Origen, Commentary on Romans — Book 4
Latin source: J.-P. Migne (ed.), Patrologia Graeca 14 (Rufinus's Latin version of Origen's Commentarii in Epistulam ad Romanos ). This English translation is in the public domain.
BOOK 4
[§1] "What then shall we say that Abraham our father found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has glory, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him unto righteousness. Now to him who works, the reward is not imputed according to grace, but according to debt. But to him who does not work, yet believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned unto righteousness. Just as David also declares the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord has not imputed sin." Since above he had set forth two laws, one of which he named the law of works and the other the law of faith, and says that by the law of faith the boasting of those who glory in the works of the law is excluded; and since he had pronounced that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law: consequently he now, in order that these things may be established from the Scriptures, brings forward the example of Abraham, and says that "Abraham, if he was justified by works, has glory, but not before God." And this indeed he argues not without dialectical skill. For if he who is justified by works does not have glory before God, but it is agreed that Abraham does have glory before God, then Abraham was justified not by works but by faith, so that he necessarily has glory before God. For thus the Scripture declares: that "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him unto righteousness." But if God reckoned it to him unto righteousness, without doubt his glory too is before God. For this reason, therefore, the Apostle joins to this testimony which he took from the book of Genesis also a word of his own, and says that "to him who works, the reward is not imputed according to grace, but according to debt; but to him who does not work, yet believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned unto righteousness." Throughout this whole passage, then, the Apostle seems to show this: that there are two justifications, one of which he calls that from works, the other that from faith. And the one which is from works he says indeed has glory, but in itself, and not before God; whereas the one which is from faith has glory before God, inasmuch as it is before him who inspects the hearts of men and knows who it is that believes in secret and who it is that does not believe. And therefore it rightly has glory before God alone, who sees through the disposition of a person's faith in what is hidden; but he who hopes for justification from works — it may happen that his works are approved even by men. For whatever is manifest in deed is open and can be seen with the eyes; and if faith is in secret, while works are in the open, it will be fitting to take up here what is written: "The things that are hidden belong to the Lord your God, but the things that are manifest, to you and to your sons." But it will also be fitting to apply to these matters what is written, that "the just shall live by my faith." Fittingly, therefore, we say that those who are circumcised according to the inner man and are Jews in secret, in spirit and not in letter — their praise and glory is not before men, but before God. But those who are justified from works, since their works are open and manifest, their glory can be either before any of the saints and just who receive from God the power of judging concerning visible human works, or even before the angels and the other powers of the heavenly virtues, who certainly are able to glorify him whose works they have approved. But since to know the hidden things of the heart belongs to God alone, he himself sees through whether in each one there dwells some disposition of faith; and therefore he who is justified from faith has glory before God alone, who has knowledge of hidden things and is alone the inspector of faith. Therefore also "Abraham," he says, "if he was justified by works, has" indeed "glory" coming from works, "but not" that which is "before God" alone; yet it is certain that Abraham has glory before God alone: it follows, then, that he was justified not from works, but from faith. But do not suppose that if anyone has such a faith by which, being justified, he has glory before God, he can at the same time have injustice along with it. For there is no share of faith together with unbelief, no fellowship of righteousness with iniquity, just as there can be no association of light with darkness. For if "he who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God," and "he who is born of God does not sin," it is manifest that he who believes in Jesus Christ does not sin; but if he sins, it is certain that he does not believe in him. The mark, therefore, of true faith is where there is no transgression, just as, on the contrary, where there is transgression it is a mark of unbelief. For this reason, then, it is also said of Abraham in another passage of Scripture that he was justified from the works of faith: because it is certain that he who truly believes works the work of faith and of righteousness and of all goodness, and becomes capable of both glories — both that which is before God in secret, and also that which is in the open and is not before God alone. These things having thus been explained according to our ability, it also seems by no means to be passed over that he named Abraham "our father according to the flesh." For Abraham is seen to be the father of the Gentiles according to faith, not according to the flesh. For of the Apostle himself he can indeed be called father even according to the flesh: for being of the race of Israel, he could name Abraham father even according to the flesh; but the other nations will name him father in spirit, not in flesh — unless, in passages so constricted, we turn to the breadth of allegorical understanding, where "father according to the flesh" can be taken as he who has handed on the first elements of carnal teaching, that is, of the law according to the letter, and has stood forth as a teacher of the first instruction in the divine law. But that teachers too are called fathers, the apostle Paul also says, that "in Christ Jesus through the Gospel I have begotten you." But you also who read, gather for yourself from the divine Volumes the testimonies bearing on this. There is added in what follows: "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him unto righteousness." This saying is taken from the book of Genesis, from that place where not Abraham, but Abram says to the Lord: "Since you have given me no seed, this house-born servant of mine will be my heir. And the Lord said to him: This man shall not be your heir, but he who shall come forth from you, he shall be your heir. And he led him," it says, "outside, and said to him: Look up to heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to count them.
And he said to him: “So shall your seed be. And he believed God, and it was reckoned to him unto righteousness.” We have gone back over these very passages from the book of Genesis at some length, by way of example, so that we might learn what the cause of this justification was. And therefore we must attend the more keenly to this: whether it is on this account alone — that he believed a son was to be given him, and from him an offspring to be propagated to the multitude of the stars — that his faith is said to have been reckoned unto righteousness; or whether it is for this and for all the things he had already believed before. For it must not be supposed that it was without faith that he went out from his own land and from his father’s kindred and came into the land which God had shown him; or that other occasion, when, after Lot had been separated from him, the Lord says to him: “Lift up your eyes and look from this place where you stand, and gaze toward the north and the south and toward the west and the east, for all this land which you see I will give to you and to your seed forever.” And who would say that this too was done without faith, that Abraham came and dwelt by the oak of Mamre in Hebron and built there an altar to the Lord? And how was that also not a work of faith, when Melchizedek blessed Abraham and said: “Blessed be Abraham of the most high God, who created heaven and earth; and blessed be the most high God, who delivered his enemies into his hands”? From all of which it is gathered that in each of these there was indeed faith in Abraham, but in part; whereas in that place where it is said that his faith was reckoned unto righteousness, a perfect faith is declared. For just as the Apostle says that knowledge and prophecy are in part — and again says that there is a perfect state, when he writes: “We know in part and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect has come, those things which are in part shall be done away” — so also we can understand that faith is sometimes in part and sometimes perfect. But that what we say may be further fortified by other testimonies of holy Scripture, hear the apostles saying to the Lord in the Gospel: “Lord, increase our faith.” Do they not plainly show by these words that they indeed have faith, but such faith as needed increase? Moreover the apostle Paul himself, when he says, “If I should have all faith, so that I might remove mountains,” by saying “all” teaches that the whole is composed of parts. For a thing cannot be called “all” where there is no diversity either of quality or of quantity. It seems therefore that in the present passage also, since many acts of faith on Abraham’s part had gone before, through each of the several things which we recalled above as being in part, in this present instance the whole of his faith is gathered together, and so was reckoned to him unto righteousness. Now indeed you will consider whether, just as it was said of faith that it was reckoned to him unto righteousness, so it may also be said of the other virtues that, for example, mercy can be reckoned to anyone unto righteousness, or wisdom, or knowledge, or gentleness and humility; or at any rate whether faith is reckoned unto righteousness for every believer. But when I return to the Scriptures, I do not find that faith is reckoned unto righteousness for all believers. For it is written of the sons of Israel that “they believed the Lord and his servant Moses,” and yet there is not added what is written of Abraham, that it was reckoned to them unto righteousness. On this account I judge that they did not have, as we have shown in Abraham’s case, that perfection heaped up into one out of many parts of faith, which would deserve to be reckoned unto righteousness. But as to what he says: “To him who works, the wage is not imputed according to grace but according to debt; but to him who believes in him who justifies the ungodly, faith is reckoned unto righteousness” — he seems to show that in faith there is, as it were, the grace of him who justifies, but in work the justice of him who repays. Yet when I consider the force of the phrase by which he says that it is rendered to the worker according to debt, I can scarcely persuade myself that there can be any work which demands God’s recompense as a debt, since even this very thing — that we are able to do anything, or to think, or to speak — we do by his own gift and bounty. What then will be owed by him whose loan to us came first? And therefore we must rather see whether perhaps what he said, “But to him who works, the wage shall be reckoned according to debt,” is to be understood of the debt of an evil work. For you will often find sins called debts in the divine volumes, as the Lord himself taught us to say in the prayer: “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors”; and again when the Lord himself says: “A certain householder had two debtors: one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty” — and he himself interpreted this as being said of sins. Perhaps then in this place too the Apostle has drawn the wage of work which is rendered according to debt toward that sense which we spoke of above, concerning those who work as Cain also worked the earth; and as he says elsewhere: “Depart from me, you workers of iniquity” — to whom assuredly punishment is paid out as a debt, in place of a wage for iniquity. Whence the Apostle also says in another place: “The wages of sin is death”; and he did not add, so as to say correspondingly, But the wages of righteousness is eternal life. Rather he says: “But the grace of God is eternal life” — so that he might teach that wages, which is certainly like a debt and a payment, is the recompense of punishment and of death, while he assigned eternal life to grace alone. According to this sense I think that what is written in the Gospel too, “With what measure you have measured, with the same it shall be measured back to you,” is to be taken of evil works. For God has set no measure to his grace, since it is written: “For God does not give the Spirit by measure.” If then these things are thought to have been rightly discussed, consequently the things that hang together with them will surely be seen to be understood thus: that to the one who works the works of iniquity a wage is repaid according to the debt of sin; but to the one who believes in him who justifies the ungodly, faith is reckoned unto righteousness — provided we well remember what was said above, in which we showed that faith can be reckoned unto righteousness not for him who believes in part, but for him who believes entirely and perfectly; which faith is so great that it justifies even one who has been ungodly, so that he is no longer ungodly — not like that thief who hung on the cross and blasphemed, but like the one who confessed and said: “Lord Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” After these things, as if for the confirmation of his statement which he had made — “But to him who does not work, yet believes in him who justifies the ungodly, faith is reckoned unto righteousness” — he takes up a testimony from the Psalms and says: “As David also declares the blessedness of the man to whom God accounts righteousness without works: Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the Lord has not imputed sin.” You see that through these words it can consistently be proved that righteousness is reckoned to a man without works.
