Commentary on Romans 2.6–2.10

"But to those who are of contention, and who disbelieve the truth but obey iniquity, wrath and indignation, tribulation and distress." One who takes these words simply thinks it enough for understanding that, in line with what was said above, God renders to each according to his works: that is, just as he renders eternal life to those who by patience in good work seek glory and incorruption, so he renders wrath and indignation, tribulation and distress, to those who are of contention and disbelieve the truth but obey iniquity. But one who does not believe that a single iota or a single stroke in the apostolic letters, through which Christ speaks, is idle will maintain that it was not by mistake that the Apostle happened to use such an expression, saying: "He will render to those who by patience in good work seek glory and honor, eternal life." But of those who are of contention and obey iniquity he did not say "wrath and indignation" (in the accusative), so that this too would be referred to "he will render," which he had said above; but he said: "wrath and indignation, tribulation and distress." Hence one who is spiritual and understands what the Spirit says in Paul says that the Apostle wrote this not through lack of skill but through divine skill: namely, to show by it that what is to be rendered to those who by patience in good work seek glory and incorruption, that is, eternal life, is rendered by God; but what befalls those who through contention disbelieve the truth but obey iniquity is not given by God, whose gifts are certainly lasting and worthy of himself, but comes to them as the consequence of their own deeds … [he would have] put it in the accusative, if he had wished to refer it to the person of God as the one who renders.

The same is understood to be indicated similarly in other passages of Scripture, as in the first book of Kingdoms, where the Lord says: "Those who glorify me I will glorify; those who despise me will be despised." In this it is plainly shown that the Lord says that those who are to be glorified are to be glorified by himself; but of those who are to be despised he did not refer it to himself but said absolutely that they will be despised. For if God repaid evil things by himself as he bestows good things by himself, it would follow that, just as he said, "Those who glorify me I will glorify," so he would say, "And those who despise me I will despise." And in another place too something similar seems to be shown through the prophet, in that those who go into the fire find it kindled not by God but by themselves, as Isaiah says: "Walk in the light of your fire and the flame that you have kindled."

And to make the discussion of these things still plainer, let this be added. If someone, against the doctor's instruction, takes the juices of bad foods and, having upset the balance of his body, falls into fevers or any other diseases of this kind, it is certain that he received the plague of sickness not through the doctor but through his own intemperance; but if, keeping the doctor's instructions, he remains in health, he will certainly be said to have the gift of health through the doctor. In this way, then, God himself will consistently be seen to render by himself to each according to his works the things that are good; but the evils will be understood to come not from God but from the worst juices of intemperance and from the raw depravity of deeds.

But let us not leave undiscussed this very thing that he said: "Those who are of contention, who disbelieve the truth but obey iniquity." For in each of these the Apostle designates certain sicknesses of the soul, for which no one will find a cure unless he first recognizes the causes of the diseases. And that is why in the divine Scriptures the illnesses of the soul are enumerated and the remedies described, so that those who have submitted themselves to the apostolic teachings, having recognized their sicknesses from what is written, may be cured and say: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, who heals all your diseases." One sickness of the soul among the rest, then, and indeed the worst, must be understood to be contention, through which every perverse work is done. Through it heresies are born, through it schisms and all scandals are produced in the churches, while those who are prudent in their own eyes and wise in their own sight defend as law whatever has pleased them; and so it comes about that the truth is disbelieved and iniquity obeyed.

Now "to disbelieve" (diffidere) is usually found in the holy Scriptures in the sense of "not to believe" or "not to obey," as in this passage too; which the Latin translator might perhaps have rendered more aptly if he had said: "who do not obey the truth but obey iniquity." Everyone, then, who enters on a road alien to the truth and does not follow him who said, "I am the truth," disbelieves the truth and is disobedient to it. So are those who err not only in acts but also in thoughts and in faith, which happens above all from contention. And those too who resist wisdom and justice and sanctification disbelieve Christ, who, as he is truth, so is also wisdom, and so is also sanctification. And not to obey Christ, who is justice, is to obey iniquity and vices, which are without doubt followed by what is written: wrath and indignation, tribulation and distress.

