Commentary on Romans 4.1–4.2

"What then shall we say that Abraham, our father according to the flesh, found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has glory, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now to one who works, the reward is not counted as grace but as debt. But to one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness without works: Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord has not imputed sin."

Since above he set forth two laws, one of which he named the law of works and the other the law of faith, by which law of faith he says the boasting of those who glory in the works of the law is excluded; and since he declared that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law: consequently, so that these things may be confirmed from the Scriptures, he now brings forward the example of Abraham and says that Abraham, if he was justified by works, has glory, but not before God. He argues this, indeed, not without dialectical art. For if one who is justified by works does not have glory before God, but it is certain that Abraham has glory … because "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." And if God counted it to him as righteousness, without doubt his glory too is before God. That is why the Apostle joins to this testimony, which he took from the book of Genesis, a word of his own as well, and says that "to one who works, the reward is not counted as grace but as debt; but to one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness."

Throughout this whole passage, then, the Apostle seems to show that there are two kinds of justification, one of which he names "from works" and the other "from faith." And the one that is from works he says has glory indeed, but in itself and not before God; but the one that is from faith has glory before God, since he looks into the hearts of men and knows who believes in secret and who does not believe. And therefore it rightly has glory before God alone, who sees the disposition of a man's faith in secret; but as for one who hopes for justification from works, it can happen that his works are approved by men too. For whatever is manifest in work is open and can be seen with the eyes; and if faith is in secret, but works are in the open, what is written may fittingly be applied here: "The hidden things belong to the Lord your God, but the manifest things to you and your sons." And it will be fitting to apply also what is written, that "the righteous will live by my faith." We rightly say, then, that those who are circumcised according to the inner man, and are Jews in secret, in the spirit and not the letter, have their praise and glory not before men but before God. But as for those who are justified by works, since their works are open and manifest, their glory can be either before the saints and the just, who receive power from God to judge visible human works, or even before the angels and the other powers of the heavenly virtues, who can certainly glorify one whose works they have approved. But since to know the secrets of the heart belongs to God alone, he sees whether some disposition of faith dwells in each; and therefore one who is justified by faith has glory before God alone, who has knowledge of hidden things and is the only one who looks into faith. "Therefore Abraham too," he says, "if he was justified by works, has indeed glory coming from works, but not that which is before God alone"; but it is certain that Abraham has glory before God alone; it follows, then, that he was justified not by works but by faith.

But do not think that if someone has such a faith, by which, justified, he has glory before God, he can have injustice together with it. For faith has no part with unbelief, righteousness no fellowship with iniquity, just as light can have no partnership with darkness. For if everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and one who is born of God does not sin, it is clear that one who believes in Jesus Christ does not sin; and if he sins, it is certain that he does not believe in him. The sign of true faith, then, is where there is no offense, just as, on the contrary, where there is offense it is a sign of unbelief. That is why in another place of Scripture too it is said of Abraham that he was justified by works of faith: because it is certain that one who truly believes does the work of faith and righteousness and of all goodness, and becomes capable of both glories, both that which is before God in secret and that which is in the open and not only before God.

These things having been explained according to our strength, this too seems by no means to be passed over: that he named Abraham "our father according to the flesh." For Abraham seems to be the father of the Gentiles according to faith, not according to the flesh. For of the Apostle himself he can indeed be called father according to the flesh; for, being of the Israelite race, he could name Abraham his father even according to the flesh; but the other nations will name him father in the spirit, not in the flesh. Unless, in places so narrow, we turn to the breadth of allegorical understanding, where the father according to the flesh can be taken as one who handed down the first elements of carnal teaching, that is, of the law according to the letter, and was a master of the first instruction in the divine law. That teachers too are called fathers, the apostle Paul also says: "In Christ Jesus I begot you through the Gospel." But you too, reader, gather for yourself testimonies bearing on this from the divine volumes.

It is added next: "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." This word is taken from the book of Genesis, from the place where not Abraham but Abram says to the Lord: "Since you have not given me offspring, this home-born slave of mine will be my heir. And the Lord said to him: This one will not be your heir, but he who comes forth from you, he will be your heir. And he brought him outside," it says, "and said to him: Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can number them. And he said to him: So shall your offspring be. And he believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." We have repeated the passages themselves from the book of Genesis at some length, for example's sake, so that we might know what the cause of this justification was. Hence we must attend more keenly whether it is said that his faith was counted as righteousness only because he believed that a son would be given him and from him a progeny to be multiplied to the multitude of the stars, or for this and for all the things he had already believed before. For it must not be thought that it was without faith that he went out from his land and from his father's kindred and came into the land that God had shown him; or that time when, after Lot had separated from him, the Lord said to him: "Look with your eyes and see from this place where you stand, and gaze to the north and the south and to the west and to the east, for all this land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring for ever." And who would say that it was done without faith that Abraham came and dwelt by the oak of Mamre in Hebron and built an altar there to the Lord? And how was not that too of faith … From all of which it is gathered that in each of these there was indeed faith in Abraham, but in part; but in the place where it is said that his faith was counted as righteousness, perfect faith is declared. For just as the Apostle says that knowledge and prophecy are in part, and again says that they are perfect, when he writes: "We know in part and we prophesy in part; but when what is perfect has come, the things that are in part will be destroyed": so too we can understand that faith is sometimes in part and sometimes perfect.

