Fragmenta in epistulam ad Romanos

For our nature had been at war with God through disobedience, and since we did not keep the virtue that the law enjoined, but were being instructed until old age and becoming no better than ourselves, we provoked the lawgiver, as is likely, learning thoroughly both what we ought to do and what not to do, so that not even the excuse of ignorance was left to us, yet doing least of all what was required and most of all what was not required, so as to become liable not only for neglect of good things but also for evil action, and to owe a penalty for both—for the things we clung to and the things we kept away from. Therefore, he says, from this enmity and the punishment that comes from it, with all, O Romans, you too will obtain release and share in the peace of which the divine grace has now deemed the human race worthy. So he prays for them first the grace of God—for through this all who believed have enjoyed salvation—then peace, through which he hints at the accomplishment of virtue for all; for he who embraces the gospel way of life is at peace with God, he who is eager to serve him toward all. For God, the master of the universe, has shown forth for us an unexpected gift of adoption. What is this? The one that appeared through Jesus Christ our Lord; for by the name of the Father he revealed the gift of adoption, and by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ he set forth him in whom first and through whom first this came to be. And he calls adoption the restoration of our nature to immortality and incorruption; for such persons are worthy to be called sons of God, themselves partaking of the Father's impassibility as far as is possible.

But we received this by being united through faith, from that point already, to the firstfruits; for he himself is our peace, who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of the barrier. And this was, I think, the mortality of the body and the passibility of the flesh, by which, being carried down to sin, we were walled off from our intimacy with God. But now, he says, no longer; for he raised up our fallen nature in Christ and seated it at his right hand in the heavenly places. Therefore he does not say “through Jesus Christ” as though through some servant, but instead, what is especially set down for thanksgiving to God is the matter concerning the master Christ, and the wondrous economy that saved our race through him, which also captured us alive, along with the others, through faith in him. And he wins them over by healing them as far as possible through these words, lest perhaps they think either that he has condemned something in them, or that he has come to write to them as taking up the tradition of Peter, and then, being vexed at this, they might flee from reading it and suffer the loss of the letter’s benefit. Having begun, then, from thanksgiving and faith, and having praised them, since it is both truthful and firm, and since they all strongly hold fast to it together, both through the expression he declares—which he said was very fittingly directed to the preeminence of the city—and through the addition of “in the whole world,” having honored them sufficiently and lifted them up, he immediately moves on to the commendation of his own person.

He said "his own" spirit, since he was not speaking of the substance of the spirit, but of the grace of the spirit given to him for preaching the gospel, by whose cooperation, being deemed worthy, he was able to accomplish the work of the apostleship. But he says these things, having suspected that the hearer would hold fast roughly to the word, and as it were would meet it with "What are you saying—that you hasten to impart to us a spiritual gift? For what does the teaching of Peter lack? Do you find fault altogether with his teachings, as though you were someone yourself, as though a greater apostle than he, as though you had conversed more with the Master Christ than he and had been loved more by him than he?" Suspecting these things, then, first he both discloses in himself the purpose of his coming, and sufficiently chastised the presumption of arrogance. Then, by saying "that something be added" and not "that I give" but "that I impart"—for this is surely much more than that—he yielded and healed them again for their being established, saying: "For I have been eager," he says, "not as though I were myself preaching some new thing to you besides Peter, but as one who will confirm you in the very things you have received." And still further setting aside such a suspicion, he says, "that is, to be comforted together among you through your faith in one another, both yours and mine." "I said," he says, "that I desired the sight of you, and wished to impart to you some spiritual gift for your confirmation, knowing that the gain from this is common, not mine rather than yours, or yours rather than mine, since I receive comfort from you." "My gain was my presence with you," he says; "for those of the Gentiles who are brought near to the gospel through me clearly increase my wealth.

I would not then have willingly neglected my own advantage, nor would I have voluntarily submitted to so great a loss; for it would not even be reasonable that he who so earnestly pursues the advantage of each of the other nations for the sake of gain should despise you, unless he were abandoning you under great necessity. And not only for this reason, but also because I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish; so, as far as it depends on me, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I was not appointed an apostle to some and not to others, but I was commanded simply to proclaim Christ to all, so that, paying a debt as it were, not giving a favor, I would not have failed to come to you also, if it had been possible. Having thus stripped off, by many noble reasonings, the accusation concerning his care, and having before these things sufficiently attended to them and removed the slander that assailed him as though he were presumptuous, he also concludes the preface. Those who warred against the Christian preaching used to tear it apart, mocking it as disgraceful; for they said there was nothing more ridiculous than a message that proclaimed that the Son had been seized and carried off by Jews, and that did not deny the cross or the death, but again asserted that he himself had not only been raised from the dead but had also ascended into the heavens as lord of all, and that all the rest would rise from the dead and all the other things whatsoever the apostles also proclaimed. Mocking and tearing apart these things, those men thought they were silencing the apostles.

Therefore, the blessed Paul, who was also established in this glory of the apostles, begins the discussion concerning the doctrine in this way: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel." And this too is customary to him, that he does not set forth in advance, but often makes the beginning of his argument from the solution itself; and if one does not attend closely to the apostolic words with the same intensity, being led astray from their meaning, he will not easily perceive it. Of such a kind is that careless statement as well: "It is not as though the word of God had failed"; but this we shall clarify then, when we come to it with God's help, but now let us return to what lies before us. For having encountered the strongest of the arguments of the opponents, as they thought, by refuting it he began the establishment of his own case: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel" instead of: What need is there to run forth with eagerness toward all men? "Let your cheapness be cut off," someone will say, "from the proclamation." This very thing, then, is what stirs me up more and strengthens me: for what seems to be weak in the gospel message, this most of all demonstrates the power of God. In what way? "For it is the power of God," he says, "for salvation to everyone who believes." It saves all of you, as many as believe that he is true, and the Jew needs this before all others, he who boasts through the written law that he has more than the Greeks for the fear of God. And how does it save? "For the righteousness of God is revealed in it from faith to faith.

By "righteousness" he means sinlessness, by "of God" that it is from divine grace, by "is revealed" that this will be made known in due time on the day of the resurrection, by "from faith" that it is not from works of the law but from believing in the resurrection of Christ, and by "unto faith" that one believes not concerning him alone but, from him, also concerning themselves, that they will rise again. What, then, is the whole meaning of the present passage? That our gospel is something very great and truly wonderful, if one attends accurately to its power; for all men, whom neither the natural law profited nor the written law added to the natural, it saves through faith in Christ. For when someone has been fully assured concerning the resurrection from the dead, that he too will share in it, obeying him according to the Savior's own promise, he is within salvation. And this, he says, God long ago and ages past foretold through the prophet Habakkuk, that the righteous shall live by faith. And he added this testimony both for the credibility of his own word and especially for the refutation of the Jews' supposed zeal for the law. Such, then, he says, is the power of our gospel, and most excellently did he begin from its power, on account of its being for a time invisible, toward its establishment, as if one were also speaking about a grain of wheat, that this, as it now appears, is nothing more than a grain, but if you look upon its power, you will find that it is both root and stalk and ear and wheat, and likewise multiplied many times over, and—what is more wonderful—

Until it falls to the earth and dies, none of these things happens; but once it is buried and has died to the earth, as I said, it produces them. Up to this point, as it were, having skirmished in advance over the establishment of the gospel and having made it more by assertion than by demonstration, and having said that it is saving alike for all, both Jews and Greeks, he proceeds next to the examination, first of Hellenism and after that of Judaism, that is, of the natural law and the written law. By natural law I do not mean the law of irrational creatures, but the natural power of the soul to distinguish by reason what ought to be done. He examines the natural law before the written, because the natural law is more extensive—for it is common to all—while the written law is less extensive, for it belongs to Jews alone. That one, then, since it reasonably comes first and holds all things under itself, he exposes, and having shown both Greeks and Jews liable to punishment—for they knew they were transgressing what was right—he established as necessary for them, beyond dispute, the only salvation left remaining through faith in Christ. It is agreed, he says, by all that penalties and rewards will come to each in due time, in proportion to the life lived here. Rightly does he say "is revealed," as though God is already indignant at these things but is holding back in long-suffering, and then will make his indignation manifest in punishment. And the addition of "from heaven" increased the hearer's fear all the more.

For he made clear the judge's inescapability—reasonably calling him a Greek, since even among the Greeks it is undoubtingly held that there will be a judgment of all. For since there are two most general kinds of sins, the offense against God and the offense against one's neighbor, he sets forth both, calling the first, as the greater, impiety against God, and naming the second, injustice against one's neighbor. Then he also establishes that our whole race will justly come under judgment, saying of those who hold the truth in unrighteousness that not even to ignorance can they flee. For knowing it, they corrupt the truth that is among them. And having divided the sins, he examines first the one against God and says that the knowledge of God is clear and manifest to them, since God has revealed himself to them. For that God exists and is eternal, and indeed creator and provider and all the other things that belong to him but are invisible to all created things—these he granted us to behold with the mind through the all-wise creation in the making of this world; for having created the world, he so wisely constructed it that, being transformed

that it has come to be from God, who is truly eternal and unchangeable, and teaches that it subsists even through continuous motions and is not destroyed by them, because the one who made it is able to cry out. And he created us of such a nature, bestowing on us mind and reason, so that, following the teaching that comes through this world, we might be able, by understanding, to behold his invisible things. For if we have learned that it is created from its turnings and changes, it is clear that, having come to be, it came to be by the one who is altogether unbegotten and unchanging, who, though he has surpassing power, does not allow it to perish even when it exists amid so great a change of the elements as they are borne together into one another for our need, but still sustains it in subsistence and indissoluble. But his saying that they are without excuse means instead that he rejects their defense; this turns away the tongue, stops the mouth, checks it, makes it silent. He spoke in the accusative manner according to his own idiom; for it is customary for the apostle to set down the outcomes of things as the causes of things. For God did not deem humans worthy of the first knowledge of himself for this reason, that they should have no share in any defense at all, but he made this manifest in them for their benefit, so that they might have both his own and receive the benefit of his care. Since those men insulted the divine gift through their own negligence, it followed, as was likely, that having fallen from what was fitting they were deprived of every excuse.

That they knew God to be God is therefore clear; so they will not be punished on this account. But because they did not use their knowledge as they ought, they will be punished for this. For each one glorified him as God, and whatever he thought to be God, this he also served, regarding it as supreme. But they pursued the matter in an erroneous and unintelligent way. For abandoning the way of God for their own knowledge and cutting out a path of their own, they ran aground on the utmost madness, acquiring as an addition of folly the excess of what they thought was their wisdom, dragging down the divine worship as far as reptiles and soulless things, so that their error concerning God is exposed by the very fact that the knowledge of God exists within them, and at the same time it deprives them of all forgiveness. However, the meaning of "they did not glorify him as God or give thanks" is this: they did not give thanks, because they did not acknowledge him to be the cause and provider of all good things for them; and they did not glorify him, because they did not hold the opinion concerning God that they ought to have held. For having come to know him through the teaching that comes through this world as invisible, eternal, incorruptible, and all-powerful, they did not remain in these truths, nor did they preserve such a glory concerning him, but they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man. Now he calls the image itself a likeness of the image, just as he also calls the flesh itself a likeness of flesh; and therefore, weighing the charge very heavily in his wording, he added this very thing: "of corruptible man," that is, of flesh that is being corrupted. Since the impressions are images of this alone in man—namely the flesh—but certainly not of the soul.

He went through them next in a general way, yet nevertheless exposing that error by name, mentioning birds and four-footed animals and reptiles. Of this sort is also what is in the psalm: "They changed his glory into the likeness of a calf that eats grass." For here too he calls the calf a likeness of a calf. But what calf he means, he has made clear by saying: "They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped the graven image." Having therefore sufficiently demonstrated that the knowledge of God was given to men by God through the skillful creation of this world and through the suitable constitution of their own nature for the learning of these things, but that those who received it corrupted it in itself by fleshly reasonings and did not use it for any proper purpose, he says next, in due sequence, of how many and of what sort of improprieties the falling away from the true knowledge of God became the cause for them. The Lord God, then, he says, was in no way harmed by their ignorance, but being without need and having a nature—how could one say it?—he himself by nature remains most blessed continually in this. But they were dragged away to every form of evil, overcome by so many things in their error and darkened by their ignorance of God, so as even to be carried off to things contrary to nature, like blind men falling over whatever they happened to encounter—and reasonably so. For if it is impossible for those deprived of sensible light not to stumble over what is at their feet, much more is it impossible for those who have deprived themselves of that blessed light to live rightly and without sin.