About wrath we have often said already that sometimes the very torment that is struck into the soul from the consciousness of sin is called wrath; and indignation signifies a certain swelling of that wrath and the agitation in each particular: as if, for example, we were to take some very bad wound as wrath, and its swelling and distension were called the indignation of the wound. But the tribulation that distress follows is not to be thought like that tribulation of which the Apostle says that tribulation produces patience. For that kind of tribulation has no distress following it, as the Apostle himself says: "We suffer tribulation, but we are not distressed." Indeed, that tribulation of the saints has not only no distress but breadth. Thus the righteous man says: "In tribulation you have enlarged me." Conscious of this breadth, the Apostle too writes to the Corinthians: "You are not restricted in me, but you are restricted in your own hearts." And he added: "Be enlarged, you also." That is why God says of his saints, whom he knows to be enlarged and to have spaces spread far and wide within the dwelling of their heart: "I will dwell in them and walk among them." This gift, among the other gifts of wisdom, Solomon also received from him, as it is written: "And the Lord gave Solomon very much prudence" … [those whose hearts are] narrow places, because they have given place to the devil to enter: the devil enters indeed, but not to dwell or to walk about, for they are narrow; but to lurk as in a cave, for he is a serpent. So the unhappy soul that this worst of snakes has besieged is stiffened by the serpent's cold, is drawn together and constricted, and is forced into every narrowness; but the soul that obeys the truth … is enlarged and spread out, is illuminated by the rays of the sun of justice, and becomes a hall of wisdom and truth.

Why, though, wrath and indignation "to the Jew first and also to the Greek"? Because glory and honor are also theirs first. For the oracles of God were entrusted to them first, and they themselves say: "Blessed are we, O Israel, because what pleases God is known to us." And therefore, according to the sentence of the Gospel, the servant who knew his master's will and did not do it will rightly be beaten with many blows, that is, the Jew; but the one who did not know, the Greek, that is, the Gentile, will be beaten with few. For there is a difference between having known God and having known God's will, because God could be known from the creation of the world through the things that were made, even by the Gentiles, as could his eternal power and divinity; but his will is known only from the Law and the prophets.

But since the Apostle puts the Jews first both for punishment and for reward, and puts the Greeks after, we must ask whom he wishes to be understood here by Greeks and whom by Jews. If he calls Jews those who are still under the Law and do not come to Christ, and calls Greeks the Christians, that is, those who believe from the Gentiles, he seems to go against the meaning of the whole mystery. For how will those be called first of whom it was said, "Behold, the first will be last," and to whom he says again, "Behold, your house will be left to you desolate"? And again, when the Savior had come to the fig tree on which he found no fruit, he said: "May fruit never be born from you." … And [if he calls Jews] those whom he himself calls Jews in secret, it remains that he calls Greeks those Gentiles who have not yet believed. But how does the Apostle set such hope for Gentiles who do not yet believe, when the rule of the Church seems to oppose it, which lays down that unless someone has been reborn of water and the Holy Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven; and again Peter in the Acts of the Apostles declares of Christ, saying: "For there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved"? How then does he here make the Gentiles sharers of glory and honor and peace, in second place after the Jews?

But let us see whether that goodness and sweetness of God which is usually hidden in the holy Scriptures may not be working something hidden here too. The Apostle seems to me to have made three orders in this passage. First he speaks of those who by patience in good work seek glory and honor and incorruption, saying that God renders to them eternal life. And it is certain that patience in good work is in those who endure the contests and struggles of godliness; which we have explained above is clearly said of Christians, among whom martyrs are made. This is proved also by what the Lord says to the apostles: "You will have tribulation in this world, and the world will rejoice, but you will mourn"; and he added shortly after: "In your patience you will gain your souls." It belongs to Christians, then, to suffer affliction in this age and to mourn, and theirs is eternal life. And do you want to know that eternal life belongs to no one except one who believes in Christ? Hear the voice of the Savior himself, clearly indicating it in the Gospels: "This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Everyone, then, who has not acknowledged the Father as the only true God and his Son Jesus Christ is a stranger to the eternity of life; for this very knowledge and faith is designated as eternal life. This is the first place, then, that of the Christians, to whom, seeking glory and honor and incorruption by patience in good work, eternal life will be rendered: that life, without doubt, which says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." In Christ, who is eternal life, is the fullness of all good things.

