Commentary on Romans 9.16–9.33

“So it is not of the one who wills nor of the one who runs, but of God who shows mercy.” Rightly, because what is asked must lie not in the will of the one asking but in the decision of the one giving. For whether it should be given must be weighed by the judgment of the giver; for Saul, when he sinned and asked for pardon, did not receive it (1 Sam 15:24–26); but David, on the other hand, when he sinned and asked to be forgiven, obtained pardon (2 Sam 12:13). From this, certainly, the judgment of God in giving and not giving is to be followed; because he who wills all to be saved does not judge unjustly, justice remaining; for the one who sees the heart knows whether the one asking asks with such a mind as to deserve to receive. And though it is dangerous to examine the judgment of God, yet for the sake of the distrustful, so that their mind may obtain a cure and they may not think God’s judgment unjust, saying, “He calls one and neglects the other,” thinking that in this way those to be condemned can be excused, let us prove this by facts rather than by words; for where there are examples from history, no one dares complain or put forward any excuse. There were two, David and Saul; let us search the histories to see how each of them is found after God’s judgment; so that if Saul is proved to have behaved well after he did not receive mercy, we may think God’s judgment unjust, which we would not dare; or whether David, having received mercy, is found to have despised God, or remained in that in which he obtained mercy. And, to be brief, each suffered the distress of his kingdom. And how great was David’s distress, when his son wished to deprive him of the kingdom! In this distress, weeping, he made his way barefoot, so that the king and leader of God’s people fled, humbled so far that he did not answer even his servant who cursed him to his face; so that by patience he might make God, through whom he believed the kingdom was kept for him, propitious to himself (2 Sam 15:30; 16:5–12). But Saul was not found in such distress, for civil war is a greater evil than foreign war; and besides, because he was not heard once or twice, since he was unworthy, he did not persevere in prayer so as to make for himself a merit by which he would be worthy; but, impatient and indignant at God’s judgment, he sought help from idols, which he had earlier condemned as of no account. Behold, it is manifest even to the unwilling that the judgment of God’s foreknowledge is just.

“For Scripture says to Pharaoh: For this very reason I have kept you, to show my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth” (Exod 9:16). Other manuscripts have: “For this I raised you up, to show my power in you.” Whether “kept” or “raised up,” the sense is one; for he says this because Pharaoh (which was the name of kings among the Egyptians, as among the Romans kings are called Augusti), this Pharaoh, then, though guilty of such great evils that he was unworthy of life, persisted in his evils and would not amend himself, thinking either that he lived deservedly, or that God, whom he often thought he could deceive, was powerless to inflict punishment; he hears from God: “For this I have kept you, to show my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth”; so that by this the other nations might learn that there is no other God besides this one, who was the God of the Jews and has become the God of the Christians; though they too were Christians, and we now are Jews because of Judah, from whom Christ is according to the flesh; because the Jews of old, by hoping for the Christ to come as redeemer, were Christians. For Rahab the prostitute says to the scouts sent by Joshua son of Nun, who before was called Hoshea: “We have heard of the mighty works and plagues that were done in Egypt by your God, and we are greatly terrified; for they fear before your face” (Josh 2:9–10). Pharaoh, then, was kept for this, that many signs and plagues might be shown on him as one already dead. And he is said to have been raised up because, though he was dead before God, he received a short time to seem alive; so that there would be one in whose punishment and various kinds of torment up to death all who were without God, struck with fear, might confess with the greatest wonder that he alone is God by whom these punishments are done. In this way too the ancient physicians, in men worthy of death or who had received the sentence of death, sought how they might profit the living by opening up what lay hidden in a man; so as to learn from these the causes of sickness, and the punishment of the dying might profit the health of the living.

“So he has mercy on whom he wills, and hardens whom he wills. You will say to me, then.” He speaks in the person of one who contradicts, who thinks that God, neglecting justice, shows favour to someone, so as to accept one of two equals and reject the other, that is, to prick the heart of one so that he believes, and harden the other so that he does not believe. To him he answered from authority, yet keeping justice, by the foreknowledge mentioned above, saying:

“Why does he still find fault? For who resists his will?” First he says that he cannot be resisted, for he is most powerful beyond all. Then, that God is both the God and parent of all, and therefore wills ill to no one; for he wills the things he made to remain unharmed. Nor is it fitting for him to be unjust, whose benevolence appears so great that he not only made things exist which were not, but even gave these eternal life and glory, so that his work might have something like his majesty. One who is so provident and good, then, must not be doubted to be just.

“O man, who are you to answer back to God?” It is great unworthiness and presumption, he says, for man to answer back to God in adversity: the unjust to the just, the bad to the good, the unskilled to the perfect, the weak to the most strong, the corruptible to the incorruptible, the mortal to the immortal, the worthless servant to the master, the creature to the Creator. “Does the thing formed say to him who formed it: Why have you made me so?” (Isa 45:9). This is from the prophet Isaiah, which he sets down here as if his own, by which he shows that a work cannot complain against its maker; for it is in the maker’s power what kind of creature he wishes to make.

