Miscellanies 3.12.84

“So the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.” We were put to death, then, to the law, that is, to the sin made known by the law, which the law shows but does not beget, exposing the underlying sin by commanding what must be done and forbidding what must not, “so that sin might be shown to be sin.” And if marriage according to the law is sin, I do not know how anyone will say he has known God while saying that God's command is sin; but since the law is holy, marriage is holy. The apostle, then, refers this mystery to Christ and the church. As what is born of the flesh is flesh, so what is born of the Spirit is spirit, not only in birth but also in learning. So the children are holy, the good works pleasing to God, when the Lord's words are wedded to the soul. Sexual immorality and marriage, at any rate, are distinct, since the devil stands far from God. “And you too were put to death to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead”; for it is understood as well that you have become directly obedient, since, according to the truth of the law too, we obey the same Lord who commanded from afar.