The Law Points Out Sin
[…] set it up at the crossroads, and so made plain to those on the road what lay in their path, not so that they would stumble over these things again, but rather so that they might step over them and escape the harm. Did the light, then, do them wrong because it showed them what was hurting them? Or shall we say instead that it did them the greatest possible good and made them safer? This, I think, is clear to everyone.
So when we, who were sinners and stumbled into a great many offenses, came to know sin through the law, the law could not reasonably be thought or called sin, far from it. Rather, as I said, it is what points sin out.
“For I would not have known covetous desire if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, seizing an occasion through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire” (Romans 7:7–8; Exodus 20:17). Here he also brings in the weakness of our nature: the law, given for our benefit, turned against us when no one expected it, as the light of the sun does to those whose eyes are weak. So when he says that the commandment in a way became an occasion for desires, let no one suppose that he is accusing the law. He is rather crying out against the weakness in us, since we, who ought to have been held back by the law, are spurred on by these very things toward what is worse.
For the human mind is always sick with a love of empty things that draws it toward desires. The one who carries out his desires lives as he pleases and is left untroubled; but the one who checks them meets a fiercer onslaught of the passions. No one desires what lies ready to hand; what a person is forbidden, that he desires. So when the law forbade what does harm, it became for the weaker an occasion to desire that very thing all the more.
“For apart from the law sin is dead” (Romans 7:8). If no law were laid down, he says, to condemn the way of wickedness, evil would become powerless. For through the law it is all but provoked into strength. In some people the sting of pleasure will press with less force when no one rebukes it; it is all but blunted, charmed by the wide freedom it is given. For where there is nothing at all to resist, there the urge to contend surely lies idle as well. Sin, then, is dead when the law does not declare what must be done.
The guide into the mysteries says that he once lived without the law, and then, when the commandment came, he insists that sin came back to life, while he himself died (Romans 7:9–10). In these words he frames the argument in his own person, but I think he wishes to show something like this. It is agreed that even sinning in ignorance is liable to judgment. But that the punishment will be heavier for those who know, the Savior has made fully certain when he says, “The one who knows his master’s will and does not do it will be beaten with many blows; but the one who does not know and does not do it will be beaten with few” (Luke 12:47–48). It is agreed, then, that it is better to sin in ignorance than with knowledge of the laws. But suppose someone has come under the law after once living his life outside the law, and then, having chosen to disregard its decrees, has been convicted on a charge of sin and has fallen […]
