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1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. 15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. 16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. 18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. 19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. 20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. 21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. 22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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[AD 220] Tertullian on Romans 6:1
For in that He died to sin, He died once for all; but in that He liveth, to God He liveth. Thus, too, repute ye yourselves dead indeed to sin, but living to God through Christ Jesus." Therefore, Christ being once for all dead, none who, subsequently to Christ, has died, can live again to sin, and especially to so heinous a sin.

Source: On Modesty
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Romans 6:1
This is a rhetorical question which arises from what Paul said [in Romans 5:20] above.… He answers it in the next verse, saying that those in whom grace abounds have died to sin. It is clear that someone who has died to sin cannot remain a sinner.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
[AD 384] Ambrosiaster on Romans 6:1
The believer who returns to his former way of life rejects the kingdom of God’s grace and returns to sin, i.e., to the pattern of his previous life. For we have received mercy for two reasons: first, that the kingdom of the devil might be removed, and second, that the rule of God might be proclaimed to the ignorant, for it was by this means that we came to desire this dignity.

Source: COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:1
He is again turning off to exhortation, yet introducing it not directly, lest he should seem to many to be irksome and vexing, but as if it rose out of the doctrines. For if, even so diversifying his address, he was afraid of their being offended at what he said, and therefore said, "I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort," [Romans 15:15] much more would he have seemed to them, had he not done so, to be too harsh. Since then he showed the greatness of the grace by the greatness of the sins it healed, and owing to this it seemed in the eyes of the unthinking to be an encouragement to sin (for if the reason, they would say, why greater grace was shown, was because we had done great sins, let us not give over sinning, that grace may be more displayed still), now that they might not say this or suspect it, see how he turns the objection back again. First he does it by his deprecation. "God forbid." And this he is in the habit of doing at things confessed on all hands to be absurd. And then he lays down an irrefragable argument. And what is it?

Source: Homily 10 on Romans
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:1
Paul is once more starting to exhort his hearers, but he does so indirectly, as if it arose naturally out of his teaching, so as not to appear to be irksome and vexing.

Source: HOMILIES ON ROMANS 10
[AD 418] Pelagius on Romans 6:1
Paul is speaking here of those whom faith found in sin, not of us believers, who have died to sin in order to live for grace.

Source: PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
[AD 420] Jerome on Romans 6:1-23
[Daniel 5:19] "'He slew whomever he would and smote to death whomever he wished to; those whom he wished he set on high, and brought low whomever he would.'" Thus he sets forth the example of the king's great-grandfather, in order to teach him the justice of God and make it clear that his great-grandson too was to suffer similar treatment because of his pride. Now if Nebuchadnezzar slew whomever he would and smote to death whomever he wished to; if he set on high those whom he would and brought low whomever he wished to, there is certainly no Divine providence or Scriptural injunction behind these honors and slayings, these acts of promotion and humiliation. But rather, such things ensue from the will of the men themselves who do the slaying and promoting to honor, and all the rest. If this be the case, the question arises as to how we are to understand the Scripture: "The heart of a king reposes in the hand of God; He will incline it in whatever direction He wishes" (Proverbs 21:1). Perhaps we might say that every saint is a king, for sin does not reign in his mortal body, and his heart therefore is kept safe, for he is in God's hand (Romans 6:1-23). And whatever has once come into the hand of God the Father, according to the Gospel, no man is able to take it away (John 10:28). And whoever is taken away, it is understood that he never was in God's hand at all.

Source: St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER FIVE
[AD 1274] Thomas Aquinas on Romans 6:1
After showing that it is through Christ’s grace that we are freed from the sin of our first parent and from that which abounded by reason of the Law [n. 406], the Apostle now shows that Christ’s grace gives us the power to resist further sin. In regard to this he does two things: first, he raises a question suggested by the foregoing; secondly, he answers it [v. 2; n. 470]. 469. Above he had said that "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more." This could be misinterpreted by supposing that an increase of sin causes grace to abound all the more. That is why he asks: What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? One would have to say, Yes, if increase of sin were the cause and 239 not merely the occasion of grace abounding. Hence he had stated above (3:8): "And why not do evil that good may come? -- as some slanderously charge us with saying." "Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive?" (Jer 12:1). 470. Then (v. 2) he answers the question. First, he states why we should not continue in sin; secondly, he ends with an exhortation [v. 12; n. 492]. In regard to the first he does two things: first, he shows why we should not continue in sin; secondly, he shows that we have the power not to continue in sin [v. 6; n. 478]. In regard to the first he presents the following argument: If we are dead to sin, we ought not live in sin. But we are dead to sin. Therefore, we ought not live in sin. Therefore, in regard to this he does four things: first, he states the conditional proposition; secondly, he proves the antecedent [v. 3; n. 472] thirdly, be concludes the consequent [v. 4; n. 476]; fourthly, he proves that the consequent necessarily follows [v. 5; n. 477]. 471. First, therefore, he says, By no means are we to continue in sin that grace may abound, because "God has not given anyone permission to sin" (Si 15:20). For how can we who died to sin, inasmuch as sin has been put to death in us, still live in it? For it is not the natural order of things to return from death to life: "They are dead, they will not live" (Is 25:14); "I had bathed my feet, how could I soil them?" (S of S 5:3). 472. Then (v. 3) he proves the antecedent, namely, that the faithful are dead to sin: 240 first, he presents the fact he uses to prove his point; secondly, he proves it [v. 4; n. 474]. 473. First, therefore, he says: Do you not know? As if to say: What I am about to propose to you is so obvious that you cannot fail to see it -- "if anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized" (1 Cor 14:38) -- namely, that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus. This can be interpreted in three ways: first, as indicating that baptism was instituted by Jesus Christ; "Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them" (Mt 28:19); secondly, as indicating that it is conferred in the name of Christ: "In the name of Jesus Christ they were baptized, both men and women" (Ac 8:12); thirdly, into Christ Jesus, i.e., into some likeness of Christ Jesus: "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Gal 3:27). Were baptized into his death, i.e., into a likeness of his death as re-presenting in ourselves the very death of Christ: "Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus" (2 Cor 4:10); "I bear on my body the marks of Jesus" (Gal 6:17). Or into his death, i.e., by virtue of his death: "He freed us from our sins by his blood" (Rev 1:5). Hence, from the side of Christ hanging on the Cross flowed blood and water after his death (Jn 19:34). Therefore, just as we are configured to his death, inasmuch as we have died to sin, so he has died to his mortal life, in which there was the likeness of sin, although no sin was there. Therefore, all we who are baptized are dead to sin. 474. Then (v. 4) he proves that we are all baptized in conformity with the death of Christ, saying, we were buried with him by baptism into death. As if to say: Burial is only for the dead: "Let the dead bury their dead" (Mt 18:22). 241 By baptism, however, men are buried with Christ, i.e., conformed to his burial. For just as a buried man is put under the earth, so one being baptized is submerged under water. Hence, there are three immersions in baptism not only to indicate belief in the Trinity but also to represent the three days of Christ’s burial. And just as the three days of burial were one burial, so the triple immersion constitutes one baptism. That is also why solemn baptism is celebrated in the Church on Holy Saturday, when the burial of Christ is commemorated and on the vigil of Pentecost in honor of the Holy Spirit, from whom the water of baptism derives its power to cleanse: "Unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven" (Jn 3:5). 475. Yet it must be noted that in the body one dies before he is buried, but in the spiritual order the burial of baptism causes the death of sin, because the sacraments of the New Law bring about what they signify. Hence, since the burial which occurs through baptism is a sign of the death of sin, it produces such a death in the baptized. And this is what he says, namely, that we were buried into death, so that in receiving in ourselves the sign of Christ’s burial we might obtain death to sin. 476. Then (v. 4b) he infers the consequent, namely, that we should not live in sin. To this end he adduces a likeness to the resurrection of Christ, saying that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, i.e., by the Father’s power, whereby the Father himself is glorified: "let thy glory be over all the earth" (Ps 57:5), we too might walk in newness of life, i.e., advance in the spiritual life through good works. For the life of sin carries with it the weakness of old age, because it leads to dissolution: "What is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away" (Heb 8:13); hence Bar (3:10) says: "Why is it, O Israel, that you are in the land of your enemies" but whatever 242 leads to restoration is called newness of life: "Your youth is renewed like the eagle’s" (Ps 103:5) "Be renewed in the spirit of your minds" (Eph 4:25). 477. Then (v. 5) he shows how the consequence follows necessarily. For after he died, Christ arose; hence it is fitting that those who are conformed to Christ’s death in baptism should be conformed also to his resurrection by leading a blameless life. And that is what he says: For if we have been united with him in a death like his, i.e., if we are incorporated into him as a branch is grafted to a tree, the, as we are united with Christ in his passion, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his, so as to lead a blameless life and attain to a glory similar to his in the future life: "He will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body" (Phil 3:21); "If we have died with him, we shall also live with him" (2 Tim 2:11). Thus, after using our likeness to the death of Christ to prove that we are dead to sin, the Apostle used our likeness to the resurrection of Christ to show that we should not live in sin; which he introduces above as a consequence.
[AD 215] Clement of Alexandria on Romans 6:2
Similiter etiam scribit Paulus in Epistola ad Romanos: "Quimortui sumus peccato, quomodo adhuc rive runs in ipso? Quoniam veins homo nosier simul est crucifixus, ut destruatur corpus peccati"

Source: Clement of Alexandria Stromata Book III
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Romans 6:2
In order for this point to be clearer, let us inquire as to what it means to live to sin and what it means to die to sin. Just as living for God means living according to God’s will, so living for sin means living according to sin’s will, as the apostle says [in verse 12] below. To live to sin therefore, means to obey the desires of sin.… To die to sin is the opposite of this; it means refusing to obey the desires of sin.… If someone dies to sin, it is through repentance that he dies.Note how carefully Paul has weighed his words when he says: “Can we still live in sin?” To go on in this way means to continue something without interruption. If someone does this it is clear that he has never been converted to Christ. But it sometimes happens not that someone continues in sin but that after having broken with it he goes back to his vomit and becomes most unfortunate, since after having rejected the rule of sin and death and accepted the rule of life and righteousness he returns to the control of sin and death. This is what the apostle calls the shipwreck of faith.
However, although someone may continue in sin, although he may persist in the rule and power of death, nevertheless I do not consider that this rule of death is eternal in the same way that the rule of life and of righteousness is eternal, particularly as I hear the apostle telling me that death is the last enemy which must be destroyed. For if the eternity of death were analogous to the eternity of life, then death would not be opposed to life but its equal. One eternal is not contrary to another eternal but identical with it. But it is certain that death is contrary to life, and therefore it is certain that if life is eternal, death cannot be eternal as well. For this reason, the resurrection of the dead is necessary. For when the death of the soul, which is the last enemy, is destroyed, then this common death which we have described as the shadow of that one will of necessity be abolished. Then there will be room for the resurrection of the dead, when the rule of death is destroyed along with death itself.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
[AD 384] Ambrosiaster on Romans 6:2
To sin is to live to sin, and not to sin is to live to God. Therefore, when the grace of God through Christ and through faith came upon us, we began by the spiritual rebirth of baptism to live to God, and we died to sin, which is the devil. This is what dying to sin means: to be set free from sin and to become a servant of God. Therefore, having died to sin, let us not go back to our earlier evils, lest by living once again to sin and dying to God we should incur the penalty from which we have escaped.

Source: COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:2
What does "we are dead" mean? Does it mean that as for that, and as far as it goes, we have all received the sentence of death? Or, that we became dead to it by believing any being enlightened. This is what one should rather say, since the sequel makes this clearly right. But what is becoming dead to it? The not obeying it in anything any more. For this baptism effected once for all, it made us dead to it. But this must of our own earnestness thenceforth continually be maintained, so that, although sin issue countless commands to us, we may never again obey it, but abide unmovable as a dead man does. And indeed he elsewhere says that sin itself is dead. But there he sets that down as wishing to show that virtue is easy, [Romans 7:8?] But here, as he earnestly desires to rouse the hearer, he puts the death on his side. Next, since what was said was obscure, he again explains, using what he had said also in the way of reproof.

Source: Homily 10 on Romans
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:2
Being dead to sin means not obeying it any more. Baptism has made us dead to sin once and for all, but we must strive to maintain this state of affairs, so that however many commands sin may give us, we no longer obey it but remain unmoved by it, as a corpse does. Elsewhere, Paul even says that sin itself is dead … in order to show that virtue is easy. But here, since he is trying to rouse his hearers to action, he says that they are the ones who are dead.

Source: HOMILIES ON ROMANS 10
[AD 418] Pelagius on Romans 6:2
Paul wants the baptized person to be steadfast and virtually perfect.

Source: PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Romans 6:2
Here Paul makes the point that past sins have been forgiven and that in this pardon grace so superabounded that earlier sins were remitted as well. Thus whoever tries to increase sin in order to feel an increase of grace does not understand that he is behaving in such a way that grace can do nothing in him. For the work of grace is that we should die to sin.

Source: AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 31
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Romans 6:2
Nothing shorter or better could be said. For what more useful gift does the grace of God confer on us than to make us die to sin?

Source: LETTER 215
[AD 471] Gennadius of Constantinople on Romans 6:2
Carnal people and unbelievers may live like this, but we are totally incapable of it because we have a new life, having died to sin once for all.

Source: PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH
[AD 202] Irenaeus on Romans 6:3
But that the apostle did know Him as one, both who was born and who suffered, namely Christ Jesus, he again says in the same Epistle: "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized in Christ Jesus were baptized in His death? that like as Christ rose from the dead, so should we also walk in newness of life."

Source: Against Heresies Book III
[AD 220] Tertullian on Romans 6:3
Now it would not at all have been consistent that any rule of holiness and righteousness should be especially enjoined for the flesh, if the reward of such a discipline were not also within its reach; nor could even baptism be properly ordered for the flesh, if by its regeneration a course were not inaugurated tending to its restitution; the apostle himself suggesting this idea: "Know ye not, that so many of us as are baptized into Jesus Christ, are baptized into His death? We are therefore buried with Him by baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised up from the dead, even so we also should walk in newness of life." And that you may not suppose that this is said merely of that life which we have to walk in the newness of, through baptism, by faith, the apostle with superlative forethought adds: "For if we have been planted together in the likeness of Christ's death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.

Source: On the Resurrection of the Flesh
[AD 220] Tertullian on Romans 6:3
But some think as if God were under a necessity of bestowing even on the unworthy, what He has engaged (to give); and they turn His liberality into slavery. But if it is of necessity that God grants us the symbol of death, then He does so unwilling.

Source: On Repentance
[AD 220] Tertullian on Romans 6:3
If you were "in him," you have your norm; if you have passed over "into Christ," you will be bound to be (yet) better.

Source: On Monogamy
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Romans 6:3
Paul is saying by this that if we have died to sin then we must necessarily be buried with Christ in baptism, but … if we have not died to sin, then we cannot be buried with Christ. For nobody is buried while still alive. Then too, anyone who is not buried together with Christ has not been validly baptized.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
[AD 380] Apostolic Constitutions on Romans 6:3
For you are translated from your former vain and tedious mode of life and have contemned the lifeless idols, and despised the demons, which are in darkness, and have run to the "true light," [John 1:9] and by it have "known the one and only true God and Father," [John 17:3] and so are owned to be heirs of His kingdom. For since you have "been baptized into the Lord's death," [Romans 6:3] and into His resurrection, as "new-born babes," [1 Peter 2:2] you ought to be wholly free from all sinful actions; "for you are not your own, but His that bought you" [1 Corinthians 6:19-20] with His own blood.

Source: Apostolic Constitutions (Book V), Section 3, XVI
[AD 384] Ambrosiaster on Romans 6:3
Paul says this so that we might know that once we have been baptized we should no longer sin, since when we are baptized we die with Christ. This is what it means to be baptized into his death. For there all our sins die, so that, renewed by the death we have cast off, we might be seen to rise as those who have been born again to new life, so that just as Christ died to sin and rose again, so through baptism we might also have the hope of resurrection. Therefore, baptism is the death of sin so that a new birth might follow, which, although the body remains, nevertheless renews us in our mind and buries all our old evil deeds.

Source: COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:3-4
What does being "baptized into His Death" mean? That it is with a view to our dying as He did. For Baptism is the Cross. What the Cross then, and Burial, is to Christ, that Baptism has been to us, even if not in the same respects. For He died Himself and was buried in the Flesh, but we have done both to sin. Wherefore he does not say, planted together in His Death, but in the likeness of His Death. For both the one and the other is a death, but not of the same subject; since the one is of the Flesh, that of Christ; the other of sin, which is our own. As then that is real, so is this. But if it be real, then what is of our part again must be contributed. And so he proceeds,

"That as Christ was raised up from the dead by the Glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."

Here he hints, along with the duty of a careful walk, at the subject of the resurrection. In what way? Do you believe, he means, that Christ died, and that He was raised again? Believe then the same of yourself. For this is like to the other, since both Cross and Burial is yours. For if you have shared in Death and Burial, much more will you in Resurrection and Life. For now the greater is done away with, the sin I mean, it is not right to doubt any longer about the lesser, the doing away of death.

But this he leaves for the present to the conscience of his hearers to reason out, but himself, after the resurrection to come had been set before us, demands of us another, even the new conversation, which is brought about in the present life by a change of habits. When then the fornicator becomes chaste, the covetous man merciful, the harsh subdued, even here a resurrection has taken place, the prelude to the other. And how is it a resurrection? Why, because sin is mortified, and righteousness has risen again, and the old life has been made to vanish, and this new and angelic one is being lived in. But when you hear of a new life, look for a great alteration, a wide change. But tears come into my eyes, and I groan deeply to think how great religiousness (φιλοσοφίαν]) Paul requires of us, and what listlessness we have yielded ourselves up to, going back after our baptism to the oldness we before had, and returning to Egypt, and remembering the garlic after the manna. [Numbers 11:5] For ten or twenty days at the very time of our Illumination, we undergo a change, but then take up our former doings again. But it is not for a set number of days, but for our whole life, that Paul requires of us such a conversation. But we go back to our former vomit, thus after the youth of grace building up the old age of sins. For either the love of money, or the slavery to desires not convenient, or any other sin whatsoever, uses to make the worker thereof old. "Now that which decays and waxes old is ready to vanish away." [Hebrews 8:13] For there is no body, there surely is none, to be seen as palsied by length of time, as a soul is decayed and tottering with many sins. Such an one gets carried on to the last degree of doting, yielding indistinct sounds, like men that are very old and crazed, being surcharged with rheum, and great distortion of mind, and forgetfulness, and with scales upon its eyes, and disgustful to men, and an easy prey to the devil. Such then are the souls of sinners; not so those of the righteous, for they are youthful and well-favored, and are in the very prime of life throughout, ever ready for any fight or struggle. But those of sinners, if they receive even a small shock, straightway fall and are undone. And it was this the Prophet made appear, when he said, that like as the chaff which the wind scatters from the face of the earth [Psalm 1:4], thus are they that live in sin whirled to and fro, and exposed to every sort of harm. For they neither see like a healthy person, nor hear with simplicity, they speak not articulately, but are oppressed with great shortness of breath. They have their mouth overflowing with spittle. And would it were but spittle, and nothing offensive! But now they send forth words more fetid than any mire, and what is worst, they have not power even to spit this saliva of words away from them, but taking it in their hand with much lewdness, they smear it on again, so as to be coagulating, and hard to perspire through. Perhaps you are sickened with this description. Ought ye not, then to be more so at the reality? For if these things when happening in the body are disgustful, much more when in the soul. Such was that son who wasted out all his share, and was reduced to the greatest wretchedness, and was in a feebler state than any imbecile or disordered person. But when he was willing, he became suddenly young by his decision alone and his change. For as soon as he had said, "I will return to my Father," this one word conveyed to him all blessings; or rather not the bare word, but the deed which he added to the word. For he did not say, "Let me go back," and then stay there; but said, Let me go back, and went back, and returned the whole of that way. Thus let us also do; and even if we have gotten carried beyond the boundary, let us go up to our Father's house, and not stay lingering over the length of the journey. For if we be willing, the way back again is easy and very speedy. Only let us leave the strange and foreign land; for this is what sin is, drawing us far away from our Father's house; let us leave her then, that we may speedily return to the house of our Father. For our Father has a natural yearning towards us, and will honor us if we be changed, no less than those that are unattainted, if we change, but even more, just as the father showed that son the greater honor. For he had greater pleasure himself at receiving back his son. And how am I to go back again? One may say. Do but put a beginning upon the business, and the whole is done. Stay from vice, and go no farther into it, and you have laid hold of the whole already. For as in the case of the sick, being no worse may be a beginning of getting better, so is the case with vice also. Go no further, and then your deeds of wickedness will have an end. And if you do so for two days, you will keep off on the third day more easily; and after three days you will add ten, then twenty, then an hundred, then your whole life. (Cf. Hom. xvii. on St. Matt. p. 267, O.T.) For the further you go on, the easier will you see the way to be, and you will stand on the summit itself, and will at once enjoy many goods. For so it was when the prodigal came back, there were flutes, and harps, and dancings, and feasts, and assemblings: and he who might have called his son to account for his ill-timed extravagance, and flight to such a distance, did nothing of the sort, but looked upon him as unattainted, and could not find it in him even to use the language of reproach, or rather, even to mention barely to him the former things, but threw himself upon him, and kissed him, and killed the calf, and put a robe upon him, and placed on him abundant honors. Let us then, as we have such examples before us, be of good cheer and keep from despair. For He is not so well pleased with being called Master, as Father, nor with having a slave as with having a son. And this is what He likes rather than that. This then is why He did all that He has done; and "spared not even His Only-begotten Son" [Romans 8:32], that we might receive the adoption of sons, that we might love Him, not as a Master only, but as a Father. And if He obtained this of us He takes delight therein as one that has glory given him, and proclaims it to all though He needs nothing of ours. This is what, in Abraham's case for instance, He everywhere does, using these words, "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." And yet it was they of His household who should have found an honor in this; but now it is the Lord evidently who does this; for this is why He says to Peter, "Lovest thou Me more than these?" [John 21:17] to show that He seeks nothing so much as this from us. For this too He bade Abraham offer his son to Him, that He might make it known to all that He was greatly beloved by the patriarch. Now this desire to be loved exceedingly comes from loving exceedingly. For this cause too He said to the Apostles, "He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me." [Matthew 10:37] For this cause He bids us esteem that even which is in the most close connection with us, our soul [or, life, John 12:25], as second to the love of him, since He wishes to be beloved by us with exceeding entireness. For we too, if we have no strong feelings about a person, have no strong desire for his friendship either, though he be great and noble; whereas when we love any one warmly and really, though the person loved be of low rank and humble, yet we esteem love from him as a very great honor. And for this reason He Himself also called it glory not to be loved by us only, but even to suffer those shameful things in our behalf. [John 12:23] However, those things were a glory owing to love only. But whatever we suffer for Him, it is not for love alone; but even for the sake of the greatness and dignity of Him we long for, that it would with good reason both be called glory, and be so indeed. Let us then incur dangers for Him as if running for the greatest crowns, and let us esteem neither poverty, nor disease, nor affront, nor calumny, nor death itself, to be heavy and burdensome, when it is for Him that we suffer these things. For if we be right-minded, we are the greatest possible gainers by these things, as neither from the contrary to these shall we if not right-minded gain any advantage. But consider; does any one affront you and war against you? Does he not thereby set you upon your guard, and give you an opportunity of growing like God? For if you love him that plots against you, you will be like Him that "makes His Sun to rise upon the evil and good." [Matthew 5:45] Does another take your money away? If you bear it nobly, you shall receive the same reward as they who have spent all they have upon the poor. For it says, "You took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance." [Hebrews 10:34] Has any one reviled you and abused you, whether truly or falsely, he weaves for you a very great crown if you bear meekly his contumely; since he too, who calumniates, provides for us an abundant reward. For "rejoice," it says, "and be exceeding glad, when men say all manner of evil against you falsely, because great is your reward in Heaven." [Matthew 5:12] And he too that speaks truth against us is of the greatest service, if we do but bear meekly what is said. For the Pharisee spoke evil of the Publican, and with truth, still instead of a Publican he made him a righteous man. [Luke 18:11] And what need to go into particular instances. For any one that will go to the conflicts of Job may learn all these points accurately. And this is why Paul said, "God for us, who against us?" [Romans 8:31] As then by being earnest, we gain even from things that vex us, so by being listless, we do not even improve from things that favor us. For what did Judas profit, tell me, by being with Christ? Or what profit was the Law to the Jew? Or Paradise to Adam? Or what did Moses profit those in the wilderness? And so we should leave all, and look to one point only, how we may husband aright our own resources. And if we do this, not even the devil himself will ever get the better of us, but will make our profiting the greater, by putting us upon being watchful. Now in this way it is that Paul rouses the Ephesians, by describing his fierceness. Yet we sleep and snore, though we have to do with so crafty an enemy. And if we were aware of a serpent nestling by our bed, we should make much ado to kill him. But when the devil nestles in our souls, we fancy that we take no harm, but lie at our ease; and the reason is, that we see him not with the eyes of our body. And yet this is why we should rouse us the more and be sober. For against an enemy whom one can perceive, one may easily be on guard; but one that cannot be seen, if we be not continually in arms, we shall not easily escape. And the more so, because he has no notion of open combat (for he would surely be soon defeated), but often under the appearance of friendship he insinuates the venom of his cruel malice. In this way it was that he suborned Job's wife, by putting on the mask of natural affectionateness, to give that wretchless advice. And so when conversing with Adam, he puts on the air of one concerned and watching over his interests, and says, that "your eyes shall be opened in the day that you eat of the tree." [Genesis 3:5] Thus Jephtha too he persuaded, under the pretext of religion, to slay his daughter, and to offer the sacrifice the Law forbade. Do you see what his wiles are, what his varying warfare? Be then on your guard, and arm yourself at all points with the weapons of the Spirit, get exactly acquainted with his plans, that you may both keep from being caught, and easily catch him. For it was thus that Paul got the better of him, by getting exactly acquainted with these. And so he says, "for we are not ignorant of his devices." [2 Corinthians 2:11] Let us then also be earnest in learning and avoiding his stratagems, that after obtaining a victory over him, we may, whether in this present life or in that which is to come, be proclaimed conquerors, and obtain those unalloyed blessings, by the grace and love toward man, etc.

Source: Homily 10 on Romans
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:3
What the cross and burial were to Christ, baptism is to us, though not in all respects. For Christ died and was buried in the flesh, whereas we have died and been buried to sin.

Source: HOMILIES ON ROMANS 10
[AD 418] Pelagius on Romans 6:3
Do you not know about this sacrament of baptism? In the Scriptures baptism is received in three ways: with water, with the Holy Spirit (who is also called “fire”) and with blood in martyrdom. We who are believers have died with Christ in our baptism.

Source: PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
[AD 425] Severian of Gabala on Romans 6:3
Since we are baptized we confess that we have died to the world and have been buried to sin and the devil. .
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Romans 6:3
To be baptized into the death of Christ is nothing else but to die to sin, just as he died in the flesh.

Source: AGAINST JULIAN 1.7.33
[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on Romans 6:3
Christ died to sin once, but in that he lives, he lives to God. We have undergone a death like his and have practically been buried together with him. For in that we carry his mortification about in our bodies, we have been buried together with him.

Source: EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS
[AD 220] Tertullian on Romans 6:4
Every soul, then, by reason of its birth, has its nature in Adam until it is born again in Christ; moreover, it is unclean all the while that it remains without this regeneration; and because unclean, it is actively sinful, and suffuses even the flesh (by reason of their conjunction) with its own shame. Now although the flesh is sinful, and we are forbidden to walk in accordance with it, and its works are condemned as lusting against the spirit, and men on its account are censured as carnal, yet the flesh has not such ignominy on its own account. For it is not of itself that it thinks anything or feels anything for the purpose of advising or commanding sin. How should it, indeed? It is only a ministering thing, and its ministration is not like that of a servant or familiar friend-animated and human beings; but rather that of a vessel, or something of that kind: it is body, not soul. Now a cup may minister to a thirsty man; and yet, if the thirsty man will not apply the cup to his mouth, the cup will yield no ministering service. Therefore the differentia, or distinguishing property, of man by no means lies in his earthy element; nor is the flesh the human person, as being some faculty of his soul, and a personal quality; but it is a thing of quite a different substance and different condition, although annexed to the soul as a chattel or as an instrument for the offices of life. Accordingly the flesh is blamed in the Scriptures, because nothing is done by the soul without the flesh in operations of concupiscence, appetite, drunkenness, cruelty, idolatry, and other works of the flesh,-operations, I mean, which are not confined to sensations, but result in effects. The emotions of sin, indeed, when not resulting in effects, are usually imputed to the soul: "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after, hath already in his heart committed adultery with her." But what has the flesh alone, without the soul, ever done in operations of virtue, righteousness, endurance, or chastity? What absurdity, however, it is to attribute sin and crime to that substance to which you do not assign any good actions or character of its own! Now the party which aids in the commission of a crime is brought to trial, only in such a way that the principal offender who actually committed the crime may bear the weight of the penalty, although the abettor too does not escape indictment. Greater is the odium which falls on the principal, when his officials are punished through his fault. He is beaten with more stripes who instigates and orders the crime, whilst at the same time he who obeys such an evil command is not acquitted.

Source: A Treatise on the Soul
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Romans 6:4
If we have been buried together with Christ in the way we outlined above, i.e., because we have died to sin, it follows that just as Christ was raised from the dead we shall rise together with him. Just as he ascended into heaven we shall also ascend with him, and just as he sits at the right hand of God, we shall also sit with him, as the apostle himself says elsewhere: (He has) made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.Christ rose from the dead by the glory of the Father, and if we have died to sin and are buried together with Christ, and all who see our good works glorify our Father who is in heaven, we shall rightly be said to have risen together with Christ by the glory of the Father so that we may walk in newness of life. For newness of life occurs when we have “put off the old man with his deeds and put on the new man who has been created according to God” and “who is renewed in the knowledge of God according to the image of him who created him.” Nor should you think that this renewal of life, which is said to take place once for all, is enough by itself. Constantly and daily this newness must be renewed, if it can be put that way.
When Paul said: “that we too might walk in newness of life,” it seems that he was revealing the spiritual principle that as long as we are making progress we may be said to be walking. For it must not be thought that it is being said that they walk about aimlessly. Rather, those who are making progress will eventually come to the place where they ought to be.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
[AD 311] Methodius of Olympus on Romans 6:4
But the image of the heavenly is the resurrection from the dead, and in corruption, in order that "as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life."

Source: Methodius From the Discourse on the Resurrection
[AD 384] Ambrosiaster on Romans 6:4
First of all, this means that Christ raised his own body from the dead. For he is the power of God the Father, as he said: “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days.” He was saying this about the temple of his own body.… It also means that we now have a new way of life which has been given to us by Christ. For by baptism we have been buried together with Christ36 in order that we may henceforth live according to the life into which Christ rose from the dead. Therefore baptism is the sign and symbol of the resurrection, which means that we ought to abide in the commandments of Christ and not go back to what we were before. For the person who dies does not sin; death is the end of sin. This is symbolized by water, because just as water cleanses the dirt of the body, so we believe that we have been spiritually cleansed by baptism from every sin and renewed, for what is incorporeal is cleansed invisibly.

Source: COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES
[AD 386] Cyril of Jerusalem on Romans 6:4
As Jesus died in taking away the sins of the world, that, by doing sin to death, he might rise in righteousness, so too, when you go down into the water and are, in a fashion, entombed in the water as he was in the rock, you may rise again to walk “in newness of life.”

Source: Catechetical Lecture 3.12
[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Romans 6:4
Baptism is a likeness of death when you go down into the water, and when you rise again it becomes a likeness of resurrection. Thus, according to the interpretation of the apostle, just as Christ’s resurrection was a regeneration, so the resurrection from the font is also a regeneration.

Source: THE SACRAMENTS 2.7.20
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:4
Here Paul hints at the subject of the resurrection along with the duty of a careful walk. In what way? He means: Do you believe that Christ died and that he rose again? If so, then believe that the same will happen to you.… For if you have shared in his cross and burial, how much more will you share in his resurrection as well? For now that the greater is done away with (i.e., sin), it is not right to go on doubting about the lesser, viz., the doing away of death. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 10.SEVERIAN:“Newness of life” means that we have put off the old life of sin and that our rebirth promises a new way of life.

Source: PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH
[AD 418] Pelagius on Romans 6:4
Paul shows that we were baptized so that through the sacrament we are buried with Christ, dying to our sins and renouncing our former life. So just as the Father is glorified in the resurrection of the Son, so too on account of the newness of our lifestyle he is glorified by us all, as long as none of the signs of the old self is recognizable in us. For now we should no longer want or desire anything that those who are not yet baptized and are still trapped in the errors of their old life want or desire.

Source: PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
[AD 425] Severian of Gabala on Romans 6:4
“Newness of life” means that we have put off the old life of sin and that our rebirth promises a new way of life. .
[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on Romans 6:4
As we have been buried, so we must rise with Christ in a spiritual sense. For if to be buried together with Christ means dying to sin, then it is clear that rising with him means living in righteousness.

Source: EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS
[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Romans 6:4
The sacrament of baptism itself teaches us to turn away from sin. For baptism is a type of the death of Christ. In it we have become participants in the death and resurrection of Christ. Therefore, because we have shared in Christ’s resurrection, we ought to live a new life now.

Source: INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS
[AD 220] Tertullian on Romans 6:5
We die figuratively in our baptism, but we shall rise again in reality in our flesh, even as Christ did.

Source: ON RESURRECTION OF THE FLESH 47
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Romans 6:5
In saying that we have been united (i.e., planted together) with Christ, Paul compares the death of Christ to a plant to which we have been joined, so that drawing on the sap of his root our root may bring forth branches of righteousness and bear the fruits of life. If you want to know what plant it is that Scripture says we ought to be planted together with and what type of tree it is, listen to what is said about wisdom: “She is a tree of life to those who hope in her and who trust in her as in the Lord.” Therefore it is Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, who is the tree of life with whom we must be planted, for by some new and lovely gift of God his death has become for us the tree of life.…Therefore Paul wants us to be planted together in the likeness of Christ’s death, so that we may also be planted together in his resurrection. For “planted together” (i.e., united) must be understood of both. Consider how necessary it was for him to adopt the image of planting. For every plant, after the death of winter, awaits the resurrection of spring. Therefore, if we have been planted in Christ’s death in the winter of this world and this present life, so too we shall be found in the coming spring bearing the fruits of righteousness from his root.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
[AD 380] Apostolic Constitutions on Romans 6:5
Y man according to the good pleasure of His kindness, that He might inspire him with the knowledge of His will, and enlighten the eyes of his heart to consider of His wonderful works, and make known to him the judgments of righteousness, that so he might hate every way of iniquity, and walk in the way of truth, that he might be thought worthy of the layer of regeneration, to the adoption of sons, which is in Christ, that "being planted together in the likeness of the death of Christ"

Source: CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES
[AD 384] Ambrosiaster on Romans 6:5
Happily Paul says that we can rise again if we have been united with Christ in the likeness of his death, i.e., if we have laid aside all our wickedness in baptism and, having been transferred into a new life, no longer sin. In this way we shall be like him in his resurrection, because the likeness of his death presupposes a similar resurrection.… The likeness does not mean that there will be no difference at all between us, of course. We will be like him in the glory of his body, not in the nature of his divinity.

Source: COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES
[AD 390] Diodorus of Tarsus on Romans 6:5
Those who have been validly baptized into Christ’s death have been united to him by faith.

Source: PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:5
"For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection."

What I had before occasion to remark, that I mention here too, that he continually digresses into exhortation, without making any twofold division as he does in the other Epistles, and setting apart the former portion for doctrines, and the latter for the care of moral instruction. Here then he does not do so, but blends the latter with the subject throughout, so as to gain it an easy admission. Here then he says there are two mortifyings, and two deaths, and that one is done by Christ in Baptism, and the other it is our duty to effect by earnestness afterwards. For that our former sins were buried, came of His gift. But the remaining dead to sin after baptism must be the work of our own earnestness, however much we find God here also giving us large help. For this is not the only thing Baptism has the power to do, to obliterate our former transgressions; for it also secures against subsequent ones. As then in the case of the former, your contribution was faith that they might be obliterated, so also in those subsequent to this, show forth the change in your aims, that you may not defile yourself again. For it is this and the like that he is counselling you when he says, "for if we have been planted together in the likeness of His Death, we shall be also in the likeness of His Resurrection." Do you observe, how he rouses the hearer by leading him straightway up to his Master, and taking great pains to show the strong likeness? This is why he does not say "in death," lest you should gainsay it, but, "in the likeness of His Death." For our essence itself has not died, but the man of sins, that is, wickedness. And he does not say, "for if we have been" partakers of "the likeness of His Death;" but what? "If we have been planted together," so, by the mention of planting, giving a hint of the fruit resulting to us from it. For as His Body, by being buried in the earth, brought forth as the fruit of it the salvation of the world; thus ours also, being buried in baptism, bore as fruit righteousness, sanctification, adoption, countless blessings. And it will bear also hereafter the gift of the resurrection. Since then we were buried in water, He in earth, and we in regard to sin, He in regard to His Body, this is why he did not say, "we were planted together in His Death," but "in the likeness of His Death." For both the one and the other is death, but not that of the same subject. If then he says, "we have been planted together in His Death, we shall be in that of His Resurrection," speaking here of the Resurrection which (Gr. be of His Resurrection) is to come. For since when he was upon the subject of the Death before, and said, "Do you not know, brethren, that so many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into His Death?" he had not made any clear statement about the Resurrection, but only about the way of life after baptism, bidding men walk in newness of life; therefore he here resumes the same subject, and proceeds to foretell to us clearly that Resurrection. And that you may know that he is not speaking of that resulting from baptism, but about the other, after saying, "for if we were planted together in the likeness of His Death," he does not say that we shall be in the likeness of His Resurrection, but we shall belong to the Resurrection. For to prevent your saying, and how, if we did not die as He died, are we to rise as He rose? When he mentioned the Death, he did not say, "planted together in the Death," but, "in the likeness of His Death." But when he mentioned the Resurrection, he did not say, "in the likeness of the Resurrection," but we shall be "of the Resurrection" itself. And he does not say, We have been made, but we shall be, by this word again plainly meaning that Resurrection which has not yet taken place, but will hereafter. Then with a view to give credibility to what he says, he points out another Resurrection which is brought about here before that one, that from that which is present you may believe also that which is to come. For after saying, "we shall be planted together in the Resurrection," he adds, (Romans 6:6)

Source: Homily 11 on Romans
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:5
Paul says that there are two mortifyings and two deaths. One of them is accomplished by Christ in baptism, and the other it is our duty to effect by earnestness afterwards. For it was Christ’s gift that our former sins were buried, but remaining dead to sin after baptism must be the work of our own earnestness, however much we find that God gives us enormous help here as well. For baptism does not just have the power to obliterate our former transgressions; it also protects us against subsequent ones.

Source: HOMILIES ON ROMANS 11
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:5
Paul did not say “in death” but “in a death like his.” For both the first and the second are death but not the death of the same thing. The first is the death of the body, the second is the death of sin.

Source: BAPTISMAL INSTRUCTIONS 10.10
[AD 418] Pelagius on Romans 6:5
If we are buried with Christ now, we shall be united with him in his resurrection then, and if we have already become new and been changed in our way of life now, we shall likewise be new and changed in glory then.

Source: PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on Romans 6:5
Emmanuel gave up his soul for us; he died in the flesh. We also were buried together with him when we were baptized. Does this mean that our flesh died in the same way as his did? Hardly. Come, let me explain in what sense we were buried with him in a death like his. Christ died in the flesh in order to remove the sin of the world, but we do not die to the flesh so much as to guilt, as it is written. Thus now we have to break down the power of sin within us by mortifying our earthly members.… As we have died a death like his, so we shall also be conformed to his resurrection, because we shall live in Christ. It is true that the flesh will come to life again, but still we shall live in another way, by dedicating our souls to him and by being transformed into holiness and a kind of glorious life in the Holy Spirit.

Source: EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS
[AD 471] Gennadius of Constantinople on Romans 6:5
Christ’s baptism in the Jordan was a type of the mystery of his resurrection.

Source: PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH
[AD 990] Oecumenius on Romans 6:5
See the goodness of God. We have died Christ’s death metaphorically, but we shall share his resurrection truly.

Source: PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH
[AD 215] Clement of Alexandria on Romans 6:6
But to us the apostle says, "Now we know this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.".
For "to bring themselves into captivity "and to slay themselves, putting to death "the old man, who is through lusts corrupt "and raising the new man from death, "from the old conversation "by abandoning the passions, and becoming free of sin, both the Gospel and the apostle enjoin.

Source: Clement of Alexandria Stromata Book IV
[AD 220] Tertullian on Romans 6:6
This refers not to our body structure but to our moral behavior.… It is not our bodily frame which has been transformed, nor has our flesh endured the cross of Christ. The sinful body is destroyed by amendment of life, not by the destruction of our fleshly substance.

Source: ON RESURRECTION OF THE FLESH 47
[AD 220] Tertullian on Romans 6:6
For that must be living after the world, which, as the old man, he declares to be "crucified with Christ," not as a bodily structure, but as moral behaviour.

Source: On the Resurrection of the Flesh
[AD 220] Tertullian on Romans 6:6
Besides, if we do not understand it in this sense, it is not our bodily frame which has been transfixed (at all events), nor has our flesh endured the cross of Christ; but the sense is that which he has subjoined, "that the body of sin might be made void, " by an amendment of life, not by a destruction of the substance, as he goes on to say, "that henceforth we should not serve sin; " and that we should believe ourselves to be "dead with Christ," in such a manner as that "we shall also live with Him.

Source: On the Resurrection of the Flesh
[AD 220] Tertullian on Romans 6:6
Besides, if we do not understand it in this sense, it is not our bodily frame which has been transfixed (at all events), nor has our flesh endured the cross of Christ; but the sense is that which he has subjoined, "that the body of sin might be made void, " by an amendment of life, not by a destruction of the substance, as he goes on to say, "that henceforth we should not serve sin; " and that we should believe ourselves to be "dead with Christ," in such a manner as that "we shall also live with Him.

Source: On the Resurrection of the Flesh
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Romans 6:6
I think it should be noticed that when the apostle says something must be destroyed he calls it the body of sin, but when he does not use this expression he refers not to the body of sin but to our own selves, who ought not to be serving sin. He does this to show that if the body of sin were to be destroyed we would not now be serving sin, which however we serve as long as our body is not destroyed and our members on earth are not put to death.…The “sinful body” is our body, for it is written that Adam did not know his wife Eve, nor did he father Cain, until after he had sinned. In the law it is commanded that sacrifices of a pair of turtledoves or two pigeons shall be offered for a newborn child. One of these is a sin offering and the other is a burnt offering. For what sin is this first pigeon offered? How can a newborn child have sinned already? And yet the child has sin, for which the sacrifice is commanded to be offered.… For the same reason the church has received a tradition from the apostles to baptize even infants. For they, to whom the secrets of the divine mysteries had been committed, knew that there are real stains of sin in everyone which must be cleansed by water and the Spirit. It is because of these stains that the body is called a sinful body and not because of sins which the soul in that body may have committed in a previous life, as some who believe in reincarnation like to think.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
[AD 379] Basil of Caesarea on Romans 6:6
By these words we are taught that he who is baptized in Christ is baptized in his death and is not only buried with Christ and planted together with him but is first of all crucified with him. Thus we are instructed that, as he who is crucified is separated from the living, so also he who has been crucified with Christ in the likeness of his death is completely set apart from those who live according to the old man.

Source: CONCERNING BAPTISM 1.2
[AD 384] Ambrosiaster on Romans 6:6
Paul underlines and repeats a good deal in order to teach the baptized that they must not sin and above all that they must not return to idolatry, which is a very serious crime and the root of all errors, lest they lose the grace which they have received through Christ. He calls our former behavior “our old self” because, just as the man who has a pure life through Christ and faith in him is said to be new, so the same man is said to be old through unbelief and evil deeds. Paul says that these deeds have been crucified, which means that they are dead, that the body of sin (i.e., all our misdeeds) has been destroyed. Paul calls all our sins a body, which he says has been destroyed by a good life and by orthodox belief.

Source: COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES
[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Romans 6:6
Until this price was paid for all men by the shedding of the Lord’s blood for the forgiveness of all, blood was required of each man who by the law and the customary rite was following the holy precepts of religion. Since the price has been paid for all after Christ the Lord suffered, there is no longer need for the blood of each individual to be shed by circumcision, for in the blood of Christ the circumcision of all has been solemnized, and in his cross we have all been crucified with him and buried together in his tomb and planted together in the likeness of his death that we may no longer be slaves of sin.

Source: LETTER 16
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:6
So putting together both the cause and the demonstration of the Resurrection which is to come. And he does not say is crucified, but is crucified with Him, so bringing baptism near to the Cross. And on this score also it was that he said above, "We have been planted together in the likeness of His Death that the body of sin might be destroyed," not giving that name to this body of ours, but to all iniquity. For as he calls the whole sum of wickedness the old man, thus again the wickedness which is made up of the different parts of iniquity he calls the body of that man. And that what I am saying is not mere guesswork, hearken to Paul's own interpretation of this very thing in what comes next. For after saying, "that the body of sin might be destroyed," he adds, "that henceforth we should not serve sin." For the way in which I would have it dead is not so that you should be destroyed and die, but so that you sin not. And as he goes on he makes this still clearer.

Source: Homily 11 on Romans
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:6
Paul does not say that we have been crucified but that we have been crucified “with him,” thus linking baptism with the cross.… You are dead not in the sense that you have been obliterated but in the sense that now you can live without sin. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 11.CHRYSOSTOM:Get for yourself none of the things that are on earth, and do not be active in the affairs of the present life. For your life is hidden now and unseen by those who do not believe, but the time will come when it will be seen. But now is not your time. Since you have died once for all, refuse to mind the things that are on earth. The greatness of your virtue is seen especially when you have prevailed over the arrogance of the flesh and act toward the good things of the world just as if you were dead to this life.

Source: BAPTISMAL INSTRUCTIONS 7.22
[AD 418] Pelagius on Romans 6:6
Through baptism you who have been made a member of Christ’s body were crucified with Christ. He hangs his innocent body so that you may have the power to restrain your guilty body from sin. Similarly, Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the wilderness68 so that every form of wickedness might be torn down, because each vice is a member of the body of sin. Christ was not crucified in part but in whole. Or perhaps we should read this as meaning that our body should be torn away from slavery to sin and that what used to be the property of transgression should now become the property of righteousness, for “everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.”

Source: PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Romans 6:6
This refers to Deuteronomy [21:23]: “Cursed be every man hanged from a tree.” For as the crucifixion of the old man is symbolized in the cross of the Lord, so the rebirth of the new man is signified in the resurrection. It is clear that according to Paul we are in the place of the old man who is accursed. No one doubts that it was because of him that the Lord was called “sin,” because “he bore our sins” and “he was made sin for us,” and “by sin he condemned sin.”

Source: AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 32-34.”
[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on Romans 6:6
Perhaps some people will think that “the body of sin” is meant to refer to our earthly flesh, which has been joined to the soul as a kind of punishment, in that the soul sinned before bodies were created. Some people think and talk like this, but as it is a pagan idea we must reject it as being incompatible with the truth. Therefore, Paul says that our earthly body is the body of sin and our old man, because it has inherited the necessity of corruption from the old Adam.… Moreover, because of its weakness it has contracted a love for wickedness, and thus sin appears in the flesh as a congenital defect.We were crucified with Christ at the moment when his flesh was crucified, because it somehow included universal human nature in itself, just as universal human nature contracted the sickness of the curse in Adam at the same time that he incurred the curse.

Source: EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS
[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Romans 6:6
The “old man” does not refer to our nature but to our evil mind. It is this which has been put to death in baptism, so that the body would not continue to serve sin.

Source: INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS
[AD 471] Gennadius of Constantinople on Romans 6:6
“Our old self” refers to our perishable and passible bodies.

