "If the Son shall have made you free, you shall be free indeed." And therefore there follows, "the grace of God" — namely, will free me — "which is given through Jesus Christ." John 1:17: "Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." Now this frees from the body of this death in two ways: in one way, so that the corruption of the body does not dominate the mind, dragging it to sin; in another way, so that the corruption of the body is totally removed. As to the first, therefore, it is fitting for the sinner to say: "grace has freed me from the body of this death," that is, it has freed me from the sin into which the soul is led by the corruption of the body. But from this the just man is already freed, whence it belongs to him to say, as to the second: "the grace of God has freed me from the body of this death," namely, that in my body there be no corruption of sin or of death — which will be in the resurrection. Then when he says, "Therefore I myself," etc., he draws a conclusion which, according to the two aforesaid expositions, is inferred differently from what precedes. For according as the aforesaid words are expounded in the person of the sinner, the conclusion is to be inferred thus: it was said that the grace of God freed me from the body of this death, namely so that I might not be led by it into sin; therefore, when I shall already be freed, with the mind I serve the law of God, but according to the flesh the law of sin, which indeed remains in the flesh as to the tinder, through which the flesh lusts against the spirit. But if the aforesaid words are understood from the person of the just man, it is to be inferred thus: the grace of God through Jesus Christ freed me from the body of this death, namely so that in me there be no corruption of sin and of death. Therefore, I myself, one and the same, before I am freed, with the mind serve the law of God, consenting to it, but with the flesh I serve the law of sin, insofar as my flesh, according to the law of the flesh, is moved to concupiscence.”

“For I delight in the law of God,.... This an unregenerate man cannot do; he does not like its commands, they are disagreeable to his corrupt nature; and as it is a threatening, cursing, damning law, it can never be delighted in by him: the moralist, the Pharisee, who obeys it externally, do not love it, nor delight in it; he obeys it not from love to its precepts, but from fear of its threatenings; from a desire of popular esteem, and from low, mercenary, selfish views, in order to gain the applause of men, and favour of God: only a regenerate man delights in the law of God; which he does, as it is fulfilled by Christ, who has answered all the demands of it: and as it is in the hands of Christ, held forth by him as a rule of holy walk and conversation; and as it is written upon his heart by the Spirit of God, to which he yields a voluntary and cheerful obedience: he serves it with his mind, of a ready mind freely, and without any constraint but that of love; he delights together with the law, as the word here used signifies; the delight is mutual and reciprocal, the law delights in him, and he delights in the law; and they both delight in the selfsame things, and particularly in the perfect obedience which the Son of God has yielded to it. The apostle adds, after the inward man; by which he means the renewed man, the new man, or new nature, formed in his soul; which had its seat in the inward part, is an internal principle, oil in the vessel of the heart, a seed under ground, the kingdom within us, the hidden man of the heart, which is not obvious to everyone's view, it being not anything that is external, though never so good: this in its nature is agreeable to the law of God, and according to this a regenerate man delights in it: but then this restrictive limiting clause supposes another man, the old man, the carnal I, according to which the apostle did not delight in the law of God; and proves, that he speaks of himself as regenerate, and not as unregenerate, or as representing an unregenerate man, because no such distinction is to be found in such a person; nor does such a person delight at all, in any sense, upon any consideration in the law of God, but is enmity against it, and not subjected to it; nor can he be otherwise, without the grace of God.”

“I find then a law - I am in such a condition and state of soul, under the power of such habits and sinful propensities, that when I would do good - when my will and reason are strongly bent on obedience to the law of God and opposition to the principle of sin, evil is present with me, κακον παρακειται, evil is at hand, it lies constantly before me. That, as the will to do good is constantly at hand, Rom 7:18, so the principle of rebellion exciting me to sin is equally present; but, as the one is only will, wish, and desire, without power to do what is willed, to obtain what is wished, or to perform what is desired, sin continually prevails. The word νομος, law, in this verse, must be taken as implying any strong or confirmed habit, συνηθεια, as Hesychius renders it, under the influence of which the man generally acts; and in this sense the apostle most evidently uses it in Rom 7:23.”