Greek
ἔστησε ταῖς τριόδοις, ἐμφανῆ καθιστὰς τοῖς οὖσι τὰ μεταξὺ, οὐχ ἵνα πάλιν αὐτοῖς περιπταίωσιν, ἀλλ' ἵνα μᾶλλον ὑπερφέροιντο καὶ ἀπαλλάττοιντο τοῦ κακοῦ· ἆρα οὖν ἠδίκησε τὸ φῶς, ὅτι παρέδειξε τὸ λυποῦν; ἢ μᾶλλον ἐκεῖνό φαμεν, ὡς πλείστην ὅσην αὐτοῖς ἐνεποίει τὴν ὄνησιν, ἀπετέλει δὲ καὶ ἀσφαλεστέρους; ἀλλ' οἶμαι τοῦτό ἐστιν οὐδενὶ τῶν ὄντων ἀσυμφανές. ὅτε τοίνυν ὄντες ἁμαρτωλοὶ, πλείστοις τε ὅσοις ἐγκλήμασι περιπταίοντες, ἐγνώκαμεν διὰ τοῦ νόμου τὴν ἁμαρτίαν, οὐχ ἁμαρτία μᾶλλον ὁ νόμος νοοῖτ' ἂν εἰκότως ἢ λέγοιτο, πολλοῦ γε καὶ δεῖ, παραδεικτικὸς δὲ μᾶλλον τῆς ἁμαρτίας, ὡς ἔφην. Τήν τε γὰρ ἐπιθυμίαν οὐκ ᾔδειν, εἰ μὴ ὁ νόμος οὐκ ἐπιθυ μήσεις ἔλεγεν. ἀφορμὴν δὲ λαβοῦσα ἡ ἁμαρτία διὰ τῆς ἐντολῆς κατειργάσατο ἐν ἐμοὶ πᾶσαν ἐπιθυμίαν. Καὶ τὸ τῆς ἡμετέρας φύσεως ἀδρανὲς παρεισάγει, ὅτι δοθεὶς ὁ νόμος εἰς 10 ὄνησιν, ἐπεβούλευσεν ἀδοκήτως, ὡς καὶ τοῖς τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν ἀσθενοῦσι τοῦ ἡλίου τὸ φῶς. ὅταν οὖν λέγῃ ἀφορμὴν ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις τρόπον τινὰ τὴν ἐντολὴν γεγενῆσθαι, μηδεὶς κατηγορεῖν αὐτὸν οἰέσθω τοῦ νόμου, ἀλλὰ 198 κατακεκραγέναι μᾶλλον τῆς ἐν ἡμῖν ἀσθενείας· ἀνθ' ὧν ἐχρῆν ἀνακόπτεσθαι διὰ τοῦ νόμου, διὰ τούτων εἰς τὰ χείρω παροτρυνομένους. ἡ γὰρ ἀνθρώπου διάνοια τὸ φιλόκενον ἀεὶ πρὸς ἐπιθυμίας νοσεῖ. καὶ ὁ μὲν ποιῶν τὰς ἐπιθυμίας, ὡς θέλει ζῇ, ἀνενόχλητος ὤν· ὁ δὲ ἀνακόπτων αὐτὰς, ἀγριωτέραν εἰσδέχεται τὴν τῶν παθῶν ἔφοδον· καὶ τῶν μὲν προχείρων οὐδεὶς ἐπιθυμεῖ· ὧν δὲ κωλύεταί τις ἐπιθυμεῖ. ὅθεν τοῦ νόμου κωλύσαντος τὸ βλάπτον, γέγονεν ἀφορμὴ τοῖς ἀσθενεστέροις τοῦ πλέον αὐτοῦ ἐπιθυμεῖν. Χωρὶς γὰρ νόμου ἁμαρτία νεκρά. Εἰ γὰρ μὴ κέοιτο, φησὶν, ὁ τὸν τῆς φαυλότητος τρόπον καταδικάζων νόμος, ἀδρανὲς ἂν γένοιτο τὸ κακόν· κατερεθίζεται γὰρ μονονουχὶ πρὸς ἰσχὺν διὰ τοῦ νόμου, καὶ ῥᾳθυμότερον μέν τισι τὸ τῆς ἡδονῆς ἐγκείσεται κέντρον, ἐπιτιμῶντος αὐτῷ μηδενός· μόνον δὲ οὐχὶ καὶ ἀπαμβλύνεται τῷ τῆς ἐξουσίας πλάτει γοητευόμενον· οὗ γὰρ ὅλως τὸ ἀντιστατοῦν οὐδὲν, ἐκεῖ που πάντως ἀργεῖ καὶ τὸ φιλόνεικον. νεκρὰ τοιγαροῦν ἡ ἁμαρτία, νόμου τὸ πρακτέον μὴ διαγορεύοντος· ἐζηκέναι δέ φησιν ὁ μυσταγωγὸς χωρὶς νόμου ποτέ· εἶτα τῆς ἐντολῆς ἐλθούσης, ἀναβιῶναι μὲν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν, τεθνάναι γεμὴν ἑαυτὸν διισχυρίζεται. Καὶ σχηματίζει μὲν ἐν τούτοις ἐφ' ἑαυτῷ τὸν λόγον· οἶμαι δὲ ἔγωγε τοιοῦτόν τι βούλεσθαι δηλοῦν αὐτόν· ὑπὸ δίκην μὲν γὰρ ὁμολογουμένως ἐστὶ καὶ τὸ ἐν ἀγνοίᾳ πλημμελεῖν· ἔσται δὲ ὅτι φορτικωτέρα τοῖς εἰδόσιν ἡ κόλασις, πεπληροφόρηκεν ὁ Σωτὴρ λέγων Ὁ εἰδὼς τὸ θέλημα τοῦ κυρίου αὐτοῦ, καὶ μὴ ποιήσας, δαρήσεται πολλάς· ὁ δὲ μὴ 199 εἰδὼς, καὶ μὴ ποιήσας, δαρήσεται ὀλίγας. οὐκοῦν ἄμεινον ὁμολογουμένως τὸ ἐν ἀγνοίᾳ πλημμελεῖν, ἢ τὸ ἐν εἰδήσει νόμων. εἰ δὲ δή τις γέγονεν ὑπὸ νόμον, τὴν ἔξω νόμου ποτὲ διαζήσας ζωὴν, εἶτα τῶν τεθεσπισμένων ἀφειδεῖν ᾑρημένος, ἥλω γραφῇ ἁμαρτίας καὶ πέπτωκεν