In the second place are set those who are of contention and who disbelieve the truth but obey iniquity, over whom wrath and indignation, tribulation and distress hang; that is, upon every soul that does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek. And to these same people a reward of good things is also promised in the third place, with the same distinction, when he says: "But glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." As far as I can grasp, he says this of Jews and Gentiles, both not yet believing. For it can happen that someone from among those who are under the Law, if, by common persuasion, he does not believe in Christ, yet does what is good, holds to justice, loves mercy, keeps chastity and continence, guards modesty and gentleness, and does every good work: this man, even if he does not have eternal life, because, believing in the only true God, he has not believed also in his Son Jesus Christ whom he sent, yet the glory of his works, and peace, and honor will be able not to perish. And the Greek too, that is, the Gentile, if, though he does not have the law, he is a law to himself, showing the work of the law in his heart, and, moved by natural reason, as we see some among the Gentiles do, either holds to justice or keeps chastity or guards prudence, temperance, and modesty: although he seems a stranger to eternal life, because he does not believe in Christ, and cannot enter the kingdom of heaven, because he has not been reborn of water and the Spirit, yet it seems, by what is said by the Apostle, that he cannot altogether lose the glory and honor of good works. For if, according to what we discussed above, the Apostle seems to condemn the Gentiles because, though they knew God by natural understanding, they did not glorify him as God, why should we not think that he can and should also praise those among them who, knowing God, glorify him as God? I do not think, then, that it can be doubted that one who would have deserved to be condemned for an evil work would, if he had done a good work, be held worthy of the reward of a good work. For you see the Apostle saying that we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive what belongs to the body, according to what he has done, whether good or evil. That is why in this passage he adds: "For there is no respect of persons with God."

If this still seems doubtful to you, hear also what Peter declares in the Acts of the Apostles when he had gone in to the Gentile Cornelius: "I have found," he says, "that God is not a respecter of persons, but in every place and in every nation whoever does his will is acceptable to him." But there may be objected to us what the Lord says in the Gospel: "Everyone who believes in me will not be judged; but whoever does not believe has been judged already, because he does not believe in the name of the only-begotten Son of God." But let us see how we who believe in Christ are not judged, so that we may know how he too who does not believe has been judged already. Is it that someone who believes in Christ and after that commits homicide or adultery, or bears false witness, or does anything of this kind, which we see that even the faithful sometimes commit, will no longer be judged for these things because he has believed in Christ? It is certain that all these things come to judgment. And therefore the Lord's word, "Whoever believes in me will not be judged," must be understood thus: that in respect of his having believed he will not be judged as an unbeliever and faithless; but for his acts he will without doubt be judged. So too he who does not believe has been judged already in respect of his not having believed; and just as judgment awaits the believer, his faith being safe, if he has committed some sin outside of it, so too for the unbeliever, if he has done some good work, apart from his unbelief, the reward will not perish.

Unless perhaps someone wishes to object something heavy and intolerable, saying that one who sins is not to be counted among believers, because if someone believes he does not sin, and if he sins he is proved by that very fact not to believe. But I think no one doubts how harsh this opinion is. For how few will be found on earth who so balance their life that they offend in nothing at all? John the Apostle too, in his epistle, clearly censures an opinion of this kind when he says: "If anyone says that he has no sin, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him." But if we confess … by these things may the explanation become clearer of how the Apostle sets first the Jews and then the Greeks. Nevertheless let it be left to the judgment of the reader to test what has been said. We, however, have brought more into the treatise so as not to seem to leave anything of the Apostle's meaning undiscussed.