Showing that this very thing was brought upon them as a penalty for their offense against God, since, before the punishment for their sins, the sinning itself is the most grievous chastisement for those who are of sound mind. He does not say, then, that God turned them over to these abominable audacities; for God is the cause of this to no human being. May it not be. For how could he who is indignant and threatened Gehenna for these things? But Scripture is accustomed to call God's permission and abandonment in this way, as in "You turned aside our paths from your way," and "the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart," and "Why did you lead us astray, Lord, from your way? You hardened our heart so as not to fear you?" and "do not bring us into temptation." He says, then, that when they departed he departed, and when they abandoned him he abandoned them, so that their own reprobate knowledge of God is the cause of that counterfeit life. And having in this one term of unrighteousness collectively encompassed all their sins against one another, he enumerates them one by one in what follows.

And he calls "wickedness" the harm that arises by design against someone from this source; "greed" the harm done for the sake of the desire for more; "malice" the eagerness to harm one's neighbor; "envy" the grudging at the good things of one's neighbor; "murder" the impulse that goes as far as killing; "strife" the blameworthy love of contention; "deceit" the plots and machinations against brothers for their ruin; "malignity" the crookedness of character; "whispering" the backbiting of those present spoken under the tooth; "slander" the blasphemy uttered by some against those who are absent; and "hateful to God" not those hated by God—for it is not his purpose to show this now—but those who hate God; "insolent" the reckless and abusive; "arrogant" those puffed up against those who do not have, on account of what they have; "boastful" those who vaunt themselves over what they do not have as though they had it; "inventors of evil things" those who innovate other new evils upon the old ones; "disobedient to parents" those who are senseless even toward their parents; "without understanding" those without conscience—for nothing is more senseless than such people; "covenant-breakers" those who do not abide by the covenants they make with anyone; "without natural affection" the harsh and friendless; "implacable" the unreconciled and those who remember wrongs; "unmerciful" the inflexible and those who do not yield to mercy.

Or "the one who judges," he says, instead of "the one who is discerning of what must be done," who has been deemed worthy of nature. But why is such a person without excuse? "For in that which you judge," he says, "another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things." And what was said above is taught to me: for having said that we are condemned for the things in which we stumble, again here too, in the same way as the earlier points, since God's judgment is confessed by all and is beyond doubt, he adds: "We know that the judgment of God is according to truth upon those who practice such things." And having set this down as indisputable, he then uses the following words against them in a more reproachful manner. Since this is clearly the case for us all, he says—that an impartial judgment follows—do you expect, O man, when you are convicted in your own knowledge of stumbling, that you will not pay the penalty, but that for the things for which you condemn certain others, you will be taken away innocent in respect of them? And do you think that the true God, the judge, makes no provision for justice at all, as much as you do, but that because he does not bring punishment upon you at your very feet, giving you time for repentance, you will use this for the increase of evil? And will the longsuffering of God toward you become a starting point for every impiety? Know clearly, then, that according to your hardness you are treasuring up for yourself wrath. This whole thing resembles what the psalmist said: "These things you did, and I kept silent; you supposed iniquity, that I would be like you; I will reprove you and set your sins before your face." The phrase "you are treasuring up," then, he used by way of metaphor from those who have their treasures in hidden places, and increase them by little additions.

He calls the day of wrath the time of punishment. And you, therefore, he says, by the multitude of your sins, as if by some lesser thing in a hidden manner, will bring upon yourself punishment in the coming judgment. He named it the day of revelation because all things that are completely hidden are then going to be brought into the open before all, and the day of righteous judgment, since here the righteous judgment is in many ways treated unjustly, either through the ignorance of those who judge or through some other fleshly pretext, but there the verdict is brought forth purely, righteously, and brightly. And such as is fitting for the divine judgment, he nevertheless also took up through these things what is revealed—for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven—by means of the beginning and the end, encompassing the accusation of their impiety and injustice with the fear of punishment. To this end, he says, the law was of benefit: it made sin known to us, not only by forbidding the practice of what is wrong but also by punishing those who disobey it; for we would not have known what sort of thing sin is unless punishment were brought upon transgressions. And therefore through all these things, having very precisely established that all are under sin, he then brings it to a conclusion, showing the superfluity of his own argument. To all the Jews, he says, as having from home and from themselves the cause of salvation, and to all the Gentiles, he says, as the grace extended from the Jews even to these, yet nevertheless he said that both these and those partake of the grace—not simply all, but those who believe; and again, that the grace is common righteously over all. The passage is a hyperbaton.

For it follows thus, if perhaps it were so composed: What then shall we say that Abraham, our father according to the flesh, has found? Let us go up, he says, to the founder of our race according to the flesh, whom God, having chosen out of all the nations, both blessed and promised to transmit the things of the blessing to those from him on his account; for it is clear that, however matters stand with him, so also will our own matters stand. Of this life of ours, he says, in this world—the life that admits of sinning and dying and for this reason also needs the law, reasonably of the law that both points out sin and forbids it—Adam was the first ruler, inasmuch as he was both first in coming to be and first to transgress. Therefore, of those born from him in succession, all were dying, as is likely, inheriting the nature of the forefather; but of these who were dying, some, through the very acts by which they themselves also transgressed, were brought under death, while others were brought under it through the condemnation of Adam alone, as for instance the portion of infants. For this reason now, he says, death passed through into all men, in that all sinned, saying "all" instead of "the many," as also in what follows: for if by the transgression of the one the many died, he calls the many "all." But now death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who did not

having sinned; for those who are within neither action nor discerning choice, how could they be liable for a transgression? But the phrase "until the law sin was in the world" means this. The blessed Paul often speaks to us of the things according to Christ, as after the manifestation of the Savior, when the old state no longer prevails but the new. In the old state, then, since we were fleshly and subject to passions, the giving of the law was necessary, checking the impulses of our nature toward sin by the threats of punishments; but for those who have become new in Christ and righteous—that is, who no longer admit the aging that comes through sin—the law is entirely superfluous. Therefore he says: "the law is not laid down for the righteous," and "you are not under the law," and "you were put to death to the law through the body of Christ," and "if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law." By "for until the law sin was in the world," then, he says this: that as long as we were of a fleshly and passible nature, and for this reason needed to be under the law, sin prevailed over us, exercising its citizenship in the whole world; but when the law was abolished—because, having become spiritual, we came to righteousness in Christ—sin was abolished along with it; for it is no longer reckoned, since there is no law. The whole mind, then, of this saying, as one might put it in summary, is this.

The grace according to Christ gives to all of us who have believed in it firmly the ability to boast, and for this reason also—because it is in no way unreasonable but even very reasonable—that he began for us the immortal and righteous life in the same manner as Adam previously began for us the corruptible and passible life. For if, when that one sinned and was condemned to death, all those after him who came from him shared in it—some by also sinning in addition through their lawbreaking, others by his punishment alone according to kinship—how is it not incontrovertible for the Master Christ as well, who lived according to the human condition and succeeded and received after the resurrection from the dead the better portion? For this reason, he says, God highly exalted him, so that those united to him through faith and deemed worthy of the indwelling of the Spirit—he having first raised him from the dead—might share with him in the undefiled life, becoming spiritual instead of fleshly. But death reigned, he says, from Adam until Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam's transgression—instead of: in the same manner as Adam transgressed, death reigned, so also over those born from him afterward, both those who sinned and those who did not sin alike. And "until Moses" is the same as "until the law"; for he now says Moses not specifically as the person of the man but the thing itself, calling the law from the lawgiver. So also in the letter to the Corinthians: "until Moses is read," that is, the law given through Moses. Who is a type of the one to come.

He says, then, that in the accounts concerning Adam the things that were later to come were prefigured and sketched in advance—namely, the things pertaining to our Lord Jesus Christ. For it was necessary, perhaps, that the first man Adam become a living soul, and the last Adam a life-giving spirit. Since, then, the first man Adam is from the earth, earthy, and the second man, the Lord, is from heaven, it follows necessarily that those who are earthy are according to the earthy one, and those who are heavenly according to the heavenly one; and just as we bore the image of the earthy, so, surely, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly, being led up in sequence from the lower things to the things that surpass. For one sin, he says, was the cause of the condemnation of all, and all who followed paid the penalty for that sin; but grace abolished not only that one sin but also many others, heavier than that one, which were practiced by later generations, making our nature from then on altogether faultless and just. Having sufficiently demonstrated the abundance of grace by comparison, he now draws the conclusion and establishes the

What he is eager to establish, he also states: “For if by the trespass of the one death reigned through the one,” and what follows. For he has now used the conjunction “for” in place of “therefore”: “If, therefore,” he says, “both by the trespass of one man and through one trespass death reigned, then much more will those who receive the greater abundance of the grace unto righteousness in the one Christ, as has been demonstrated, reign in immortal life.” “But the law entered in,” he says, “that the trespass might abound.” This resembles what is said in the letter to the Galatians: “The law was added because of transgressions.” For here too he has used “that” according to the idiom, for it signifies the consequence. For to all those after Adam, he says—or rather even to Adam himself—when the law was given, the trespass abounded; for the more the commandments, the more also the trespasses when they are transgressed. And when sin had been increased by acts of lawlessness to a multitude, the grace that abolishes it reasonably appeared to be exceedingly great. “So then,” he says, it is indisputable that just as sin strengthened its own dominion in death and through death, so also grace, which provides to all the justification in Christ, will have an undivided kingdom in unending life. Having said the preceding things to establish the account of the grace that is in Christ, he perceived that from these a contradiction was arising against him, and by setting this forth as from the opposite side, he makes its solution most powerful and says: “What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? May it never be.

Does it say, then, that from what I have said you will claim that we must go on sinning and thereby make grace more abundant and greater, if indeed the nature of grace also increases in proportion to the multitude of our sins? This seems most of all to resemble what some say we say: ‘Let us do evil that good may come.’ By no means, he says. For the present he has rejected the argument as impious and beyond all reasoning, but after this he now refutes its absurdity with indisputable arguments and says: ‘We who died to sin, how shall we still live in it?’ Those who are fleshly and unbelieving, he says, might say this; but for us, who have once died to sin, to come to life again in sin is altogether impossible. Know this absolutely, he says, that we affirm that the baptism of Christ has the figure of his very death and resurrection. Those, then, who have received it in faith—it is evident that we have received it with these hopes—so that just as Christ was raised from the dead to a glorious adoption (for this is what he means by ‘through the glory of the Father’), so we too, having shared in his death through baptism, might be sharers in that deathless, unaging, and all-blessed life. ‘A likeness of his death.’ He calls his very death a likeness, as also ‘in the likeness of sinful flesh’ and ‘in the likeness of a man’—or else the baptism in the Jordan, which prefigured the mystery of his resurrection. And well does he use ‘grown together with,’ recalling plants to show the certainty of the matter; for what is planted together evidently springs up together and grows together. Therefore it is evident that we too, having died together with Christ, will rise together with him.

He calls the "old man" the corruptible and passible one, since aging corrupts whatever it comes upon; and he calls "the body of sin" that which no longer remains sinless but admits sin. This, then, he says, is done away with—that is, it is rendered inactive with respect to sin. Therefore he did not say simply that the body is done away with, but the body of sin; for this, being corruptible, will now put on incorruption, and being mortal, will now put on immortality, when our Lord Christ transforms the body of our lowliness to become conformed to the body of his glory. For he who has died, he says, has been justified from sin. What is this that he says? For those living this present life, to stumble is possible, since even to have a law belongs to them; but to those who have died neither of these applies; for neither does the law converse with the dead—how could it, with one who does not even hear?—nor does sin trouble such a person. To the one who has died, then, he says, there is nothing in common with sin, nor does sin itself have any claim upon him; for he is no longer subject to transgression. Therefore, he says, just as Christ died and we die, so just as Christ lived we too shall live. It is fitting, then, that you look to him. And just as it is impossible for him, who died once to sin and then rose to God, to die again, so it would be fitting for you also, using the most righteous reasoning, to order your life for the rest in the life according to Christ, as those who have passed over in hope from the former life to this one.

Having overturned the objection from the things pertaining to Christ and shown that sinning is no longer possible for them in any way, since after baptism they are no longer fleshly—but these things we possess for now by faith alone, not by experience; for we have not become impassible or immortal in any way, that very matter being reserved, by some ineffable reason, for the time of the common resurrection—he brings forward counsel that is moderate and possible for them. For he did not say, "Do not sin"—for that belongs to a nature that is impassible and immortal—but "Let not sin reign in your mortal body," that is, let not sin now hold its power against you in the same way as in former time, when it was unopposed, nor consent any longer to do what is commanded by it, in the manner of slaves, in the desires of our body, furnishing your own members as bodyguards, as it were, for it to serve as accomplices of unrighteousness; but having fled from it and reckoned it to be hostile and an enemy to you, take refuge with God, and prepare yourselves for him as immortal for the accomplishment of righteousness. For sin shall not lord it over you; for you are not under law but under grace. For if you are zealous, he says, to live thus, persuaded and firmly assured concerning grace, you will never be captured by sin. Why? Because the law ratifies sin, but you are no longer of the life under law but of the life under grace. Therefore you shall not be lorded over by sin unto death, since sin, fanned into flame by the law, lords it over our race. Having completed his counsel up to this point, he again takes up another objection that arrays itself against him.

