Commentary upon the Epistle to the Galatians

This Paul speaketh in respect of the fullness of the time wherein Christ came. But we must apply it, not only to that time, but also to ⟨p. 161⟩the inward man. For that which is done as an history and according to the time wherein Christ came, abolishing the law and bringing liberty and eternal life to light, is always done spiritually in every Christian: in whom is found continually, somewhile the time of the law, and somewhile the time of grace. For the Christian man hath a body in whose members (as Paul saith in an other place) sin dwelleth and warreth. Now, I understand sin to be,¹ not only the deed or the work, but also the root and the tree, together with the fruits, as the Scripture useth to speak of sin. Which is yet not only rooted in the baptised flesh of every Christian, but also is at deadly war within it and holdeth it captive: if not to give consent unto it, or to accomplish the work, yet doth it force him mightily thereunto. For albeit a Christian man do not fall into outward and gross sins,² as murder, adultery, theft, and such like: yet is he not free from impatience, murmuring, hating and blaspheming of God: which sins to reason and the carnal man, are altogether unknown. These sins constrain him, yea sore against his will, to detest the law: