On Romans 1 part 2/2

for God did not, according to his own purpose, choose the one and reject the other—for, as far as it depended on him, he willed both to be good—but he made the election according to the purpose of each of these two, loving the one because of the excellence of his purpose, and hating the other because of the wickedness of his disposition; from which it is clear that the Apostle means "the election according to purpose," and not "the purpose according to election."

"What then shall we say? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid!" (Rom 9:14).

"I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion" (Rom 9:15; Exod 33:19).

"So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy" (Rom 9:16).

Since, before the birth of Esau and Jacob, God appears to have welcomed the one and hated the other, and this seemed to be unrighteousness to those who do not reckon the righteous judgment of God according to foreknowledge, he teaches us not to follow the example superficially, since many other such things are said about God in the Scriptures that bear a deeper meaning.

For behold, God says to Moses:

"I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion" (Exod 33:19).

"So then, according to you, it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy" (cf. Rom 9:16).

"And he who strives earnestly is superfluous."

For God is not unjust, so as not to give to each according to his worth.

He says, then, he says: not on all, but on the worthy [does he have mercy].

And again the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "For this very purpose I raised you up, that I might display in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth" (Rom 9:17; Exod 9:16).

So then, [it would seem] Pharaoh is not responsible, but the one who raised him up for the display of his own power.

But neither is this the case;

for he would not have raised him up—even though through him he was chastening the others—had he not foreseen him to be sick with an incurable disease.

But if nothing depends on us, as you suppose, O man, he says, but all things rest in God—both Pharaoh's being hardened and another's receiving mercy—you would consistently say:

"Why does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will?" (Rom 9:19); for if he himself works all things through us, we have nothing in our own power of the things we do.

"On the contrary, O man, who are you who answer back to God? Shall the thing formed say to him who formed it," (Rom 9:20)

Why did you make me thus?" (Rom 9:20) and what follows.

Correcting all that preceded, he indeed rebukes [his hearers] as those who too boldly pry into the will of God, but he also shows the lowliness of human nature, taking up a fitting image—the potter's clay.

For why, he says, do you pry into the Creator? The potter knows how to use the clay, and which vessels he is to make for dishonor and which for honor.

And the clay, being clay, ought not to judge the craftsmanship of the maker;

for even if you seem to have rational perception, O man, yet know that you fall as far short of God's economy and craftsmanship as insensible clay falls short of the potter's will.

Do not, therefore, presume to accuse God, nor suppose that he has mercy on one and hardens another at random, but [know] that according to the power of his foreknowledge he renders to each according to his worth.

So then it is not the one who foreknows who is responsible, but those who are foreknown, in whom it lies to be wicked or not.

That this lies in us, he teaches elsewhere;

for, treating of gold and silver and earthenware vessels, he says:

"If anyone, then, cleanses himself, he will be a vessel unto honor, sanctified" (2 Tim 2:21).

So then we provide the cause, but God renders according to worth.

Therefore let no one suppose, because God, ordering things according to foreknowledge, either raised up Pharaoh or hated Esau and loved Jacob, that on this account nothing depends on us, but that we have been stripped of free will.

Some supposed that the words "On the contrary, O man, who are you who answer back to God?" were not spoken by way of rebuke; for it is absurd, they say, after raising such great questions and throwing the hearer's mind into confusion, and resolving none of them, merely to rebuke those who inquire and simply to leap away from the matters under inquiry—together with the image of the potter, which seems to do away with our free will, if indeed the one who forms shapes the vessels as he pleases, and they remain just as they were made from the beginning.

And they say these things unworthily of the apostolic grace and teaching.

The saying was not spoken by way of rebuke, but the meaning is thus:

If, he says, from the facts that he raised up Pharaoh and hated Esau and loved Jacob even before their birth, you assign everything to the will of God, and [say] that nothing depends on us, then say further:

Who are you, O man, and how do you answer back to God? And how do you have authority to speak and to blame him as one who reproaches us unjustly, saying:

"Why does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will?" How, then, do you yourself blame God, if nothing lies within our authority, as you say? For if nothing depends on us, then not even the very blaming and answering back to God lies within your authority.

Do the potter's molded vessels, he says, since they have no perception, blame their maker, whether they turn out dishonorable or honorable according to the maker's authority? But you do blame; therefore you have perception and authority, having free will.

And he who has authority to blame is clearly also master of himself in other matters, both to say and to do what he wills.

For it is not the case that one is master of himself in blaming God, but has been deprived of his mastery in other matters.