Hence it seems to me that the Apostle understood this: that it is impossible for a person in whom, by reason of age, the understanding that discerns between good and evil is already present, to have neither injustice nor justice in him. And if this is so, the soul cannot be found without one of these two; and it is certain that if it has ceased from evils, it is henceforth found among good things. But that soul is not among evils "whose iniquities are forgiven," and "whose sins are covered," and "to whom the Lord has not imputed sin"; it is fitting, therefore, that it be among good things. Suitably, then, in connection with the remission of iniquities and the covering over of sins, and with the fact that the Lord does not impute sin, the Apostle says that justice is reckoned to a person, although he has not yet performed works of justice, but solely because he believed in him who justifies the ungodly. For the beginning of being justified by God is the faith that believes in the one who justifies. And this faith, when it has been justified, clings like a root that has taken in rain within the soil of the soul, so that when it has begun to be cultivated by the law of God, branches rise up in it that bear the fruit of works. Therefore the root of justice does not come from works, but from the root of justice the fruit of works grows — namely from that root of justice by which God credits justice apart from works. Whence I think that David too, in the thirty-first psalm, which he entitled "Of the understanding of David," gave this beginning, admonishing by the very superscription that a deeper understanding must be sought in the things he was about to say, namely that "blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven": concerning which we have spoken, as far as we were able, when we dictated on the Psalms in order. But the difference of the very order prompts us, in that he said first, "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven"; second, "Whose sins are covered"; third, "To whom the Lord has not imputed sin." And consider whether perhaps this order can be understood as taking place in one and the same soul: so that, because the beginning of the soul's conversion is to abandon evils, for this it may deserve to receive the remission of iniquities; but when it has begun to do good things, covering over, as it were, each single evil that had gone before with fresh good deeds, and bringing in a more abundant number of goods than there had previously been of evils, it is said to cover its sins; but when it has now come to perfection, so that every root of malice is utterly cut away from it, to the point that no trace of wickedness can be found in it, then at last the summit of perfect blessedness is promised, when the Lord can impute no sin. Iniquity, indeed, has this difference from sin, that iniquity is spoken of in those matters which are committed against the law; whence the Greek term calls iniquity anomian (lawlessness), that is, what is committed without law; but that too can be called sin, if the offense is committed against what nature teaches and conscience reproves.
[§2] "Is this blessedness then upon the circumcision, or also upon the uncircumcision? For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham unto justice. How then was it reckoned? When he was in circumcision, or when he was in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the justice of the faith which is in uncircumcision: that he might be the father of all who believe through uncircumcision, so that it might be reckoned to them also unto justice, and that he might be the father of circumcision, not only to those who are of the circumcision, but also to those who follow the footsteps of the faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision." Having said above that "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him unto justice," and having shown from the things written in the thirty-first psalm what blessedness a faith of this kind possesses — namely that to one who so believes the Lord would not reckon sin — he now puts forward a question, from the answer to which he may teach, and from the very reckoning of the times, that the blessedness of Abraham's justification was given not in circumcision, but while he was still placed in uncircumcision. But if Abraham, while he was still in uncircumcision, was justified by faith, then everyone also who believes God can be justified through faith, even if he be in uncircumcision, and this blessedness of which it is said, "Blessed is he to whom the Lord has not imputed sin," can pertain to him also. He shows, therefore, that the Lord does not refrain from imputing sin to just anyone, but that to him who has believed he does not reckon sins on account of his faith. For just as faith was reckoned to Abraham unto justice, so also to every believer to whom faith is reckoned unto justice, sins are assuredly not imputed. For he does not say of the just that faith is reckoned to them unto justice. And if it were so supposed, what grace would there appear to be in reckoning it to a just man? Justice unto justice? But surely he says that faith was reckoned unto justice to him who, before he had this faith, did not have justice; and this is assuredly the blessed man, to whom God credits justice apart from works, and to whom sin is not imputed, to whom also iniquities are forgiven, and covered over are whatever sins there previously were. And at the same time he also teaches us to attend more diligently to the reading, since he expounds so vigilantly the things written concerning Abraham, that "faith was reckoned to him unto justice." He wants us to consider also when it was reckoned, so that from what is written the reckoning of the time may also be gathered, whether he was still in uncircumcision when these things were said, or whether he had already passed over to circumcision; and he says: "How then was his faith reckoned unto justice? When he was in circumcision, or when he was in uncircumcision?" For if at that time he had been in circumcision, uncircumcision would certainly have seemed to be excluded from the grace of this faith. But as it is, he shows that faith was reckoned unto justice while he was still placed in uncircumcision, and therefore he declares that, since Abraham was justified through faith while placed in uncircumcision, he is without doubt rightly called the chief and father of all who believe through uncircumcision. But as to the fact that after the faith which he had in uncircumcision he received circumcision, he consequently sets forth the reason for which circumcision was given him. It was, he says, that it might be the seal of that faith which he had while placed in uncircumcision, so that through this "he might be the father of all who believe through uncircumcision, that it might be reckoned to them unto justice, and that he might be the father of circumcision, not only to those who are of the circumcision, but also to those who follow the footsteps of the faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision." But if Abraham, while he was still in uncircumcision, was justified by faith, he can become also the father of those who are born in circumcision, provided that they belong to that faith which justified him while placed in uncircumcision. And since it justified Abraham while placed in uncircumcision, he is therefore made the father of both kinds: of those who are in uncircumcision through faith, and of those who are in circumcision through the flesh; and after circumcision he begets first Isaac, and from him takes the beginning of the ogdoad, that is, in him the first mysteries of the eighth day are consecrated, and from that point the posterity of Abraham begins to run by a twofold sacrament. For just as faith is understood by its own nature to be one thing, and the justice which was reckoned to him through faith another; so also his posterity in uncircumcision is one thing, and his posterity in circumcision another. For those who are uncircumcised, these I think are the stones of which God is said to be able to raise up sons of Abraham, in whom that also is fulfilled which is written: that "in you shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed." But let us take up again what he says: "And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the justice of the faith which is in uncircumcision," and let us contemplate Paul's profound wisdom in these words. For perhaps to some he may seem to say the same word twice, that is, "sign" and "seal." But to me the two words seem to have much difference between them. For a thing is called a sign when through what is seen something else is indicated: as when, for example, the Lord says in the Gospel: "This generation seeks a sign, and a sign shall not be given it, except the sign of Jonah the prophet. For as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so must the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights." This, then, is a sign, where Jonah was seen and Christ was understood. Similarly it is said of the Lord himself in the Gospel: "Behold, this one is set for the fall and the rising of many, and for a sign that shall be contradicted." For the sign in which Christ had come was contradicted, because one thing was seen in him and another understood. Flesh was discerned, and God was believed. So then Abraham also received a sign; and what the sign was he states in what follows: "Circumcision," he says — which circumcision was "the seal of the justice of the faith" which he had before he was circumcised. Rightly then did he call circumcision a sign in Abraham, because in it too one thing was seen and another understood; and he shows that even then that fleshly circumcision was a sign of the spiritual circumcision, "which is not received in the flesh, but in the heart." But as to his saying "seal," I think it is to be understood thus. A seal is spoken of when a guard is imposed for a time upon something to be kept safe, which no one else but the very one who impressed it ought to unseal. Through this seal, then, as the Apostle expounds, there is indicated the justice of the faith which Abraham, placed in uncircumcision, deserved to receive, and that he is the father of many nations: which we believe will then be unsealed when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and all Israel shall be saved. For then shall come about what the Apostle says, that Abraham is the father not only of the Gentiles, but also of the circumcision through faith.
And let us discuss the sign and the seal still more plainly. Since a sign, as we have said, is where something is indicated by that which is seen, whereas a seal is where something is enclosed for a time and does not lie open, it can also be understood in this way: that the mysteries which were foreshadowed in the law and in the patriarchs were of such a kind that they had both to be indicated by signs and to be kept guarded by seals. Therefore, inasmuch as they were to be indicated by signs among those who would believe from the Gentiles, Abraham is said to have received a sign; but inasmuch as, for those in the circumcision who were not going to believe, they had to be kept guarded and covered over, he is said to have received a seal. And that seal will assuredly be unsealed at that time when, in the last days — after the fullness of the Gentiles, as we have said, has come in — all Israel shall be saved. And this, finally, is why Abraham is first justified in faith while he was still uncircumcised, and afterward is circumcised: so that he might be shown to be first the father of many nations, and afterward of those who were to believe from the circumcision. For those who are born of Abraham according to the flesh are not to be called sons of Abraham unless they have the faith and the works of Abraham. Hence, finally, the Lord too says in the Gospel to the Jews who were boasting that they were sons of Abraham: "If you were sons of Abraham, you would surely do the works of Abraham." But do you wish to be fully taught from the Old Scripture as well that a person is called the son not only of him from whose carnal seed he is descended, but also of him whose deeds and works he imitates? Hear what Daniel says to one of those elders whom he convicts of adultery: "O seed," he says, "of Canaan, and not of Judah, beauty has seduced you, and lust has overturned your heart." You see that he who according to the flesh was descended from the race of Judah is denied to be a son of Judah, but is called a son of Canaan — of him, namely, whose deeds and works he was following. So therefore those also who trace their descent from the seed of Abraham according to the flesh are not called sons of Abraham, if they do not have his faith. So too, finally, the prophet says to them: "Your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite" — to whom assuredly it was not kinship of race that joined them, but likeness of character. "That he might be," he says, "the father of all who believe through uncircumcision, that it might be reckoned to them unto righteousness; and that he might be the father of circumcision, not only to those who are of the circumcision, but also to those who follow the footsteps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had in uncircumcision." In which he plainly declares, with regard to each people, as we said above, that it is not origin of flesh but distinction of faith that is to be sought. But concerning the sacrament of circumcision we have already spoken more fully in the passages above, and we have also expounded it in several other places as the matter and the occasion seemed to require. Yet the diligent reader, "whom not one iota or one tittle of the law escapes," ought not to be unaware of this either: that as regards what the Apostle said, "His faith was reckoned to Abraham unto righteousness," at that time when it was written of him that he believed God and it was reckoned to him unto righteousness, he was not yet called Abraham, but Abram was his name. For he still remained uncircumcised, as the Apostle explains. On which point it will perhaps seem to some that there is an error in the copies, since "Abraham" could easily have been written for "Abram." But since this supposition is uncertain rather than a firm proof, let us answer more concisely: that the Apostle, observing the sentence of God who said, "No longer shall Abram, but Abraham shall be your name," now called him not as it is written in the passage of Genesis, but as God pronounced concerning him. For what is divinely established, it is fitting should be observed thereafter. These things, brought forward as best we could in passages so steep and so difficult, anyone will be able to accept if he considers the earnestness of our purpose; but if he wishes to mark the weakness of our understanding, we ask pardon, and we gladly yield to one who may be able to discuss or explain these things better. But we, with however sluggish a step, turn our foot toward what follows.
[§3] "For the promise to Abraham, or to his seed, that he should be heir of the world, was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." In this place it seems to me that the Apostle is arguing about the law of Moses, and asserting that the promise which was made to Abraham, that he himself or his seed should receive the inheritance of the world — that is, of the whole earth — did not rest upon the law of Moses. For before Moses the lawgiver existed, "the Lord appeared," he says, "to Abraham and said to him: 'Go out from your land, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, and come into the land which I will show you; and I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will magnify your name, and you shall be blessed; and I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you, and in you shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed.'" Therefore what he says, "In you shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed," is to have been made heir of the whole world. And this promise was assuredly made to Abraham before anything was commanded through Moses about the observance of the law. So then the promise to Abraham, or to his seed, that he should be heir of the world, is not from the law, but through the righteousness of faith. What is this righteousness of faith? It is that of which it is written in the passages above, as we have already often said, that "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him unto righteousness." And not without reason: for the observance of the law merely escapes punishment, whereas the merit of faith awaits the hope of the promise; and a precept is laid down for servants, but faith is sought from friends. But even if, according to what we have discussed above, Paul be understood to say these things concerning the natural law, it will not be contrary to the reasons given above. For although the law of nature bears witness concerning good and evil according to the judgment of conscience, nevertheless it cannot be put on a level with the law of faith, by which Abraham believed God, and deserved to be justified and to be called the friend of God.