For when he had said, "Sin shall not have dominion over you; for you are not under the law but under grace," he knew that the carnal man would readily seize upon this and use grace as license for sins. Foreseeing this, then, he brings forward in reply the argument that would come from that man, and says: "For this has not escaped you," he says, "that it is fitting for you to remain steadfast in your own confessions, and also this: that by his deeds a person has shown himself to be the master of that which he has known to obey by its commands, whether it be sin or righteousness. For the saying, 'either of sin or of obedience unto righteousness,' is unclear; it means either 'of sin unto obedience' or 'of righteousness.'" "Thanks be to God," he says, "that you have now exchanged the slavery of sin, having chosen righteousness in return and having consented to have this as master instead of that, whose very pattern of teaching you received from the soul and welcomed, toward which you must for the rest of your life conduct yourselves carefully." I have been drawn into arguments of this sort and have used examples from human customs, since the weakness of your flesh toward virtue compelled me. "For just as you presented your members," he says, "and the rest." For here too he has taken the conjunction in place of "therefore." It is necessary, then, he says, that just as previously you had given yourselves wholly over to lawlessness for the working of all uncleanness, so now, or rather even more

having completely abstained from those things, earnestly to pursue the holiness of righteousness. For you know, surely, he says, that time in which you were subject to the decrees of sin—how you had no common business at all with righteousness. And yet I would gladly now inquire of you, for what reason you so eagerly fulfilled that noble slavery to sin, and what was the fruit of this great devotion of yours—was it not corruption and uncleanness and death and things filled with every shame? Is it so, then, he says, that things are the same now too? Or do they differ by some small and chance detail, and not wholly and entirely? For having exchanged sin for God and having come to know the things that seem pleasing to him, you reap sanctification—that is, sinlessness—and from this it will be yours to remain immortal. Come now, he says, let us establish this very point also from the law. Do you not know, then, being learned in the law, this at least precisely, that the law is lord of a man for as long as he lives? At any rate, a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives. So while he survives, she would go to another or be judged an adulteress; but when he has died, she is released from the law and will live with whomever she wishes, and she will escape the charge of adultery. Is it so, then, brothers, that something like this is also the case with you? For by believing you have become members of the body of Christ, and he, having died to the law, has come back to life from the dead for another life. Therefore, being one in him, you too have died to the law, and through the resurrection you too will reap fruit like him. The divine Scripture uses the name of the flesh in two ways:

Now, on the one hand, it names nature itself in this way, as the Savior said to the disciples about himself after the resurrection, that a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see me having; but on the other hand, it names not nature itself but its passibility, as this very present passage does. For he did not say "when we were in the flesh" as though we are now without flesh, but as though we had passed over in Christ to immortality and impassibility; for often, as I have already said before, he converses with us from the things believed in Christ as though they were present. He says, then, that while we were still in our former fleshly life, the passions in our members were being worked toward sin through the law—that is, being worked by us, they were being reckoned to us as sin because of the law—and, wounded by this, we were necessarily sent on to death. For by these three things, strengthened through one another, our nature was subdued: sin being strong through the law, death ruling through sin, and the law necessarily lying upon mortals and those who for this reason are inclined toward sin. Therefore the law established sin, sin begot death, and death, having made nature prone to sin through passibility, brought it into need of laws. Now, however, he says, we have been released from the law that held us, so that we serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of letter. It is fitting, then, that we, having become immortal and spiritual for the rest, conduct ourselves accordingly, and not as still corruptible and growing old and for this reason compelled to serve the law.

But he contrasted spirit with letter, and newness with oldness, showing by these very names the greatest difference between the things. For he says, I would not have known desire if the law had not said, You shall not desire. He does not say this: that the law implanted the nature of desire in me when I did not have the commandment—for desire belongs to nature—but rather that, since the law did not teach me through its prohibition, I did not know that there is a blameworthy and base desire. He says, since the law did not teach me through the prohibition, I did not know that there is a blameworthy and base desire; but now through the commandment I have learned this. For while it measures the desire implanted in nature and does not allow its use to be unrestricted but circumscribes and confines it within fixed boundaries, sin, taking occasion through it—that is, gaining an abundance of strength and assistance—then tripped me up toward excess and made every forbidden desire active in me for sin. For the phrase it worked in me every desire lacks the word forbidden. For he says, Apart from the law sin is dead. For the law, in prohibiting the act, establishes it as sinful, so that if, without the law having first commanded me to abstain from it, I had practiced it, I would not have been guilty of transgression. For where there is no law, there is no transgression either; for sin is not reckoned when there is no law. But I was once alive apart from the law. Here he uses I in place of the man, and he speaks about Adam. But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

For me, then—the man who had life before the law—the commandment came and took this away, since the previously dead sin sought it out. And the commandment that was for life was found for me to be for death; and I have suffered something wretched and truly pitiable, harmed by the benefaction and losing life through the very aid given to me for life. For sin, taking occasion through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me; for that accursed sin, having a pretext through the commandment and becoming stronger by my own weapon, deceived me by this very thing and slaughtered me. However, he speaks about sin as living and subsisting and making man wise, according to the custom of divine Scripture; for thus also the blessed David, personifying righteousness, introduces it, saying, Righteousness shall go before him, and again Solomon [personifies] wisdom, and generally in the divine oracles there is much of this kind of idiom. So, he says, the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. The conjunction here is simply thrown in, but he has named law and commandment as the same in both ways. He called the commandment holy as leading away from sin and separating and setting apart from evil, just as honoring those who obey with what is just and punishing those who disobey, and good as guiding toward the good and given by God's goodness. Therefore the law is not sin, he says—it which both makes the base thing known to me and restrains the practice of it—but on the contrary it is holy and just and good. What then, he says, has the good become death to me? By no means.

But sin. He says, I will not, then, blame the good for my evil, but I accuse sin, and I hate it, and I would never willingly make peace with it. He says, so that sin might be shown to be working death for me through the good; for this, having harmed me by the good, through this very thing also made its own nature—whatever it is—plainly visible to me. He says, so that sin might become exceedingly sinful through the commandment. This is said by ellipsis; for what is clear with respect to the meaning is missing, so that it may be as follows: so that sin might become manifestly exceedingly sinful through the commandment. For he says, sin is convicted through the law—how great and how much an evil it is; for having tripped me up by deceit, it set this very law that commanded me to guard against it and was given for alliance against me as my murderer. And defending the law further and releasing it from blame, he says, I know that the law is spiritual—so that he may say, perfect and without need and exacting virtue brought to precision, such as belongs to immortal beings. But what am I to suffer? Clothed in flesh that is mortal and corruptible and subject to many passions, given over as it were to failings; for the phrase sold under sin he says in place of as one sold. And this too is a scriptural idiom, to say something without the adverb of likeness—

Often set before us; such is also the saying, "Our God is a consuming fire." And it is similar to the one spoken earlier, "You were slaves of sin," and to the one in the prophet: "To whom being indebted have I sold you? But rather for your sins you were sold," and to what is said in the holy Gospels by our Savior, that "whoever commits sin is a slave of sin"; for truly, "to whom anyone has been defeated, to this one he has also been enslaved." Since he said, "sold under sin," and on this account placed the one in the rank of a mistress, but himself in that of a slave, in keeping with this he adds: "For what I work, I do not know." For this is proper to servants—not to be masters of their own judgment, but to be at the service of their masters' commands. Often, then, he says, I do something not of my own choosing; for "I do not know" is not said in the sense of being ignorant—for how could it be, if a person does not know what he does? Or would such a thing ever be reckoned to him as a fault? But "I do not know" is like the saying in the Gospels of the Savior, "I do not know you; depart from me," in place of: I often do something, not making it my own, nor rejoicing in it, nor taking pleasure in it by my own purpose, nor, to speak briefly, obeying myself but another. And that this is so, he says, is clear: "For what I will, this I do not practice, but what I hate, this I do"—that is, the things I myself will for myself, none of these do I accomplish, but I do the opposite, and what, hating it, I would never wish for myself.

Through such things, he says, that law of the Savior is transgressed—the natural law and the one that encompasses all things, the law that says, "Whatever you wish that men should do to you, do also to them; for this is the law and the prophets." If, then, he says, I do what I myself do not wish, by this very fact I confess that the law is good; for the deeds that it forbids me, censuring them, I myself have also beforehand condemned, even if I pursue them in practice. Through all these things he speaks of what was said by the Master in the holy Gospels, that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak; for the corruptible element of the flesh and its fellow-feeling are blamed for the transgression. For he says, "Good does not dwell in my flesh"—that is, it does not possess freedom from passion, nor perfection, nor freedom from need, nor sinlessness; whence he often calls it "flesh of sin," and "body of sin," and "body of death." I choose the good with my mind, then, and I am prepared for it in my soul, but when it comes to deeds done through the flesh, I do not find it; rather, I have been eager and have striven to do the good, but I am led away by the flesh to do what I have not chosen. Such an action, then, I reasonably reckon not my own but another's. Therefore, he says, from these things the law is shown to be in harmony with my will concerning the good, and from the same things the evil also appears to be the same for both—for me and for the law. For he says, "I delight in the law of God according to the inner man," and the rest. For he has used "for" here in place of "therefore.

For when all the things previously spoken by him from "we know that the law is spiritual" had been set out, he wished to make a summary of them. To the law of God, then, he says, I agree in my inner man—he calls the intellectual part within us—and I rejoice and am glad in its commandments, but I see another law, that of my own members, arrayed against this one and violently dragging me to itself and treating me as it were like some captive; for the things that the former commands, and to which the former bids me hold fast, this latter compels me to abstain from. And by "law of sin in his members" he means the will and aim of the passible flesh, since it is the property of every law to exhort those subject to it to what seems good to it. I, therefore, he says, do not obey the law that I rejoice in, but the one I do not rejoice in; for I do not do what I wish, but what I do not wish I do, and the law of my members prevails over the divine law, and struggling against it I am not strong enough to resist. For the one indeed the

And to do it, and again not to do it, being instructed through the divine law, I have it measured out under the knowledge of virtue, but being prevented by the flesh from putting it into action, I am not deemed worthy of help from it; but the law of my members, measuring itself out, goes off and acquires me as spoil with war. He did not say "a bad man" or "wicked," but "wretched." For having first narrated and shown him looking with the mind toward the good, but being dragged down toward the base by the passion of the flesh, he reasonably addressed him as wretched rather than wicked, as hateful. And most wonderfully he said "who," making clear through the perplexity the difficulty of the matter. Who then, he says, is so great as to deliver me from the tyranny of the body, by which, being dragged down to sin, I am put to death? For he calls "body of death" that which is the cause of death, naming it from its result. And having sufficiently indicated the necessity and shown the magnitude of the matter, he adds with thanksgiving and hymn, making known the benefactor: I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ our Lord, saying this: thanks be to the philanthropic God who has granted us immortality and incorruption and impassibility through the economy according to our Lord Jesus, who with a mighty proclamation has cried out to us: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Having rendered to the benefactor the fitting praise, he takes hold of what lies before him: I, then, the same man am both a servant of God and of sin, and sin through the passible nature of the flesh divides me from God.

Having shown the deficiency of those under the law with respect to justification, he adds the perfection of grace and says: "There is therefore now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus," and so on. But behold, now, he says, the grace through Christ has freed us from this condemnation; for being transferred to a passionless and immortal life through the gift of the Spirit and becoming wholly spiritual through and through, we are released both from sin and from the death that comes through it. This justification, he says, which the law, prescribing it, was unable to accomplish in us through our flesh, God has provided for us in Christ; for having sent his own Son, having the same flesh as we, passable and admitting of sin—for he calls "the likeness of sinful flesh" the flesh that admits of sinning, just as "having been made in the likeness of man" stands for "having been made man"—having this flesh, then, he says, God, having sent his own Son concerning sin, that is, for the purpose of conquering sin, condemned sin in the flesh, he condemned it in it, keeping it wholly untouched and unconsumed. Or also otherwise: that concerning sin he condemned sin in the flesh, instead of—since the flesh was sinless in him and for this reason not subject to death—God condemned sin concerning sin in it, as having unjustly wrapped the Lord's flesh in death. But through the resurrection from the dead he changed it to impassibility, and thus henceforth the justification of the law is accomplished in us through our faith, as we are united to him and become spiritual instead of fleshly.

