Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume II/City of God/Book XIII/Chapter 5

Chapter 5.—As the Wicked Make an Ill Use of the Law, Which is Good, So the Good Make a Good Use of Death, Which is an Ill.

The apostle, wishing to show how hurtful a thing sin is, when grace does not aid us, has not hesitated to say that the strength of sin is that very law by which sin is prohibited.&#160; “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.” &#160; Most certainly true; for prohibition increases the desire of illicit action, if righteousness is not so loved that the desire of sin is conquered by that love.&#160; But unless divine grace aid us, we cannot love nor delight in true righteousness.&#160; But lest the law should be thought to be an evil, since it is called the strength of sin, the apostle, when treating a similar question in another place, says, “The law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.&#160; Was then that which is holy made death unto me?&#160; God forbid.&#160; But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.” &#160;  Exceeding, he says, because the transgression is more heinous when through the increasing lust of sin the law itself also is despised.&#160; Why have we thought it worth while to mention this?&#160; For this reason, because, as the law is not an evil when it increases the lust of those who sin, so neither is death a good thing when it increases the glory of those who suffer it, since either the former is abandoned wickedly, and makes transgressors, or the latter is embraced, for the truth&#8217;s sake, and makes martyrs.&#160; And thus the law is indeed good, because it is prohibition of sin, and death is evil because it is the wages of sin; but as wicked men make an evil use not only of evil, but also of good things, so the righteous make a good use not only of good, but also of evil things.&#160; Whence it comes to pass that the wicked make an ill use of the law, though the law is good; and that the good die well, though death is an evil.