[§4] "For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith has been made void, and the promise has been annulled. For the law works wrath. But where there is no law, neither is there transgression." If, he says, the promise was given to Abraham that he should be heir of the world not from the law, but through the faith which was reckoned to him unto righteousness, it will follow without doubt that all who hope that righteousness will be reckoned to them by God should hope for it not through the law, but through faith. And in order to show this more evidently, he added: If, he says, those who are of the law shall themselves be heirs of that promise which Abraham merited through faith, then that fact will be emptied out — that Abraham was justified by faith: since assuredly, if the inheritance were to come from the law, it would have been necessary that Abraham too first fulfill the law, and thus earn the inheritance of righteousness. And in order to show that this could in no way have happened so, he says that the law works wrath. But where there is wrath, there is no inheritance; and he added: "But where there is no law, neither is there transgression." But let us go back a little, and see concerning which law these things are said. In the earlier words, indeed, where he says, "For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith has been made void, and the promise has been annulled," it can be referred both to the law of Moses and to the natural law. For it is certain that if the inheritance is furnished from the law of Moses, then what is written is annulled — that Abraham merited it by the belief of faith; and again, if the understanding be turned to the natural law, these things can be said: If the natural law could have sufficed for faith, that would seem superfluous which was said to Abraham: "Go out from your land, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, and come into the land which I shall show you." For why should he go out from his own land and from his own house, if the natural law sufficed for him, which surely he could have possessed and kept even while placed in his own land? But now, as though that law were insufficient, he is commanded to follow the law of faith, without which neither he himself nor his seed could be heir of the world, nor could he be called the friend of God. Thus, then, what he says — "For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith has been made void, and the promise has been annulled" — can be withdrawn from both laws and look to the law of faith alone. But now, in this place where he says, "For the law works wrath," it must be considered more carefully to which law this saying seems to look; and likewise that which follows, "For where there is no law, neither is there transgression." But before a fuller explanation is required of us, let us reply briefly to those objections which the heretics are accustomed to raise against us from this passage. For they say: "See how the Apostle says that the law of Moses works wrath, and that where that law has not been, there neither will there be transgression." Let us ask, then, of them: If where the law is, there will also be transgression of the law transgressed, then also where faith is, there will be transgression of faith transgressed. For if he becomes a transgressor who turns aside from the law, without doubt he too is a transgressor who turns aside from faith; and if for that transgression which is in the law the law itself is the cause, then for this transgression which is in faith, faith too is believed to be the cause. But if it is absurd to say that faith is the cause of anyone's transgressing against faith, and that if he had not come to faith he would not have been a transgressor of faith, so too will it be absurd to take transgression of the law from the fact that someone has undertaken the observance of the law. But let us add this also. What will they say to us about those who fell into transgression before the law of Moses? For if no one before Moses was a transgressor, no one was condemned, no one punished. What will they say of the Sodomites? What of those who were condemned in the flood? What of Cain? What of Adam himself? What will they answer concerning Eve, of whom the Apostle says: "But the woman, being seduced, fell into transgression"? If without the law of Moses there is no transgression, on what ground are Adam and Eve named transgressors by the Apostle? But, as we have already often said above, the Apostle introduces various laws in this Epistle: now he speaks of the law of Moses, now he names the law of faith, as when he says: "Where then is your boasting? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No; but by the law of faith." He brings in besides other laws also, of which he says: "For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin"; and thus he passes from one law to another, so that unless one's understanding is watchful and attentive, it can scarcely catch him and follow him. It must be seen, therefore, whether perhaps that law which is in our members, and leads us captive in the law of sin, is itself the law which the Apostle says works wrath. For without doubt it works wrath for the one whom it has led captive in the law of sin. But where that law has not been, it is certain that there neither will there be transgression. And those who have been under that law will consequently not be heirs either. But even if someone wishes it to be understood of the law of Moses, and to say that it works wrath, he will perhaps be able to affirm this for this reason alone: that it commands the one who sins against it either to be stoned at once, or to be burned with fire, or whatever other punishment is decreed in the law for sinners — so that the very penalty which is inflicted on the sinner from the law seems now to be named "wrath" by the Apostle. And similarly concerning transgression: that he does not here establish that every transgression generally is so called, but that of the one who, being placed under the law, has offended — so that the offense of him who sins though forbidden by the law may seem graver than that of him who has been admonished by no law. But this too must be observed, that the Apostle did not say that where the law has been, there is also transgression, but he says: "But where there is no law, neither is there transgression." In which he shows that transgression indeed cannot exist at all unless there is a law; yet not that, if there is a law, there will in every case also be transgression. For it can happen that there is a law, and there is no transgression; it cannot, however, happen that there is transgression where there is no law. For even if we posit the law of Moses, it does not immediately follow that all who lived under the law of Moses fell into transgression: otherwise we would seem to involve at the same time both the prophets and all the just — unless perhaps someone should say that all the just and the prophets lived not so much under the law as under faith, while sinners and the unjust were bound by the chains of the law, as the Apostle also says: "Because the law is not laid down for the just man, but for the unjust and the insubordinate, for the impious and sinners, for the wicked and profane, for parricides and matricides, for murderers, fornicators, for those who lie with males, for kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine." But if the law was laid down for such as these, will not those seem to you much better of whom it is said: "For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do naturally the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law unto themselves, and they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them"? And let us set before our eyes, if it seems good, two men, for example, who have not lain with males as with a woman: one of them restrained by the precept of the law, which had he not feared, he would perhaps have done it; and another who by the judgment of his own mind has not permitted a contagion of this sort to enter even his thoughts. Would you not much prefer the one who, deterred by no threat of the law, kept himself free from the defilement of the crime? And similarly if an examination be made concerning the other sins as well. And therefore, whether the law of Moses is understood, or also that law which is in our members and works wrath, those who are of it cannot be heirs, but those who are of the law of faith — of that faith, indeed, by which Abraham was justified. But perhaps someone may ask how it is that he who is under the law of Moses is not also seen to be under the law of faith, since it is written in Exodus: "And the people believed God, and Moses his servant"; and again the Lord says in the Gospel: "If you believed Moses, you would surely believe me also: for he wrote of me." For it will seem that, just as he said of himself, "he who believes in me believes also in him who sent me," so also he says of Moses, that "if you believed Moses, you would surely believe me also." To which we shall reply that what was said in the desert, "The people believed God, and Moses his servant," is a narrative by which it is shown that through the ministry of Moses, by which he administered signs and wonders, the people believed God. In this saying, where he says, "If you believed Moses, you would surely believe me also," he reproves the unbelief of those who, while they do not believe him, show that they do not believe even the writings of Moses, in which the coming of Christ was set forth in prophetic speech. But where he says, "He who believes in me believes in him who sent me," he lifts up the hope of believers all the way to God the Father, so that just as one who sees the Son knows that he has seen the Father also, so when he believes the Son, he may know that he has believed the Father also.
[§5] "Therefore it is of faith, that according to grace the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written: For I have made thee a father of many nations) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which are not as though they were." In what went before he gave the distinction between wages and grace, saying that wages are a matter of debt, but that grace is a matter of no debt at all, but rather the benefit of goodwill. And so in the present passage too, wishing to show that God gives the inheritance of the promises not out of debt but through grace, he says that the inheritance is granted by God to those who believe not as a debt of wages but as the gift of faith. For just as (to speak by way of example) the fact that we exist cannot be understood as though we existed by the wages of our own work, but it is plainly the gift of God that we are, and the grace of the Creator, who willed that we should be: so also, if we receive the inheritance of God's promises, it belongs to the divine grace, and is not the wage of any debt or work. But if perchance this very thing which is said, "of faith," should seem not to be free — since faith must first be offered by man, and thus grace be earned from God — hear how the same Apostle teaches this very point elsewhere as well. For where he enumerates the gifts of the Spirit, which he says are given to believers according to the measure of faith, there among the rest he also asserts that the gift of faith is bestowed through the Holy Spirit. For after many things he says this also concerning it: "To another faith, in the same Spirit," so as to show that faith too is given through grace. But elsewhere also the same Apostle teaches, saying: "For unto you it is given by God not only to believe in Christ, but also to suffer for him." You find this indicated in the Gospels too, where the apostles, understanding that the faith which is from man cannot be perfect unless there be added also that which is from God, say to the Saviour: "Increase our faith." From all of which what the Apostle here says is most plainly proved: "Therefore it is of faith, that according to grace the promise might be sure": because even that very faith by which we seem to believe God is confirmed in us by the gift of grace. And this is the grace which, if a man is blessed, he deserves to find like a great treasure. Noah found it; and therefore it is written of him: "But Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord God." Moses too had found this grace; and therefore he said to God: "If I have found grace in thy sight." Yet we find that some of the saints found grace not only in the sight of the Lord God, but also in the sight of men. Thus of blessed Joseph it is written: "And Joseph found grace in the sight of his master." But that grace which is found in the sight of men is granted by God's bounty. For thus it is written of the same Joseph: "And the Lord was with Joseph, and poured out mercy upon him, and gave him grace in the sight of the keeper of the prison." Something still further concerning grace of this kind is recorded in the divine writings about blessed Esther. For it says thus: that "Esther was finding grace with all who saw her." And a little later the Scripture says: "Esther found grace above all the other virgins, and the king set upon her the woman's diadem." These things, I think, we have sought out from the holy Scriptures not unseasonably, for the confirmation of the apostolic saying in which he discusses faith and grace. He says therefore: "Therefore it is of faith, that according to grace the promise might be sure." But this too is to be noted, that he says, "Therefore it is of faith, that according to grace the promise might be sure," as though wishing to show that if the promise were of the law and not of grace, it would not be sure; but that now it is sure for this reason, that it is not of the law but through grace. In which I think that he wishes something of this sort to be understood: that the things which are of the law are outside us, but the things which are through grace are held within us. For example, the things which are written in the law are written with pen and ink on parchments or on little sheets; but the things which come down from grace are written in our heart by the Spirit of God, as the same Apostle, the minister of this grace, indicates elsewhere, saying: "Ye are our epistle, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart." Therefore, as it seems to me, he says that the things which are through grace are surer than those which are of the law, because the latter are outside us and the former within us: and the latter consist in fragile material, so that they can easily perish, whereas the former, written by the Spirit of God and impressed in the inmost recesses of the soul, obtain the firmness of perpetuity. With such letters, then, of the promise is inscribed that soul which has offered its faith to God like wax made ready, so that upon it the grace of God may worthily be inscribed: and therefore such faith is reckoned unto righteousness, since it has shown itself capable of the heavenly grace. And this befalls the seed of Abraham, not that only which is of the law, but that also which is of faith. For Abraham's succession by faith is far nobler than that by the flesh, since he is recorded to have been justified not by flesh but by faith. For if the succession is to be given not by faith but by seed, it will be fitting that the posterity of Ishmael also, and those who descend from Keturah, be brought to the sacred mysteries of the promises. But this assuredly is not admitted; rather, the posterity of the law and of faith alone is brought in. But let us not pass over a certain wavering and ambiguously expressed manner of speech of the Apostle in this place. For what he said — "That the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of faith" — if it be so understood as though he had spoken of one seed of the law and another of faith, so that the promise of the inheritance ought to be expected from both seeds alike, he is found to say things contrary to what he wrote above, when he said: "For they which are of the law are not heirs"; and again elsewhere: "For we reckon that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law"; and again: "For if they which are of the law are heirs, faith is made void." For indeed, if a man is justified by faith without the works of the law, and if those who are of the law do not become heirs, how will it not seem contrary, what he says in this place, that the promise is sure through grace not to that seed only which is of the law, but to that also which is of faith?