Such too is what was said by him at Antioch in Pisidia: that from all the things from which you could not be justified in the law of Moses, in this everyone who believes is justified. Just as, he says, those who are corrupt must also have a corrupt mindset, so too those who are incorrupt must reasonably have an incorrupt mindset as well, each possessing reasoning in proportion to its own nature. For the mindset of the flesh, he says, is death—that is, it procures death and provokes God to punishment. But the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace—that is, it grants immortality and friendship with God. For it is impossible, he says, for the will of the flesh ever to come together and embrace friendship with the will of God, which is made known to us through the law; for the one promises impassibility, while the other is passible. Therefore neither can those who are held fast by the mindset of the flesh and share in this nature please God; for they are as far removed from him as they are near to this nature, and they are as far from virtue as immortality is from mortality. But you, he says, have passed over from mortality to immortality, having become spiritual instead of fleshly. And having an irrefutable proof of this statement—if indeed the Spirit of God, he says, dwells in you—for then, in addition to the gift of adoption, they also received other gifts for working wonders, the Spirit through these confirming them also concerning the things previously unseen. That therefore, he says, you have passed over to a spiritual life from a fleshly one, the indwelling grace of the Spirit sufficiently makes clear.

But if anyone, he says, does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. Just as we who are from Adam are said to be Adam's because we share his nature, so those who have been deemed worthy of union with Christ are said to be Christ's through participation in the one Spirit. But if Christ is in you, the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. If, then, Christ is recognized, he says, in you by your partaking of his Spirit, in the way that the body is without a share in immortality because of sin, so in turn the spirit is far removed from death because of righteousness. But he called the spiritual body "spirit," naming the participant from that which is participated in, as also in the Gospels he says, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. But indeed, he says, one must not dispute about this either, that for those who have been deemed worthy to become temples of the Spirit and who in this way have shared in Christ, it follows closely that they will share with him, for this very reason, also in the resurrection from the dead to immortal life. Having contended through all these things and shown that they no longer belong to Adam, that is, to the passible life and the life under the law, but are Christ's, that is, spiritual and undefiled, summing up what was said at greater length in the preceding, he brings forward a clear and concise admonition, saying that they must no longer give themselves over to the passions of the flesh. Why? For if you live according to the flesh, he says, you are going to die; for the end of such a life, he says, is corruption. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

If, however, he says, you strive to live according to the grace of the Spirit that dwells in you, keeping yourselves inactive with regard to such practices of the body, you will receive immortality. For those who are guided by the Spirit of God, that is, those who are spiritual and not merely natural, truly confirm for themselves that they are sons of God. He said this to distinguish them from those who were called sons of God under the law, who were also sons because of God's exceptional care for them in comparison with the rest of mankind; for you spoke in a vision to your sons, he says, and Israel is my firstborn son, and I said: you are gods and all of you sons of the Most High. So in contrast to these, he said of those who are in Christ: these are sons of God. For the present grace is not of the same kind as the former, since even the law was given by the grace of God. John the evangelist also says this: grace in place of grace, meaning that the grace of Christ has been given to us in place of that through Moses. Therefore the gift of the present grace is not similar to the legal one, but surpasses it by far and infinitely, to the same degree that a father's relation to genuine sons would be greater than a master's goodwill toward slaves. For at that time, when we transgressed the law, through fear of death we were subject to slavery all our lives, but now, since Christ has abolished it through his

of our own death, we have been released from that most grievous fear, and being deemed worthy of renewal, we have God to call upon as Father without falsehood. { 8:16-17 } We possess, he says, the trustworthy pledge of so great a grace; for the spiritual gift of which we have partaken in hope of this adoption—this gift confirms our expectation, being made firm because the Spirit from whom it is is trustworthy. For the Spirit itself means the hypostasis of the Holy Spirit, but by "our spirit" he means the grace given to us from that Spirit, which he is accustomed to call the property of those who receive it, as in the passage "when you are gathered together and my spirit, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blamelessly in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." For just as the sun is the very body of the sun, but the ray from it is also called sun, by homonymy with the whole. We say, then, that some places have the sun and others are sunless, not because the hypostasis of the sun departs from the house, but because the radiance from it strikes some regions and is shut out from others by certain barriers; so also the grace of the Holy Spirit is called by homonymy with that from which it is, as the divine Scripture says.

For this reason also in the holy Gospels it says, "For the Holy Spirit was not yet," because Jesus was not yet glorified—the evangelist signifying by the glory of Jesus his resurrection from the dead and his ascension into the heavens, and naming "the Holy Spirit" not the hypostasis of the Holy Spirit (for this both always was and is), but the gift that comes from the Holy Spirit, which descended from heaven upon the Lord's disciples on the tenth day after the ascension, that is, Pentecost after the resurrection. But to the matter at hand: "If children," he says, "then also heirs." But indeed, if our being children of God is clear and beyond dispute, then surely it is also clear that we are heirs of the paternal things; for this has necessarily been concluded together with the former. Heirs of God—therefore, since we bear the same Father as Christ and have been deemed worthy to be called to the same adoption as sons by him, we shall also share with him the same inheritance. { 18 } Having shortly before touched upon the comparison with the old things and, through setting them side by side, having made known the superiority of grace, then—so that it might not be doubted by the disciples because of its greatness—having confirmed it by the participation in the Holy Spirit, he proceeds in order to exhortation, and he urges that no one flee any danger on behalf of such things, this teaching concerning them being very useful and necessary for him, especially since many wars were being brought upon the disciples at the beginnings of the preaching. It is necessary, then, he says, that those who aspire to the glory that comes through Christ should stand against the temptations on its behalf just as he did.

For the sharing of sufferings will also effect a sharing in the recompense. I, then, he says, reflecting on this and setting all the afflictions of the present age side by side with the good things promised to us in Christ, find them small and as nothing. So great, he says, is the abundance of the glory that will be revealed to us, that even the eager expectation of creation, that is, its expectation from afar, is evident—that it awaits the revelation of the sons of God. He spoke of a revelation of the sons of God because for now our life has been hidden with Christ in God. The whole meaning, however, is this: we humans have often been accustomed, after the outcomes of events, to take up in our memories as clear the things that were previously unclear to us. For example, I say: someone has been detected having done something good, or again something bad, and at once, coming forward, we say, "But even from afar this man was appearing to be such, and he showed it by his bearing, and I, from this saying, straightway understood who he was." And generally, taking such symbols from ancient times in relation to the present matter, we confirm for ourselves from the

the second things from the first. Something of this sort the evangelist also says about the Lord's disciples, that at first they did not understand the things being accomplished concerning him; but when he rose from the dead, then they knew that these things had been written concerning him, and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. And here, therefore, the blessed Paul, having received knowledge by the spiritual grace of the dispensation that is in Christ, and knowing that it had been decreed by God from above, and that he chose us before the foundation of the world, teaches the things that were secret to those before; for he says that this very creation's arrangement of such a kind proclaims beforehand the gospel that has now appeared, and is clear and manifest, awaiting the revelation of the sons of God, since indeed he did not create all the sons of men in vain. He calls "vanity" this our fleeting and corruptible life, since for what purpose, he says, was all of it strained toward the service of corruptible things, if not with such hopes and expectations, by God who legislated this for it to do? And the phrase "not willingly" he spoke by personification. And this figure is very common in divinely inspired Scripture—I mean the assigning both voices and characters to inanimate things, as indeed also in the fourth book of Kings; for it says, Joash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying: The thistle in Lebanon sent to the cedar in Lebanon, saying: Give your daughter to my son as a wife. But also in Judges, Jotham the son of Gideon, who was also Jeroboam, it says, spoke to the men of Shechem: The trees went to anoint a king over themselves, and they said to the olive tree:

Reign over us. And on the whole, as I said, the divine Scripture is full of such things. Therefore the apostle also spoke this idiom, not willingly in this respect. Or perhaps it was also because of the angels, so that from the better part the statement might be about the whole of it. {8:21} Nevertheless, he says, it now endures, as it also shares in our freedom; for then it will cease being enslaved to corruption, that is, it will no longer serve us who are still corruptible, and it will be released from its own corruption. For we know how much change and corruption the creation of the elements now undergoes; and indeed we also know that the angels do not yet possess immutability by nature—not only from those who fell and for this reason fell from heaven, but also from what Paul said about them as being capable of sinning: for even if we, he says, or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we preached to you, let him be accursed. {8:22} The nature of creation, he says, is known to all as suffering together with us for the time being, and as it were urging us on and being prepared beforehand for the common regeneration. Why do I say these things about creation? he says. But we ourselves, the sum of creation and for whose sake and with whom all things are renewed, having received the firstfruits of the Spirit, have received such a longing for the things to come that we are vexed at the delay and do not easily endure the postponement, but we long to receive the whole now. And declaring the adoption, he says, we desire the redemption of our body, that is, that our body be released from corruption and sin and death at last.

And since in the earlier passages he cried out his thanksgiving as one already released from mortality, here again, as one who has not yet obtained this but still desires to obtain it, he adds: For we were saved in hope. Our salvation, he says, is still in hopes. Our nature, he says, is weak, and of itself denies that it will live again; but the promises are great and divine, and such as cannot even be grasped by the mind, nor has it ever at all entered into the heart of man; nevertheless, for faith in these things so great we have no small assistance from the Spirit. For these things are both beyond petition and concerning things which we do not know, nor how we ought to pray, so that he might speak of things beyond both human mind and prayer—these the given grace of the Spirit secretly procures for us, and the firstfruits gives us courage concerning the whole. For just as the pledges at marriages, which those who marry give to one another, guarantee what comes after, and when produced compel the agreements for which they were given to be brought to fulfillment, so, I think, the firstfruits of the Spirit—that is, the partial gift of the Spirit, which is the pledge of our inheritance—confirms for us the grace that will be given wholly in due time. It is necessary, then, not to avoid the labors for its sake. And he said "intercedes" metaphorically, from the fact that our needs are also accomplished through our intercessions with one another. {8:27} By the word "searching" he indicated not ignorance but the exact knowledge of God concerning our affairs, since we too, when we wish to learn anything accurately, subject these things to searching and deem them worthy of greater inquiry.

To this that also is similar: The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God, and the saying in the prophet Zephaniah: In that day, says someone, I will search Jerusalem with a lamp. God, then, he says, who clearly knows all the things of men, does not even ignore the aim of our spirit, but knows that it makes its petition according to his will, for the sake of that for which he gave it—for this is what it means to pray according to God—so that those whom he loves may obtain complete holiness, that is, so that through the resurrection they may pass over into an immortal and impassible and utterly incorruptible life. And knowing this, he will also fulfill the gift. But indeed this too, he says somewhere, has been altogether acknowledged by us, that God does not abandon those who love him, but brings it about that all things that happen to them concerning them work together for good, inasmuch as they have also been called according to their own good purpose. From this, however, he also began to prepare in advance the defense concerning the rejection of the Jews. Or, he says, conformed to the image of his Son, instead of to the sonship of his body. Therefore he also added: that he might be the firstborn, for even if he has imparted sonship to others also, he has in no way thereby harmed the Son, for even so he has the preeminence over all and excels the firstborn among the brothers. If God, then, he says, is for us, shall we fear any other of all things? And he who so generously gave his own Son for us, will he be stingy toward us concerning the rest? Are not all things secondary to God compared with his love for us?

It is fitting to pause here now, because while Paul says in this place that the Son was handed over by the Father for our sake, in the letter to the Ephesians he says that the Son himself did this of himself; for Christ, he says, loved us and handed himself over for our sake—teaching us nothing other than that the will of the Father and of the Son for the salvation of man is one. Therefore, when those who wish to bring accusations charge and condemn us—for they are not at all able to invalidate against us the vote of God, which has been set on our side and for our sake—he means to say that no one can take away from us these things that God in advance freely gave us. So then, neither when God chose us for the enjoyment of things to come is it possible for our election to be overturned by anyone, nor when he provides us with the things we hope for—and before all, that true justification in which we shall be established, no longer admitting sin—will there be anyone able to bring about a change in the things that concern us. So it was not fitting for those who persecute to be feared; for they can in no way take away from us the good things that we hope will come to us in the age to come. Therefore he mentioned the election and the justification: through the election, signifying that we have already been set apart for this from now on; and through the justification, signifying that they will then be in enjoyment of it—calling justification the no longer admitting sin, for this is true justification—and from

By this he indicates the certainty of what is given to us; for we who do not sin will remain forever among the things given, whence he said that it cannot be overturned by anyone. He proceeds again to the demonstration of what was said before and says: Christ who died, or rather who was also raised, and so on. For it was not, as some supposed, that he added this to dissolve some future objection that would be brought back against him by certain people, since such an objection would not naturally arise from anywhere in what he had said before—which is what we find in the case of other antitheses. For who would have supposed this against Paul, that because God the Father justifies us, Christ the Son will not permit it? Surely no one. Therefore the apostle was not about to strive in vain and fight shadows against an argument that did not oppose him. However, to confirm and establish the love of God for humanity more fully, as we said before, was both his purpose and very necessary. For this reason he added to what was said before: Christ who died, or rather who was also raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. For is it not so? What need do you have, he says, of anything further? For do not suppose any change; the matter has its end, it has come to completion, nothing is lacking for our salvation. Christ has died, or rather has also been raised and has been honored with the first place by God, and he himself brings to completion the grace that is toward us—that is, he is manifestly by the very fact calling us to himself, and the firstfruits will receive the whole, and to the head the rest of the body will be given.