Source: PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH
[AD 1274] Thomas Aquinas on Romans 6:6
After showing that we should not continue to sin after baptism has made us dead to sin [n. 470], the Apostle now shows that we have the means to do this. Concerning this he does two things. First, he indicates the benefit we have received; secondly, the effect of this benefit [v. 7; n. 482]. Concerning this he does two things. First he sets out the benefit we obtain; Second, the effect of this benefit [v. 6b; n. 481]. 479. First, therefore: We have said that the baptized should walk in newness of life. To anyone who says that this is impossible he responds that we know our old self, i.e., the oldness caused by sin, was crucified with him, i.e., put to death by the Cross of Christ. For as was stated above, man’s oldness was brought about by sin -- in the sense that the goodness of his nature was corrupted by sin -- and is predominant as long as he continues in sin. But because what is predominant in a man characterizes the man himself, it follows that the oldness of sin in a man subject to sin is an apt description of the man himself. That is why he says the old self. 244 480. Now the oldness of sin can refer to the guilt of sin or to the stain of actual sins or even to the habit of sinning, which engenders a sort of compulsion to sin, or even to the "fomes" deriving from the sin of the first parent. Thus, therefore, our old self is said to be crucified together with Christ, inasmuch as the aforesaid oldness is removed by the power of Christ; either because it has been entirely removed, as the guilt and stain of sin are entirely removed in baptism, or because its force has been diminished, i.e., the force of the "fomes" or even of the custom of sinning: "Having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross" (Col 2:14). 481. Then (v. 6b) he mentions the twofold effect of this benefit, the first of which is the removal of previous sins. Hence he says: that the body of sin may be destroyed. The body of sin is the assemblage of evil deeds, just as the assemblage of members makes one natural body: "His body is like molten shields." (Jb 41:6). The second effect is that it makes us beware of future sins; hence, he adds: and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For a man is a slave of sin, when he obeys the attraction of sin by consenting to and doing the sin: Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin" (Jn 8:34). 482. Then (v. 7) he clarifies what he had said: first, in regard to the first effect; secondly, in regard to the second [v. 8; n. 484]. 483. In regard to the first it should be noted that the assemblage of sins is destroyed when a man has his sins remitted. So he clarifies how the body of sin is 245 destroyed when he says he who has died to sin through baptism, in which we die together with Christ, is freed from sin, i.e., transferred to the state of righteousness: "And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified" (1 Cor 6:11). Therefore, because man dies to sin through the cross of Christ, he is freed from sin in such away that the body of sin destroyed. 484. Then (v. 8) he clarifies the second effect by showing how it conforms one to the life of Christ. The reasoning is this: One who dies with the dying Christ also lives with the rising Christ. But Christ rose from the dead, never to die again. Therefore, one who has died to sin lives with the risen Christ in such a way that he has the faculty of never returning to sin. 485. In regard to this he does three things: first, he shows the believer’s conformity to the risen Christ; secondly, a condition of this life [n. 487]; thirdly, he draws the conclusion [v. 11; n. 491]. 486. First, therefore, he says: But if we have died with Christ, i.e., if we are dead to sin by virtue of Christ’s death, we believe that we shall also live with him, i.e., in the likeness of his life. We shall live, I say, the life of grace here and the life of glory in the future: "When we were dead through sin, he made us alive together with Christ" (Eph 2:5). 487. Then (v. 9) he describes the condition of life of the risen Christ: first, he states it; 246 secondly, he proves it [v. 10; n. 489]. 488. First, therefore, he says: We believe this, I say, because we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again, but will live an everlasting life: "I died, and behold I am alive for evermore" (Rev 1:18). What is more, death no longer has dominion over him, but it does over man: not only when his soul and body are separated when he dies, but also before he dies, when he is subject to sickness, hunger, thirst and such things as lead to death. From all these things the life of the risen Christ is free. Consequently, he is not subject to the dominion of death; rather, he has dominion over death: "I have the keys of Death and Hades" (Revs 1:18). 489. Then (v. 10) he proves his statement, namely, that the risen Christ will not die again. And he proves this in two ways [n. 490]. First he proves it with a reason based on the death he underwent, saying: The death he died, he died to sin, once for all. This must not be taken to mean that he died to sin he committed or contracted, because sin had no place whatever in him: "Who did no sin" (1 Pt 2:22). But he is said to have died to sin in two ways: in one way, because he died to take away sin: "For our sake he made him who knew no sin to be sin" (2 Cor 5:21), i.e., a victim for sin. In another way, because he died to the likeness of sinful flesh, i.e., to a suffering and mortal body: "God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh" (Rom 8:3). In both ways it can be concluded that Christ died once, from the fact that he died to sin. In regard to the first it is clear that he wiped out all sins through one death: "By a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified" (Heb 10:14). 247 Therefore, he does not need to die again for sin: "For Christ also died for sins once for all" (1 Pt 3:18). In regard to the second the same can be concluded. For if Christ endured death in order that the likeness of death disappear from him, his death ought to have been like that of others, who wear the flesh of sin and die but once. Hence, it says in Heb (9:27): "Just as it is appointed for men to die once, so Christ also offered once to bear the sins of many." 490. Secondly, he shows the same thing by considering the condition of life he obtained by rising. Hence he says: But the life he lives he lives to God, i.e., conformed to God. For it says in 2 Cor (13:4): "He was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God." Now the effect is conformed to the cause. Hence, the life which the rising Christ acquired is deiform. Therefore, just as God’s life is everlasting and without decay: "Who alone has immortality" (1 *** 6:16), so Christ’s life is immortal. 491. Then (v. 11) he reaches the intended conclusion that we be conformed to the life of the risen Christ both with respect to its death to sin, i.e., to the mortal life which has the likeness of sin, never to return to it, and with respect to living conformed to God. In regard to the first he says: So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin, i.e., as never to return to sin: "Let not the dead live" (Is 26:14). In regard to the second he says: and alive to God, i.e., to the honor and in the likeness of God, that we never die through sin: "The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God" (Gal 2:20). So he adds, in Christ Jesus, i.e., through Jesus Christ, through whom we die to sin and live to God; or in Christ Jesus, i.e., as incorporated into Christ Jesus, that by his 248 death we may die to sin and by his resurrection live to God: "He made us alive together with Christ, by whose grace you have been saved through Christ" (Eph 2:5).
[AD 202] Irenaeus on Romans 6:7
Wherefore also He drove him out of Paradise, and removed him far from the tree of life, not because He envied him the tree of life, as some venture to assert, but because He pitied him,

Source: Against Heresies Book III
[AD 202] Irenaeus on Romans 6:7
God set a limit to man’s sin by interposing death and thus causing sin to cease, putting an end to it by the dissolution of the flesh, which should take place in the earth, so that man, ceasing at length to live in sin and dying to it, might begin to live in God.

Source: AGAINST HERESIES 3.23.6
[AD 379] Basil of Caesarea on Romans 6:7
He is set free, he is delivered, he is cleansed of all sin, and not sin in word and deed only but also of all irrational movements of the mind.

Source: CONCERNING BAPTISM 1.2
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:7
This he says of every man, that as he that is dead is henceforth freed from sinning, lying as a dead body, so must he that has come up from baptism, since he has died there once for all, remain ever dead to sin. If then you have died in baptism, remain dead, for any one that dies can sin no more; but if you sin, you mar God's gift. After requiring of us then heroism (Gr. philosophy) of this degree, he presently brings in the crown also, in these words.

Source: Homily 11 on Romans
[AD 418] Pelagius on Romans 6:7
Freed means “alienated” from sin, for the dead do not sin in any way. “No one born of God commits sin,” for since he has been crucified and all his members are filled with regret, he will hardly be able to sin.

Source: PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Romans 6:7
Whoever saw a dead man sleeping in some harlot’s bed, or bloodying his hands with murder, or doing anything else which is sinful?

Source: INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Romans 6:8
Paul writes that we shall live with him in order to show that, while death works in the present, life will come in the future.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
[AD 384] Ambrosiaster on Romans 6:8
It is clear that those who have crucified the body, i.e., the world with its vices and lusts, die to the world and die together with Christ, and that they are also conformed to his eternal and saving life so that they might deserve to be made like Christ in his glory. But the flesh, i.e., the body, is crucified in such a way that the lusts which arise in it as a result of the sin in it, which comes from the transgression of the first man, are trampled underfoot. For the devil is crucified in our flesh; it is he who deceives us through the flesh. But note how the word flesh is sometimes to be understood as the world, i.e., the elements, sometimes as the human body and sometimes as the soul which follows corporeal vices.

Source: COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:8
And indeed even before the crown, this is in itself the greater crown, the partaking with our Master. But he says, I give even another reward. Of what kind is it? It is life eternal. For "we believe," he says, "that we shall also live with Him." And whence is this clear?

Source: Homily 11 on Romans
[AD 418] Pelagius on Romans 6:8
If we have not died with him we shall not live with him, because then we are not his members.

Source: PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Romans 6:8
Those of us who were buried with Christ ought to die to sin, because we are waiting for the resurrection.

Source: INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS
[AD 202] Irenaeus on Romans 6:9
And again, "Knowing that Christ, rising from the dead, dieth no more: "

Source: Against Heresies Book III
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Romans 6:9
If Christ were to die again, it follows that those who have died with him and who will be raised with him will also die again along with him! Therefore the apostle makes it clear that Christ will never die again, so that those who will live with him may be sure of having eternal life.…Paul was right to say that “death no longer has dominion over him.” For he will never again give himself up to the rule of the tyrant, nor will he again empty himself in order to take the form of a servant and be made obedient unto death. Nor will he ever again endure the rule of the tyrant and of death in the form of a servant, even though he assumed it voluntarily and not because he was forced into it.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
[AD 304] Victorinus of Pettau on Romans 6:9
In taking upon Him manhood, He gave a testimony in the world, wherein also having suffered, He freed us by His blood from sin; and having vanquished hell, He was the first who rose from the dead and "death shall have no more dominion over Him."

Source: Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:9
And notice again his undauntedness, and how he makes the thing good from opposite grounds. Since then it was likely that some would feel perplexed at the Cross and the Death, he shows that this very thing is a ground for feeling confident henceforward.

For suppose not, he says, because He once died, that He is mortal, for this is the very reason of His being immortal. For His death has been the death of death, and because He did die, He therefore does not die. For even that death (Romans 6:10)

Source: Homily 11 on Romans
[AD 418] Pelagius on Romans 6:9
We shall not fear the second death if we have died willingly. Or it may mean: “You cannot be baptized a second time because Christ cannot be crucified for you a second time,” as Paul writes to the Hebrews. He does not say that these people cannot repent, but he does not allow them to repeat their baptism.

Source: PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
[AD 542] Caesarius of Arles on Romans 6:9
When death first had dominion over Christ, it was only with his consent.

Source: SERMON 69.2
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Romans 6:9
Though Christ is now risen from the dead, and death has no more power over him, yet living in himself immortal and incorruptible he is again immolated for us in the mystery of the holy sacrifice. Where his body is eaten, there his flesh is distributed among the people for their salvation. His blood no longer stains the hands of the godless but flows into the hearts of his faithful followers.

Source: DIALOGUES 4.60
[AD 220] Tertullian on Romans 6:10
Since Christ died once for all, no one who has died to Christ since then can live again to sin.

Source: ON MODESTY 17
[AD 384] Ambrosiaster on Romans 6:10
Paul shows that in the Savior’s resurrection we have the assurance of eternity, to which we shall attain if we live a better life. For whoever lives to God by doing good is truly alive here and now and has eternal life.

Source: COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES
[AD 390] Diodorus of Tarsus on Romans 6:10
Paul is saying that if Christ had died for sinners two or three times, there would be no danger in going back to our old sinful ways. But as he only died once, we who have been buried and risen again with him will not die to sin again. There will be no second baptism, no second death of Christ. Therefore we must be careful to stay alive.

Source: PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH
[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Romans 6:10
In the Scriptures we learn that there are three kinds of death. The first is when we die to sin and live to God. Blessed is that death which, escaping from sin and devoted to God, separates us from what is mortal and consecrates us to him who is immortal. The second death is the departure from this life.… The third death is that of which it is said: “Let the dead bury their dead.”

Source: On the Death of Satyrus 2.36
[AD 400] Ignatius of Antioch on Romans 6:10
Mindful of him, do ye by all means know that Jesus the Lord was truly born of Mary, being made of a woman; and was as truly crucified. For, says he, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus." And He really suffered, and died, and rose again. For says [Paul], "If Christ should become passible, and should be the first to rise again from the dead." And again, "In that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God." Otherwise, what advantage would there be in [becoming subject to] bonds, if Christ has not died? what advantage in patience? what advantage in [enduring] stripes? And why such facts as the following: Peter was crucified; Paul and James were slain with the sword; John was banished to Patmos; Stephen was stoned to death by the Jews who killed the Lord? But, [in truth, ] none of these sufferings were in vain; for the Lord was really crucified by the ungodly.

Source: Epistle of Pseudo-Ignatius to the Tarsians
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:10
What does "unto sin" mean? It means that He was not subject even to that one, but for our sin, that He might destroy it, and cut away its sinews and all its power, therefore He died. Do you see how he affrights them? For if He does not die again, then there is no second laver, then do thou keep from all inclinableness to sin. For all this he says to make a stand against the "let us do evil that good may come. Let us remain in sin that grace may abound." To take away this conception then, root and branch, it is, that he sets down all this. But in that "He lives, He lives unto God," he says — that is, unchangeably, so that death has no more any dominion over Him. For if it was not through any liability to it that He died the former death, save only for the sin of others, much less will He die again now that He has done that sin away. And this he says in the Epistle to the Hebrews also, "But now once," he says, "in the end of the world has He appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgment; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." [Hebrews 9:26-28] And he both points out the power of the life that is according to God, and also the strength of sin. For with regard to the life according to God, he shows that Christ shall die no more. With regard to sin, that if it brought about the death even of the Sinless, how can it do otherwise than be the ruin of those that are subject to it? And then as he had discoursed about His life; that none might say, What has that which you have been saying to do with us? He adds, (Romans 6:11)

Source: Homily 11 on Romans
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:10
What does “died to sin” mean? It means that he was not subject to sin but that, in order to destroy it and remove its power, he died for our sin. Do you see how Paul frightens them? For since Christ does not die twice, there is no second washing, so you had better steer clear of any inclination toward sin!

Source: HOMILIES ON ROMANS 11
[AD 418] Pelagius on Romans 6:10
Christ carried our sins and suffered for us so that in the future we might not sin. Christ now lives in the glory of his divinity.

Source: PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Romans 6:11
Whoever thinks or considers that he is dead will not sin. For example, if lust for a woman gets hold of me or if greed for silver, gold or riches stirs me and I say in my heart that I have died with Christ … the lust is immediately quenched and sin disappears.The addition of “alive to God in Christ Jesus” does not seem to me to be superfluous. It is as if Paul were saying that we are alive to God in wisdom, peace, righteousness and sanctification, all of which Christ is. Living to God in these is the same as living to God in Christ Jesus. For as nobody lives to God without righteousness, peace, sanctification and the other virtues, so it is certain that no one can live to God except in Christ Jesus.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
[AD 367] Hilary of Poitiers on Romans 6:11
Paul attributes death to sin, i.e., to our body, but life to God, to whose nature it belongs that he lives, so that we must die to our body in order to live in Christ Jesus. While assuming the body of our sin, Christ already lives wholly for God, since he has united the nature that he shared with us in a mutual participation in the divine immortality.

Source: THE TRINITY 9.13
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:11
He well says, "reckon," because there is no setting that, which he is speaking of, before the eyes as yet. And what are we to reckon? One may ask. That we "are dead unto sin, but alive unto God. In Jesus Christ our Lord." For he that so lives will lay hold of every virtue, as having Jesus Himself for his ally. For that is what, "in Christ," means, for if He raised them when dead, much more when alive will He be able to keep them so.

Source: Homily 11 on Romans
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:11
Paul says: “Consider yourselves” … because complete freedom from sin is not a reality as yet.… We are told to live for God in Jesus Christ our Lord and to lay hold of every virtue, having Jesus as our ally in the struggle.

Source: HOMILIES ON ROMANS 11
[AD 418] Pelagius on Romans 6:11
As members of Christ you should understand that having died with him once for all you ought now always to live for God in Christ. In him our life is hidden with God, and since we have been clothed with him we should follow his example.

Source: PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
[AD 202] Irenaeus on Romans 6:12
And for this reason he says, in the Epistle to the Romans: "Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, to be under its control: neither yield ye your members instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves to God, as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God."

Source: Against Heresies Book V
[AD 202] Irenaeus on Romans 6:12
In these same members in which we used to serve sin and bring forth fruit unto death, God wants us to be obedient unto righteousness, that we may bring forth fruit unto life.

Source: AGAINST HERESIES 5.14.4
[AD 223] Callistus I of Rome on Romans 6:12
Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men."
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Romans 6:12
The apostle declares that all sins are works of the flesh.… Now if it were not in our power that sin should not reign in us, he would not have given us this command. How then is it possible that sin should not reign in our flesh? It is possible if we do what the apostle says—“Put to death what is earthly in you”—and if we always carry around in our body the death of Christ. For it is certain that where the death of Christ is carried around sin cannot reign. For the power of the cross of Christ is such that if it is placed before our eyes and kept faithfully in mind in such a way that the eye of the mind may keep its gaze fixed on the death of Christ, no lust, no desire, no passion and no envy will be able to overcome it. At its presence the whole host of sin and the flesh will always flee.Why does Paul add that the body is “mortal,” when this seems to be obvious? Perhaps, but I think there is a reason for this addition. For Paul was showing by this how it is possible for sin not to reign in our bodies.… If we realize that our body can be put to death and be dead to sin, it may happen that sin will not reign in it. Insofar as it is dead, it is said to be justified from sin. Nor does a dead man lust or get angry or have passions or steal what is not his. Therefore, if we suppress all these desires in our bodies they may be said to be dead to sin. This is what the apostle appears to be telling us by adding the adjective mortal in this context. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.
DIODORE:What sin is this? The sin committed before baptism, of course.

Source: PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH
[AD 384] Ambrosiaster on Romans 6:12
The body is mortal because of the sin of Adam, but by faith in Christ we believe that it will be immortal. But in order for it to inherit the promise, Paul says that it must not listen to the voice of sin, so that sin may not reign in our mortal body. For it reigns as long as it is in control. But if it does not reign, the body will no longer appear to be mortal, because it dwells in the hope of eternal life. Paul did not say that the body is mortal because it will disintegrate but because of the pain of hell, so that the man who is sent to hell is said to be mortal because whoever hearkens to sin will not escape the second death, from which the Savior has delivered those who believe in him. Therefore, the mortal body refers to the entire human being because those who hearken to sin are said to be mortal. For Scripture says: “The soul which sins shall surely die,” which means the whole human being. For nobody will be judged apart from his body.