And whereas in the passages above he seems to have rejected those who are of the law, how does he here place them on an equal footing with those whom he says hope for grace from faith? But it seems to me that when he says, "To all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of faith," he here indicates, as we have often already said, the natural law, and asserts this: that the promise is firm not only for those who come by the natural law alone, but also for those who from faith have added to the natural law that faith which our father Abraham had — so that he seems to indicate not two peoples, one from faith and another from the law, but one and the same people, which pleases God not only by the natural law which all men employ, but by the faith of which Abraham stood forth as the author. By this, namely, he shows that if anyone should possess intact all the things which the natural law teaches, and the consciousness of sin reproach him in nothing, yet he should not also have the grace of faith, he cannot be justified. For it is faith which is reckoned unto righteousness. And this distinction, once grasped, renders the understanding plainer; and those things which are thought contrary are found to be consonant and mutually in accord. But concerning the diversity of the laws — that in this Epistle especially the Apostle often, even covertly and suddenly, shifts the sequence of his discourse from one law to another — we have frequently shown, and it is superfluous to repeat the same things. And rightly he did not say of Abraham: The father of all, but says, "The father of us all"; that is, not of us who descend from the law, but of us who from faith come after the law. And because he is the father of all who are of this sort, he has fittingly set down in what follows the sentence of the divine promise, saying: "As it is written: For I have made thee a father of many nations, before him whom he believed, God." If therefore he is promised that he shall be the father of many nations, not undeservedly is he named father both of those who come from the Gentiles and of those who come from the circumcision. And rightly the Apostle added, from his own interpretation: "Before him whom he believed, God" — that is, he was appointed father of many nations before that very God in whom he believed, whose promises, and from whom he received the seal of faith in circumcision. How then does the circumcision claim Abraham as its father in a special sense, when that very God who gave him circumcision appointed him the father of many nations? But if anyone should wish to turn this to the posterity of Ishmael or of Keturah, there meets him what is written: that "in thee shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed." This also John was saying in the Gospel: "For God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham." And he added in what follows: "Who quickens the dead, and calls those things which are not as those which are." Here we understand the dead according to the sin of the soul, since he says, "the soul which sins shall die." For just as in bodily death the senses perish, so that a man no longer receives through the body either hearing, or smell, or taste, or touch: so also he who has lost the spiritual senses in the soul, so that he does not see God, nor hear the word of God, nor take in the sweet fragrance of Christ, nor taste the good word of God, nor do his hands handle of the word of life — men of this sort are deservedly called dead. Such the coming of Christ found us, but it made us alive through his grace, as the same Apostle also says elsewhere: "And we, when we were dead in our offenses and sins, he raised us up together with him." But do you wish it to be proved to you also from the prophetic Scriptures that all who worship idols, and trust in them, are dead? Hear how David says: "The images of the nations are silver and gold, the works of men's hands. They have a mouth, and they shall not speak: they have eyes, and they shall not see: they have ears, and they shall not hear." And after a little: "Let those," he says, "who make them become like them, and all who trust in them." You see that they are dead, and made like the images, who worship them and who trust in them. Whence let us look more carefully whether perhaps, just as those who worship idols and trust in them are said to become like them, so also those who worship the true God, and trust in him, become like him. And this is perhaps why in the beginnings, when it had been proposed that man should be made to the image and likeness of God, he was indeed made to the image, but the likeness was deferred for this reason: that he should first trust in God, and so become like him, and that he himself should hear that everyone who trusts in him shall be made like him. These things we have joined by a kind of digression to what we have discussed concerning the kind of death, so that it might become clearer in what ways God quickens the dead. But let us also see how what he says in the following is to be understood: "And calls those things which are not as those which are." We have frequently expounded, in other places too, that God alone is he who said: "I am who I am"; and that substance of God is one, which always is; and if anyone joins himself to it, he becomes one spirit with him, and through him who always is, he too is said to be. But he who is far from him, and takes no participation of him, is not even said to be — as we the Gentiles were, before we came to the knowledge of the divine truth; and therefore God is said to call "those things which are not as those which are." For among those who are, that is, who have participation in him who is, are numbered Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the rest of the saints. But if the Gentiles by believing come into the faith of Abraham, the Apostle consequently declares that God has called "those things which are not as those which are." Yet this too may be observed: that in this place the Apostle may seem to have poured himself out more widely upon the praises of God, and to have recalled with admiration the beginnings of his first creation, when he made all things to be out of nothing, and by his powerful might called forth those things which were not as though they were and subsisted; and that thus nothing was difficult for him in creating, so that, when nothing existed, all things being suddenly called were at once present as though they had always existed. But if someone should object to us that discourse of the Apostle which he writes to the Corinthians, where he says that "God chose the contemptible things of the world, and the things which are not, that he might destroy the things which are, so that no flesh should glory before God" — and should say that according to this exposition it is not fitting that the things which are should be said to be destroyed, when the things which are not have been chosen — we shall say to this that in that place he called some men "those who are," and others in this chapter in the Epistle to the Romans. For he made clear to the Corinthians that he was speaking of those whom he had enumerated above. For he said above: "For behold your calling, brethren, that not many wise among you according to the flesh, not many powerful, not many noble: but God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might confound the wise: and God chose the weak things of the world, that he might confound the strong." Just as, then, he says that God chose the foolish things of the world, that is, the Gentiles, that he might confound the wise, without doubt the Jews; and the weak things of the world, that he might confound the strong: in the same order he speaks in this place also of the things which are not, that he might destroy the things which are; and he shows that the Gentiles are not, but that the Jews are — that is, those who were in the law but did not fulfill the law — so that these might be destroyed, and those brought in who were not in the law, and were joined by the merit of their believing to the faith of Abraham. But as to what he said, That he might confound the wise — not that they were truly wise; otherwise God would never confound those who are wise according to the wisdom of God; but he means those who think themselves to be wise, and are not, as he also says elsewhere: "Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" Therefore he confounds the wise of this world by choosing the foolish — not because these too were foolish in like manner through poverty of understanding, but according to that which was said: "He who wishes to be wise, let him become foolish in this world, that he may be wise with God: because the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God."
[§6] "Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was said to him: So shall your seed be, as the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea. And he was not weakened in faith, nor did he consider his own body now dead, since he was almost a hundred years old, and the dead womb of Sarah. In the promise also of God he did not hesitate through distrust: but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and knowing most fully that whatever he promised, he is able also to do. Therefore it was also reputed to him unto justice." It seems to me that when the Apostle said "against hope," he had in view that which is related in Genesis, that Abraham said to the Lord: "Sovereign Lord, what will you give me? I am dismissed without children: but this son of Masech my homeborn maidservant is Damascus Eliezer. And Abraham said: Since you have given me no seed, this homeborn servant of mine shall be my heir." From which words Abraham is certainly understood to have despaired of receiving children. But as for what he said, "he believed in hope," I think he gathers the hope given to him again from that place where it is written: "And the voice of the Lord came to him saying: This man shall not be your heir; but he who shall come forth from you, he himself shall be your heir. And he led him outside, and said to him: Look up to heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to count them. And he said to him: So shall your seed be. And he believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice." From these words, therefore, both his earlier despair and the hope afterwards given to him by God's promises are declared. And because he believed him, that is written of him which the Apostle now sets forth, that "it was reputed to him unto justice." And rightly, and in the manner customary to him whenever he treats of faith, the Apostle joins hope also, knowing that hope inseparably cleaves to faith, just as he teaches the same in the Epistle to the Hebrews, saying: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things that do not appear." And again in this same Epistle to the Romans he says further on: "For by hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man sees, why does he hope for it? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it through patience." What he says, "by hope we were saved," is the same as what he says elsewhere, that "by faith we have been saved"; and, "Your faith has made you whole"; and, "According to your faith be it unto you." Which things are certainly said to those who, believing in Jesus, bore the hope that they could be cured by him. And just as Abraham "against hope believed in hope," so all who by faith are sons of Abraham believe against hope in hope concerning each and every one of the things they believe, whether concerning the resurrection of the dead or concerning the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven. For these things, so far as human nature is concerned, seem to be against hope; but so far as the power of God is concerned, they are believed in hope, after the example of Abraham believing that "whatever God has promised, he is able also to do" — provided, however, that in those who believe there abide faith, hope, and charity. And I think that the first beginnings of salvation, and the very foundations, are faith; but the advance and increase of the building is hope; while the perfection and summit of the whole work is charity: and therefore charity is called "the greatest of all." Therefore Abraham "against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations," which were to be as the stars of heaven, not only in multitude but also in brightness; and he, faithfully believing him who promised, "was not," he says, "weakened in faith." What he says, "he was not weakened in faith," seems to me to show that there is a certain weakness in faith. But if there is weakness, there is without doubt also health, as he shows in other places when he says: "Rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith." Blessed, therefore, is he who is not made weak in faith. But if anyone should be made weak, the Apostle describes the care for him when he says: "Him that is weak in faith take unto you, but not in disputes about thoughts. For one believes that he may eat all things; but he who is weak, let him eat herbs." By which he certainly indicates that the herbs of the word are to be offered to him who is weak in faith, lest the full doctrine of faith be forced upon those who waver in it and are in a manner sick. But that faith is called sound which is perfect and to which nothing is lacking: and it is that faith which believes that it may eat all things, that is, which is able to take in all things; and he who has it is called spiritual, and judges all things, and can be scandalized in no word. From which it evidently appears that there are certain increases and advances in faith, and that some have a small portion of faith, others a great one, and others indeed have all faith. Whence the Apostle also said: "If I should have all faith, so that I might remove mountains." But in the Gospels too the disciples say to the Lord, as men in whom full faith was not yet present: "Increase our faith." Consider indeed whether, according to those things which we say about faith, we may likewise understand about the increases of charity as well, so that we may say of charity also, as he said, "If I should have all faith," — If I should have all charity: and that he has all charity who has all those things which are proper to charity, as the Apostle says: "Charity is patient, is kind, is not puffed up, is not envious, is not ambitious, does not act perversely, is not provoked: bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things," and other things similar to these. And if anyone has these, it rightly seems to me to be said that he has all charity: which charity without doubt consists of these several parts mentioned above by the Apostle. And similarly I think it can be said of mercy also, and of piety, and of the other virtues. And perhaps through each of these, just as it was said of faith, that "faith was reputed unto justice," so also it can be said of charity, that charity was reputed to him unto justice, or piety, or mercy. But let us now look at the things which follow. "And he was not," he says, "weakened in faith, nor did he consider his own body now dead, since he was almost a hundred years old, and the dead womb of Sarah; in the promise also of God he did not hesitate through distrust, but was strengthened in faith." So far indeed as pertains to the simple understanding, he has set forth an evident reason: that Abraham, when he heard offspring promised to him by God, did not look to the dead powers of a hundred-year-old body, from which certainly no succession could in any way be hoped for; but gazing upon the power of him who promised, he believed that nothing was difficult among those things which the Almighty was promising: but he gave, he says, "glory to God," understanding that it was the gift of God alone where the laws of human fruitfulness had ceased. Rightly therefore did he give glory to God, who had been abandoned by the helps of nature.
Such things, as I have said, so far as concerns the simple understanding, will seem to have been said sufficiently. But if someone objects to us: How can Abraham, set in the hundredth year of his age, be called "of a dead body," when, after he had received Isaac, and after Sarah had died — she who had conceived him at ninety and had lived a hundred and twenty-seven years — and after Isaac too, being forty years old, had taken Rebecca, after all these things it is written: "And Abraham again took a wife whose name was Keturah, and she bore him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah"? How then will he seem to be "of a dead body," who, being made much older than he was then, was able both to take a wife and to beget six children? In order that we may fittingly dispose of these objections, we transfer the exposition of "a dead body" to that sense, so that we may say that Abraham was dead not by the infirmity of age, but according to that virtue which the saints, fulfilling it first in themselves, admonish others also to have, saying: "Mortify your members which are upon the earth." For I think it absurd, if this good which Paul had in himself (for he would not command to others what he had not himself done) — if, I say, this good which Paul had, we should not believe that so great a patriarch as Abraham had, whom the Apostle even calls his own father. There was therefore in him also this mortification of the members: he was not incited by wantonness, he was not burned with lust, like those of whom the Apostle says: "It is better to marry than to burn." This same thing was in Sarah also, because "it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women." For there was not in her womanly wantonness, nor the looseness of incontinence, nor were they hurried headlong, unwilling, into the exercise of lust; but when they hear of so great a hope of posterity, and of the glory of their offspring to be made equal to heaven and the stars — when they hear these things, they do not look to their own goods, to the grace of continence, to the mortification of the members, but all these things which they had counted gains they judge to be losses, that they may gain Christ. But perhaps you think that I have erred, in that, when I ought to have spoken of Abraham's posterity and his seed, I have spoken of Christ. We do not err, but we speak with the Apostle. For he himself interprets these things to have been said of Christ when he says: "It is written: To thee will I give this land, and to thy seed. He did not say, And to seeds, as in many; but, To thy seed, as in one, which is Christ." You see then how the Apostle teaches us that the Lord so spoke to Abraham that in his seed he should understand that Christ was to be perceived; and for this reason I think that the Apostle added and said: "Giving glory to God." For Abraham could not have offered so much glory from the birth of Isaac as he was able to give glory to God, if he understood that Christ was to be born from his body, already dead and purged of vices. But you too, if you mortify your members which are upon the earth, if, having cast away every heat of lust, you keep your body dead and liable to no vices, you also can generate from it the best fruits; you can generate Isaac, which is joy — and this is the first fruit of the spirit; your seed, that is, your works, can ascend to heaven and become works of light and be compared to the brightness and splendor of the stars, so that when the day of the resurrection shall have come, you may differ, as star from star, in glory. I say yet more: you can, if you be so pure in mind, so holy in body, so unstained in your acts, generate even Christ himself, according to him who said: "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you." And thus the Lord himself says of himself: "Whoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother." Who then shall be the mother of Jesus, save she whose womb is dead? — that so at last she may bring forth children of chastity, like that woman too of whom the Apostle says: "But she shall be saved through the bearing of children, if she continue in faith and chastity." Whence also I think it fittingly added for these reasons: "And it was reckoned to him for righteousness." For how should it not be reckoned for righteousness to him who held perfection not only in faith, but in all the virtues?
[§7] "Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was reckoned to him for righteousness, but for our sake also, to whom it shall be reckoned, believing in him who raised up Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up for our offenses, and rose again for our justification." In this place, what he says, "not for his sake alone," is to be understood as "concerning him"; and again what he says, "but for our sake also," this is, "and concerning us." For it is manifest that this which is said, "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness," Moses did not write in order that Abraham might read it, who had of course long since died, but that we might take from a reading of this sort a profiting in faith, understanding that if we too so believe God as he believed, our faith also shall be reckoned to us for righteousness, "believing in him who raised up Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead." I should indeed like to inquire why it is that in this place the Apostle, when naming God, in whom we believe and in whom Abraham believed, did not say "believing" in God most high, or "believing in him" who made heaven and earth, or "in him" who made the angels and the other powers of the heavenly glory; but says: "who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead." Let us therefore inquire for what cause this title of the Lord's resurrection is taken up for the comparison of Abraham's faith. Had Abraham believed in him who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead, when Jesus had not yet then been raised from the dead? I should wish, then, to consider what Paul had in view when he promises us that, just as faith was reckoned to Abraham believing for righteousness, so also it shall be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. In this matter I, according to the smallness of my perception, observe this: that it is far more magnificent among the praises of God to have raised Jesus our Lord from the dead than to have made heaven and earth, to have created the angels and established the heavenly powers. For that was to make the things which were not, but this to repair the things which had perished. That was to establish things not yet destroyed, this to restore things already destroyed. That, finally, was accomplished by a command, this by suffering. But of this so great and so magnificent a mystery, a form and image had gone before in the faith of Abraham. For he had believed, when he was bidden to offer his only son, that God was able to raise him even from the dead; he had believed also that the matter was then being transacted not for that Isaac alone, but that for his seed, which is Christ, the full truth of the sacrament was being kept in store. Thence, finally, he offered his only son rejoicing, because in him he was pondering not the destruction of his posterity, but the repairing of the world and the renewal of the whole creation, which has been restored through the resurrection of the Lord; and therefore the Lord says of him: "Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it and was glad." In this way, then, the comparison made between the faith of Abraham and of those who believe in him who raised the Lord Jesus will be seen to be fitting; because what he believed would be, is believed by us to have been done. And at the same time this also is shown, which does not please the heretics: that God, in whom Abraham believed and who reckoned his faith for righteousness, is the very one who also raised the Lord Jesus from the dead; nor is any room left for understanding one God of the law and another the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. But let us inquire something else: since there are very many things which Christ is said to be (for he is called both Wisdom, and power, and righteousness, and word, and truth, and life), why the Apostle makes mention, in our faith, chiefly of his resurrection. The same Apostle says elsewhere that "God has raised us up together with Christ, and has made us sit together with him in the heavenly places." This, then, is what he admonishes: If you believe that Christ rose from the dead, believe also that you yourselves have risen together with him; and if you believe that he sits at the right hand of the Father in the heavens, believe also that you yourselves are now placed not among earthly things, but among heavenly; and if you believe that you have died together with Christ, believe that you shall also live together with him; and if you believe that Christ died to sin and lives to God, you also be dead to sin, and live to God. And this is what he attests by apostolic authority when he says: "If you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God; savor the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth" — because he who acts thus shows that he believes in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, and to such a one faith is truly reckoned for righteousness. For neither is it possible that righteousness should be reckoned to one having in himself something of unrighteousness, even if he believes in him who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. For unrighteousness can have nothing in common with righteousness, just as neither light with darkness, nor life with death. So therefore also, to those who indeed believe Christ, and yet do not put off the old man with his unrighteous deeds, faith cannot be reckoned for righteousness. And in like manner we can say that, just as righteousness cannot be reckoned to the unrighteous, so neither can chastity be reckoned to the unchaste, nor equity to the iniquitous, nor liberality to the miser, nor piety to the impious, so long as he does not cast off the old garments of the vices and put on "the new man, who is created according to God, and is renewed in the knowledge of God after the image of him who created him." For this reason also in what follows he adds and says of the Lord Jesus: "Who was delivered up," he says, "for our sins, and rose again for our justification" — that he may show that those things for which Christ was delivered up we too ought to abhor and cast away. For if we believe that he was delivered up for our sins, how is not every sin to be counted by us as foreign and hostile, for which our Redeemer is recorded to have been delivered up to death? For if there should again be for us any fellowship or friendship with sin, we show that we count the death of Christ Jesus as nothing, since we embrace and follow the very things which he overcame and conquered. And the Apostle, binding all this together as it were into the very body of sin, called it the garment of the old man, which he urges to be put off by those who believe in him who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead, so that, having cast away the garment of unrighteousness, they may put on the Lord Jesus, who is the true garment of righteousness, in order that faith may deservedly be reckoned for righteousness to those who believe. "He was therefore delivered up for our sins, and rose again for our justification." For indeed, if we have risen with Christ, who is righteousness, and walk in newness of life, and live according to righteousness, Christ has risen for us unto our justification. But if we have not yet put off the old man with his deeds, but live in unrighteousness, I dare to say that Christ has not yet risen for us unto justification, nor has he been delivered up for our sins.
For if I believe this, how can I love that for the sake of which he endured death? If I believe that he rose again for my justification, how can injustice be pleasing to me? Christ, therefore, justifies those alone who have taken up a new life after the example of his resurrection, and who cast off the old garments of injustice and iniquity as being the cause of death. But I should like to inquire into this: whether it is only for this reason that the Apostle says that "it was not written for the sake of" Abraham "alone, but for our sake also," namely, because he said, "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness." Do you suppose that this saying alone, out of all the things that are said about Abraham, was written not for his sake only, but for ours as well? Or will certain other things also appear to have been written not for his sake only, but for ours too? Or is it rather the case that all the things which are said about him are said not about him alone, but for our sake as well? And not only concerning Abraham — but see whether perhaps these same considerations ought to be applied in like manner to Isaac as well, so that the things written about him look not to him alone but to us also. And similarly concerning Jacob and the rest of the patriarchs. For what reason will there appear to be that the things written about Abraham should be said to pertain to us also, but not in the same way the things written about Isaac, and about Jacob, and about Judah, or about Joseph, and the rest? But if no reason appears why this should be so understood of one patriarch and not of the others as well, it will follow that the things written about them all seem to have been written not only for the sake of those who lived at that time, but for our sake also. And what especially persuades me to think thus is that word of the Gospel in which our Lord and Savior answered those who had said to him, "Our father is Abraham": "If you were Abraham's seed, you would surely do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has spoken to you the truth which I heard from my Father: this Abraham did not do." By this he certainly shows that those who do the works of Abraham are the sons of Abraham; and that the things written about Abraham were written for their sake. Here now it belongs to a wise man, one enlightened by God, to look closely and to discern how each single work that is written of Abraham may be seen to be fulfilled in himself; for example, what was said to him: "Go out from your land, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, and come into the land which I will show you" — how he too who wishes to be seen from his works to be of the seed of Abraham ought to obey these words, which assuredly were written not for Abraham's sake only, but also for the sake of those who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead; and, when he has fulfilled these things, how he ought also to hope for what is added, that is: "And I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will magnify your name, and you shall be blessed: and I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you, and in you shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed"; and again, when Scripture says, "And Abraham departed according to the things which the Lord had spoken to him" — how this too seems to have been written not for Abraham's sake only, but for ours also, that we may walk according to all the things which the Lord has spoken. And likewise concerning Isaac, or concerning the others, the things that are similarly written — how these too may be seen to pertain to us. But it is not the business of the present occasion to bring all these things forward and to examine each one, showing in what manner the things said or done by Abraham or by the other saints in the divine Scriptures are fulfilled also in us who believe in him in whom Abraham believed; but so far as the necessity of the present work allows, we have opened a road along which whoever desires to be exercised in the Scriptures may advance more widely. Thus far the course of our discussion has run concerning the character of that faith which was reckoned unto righteousness, and concerning the observance of the various laws, and the difference between uncircumcision and circumcision. Now let us see in what manner those who have been justified by faith and not by works are instructed by the Apostle.