“Or does the potter not have power over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honour and another for dishonour?” It is plain that some vessels are made for honour, which are needed for honourable uses, and others for dishonour, which are kitchen implements; yet they are of one substance, but differ in honour by the will of the maker. So too God, since we are all from one and the same lump in substance, and all sinners, has mercy on one and despises another, not without justice. For in the potter there is will alone; but in God will with justice; for he knows on whom he ought to have mercy, as I mentioned above.

“But if God, wishing to show wrath and make known his power, endured with much patience the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction.” The sense is that by the will and long-suffering of God, which is patience, unbelievers are prepared for punishment; for, waited for a long time, they would not be converted. They were waited for, then, so that they might perish without excuse. For God knew that they would not believe.

“And to show the riches of his glory in the vessels of mercy, which he prepared for glory.” It is the very patience and long-suffering of God which, as it prepares the wicked for destruction, so also prepares the good for the crown; for those are good in whom there is the hope of faith. For he bears with all, knowing the end of each; and therefore it is patience that prepares for glory those who are corrected from evil or persevere in good. The riches of glory are the manifold dignity prepared for believers. But those who from good become evil and persist in the evil they began, it prepares for destruction. This is to make known his power in much patience: because he is reckoned as one who will not punish, since he overlooks for a long time; when he begins to punish, his power will appear; because, though he could punish at once, he bore with them long, so that the faithless cannot complain when they are condemned. And to prepare each one is to foreknow what will be.

“Us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the gentiles.” Those whom he called he prepared for glory, whether those who were near or those who were far, knowing that they would remain in the faith.

“As he says in Hosea: I will call not my people my people, and not beloved beloved. And it will be in the place where they were called not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God.” It is clear that this was foretold of the gentiles, who before were not the people of God, but afterwards, receiving mercy to the reproach of the Jews, were called the people of God; and those who before were not beloved, when the Jews were disowned, were adopted as sons and are beloved; so that in the place where they were not called the people of God, there they would be called sons of the living God. For before they were nowhere called sons of God except in Judaea, that is, at Jerusalem, where the house of God was, as he says in the seventy-fifth psalm: “God is known in Judaea” (Ps 76:1). But afterwards, in the prophecy of Zechariah: “I will set Jerusalem,” he says, “among all nations” (Zech 12:2); because there would be sons of God everywhere, and the house of God in all places, which is the Church. Hence the Lord says to the Jews: “The kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation producing its fruits” (Matt 21:43).

“But Isaiah cries out for Israel.” He says this because Isaiah cries out for those who believe in Christ (Isa 10:22). For these are truly Israelites, as the Lord says to Nathanael: “Behold, truly an Israelite, in whom there is no deceit” (John 1:47). “If the number of the sons of Israel is as the sand of the sea, a remnant will be saved.” When the Jews withdraw from the merit and promise of the fathers by not receiving it, these are the remnant who, by believing, persist in faith in the promise made to the fathers, having become faithful; for those withdraw from the law who do not believe in him whom the law promised as alone sufficient for salvation. Those, then, must be held apostates who, by not receiving Christ, are guilty of violating the law. Out of a very great multitude, then, he says that only believers are saved, those whom God foreknew.

“For completing and cutting short the word in equity; because the Lord will make a shortened word upon the earth.” He promises that those whom he calls the remnant will be saved through the word which the Lord, defining it justly, has shortened on the earth; for it is fitting that the creature should obtain salvation in the name of the Lord the Creator alone, that is, through faith; because, all new moons and sabbath, circumcision, the law of foods and the offerings of cattle being taken away, faith alone has been set down for salvation. This has been abbreviated from the law; for what is in faith is held in the law as the principal thing of the law, the Saviour saying: “For Moses wrote of me” (John 5:46). The law being abbreviated, then, the remnant of the Jews is saved; but the rest cannot be saved, because they are spurned by the definition of God, through which he decreed to save the human race.