This oracle came into effect through the blessed apostles, who, having written up the lengthy circuit of the old legislation, set the Gentiles upon a concise path of conduct, writing: "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: to abstain from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from fornication, and from what is strangled" (Acts 15:28-29).

For having narrowed down the observance from many things to these, they made the conduct of righteousness easy—which the divine Apostle also teaches, saying:

"having abolished the law of commandments in ordinances" (Eph 2:15), and again, "having blotted out the handwriting against us in the ordinances" (Col 2:14).

Since, then, the law made many distinctions concerning foods, the apostles commanded only to keep oneself from things offered to idols and from blood and from what is strangled, and, in place of keeping circumcision, they introduced instead the keeping oneself from fornication;

for circumcision, even though it was a sign and reminder of Abraham's faith, was also given as a symbol of self-control, indicating that one ought to cut away licentiousness.

Since in what was said earlier he shows that the nation of the Jews is, for the greater part, rejected, while the Gentiles are introduced in their place into the dignity of adoption, he consistently inquires into the reason why those trained in the law have fallen away, while those who had no claim to the law were justified.

Resolving it, then, he adds that the Jews fell away from not running to faith as the Gentiles did;

for they willed to be justified by works of the law, not even believing the law itself, which had proclaimed the faith that was to be introduced in place of the legislation.

They did not recognize, he says, that through the law God promised the faith, and that faith is not contrary to the law, being attested by it.

The righteousness of God, then, is Christ and faith in him; but the righteousness of the Jews is the conduct prescribed by the legislation.

The Jews, then, being ignorant of Christ and establishing the conduct of the law, rightly fell away from salvation;

for those are saved who make progress in faith in Christ.

The one who has fulfilled the law, he says, will enjoy only those good things promised through the law, that is, "a land flowing with milk and honey."

The discourse teaches believers to entertain no doubt, neither concerning the Lord's descent to us from the heavens, nor concerning the resurrection of the dead and the ascent into heaven.

Necessarily he placed first "those who call upon him" (cf. Rom 10:12-13);

for God does not give grace indiscriminately, even to those who are unwilling to render to their Benefactor so much as at least to ask and to entreat.

And lest anyone say that it is not through unbelief and thanklessness, but through ignorance, that many do not call upon the Lord Jesus, he shows through what follows that God removed even the pretext of their ignorance, by sending evangelists and heralds to urge and call them to ask for the gift.

He seems, through the spreading out of his hands, to call the people to himself, together with stretching out his hands toward them, and by this same gesture also to indicate the figure of the cross (cf. Rom 10:21; Isa 65:2).

Again the Apostle, fearing lest the excessive rejection of the Jews should seem to produce a sect of disobedience, proceeds to the small remnant of the election of the apostles and of those who believed together with them.

"For not all who are of Israel, these are Israel" (Rom 9:6)—he indicated that there were some who were being saved, even if not all; and again:

"whom also he called, not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles" (Rom 9:24).

As testimony to the remnant, he takes up the matters concerning Elijah, from which he shows him confessing that God preserved his people, not in a great multitude, but in seven thousand men; in likeness to which it also turned out in the case of the Savior, the remnant alone having received the grace of the promise (cf. Rom 11:2-5; 1 Kgs 19:18).

And it has already been said that faith brought the law to an end, and that grace prevailed over works (cf. Rom 11:6).

"But if by grace, then no longer of works" (Rom 11:6);

for grace indicates the lovingkindness of the one who bestows, but works demand recompense according to the worth of the works.

"What then?" he says. "That which Israel seeks, this it did not obtain, but the election obtained it" (Rom 11:7);

"all," he says, "who are of Israel were hardened, except the election";

wherefore they did not obtain what they were seeking.

And what were they seeking? The promise of becoming sons and heirs of the world.

It is customary for Scripture to attribute the things that befall men by God's permission to the one who permitted them.

And God permits each one's impulse to proceed to whatever it wills, lest, by forcibly drawing it, he should seem to take away the authority of freedom.

And what he says is of this sort:

For He gave them a spirit of stupor with respect to godliness, yet they neither see for themselves nor listen to others.

How then could they be saved, as he says also elsewhere:

"For I testify concerning them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge."

Those who in the time of the Flood sinned incurably, and those around Sodom who transgressed in like manner, fell in such a way as to fall once for all and rise up no more, but to be utterly destroyed.

What then? Have the Jews also stumbled in this way, so as to fall to their ruin and be saved no more? "By no means," he says.

