That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
Paul says that sin has been condemned in order that the righteousness of the law given by Moses might be fulfilled in us. For once removed from the power of the law we become the law’s friends. Those who have been justified are friends of the law. For how is this righteousness fulfilled in us unless the forgiveness of sins is given to us, so that once we have been justified by the removal of our sins we might serve the law of God with our minds? This is what it means to walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. The devotion of the mind, which is the spirit, will not succumb to the desire of sin, which sows lusts in the soul by means of the flesh because sin dwells in it. But if sin has been condemned, how can it be indwelling? Sin has been condemned by the Savior in three different ways. In the first place, he condemned sin in that a person should turn away from it and not sin. Next, sin is said to have been condemned on the cross, because it enacted sin itself. The ...
But since this worldly wisdom has been destroyed and removed in the Lord made man, the righteousness of the law is fulfilled when a man walks not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Whence it is most rightly said: “I came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it. For love is the fulfilling of the law.” Love belongs to those who walk according to the Spirit. For love belongs to the grace of the Holy Spirit. When there was no love of righteousness but only fear, the law was not fulfilled.
That the justification of the law. That is, that was aimed at, but never attained to, by the written law, might now be fulfilled in us; that is, that we, by the grace of Christ, may be enabled to fulfil and comply with the law, and its moral precepts, by walking according to the spirit of Christ. (Witham)
Paul shows that it is not only binding on us to keep ourselves from evil deeds but also to be adorned with good. For to give the crown is his prerogative, but to retain it is your responsibility. For Christ has fulfilled the righteousness of the law on your behalf so that you are not subject to its curse. So do not betray so great a gift, but keep this great treasure under guard. For here Paul shows us that baptism will not save us if afterward we fail to display a life worthy of that gift. This is why he returns to the law and defends it. For once we have become obedient to Christ, we must use all ways and means so that its righteousness, which Christ fulfilled, may abide in us and not come to naught.