"For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned in the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified." Since the Apostle says that those who have sinned without the law will perish without the law, it is asked whether this is to be understood of the law of Moses alone, or also of the law of Christ, or even of any human law under which each mortal happens to live, so that one who sins in it can be judged according to it; or whether one who is outside the law of Moses alone, even if he lives under some other law, perishes when he sins as one placed outside the law. For the apostle Paul himself, when he says that to those who are without law he is as one without law, also adds: "though I was not without law, but was in the law of Christ," and so shows that he is not in the law of Moses, yet is under law. But see whether human laws too, as we said, ought to be counted for this very purpose.

As for the natural law, which is present in all men in common, it must be considered whether it makes nearly everyone sin in the law, as he says later: "For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves; they show the work of the law written in their hearts." Unless perhaps we should say that those are placed outside the law who obey neither written laws nor their conscience and their own thoughts, which rebuke and accuse them.

But how does he say: "All who have sinned in the law will be judged by the law"? Certainly one who is in the law of Christ will be judged by the law of Christ, and one who is in the law of Moses by the law of Moses. Nor is one who is under the law of Christ, even though he may seem also subject to the law of Moses, to be thought to be judged according to it for not being circumcised or for not keeping the Sabbath. And even if he is to be thought to be judged according to the law of Moses, he will be judged according to the fact that the law is spiritual. For this is what it means that not the hearer of the law but the doer is justified.

But since one who has sinned without the law seems to be struck with a heavier sentence, because he is declared about to perish, when surely one who did not have the help of the law seems also worthy of some pity, let us see whether something of the divine goodness may not lie hidden here again, as we have shown in other places, which he always hides for those who fear him. For perhaps it is for this reason that the Lord himself shows in the Gospel that he has a more inclined care for those who perish, when he says that "the Son of man came to seek and to save what had perished." And again he says: "I was not sent except to the sheep that have perished of the house of Israel." And David says: "I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant." And in the Gospel the drachma that had perished is found by the woman when the house has been swept; and the father rejoices over the younger son who repents, who had been dead and come to life again, had perished and been found, more than over the one who had not perished nor been found. This younger son, as I think, had already fled even from the natural law itself; for this seems to be indicated in that he squandered the part of his father's substance that fell to him by living licentiously. And in the prophet Ezekiel the shepherds are charged with not having bound up the weak and not having sought what had perished; and shortly after the Lord himself says: "And what has perished I will seek."

Yet it must be observed that in all these places God is nowhere said to have destroyed anyone, but each one suffers by his own doing the fact that he perishes, as in this very passage he says, "Without the law they will also perish"; and "The Son of man came to seek what had perished," not what he had destroyed; and "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," not those he had destroyed. And when the Lord himself says, "All whom you gave me I have kept, and none of them has perished," he did not say, "I have destroyed none of them." Indeed, wherever God is said to destroy, you will find it said rather in the sense of "reject," as when he says: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the understanding of the prudent I will reject."

As for his saying that "all who have sinned in the law will be judged by the law," consider whether perhaps the future judgment will be in the manner of those punishments written in the Law by which judgments were carried out, where people are ordered to be stoned, or handed over to the fire, or to go to a city of refuge, or to suffer other things of this kind; since those who are under the law are said to serve a type and shadow of heavenly things, perhaps the future judgment too will be carried out by some similar principle against those who have transgressed the law. Since, then, it has become clear that different laws are spoken of in the Scriptures, if someone has fled all of them to such a degree that even the natural law itself, which is lacking to hardly anyone, seems to have been blotted out and abolished in him, either through hardness or through thickness of heart, it can be seen to be said of him that he perishes without the law; but one who lives under the law may be said to be judged by the law, because the Apostle too testifies to everyone who has himself circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law.