For their trespass has a twofold dispensation:

for the Gentiles were brought in instead, and the Jews themselves, provoked to jealousy on this very account, will turn back.

For since they had turned aside before the Law, and after receiving the Law were burdened rather than benefited, and neither yielded to threats nor were persuaded by exhortations, but always remained disobedient, the Savior turned to another dispensation, and the Gentiles are saved through their trespass, so that the Jews might at least be saved through being provoked to jealousy by the Gentiles.

Since the Jews did not keep the Law, the coming of Christ was necessary for the sake of grace;

but not all the Jews received Christ nor the grace that comes from Him, but only the remnant; while the rest, as though contending never to be saved, thrust the grace out to the Gentiles.

And through their trespass they bestowed riches upon the world, that is, a multitude of those being saved.

But if God enriched the world through the Gentiles who turned, how would it not be a yet greater good and the most perfect riches for the world, if, when the Jews repent, their lacking should be supplied to fullness, so that both Gentiles and Jews might run together into one perfect godliness?

For the apostle is accustomed to call "fullness" the body of people filled with godliness and the knowledge of God.

The firstfruits and root are the patriarchs, the lawgiver, and the prophets;

while the lump and the branches are the whole nation of the Jews.

What does "and so all Israel will be saved" mean? Just as we say that all the world and all the nations are being saved—because those who come to the faith come from everywhere and from all the nations—so too "all Israel will be saved" does not signify the entire people universally, but rather either those who will be found alive at the time of Elijah, or, of those scattered everywhere throughout the whole world, those who are destined to come to the faith.

What is being said is something like this:

if the former unbelief of these did in no way hinder the faith of the Gentiles, then neither, for the Jews who are now disobedient, is the authority of repentance with respect to the future shut off.

And the phrase "that they also may obtain mercy" does not mean this—that they sinned on purpose for this reason, in order to obtain mercy as you also did—but rather that, even having sinned, they are worthy to obtain mercy, just as you are.

Just as in the case of "God gave them up to passions of dishonor" and "God blinded the minds of the unbelievers," we do not take the saying as though God were doing evil, but as His permitting men to do what they will, on account of the freedom of self-determination;

so now too "God shut up all to disobedience" must be understood in this way: that He allowed those who willed to disobey to disobey, granting throughout to man the power to have it in himself to do what he wishes.

"God therefore shut up all to disobedience," that is, He permitted them to disobey—not in order to condemn those who persist in their sins, but in order that, in time, when they perceive the things in which they sin and repent and turn back, He might have mercy.

Or else "He shut up to disobedience" stands for "He convicted them of disobeying," and, as it were, He shut off from them every excuse, so that they might perceive that henceforth it is not by works, but by the loving-kindness and mercy of God that they are saved.

(a) So that no one might think that the word of his exhortation is merely human, he showed that it is by grace that he both speaks and teaches.

Since, then, arrogance is a most grievous disease, to which the Romans were especially prone, he leads them to act with moderation toward the most excellent habit of humility, drawing them on in accordance with the teaching of the Spirit.

He who knew the haughtiness of human nature washed the feet of His disciples, training them to be humble-minded, so that, having shared in grace and worked signs, they might not be puffed up by the grace and fall from the gift.

(b) "To each one," he says, "as God has apportioned a measure of faith"—that is, as He measured out grace to each according to his faith.

"Whether prophecy," he says, "according to the proportion of faith."

For there is wanting to the phrase "whether prophecy, according to the proportion of faith" the words "in prophecy let us display the grace," so that the sense may be like this:

having different gifts, whether prophecy, or service, or teaching—

those who have prophecy display the grace in prophecy;

those who have service, in service;

those who have teaching, in teaching;

and each one in the ministry entrusted to him.

And it is also called prophecy when one interprets the words of the prophet.

Service is the rendering of help toward the proclamation of the gospel.

Teaching is the instruction in things to be done, which those who have already believed in Christ are taught.

Exhortation is the encouragement by which we call those still in ignorance to the faith of Christ, not yet setting before them the goal of the Christian life, but instilling in them a desire by telling them that, if they believe in Christ, they will enjoy eternal good things.

"Sharing," he says, "in the commemorations of the saints."

The most obvious sense of the thought is to gather together in honor of the saints and to perform their commemorations on the day of their perfecting.

But it is also possible to say that it is especially fitting for those who aspire to virtue to share in the remembrances of the saints—that is, to remember them and to have their manner of life as a pattern for one's own conduct.

By saying "if possible," he hinted at what is impossible;

for even if we should escape all other enmities, yet the ordinance of godliness draws upon us the hatred of the ungodly, or our hatred toward the ungodly.

He calls "wrath" the punishment that comes from God—not as though it befell God by way of passion, but because men would not easily conceive of a vengeance proceeding from God unless they heard the customary term "wrath";

for since men, with anger and wrath, correct those who sin against them, Scripture ascribes these things to God, in a way that the multitude can hear and understand.

He says, then: do not take vengeance for yourselves, but give place and yield the vengeance to the wrath of God, which is appointed to avenge those who have been wronged.

With aim toward the anger of the one who has been wronged, the apostle says:

"for in doing this you will heap coals of fire upon his head."

For he does not put these things forward as a teacher of evil—by no means—but with skill and wisdom he calms and tames the vehemence of the one who is enraged.

For though it is a great thing not to wrong others, it is a greater thing, when wronged, not to take revenge, but to quench the seething anger by the manner of forbearance, and—though the law permits one to avenge oneself on wrongdoers—to be seen as more reasonable than the law allows;

but to do good to those who have wronged you—this even surpasses the law of philosophy.

Therefore, in order to force out the anger of the one who has been wronged and to dispose him, instead of taking revenge, to do good, he gives him to hope for the dire consequences that come upon the wrongdoers as a result of his kindness.

Since there are among men many authorities of various and subordinate rulers, by adding "to the supreme ones" he pointed to the imperial authorities;

for that kings come to rule not without the dispensation and will of God, the Proverbs teach:

"By me," it says, "kings reign, and rulers decree justice."

And indeed the rule of the Romans has obtained from God a dispensation that is altogether special;

for when the Savior was about to appear to men, God, anticipating this a little beforehand, recruited the Roman power into His own service, through which He rendered the life of men more gentle and more peaceful.

delivering them from their wars against one another, and granting them such leisure for the knowledge of Himself;

for it says: "Come and see the works of God, who has set wonders upon the earth, abolishing wars unto the ends of the earth."

"Be still, and know that I am God."

Now since God had abolished the continual wars and granted intercourse between cities and nations for the sake of the proclamation of the godly way of life, the apostle, perceiving the dispensation of God concerning the kingdoms, exhorts submission to the authorities;

for since God has ordained them, not to obey is impious, and moreover such madness brings danger even in the present life.

They bring upon themselves judgment and the tribunal of the king.

"One must obey the rulers," he says, "not only because of the wrath of the rulers, but also because of conscience"—that is, the reasonableness of the matter.

You, for God's sake, do not wish to go to law; but those outside suspect that you are conscious of some evil in yourself and that your conscience has been stricken.

"The taxes," he says, "prove your subjection;"

it is therefore right to be subject to the kings, since they are servants of God and persevere in the ministry of His will.

"Fulfill," he says, "the work of love, knowing that the time presses hard and demands virtue;"

for those who formerly were ignorant of the truth and lived in the darkness and night of error were, fittingly, like sleepers, idle as to good works; but those who now, illumined by the remembrance of the Savior and brought into the day, ought to rouse themselves from the inactivity of sleep and to lay hold of good works.

"For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed"—that is, now that we have come to know the more profitable of works, it has become easier for us to be saved than when we were being instructed in the word of faith;

for upon believing in Christ we did not at once have an exact grasp of what is to be done, nor was it clear to us from which actions we ought to abstain and which we ought to pursue.

By "night" and "darkness" he calls ignorance, which he says is being driven toward its end now that the things to be done have been made known to us; and by "day" and "light" the knowledge of the godly truth.

"While it is day, work the works of the light; night comes, when no one can work." By "day" he designated our sojourn in this present life, as affording us the time for works, and by "night" the things to come and the things eternal, in which it is no longer possible to do anything, but, as though darkness reigned, one lies in inactivity, having lost the time for works.

"Put on," he says, "the Lord Jesus Christ"—that is, imitate Him in what you do, and show Him forth through yourselves in the manner in which you conduct your life.

And how one might imitate Christ, he showed by adding:

"and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts;"

for he who is occupied with the flesh and fulfills the pleasures of the flesh wholly neglects the soul.

"Who are you that judges another man's servant?" and what follows.

The servant of Christ, whom Christ has received, is a stranger to the Law.

Who, then, are you that judges by the Law one who is a stranger to the Law? Now he treats of fasting.

And he says that he who fasts and spends the day in setting his mind on and seeking after divine things minds the Lord—that is, he does this as one having his hopes set on Him.