“And as Isaiah foretold: Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and been made like Gomorrah” (Isa 1:9). This seed, which alone of all was left and kept for the reformation of the human race, is Christ and his teaching, as he himself says: “The seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:11). This, then, long ago promised to us, he left for redemption, the burdens of the law being taken away; so that, remission of sins being given, we might not be punished by the law, as Sodom perished. He says, then, that the Saviour was left to us as a support for life, which the law could not provide, whom God decreed from the beginning should be born; who, because he alone was found without sin, having conquered the enemy of the human race, might blot out the sin of all. This is found in the Apocalypse of John too: “For no one,” it says, “was found worthy, in heaven or on earth, to open the book and its seals” except the Saviour, who conquered death (Rev 5:3–5). This, then, is the seed which God kept, long ago promised, to bear fruit when the sins of all, Jews as well as gentiles, had become full. And its fruit is the forgiveness of sins; for had not Christ been kept (whom he calls a seed for this reason, that through him the human race was restored), the offspring of Abraham would have perished, because they were buried by sins and the law could not profit them. Therefore he teaches that he is to be followed, who has given the protection of life. (Verse 30.) “What, then, shall we say? That the gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained righteousness, but the righteousness which is from faith.” Since there is righteousness in the law, which was entrusted to the world, and which forbids sinning, he says that the gentiles attained not this righteousness, which is recognized with nature as teacher, but the righteousness which is from faith in Christ; for this is true and abiding righteousness with God, if it is acknowledged. For what is so righteous as to know God the Father, from whom are all things, and Christ his Son, through whom are all things (1 Cor 8:6)? This, then, is the first righteousness, to acknowledge the Creator; then, to keep what he commanded. The gentiles, then, who before did not seek righteousness, that is, the law which bore witness to the Creator, at the coming of Christ found a righteousness abounding more than that of the scribes and Pharisees. For those who then did not pursue what is less, afterwards attained what is greater; but the Jews, placed in the law, who ought to have made more progress, grew worse.

“But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, did not arrive at the law of righteousness.” The perfection of the law is faith; the gentiles, grasping it, are seen to fulfil the whole law. But the Jews, while out of envy they do not believe the Saviour, claiming the righteousness commanded in the law, that is, sabbath, circumcision and so on, did not arrive at the law, that is, did not fulfil the law; and those who do not fulfil the law are guilty according to the law. For he fulfils the law who has come from the law of Moses to faith in Christ.

“Why? Because not from faith, but as if from works.” For spurning faith, which, as I said, is the perfection of the law, they said they were justified by the works of the law, that is, by sabbath, new moons, circumcision and so on, unmindful of Scripture which says, “The righteous lives from faith” (Hab 2:4). It is called the righteousness of the law because these things were given to the Jews by the just judgment of God because of the hardness of their heart: so that if perhaps someone trod on a dead weasel, or touched any carcasses, or if a mouse fell into a vessel, it was called unclean (Lev 11:29–33); and observing this with great anxiety, they incurred it from whatever cause, so as to be unclean. And if the blood of a weasel stained the floor, it had to be expiated with no light care, and one had to abstain from better foods. But the sabbath and circumcision had their own righteousness in their time, because they were given as a figure. The Lord showed this through the prophet Ezekiel, saying among other things: “Therefore I gave them precepts that were not good” (Ezek 20:25), because they were irreverent and faithless. But at the coming of Christ, because he would give a saving gift, he proclaims through Jeremiah, saying: “I will give them a new covenant, not like the one I gave to their fathers” (Jer 31:31–32). This covenant he calls the law at which they did not arrive, as I mentioned above. For when the Jewish believers wished to impose this burden of observance on the gentiles who had believed, the apostle Peter then said: “Why do you place a harsh yoke on the neck of the brothers, which neither we nor our fathers could bear?” (Acts 15:10). For from the time of Christ the forgiveness promised in the law has been given; for the prophet Isaiah says: “There will come from Zion one who will deliver and turn away ungodliness from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins” (Isa 59:20–21), that is, the new covenant promised by God through Christ.

“They stumbled on the stone of stumbling, as it is written: Behold, I place in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” This is found in Isaiah (Isa 8:14; 28:16). It has been learned from the testimony of many that Christ is signified by the rock or stone. For the prophet Daniel speaks of this stone, which, cut from the mountain without hands, struck and crushed all kingdoms and filled the whole earth, which was plainly said of Christ (Dan 2:34–35). And in the law the rock from which waters flowed is called Christ: “And the rock,” he says, “was Christ” (1 Cor 10:4). And the apostle Peter says among other things to the Jews: “This is the stone which was rejected by you the builders” (Acts 4:11). The stumbling placed in Zion, then, is Christ. And Zion is a height, or the very city of Jerusalem, which because of the knowledge of God is not undeservedly called lofty; in which the Saviour, placed by God his Father as a preacher, became a stumbling to the Jews, while he proclaims himself the Son of God, born of the Holy Spirit from a woman. And through his body they took offence and said: “Are not his mother and brothers with us? How then does he say: I came down from heaven?” (John 6:42). For they would not compare his words with his deeds, so as to recognize that it was not absurd when he said he had come down from heaven; as if the body worked, and not God hidden, yet revealing himself by works in the body. This rock, then, is a scandal and a stumbling to the Jews; and the rock is without doubt understood as the Saviour’s body. It was cut out without hands because it was made from a virgin by the Holy Spirit without a man.