For having fulfilled the dispensation on our behalf and being exalted, he will draw us as well to himself according to his own promise; for when, he says, I am exalted, then I will draw all people to myself. And here too he shaped the matter through the word "intercedes" for our assurance, just as we said shortly before in the discussion about the Spirit. Having increased God's affection for us and, from that point, our own gratitude, which we ought to have toward so great a benefactor, he goes through the argument saying that none of the terrible things among human beings ought to make us stand apart from love for Christ. Since, he says, he brought forward what was spoken by the prophet David concerning the Maccabees' resistance on behalf of the law, he added: but in all these things we are more than conquerors. For what wonderful thing will we do, displaying goodwill toward God equal to that of the elders, to whom we have received not equal but even greater grace? And since he stated the purpose of his own mind, lest he seem to have spoken out of arrogance, he added: through the one who loved us, saying that we have the power to prevail over these things abundantly, not from ourselves, but through the one who loved us. So then he calls all harsh things death, since the end of all such things is death; and he calls all luxurious and good things life, since the end of all such things again is life.

But angels and principalities and powers are the invisible essences which are called by these various names in accordance with the services they minister; "angels" from the fact that they announce to men the things that come from God; "principalities" from the fact that they rule over cities or nations, or over whatever they are set over; "powers" from the fact that they have been created powerful for the service of God. For, he says, bless the Lord, all you his angels, you who are mighty in strength and do his word. And "things present" comprehensively includes all things that now exist; and "things to come" likewise all things that are expected; and "height" and "depth," things above the heavens and things under the earth. And he added this as well, "nor any other creature," showing the excess of his love for God, and that for its sake he is ready to contend against things that exist and things that do not exist. By "nor things to come," however, he has made it clear precisely that he does not love God for some reason, nor in hope of some recompense, but cherishing this very thing—the loving of God—and judging it by itself to be most earnestly to be desired. None, then, of the things previously enumerated, he says, will separate us from the love of God for the sake of the ineffable

of his own relation toward us, which he made and demonstrated through our Lord Jesus Christ. Having thus strengthened them through all these things to believe the gospel firmly and to accept without hesitation all the trials on its behalf, he wishes to answer an objection brought against him, one quite vigorous indeed. For since in the preceding passages he had cast out the law and in many ways established grace, and especially from the law itself, and had said that those whom God foreknew long ago he has now called are truly sons of God, he knew that the Jew would immediately set himself against this and would bring forward against him that much-vaunted objection of theirs. For those of the Jews who warred against the apostles and the preaching used to say that one of two things must necessarily be the case: either the gospel is false, or God is a liar. For if what you preach, they say, is true, then God is a liar, having by his deeds denied his own promises made to our fathers concerning us. For he promised to Abraham to send down the blessings upon his seed, but now, instead of us, he has welcomed the nations, unclean and foreign men. If, then, the fulfillment of those promises is, as you say, your preaching, it is evident that God has lied to our fathers. But if it is impious to say this about God, then you and the word from you are false. Continually bringing forward this argument against the apostles, they became the cause of no small troubles and disturbances for them.

For by such specious reasoning they were deceiving the hearts of the simple, and were both depriving them of salvation and stirring up unbearable persecutions against the apostles. This objection of theirs, then, the holy Paul now wishes to resolve and to show both that the word of the gospel is true and that God has not lied. And intending to establish this, he wishes to turn the accusation and the rejection back upon those very men, demonstrating that neither God is a liar nor the gospel, but rather their own wickedness and unbelief toward God. In order, then, that in doing this he may not seem to do it out of some contentiousness and hatred toward them, but because the matter truly stands so, he first sets his discourse right, and anticipating what would be raised in objection from it and would confront the hearer, he begins thus: I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie, and the rest. Anathema means that which is set apart, whether for good, as for God, or for evil, as from God. And this is known from the subject at hand: for I myself was praying to be anathema from Christ for my brethren, and the rest.

Having gone through, in the preceding passages, the exceeding greatness of the grace of God in Christ and his own eagerness and zeal for it, he now recalls his former conduct, when he persecuted the church of God beyond measure and ravaged it, being more exceedingly a zealot for his ancestral traditions, and he says that this very same man—I who am now ready to endure anything whatsoever for the gospel—was formerly, from his opposite mind, so great an enemy that I even boasted of being alienated from God and of having no fellowship whatsoever with him. And in this state, he says, I was, looking to my kinship with the Jews according to the flesh, and thinking, since these are Israelites, that the preaching was false because it opposed the divine promises concerning them—condemning the law, and welcoming the Gentiles apart from it, but rejecting those whose was the adoption, that is, those who were the elect, and whom God made glorious through the wonders always done among them, and who were the successors of the covenants, and to whom God deigned to give the law, and to whom he made manifest that they should render him the worship that is fitting from all things, whom the promises encompassed, and whose were the fathers, the very friends of God, and the greatest of all, from whom is the Christ according to the

flesh, who is God over all, blessed forever, amen. Formerly, then, I was disposed in this way, but now, having been deemed worthy to be called by grace, and having come to know that this is truly that promise of God to the fathers, I have condemned myself for my former conduct, and I am held by unbearable grief and enduring pain, considering on whose behalf and against whom I fought, and how I strove to separate and alienate myself from Christ; but, deceived, I preferred the kinship according to the flesh with the Jews. Therefore, since he knew that what was being said was not easily acceptable to the hearer, both because of the exceeding greatness of the change and because it concerned a judgment and choice invisible, he insists beforehand that he is not speaking falsely, and he calls Christ to witness that his words have their truth from him and from his cooperation. And my conscience, he says, bears witness with what is said, through the spiritual grace of one who has reached this point of judgment. Having said, however, "I myself was praying to be anathema from Christ for my kinsmen," he added "according to the flesh." For this reason the divine Scripture knows two births of ours, one mortal, which it also calls fleshly, and the second from the resurrection of the dead, the immortal, which it says is also spiritual; for, it says, "those who were born not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God." God, then, is our creator in both births; "you molded me," it says, "and you placed your hand upon me." Nevertheless, it calls the sons of the former birth sons of men, and those of the second birth sons of God.

The apostle, therefore, wishing to make this clear—that those who have disbelieved in Christ and in the birth now revealed through him do not share with him according to divine kinship—added "according to the flesh." This, then, is the precise interpretation of the passage set forth above, but nothing prevents others from stating the opinion that seemed good to them. They said, then, that Paul spoke the words "great is my grief and unceasing sorrow in my heart" not because he had persecuted the church of God and prayed to be anathema from Christ, but on account of the loss of the Jews, his kinsmen according to the flesh, for whom he prayed even this very thing—to be anathema from Christ. But I say to this that it is not the case that his words concern a present but a past disposition—"I was praying," he said, not "I am praying"; for in Scripture the interchange of tenses is by no means a matter of indifference. But this I say, that it was not fitting for Paul, who eagerly accepted to suffer all things for love of Christ, to despise Christ and his own intimacy with Christ as a cheap thing on account of the Jews, and thus to place the salvation of the Jews before himself as to pray even to be separated from Christ. But this very thing I say, that he knew the salvation of the Jews to be a desire dear to Christ, and for this reason he preferred what was dear to Christ over his own good. Well, then, he surely knew that his own salvation was also dear to Christ; for it is not possible to say otherwise. Therefore, in the very way he served them, he provoked them, and in granting favor he rather grieved them; for that others be saved while others perish is least pleasing to Christ.

But he was convinced, he says, that Christ himself, accepting such a purpose, would not destroy them, and for this reason he prayed to be anathema from Christ. But this is heavier than the former, if indeed he pretended to welcome, out of goodwill toward Christ, a punishment that he knew would in no way befall him; for trusting that he would not suffer, he feigned his goodwill by such a pretended suffering. Having assured through his former conviction that he was not now overturning the customs of the Jews out of rivalry when he proclaimed the grace that is in Christ, but that he proclaimed it because he was firmly persuaded the message preached was true, he thereupon proceeds to swear to the objection, customarily making his beginning with its immediate refutation; for he says: But it is not as though the word of God has fallen. To such an extent, then, I formerly opposed Christ on behalf of the promises of God—as I thought—concerning my kinsmen according to the flesh, on which account I am also continually grieved; yet it cannot be said, because these do not accept the gospel, that the word of God—so as to say the promise of God—has been shown to be false. Why? For not all who are of Israel are Israel. For not because, he says, all trace their descent from Israel, are they themselves therefore all Israel—that is, they do not share with him in his good disposition toward God, nor do they partake of the reality signified in the name, even if they have the succession according to the flesh to boast of from there. And making this statement even clearer in what follows: Nor because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children.

Since, he says, if this were not so, it would necessarily follow that the entire seed of Abraham was reckoned to him in the rank of children. But this is not the case; for the divine oracle says to him: "In Isaac shall your seed be called." And what else does this show than that the things of the promise follow entirely upon fleshly kinship? And indeed Ishmael, born of Hagar, and those later born of Keturah, were themselves no less the seed of Abraham. Yet God did not for this reason receive them all equally with Isaac, but rejected those and preferred this one because he was born to him according to the promise of God; for the Scripture testifies, he says, that Abraham fathered Isaac through promise, clearly saying: "At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son." Therefore it is demonstrated from this irrefutably that the things of grace do not serve or follow fleshly kinship. Since it was likely that the Jew, in objecting, would either put forward the persons of the women and say that it is not possible for the children of the slave woman to inherit with those of the free woman, or would cite certain deeds of those who had been born, and then think he was saying something, he refutes this too and says: "And not only this, but also Rebecca, having conceived by one man, our father Isaac." The things concerning Isaac and his wife Rebecca, he says, are in harmony with those concerning Abraham, and the same account is again established from these as well; for here there is no difference of persons or times or deeds, nor is it possible to allege any such thing.

For they had one father, Esau and Jacob, and one mother, and both were from one bed. But even though their circumstances were thus, before they were born or had done anything good or evil, so that the purpose of God according to election might remain, not from works but from the one who calls, it was said to her: "The greater shall serve the lesser." And this came about in the events themselves, and the Scripture through the prophet Haggai testifies many years later that "I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau." He set forth this saying wishing to show that God's judgment is just, if indeed their later life was seen to follow his foreknowledge concerning them. And yet if the blessings must follow carnal succession, and the Scripture promised to Abraham a natural seed, then especially Ishmael also ought to have enjoyed the same and equal things as Isaac. But if this is not possible because the one was of a slave woman and the other of a free woman—although this distinguished nothing among the children of Jacob, but the children of slave women were placed in equal rank with those of free women—nevertheless, if such a thing was not possible in the case of Ishmael, then at least those from Keturah ought to have shared in the same things. But if not even this were admissible—for it was fitting that the promises be inherited by the one from Sarah alone and then by those in succession from him—how is Esau, who was from Isaac, overlooked? Therefore, does anyone still doubt that it is not by the necessity of nature that one serves God, nor from works, but that the whole depends on the one who calls? What then shall we say? Is there injustice with God? May it never be.

Making his defense concerning the fact that God has not set aside his own promises, from that very defense he perceived this objection rising up against him, and he proceeds in the meantime to its solution, leaving that other matter for a time in suspense. And he does this both exceedingly wisely and prudently. For since, from his words, the question concerning this matter fell into the mind of the hearer, he knew that it would be in vain to speak the rest of the defense at hand; for the hearer would no longer be able to give his mind to what was being said by him, since the doubt stood in the way of his reasoning and did not allow him to understand what he heard. In order, therefore, that this might not happen, he first resolves the difficulty that had sprung up, and thus runs back to the matter at hand and takes up the defense. What then shall we say? Is there injustice with God? By no means. Thus, then, he says, we are taught from the Scripture that God makes his choices of men according to his own purpose, and not from works or fleshly kinship. But since this has become evident, what shall we say? That God is unjust? By no means. And for the time being, having rejected the blasphemous thought, he also gathers other sayings of the God-inspired Scripture equal in force to those set forth before him, and setting them all side by side as it were from the opposite side, and adding to them the inference, he made one most powerful solution of them all. He says, then: For to Moses he says: I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. Then the inference: So then it is not of him who runs nor of him who wills, but of God who shows mercy.

And again the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I raised you up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." Then again the objection follows: "So then he has mercy on whom he wills, and he hardens whom he wills." Having set down these utterances as though they had been cast against him by the adversary, he accepts the counter-argument: "You will say then to me, Why does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will?" Altogether then, he says, this is strong against us, as you think—you will say, in response to these statements, "Why does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will?" Then he makes a very decisive and swift-turning answer to this, seizing that man's own utterance and overthrowing him by it: "Nay but, O man, who are you that answer back to God?" You ask me, he says, who has resisted his will? I tell you that you, before all others, are the one who answers back to God. For who are you, after all, entirely? And you would never consent to be nobody. But by contradicting and disputing with God, how have you not resisted? Therefore you have been caught by your own words, and by the very things you deny you confess the resistance, and you have become your own accuser before me. For you seek who has resisted, but who are you yourself? If then you confess that you are nobody, I grant you that God finds fault with men in vain; but if you are someone—even if you should deny it ten thousand times, for nature does not follow your words—God has been shown to be just, and from you first he carries off the victory. But indeed, what I have presently admired in certain persons, this I wish to go through.