Likewise also he who spends the day not in setting his mind on divine things but in the enjoyment of food—this man too does not mind the Lord; yet, as it were, even his ease and his relaxation are unto God, and not even this man is rejected;

for he does not do this in rebellion or in denial of the Master, but trusting in the loving-kindness of God in whatever things he is at ease and seems to indulge himself.

So then, let him who eats give thanks to the Lord for the things he enjoys, and let him who does not eat rightly glorify the God who has strengthened him, for the self-control that he has.

If therefore one eats according to God, and if one fasts according to God, he will do well.

"For to this end," he says, "Christ both died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living."

What then? Was Christ not Lord of all before the Passion? But indeed He was.

What then is the additional gain from the Incarnation? That in truth and by nature He who made was Master of the things made, but through the apostasy of the impious—

—those who served the creature rather than the Creator did not reckon Him to be Master, but rather the things worshipped by them;

He restored the lordship of God; and His obedience, which went even to death, showed forth the dispensation toward those who had departed beforehand in ignorance from salvation, and loosed beforehand the bonds of death, and became the firstfruits of the resurrection.

"I know and am persuaded," he says, "that nothing is common of itself"—that is, nothing is common and unclean when received through faith in Christ Jesus.

"It is good," he says, "not to eat meat, if your brother is made to stumble on this account, thinking you to be a slave of the belly."

And again, on the contrary:

if, by not eating meat, you should seem to abstain from it as from unclean things, then eat, lest you be found a stumbling block to others.

"He who does not judge himself"—this is the one who partakes of foods with faith, whom he also pronounces blessed as faithful; but he who has a soul wavering concerning the faith, and not confident in himself but doubting—this man, if he eats, is condemned;

so that for such a one it is better to abstain, lest he wound his own conscience.

He wishes to say that our Lord and Savior became man not to please Himself, but in order to have compassion on weak men, and through the dispensation in the flesh to establish them firmly in a sure knowledge of the worship of God, and to correct their unbelief;

for such especially were the Jews, who, as it were to the reproach of God, kept deserting to other gods, and, as though reproaching God as one unwilling or unable to help, ran to gods, trusting rather in help from others.

Indeed they compelled Aaron to make for them gods who should go before them, as it were to the slander and reproach of God.

Wherefore indeed the psalm was spoken, as from the person of Christ to the Father, saying:

"The reproaches of those who reproached you have fallen upon me."

Indeed, from the coming of Christ onward, the Jews no longer practiced idolatry, and the Gentiles turned to godliness.

The Lord became a minister of the promise and of the loving-kindness of God.

For He fulfilled the promise of God by coming from the seed of Abraham and, in accordance with His descent, accepting circumcision;

and He displayed mercy and loving-kindness through the calling of the Gentiles;

for they were called not on account of their own righteousness, but on account of the loving-kindness of Him who called them.

"Being thus ambitious," he says, "to preach the gospel not where Christ had been named, lest I should build upon another's foundation"—not as deprecating fellowship with the rest of the apostles, but as judging it greedy and unjust to snatch away the glory of others' labors.

"I want you," he says, "to be wise as to what is good, but innocent as to what is evil;"

that is, to use prudence so as not to be wronged by others, and innocence so as not to plot against others.

And these things the Lord also commanded, saying:

"Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves."

For innocence and simplicity without prudence is folly, while prudence by itself, when innocence is not present with it, degenerates into knavery.

In ancient times, when error held sway over life and idolatry prevailed, men did not even have the knowledge of God the Almighty;

so far were they from knowing our Lord Jesus Christ.

But when Moses the lawgiver and the prophets were appointed to teach the truth—openly to the Jews, but by dispensation to the Gentiles as well (for it was on this account, by God's providence, that they often became captives and dwelt among the nations, so that by their company they might instruct them)—when, therefore, prophets were appointed to proclaim God the Almighty, the matter concerning the Only-Begotten was still in secret, being handed down by them rather mysteriously and recognized by almost them alone.

At that time too our Savior Jesus Christ, having sojourned in the world in the flesh, sent His own disciples as heralds of the knowledge of Him,

which had been hidden in former times but was to be proclaimed in the last seasons; and they, going everywhere, proclaimed Christ to be God begotten of God, without beginning and outside of time, while at the same time bearing witness also to the Holy and illuminating Spirit, that He completes the consubstantial Trinity, being supplied from the Father through the Son to men.

Therefore, awestruck at the wisdom of His dispensation, he sends up to God the glory that is due.