The Law, Sin, and the Deceiver

Having abolished the death that happened to us through his own voluntary death, for he willingly became subject to the law of disobedience, so that he might ransom us who are under the law of condemnation (Rom 6:14). For this reason he said, all are redeemed (Rom 6:23); thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord; for the impossibility of the law, in which he was weak through the flesh, God, having sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh (Rom 8:3).

Since this is so well perceived, the divine apostle brings it forth, saying: there is therefore no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1); for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death, and from the things of these (Rom 8:2). I will indeed test through brief words and by speaking the words spoken by way of personification, beginning from the [...] and sin, having taken its occasion through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me (Rom 7:7).

The name of sin does not indicate a substance existing, but a manner and a way of having sinned by someone against what is according to reason and right in a matter; for sin is a most general name, being accused according to many and diverse things. And every sin happens neither by word nor by a commanding law; for if it happened according to law and word rightly, it would no longer be defined as sin and having the reason of its generation.

Since, however, the divine apostle remembers not simply sins, but a sin having a most general disposition, having a law, being able to act craftily, providing occasions for the construction of evil, he names no other sin more generally than the deceiver himself, the beginning and father of sins. For the sake of whom the apostle declared that sin reigns: let not sin reign in your mortal body (Rom 6:14). Just as we call men by the art from which they practice, so also he calls the deceiver himself sin, having become first the inventor of sin. Since, therefore, through the commandment given to Adam he deceived man, and through it Adam, providing occasions through the commandment. And this is it: why is it, he says, that God said: from every tree of that in the paradise you shall not eat for food? (Gen 2:16-17). And on whatever day you eat of it, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be like gods, knowing good and evil (Gen 3:5). But he acts craftily toward them with a greater promise to suppress the deception, promising the more, so that he might turn the keepers of the commandment from the steps of virtue by a fall similar to their own; for having diverted man to want to become equal to God, he provided the occasion for the fellowship of deception from the commandment provided. For this reason Paul said: and sin, having taken its occasion through the commandment, deceived me (Rom 7:7). In order that some might not blame the commandment or the God who gave it, he also used a similar expression, saying: we know that the law is holy and the commandment is holy and just and (Rom 7:13).