[§8] "Being justified therefore by faith, let us have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we glory in the hope of the glory of God." By this he most plainly invites the one who has understood what it is to be justified by faith and not by works to that peace of God which surpasses every mind, in which also the summit of perfection consists. But that we may examine the Apostle's meaning more carefully, let us inquire what the name of peace signifies, and in particular that peace which is through our Lord Christ. Peace is said to exist where no one is at variance, no one at discord, where nothing hostile, nothing barbarous is carried on. We therefore, who were once enemies of God, following the enemy and tyrant, the devil — if we now cast away his weapons and take up the standard of Christ and the banners of his cross, we assuredly have peace with God, but through our Lord Jesus Christ, who reconciled us to God through the sacrifice of his blood, as it is written: "When we were enemies of God, we were reconciled through the blood of the cross of his Son." And elsewhere the same Paul added to these words, saying: "We entreat you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God." If anyone therefore has peace with God, and has been reconciled through the blood of Christ, let him no longer touch those things which are hostile to God. But do you wish to hear what those things are which are hostile to God? Paul himself teaches you, who says: "The wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God: for it is not subject to the law of God." If therefore you are wise after the flesh, or expose your life to the desires of the flesh, and are dissolved by an abundance of delights; or if concerning the understanding of the law you think carnally and not spiritually, and defend these views by assertions sought out through human artifice rather than by spiritual grace and subtler understanding, you are made an enemy to God through the wisdom of the flesh. Nor is Paul the only one who writes these things in his letters: hear James also, the brother of the Lord, declaring the like, when he says: "Whoever wishes to be a friend of this world shall be constituted an enemy of God." But John too testifies to the same effect: "Little children," he says, "do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world: for everything that is in the world is the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of God." Therefore the man in whom these things are cannot have peace with God, but rather stirs up again those enmities for the dissolving of which Christ came, as the same Apostle also says of Christ: "For he is our peace, who made both one, and dissolving the middle wall of the fence, the enmities in his flesh: emptying the law of commandments in its decrees, that he might create the two in himself, making peace in one new man." But if Christ came to dissolve enmities, to make peace, and to reconcile to God us who were at variance because of that fence of malice which we had woven by sinning — the fence of sin being dissolved — then whoever turns back again to sins without doubt restores the enmities anew, and weaves the fence of dissension again, and by these things undoes the work of Christ and empties out the cross of his passion. But let us, "being justified by faith, have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Let us have peace, so that the flesh may no longer strive against the spirit, nor the law of God be resisted by the law of the members. Let there not be in us "yes and no," but let us all say one thing, let us be of the same mind, and let there be no dissension either within ourselves or outwardly toward one another; and then we shall have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. But this must be known most certainly, that everyone in whom there is the vice of malice can never have peace. For while he is always thinking how to injure his neighbor, while he is always seeking out arts of doing harm, his mind never rests in peace. But if you should ask of me how the righteous man can have peace, who is assailed by the devil, who sustains the wars of temptations — I should say that he above all others has peace. For see how carefully the Apostle writes. He did not say, "Being justified therefore by faith, let us have peace," and then fall silent; but he adds: "Let us have peace with God." You see that war against the devil furnishes peace with God, and that we come more fully into the peace of God at the very time when we persist unpacified against the devil, and when we fight against the vices of the flesh. Finally the apostle James also speaks thus: "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you: draw near to God, and he will draw near to you." You see that he too was of this mind, that one draws near to God precisely when one resists the devil. "Let us" therefore "have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." And he added: "Through whom also we have access into this grace in which we stand." How we have access to grace through our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior himself says: "I am the door"; and, "No one comes to the Father except through me." Through him, then, who is the door, we have access to grace. But let us see what kind of door it is, that we may know what kind of persons they ought to be who enter through it and have access to grace. This door is truth, and liars cannot enter in through the door of truth. And again, this door is righteousness, and the unrighteous do not enter through the door of righteousness. This door says: "Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart." Through the door, therefore, of humility and gentleness neither the wrathful man enters nor the proud. If then there is anyone who, according to the Apostle's word, wishes through our Lord Jesus Christ to have access into the grace of the Lord, in which Paul, and any who are like him, says that he stands, he must be cleansed from all those things which we have mentioned above. Otherwise this door will not allow those to enter through it who do the things that are foreign to it, but is at once shut, and does not permit those unlike itself to pass through. This, no doubt, is what happened to those five foolish virgins as well, who, because they had not gathered the oil of good works in their vessels, on coming after delay found the door shut. For foolish souls could not enter through the door of wisdom and have access into grace. And well does the apostle Paul say that he stands in grace, who also said elsewhere: "But I labored more abundantly than all of them: yet not I, but the grace of God with me." Hence if there is any other who labors more abundantly, and who glories in his infirmities, who is often set in dangers — "dangers of the sea, dangers of rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers among false brethren" — and in all these stands always in faith, he likewise is said to stand in grace.
But let us also see what sort of thing that is which follows: "And we glory in the hope of the glory of God." It moves me to ask why he did not say that he glories in the glory of God, but "in the hope of the glory of God" — in which something of the expression seems indeed to be lacking, so that one ought to understand, "in the hope" of seeing "the glory of God." Yet by these words he teaches us, just as he himself says elsewhere, that "the things which are hoped for are eternal, but the things which are seen are temporal." For Moses too is said to have seen the glory of God; the people also is said, at the consecration of the house of the Lord, to have seen the glory of the God of Israel. But even concerning a glory of this kind, which could be seen, Paul, who was versed in the mysteries of God, dared to declare that that glory shall be destroyed which was seen even in the face of Moses; whereas this glory which is hoped for, of which he says, "In the hope of the glory of God," shall never be destroyed. For it is such as that of which the same Apostle speaks when he says of Christ: "Who is," he says, "the brightness of glory, and the express figure of his substance." Of seeing this glory, then, they bear the hope of whom it is said: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" — then, when sorrow and sadness and groaning shall have fled away, and when those things which are now seen in a mirror and in an enigma shall be destroyed, and those things shall remain which are face to face. But if it should perhaps seem to anyone that against this exposition of ours there can be brought the objection of what the Apostle himself says: "But we, beholding with unveiled face the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory into glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord"; and if he says: How does he still bear the hope of glory, who says that already with unveiled face he beholds the glory of the Lord, and is transformed from glory into glory? — see whether we can resolve the objection in this manner. The Apostle seems to me to be showing the differences of glories: that one glory was that which was revealed through the ministry of Moses, of which we have already spoken above; another that which was administered in the fleshly coming of the Saviour, of which John also says in the Gospel: "And we saw his glory, glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Of this glory we cannot say that it is the very one which is to be hoped for; for the apostles say that they saw it, and true is that saying which declares: "For what a man sees, why does he hope for it?" But that glory which is to be hoped for, concerning which the Apostle also in the present passage says that he glories "in the hope of the glory of God," can be understood to be that of which the Saviour says in the Gospel: "When the Son of man shall come in the glory of the Father, and of the holy angels." But when he said, "of the Father, and of the holy angels," it is not that he says the glory of the Father and of the angels is one; rather this seems to me to be what he shows, that these glories which were conveyed either through Moses to those of former times, or to us through the coming of Christ in the flesh, were not the glories of angels, but of men; for they were ministered to men, and were of such measure as men could receive. But that glory in which the Son of man is to come to judge the world will be so great a glory of the Father that it can be received by angels alone. And if some even of the saints prove capable of that glory, they will doubtless be those of whom it is said, that "they shall be as the angels of God." And in this way it seems rightly said of the future glory, which is to be hoped for, that the Son of man comes "in the glory of the Father, and of the holy angels" — that is, not such glory as earthly men, but as holy angels, are worthy to receive. For according to the capacity of minds God dispenses also the magnitudes of glories. But just as no one could either believe or receive that glory which the apostles say in the Gospels that they saw, "glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth," unless that glory also which was ministered through Moses in the law had held the way of understanding — as he testifies who said to Nathanael: "Him of whom Moses and the prophets wrote we have found, Jesus of Nazareth" (in which he certainly shows that, being illuminated by the Law and the Prophets, they beheld the glory of this one, which was as of the Only-begotten of the Father) — so also what the Apostle said, "We, beholding with unveiled face the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory into glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord," ought to be understood thus: that he who contemplates that glory of the Only-begotten with unveiled face, that is, with the full understanding of faith, by the same image by which he came from the Law to the Gospels and to the fleshly coming of the Saviour, with the gaze of his heart illuminated through faith, should none the less strain the keenness of his mind toward the second coming of the glory, and be transformed from the present glory to the future glory which is hoped for. Whence I judge that no one can, or deserves, to become capable of that future glory, unless already from this life he receives some use and practice of it, according to what the Apostle says, beholding it in a mirror and in an enigma by [...] of meditation, so that by the constant image of the divine glory which he bears while still set in the flesh he may, better prepared, be carried over to the true capacity of that glory through the power of the Holy Spirit. "And not only so, but we glory also in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patience, and patience trial, and trial hope; but hope does not confound, because the charity of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." The very first phrase of this chapter contains something of ambiguity; for it does not have in what follows anything to which what he said, "and not only so," ought to be referred. Whence see whether we can in this way resolve the ambiguity of the expression. Since in the foregoing he has taught us that many things have been granted to us through our Lord Jesus Christ — as when he says that we have been justified by faith through our Lord Jesus Christ, and that through him we have access into this grace, and that through him also we glory in the hope of the glory of God — to all these things which have been said I think that "and not only so" ought to be referred: that is, not only the things which I said above, but this also, that we glory in our tribulations, we have through our Lord Jesus Christ. For while others are made sad in tribulation, we, strengthened by the power of his grace, glory in tribulations. For we have learned a new discipline from his instruction, that through tribulations we may receive the good of patience; and having the good of patience we may be judged approved; and, tried through the patience of many tribulations, we may have the hope of the future reward from God — which hope, because it is certain and true, does not confound those who hope. For faith and hope are followed by the charity of God, which is greater than all, and which not only fills our mind, but also abounds and is poured out in our hearts, for the reason that it is not acquired by us through human art, but is poured in through the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Let these things be explained according to the sequence of the discourse itself, that is, of the letter, for the opening up of the apostolic utterance. Now let us inquire what the inner sense contains. And first let us consider, concerning boasting, what he said: "We boast in our tribulations." For the word "boasting" is sometimes used in the Scriptures in a praiseworthy sense, and sometimes in a blameworthy one. Indeed, when Jeremiah says: "Thus says the Lord: Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor let the rich man boast in his riches; but let him who boasts boast in this, to understand and to know me, that I am the Lord who establishes mercy and judgment and justice upon the earth" — in one and the same chapter he has placed boasting both in a praiseworthy and in a blameworthy sense. For if anyone, he says, boasts either in his own wisdom, or in his strength, or in his riches, he boasts blameworthily; but if anyone boasts in knowing the Lord, and in the understanding of his judgments and of his mercy and justice, he boasts in a praiseworthy manner. Since, therefore, this word looks toward both, we must inquire in what things there is right boasting, and in what things a less right boasting. And this we shall at last be able to recognize, if we hold to the natures of things with a fitting distinction. Now what we mean is this. All things that exist or that are done are either good, or evil, or indifferent. Concerning these, although a broader disputation ought to be held, nevertheless we shall set forth as much as suffices for the present passage. It is certain that those things are properly called good which pertain to the virtues of the soul; and that those alone are defined as evil which have regard to wickedness and are done against the law of God; but that the rest are indifferent — that is, are to be named neither good nor evil — such as riches, beauty of body, and strength or tallness of stature, and those things which serve the uses of the body. If, therefore, anyone is ignorant of the distinction of this diversity, and boasts in those things which are not truly good, nor pertain to the virtue of the soul, he boasts blameworthily. But Paul, who was most skilled in these matters, when he had said that "we boast in our tribulations," lest perhaps he should be thought to boast in things indifferent and intermediate, immediately renders the reason, and shows that his boasting, which he has in tribulations, pertains to the virtues of the soul. For he says that "tribulation," for which I boast, "works patience, and patience probation, and probation hope, and hope does not confound, because the charity of God has been poured forth in our hearts through the Holy Spirit"; and in these words he teaches that, through virtues succeeding one another, the boasting of tribulations ascends even to the summit of the Holy Spirit, just as he also says elsewhere: "He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord." Therefore it is fitting to boast neither in one's own wisdom, nor in strength, nor in riches, but in God alone. But perhaps you may say: Does not wisdom have regard to the virtues of the soul? And why is it accounted blameworthy to boast in wisdom? See, then, how cautious is the word of Scripture, which seems unpolished and rustic. It did not say: "Let not the wise man boast in wisdom," and then fall silent; but it says: "Let not the wise man boast in his own wisdom." For he who boasts in his own wisdom, and not in the wisdom of God, boasts blameworthily, since elsewhere too the prophet says: "Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and learned in their own sight." The wisdom of God, therefore, is to know God, and to understand his mercy, and his judgment, and the justice which he has wrought upon the earth; and he who boasts in this boasts in the Lord. But human wisdom cannot know and understand the Lord, nor recognize his judgments, and his mercy, and the justice which he has wrought upon the earth; and therefore it is indifferent and intermediate. For it can come about that one instructed in this human wisdom may come better prepared to the understanding of divine wisdom, and, being exercised in the former, may become more capable of the latter. In like manner is it with him who makes use of the other things which we have said to be intermediate, namely strength or riches: which, so long as they are intermediate — that is, so long as a man is not strong in the work of God, nor rich in mercies toward the poor — he ought to boast neither in strength nor in riches. But if these things which are intermediate are turned toward the virtue of the soul and toward the fruit of good work, they are made worthy of boasting; just as, on the other hand, if they are applied to an evil work, so that through riches a man oppresses the poor, and through strength lays low the weak, then these are no longer thought to be intermediate, but evil. For this reason, therefore, they are said to be by their own nature indifferent and intermediate, because, when joined to an evil work, they can be called evil, and when united to good works, can be named good. But apart from this inclination toward one or the other of the two, those who call them good must be believed to be unskilled and ignorant of rational definitions and appellations. Yet by a misuse of language we call a craftsman "wise," and a pilot, and an architect, and we name a woman "wise" in weaving. As to what, therefore, the Apostle says in the present chapter, "that tribulation works patience" — if it is established that patience is one of the virtues of the soul, then without doubt tribulation, which gives birth to the virtues of the soul, is to be called neither evil nor indifferent, but good. And to such a degree, as we said above, is patience to be called a virtue of the soul, that he says our probation comes about through patience, and that through probation hope is given: which hope assuredly, since it is placed in God, who is the Father of all virtues, does not confound the one who hopes. For together with hope it holds also the abundance of charity, which in the first place — because "the greatest of all is charity" — is coupled with the Spirit. But if someone should confront us and say that tribulation is intermediate and indifferent, since indeed we find that even the evil and the impious are afflicted with tribulation, and not at once, because they are afflicted for their evil deeds, is their tribulation to be reckoned a virtue of the soul: see whether we may be able to answer in this way, that tribulation properly belongs to the saints, but that the tribulation of the impious and the unjust should be called "scourges." Finally, in the Psalm he speaks thus: "Many are the tribulations of the just." But of those others he says: "Many are the scourges of the sinner." And perhaps for this reason tribulation and straitness pertain to the saints, because they are the ones who walk the narrow and strait way, and for that reason are said to be afflicted with tribulation. Which also I judge the apostles to have understood with respect to the Lord himself, who is the true way along which the saints walk, when they said to him: "The crowds press you and hem you in, Master." Therefore we ought to understand the tribulations of the just not only as those which come from without, from those things which we have above called indifferent or intermediate — that is, either from losses, or from illnesses, or from any torment of the body — but also in this, that even when placed in rest they afflict themselves and wear themselves down by resisting their own wills, by bridling lust, by restraining license, and by casting down all that stands against the good of continence, according to this same man who said: "I mortify my body and subject it to servitude, lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become reprobate." And in this way the tribulation of the just cannot be called indifferent, but plainly good, since through it the goods of virtue are fulfilled.
The unrighteous, however, even if they are afflicted — which affliction we said Scripture rather calls "scourgings" — since in these very scourgings and chastisements they do nothing according to the virtue of the soul, bring nothing toward patience, nor hope for proof through patience: for that reason in their case what is to be named is not the tribulation which arrives at these good things, but scourgings, as Scripture willed, even if you may sometimes find the term "tribulation" used improperly and applied to the unrighteous as well. But that you may know that the tribulation of the righteous does not narrow the virtue of the soul but rather enlarges it, hear Paul himself, writing to the Corinthians, how he distinguishes these things; for he speaks thus: "In all things we suffer tribulation, but we are not straitened; we are cast down, but we do not perish." You see that he says he suffers tribulation not in one thing, but in all: that is, both in those things which befall him from without and are inflicted by others, and in those which he himself endures within himself for the sake of bodily continence and in the labors of the best disciplines; and therefore he says, "In all things we suffer tribulation, but we are not straitened." For he cannot be straitened who is enlarged by the virtues. And that what we are saying may become still clearer in this way, Paul himself writes in what follows: "I know both how to be humbled and how to abound (in all things and unto all things I have been instructed), both to be filled and to hunger, both to abound and to suffer want." Therefore, if that is true which he said above, "In all things we suffer tribulation," it is certain that this is indicated by him: that both when he suffers want he is afflicted, and when he abounds he is nonetheless afflicted. But he is afflicted in want, because something is lacking; in abundance, however, because he restrains himself, lest through abundance he be dissolved, or lest he dispense less fittingly those things which seem to abound. So too both when he hungers and when he is filled, and when he suffers persecutions and when he lives in rest. And in this way, he who is afflicted in all these things rightly glories in his tribulations: from which without doubt is born patience, which, being made approved, brings forth hope, which, joined with charity, associates us with the Holy Spirit. — But as to what he said, "The charity of God has been poured out in our hearts," it must be considered more diligently in whose hearts the charity of God is poured out. I think that it is in the hearts of those who no longer have "the spirit of bondage again in fear," but also of those in whom "perfect charity casts out fear," and to whom the spirit "of adoption" is given, which cries in their hearts, "Abba, Father." It belongs, therefore, not to just any man, but to the perfect, and to such a one as Paul was, in whose heart the charity of God is poured out "through the Holy Spirit." But this also seems to me to require consideration: whether here he means that charity by which we love God, or that by which we are loved by God, to have been poured out through the Holy Spirit in our hearts. And if indeed that charity by which we love God is understood, this statement needs no proving; but if, because he said that the charity of God has been poured out in our hearts, that charity is rather to be understood by which we are loved by God, it is certain that he sets charity as the highest and greatest gift of the Holy Spirit, so that, this having first been received from God as a gift, by this very thing we may be able to love God — namely, because we are loved by God. For Paul himself also names the spirit of charity, and God is called charity, and Christ is named the Son of charity. But if there is found both a spirit of charity, and a Son of charity, and God who is charity, it is certain that from the one fount of the Paternal Deity both the Son is to be understood and the Holy Spirit, from whose abundance also into the hearts of the saints — for the taking hold of participation in the divine nature, as the apostle Peter taught — an abundance of charity is poured in: so that through this gift of the Holy Spirit that word may be fulfilled which the Lord speaks: "As you, Father, are in me, and I in you, so may these also be one in us" — that is, made partakers of the divine nature in the abundance of charity ministered through the Holy Spirit.
[§10] "For while we were yet weak, Christ, according to the time, died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet for a good man perhaps someone would dare to die." Wishing to show more fully the powers of that charity which he had said was poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, he set forth for what reasons we ought to understand this, teaching us that Christ died not for the godly but for the ungodly. For we were ungodly before we were converted to God, and Christ assuredly underwent death for us before we believed: which beyond doubt he would not have done, had he not had toward us an exceeding and most abundant charity — whether our Lord Jesus Christ himself, by dying for the ungodly, or God the Father, by handing over his Only-begotten for the redemption of the ungodly. For since scarcely anyone dies for a righteous man, and each one hesitates to undergo death, even if the cause of death be just, how great is this one, and how great must his charity toward us be reckoned, who, at that time in which he suffered, did not shrink from enduring death for the ungodly and the unrighteous? In this, surely, is the token of that highest divine goodness. For unless he were coming from that substance, and the Son of that Father of whom it is said that "none is good save one, God the Father," he certainly could not have shown so great a goodness toward us. Whence, because from this token of so great goodness he himself is recognized to be good, for this good one perhaps someone would even dare to die. For when each one has come to know so great a goodness of Christ toward himself, and has had his charity poured out in his heart, he will desire not only to die for this good one, but even to die boldly. And we often see this fulfilled in actual deeds and works, when those in whose hearts the charity of Christ has been abundantly poured out offer themselves even willingly and with all boldness to their persecutors, and confess the name of Christ, with the world listening, before angels and men, so that they dare not only to suffer injury for his name, but even to undergo for this good one that death which one scarcely endures for a righteous man. For so great is the love of this life that even when a just cause of death has come, each one scarcely accepts death patiently. Now a just cause of death seems to be present when it is brought on by the law of nature; and although it is just by the condition of mortality, yet the mind scarcely embraces yielding to the laws of nature. "Scarcely, therefore, does anyone die for a righteous man." But for a good man someone dares to die, and boldly falls, especially if he has understood that, while we were still according to the time ungodly and weak, he first died for us. And how shall not he who knows that these things were first bestowed on him by that one repay to a good one the death which that one expended upon the evil? But the error of those is refuted who thought this passage was to be so interpreted that what he said, "For scarcely for a righteous man will one die," they maintain must be understood of the God of the law, whom they call just but not good; while they assert that Christ is the Son of the good Father. But what will they do, since we find many martyrs in the law as well? Let them read the books of the Maccabees, where with all steadfastness the blessed mother with her seven sons undertakes martyrdom, and they not only endure martyrdom patiently but even heap reproaches upon the tyrant; and let them see whether what they say is true, that "scarcely does anyone die for a righteous man." Let them see the three youths cast with all confidence into the furnace of burning fire for the freedom of their faith, and let them say that "scarcely does anyone die for a righteous man." Death for God, then, is the only death which is undertaken with all boldness; but every other death is scarcely borne with endurance, even if it be just and comes down by the law of the human condition.
[§11] "But God commends his charity toward us: because if, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, much more therefore now, being justified in his blood, shall we be saved from wrath through him." Since he had said above that "Christ, according to the time, died for the ungodly," he now wishes from this to show the magnitude of God's charity toward men: for if it was so great toward the ungodly and toward sinners that for their salvation he gave his only Son, how much more bountiful and more abundant will it be toward those who have been converted and amended and, as he himself says, redeemed by his own blood? I certainly do not think that this variety of words in Paul is idle — that he sometimes names them weak, sometimes ungodly, sometimes sinners, on whose behalf he says Christ died; and although he confesses himself unskilled in speech, nevertheless I do not judge that in these matters he varied his terms through lack of skill, but rather through profound knowledge. For by these three every kind of sin is gathered up. For either someone, being ignorant of God, sins in darkness, and is called ungodly; or, wishing to keep the commandment, he is overcome by the frailty of the flesh and is deceived by the enticements of the present life, and is called weak; or knowingly and willingly he despises the commandment, and hates the discipline of God, and casts his words behind him, and is named a sinner. And thus Paul, who professes himself, as we have said, unskilled in speech, has embraced in these three distinctions all those for whom Christ is proclaimed to have died. But if at times even those who are under the law, and who seem to worship God, are named ungodly in the divine Scriptures, this happens for the reason that, forsaking the God of their fathers, they worship the gods of the nations. But that Paul numbers himself among sinners — he who elsewhere says, "We by nature Jews, and not sinners from among the Gentiles" — this is the virtue of his humility. For he imitates him "who, though he had done no sin, was made sin for us"; and though he was God, dwelt among men. "God therefore commends his charity toward us." Here "commends" is understood either as "confirms," or as "makes lovable on account of benefits." (For the fact that "Christ, while we were yet sinners, died for us" gives us hope that much more will he save us, purged from sin and justified, from the wrath that hangs over sinners, through himself; and he who so loved strangers and enemies that he gave his Only-begotten to death for us, much more will he bestow eternal salvation upon those who have been made his own and reconciled to him. But in what manner Christ died for us, and in what manner, being the Lamb of God, he took away the sin of the world and bore our infirmities and grieved for us, has often been discussed by us in other places, where we adduced also those things which are reported in secular histories: that even among them certain men are said to have driven off plagues, or whirlwinds, and other things similar to these, by exposing themselves to death, and to have freed their country or their nation from the destruction of an impending disaster. How truly these things are written, or what reason they may have if they are true, is for God alone to know. Yet none of those men about whom such things are narrated is said — not even in a fictitious account — to have absolved the sins of the whole world, save Jesus alone, "who, when he was in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself," and according to the will of the Father, having taken the form of a servant, offered himself as a victim for the whole world, delivering his own blood to the prince of this world, according to the wisdom of God, "which none of the princes of this world knew: for if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of majesty" — nor would that blood which they had thirsted for have extinguished not so much their thirst as their strength, and destroyed their kingdom; nor would there have befallen them that which the Lord says in the Gospel: "Behold, now is the prince of this world judged"; and this: "Behold, I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven." — "Much more therefore," he says, "being now justified in his blood, shall we be saved from wrath through him." Above indeed he had said: "Being justified therefore by faith, let us have peace with God"; and now he says: "Much more now, being justified in his blood, shall we be saved from wrath through him." From which he shows that neither does our faith justify us without the blood of Christ, nor does the blood of Christ justify us without our faith; yet of the two, the blood of Christ justifies us much more than our faith does. And therefore it seems to me that, whereas above he had said simply, "being justified by faith," here he has added, "much more therefore now, being justified in his blood," so as to teach that, even if our faith saves us from the wrath to come, even if works of righteousness do so, nevertheless above all these the blood of Christ much more makes us safe from the wrath to come. But how the wrath of God ought to be understood has been said more fully by us in the exposition of the second psalm, and how that which is written can be fulfilled, namely that we be made safe by fleeing from the wrath to come — fleeing wrath in such a way that it does not overtake us, but pursuing righteousness, piety, faith, charity, patience, meekness, and the rest of the things like these. Wrath, then, is that to which each one is handed over according to the measure and desert of his sins; God nevertheless, according to what is written in the seventy-seventh psalm, not kindling all his wrath. For who could endure it if the Lord kindled all his wrath against sinners, since that is so terrible which is pronounced in the canticle of Moses, where he says: "For a fire is kindled in my fury, and it shall burn even to the lowest hell: it shall devour the earth and its produce, it shall set ablaze the foundations of the mountains"? Consider, therefore, that this fire which is kindled from the wrath or the fury of the Lord devours the earth and the lower hell, and consumes earthly works; it sets ablaze also not the heights of the mountains, but the foundations — that is, not lofty souls, nor heavenly minds, but those cast down to the ground and to the earth, or even sunk into the depth of the earth, as are the foundations of mountains. It was necessary, then, to discuss wrath also a little, so that it might be known more plainly from what evils the blood of Christ has rescued us.
[§12] "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved in his life. And not only so, but we also glory in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation." What he says, "when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God," plainly shows that there is no substance which, according to the definition of Marcion or Valentinus, is by nature hostile to God; for otherwise, if what is hostile belonged to nature and not to the will, it would surely admit of no reconciliation. But where someone is made a friend out of an enemy, it is certain that, so long as he does those works which God does not love, he is an enemy of God, and each one becomes an enemy so much the more grievous and more hateful as he has multiplied works deserving of enmity. There are therefore certain measures and degrees, distinguished by the quality or quantity of their sins, among those who are enemies to God. Whence also he who has sinned above all others is recorded by Paul as the last enemy to be destroyed. But conversely and in like order it is certain that those who have been reconciled through the death of his Son are held among his friends: and that one is a friend in such a way as Moses was called the friend of God; and that there are others also to whom the Savior says, "Now I will no longer call you servants, but friends." And I believe that there are yet others still more intimate as friends with God in the heavenly places — either those who always behold the face of God, or those who always stand in the sight of the Most High: so that, just as we said above that there is a certain last enemy, so there too, according to the merits of their virtues, some are reckoned the highest friends. Since, then, these things are so, I do not know whether he who still remains in those works which God hates, and on account of which there is enmity between God and men, can rightly be said to have been reconciled to God through the blood of Christ. For how has he been reconciled, who does the deeds of an enemy? Paul therefore rightly says of himself and of those like himself, that "when we were enemies, we were reconciled through the death of his Son." It is a great shame that, where such a reconciliation has been made, where the enmities between God and men were dissolved not by the word of a sinner but by the blood of an intercessor, we should turn back again to enmities, and do those things which he hates whom no one but the pouring out of sacred blood had reconciled to us. But Paul himself, writing more fully to the Ephesians, mentions the principle of reconciliation and of enmity, and the shedding of Christ's blood; and if we join these passages together, they can more easily open up the passage of the present chapter. He says, then, thus: "Wherefore be mindful, you who were once Gentiles in the flesh, who were called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision in the flesh, made by hand, that at that time you were without Christ, alienated from the way of life of Israel, and strangers to the promise of his covenants, having no hope, and without God in this world. But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been made near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both one, and, dissolving the middle wall of partition, the enmity in his flesh, abolishing the law of commandments in decrees, that he might create the two in himself, making peace in one new man, that he might reconcile both in one body to God, slaying the enmities in himself through the cross; and coming he preached peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near, since through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father." But especially note in these words this: that Christ dissolved the middle wall of partition in his flesh, that is, the enmity; and that he reconciled both in one body to God through the cross; and that he slew the enmity on the cross. And in this it is not without reason that Paul there seems to have named the enmity a second time, and in the one place to have said that Christ dissolved the enmity in the flesh, but in the second that he slew it on the cross. For "to dissolve" seems to me to apply to those who still wage the struggle against sin and fight against it with all their strength; but "to slay" to those who now no longer admit sin at all, but have in every part mortified their members to sin — among whom was also he who said: "I have been crucified with Christ. But I live, now not I; rather Christ lives in me." In this way, therefore, Christ also slew the enmity in his flesh, when by undergoing death he gave men an example of resisting sin even unto death: and so at last, the enmity having been dissolved in his flesh, he reconciled men to God through his blood — those, at least, who keep the covenant of reconciliation inviolate by sinning no more. Therefore his death gave death to that enmity which was between us and God, and was the beginning of reconciliation. But his resurrection and life conferred salvation on believers, as the Apostle also says elsewhere concerning Christ: "For in that he died to sin, he died once; but in that he lives, he lives to God." He is said to have died to sin — not to his own, for neither did he commit sin — but he himself died to sin, that is, as one who by his own death brought death upon sin itself. And he is said to live to God, so that we too may live not to ourselves, nor to our own will, but to God, that so at last we may be able to be saved in his life, according to him who said: "But I live, now not I; rather Christ lives in me." But as to the fact that he set down, in like manner as in the earlier passages, "And not only so, but we also now glory in God," and added nothing to the "and not only so," it is to be understood, just as above, as said of those things which have been set forth above: that is, that not only "when we were enemies, were we reconciled to God through the death of his Son," and not only "shall we be saved in his life, but we also now glory in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received the reconciliation." And not without reason did he add "now," when he might have said: "But we also glory in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received the reconciliation"; but he did so in order to show that glorying has been given to us not only in the future, but also in the present, from the knowledge of God, the amendment of life, and the correction of errors — as the same Apostle also says in another place: "Having hope both of the present life and of that which is to come": of the present, because it is more honorable and more amended; of the future, because it is eternal.