Some who attempted to interpret this part of the epistle, and then were not up to it, did not hesitate to misrepresent Paul's own perplexity. For they said that he did not utter the words "Nay but, O man, who are you that replies against God?" as one resolving the objections raised by his opponents, but as one rebuking and censuring and all but confirming the charge brought against God by them. For if he does not give an account of the matter, but silences the one who contradicts by putting forward the things that belong to God's authority, he is clearly convicted of concurring with that man's argument and agreeing—not that God orders human affairs justly, but by arbitrary authority—and that it befits them quietly to acquiesce in however their circumstances stand, like vessels molded by potters, and not to contend with the one who made them wicked and then finds fault because they are wicked. If they had understood nothing else at all, they ought at least to have seen this: that if the apostle had known he was unable, on their account, to meet these objections, he would not have put them forward in the first place. For surely he was not unable to do this either, nor would he himself have given his opponents handles for the overthrow of his own preaching, as they suppose—he who had chosen to establish not their case but his own. For not even the most simple-minded of all men would have suffered this. But it is not so. Having taken courage

But, I think, advocating for Christ and the truth, he leaves the opponents no pretext at all for slandering the pious doctrine, but just as he made the refutation of all the other objections, so also of this one the strongest, and having thoroughly sewn up the mouths of the blasphemers, he adds to these also another argument from an example naturally suited to the matter, overturning further the mindset of those men, and establishing what is pious. Shall the thing formed say to him who formed it, Why have you made me thus? Or does the potter not have authority over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel to honor and another to dishonor? In this way, then, he says, you have been clearly convicted by yourself, being wicked from your own choice; for resisting, you accuse God and say, Why does he still find fault? But if you wholly wish to learn how, if indeed you had been fashioned evil by nature, as you say, you would not differ from your maker, consider among those who truly receive a natural constitution either toward the base or toward the good and are deprived of rational judgment and choice, how each of them is content with what it has become and does not demand an accounting of its creation, as you do of the creator. The potter, molding the clay vessels, fashions each of his works according to his authority, as he may wish, and vessels of the same lump are made different, but no contradiction arises against him from the things that are made by him.

Here, then, the potter would not reasonably find fault with a vessel made for dishonor, nor would he praise one fit for honor, since there is no ground of objection against him from these things themselves, whether base or useful, each having received its natural constitution for the purpose for which it was made. But in the case of human beings the same account no longer has a place, since they have become self-determining and masters of their own choice, and are able to cleanse themselves, if they wish, so as to be made useful and holy vessels for their own master, and for this reason they are justly either punished or honored for works that accord with their will: these things—why does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will? Having raised the objection, he next interprets the meaning of the scriptural passages that were set forth, in which God is shown to be loving toward Moses, but in the second, toward Pharaoh, to be punitive and severe. So, having gathered the sense of these passages, he examines it in relation to what happened concerning the Egyptians and the Israelites, and says: But if God, willing to show his wrath, and so on. If God, willing to show his wrath and to make known his power, endured with much long-suffering vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, and in order that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory. The statement is unclear because of its brevity; for he means to say that it has been very excellently spoken both to Moses—I will have mercy on whom I have mercy—and to Pharaoh—for this very purpose I raised you up, that I might show in you my power.

For, he says, God, wishing to make known to all humans his own power, with which he punishes those worthy of wrath and has mercy on those he pities, brought about the matter concerning the Egyptians and the Israelites, setting this forth as a common teaching to the world of his own righteous judgment—both that those around Pharaoh, being utterly wicked and impious, were justly to undergo the ultimate penalty, and, in his longsuffering, he deferred the punishment against them and allowed them to be exalted against his own people; but once they had become conspicuous and notorious through excess of cruelty, he destroyed them openly and splendidly, and, having mercy on the race of the Israelites, he saved them all together, making them renowned by his benefactions. This, then, is the meaning of the apostolic saying, but it lacks for completeness the words "Why then does he still find fault?" so that the whole may be as follows: but if God, wishing to show his wrath and to make known his power, endured in much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, and in order to make known the riches

Do you accuse him of this—his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory? Having completed, then, what pertains to the present objection up to this point, from here he returns to the solution of the question, making the return from the parenthesis to what was said before, as I have often stated, in a manner consistent and continuous with what lies before him. For having said "which he prepared beforehand for glory," a statement made concerning those from Egypt, he immediately joined to it: "whom he also called us, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles," so that even now, he says, in a similar way, by his just judgment and foreknowledge, God has called us who are from the Jews and have run to him, having left behind those who were unwilling. And nothing that has happened in our case is new or different from what came before. And holding still to the same points, he further shows that this very thing was foretold many times also from the prophets, and first he sets forth the voice of Hosea concerning this, through which the rejection of some of the Israelites into captivity, and again the appropriation of others from captivity, and the calling of the Gentiles together were pre-signified. Then after this, the cry of Isaiah plainly declaring that almost the whole of Israel, except a few, would be the fall. And the apostle speaks thus, as also in Hosea he says, and the following. What then, he says, is the reason for such a change of affairs? And how is it that those who were to attain righteousness—neither have these obtained it, nor, living by the law and being educated about it through it, have they reached it?

He calls the master Christ a stone of stumbling, in that for those who do not accept his dispensation he has become a stumbling block to them, and through unbelief they have fallen away from the justification given to men by grace through him. These things, then, he says, I said concerning them, not wishing to reproach or to trample upon them, but compelled by the truth itself, since as for me, I hold such goodwill toward them as to pray together for their salvation. And showing the reasonableness of such a disposition of his, he added: For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God. I know, he says, and I bear witness that they have undertaken the battle against the gospel with a divine zeal—for he himself was once one of them, though with a zeal deprived of true knowledge. For not understanding the greatness of righteousness—that men can attain it only by divine grace—they strive foolishly to ratify their own opinions and to obtain justification through their own works, opposing that which has now been given to us by God in Christ. For Christ fulfills the purpose of the law, bestowing justification through faith in him upon all who come to him. And by comparison with the law, showing the generosity of grace, he says, Moses says that no one is justified in the law beforehand until he has fulfilled all the commandments of the law. But the righteousness that is of faith, he says, speaks thus—that is, concerning the righteousness that is of faith he speaks thus: for what follows is also from Moses, he says, namely, Do not say in your heart: Who will ascend into heaven? or, Who will descend into the abyss?

The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart,” was said to the people. To Moses, as he taught this very thing—that although they had contributed nothing of their own by personal effort, God had deemed them worthy to receive the things of the law, and that for this reason they ought not to disbelieve the greatness of the gift, but rather for this reason lay claim all the more to virtue—for the phrase “Do not say in your heart” stands for: it is not possible either to think anything of that sort for yourself, or to speak it, since God has gone before you with the giving of the law. Therefore, he says, what was said to them then concerning the giving of the law applies also to us now in the grace through Christ. For this is what he himself set forth as a third point alongside the Mosaic sayings, signifying something of this sort through it: that this is equivalent to its being said even to us, that we ought not to disbelieve either concerning the Savior’s descent from heaven or concerning his ascent again from the dead, but, having believed with a whole heart, to confess the grace also with the tongue; for to those who do this, the salvation that comes through justification will belong. For he divided “unto righteousness” and “unto salvation” in his usual way, and assigned the one to the faith of the heart, the other to the confession of the mouth, each being fitting for each. “The Scripture,” he says, “says that those who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” But it is not possible for anyone at all to call upon him without first having believed, and again it is impossible to believe without first hearing what is to be believed, and indeed it is still more impossible to hear when there is no one who proclaims;

How then could preaching be possible for one not sent for this purpose? Therefore, sending must precede preaching, preaching must precede hearing, hearing must precede faith, and faith must precede calling upon him; for the latter things could not come to be if the former were not. If, then, the matter must proceed in this way, it has also proceeded in this way, and no one could find fault with anything that comes from God at all; for he has sent men, having chosen beforehand those who would announce the proclamation to all, so that that saying of Scripture also applies to them: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of peace, of those who bring good news of good things. By these words he means to say this: let no one marvel if some strive against the gospel and do not obey those proclaiming peace and good things; for Isaiah also foretold this very thing long ago. And having set down his voice—Lord, who has believed our report?—he establishes from this too that it was well foretold by him; and how will they believe in one whom they have never heard? For he says: So then, faith comes from hearing. This is what we were saying a little earlier, that one who is going to believe must first hear the teaching about the one who is to be believed. And hearing comes through the word of God, which means that teaching comes to those who teach through divine activity. But, he says, God both sent forth apostles and revealed to them what they would proclaim, yet they themselves grew slack. Then for those who did not believe, not having heard the proclamation became a cause of their unbelief. Nor is it possible to say this either, he says.

For it would be more truly said of these than of David, "Their sound went out into all the earth." But, he says, was the calling of the Gentiles, being unknown to Israel, so that it scandalized them as something newly introduced now? And yet from the beginning and from ancient times they were taught this beforehand, Moses indeed threatening them beforehand that, when they were disobedient, the Gentiles would be preferred, and Isaiah again later speaking to them more reprovingly and more plainly, concerning the Gentiles: "I was found by those who did not seek me, I became manifest to those who did not ask for me," and concerning those very people: "All the day long I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people." Perhaps, then, he says, someone might say that these words cry out nothing else than plainly this: that God has rejected his own people. But I do not say this, since I myself also am a genuine Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. Therefore God did not reject his people whom he foreknew; by the addition of "whom he foreknew" he indicated that the others are not even God's people, even if they inscribe the same forefather for themselves according to the flesh. And at the same time from this Scripture he shows that even in former times many of them were rejected. However, "in Elijah" is said instead of "through Elijah." Nothing, then, he says, as it seems, has happened even in the present time, [but] a remnant according to grace

having been chosen, and now out of our whole race. For just as then, according to the scriptural word, not even one would have been saved, had God not left the seven thousand for himself—that is, had divine grace not held them fast in the pious resolve—so, I think, it is also now. The apostle did not set these things down in this way because he wished to prattle idly, but because he was eager to show that the law is utterly incompatible with grace, and that these two can never come together on its terms, but that of necessity the one gives way to the other. So then, he says, God did not reject the people whom he foreknew. And what is it that I am saying? That what Israel seeks, though it is now present, it does not accept; but those whom God chose have obtained it. The whole remainder, however, fell sick with a certain most grievous insensibility and numbness, which one can often recognize that they suffered also in the former times from the writing of Isaiah. For it says: God gave them a spirit of compunction. Now, "God gave them a spirit of compunction" seems to mean the same as "God handed them over to a reprobate mind." And "a spirit of compunction" stands for a most heavy disposition needing repentance and correction. Having sufficiently demolished and defeated the faction of the Jews, who were puffed up at random and disdainful because of the law over the Gentiles, and having shown that their rejection was entirely their own fault and not the fault of the preaching, so that neither they themselves concerning themselves nor those who had believed concerning them might fall into complete despair as though they were utterly lost, he added this: I say then, did they stumble so as to fall?

Do I therefore say that their sin is altogether incurable? For the word "that" here too he uses in the customary sense. By no means; for on the contrary, when these stumbled, the Gentiles were called, so that, being thereby provoked to jealousy toward them, they might not remain forever in their fall. Consider, then, he says, what sort of people they once were, and how great a gain to the common good is the addition of all, whose transgression and loss became the cause of wealth for all the nations in the world. I think God so loved them that for their sake he granted salvation to the Gentiles, so that at least in this way, being provoked, they might return to the knowledge of the truth. He calls his flesh those who are kin according to the flesh, as also the prophet Hosea says, "My flesh is from among them." For this you know, he says, O Gentiles—he speaks to those who are believers from among the Gentiles—inasmuch as I was appointed apostle of the Gentiles, to the best of my ability I glorify the ministry entrusted to me, knowing God's purpose and by this means also procuring salvation for my own people; for perhaps from this, being stirred to jealousy, they will run to the faith. He calls the Lord Christ the firstfruits, as having been born of them according to the flesh and having begun the adoption through his resurrection, and Abraham the root, as the first of the whole race, and the lump and the branches the whole people. And here "that" customarily signifies the outcome. For you will say, he says, boasting, that when those were cut off, I was grafted in; therefore, considering also the cause of both their destruction and your rising, be reverent and sober-minded and afraid.

