CHAPTER 2
Lecture 5
17 But if, while we seek to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ then the minister of sin? God forbid!
18 For, if I build up again the things which I have destroyed, I make myself a prevaricator.
After proving by the apostles’ manner of life that the works of the Law ought not to be observed, the Apostle raises a question to the contrary. About this he does three things:
First, he raises the question;
Secondly, he solves it (v. 17): God forbid;
Thirdly, he explains his solution (v. 19).
The first point can be developed in two ways according to a Gloss. First, thus: Someone could say that the apostles sinned by abandoning the Law and turning to the faith of Christ. But the Apostle shows that this would lead to the following unwelcome conclusion, namely, that Christ is the author of sin in calling men to His faith. This is what he means when he says, But if, we apostles, while we seek to be justified in him , i.e., through Him, namely, Christ, are found , i.e., plainly proven to be sinners for leaving the Law, is Christ then the minister of sin? i.e., is He inducing us to sin, Who called us from the slavery of the Law to His faith? Made under the law that he might redeem them that were under the law (4:4), namely, from the burden of the Law.
The Apostle answers, God forbid , because He is rather the minister of justice; “By the obedience of one, many shall be made just” (Rom 5:19); “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth” (1 Pet. 2:22). That Christ is not the minister of sin in leading one from the Old Law is plain, because if I myself, by wanting to glory once more in the Law, build up again the things I have destroyed, namely, my pride taking glory in the Law, I make myself a prevaricator in taking up what I destroyed: “The dog is returned to his vomit” (2 Pet. 2:22); “Cursed be the man that shall raise up and build the city of Jericho” (Jos. 6:26). He says, which I have destroyed , i.e., not the Law itself, as the Manicheans would have it, because the Law is holy (Rom 7:12), but pride in the Law, concerning which it is said in Romans (10:3): “For they, seeking to establish their own justice have not submitted themselves to the justice of God.”
Now if someone were to object that since he formerly had wasted the faith of Christ, he makes himself a prevaricator by trying to build it up, the plain answer is that he did indeed try to destroy the faith of Christ, yet because of the truth he did not persist: “Why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goad” (Acts 9:4). But pride in the Law was vain and this pride could be destroyed, never again to be re-established.
The second way in which it can be developed is to refer his statement, we ourselves are found sinners , not to their abandoning the Law, as in the first explanation, but to the observance of the Law. For it is plain that anyone who seeks to be made just does not profess himself to be just but a sinner. The sense, therefore, is this: if we, in seeking to be justified in Christ, are by the very fact of seeking to be justified found , i.e., reasonably proved, to have been sinners , because we observed the Law, is Jesus Christ then the minister of sin? i.e., commanding men to observe the works of the Law after His passion—something that cannot be done without sin? Note that this explanation harmonizes with Jerome’s opinion which posited that the legal justifications were deadly immediately after the passion of Christ.
It is possible to explain, we ourselves are found to be sinners , in a third way as referring, indeed, to the state in which the Law was observed; not that they offended by observing the Law, but that the Law is deficient and cannot remove sin. Hence the meaning is this: If in seeking to be justified in it, we ourselves are found to be sinners, i.e., still in our sins, because the Law does not remove sin—according to Romans (3:9): “For we have charged both Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin”— Is Jesus Christ then the minister of sin , so as to bring us back to observing the Law in which we are under sin? This explanation accords with Augustine’s exposition.
And he [Paul] answers to either explanation, God forbid , because I destroyed the Law understood carnally by judging and teaching it spiritually. Hence, if I should desire to re-establish the observances of the carnal law, I would be a prevaricator of the spiritual law.
Furthermore, it can be explained in a fourth way, thus: I had said that man is not justified by the works of the Law. But someone might say, “Nor by the faith of Christ either,” because many sin after embracing the faith of Christ. And this is what he says: If we, seeking to be justified in Christ, i.e., by the faith of Christ, are ourselves , who have become believers by embracing the faith of Christ, found to be sinners , i.e., living in sin, is Jesus Christ then the minister of sin and of damnation, as the minister of the Old Law is a minister of sin and damnation? Not that the Law led one into sin, but was its occasion, because it forbade sin and conferred no grace to help one resist sin. Hence it is said: “But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence” (Rom 7:8). But Christ gives a helping grace: “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (in 1:17). Hence in no way is He the minister of sin, either directly or as its occasion.