"For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves; they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or even defending them, on the day when God will judge the secrets of men according to my gospel through Jesus Christ." It is certain that the Gentiles who do not have the law are not said to do by nature the things of the law with regard to Sabbaths or new moons or the sacrifices written in the law. For this law is not written in the hearts of the Gentiles; but rather what they can perceive by nature: for example, that they should not commit homicide or adultery, should not steal, should not bear false witness; that they should honor father and mother, and things like these. Perhaps it is also written in the hearts of the Gentiles that God, the one creator of all things, exists. Yet these things that are said to be written in the heart seem to me rather to agree with the laws of the Gospel, where everything is referred to natural equity. For what is so close to the natural senses as that men should not do to others what they do not want done to themselves? The natural law can agree with the law of Moses according to the spirit, not according to the letter. For what natural understanding will there be in this, for example: that someone should circumcise an infant on the eighth day, or that wool should not be woven together with linen, or that no one should eat anything leavened on the day of the New? When we have sometimes put these things to Jews and demanded that they show if there was any usefulness in them, we know that they used to answer only this: that it so seemed good to the lawgiver. But we, who hold that all these things are to be understood spiritually, therefore believe that not the hearers but the doers of the law are to be justified, not of the law according to the letter, which, because of its impossibility … [the law written in the hearts] of them by God, not with ink but with the Spirit of God.

As for his saying "in their hearts," it is not to be thought that the law is said to be written in the bodily organ called the heart. For how could flesh either send forth such great perceptions of prudence or contain such great storehouses of memory? Rather it must be known that the rational power of the soul is usually called the heart. And the Apostle says that those who hold the law written in their hearts use the testimony of their conscience. Hence it seems necessary to discuss what it is that the Apostle calls conscience: whether it is some other substance than the heart or the soul. For this conscience is also said elsewhere to rebuke and not be rebuked, and to judge a man, not itself be judged, as John says: "If our conscience does not rebuke us, we have confidence toward God." And again Paul himself says elsewhere: "For our glorying is this, the testimony of our conscience." Since, then, I see such freedom in it, that it always rejoices and exults in good deeds, and in evil deeds is not itself accused but rebukes and accuses the very soul to which it is joined, I think that it is the spirit itself which the Apostle says is with the soul, as we taught above, joined to it like a kind of tutor and guide, to admonish it about better things or to chastise and accuse it for faults. Of this the Apostle also says that "no one among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him"; and that this spirit is the conscience of which he says: "The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit." And perhaps this is the very spirit that is joined to the souls of the righteous who have been obedient to it in all things; and therefore it is written: "Praise the Lord, spirits and souls of the righteous." But if the soul has been disobedient and stubborn toward it, it will be divided from it after death and separated. And for this reason I think it was said in the Gospel of the wicked steward that the Lord will divide him and put his portion with the unbelievers. Perhaps this is the spirit of which it is written that "the spirit in men is incorruptible." And in line with what we said above, that it is divided and separated from the sinful soul, so that the soul receives its portion with the unbelievers, what was said can likewise be applied to them: "There will be two in the field; one will be taken and one left; and two women at the mill; one will be taken and one left." These things on what is written: "their conscience bearing witness."

Now let us see what follows: "And their thoughts among themselves accusing or even defending them, on the day when God will judge the secrets of men according to my gospel through Jesus Christ." Who would doubt that the judgment of God is right, where accusers and defenders and witnesses are brought in? And indeed let us men take an example from this just judgment of God, and never think that a judgment can be held just without an accuser, a defender, and witnesses. Next we must see how on that day, when God will judge the secrets of men, the thoughts will either accuse or defend the soul: not, certainly, the thoughts that will exist then, but those that are in us now. For when we think either good or evil things, certain marks and seals of good as well as of evil thoughts are left in our heart as in wax; these, now placed in the hidden part of the breast, are said to be revealed on that day by no one else than by him who alone can know the secrets of men; and our conscience too will bear witness that the causes of these signs or marks are not hidden from God. This judgment, however, will take place according to Paul's gospel (that is, what Paul proclaims) through Jesus Christ. "For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son." Marcion, however, and all who by various fictions introduce different natures of souls, are most plainly refuted by this passage, since Paul says that God judges the secrets of men through Jesus Christ; and it is shown that each one, not by a privilege of nature but accused or excused by his own thoughts, is to be judged by the testimony of his conscience.