Having, then, he says, in the matters concerning you and the Jew the demonstration of God's righteous judgment, hold fast to goodness, so that God may hold fast to you, since he will also overlook you when you have been brought down to unbelief like the Jew. Then again he shows that for those also, if they wished, good hopes could be kindled for their benefit; for those too, he says, if they do not persist in unbelief, will be grafted in, and so on. God, he says, is neither resentful of evil nor unable to call back to salvation those who wish to be saved. Having admonished the faithful from the Gentiles to be moderate and having forbidden them to lord it over the Jews, he also reveals to them a certain mystical word, hidden from all until that time; for, he says, so that you may not, being deceived, suppose something great and wonderful about yourselves, as though you were wiser than others, learn briefly a most awe-inspiring mystery, declaring God's ineffable providence concerning all the Israelites except the election; for this is what he means by "in part": when they were hardened and thrust salvation away, God transferred it to you; yet when all of you have been brought in, grace will again embrace all those as well. And since there is for them a removal and remission of sins, salvation is clear and undeniable. { 11:28-29} For even if now, he says, when they stumbled at the gospel you were brought in in their place, nevertheless they too have been loved for the fathers' sake. And surely it was fitting that all God's gifts be true and firm. The present passage has been spoken briefly and for this reason obscurely; it is necessary, then, to clarify it.

For, he says, I am saying nothing incredible, and look also at your own circumstances: when you were once disobedient in time past, God had mercy on them; now, the reverse, when they have become disobedient, you have received mercy. Just as, then, your former disobedience did not hinder your present salvation, I think in the same way neither will their present disobedience be set as an obstacle for them in the time of salvation; for it is not possible that God's love for humanity should be defeated by human contradiction, but even when all oppose him, he will show his own mercy toward all. Therefore God shut up all in disobedience so that he might have mercy on all. Similar is the saying, "But the law came in so that the trespass might abound." For neither did God make them disobedient, but he himself gave saving commandments and, fencing us in by these, secured our nature, and this came about because of those who transgressed the law; nor did he give the commandments for this reason, that he might have mercy on those who disobeyed, but this came about in this way because of their disobedience. And of this same type are the other such things among those set forth before, such as, "A hardening has come upon part of Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in"—for it was not so that the Gentiles might be saved that some of Israel were hardened, but when these were hardened, that followed—and, "They were disobedient to your mercy so that they also might receive mercy," and all such things are uttered in a causal form, though they do not have a causal sense.

Having peered into the inexpressible and incomprehensible abundance of his love for humanity, and having wisely considered how he manages our salvation at the right time, then, struck with amazement and becoming wholly absorbed in the wonder, he cried out this great thing from his soul. The depth of the riches he calls the great and abundant and incomprehensible depth of his goodness; the depth of wisdom, because he wisely and prudently governs our affairs; the depth of knowledge, because, possessing the most exact foreknowledge of each thing, he is in no way harmed by ignorance in his administration of us, managing all things as is fitting and when it is fitting; and "his ways are past tracing out," because the path of his decided and approved and manifold ordinances is impossible to follow and unseen. To all these things he adds testimony in agreement with the writing of Isaiah, that he is incomprehensible over all things and in need of nothing. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become his counselor? And further, teaching that we humans receive all good things from him not as a recompense but as a grace, he adds: Or who has first given to him, and it shall be repaid to him? Because the original creation is from him and through him the succession, and all things have their renewal unto him; to him be the glory forever, amen.

Having concluded the entire argument concerning doctrine, he now moves from there to ethical teaching, and through his general counsel about what must be done he shows our difference from those under the law, which he had demonstrated through many points even in the arguments concerning doctrine. Since, then, he says, O brothers, the abundance of God's mercies toward us is boundless, I beg and entreat this: that we set apart and dedicate ourselves wholly to God instead of every sacrifice; for not as the sacrifice under the law is unto death, so also is the present one, but such a sacrifice is offered unto life, practicing sanctification; for such a sacrifice is more pleasing and sweet to God than that one, insofar as the offering of rational beings is more precious than that of irrational beasts. The present life, he says, is fluid and corruptible, and sharing least in what is stable, it changes in many ways. Do not, then, transfer your own life to its form, just as the nature of liquids is molded to conform to the vessels into which they are poured. But rather, being made like the spiritual and noetic pattern to which you have been renewed, carry out the will of God concerning you, which is approved, good, well-pleasing, and perfect. For I say, he says, through the grace given to me—in order to state that he has received from divine grace the authority to teach concerning these things—to everyone who is among you, that is, whoever might be considered greatest among you, not to think more highly than he ought to think; he has most excellently named arrogance madness; but to think unto sober-mindedness. And I advise you rather to use a moderate disposition; for such a thing is sober-mindedness.

He says this because of those who were puffed up against their brothers on account of the spiritual gifts granted to them at that time for working miracles. For not, he says, so that you might be hateful toward one another, nor so that the divine things might be a pretext for war among you, has God given you his own gift, but for concord and friendship and the common salvation of all. No one among you, he says, has anything of his own, but both the one deemed worthy of the greater and the one of the lesser gift has received this from God, who, knowing exactly each one's faith, makes the distribution to him in proportion to it. Therefore it would be fitting, he says, that each one of us also, having the same order toward Christ that members have toward a body, should use the gift given to him for the benefit of the common good and contribute what is fitting in whatever he is. For as in the whole body, when it is well compacted, he himself will share in the gain as his part, but when it is in a bad state, he himself will benefit nothing as far as he is concerned. However, the principle of the analogy of faith belongs not to prophecy alone, but is common to all the things that follow and all things have their reference to it. The gift of ministry he calls the fitness for ministering to those in need, to whom, he says, it applies itself; teaching, the absolute counsel; exhortation, the teaching suited to a fall that has occurred for some reason. By simplicity he means what is guileless and without envy; by cheerfulness he means the ready disposition toward mercy and the one showing compassion with joy.

Then the summary of these things, and the means by which they might succeed in them: love unfeigned. For if, he says, you keep the matter of love pure and genuine, you will, I know, rightly use the gifts as well. One who admonishes them to abstain from evil but urges them to cling to good would have used the names of both; for the end of fleeing evil is loathing, and for acquiring good nothing is more authoritative than unbroken clinging and union. With affection, he says, hold the friendship toward the brothers—that is, extended and abundant—so as to deem them worthy of the greater share even above yourselves. Accomplish, he says, what is earnest without any hesitation, with boiling eagerness, as fulfilling slavery to the Lord, and rejoice as you await the recompense hoped for on account of these things, for which you are also justly to bear with endurance the afflictions brought upon you. Do not, however, give up in the face of God's patience in these matters, but cry out to him undistractedly in all things and at all times. Sharing in the needs of the saints. By making the things of the saints your own, he says, and by providing for their needs as for common ones; yet he calls the faithful saints, as those called to sanctification. I wish, he says, that so great a love for humanity be in you as to grant forgiveness even to those who war against you, as to those who love you. To rejoice with those who rejoice, so that he may say it is good that you have been freed from envy. To weep with those who weep; to rejoice over others' misfortunes is not right. But not only this in both, he also counseled the greater thing.

For if it is superfluous to envy, it is also superfluous to rejoice with another; and if it is superfluous to gloat, it is also superfluous to share in weeping by grieving with another. Be, he says, of one mind toward one another, not entertaining thoughts against your neighbors, but rather condescending to those near you and accommodating yourselves to them. Since the divine law ordains not to repay the wicked in kind, this seems folly to many people who are provoked by anger in the midst of injustices, and who, dismissing the keeping of peace as unmanly, are led on eagerly to greater harm; he exhorts them not to do so, nor to yield to the thoughts that arise from anger as though they were superior to the divine ordinance, but to obey that ordinance, since he has said to rejoice in these things. Do not think, he says, that it is fitting for you to be good to some and bad to others, but bad to no one and good to all. Well does he say "if possible"; for there is a case where my neighbor contends with me and I do not wish for peace with him. Therefore, having regard to what is possible in the matter, he gives his counsel: I desire, he says, that your own judgment be sound, even if certain others are sick. In order that he might lead them more fully to obedience to his counsel, he adds these words, saying that for you who withdraw from contentiousness the better part of vengeance will remain; for God will avenge you upon those who have wronged you. Since, then, he says, the one who exacts the penalty on your behalf is far more powerful, do you yourself refrain from imitating the wicked man through like deeds.

For by this you either release that man from blame or you involve yourself with him, being more eager to do him good to the best of your ability; for thus it will come about that he, having been shown to be unjust toward you, his benefactor, receives the ultimate punishment. Having run along with the wronged man up to this point in his passion and his expectation of greater vengeance, having made him desist from what was in his hands and persuaded him to do good, he then brings forward the full instruction, as one who has by now let go of his anger and is able to understand what is said, and he says: Since you, he says, do not prosecute, but rather even do good, it is evident that God will avenge you on the one who wronged you, and concerning this one ought not to disbelieve the Scripture that says so. I wish indeed by such a disposition to display good things toward the enemy; for this is a witness of defeat, not of victory—for the wicked to take advantage in wickedness and to practice beneficence to the harm of those among whom it is exercised. See to it, then, that you are not at some point swept away and defeated by evil, but always appear superior to it through the alliance of good. Having spoken these things to the faithful concerning concord with one another and with all—for it is fitting for those who possess the hope in Christ to be such—he moves on again to another chapter. At the beginning of the proclamation, since men were held captive by their former customs, the gospel was necessarily hard to accept, especially since

and promising things beyond human comprehension, and moreover being proclaimed by ordinary and poor and unlettered men. For this reason there was at that time a great abundance of spiritual gifts, persuading the race of the more ancient to withdraw and learn the teachings from the apostles. So then, being possessed by the Spirit and beholding, as it were, the things proclaimed as present through the power given to them by the Spirit for the working of signs, they despised, as is likely, the things present and laughed at the vanity of the present age, disdaining wealth, disdaining glory, disdaining power, and looking down even on kingship itself as on a dream or a shadow that differs in nothing. And from these things the matter was going to advance for them into factions and wars, as they gradually considered it superfluous, after the coming of Christ, still to remain in the former forms of order, and as divine grace equally admitted them all to endure the disorder of the present life still, especially since such an opinion was confirmed for them even more from the letter itself; for through it all he advised them of this, that they ought no longer to live according to the flesh, as having died with Christ, but according to the Spirit: For you, he says, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Therefore, foreseeing this, the blessed Paul reasonably gives them the teaching fitting for them also concerning this, and says: Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities.

And first he made the injunction comprehensive and common to all, then he did not say "they exercise authority" but "authorities," so that from the matter itself he might teach that those engaged in the matter are to be honored, and that the matter itself should not be reviled on account of the wickedness of certain persons who, if it so happens, have wickedly used what is good. For if there is no authority, he says, except by the will of God, one must be clearly persuaded that the existing authorities are what seems good to him. But why, he says, do you at all faction-fight, tell me, against the ruling power? You are good and hate wickedness; therefore you ought to expect praise from it, not fear; for God has given the authority to you as a fellow-worker in what is good. But if, he says, you incline toward evil and are a lover of the worse, you are reasonably disturbed and afraid; for you hand yourself over to it as liable to punishment, since it has from God the authority to punish the wicked. In this very matter, moreover, he advised what sort of men those in authority themselves ought to be. From every angle, then, he says, yielding to them and being subject appears necessary; for apart from the fear of punishment from the rulers, I think, we are punished by our own conscience itself when we do what is improper. But indeed, he says, the payment of taxes is also sufficient to induce you to be subject to them; for this too, I think, is the greatest proof that, serving the divine ordinance, they devote themselves to such a ministry. In all these things, moreover, he cites what the Savior said to the Jews in the Gospels: "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's." Hence, gathering the things said before to this point, he wisely adds:

Give to all their due debts, and so on. Tribute and tax are the same thing. Indeed, in the preceding passage he said that they pay tribute: "for this cause," he says, "you pay tribute also." But now he distinguished the two, either wishing to say this: that whether someone wishes to call such a thing tribute or tax, it is fitting for you to discharge it in every way; or, he said, the one indicates the contribution of money to the public treasury, and the other the private revenues belonging to those who possess them. With "fear" he means fear, as it were, to those in authority; with "honor" he means honor, as it were, to friends and to all who are near. Owe no one anything except to love one another. He does not say here "not to repay love," but instead: only the matter of love, as a debt that cannot be refused and is always necessary, you must continually deposit with one another. For when you have paid off each of the other debts, after payment you possess freedom from liability; but in the case of love this is not so, but one must always be paying it and always owe it. Especially, he says, let even the brevity of the present age urge you toward what is good and fitting; for the time of the resurrection stands at the doors and is already at hand, and each day we become nearer to the consummation. He calls the mortal condition "night," since ignorance of God prevails in it; and he calls the undefiled conduct in Christ "day," since those deemed worthy of it are illumined by the holy and blessed Trinity. Again he moves to another heading, from which he also obtained the occasion for writing the letter to the Romans.

