Letter 328

To the Same Person. For sin is not reckoned when there is no law [Romans 5:13]. For as long as the law within us has not yet been brought to its full completion - being prescriptive of the things that must be done, and prohibitive of the things that must not be done, according to the conceptions that are naturally sketched out within us concerning good things and evil things - we are not even reckoned to be sinning. For apart from law sin is dead [Romans 7:8]. But once the law within us has been brought to completion, after the perfecting of our concepts, and once the commandment has come, evil is at once found within us, and sin has come back to life [Romans 7:9].

Ἁμαρτία γὰρ οὐκ ἐλλογεῖται, μὴ ὄντος νόμου. Ἕως γὰρ μηδέπω συμπεπλήρωται ὁ ἐν ἡμῖν νόμος, προστακτικὸς μὲν ὢν ποιητέον, ἀπαγορευτικὸς δὲ ὧν μὴ ποιητέον, κατὰ τὰς ὑποτυπουμένας φυσικῶς ἡμῖν περὶ ἀγαθῶν καὶ κακῶν ἐνθυμήσεις, οὐδὲ ἁμαρτάνειν λογιζόμεθα. Χωρὶς γὰρ νόμου ἁμαρτία νεκρά. Συμπληρωθέντος δὲ τοῦ νόμου τοῦ ἐν ἡμῖν, μετὰ τὸν ἀπαρτισμὸν τῶν ἐννοιῶν, καὶ τῆς ἐντολῆς ἐλθούσης, εὐθὺς κακία ἐν ἡμῖν εὑρίσκεται, καὶ ἀνέζησεν ἡ ἁμαρτία.