Source: COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES
[AD 390] Diodorus of Tarsus on Romans 6:12
What sin is this? The sin committed before baptism, of course. .
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:12
He does not say, let not the flesh live or act, but, "let not sin reign," for He came not to destroy our nature, but to set our free choice aright. Then to show that it is not through any force or necessity that we are held down by iniquity, but willingly, he does not say, let it not tyrannize, a word that would imply a necessity, but let it not reign. For it is absurd for those who are being conducted to the kingdom of heaven to have sin empress over them, and for those who are called to reign with Christ to choose to be the captives of sin, as though one should hurl the diadem from off his head, and choose to be the slave of a frantic woman, who came begging, and was clothed in rags. Next since it was a heavy task to get the upper hand of sin, see how he shows it to be even easy, and how he allays the labor by saying, "in your mortal body." For this shows that the struggles were but for a time, and would soon bring themselves to a close. At the same time he reminds us of our former evil plight, and of the root of death, as it was from this that, contrary even to its beginning, it became mortal. Yet it is possible even for one with a mortal body not to sin. Do you see the abundancy of Christ's grace? For Adam, though as yet he had not a mortal body, fell. But you, who hast received one even subject to death, can be crowned. How then, is it that "sin reigns?" he says. It is not from any power of its own, but from your listlessness. Wherefore after saying, "let it not reign," he also points out the mode of this reigning, by going on to say "that you should obey it in the lusts thereof." For it is not honor to concede to it (i.e. to the body) all things at will, nay, it is slavery in the extreme, and the height of dishonor; for when it does what it lists, then is it bereft of all liberties; but when it is put under restraints, then it best keeps its own proper rank.

Source: Homily 11 on Romans
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:12
It is absurd for those who are being led toward the kingdom of God to have sin ruling over them or for those who are called to reign with Christ to choose to be captives to sin, as if one should throw down the crown from off his head and choose to be the slave of a hysterical woman who comes begging and covered in rags.… How is it that sin can reign in you? It is not from any power of its own but only from your laziness. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 11.JEROME:Because men are not my masters, because sin is not my lord—for sin does not reign in my mortal body—I am your servant.

Source: HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 40
[AD 418] Pelagius on Romans 6:12
You should live in your mortal body as if you were immortal. Paul also explains how sin reigns in the body—by obedience and consent.

Source: PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
[AD 420] Jerome on Romans 6:12
Because men are not my masters, because sin is not my lord—for sin does not reign in my mortal body—I am your servant.
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Romans 6:12
The reign of sin is overthrown and destroyed, partly by such an amendment on the part of men that the flesh is made subject to the spirit and partly by the condemnation of those who are persevering in sin, in order that they might be so justly restrained that they cannot be troublesome to the righteous, who reign with Christ.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE LORD’S SERMON ON THE MOUNT 1.22.77
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Romans 6:12
We must engage in a constant, daily struggle not to obey those desires which are forbidden or improper. For from this sort of fault it comes about that the eye is turned to where it ought not to look, and if this fault grows strong and prevails, even bodily adultery is carried out, which is committed in the heart as much more quickly as thought is quicker than action and has nothing to hinder or delay it.

Source: ON NATURE AND GRACE 38.45
[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Romans 6:12
A reign is different from a tyranny in that a tyrant rules without the consent of his subjects, whereas a reign applies in those cases where the subjects have assented to it. Therefore Paul is urging his hearers not to assent any longer to the reign of sin, for the Lord destroyed sin’s reign when he took on human flesh.

Source: INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS
[AD 471] Gennadius of Constantinople on Romans 6:12
Here Paul shows that the reason we no longer sin is not that after baptism we are no longer made of flesh. Up to this point, we claim Christ’s perfection by faith only and not by experience. For we have not yet become impassible or immortal.… Therefore Paul does not say: “Do not sin,” but rather: “Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies.”

Source: PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH
[AD 542] Caesarius of Arles on Romans 6:12
Paul did not say: “Let sin not exist,” but “Let it not reign.” Sin is within you if you take delight in it; it reigns if you consent to it.

Source: SERMON 134.3
[AD 1274] Thomas Aquinas on Romans 6:12
After showing that we ought not remain in sin [n. 470] and that we have the faculty for this [n. 478], the Apostle concludes with a moral exhortation. And concerning this he does three things: 249 first, he proposes an admonition; secondly, he assigns a reason [v. 14; n. 496]; thirdly, he raises and solves a question [v. 15; n. 499]. In regard to the first he does two things: first, he proposes the admonition; secondly, he clarifies [v. 12b; n. 494]. 493. First, therefore, he says: We have said that our old self was crucified once, so that the body of sin may be destroyed. This means that the power of sin has been so weakened that it cannot rule us. Therefore, let not sin reign in your mortal bodies any longer. He does not say: Let not sin be in your mortal body, because as long as our body is mortal, it is not possible for sin not to be in our body, i.e., the inclination to sin. But since we have been freed from the kingdom of sin by God, we must struggle in order that sin not recover its dominion now lost in our body. And this is what he says: Let not sin reign in your mortal body. This is something about which one must be on his guard, as long as we wear the mortal body: "The corruptible body is a load upon the soul" (Wis 9:15). 494. Then (v.12b) he clarifies this admonition. In regard to this it should be noted that sin reigns in man in two ways: in one way, through internal consent of the mind. To remove this he says: to make you obey their passions. For it is by obeying the passions of sin with our minds that sin reigns in us: "Go not after thy lusts" (Si 18:30). 250 In a second way sin reigns in us by performing the act. To exclude this, he adds: do not yield your members to sin, i.e., to the inclination to sin, as instruments of wickedness. For when man commits sin through his members, he yields to sin. In this way he seeks to restore sin’s dominion, which grows in us through the habit of sinning: "They went down to hell with their weapons" (Ex 32:27). 495. Then (v.13b) he urges them to the opposite, namely, to mold themselves to God. And first with regard to the internal faculties when he says: But yield yourselves to God by submitting your mind to God: "And now, Israel, what does the Lord thy God require of you but that you fear the Lord your God and walk in his ways" (Dt 10:12). And you ought to do this as men who have been brought from death to life, i.e., as led from the death of sin to the life of grace. Hence it is fitting, since he died for all, "that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised" (2 Cor 3:15). Secondly, with respect to outward actions; hence he says: Yield your members to God, i.e., to his service, as instruments of righteousness with which to fight against God’s enemies: "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil" (Eph 6:11). 496. Then (v.14) he assigns the reason for this admonition. For someone might excuse himself, alleging that sin’s dominion is an obstacle to obeying the admonition. But the Apostle excludes this, saying: For sin will have no dominion over you, i.e., if you begin to resist sin and yield yourself to God: "Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (Jas 251 4:8). As if to say: You can observe my admonition, because you do not find sin dominating and holding you. For we have been freed by Christ, as Jn (8:36) says: "If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." 497. Then he clarifies what he had said, saying: For you are not under the law but under grace. Here it should be noted that he is not speaking of the Law merely with respect to its ceremonial precepts, but even with respect to moral matters. For one is said to be under the Law in two ways: in one way, as voluntarily subject to the observance of the Law. Even Christ was under the Law in this way according to Gal (4:4): "Born under the law," namely, because he observed the Law, not only the moral but also the ceremonial precepts. But the faithful of Christ are under the Law in this way, with respect to the moral precepts but not the ceremonial. In another way, one is said to be under the Law as though compelled by the Law. In this way, one is under the Law when he does not obey it voluntarily from love but is compelled by fear. But such a one lacks grace which, if it were present, would incline the will to observe the Law and fulfill its moral precepts from a motive of love. Therefore, as long as one is under the Law in such a way that he does not fulfill it voluntarily, sin has dominion over him. As a result, such a man’s will is inclined to choose what is contrary to the law. But through grace such dominion is removed; consequently, a man observes the Law not as existing under the Law but as free: "We are not children of the slave but of the free woman, by the freedom with which Christ has sat us free" (Gal 4:31). 252 498. This grace, making men freely obey the Law, was not conferred by the sacraments of the Old Law, but Christ’s sacraments conferred it. Consequently, those who submitted themselves to the ceremonies of the Law were not, so far as the power of those sacraments was concerned, under grace but under the Law, unless they happened to obtain grace through faith. But one who submits to Christ’s sacraments obtains grace from his power, so as not to be under the Law but under grace, unless they enslaved themselves to sin through their own fault. 499. Then (v. 15) he raises a question against what he has said. And concerning this he does three things: first, he raises the question; secondly, he answers it [v. 16; n. 501]; thirdly, he shows how awkward it would be to misinterpret his statement [v. 17; n. 502]. 500. In regard to the first it should be noted that his statement could be falsely interpreted, namely, that Christ’s faithful are not under the Law with respect to being obliged to obey its moral precepts. For it would follow that Christ’s faithful could lawfully commit sin and act against the moral precepts. Therefore, in this context he raises the question: What then? Are we to sin, i.e., act against the moral precepts, because, as has been said, we are not under the law but under grace? This interpretation the Apostle rejects in Gal (5:13): "For you were called to freedom, brethren, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh." 253 23 Ambrose, De Paradiso, ch. 8. 501. In the same fashion he answers here: By no means should we sin because we have been set free from the Law; because if we were to sin, we would once more be reduced to the slavery of sin. Hence, he continues: Do you not know that if you yield yourselves of your own will to anyone as obedient slaves, you are voluntarily the slaves of the one whom you obey. For obedience is a debt which slaves owe to their master: "Slaves, be obedient to your earthly masters" (Eph 6:5). Hence, when someone obeys another, he admits that he is his slave by obeying. But different masters are obeyed for different remunerations. For the one who obeys sin is led to death through the slavery of sin. And this is what he says: either of sin, i.e., you are its slaves by obeying it, which leads to death, i.e., to the eternal damnation of the one who falls. Concerning this death it says in Rev (2:11): "He who conquers shall not be hurt by the second death." But the one who obeys God is made a slave of this obedience, because through the habit of obeying the mind is inclined more and more to obeying and as a result achieves holiness. Therefore, he says: or of obedience, namely, of the divine precepts, which leads to righteousness: "It is the doers of the law who will be justified" (Rom 2:13). Sin and obedience are fittingly presented as opposites, because, as Ambrose says, sin is a transgression of the divine law, disobedience against the heavenly commands.23 502. Then (v.17) he shows the folly o obeying sin and thereby returning to the slavery of sin: first, by considering the benefit we have received. For if someone, by another’s graciousness is freed from slavery, it is foolish to subject oneself freely to slavery. Hence, since we have been freed from sin by the grace of God, it is foolish willfully to return to the slavery of sin. 254 Secondly, by considering the state into which we were placed after freedom from sin, namely, that we are slaves to righteousness. But, it is not lawful for a slave to subject himself to the dominion of an opposite master; hence, it is not lawful, if we have been made slaves of righteousness, to return to the slavery of sin. 503. The Apostle touches on both of these considerations, when he says: I thank God, and you too should thank God, that you who were once slaves of sin may become obedient, namely, by believing, not as though compelled but from the heart: "For man believes with the heart and so is justified" (Rom 10:10) to the standard of teaching, i.e., to the doctrine of the Catholic faith: "Follow the pattern of the sound words you have heard from me" (2 Tim 1:13) to which you were committed: i.e., gave yourselves entirely: "But first they gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God" (2 Cor 8:5). And having been set free from sin, so that it is not fitting for you to return to the slavery of sin, you have become slaves of righteousness, so that it is not fitting to desert righteousness: "You were bought with a price" (1 Cor 7:23) and are not your own.
[AD 215] Clement of Alexandria on Romans 6:13
Usque ad illud: "Neque exhibete membra vestra, arma injustitiae peccato."
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Romans 6:13
Note carefully the subtle distinctions which Paul makes here. When he talks about yielding to sin, he does not talk about us but about our members. However, when he talks about yielding to God, it is not our members which he mentions but our very selves. By this he means that we must give our souls and our whole persons to God so that, as we present ourselves before him as godly people and cling to him, we shall be making our members instruments of righteousness at the same time.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
[AD 379] Basil of Caesarea on Romans 6:13
This injunction would be successfully carried out, I believe, if we were willing always to keep the same disposition of mind as we had at the time of danger. For surely we realized to some degree the vanity of life, as well as the unreliability and instability of human affairs, which change so easily. And in all likelihood we felt contrition for our past faults and promised that for the future, if we were saved we would serve God with watchful exactitude.

Source: LETTER 26
[AD 384] Ambrosiaster on Romans 6:13
Paul shows that the devil fights against us by using our members. For the opportunity is given to him by our sins, so that when God abandons us he acquires the power to deceive and destroy us. Therefore we must protect our members from every work of iniquity so that our enemy may be left defenseless and subdued. Paul did not say: “Present your bodies,” but “Present your members,” for a person goes wrong when his members and not his whole body lead him wherever sin dictates.“Death” in this context means ignorance and unbelief, combined with an evil life, because “life” is to know God through Christ. Just as nobody acquires life without a parent, everyone has obtained life through Christ. Therefore whoever does not recognize that God is the Father of all through Christ is said not to have life, i.e., what he has here on earth does not count as life. For such a person denies himself as long as he thinks he can live without God as his Father. Therefore ignorance and a wicked life are death. For wickedness obtains death, not the death which is common to us all but the death of hell, as I mentioned above. Likewise, knowledge of God the Father and holy behavior are life, not that life which is subject to death but the life of the world to come which is called eternal. For this reason Paul says that you should present yourselves to God, for by knowing him you will go on to salvation. Having turned away from an evil life you will be like people who have risen from the dead.
Such great modesty ought to govern our conduct that our behavior will lead to the righteousness of God, not to earthly righteousness. For the righteousness of this world is without faith in Christ, and without that it is death, not life. Let us then yield our members to him so that he can defend us. For when we yield our members to him through good works, we make ourselves worthy to be aided by God’s righteousness, because that righteousness is not given to those who are unworthy to receive it. Where God’s righteousness is, there the Holy Spirit dwells and helps our infirmity. Just as we yield our members to sin when we act wrongly, so we yield them to righteousness when we behave rightly, protecting them from all wickedness.

Source: COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:13
The body then is indifferent between vice and virtue, as also instruments (or arms) are. But either effect is wrought by him that uses it. As if a soldier fighting in his country's behalf, and a robber who was arming against the inhabitants, had the same weapons for defense. For the fault is not laid to the suit of armor, but to those that use it to an ill end. And this one may say of the flesh too which becomes this or that owing to the mind's decision, not owing to its own nature. For if it be curious after the beauty of another, the eye becomes an instrument of iniquity, not through any agency of its own (for what is of the eye, is but seeing, not seeing amiss), but through the fault of the thought which commands it. But if you bridle it, it becomes an instrument of righteousness. Thus with the tongue, thus with the hands, thus with all the other members. And he well calls sin unrighteousness. For by sinning a man deals unrighteously either by himself or by his neighbor, or rather by himself more than by his neighbor. Having then led us away from wickedness, he leads us to virtue, in these words:

"But yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead."

See how by his bare words he exhorts them, on that side naming "sin" and on this "God." For by showing what a difference there is between the rulers, he casts out of all excuse the soldier that leaves God, and desires to serve under the dominion of sin. But it is not only in this way, but also by the sequel, that he establishes this; by saying, "as alive from the dead." For by these he shows the wretchedness of the other, and the greatness of God's gift. For consider, he says, what you were, and what you have been made. What then were ye? Dead, and ruined by a destruction which could not from any quarter be repaired. For neither was there any one who had the power to assist you. And what have you been made out of those dead ones? Alive with immortal life. And by whom? By the all-powerful God. You ought therefore to marshal yourselves under Him with as much cheerful readiness, as men would who had been made alive from being dead.

"And your members as instruments of righteousness."

Hence, the body is not evil, since it may be made an arm of righteousness. But by calling it an arm, he makes it clear that there is a hard warfare at hand for us. And for this reason we need strong armor, and also a noble spirit, and one acquainted too with the ways of this warfare; and above all we need a commander. The Commander however is standing by, ever ready to help us, and abiding unconquerable, and has furnished us with strong arms likewise. Farther, we have need of a purpose of mind to handle them as should be, so that we may both obey our Commander, and take the field for our country. Having then given us this vigorous exhortation, and reminded us of arms, and battle, and wars, see how he encourages the soldier again and cherishes his ready spirit.

Source: Homily 11 on Romans
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:13
The body, like a military weapon, is not in itself inclined to either vice or virtue. It can go either way, depending on the user.… The flesh becomes either good or evil according to the mind’s decision, not because of its own nature.

Source: HOMILIES ON ROMANS 11
[AD 418] Pelagius on Romans 6:13
Every part of the body can become a weapon of wickedness which will defeat righteousness if it turns its purpose to bad use. At the same time, note that it is by freedom of choice that a man offers his members to the side of his choice.

Source: PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Romans 6:13
By telling us to yield our members to God as instruments of righteousness, Paul teaches that the body is not evil but the creation of a good God. Therefore if it is properly and correctly controlled by the soul it can serve God.

Source: INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS
[AD 215] Clement of Alexandria on Romans 6:14
Quoniam autem qui introducunt indifferentiam, paucas quasdam Scripturas detorquentes, titillanti suae voluptati eas suffragari existimant; rum praecipue ill am quoque: "Peccatum enim vestri non dominabitur; non estis enim sub lege, sed sub gratia; "

Source: Clement of Alexandria Stromata Book III
[AD 220] Tertullian on Romans 6:14
So faith, illumined by patience, when it was becoming propagated among the nations through" Abraham's seed, which is Christ," and was superinducing grace over the law, made patience her pre-eminent coadjutrix for amplifying and fulfilling the law, because that alone had been lacking unto the doctrine of righteousness.

Source: Of Patience
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Romans 6:14
Once again note the subtlety of Paul’s language. When he talks about us he says that “sin” will have no dominion over us, but when he talks about Christ he says that it is “death” which will have no dominion over him, for there was room for death in Christ but not sin.The law of which he speaks here is the law in our members, which is opposed to the law of the mind. It is clear that those who have put to death their members will not be under the law of their members but under the grace of God. If someone wants to read this as referring to the law of Moses, the text will doubtless mean that we are not under the law of the letter, which kills, but under the law of the Spirit, which gives life and which Paul here calls grace.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
[AD 384] Ambrosiaster on Romans 6:14
If we walk according to the commandments which he gives, Paul says that sin will not rule over us, for it rules over those who sin. For if we do not walk as he commands we are under the law. But if we do not sin we are not under the law but under grace. If, however, we sin, we fall back under the law, and sin starts to rule over us once more, for every sinner is a slave to sin. It is necessary for a person to be under the law as long as he does not receive forgiveness, for by the law’s authority sin makes the sinner guilty. Thus the person to whom forgiveness is given and who keeps it by not sinning anymore will neither be ruled by sin nor be under the law. For the authority of the law no longer applies to him; he has been delivered from sin. Those whom the law holds guilty have been turned over to it by sin. Therefore the person who has departed from sin cannot be under the law.

Source: COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:14
If then sin has no more dominion over us, why does he lay so great a charge upon them as he does in the words, "Let not sin reign in your mortal body," and, "yield not ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin?" What does that here said mean then? He is sowing a kind of seed in this statement, which he means to develop afterwards, and to cultivate in a powerful argument. What then is this statement? It is this; that our body, before Christ's coming, was an easy prey to the assaults of sin. For after death a great swarm of passions entered also. And for this cause it was not lightsome for running the race of virtue. For there was no Spirit present to assist, nor any baptism of power to mortify. [John 7:39] But as some horse (Plato Phædr. §74) that answers not the rein, it ran indeed, but made frequent slips, the Law meanwhile announcing what was to be done and what not, yet not conveying into those in the race anything over and above exhortation by means of words. But when Christ had come, the effort became afterwards more easy, and therefore we had a more distant goal (μείζονα τὰ σκάμματα) set us, in that the assistance we had given us was greater. Wherefore also Christ says, "Unless your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." [Matthew 5:20] But this he says more clearly in the sequel. But at present he alludes here briefly to it, to show that unless we stoop down very low to it, sin will not get the better of us. For it is not the Law only that exhorts us, but grace too which also remitted our former sins, and secures us against future ones. For it promised them crowns after toils, but this (i.e. grace) crowned them first, and then led them to the contest. Now it seems to me that he is not signifying here the whole life of a believer, but instituting a comparison between the Baptism and the Law. And this he says in another passage also; "The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." [2 Corinthians 3:6] For the Law convinces of transgression, but grace undoes transgression. As then the former by convincing establishes sin so the latter by forgiving suffers us not to be under sin. And so you are in two ways set free from this thraldom; both in your not being under the Law, and in your enjoying grace. After then he had by these words given the hearer a breathing time, he again furnishes him a safeguard, by introducing an exhortation in reply to an objection, and by saying as follows.

Source: Homily 11 on Romans
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:14
Paul says that unless we sink very low, sin will not get the better of us. For it is not just the law which exhorts us but also grace which has remitted our former sins and protects us against future ones.

Source: HOMILIES ON ROMANS 11
[AD 418] Pelagius on Romans 6:14
Sin will not overcome you, for you are not children but adults. It is like the teacher who says to a student: “Avoid stylistic errors; you are no longer learning from a primary school teacher but from a professor.” Paul offered teaching and example as a way to overcome sin by grace.

Source: PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
[AD 428] Theodore of Mopsuestia on Romans 6:14
Having shown that they should avoid sinning for the sake of future benefits, Paul goes on to add that they should live as though they were incapable of sinning at all. For if the time was coming when they would be transformed and act as sinless people, then here and now they ought to cleanse their minds of any thought of sin and earnestly try to do what is good.

Source: PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Romans 6:14
This refers to the third state of man, when in his mind he serves the law of God even though his flesh still serves the law of sin. For he does not obey the desire to sin, even though lusts will continue to court him and urge him to surrender until the body is raised to new life and death is swallowed up in victory. Because we do not give in to evil desires we are under grace, and sin does not reign in our mortal bodies. But the man who is controlled by sin even if he wants to resist it is still under the law and not yet under grace.

Source: AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 35
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Romans 6:14
Grace causes sin not to have power over you. Therefore do not trust in yourself, lest sin thereby have much more power over you.

Source: On Continence 5.12
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Romans 6:14
It is not that the law is evil but that it makes those under it guilty by giving commands without providing help to fulfill them. In fact, grace helps one to become a doer of the law, for without such grace one living under the law will be no more than a hearer of the law.

Source: GRACE AND FREE WILL 12.24
[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Romans 6:14
In other words, nature is no longer struggling on its own but has the Holy Spirit to help it.

Source: INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS
[AD 215] Clement of Alexandria on Romans 6:15
Ipse enim egregius Apostolus in verbis, quae praedictae dictioni subjungit, intentati criminis afferet solutionem: "Quid ergo? peccabimus, quia non sumus sub lege, sed sub gratia? Abs it."

Source: Clement of Alexandria Stromata Book III
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Romans 6:15
Paul repeats here what he said [in verse 1] above. The only difference is that [in verse 1] he posed the question as if he were speaking to people who had not yet abandoned their sinning, and so he appears to be telling them not to persist in what they had been doing up till then. Here, on the other hand, he seems to be talking to those who have already given up sinning. [In verse 1] he spoke as if abundant grace did not yet exist, but here he speaks as if grace is already present, because “we are not under law but under grace.”

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
[AD 384] Ambrosiaster on Romans 6:15
Although it was right for the law to be given—for it was given in order to show that those who sinned against it were guilty before God and in order to dissuade people from continuing to sin—yet because of the weakness of its infirmity the human race was unable to restrain itself from sin and had become subject to the death of hell. God was moved by the righteousness of his mercy, by which he always comes to the aid of the human race, and through Christ he provided a way by which he could reward those who were without hope. By forgiving their sins he released them from the law which had held them subject. Restored and made whole again by the help of God, they could reject the sins by which they had previously been held down. Therefore we did not sin in rejecting the law but rather we followed the providence of God himself through Christ.

Source: COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:15
So he first adopted a form of adjuration, because it was an absurd thing he had named. And then he makes his discourse pass on to exhortation, and shows the great facility of the struggle, in the following words. (Romans 6:16)

Source: Homily 11 on Romans
[AD 418] Pelagius on Romans 6:15
If you sin, you will not be under grace.

Source: PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
[AD 428] Theodore of Mopsuestia on Romans 6:15
I think that Paul is saying this to the Jews because it is the nature of the law to tell us what we should and should not do. If we find ourselves outside the law, there is nothing to stop us from doing what we like, but if there is some way of determining what should and should not be done, then we are back under the law again, and what is said here will easily apply to us. Paul has expressed himself in this seemingly contradictory way because he is saying that since we are free of sin we are no longer under the law. He does not mean that the outpouring of grace has given us license to sin.

Source: PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH
[AD 215] Clement of Alexandria on Romans 6:16
Quomodo etiam res est libera, intemperantia et turpis sermo? "Omnis enim, qui peccat, est servus "inquit Apostolus.

Source: Clement of Alexandria Stromata Book III
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Romans 6:16
This is what the apostle is teaching in this passage: that each person has it in his control and in the power of his will to be either a servant of sin or a servant of righteousness. He proves himself to be a slave of whatever side he chooses to obey and of whatever side he inclines toward.Note that Paul assumes that anyone who yields himself to sin is a slave of sin, but he does not go on to add that anyone who yields himself to righteousness is a slave of righteousness.… It would not have been right to phrase it like that, because although God himself does what is righteous he cannot for that reason be said to be a slave of righteousness! On the contrary, he is the Lord of righteousness. Therefore it is not true to say that everyone who does what is righteous is a slave to righteousness in the same way that everyone who sins is a slave to sin. For even the devil himself is a slave to sin, because he departed from the obedience of righteousness and rebelled in the face of Almighty God, for which reason he is called an apostate.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
[AD 384] Ambrosiaster on Romans 6:16
Paul warns us not to say one thing and do another, so that when we are said to be servants of God we should be found by our actions to be servants of the devil. He proclaims that we are servants of the one whose will we do and that it is not fair to confess God as Lord but do the works of the devil. For God himself notices this and attacks it: “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me,” and the Lord says in the Gospel: “No man can serve two masters,” and in the law it is written: “God is not mocked.”

Source: COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:16
I do not, he would say, mention hell as yet, nor that great (manuscript Bodl. long) punishment, but the shame it is in this world, when you become slaves, and slaves of your own accord too, and sin's slaves, and when the wages are such as a second death. For if before baptism, it wrought death of the body, and the wound required so great attendance, that the Lord of all came down to die, and so put a stop to the evil; if after so great a gift, and so great liberty, it seize you again, while you bend down under it willingly, what is there that it may not do? Do not then run into such a pit, or willingly give yourself up. For in the case of wars, soldiers are often given up even against their will. But in this case, unless you desert of yourself, there is no one who will get the better of you. Having then tried to shame them by a sense of duty, he alarms them also by the rewards, and lays before them the wages of both; righteousness, and death, and that a death not like the former, but far worse. For if Christ is to die no more, who is to do away with death? No one! We must then be punished, and have vengeance taken upon us forever. For a death preceptible to the senses is not still to come in this case, as in the former, which gives the body rest, and separates it from the soul. "For the last enemy, death, is destroyed" [1 Corinthians 15:26], whence the punishment will be deathless. But not to them that obey, for righteousness, and the blessings springing from it, will be their rewards.

Source: Homily 11 on Romans
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:16
Without saying a word about hell or eternal punishment as yet, Paul talks about the shame which comes in this life when people become slaves, and especially when they do so of their own free will, and to sin, of all things, whose wages are the second (i.e., spiritual) death.

Source: HOMILIES ON ROMANS 11
[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Romans 6:16
Righteousness and sin are mutually incompatible. As the Lord himself said in the holy Gospel: “No man can serve two masters.”

Source: INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Romans 6:17
It appears that Paul is saying this to those whose eternal life and spiritual progress are assured. These are the same people of whom he spoke [in 1:8] above. Then he goes on to point out that, to begin with, all men were slaves of sin.… But what follows is said to a few, to those who have been converted.We all were slaves to sin, but when the standard of teaching was handed down to us and we chose to follow it, not in any which way nor in words only but from the heart, from the mind, with complete devotion, we were set free from the slavery of sin and made servants of righteousness.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
[AD 384] Ambrosiaster on Romans 6:17
As it is right to obey Christ, for he is himself righteousness and what he commands is righteous, Paul therefore says that we have become servants of righteousness “from the heart,” not from the law. We do this voluntarily and not out of fear, so that our confession of faith might find expression in the judgment of our mind. For by nature we have been led to faith, not by the law, in which standard of teaching we have been made for the rule of God, who created nature. For by nature we know by whom and through whom and in whom we were created. Therefore the standard of teaching is that into which our Creator has led us naturally. This is what he said above: “They are a law unto themselves,” when their own natures see what they believe, that what the law and the Prophets predicted to the Jews concerning Christ is what the Gentiles have confessed from the heart. For this reason Paul gives thanks to the Lord, because when we were still servants of sin we obeyed from the heart, believing in Christ, so that we might serve God not according to the law of Moses but according to the law of nature.

Source: COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:17
After shaming them by the slavery, after alarming them by the rewards, and so exhorting them, he again rights them by calling the benefits to mind. For by these he shows that they were great evils from which they were freed, and that not by any labors of their own, and that things henceforth would be more manageable. Just as any one who has rescued a captive from a cruel tyrant, and advises him not to run away back to him, reminds him of his grievous thraldom; so does Paul set the evils passed away most emphatically before us, by giving thanks to God. For it was no human power that could set us free from all those evils, but, "thanks be to God," who was willing and able to do such great things. And he well says, "You have obeyed from the heart." You were neither forced nor pressed, but you came over of your own accord, with willing mind. Now this is like one that praises and rebukes at once. For after having willingly come, and not having had any necessity to undergo, what allowance can you claim, or what excuse can you make, if you run away back to your former estate? Next that you may learn that it came not of your own willing temper only, but the whole of it of God's grace also, after saying, "You have obeyed from the heart," he adds, "that form of doctrine which was delivered you." For the obedience from the heart shows the free will. But the being delivered, hints the assistance from God. But what is the form of doctrine? It is living aright, and in conformity with the best conversation.

Source: Homily 11 on Romans
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:17
After shaming them by mentioning their slavery and alarming them by talking about its rewards, Paul puts the balance right by recalling the benefits which they have received. For by mentioning them he shows that they were set free from very great evils indeed and that this had happened without any labor on their part.… For no human power could have set us free from such great evils, but “thanks be to God,” who was willing and able to do such great things. And well he says that they were “obedient from the heart,” because they were neither forced nor pressed but came of their own accord, with a willing mind.… This shows that they exercised their free will.

Source: HOMILIES ON ROMANS 11
[AD 418] Pelagius on Romans 6:17
We “were” slaves to sin, but we “are” no longer.

Source: PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Romans 6:17
You who once were slaves to sin have broken away from it by the free will of your mind and have embraced spiritual teaching instead.

Source: INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Romans 6:18
What is it which sets us free from sin? Knowledge of the truth, of course! This is what Jesus said to the Jews: “If you believe my word, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:18
There are two gifts of God which he here points out. The "freeing from sin," and also the "making them servants to righteousness," which is better than any freedom. For God has done the same as if a person were to take an orphan, who had been carried away by savages into their own country, and were not only to free him from captivity, but were to set a kind father over him, and bring him to very great dignity. And this has been done in our case. For it was not our old evils alone that He freed us from, since He even led us to the life of angels, and paved the way for us to the best conversation, handing us over to the safe keeping of righteousness, and killing our former evils, and deadening the old man, and leading us to an immortal life.

Let us then continue living this life; for many of those who seem to breathe and to walk about are in a more wretched plight than the dead. For there are different kinds of deadness; and one there is of the body, according to which Abraham was dead, and still was not dead. For "God," He says, "is not a God of the dead, but of the living." [Matthew 22:32] Another is of the soul which Christ alludes to when He says, "Let the dead bury their dead." [Matthew 8:22] Another, which is even the subject of praise, which is brought about by religion (φιλοσοφίας), of which Paul says, "Mortify your members which are upon the earth." [Colossians 3:5] Another, which is the cause even of this, the one which takes place in baptism. "For our old man," he says, "has been crucified" [Romans 6:6], that is, has been deadened. Since then we know this, let us flee from the deadness by which, even though alive, we die. And let us not be afraid of that with which common death comes on. But the other two, whereof one is blissful, having been given by God, the other praiseworthy (cf. Ar. Eth. i. 12), which is accomplished by ourselves together with God, let us both choose and be emulous of. And of those two, one does David pronounce blessed, when he says, "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven" [Psalm 32:1]; and the other, Paul holds in admiration, saying, and writing to the Galatians, "They that be Christ's have crucified the flesh." [Galatians 5:24] But of the other couple, one Christ declares to be easy to hold in contempt, when He says, "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul:" and the other fearful, for, "Fear" (He says) "Him that is able to destroy both body and soul in hell." [Matthew 10:28] And therefore let us flee from this, and choose that deadness which is held blessed and admirable; that of the other two, we may escape the one and not fear the other: for it is not the least good to us to see the sun, and to eat and drink, unless the life of good words be with us. For what would be the advantage, pray, of a king dressed in a purple robe and possessed of arms, but without a single subject, and exposed to all that had a mind to attack and insult him? In like manner it will be no advantage to a Christian to have faith, and the gift of baptism, and yet be open to all the passions. In that way the disgrace will be greater, and the shame more. For as such an one having the diadem and purple is so far from gaining by this dress any honor to himself, that he even does disgrace to that by his own shame: so the believer also, who leads a corrupt life, is so far from becoming, as such, an object of respect, that he is only the more one of scorn. "For as many," it says, "as sinned without law, shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law." [Romans 2:12]. And in the Epistle to the Hebrews, he says, "He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who had trodden under foot the Son of God?" [Hebrews 10:28-29] And with reason. For I placed (He might say) all the passions in subjection to you by baptism. How then comes it that you have disgraced so great a gift, and hast become one thing instead of another? I have killed and buried your former transgressions, like worms — how is it that you have bred others?— for sins are worse than worms, since these do harm to the body, those to the soul; and those make the more offensive stench. Yet we perceive it not, and so we are at no pains to purge them out. Thus the drunkard knows not how disgustful the stale wine is, but he that is not drunken has a distinct perception of it. So with sins also, he that lives soberly knows thoroughly that other mire, and the stain. But he that gives himself up to wickedness, like a man made drowsy with drunkenness, does not even know the very fact that he is ill. And this is the most grievous part of vice, that it does not allow those who fall into it even to see the greatness of their own bane, but as they lie in the mire, they think they are enjoying perfumes. And so they have not even the power of getting free, but when full of worms, like men that pride themselves in precious stones, so do they exult in these. And for this reason they have not so much as the will to kill them, but they even nourish these up, and multiply them in themselves, until they send them on to the worms of the world to come. For these are providers for those, and are not only providers, but even the fathers of those that never die; as it says, "their worm shall not die." [Mark 9:44] These kindle the hell which never extinguishes. To prevent this from happening then, let us do away with this fountain of evil, and extinguish the furnace, and let us draw up the root of wickedness from beneath, since you will do no good by cutting the tree off from above, if the root remains below, and sends up fresh shoots of the same kind again. What then is the root of the evils? Learn from the good husbandman [i.e. St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 3:6-9], who has an accurate knowledge of such things, and tends the spiritual vine and cultivates the whole world. Now what does he say is the cause of all the evils? The love of money. For the "love of money is the root of all evils." [1 Timothy 6:10]. Hence come fightings, and enmities and wars; hence emulations, and railings, and suspicions, and insults; hence murders, and thefts, and violations of sepulchres.

