Homilies on Romans

Since then he had said, we are “dead to sin,” he here shows that not sin only, but also the Law, has no dominion over them. But if the Law has none, much less has sin: and to render his language palatable, he uses a human example to make this plain by. And he seems to be stating one point, but he sets down at once two arguments for his proposition. One, that when a husband is dead, the woman is no longer subject to her husband, and there is nothing to prevent her becoming the wife of another man: and the other, that in the present case it is not the husband only that is dead but the wife also. So that one may enjoy liberty in two ways. Now if when the husband is dead, she is freed from his power, when the woman is shown to be dead also, she is much more at liberty. For if the one event frees her from his power, much more does the concurrence of both. As he is about to proceed then to a proof of these points, he starts with an encomium of the hearers, in these words, “Do you not know, brethren, for I speak to them that know the Law,” that is, I am saying a thing that is quite agreed upon, and clear, and to men too that know all these things accurately,

“How that the Law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?”

He does not say, husband or wife, but “man,” which name is common to either creature; “For he that is dead,” he says, “is freed (Gr. justified) from sin.” The Law then is given for the living, but to the dead it ceases to be ordained (or to give commands). Do you observe how he sets forth a twofold freedom? Next, after hinting this at the commencement, he carries on what he has to say by way of proof, in the woman's case, in the following way.

<!--<span class="stiki"></span>-->Ver. 2, 3. “For the woman which has an husband is bound by the Law to her husband, so long as he lives: but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the Law of her husband. So then, if while her husband lives, she be married to another man, she is called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.”

He keeps continually upon this point, and that with great exactness, since he feels quite sure of the proof grounded on it: and in the husband's place he puts the Law, but in the woman's, all believers. Then he adds the conclusion in such way, that it does not tally with the premiss; for what the context would require would be, “and so, my brethren, the Law does not rule over you, for it is dead.” But he does not say so, but only in the premiss hinted it, and in the inference, afterwards, to prevent what he says being distasteful, he brings the woman in as dead by saying,

“Wherefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the Law.”

As then the one or the other event gives rise to the same freedom, what is there to prevent his showing favor to the Law without any harm being done to the cause? “For the woman which has an husband is bound by the Law to her husband as long as he lives.” What has become now (3 manuscripts then) of those that speak evil of the Law? Let them hear, how even when forced upon it, he does not bereave it of its dignity, but speaks great things of its power; if while it is alive the Jew is bound, and they are to be called adulterers who transgress it, and leave it whiles it is alive. But if they let go of it after it has died, this is not to be wondered at. For in human affairs no one is found fault with for doing this: “but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.” You see how in the example he points out the Law as dead, but in the inference he does not do so. So then if it be while her husband lives, the woman is called an adulteress. See how he dwells upon the accusations of those who transgress the Law, while it is yet living. But since he had put an end to it, he afterwards favors it with perfect security, without doing any harm hereby to the faith. “For if while her husband lives, she be married to another man, she is called an adulteress.” Thus it would have been natural to say next, you also, my brethren, now the Law is dead, will not be judged guilty of adultery, if you become married to another husband. Yet he does not use these words, but what? “You have become dead to the Law;” if you have been made dead, you are no longer under the Law. For if, when the husband is dead, the woman is no longer liable to it, much more when herself is dead also she is freed from the former. Do you note the wisdom of Paul, how he points out that the Law itself designs that we should be divorced from it, and married to another? For there is nothing, he means, against your living with another husband, now the former is dead; for how should there be, since when the husband was alive it allowed this to her who had a writing of divorcement? But this he does not set down, as it was rather a charge against the woman; for although this had been granted, still it was not cleared of blame. For in cases where he has gained the victory by requisite and accredited proofs, he does not go into questions beyond the purpose; not being captious. The marvel then is this, that it is the Law itself that acquits us who are divorced from it of any charge, and so the mind of it was that we should become Christ's. For it is dead itself, and we are dead; and the grounds of its power over us are removed in a twofold way. But he is not content with this alone, but also adds the reason of it. For he has not set down death without special purpose, but brings the cross in again, which had wrought these things, and in this way too he puts us under an engagement. For you have not been freed merely, he means, but it was through the Lord's death. For he says,

“You have become dead to the Law by the Body of Christ.”

Now it is not on this only he grounds his exhortation, but also on the superiority of this second husband. And so he proceeds: “that you should be married to another, even to Him Who is raised from the dead.”

Then to prevent their saying, If we do not choose to live with another husband, what then? For the Law does not indeed make an adulteress of the widow who lives in a second marriage, but for all that it does not force her to live in it. Now that they may not say this, he shows that from benefits already conferred, it is binding on us to choose it: and this he lays down more clearly in other passages, where he says, “You are not your own;” and, “You are bought with a price;” and, “Be not ye the servants of men”; and again, “One died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them.” This is then what he here alludes to in the words, “By the Body.” And next he exhorts to better hopes, saying, “That we should bring forth fruit unto God.” For then, he means, you brought forth fruit unto death, but now unto God.

Ver. 5. “For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the Law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.”