He knew that those coming to the faith from among the Jews were engaged in contentious rivalry with those from among the Gentiles who believed, concerning certain particular observances of the law—for instance, regarding the keeping of days and the distinction of foods, and certain other such things—the Jews keeping them, while the Gentiles both abstained from them themselves, not observing them, and also reproached the Jews for their zeal in such matters, and ate in their presence to provoke them, so that from this circumstance implacable enmity came to exist between them, and they regarded one another with suspicion and insulted what is most excellent in the calling in Christ—I mean love. Therefore, correcting them also about these things, since the part from the Gentiles in Rome was both more numerous and more powerful than that which had come to the faith from the Jews, he reasonably begins his discourse with them: "Receive the one who is weak in the faith." With great persuasiveness he inserted the present matter together with the truth. For he called the Jew "weak" very aptly, as one still overpowered by the weakness of his reasonings in legal customs, but by this he turned the Gentile sufficiently to be persuaded by the counsel. For who is so inhuman as to grant forgiveness to the weak and then trample on him, and when he ought to help, this one will even add to his misfortune? And the preceding teaching also made this exhortation necessary for him; for he demonstrated in every way that the law and the entire constitution according to it had been abolished by the grace in Christ.

He saw, then, as was likely, that the Gentile would be a heavier burden to the Jew, and that their contentious rivalry against one another would be intensified, unless he spoke to them in fitting terms about this matter as well. Not for passing judgment on disputable thoughts. One indeed believes he may eat all things, but the one who is weak eats vegetables, and so on. Those who are perfect, he says, being perfect in the faith in Christ, do not force those who are not yet able to make the partaking of all things without distinction faithfully and without disputable reasonings, but do you hold to the better course, and receive those who think they are either harmed by eating or even benefited by observance—that is, make them your own and cherish them and do not turn away from them. And to speak briefly: let not the one who eats, as being more perfect, himself despise the one who does not eat, nor again let the one who does not eat condemn the one who eats as a transgressor. And showing both the reasonableness and the justice of the exhortation: for God has received him. Who are you to judge another's servant? For if God has accepted him, how is it not daring for you, how is it not dangerous, to condemn a servant who belongs to another? And since each side was going to put forward its concern for both, he says, he stands or falls to his own master. The occasion for the battle, he says, is entirely superfluous for you; for whether he stands or does not stand, no risk is run by you in either direction, neither toward loss nor toward gain. Having said this to remove the pretext for their contentious rivalry, so that they might not be led from this to despair of one another's salvation,

He will be made to stand, he says, for God is able to make him stand. For both, he says, this one and that one have one aim in common: honor toward God. For the one who observes the day thinks he is fulfilling God's law, while the one who is indifferent about these things holds every day, as having come from God, in equal honor. {14:9} And concerning those who are dead to the passions through bodily hardship and yet live in Christ. But you, he says, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you despise your brother? Again he takes up the argument from the beginning and by the addition of "brother" shows more clearly the absurdity of what is being done. Having gathered the matter at hand, he thus also introduces the mention of judgment, making them more sober-minded by the fear of it: for we shall all stand, he says, before the judgment seat of Christ. He is all but saying this: Christ is judge, and another time of judgment has been appointed. Why do you force things? Why do you push the judge aside? Why do you snatch what is not yours? You were not appointed to judge others, but you were commanded to take care how you yourself may give an account when you are judged. And he adds the testimony of Isaiah from Scripture, again confirming the argument about judgment: As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and the rest. By this saying too the Son's perfect equality of honor with the Father is clearly established, since Isaiah said it was spoken in the person of God, as follows: I am God, and there is no other. By myself I swear, surely righteousness shall go forth from my mouth; my words shall not be turned back, that every knee shall bow to me.

When the prophet had said this, Paul accepted it as applying to the Lord Christ, and he would never have done this unless he knew that Christ is true God, as the Father is. And after reminding them of the judgment and by this means restraining their thoughts and making them more moderate, he adds: So then, each one will give an account of himself to God. Having therefore let go of strife and rivalry against one another, let us rather establish this among ourselves: to live together with one another in love, as is fitting for brothers toward brothers. Take care that you do not, even in small matters, become in any way the cause of grief or harm to those of the same faith. And since this word was being directed to the Gentiles, so that they might not think he was saying these things to them because he himself had never had the knowledge he ought to have about such matters, he added: I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, and what follows. I know and am persuaded, he says, in the Lord Jesus that nothing is common through itself. For me, he says, who have believed firmly in Christ, it is evident that the discernment concerning such matters belongs to the imperfect; for all things are pure, partaking of the blessing from there. He has handled the matter most wonderfully.

First, by the cheap and lowly character of the pretext—he said, "for food"; then by the person against whom the sin was committed—he said, "your brother"; then by the very outcome of the offense—he called it outright destruction; fourth, by the one to whom the outrage is referred—"for whom," he says, "Christ died"; fifth, because it causes piety to be blasphemed; sixth, because we have come to faith in Christ not for the enjoyment of these things or things like them, but for participation in righteousness, that is, in sinlessness and peace and joy. For from sin comes offense, from offense grief, and from grief condemnation. So when sin is removed, the things that come from it are also taken away; and when righteousness is brought in, peace and joy are reasonably brought in with it. And "in the Holy Spirit" makes clear the cause of such great goods; for being reborn through the grace of the Holy Spirit unto adoption as sons, that is, being raised up to an incorruptible, passionless, and immortal nature, we are delivered from the former evils and established within the kingdom of God. Therefore, he says, the one who is subject in these things to the

The one who has earnestly striven to show forth in Christ a manner of life such as this is both dear to God and praiseworthy among men. "It is good," he says, "not to eat meat nor to drink wine," and what follows. What then? "Shall I deny my own faith because of that man?" someone might perhaps say. To such a person, then, he added: "I do not command you," he says, "to depart from the faith; on the contrary, I even exhort you to hold fast to it. But what am I saying, and what am I admonishing? Do not in this way cause your brother to stumble, but, sparing him, be content with God alone as witness of the faith you have; for it is possible in this way both that you suffer no loss of your faith and that he be not overlooked." {23} This is the most exact and complete counsel concerning virtue: not to do those things for which one is condemned by one's own conscience. "But if anyone," he says, "is not fully persuaded that the eating has been permitted, yet partakes as though it had been forbidden, he has been most clearly condemned by himself of transgression of the law." He says, then, that it has come from God to enjoy the perfect grace that is in Christ. Nevertheless, those who are weak among you must be borne with by those who are stronger among you, and you must take forethought for what is advantageous to the community, and not each look only to his own concerns. {15:3} He says that in these things they will be imitators of Christ, who so greatly disregarded his own interests that what was written by David applies to him most fittingly: "The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen upon me." And this has a twofold meaning:

For it has been spoken as toward the Father and God by the Son, but it can also be said as though the Only-begotten took upon himself the blasphemy uttered by men against his own Father, and as though he took upon himself the punishment of the men who blaspheme God, for the things for which they blasphemed him. For I think, he says, that the deeds and choices of the ancients were not handed down to writing without purpose, but so that we too might be benefited from them, their knowledge having been transmitted even to us, and that we might not grow faint before the afflictions brought upon us for the sake of the things hoped for. { 15,56} He calls him the God of patience and consolation, as the one who grants patience and consolation, just as he is also the God of mercy and the God of compassions. And the phrase "may he grant you to think the same thing according to Christ Jesus" means no longer being divided according to the old customs of your fathers but being united according to the heavenly man. And the phrase "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," so that he might name the God who, because he called us to adoption through the resurrection from the dead, confirmed concerning his Son our Lord Jesus, having first arranged this. However, the phrase "may God grant you to think the same thing, so that with one mind you may glorify God," he did not say this indicating a different God in each case, but in the second instance he again placed the same name instead of the pronoun. For it would have been clearer if it had been said thus: "may God grant you to think the same thing, so that with one mind you may glorify him"; but now, instead of "him," he has placed "God.

And this also is a peculiarity of Scripture, as "the Lord rained from the Lord," that is, from himself, and "God made man; in the image of God he made him," that is, of himself; and "may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord," and "your righteousness is like the mountains of God," and whatever other such things there are. It was fitting, then, that you, having enjoyed the condescension from Christ by which you were taken up into the glory given to him by God, should also provide this same thing to one another. With the aim, he says, of circumcision, the Lord Christ served, that is, he fulfilled the whole law with all exactness—for he who is circumcised, he says, is a debtor to fulfill the whole law—he did not allow God's promises to the fathers to fall to the ground, but what was promised to them, that "in your seed all the nations shall be blessed," he himself, having been born of them according to the flesh and having become under the law, and having been manifested indeed in the flesh but justified in the Spirit, received all who ran to him, both Jews and Greeks, and through faith in him he counted them worthy of justification, so that it is fitting for the nations continually to hymn God for his unutterable love for mankind toward them, through which he took in those who were estranged and strangers to the covenants of the promise. But the God of hope, he says—instead of "he who has granted us the hope of things to come"—may he supply you with so great a grace of the Holy Spirit that, being fully assured in abundance concerning the hope believed, you may no longer lack any of the things that are causes of peace and joy for you.

Having admonished them very clearly, and also concerning the fact that for the sake of no matter worthy of account—I mean the observance of such legal customs—they should not take up enmity toward one another, he also completes this summary. And he brings it forward again by way of repetition in other words in the introduction; for he recapitulates the same thought in these words too, both conciliating and praising them, and also making defense for himself, that neither in reproaching them nor in accusing them of anything did he write this letter to them, but fulfilling a necessity laid upon him, nor yet through laziness had he deferred his arrival among them until now, having wisely begun from these things and ended the letter with these same things; for nothing is so able to make hearers more attentive as a disposition toward the speaker, and to be disposed toward him not with suspicion but with goodwill. For this reason he added: In three ways he works out the excuse, both by saying that the matter is in part and a bold thing, and by having dared it not for the sake of teaching but of reminding, and by the fact that the care is his own and proper to him, divine grace having appointed him beforehand for this. However, that the offering of the Gentiles might become acceptable, sanctified in the Holy Spirit—that is, bringing spiritual holiness pure and unmixed with Jewish observances; for this is dear to God and acceptable, since God himself is also Spirit. Therefore, he says, it is permitted me even to glory in the things according to God, on account of the grace given to me for this through Christ.

For I would never become so presumptuous as to inscribe upon myself the achievements of Christ that are not mine. At any rate, I have proclaimed the message to many and have brought many to the faith of Christ, being empowered for every miracle by the grace of the Holy Spirit. "So then," he says, "from Jerusalem all the way to Illyricum, having gone around the whole region in a circle, I have fulfilled the gospel," and Christ, by my labors and sweats, has called to salvation nearly all those in these parts. And this also, he says, was very earnestly my concern: not to teach afterward those who had already heard about Christ from others, coming upon them as a later arrival, but to be the first to begin and to go to those whom no other had reached before. And one could see that oracle fulfilled in these things done by me: "Those to whom it was not announced concerning him shall see," and the rest. This reasoning, he says, and the aim of such zeal, prevented my coming to you until now; for I knew that Peter had come to you as a teacher, but for those in those parts there was as yet no one who had handed down the things concerning Christ. "But having a longing," he says, "to come to you for many years, whenever I journey to Spain." To these words must be supplied "I will come to you"; for this has been said by way of silence. And the phrase "if first I am filled in part with you" means "if I am filled as far as is possible." "Having come to you," he says, "I will have and will provide much encouragement among you from the gospel according to Christ," who is worthy of countless praises and countless acclamations—our gospel according to Christ

Since it is the gospel; for it is equal to this, that is, to be comforted together among you through the mutual faith of you and me. Or the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ—he foretells his bonds and sufferings, with which he was sent on in this way. Indeed, he also says to the Thessalonians that our entry among you did not prove empty, but having suffered beforehand and been mistreated, as you know, in Philippi. { 15,30-32} He says: having respected the kinship in Christ, by which all the faithful were joined together into one spiritual body, so that they might also look upon their neighbors, for the sake of love, as other than themselves. Make earnest prayers on my behalf, that I may be delivered from those who are disobedient in Judea, and the rest. By these words he showed that he foresaw many dangers for himself in Jerusalem, and that not even so did he shrink from the work of God. { Again he exhorts them to hold fast accurately to the traditions of Peter, guarding against Jewish marvel-mongering, whom he said do not rightly serve Christ but their own belly, because they all but define piety by the observance of foods. Therefore, he says, it is not well for you, who have been spoken well of for your good disposition concerning the faith, either to deprive yourselves of that good repute by being deceived, or to dull our joy on account of your good standing. I want you to be wise for what is good, but guileless for what is evil—instead of: I wish you to know the things contrary to good things and to be wise for doing good, and to be simple and free from cunning and simply ignorant of evil.

Having made, he says, the reconciliations in Christ for us, he himself directs our life, putting every opposition out of the way. Glory, however, he says, be to God always for all things, who, being able, will confirm you concerning the gospel preached according to Christ Jesus, which until now was a secret to all, but has now been revealed and made manifest, the prophecies that had come to pass concerning him having received their fulfillment by divine command, in which also all the nations, having believed, were deemed worthy of the knowledge of the one and true God.