Through this, not cities and countries only, but roads and habitable and inhabitable parts, and mountains, and groves, and hills, and, in a word, all places are filled with blood and murder. And not even from the sea has this evil withdrawn, but even there also with great fury has it revelled, since pirates beset it on all sides, thus devising a new mode of robbery. Through this have the laws of nature been subverted, and the claims of relationship set aside, and the laws of piety itself broken through. For the thraldom of money has armed, not against the living only, but even against the departed too, the right hands of such men. And at death even, they make no truce with them, but bursting open the sepulchres, they put forth their impious hands even against dead bodies, and not even him that has let go of life will they suffer to be let go from their plotting. And all the evils that you may find, whether in the house or in the market-place, or in the courts of law, or in the senate, or in the king's palace, or in any other place whatsoever, it is from this that you will find they all spring. For this evil it is, this assuredly, which fills all places with blood and murder, this lights up the flame of hell, this makes cities as wretchedly off as a wilderness, yea, even much worse. For those that beset the high roads, one can easily be on one's guard against, as not being always upon attack. But they who in the midst of cities imitate them are so much the worse than them, in that these are harder to guard against, and dare to do openly what the others do with secrecy. For those laws, which have been made with a view to stopping their iniquity, they draw even into alliance and fill the cities with this kind of murders and pollutions. Is it not murder, pray, and worse than murder, to hand the poor man over to famine, and to cast him into prison, and to expose him not to famine only, but to tortures too, and to countless acts of insolence? For even if you do not do these things yourself to him, yet you are the occasion of their being done, you do them more than the ministers who execute them. The murderer plunges his sword into a man at once, and after giving him pain for a short time, he does not carry the torture any farther. But do you who by your calumnies, by your harassings, by your plottings, make light darkess to him, and set him upon desiring death ten thousand times over, consider how many deaths you perpetrate instead of one only? And what is worse than all, you plunder and are grasping, not impelled to it by poverty, without any hunger to necessitate you, but that your horse's bridle may be spattered over with gold enough, or the ceiling of your house, or the capitals of your pillars. And what hell is there that this conduct would not deserve, when it is a brother, and one that has shared with yourself in blessings unutterable, and has been so highly honored by the Lord, whom you, in order that you may deck out stones, and floors, and the bodies of animals with neither reason, nor perception of these ornaments, are casting into countless calamities? And your dog is well attended too, while man, or rather Christ, for the sake of the hound, and all these things I have named, is straitened with extreme hunger. What can be worse than such confusion? What more grievous than such lawlessness as this? What streams of fire will be enough for such a soul? He that was made in the Image of God stands in unseemly plight, through your inhumanity; but the faces of the mules that draw your wife glisten with gold in abundance, as do the skins and woods which compose that canopy. And if it is a seat that is to be made, or a footstool, they are all made of gold and silver. But the member of Christ, for whom also He came hither from Heaven, and shed His precious Blood, does not even enjoy the food that is necessary for him, owing to your rapaciousness. But the couches are mantled with silver on every side, while the bodies of the saints are deprived even of necessary clothing. And to you Christ is less precious than anything else, servants, or mules, or couch, or chair, or footstool; for I pass over furniture of still meaner use than these, leaving it to you to know of it. But if you are shocked at hearing this, stand aloof from doing it, and then the words spoken will not harm you. Stand aloof, and cease from this madness. For plain madness it is, such eagerness about these things. Wherefore letting go of these things, let us look up, late as it is, towards Heaven, and let us call to mind the Day which is coming, let us bethink ourselves of that awful tribunal, and the exact accounts, and the sentence incorruptible. Let us consider that God, who sees all these things, sends no lightnings from Heaven; and yet what is done deserves not thunderbolts merely. Yet He neither does this, nor does He let the sea loose upon us, nor does He burst the earth in two, He quenches not the sun, nor does He hurl the heaven with its stars upon us. He does not move anything from its place, but suffers them to hold their course, and the whole creation to minister to us. Pondering all this then, let us be awestruck with the greatness of His love toward man, and let us return to that noble origin which belongs to us, since at present certainly we are in no better plight than the creatures without reason, but even in a much worse one. For they do love their kin, and need but the community of nature to cause affection towards each other. But thou who besides nature hast countless causes to draw you together and attach you to the member of yourself; the being honored with the Word, the partaking in one religion, the sharing in countless blessings; art become of wilder nature than they, by displaying so much carefulness about profitless things, and leaving the Temples of God to perish in hunger and nakedness, and often surrounding them also with a thousand evils. For if it is from love of glory that you do these things, it is much more binding on you to show your brother attention, than your horse. For the better the creature that enjoys the act of kindness, the brighter the crown that is woven for such carefulness. Since now while you fall into the contrary of all this, you pull upon yourself accusers without number, yet perceivest it not. For who is there that will not speak ill of you? Who that will not indite you as guilty of the greatest atrocity and misanthrophy, when he sees that you disregard the human race, and settest that of senseless creatures above men, and besides senseless creatures, even the furniture of your house? Have you not heard the Apostles say, that they who first received the word sold both "houses and lands" [Acts 4:34], that they might support the brethren? But you plunder both houses and lands, that you may adorn a horse or wood-work, or skins, or walls, or a pavement. And what is worse is, that it is not men only, but women too are afflicted with this madness, and urge their husbands to this empty sort of pains, by forcing them to lay out their money upon anything rather than the necessary things. And if any one accuse them for this, they are practised with a defense, itself loaded with much to be accused. For both the one and the other are done at once, says one.

What say you? Are you not afraid to utter such a thing, and to set the same store by horses and mules and couches and footstools, as by Christ an hungered? Or rather not even comparing them at all, but giving the larger share to these, and to Him meting out with difficulty a scant share? Do you not know that all belongs to Him, both you and yours? Do you not know that He fashioned your body, as well as gave you a soul, and apportioned you the whole world? But you are not for giving a little recompense to Him. But if you let a little hut, you require the rent with the utmost rigor, and though reaping the whole of His creation, and dwelling in so wide a world, you have not courage to lay down even a little rent, but has given up to vainglory yourself and all you have. For this is that whereof all these things come. The horse is none the better above his natural excellence for having this ornament, neither yet is the person mounted upon him, for sometimes he is only in the less esteem for it; since many neglect the rider and turn their eyes to the horse's ornaments, and to the attendants behind and before, and to the fan-bearers. But the man, who is lackeyed by these, they hate and turn their heads from, as a common enemy. But this does not happen when you adorn your soul, for then men, and angels, and the Lord of angels, all weave you a crown. And so, if you are in love with glory, stand aloof from the things which you are now doing, and show your taste not in your house, but in your soul, that you may become brilliant and conspicuous. For now nothing can be more cheap than you are, with your soul unfurnished, and but the handsomeness of your house for a screen. But if you are impatient of hearing me speak in this way, listen to what one of those that are without did, and at all events be shamed by their philosophy. For it is said that a certain one of them, who went into a palace that shone with gold in abundance, and glistened with the great beauty of the marbles and the columns, when he saw the floor strewed with carpets in all directions, spat in the face of the master of the house, and when found fault with for it said, that since there was no other part of the house where he could do this, he was obliged to do this affront to his face. See how ridiculous a man is, who displays his taste in exteriors, and how little he is in the eyes of all reasonable men. And with good reason. For if a person were to leave your wife to be clad in rags, and to be neglected, and clothed your maid-servants with brilliant dresses, you would not bear it meekly, but would be exasperated, and say that it was insulting in the extreme. Reason then in this way about your soul. When you display your taste in walls then, and pavement, and furniture, and other things of the kind, and do not give liberally in alms, or practise the other parts of a religious life (φιλοσοφίαν]); you do nothing less than this, or rather what is worse than this by far. For the difference between servant and mistress is nothing, but between soul and flesh, there is a great disparity. But if it be so with the flesh, much more is it with a house or a couch or a footstool. What kind of excuse then do you deserve, who puttest silver on all these, but for it hast no regard, though it be covered with filthy rags, squalid, hungry, and full of wounds, torn by hounds unnumbered [Luke 16:20-21]; and after all this fanciest that you shall get you glory by displaying your taste in externals wound about you? And this is the very height of phrenzy, while ridiculed, reproached, disgraced, dishonored, and falling into the severest punishment, still to be vain of these things! Wherefore, I beseech you, laying all this to heart, let us become sober-minded, late as it is, and become our own masters, and transfer this adorning from outward things to our souls. For so it will abide safe from spoiling, and will make us equal to the angels, and will entertain us with unaltering good, which may we all attain by the grace and love toward man, etc.

Source: Homily 11 on Romans
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:18
There are two gifts of God which Paul points out here. First there is the freeing from sin, and then there is the making of slaves of righteousness, which is better than any freedom. For God has done the same as if a person was to take an orphan who had been carried away by savages into their own country, and was not only to free him from captivity but to set a kind father over him and raise him to a very great dignity. This is what has happened in our case. For it was not just that God freed us from our old evils; he also led us into the life of angels. He opened the way for us to enjoy the best life, handing us over to the safekeeping of righteousness and killing our former evils, putting the old man in us to death and bringing us to eternal life.

Source: HOMILIES ON ROMANS 11
[AD 418] Pelagius on Romans 6:18
This is according to the teaching and example of Christ, who has taught us to get rid not only of sins but also of opportunities to sin.

Source: PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Romans 6:19
What is there so human, so trivial, so light that no weakness of the flesh can excuse it?… It is hardly cause for boasting that someone should serve virtue in the same way as he once served vice. Righteousness ought to be honored much more fully and much more seriously than that! But here Paul says: “I am speaking in human terms,” meaning that he requires the same zeal from the convert as was present in him as a sinner. Once your feet ran to the temples of demons; now they run to the church of God. Once they ran to spill blood; now they run to set it free. Once your hands were stretched out to steal what belonged to others; now they are stretched out for you to be generous with what is your own. Once your eyes looked at women or at something which was not yours with lust in them; but now they look at the poor, the weak and the helpless with pity in them. Your ears used to delight in hearing empty talk or in attacking good people; now they have turned to hearing the Word of God, to the exposition of the law and to the learning of the knowledge of wisdom. Your tongue, which was accustomed to bad language, cursing and swearing has now turned to praising the Lord at all times; it produces healthy and honest speech, in order to give grace to the hearers and speak the truth to its neighbor.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Romans 6:19
But our members must be said to be circumcised if they are devoted to the service of God. But if they go beyond the laws divinely ordained for them, they must be considered uncircumcised.… For when our members served iniquity they were not circumcised, nor was the covenant of God in them. But when they began to serve righteousness unto sanctification, the promise which was made to Abraham is fulfilled in them.

Source: HOMILIES ON GENESIS 3.6
[AD 384] Ambrosiaster on Romans 6:19
In recalling the weakness of the flesh, Paul wants to say that he is demanding less from us than the worship of God would normally require.… In order to remove from us any reason to be afraid of coming to faith, because that might seem to us to be unbearable and rough, Paul commands us to serve God with the same amount of zeal that we previously served the devil. For as we ought to be more willing to serve God than the devil, given that God brings salvation and the devil damnation, yet the spiritual physician does not demand more from us, lest in avoiding the more difficult precepts on account of our weakness we should remain in death. Thus the Lord says: “Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Source: COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:19
"I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as you have yielded your members (so 4 manuscripts Sav. the members of your flesh) servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness."

Since he had required great strictness of life, charging us to be dead to the world, and to have died unto wickedness, and to abide with no notion towards the workings of sin, and seemed to be saying something great and burdensome, and too much for human nature; through a desire to show that he is not making any exorbitant demand, nor even as much as might be expected of one who enjoyed so great a gift, but one quite moderate and light, he proves it from contraries, and says, "I speak after the manner of men," as much as to say, Going by human reasonings; by such as one usually meets with. For he signifies either this, or the moderateness of it, by the term applied, "after the manner of men." For elsewhere he uses the same word. "There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man" [1 Corinthians 10:13], that is, moderate and small. "For as you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness." And truly the masters are very different ones, but still it is an equal amount of servitude that I ask. For men ought to give a much larger one, and so much the larger as this is a greater and better mastership than the other. Nevertheless I make no greater demand "because of the infirmity," and that, he does not say of your free will or readiness of spirit, but "of your flesh," so making what he says the less severe. And yet on one side there is uncleanness, on the other holiness: on the one iniquity, and on the other righteousness. And who is so wretched, he says, and in such straits as not to spend as much earnestness upon the service of Christ, as upon that of sin and the devil? Hear then what follows, and you will see clearly that we do not even spend this little. For when (stated in this naked way) it does not seem credible or easy to admit, and nobody would endure to hear that he does not serve Christ so much as he did serve the devil, he proves it by what follows, and renders it credible by bringing that slavery before us, and saying how they did serve him.

Source: Homily 12 on Romans
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:19
Paul says that he is speaking in human terms in order to show that he is not making any exorbitant demand, nor even as much as might be expected from someone who enjoyed so great a gift, but rather a moderate and light request.… The two masters are very different from each other, but even so, Paul is asking for no more than the same amount of servitude. People really ought to give much more to the service of righteousness, since righteousness is obviously so much bigger and better. But because of their weakness, which he does not ascribe to their free will or to their spirit but to their flesh, Paul is not making any greater demands on them.

Source: HOMILIES ON ROMANS 12
[AD 418] Pelagius on Romans 6:19
Paul is saying, in effect: “Although you ought to serve righteousness much more than you previously served sin, I nevertheless make allowance for your weakness so that you might serve righteousness just as much as you once served sin.” Or perhaps it is this: Whatever the soul does in a carnal fashion is held against the flesh, but if the flesh performs a spiritual deed the whole person becomes spiritual.… We offered our members to serve sin; it is not the case, as the Manichaeans say, that it was the nature of the body to have sin ingrained in it.

Source: PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
[AD 1274] Thomas Aquinas on Romans 6:19
After showing with a reason based on God’s grace that we should not continue in sin but should serve God, the Apostle shows the same thing with a reason based on a condition of the former life. In regard to this he does three things: first, he describes the terms in which he will present his teaching; secondly, he presents the teaching [v. 19b; n. 506]; thirdly, be gives the reason for the teaching [v. 20; n. 507]. 505. First, therefore, he says: I have advised that you yield yourselves to God. I am now speaking to you in human terms, i.e., as suited to human feebleness. For man is sometimes so presented in Scripture to signify a weakness of the human condition: "I am a weak man, and of a short time, and falling short of the understanding of judgment and laws" (Wis 9:5); "Since there are jealousy and strife among you, are you not carnal and walking as mere men?" (1 Cor 3:3). He assigns the cause, when he adds, because of the limitations; for it is to the mature that the more perfect precepts are given: "Wisdom, however, we speak among those who are mature" (1 Cor 2:6); "Solid food is for the mature" (Heb 5:14), but lighter precepts are given to weaker men: "As to little ones in Christ, I fed you with milk, not 256 with solid food" (1 Cor 3:1); "You have become such as have need of milk and not of solid food" (Heb 5:12). But this weakness comes not from the spirit but from the flesh, because the body, which is subject to decay is a load on the soul, as it says in Wis (9:15); hence, he adds: of your flesh: "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Mt 26:41). 506. Then (v.19b) he presents the teaching he called human, in which he teaches that the body must be yielded to the slavery of righteousness in the same measure as we yielded it to the slavery of sin. And this is what he says: For just as you once yielded your members, namely, by doing evil works, to impurity and to iniquity born in the heart. Here "impurity" refers to sins of the flesh: "But immorality and every uncleanness, let it not even be named among you" (Eph 5:3), and "iniquity" to spiritual sins, particularly those that harm one’s neighbor: "He plots mischief [iniquity] while on his bed" (Ps 36:4). So now, set free from sin, yield your members, namely, by performing good works, to righteousness proposed to us in the divine law: and this for sanctification, i.e., for the increase of holiness: "Let the holy still be holy" (Rev 22:11). He calls this human, because right reason demands that man serve righteousness more than he previously served sin: "For as it was your mind to go astray from God; so when you return again, you shal1 seek him ten times as much (Bar 4:28). 507. Then when he says, When you were slaves, he assigns the reason for this teaching. In regard to this he does two things: first, he presents a reason for the teaching; secondly, he proves something he had presupposed [v. 23; n. 516]. 257 The reason behind the above teaching is that the state of grace is preferable to the state of sin. For if more benefits accrue to us from the state of righteousness than from sin, we should be more eager to serve righteousness than we were to serve sin. First, therefore, he describes the state of sin; secondly, the state of righteousness [v. 22; n. 512]. In regard to the first he does three things: first, he describes the condition of the sinner; secondly, the effect of sin [v. 21; n. 510]; thirdly, its end [v. 21b; n. 511]. 508. In regard to the first it should be noted that man is by nature free because of his reason and will, which cannot be forced but can be inclined by certain things. Therefore, in regard to the freedom of the will man is always free of compulsion, although he is not free of inclinations. For the free judgment is sometimes inclined to the good through the habit of grace or righteousness; and then it is in slavery to righteousness but free from sin. But sometimes the free judgment is inclined to evil through the habit of sin; and then it is in slavery to sin and free from righteousness. Now, slavery to sin consists in being drawn to consent to sin against the judgment of reason: "Everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin" (Jn 8:34). And in regard to this he says: When you were slaves of sin. Freedom from righteousness, on the other hand, implies that a man rushes headlong into sin without the restraint of righteousness; in regard to this he says: you were free in regard to righteousness. This happens especially in those who sin of set purpose: "Long ago you 258 broke your yoke and burst your bonds; and you said, ‘I will not serve’" (Jer 2:20); "A vain man is lifted up into pride, and thinks himself born free like a wild ass’ colt" (Jb 11:12). 509. Yet it should be noted that this state involves true slavery and only apparent freedom. For since man should act according to reason, be is truly a slave when he is led away from what is reasonable by something alien. Furthermore, if he is not restrained by the yoke of reason from following concupiscence, he is free only in the opinion of those who suppose that the highest good is to follow one’s concupiscence. 510. Then (v.21) he shows the effect of sin. One effect he excludes, namely, a fruitful return, when he says: But then what return did you get, namely, when you were committing those sins. For the works of sin are unfruitful, because they do not help man to obtain happiness: Their works are unprofitable works" (Is 59:6); "Woe to you that devise that which is unprofitable and work evil in your beds" (Mic 2:1). The effect he mentions is confusion, saying: from the things, namely, the sins, of which you are now, in the state of repentance, ashamed because of their baseness. "You shall be ashamed of the gardens" (Is 1:29), namely, of the pleasure you had chosen. 511. Then (v.21b) he mentions the end of sin, saying: For the end of those things, namely of sins, is death. This of course is not the objective in the mind of the sinner, because be does not intend to incur death by sin; nevertheless, it is the end of those sins, because of their very nature they bring temporal death. For when the soul separates God from itself, it 259 deserves to have its body separated from it. Sins also bring eternal death, because when one wills to be separated from God for a time, he deserves to be separated from him forever; and this is eternal death: "Those who do such things deserve to die" (Rom 1:32). 512. Then (v.22) he describes the state of righteousness: first, he describes a condition of this state; secondly, the effect [v. 22b; n. 514]; thirdly, the end [v. 22c; n. 515]. 513. In regard to the first it should be noted that just as when one is by sin inclined to evil, he is free from righteousness, so when one is by the habit of righteousness and grace inclined to good, he is free from sin, so that he is not overcome by it to the point of consenting to it. Hence he says: But now in the state of righteousness, having been set free from sin: "If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed" (Jn 8:36). On the other hand, just as in the state of sin one is a slave of sin which he obeys, so in the state of righteousness one is a slave of God and obeys him willingly: "Serve the Lord with gladness" (Ps 100:2); "O Lord, I am thy servant" Ps 116 (v.16). And this is what he adds: you have become slaves of God. But this is true freedom and the best form of slavery, because by righteousness man is inclined to what befits him and is turned from what befits concupiscence which is distinctively bestial. 514. Then (v.22b) he mentions the effect of righteousness, saying: The return you get is sanctification, i.e., the fruit of sanctity by good works is your return, inasmuch as 260 these please you in a spiritual and holy way: "My flowers are the fruit of honor and riches" (Si 24:23). 515. After that he mentions the end, saying, and its end, eternal life, which is the goal of all just men who do all their works for the sake of obtaining eternal life: "Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you" (Mt 6:33). It is also the end of the works themselves which merit eternal life, since they are done out of obedience to God and in imitation of God: "My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life" (Jn 10:27). 516. Then (v.22c) he clarifies what he had said about the ends of evil and of good. First, in regard to evil he says: We have stated that the end of sins is death: the wages of sin is death. Wages or stipends were the salaries paid soldiers. These were paid in money. Therefore, because by sinning one makes war by using his members as arms for sin, death is said to be the wages of sin, i.e., the return paid to those who serve it. Death, therefore, is the return which pays those who are its slaves. It is not the end they seek but the end paid to them: "On the wicked he will rain coals of fire and brimstone; a scorching wind will be the portion of their cup" (Ps 11:6). 517. In regard to the good he says: The free gift [grace] of God is eternal life. For since he had said that just men have eternal life, which it is certain cannot be had except through grace, then the very fact that we do what is good and that our works are worthy of eternal life is the result of God’s grace: "He bestows grace and glory" (Ps 84:11). Thus, therefore, if our works are considered in themselves and as coming from our free will they do not merit eternal life ex condigno, but only as coming from the grace 261 of the Holy Spirit. Hence it says in Jn (4:14): "The water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." And this in Christ Jesus our Lord, i.e., through Christ or inasmuch as we exist in him through faith and love: "Every one who sees the Son and believes in him has eternal life" (Jn 6:40). 2
[AD 215] Clement of Alexandria on Romans 6:20
For the wages of sin is death: but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Source: Clement of Alexandria Stromata Book IV
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Romans 6:20
Here free means “alien,” and rightly so. For no one can serve sin and righteousness at the same time, as the Savior said: “No one can serve two masters.”

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
[AD 384] Ambrosiaster on Romans 6:20
It is clear that whoever is free of God is a slave of sin. For as long as he sins he goes away from God and comes under sin.

Source: COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:20
Now what he says is somewhat of this kind, When ye lived in wickedness, and impiety, and the worst of evils, the state of compliance ye lived in was such that you did absolutely no good thing at all. For this is, "you were free from righteousness." That is you were not subject to it, but estranged from it wholly. For you did not even so much as divide the manner of servitude between righteousness and sin, but gave yourselves wholly up to wickedness. Now, therefore, since you have come over to righteousness, give yourselves wholly up to virtue, doing nothing at all of vice, that the measure you give may be at least equal. And yet it is not the mastership only that is so different, but in the servitude itself there is a vast difference. And this too he unfolds with great perspicuity, and shows what conditions they served upon then, and what now. And as yet he says nothing of the harm accruing from the thing, but hitherto speaks of the shame.

Source: Homily 12 on Romans
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:20
In the past you did not split your service between righteousness and sin but were wholly given over to sin. So now that you have come over to the side of righteousness, you should do the same thing and give yourselves over entirely to righteousness, doing nothing at all that is wicked.

Source: HOMILIES ON ROMANS 12
[AD 418] Pelagius on Romans 6:20
As you are in no way slaves to sin inwardly, you should become free of every sin.

Source: PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
[AD 455] Prosper of Aquitaine on Romans 6:20
He who serves the devil is free from God, but he who being freed serves God is free from the devil. As a result it is apparent that a false liberty could have been had from a defect of the human will but that a true liberty could not have been received without the help of the liberator.

Source: GRACE AND FREE WILL 9.5
[AD 215] Clement of Alexandria on Romans 6:21
Death is the fellowship of the soul in a state of sin with the body, and life is separation from that sin.

Source: STROMATA 4.3
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Romans 6:21
Someone who turns his heart and mind to righteousness will undoubtedly blush and condemn himself when he thinks back on what he did before, when he was acting under the power of sin, for “the end of those things is death.” But what death, I ask? Certainly not the death that is common to us all.… Is it perhaps that which is called the death of sin, as when Scripture says: “The soul which sins will surely die.” Or should it rather be understood as referring to that death by which we die with Christ to sin and put an end to wickedness and crimes, so that it can be said, as it is here, that death is the end of them? Paul compares fruits with fruits and declares that the fruits of sin for which we are now ashamed because we have been set free from sin and become servants of God end in death, whereas the fruits of righteousness, which lead to sanctification, end in eternal life.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
[AD 384] Ambrosiaster on Romans 6:21
What are the fruits of sin? Learning from them what a good life is we are ashamed by the way we lived so wickedly before. And it is not only that the opinion of the pagans is wicked but also the heresy which is found most of all in Phrygia, to which only a morally corrupt person would belong, in which there is no sacrament and Christian piety has died out. Behold a freedom full of sins and bound by wickedness, whose deeds have only shame as their reward and whose end is death! Our departure is the end of this life and its deeds, and either death or life will succeed it. But here the word death has a double meaning, for it shifts from one kind of death to another.

Source: COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:21
So great was the slavery, that even the recollection of it now makes you ashamed; but if the recollection makes one ashamed, the reality would much more. And so you gained now in two ways, in having been freed from the shame; and also in having come to know the condition you were in; just as then you were injured in two ways, in doing things deserving shame, and in not even knowing to be ashamed. And this is worse than the former. Yet still ye kept in a state of servitude. Having then proved most abundantly the harm of what took place then from the shame of it, he comes to the thing in question. Now what is this thing? "For the end of those things is death." Since then shame seems to be no such serious evil, he comes to what is very fearful, I mean death; though in good truth what he had before mentioned were enough. For consider how exceeding great the mischief must be, inasmuch as, even when freed from the vengeance due to it, they could not get free of the shame. What wages then, he says, do you expect from the reality, when from the bare recollection, and that too when you are freed from the vengeance, you hide your face and blush, though under such grace as you are! But God's side is far otherwise.

Source: Homily 12 on Romans
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:21
If even the recollection of your former slavery makes you ashamed, think how much more the reality of it would do so. You have gained in two ways—by being set free from your former shame and by having come to recognize your past life for what it was.

Source: HOMILIES ON ROMANS 12
[AD 215] Clement of Alexandria on Romans 6:22
And the apostle, succinctly describing the end, writes in the Epistle to the Romans: "But now, being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life."

Source: Clement of Alexandria Stromata Book II
[AD 220] Tertullian on Romans 6:22
Throughout this chapter, while withdrawing our members from unrighteousness and sin and applying them to righteousness and holiness, and transferring the same from the wages of death to the gift of eternal life, Paul undoubtedly promises to the flesh the reward of salvation. Now it would not have been consistent for a rule of holiness and righteousness to be especially enjoined for the flesh if the reward of such a discipline were not also within its reach; nor could even baptism be ordered for the flesh if by its regeneration a course were not inaugurated tending to its restitution.

Source: ON RESURRECTION OF THE FLESH 47
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Romans 6:22
Paul repeats what he has already said [in verse 18] but with an important difference. There he said that we have become slaves to obedience, which leads to righteousness, but here he says that we have become slaves to God. By saying this, Paul shows that after someone has been set free from sin he ought to serve righteousness and perform all the virtues in the first instance and then ascend by the way of spiritual progress to the point where he becomes a slave of God, even though to be a slave of righteousness is also to be a slave of God. For Christ is righteousness, and to serve Christ is to serve God. Nevertheless, there is a scale of spiritual perfection, and there are different levels of virtue. For this reason Christ is said to reign, because he is righteousness, until such time as the fullness of all virtue is complete in everyone. Then, when the measure of perfection is reached, it is said that he will give up the kingdom to God the Father, so that God may be all in all.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
[AD 384] Ambrosiaster on Romans 6:22
If when we receive the forgiveness of sins we become imitators of good deeds, we shall acquire holiness and we shall obtain eternal life at the end, for we shall pass from death, which Paul said was the end, to life, which is without end.

Source: COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:22
Of the former, the fruit was shame, even after the being set free. Of these the fruit is holiness, and where holiness is, there is all confidence. But of those things the end is death, and of these everlasting life. Do you see how he points out some things as already given, and some as existing in hope, and from what are given he draws proof of the others also, that is from the holiness of the life. For to prevent your saying (i.e. as an objection) everything lies in hope, he points out that you have already reaped fruits, first the being freed from wickedness, and such evils as the very recollection of puts one to shame; second, the being made a servant unto righteousness; a third, the enjoying of holiness; a fourth, the obtaining of life, and life too not for a season, but everlasting. Yet with all these, he says, do but serve as you served it. For though the master is far preferable, and the service also has many advantages, and the rewards too for which you are serving, still I make no further demand. Next, since he had mentioned arms and a king, he keeps on with the metaphor in these words: (Romans 6:23)

Source: Homily 12 on Romans
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:22
Instead of the shame and death which you deserved before, you now have the hope of attaining holiness and eternal life. Note how Paul says that some things have already been given, while others are still hoped for, but that the former point to the latter. Thus if we can come to holiness now, we can be assured of obtaining eternal life in the future.

Source: HOMILIES ON ROMANS 12
[AD 418] Pelagius on Romans 6:22
Doubtless there is no blessing in something for which one feels shame when repenting of it. Everyone who comes to know goodness is ashamed of his former actions, but anyone who is ashamed of righteousness is not aware of its fruit. Therefore, those who sin get nothing out of it in the present, and in the future they will reap eternal death. But those who serve God have the gift of the Holy Spirit in the present and eternal life in the future. Or perhaps it should be read like this: what have you got out of doing things which make you feel ashamed whenever you think of them? The return you have already received is that, having been sanctified by baptism, you are alive.

Source: PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
[AD 202] Irenaeus on Romans 6:23
But, being ignorant of Him who from the Virgin is Emmanuel, they are deprived of His gift, which is eternal life;

Source: Against Heresies Book III
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Romans 6:23
Paul employs a military metaphor to good effect by saying that death is the wage due to those who fight under King Sin. But God does not give his soldiers a wage, as if they have something owing to them. Rather, he gives them the gift of grace, which is eternal life in Christ.The death being referred to here is not the death which separates the body from the soul but the death by which because of sin the soul is separated from God.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
[AD 384] Ambrosiaster on Romans 6:23
Paul says that the wages of sin is death because death comes through sin, and thus whoever refrains from sin will receive eternal life as his reward. Those who do not sin will not undergo the second death.Just as those who follow sin obtain death, so those who follow the grace of God, that is, the faith of Christ which pardons sins, will have eternal life. They will therefore rejoice at being dissolved for a time, knowing that they will obtain this life which is free of all care and has no end. It was when he saw this from afar that St. Simeon asked to be released from this world that he might go into peace, that is, into life which allows no disturbance. And he bears witness that this gift is given to us by God through Christ our Lord, so that we should offer thanks to God through no one other than his Son.

Source: COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:23
After speaking of the wages of sin, in the case of the blessings, he has not kept to the same order (τάξιν], rank or relation): for he does not say, the wages of good deeds, "but the gift of God;" to show, that it was not of themselves that they were freed, nor was it a due they received, neither yet a return, nor a recompense of labors, but by grace all these things came about. And so there was a superiority for this cause also, in that He did not free them only, or change their condition for a better, but that He did it without any labor or trouble upon their part: and that He not only freed them, but also gave them much more than before, and that through His Son. And the whole of this he has interposed as having discussed the subject of grace, and being on the point of overthrowing the Law next. That these things then might not both make them rather listless, he inserted the part about strictness of life, using every opportunity of rousing the hearer to the practice of virtue. For when he calls death the wages of sin, he alarms them again, and secures them against dangers to come. For the words he uses to remind them of their former estate, he also employs so as to make them thankful, and more secure against any inroads of temptations. Here then he brings the hortatory part to a stop, and proceeds with the doctrines again, speaking on this wise.

Source: Homily 12 on Romans
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Romans 6:23
Paul does not parallel “the wages of sin” with “the wages of good deeds” because he wants to show that they were not set free by their own efforts, nor had they done anything to earn their salvation. It was by grace alone that all these things came about.

Source: HOMILIES ON ROMANS 12
[AD 418] Pelagius on Romans 6:23
One who does military service for sin receives death as his wages. Paul does not use the term “wages of righteousness” because there was no righteousness in us before our baptism which God could repay. Righteousness is not obtained by our effort but is a gift of God.

Source: PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
[AD 735] Bede on Romans 6:23
Eternal life is unjustly given for good merits. Rather, merit is first given freely by a benevolent Savior.

Source: Homilies on the Gospels 1.2