And that what we say may be fortified by still other testimonies of holy Scripture, hear the apostles saying to the Lord in the Gospel: "Lord, increase our faith." Do they not clearly show by these words that they had faith, but such as needed increase? And the apostle Paul himself, when he says, "If I have all faith, so as to move mountains": when he says "all," he teaches that it is a whole composed of parts. For a thing cannot be called "all" where there is no diversity either of quality or of quantity. In the present place too, then, it seems that, since many faiths of Abraham had gone before in each of the things that we mentioned above as being in part, now his whole faith was gathered in this, and so was counted to him as righteousness.

Now you will consider whether, as it was said of faith that it was counted to him as righteousness, so it can be said of the other virtues too: that, for example, mercy can be counted to someone as righteousness, or wisdom, or knowledge, or meekness and humility; or indeed whether faith is counted as righteousness to every believer. But when I return to the Scriptures, I do not find that faith is counted as righteousness to all believers. For it is written of the sons of Israel that they believed the Lord and his servant Moses; and yet what is written of Abraham, that it was counted to them as righteousness, is not added. I think this is because they did not have, as we have shown in Abraham, the perfection heaped together into one from many parts of faith, which would deserve to be counted as righteousness.

As for his saying: "Now to one who works, the reward is not counted as grace but as debt; but to one who believes in him who justifies the ungodly, faith is counted as righteousness": he seems to show that in faith there is the grace of the one who justifies, but in work the justice of the one who repays. But when I consider the eminence of the word by which he says that to one who works it is rendered as a debt, I can hardly persuade myself that there can be any work that would demand reward from God as a debt, since even the very fact that we can do anything, or think, or speak, we do by his gift and bounty. What, then, will be owed to him whose loan to us came first? And therefore we must rather see whether perhaps what he said, "But to one who works, the reward will be counted as debt," is to be understood as the debt of left-handed work. For you will often find in the divine volumes that sins are called debts, as the Lord himself taught us to say in prayer: "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors"; and again when the Lord himself says: "A certain householder had two debtors: one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty"; and he himself interpreted this as said of sins. Perhaps, then, in this place too the Apostle drew the reward of work that is rendered as debt into the sense we mentioned above, of those who so work as Cain worked the earth, and as he says elsewhere: "Depart from me, workers of iniquity"; to whom, certainly, punishment is paid as a debt, as the reward of iniquity. Hence the same Apostle says in another place: "The wages of sin is death"; and he did not add so as to say likewise, "But the wages of righteousness is eternal life," but said: "But the grace of God is eternal life"; so as to teach that wages, which is certainly like a debt and a reward, is the repayment of punishment and death, but to assign eternal life to grace alone. According to this sense I think that what is written in the Gospel, "With the measure with which you measure it will be measured back to you," should also be taken of left-handed works. For God has not set a measure to his grace, since it is written: "For God does not give the Spirit by measure."

If, then, these things are thought to have been rightly discussed, what follows will consequently be seen to be understood thus: that to one who works the works of iniquity, the reward is repaid according to the debt of sin; but to one who believes in him who justifies the ungodly, faith is counted as righteousness: if indeed we remember well what was said above, where we showed that faith can be counted as righteousness not to one who believes in part but to one who believes wholly and perfectly; which faith is so great that it justifies even one who was ungodly, so that he is no longer ungodly, like that thief who hung on the cross and blasphemed, but is like the one who confessed and said: "Lord Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

After this, as if to confirm the word he had spoken, "But to one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, faith is counted as righteousness," he takes a testimony from the Psalms and says: "Just as David also speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness without works: Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the Lord has not imputed sin." You see that through these words it can consistently be proved that righteousness is counted to a man without works. Hence the Apostle seems to me to have understood this: that it is impossible for a man who now, by age, has the understanding to discern good and evil to have in him neither injustice nor justice. If this is so, the soul cannot be found without one of the two; and it is certain that if it has ceased from evil things, it is now found in good things. But that soul is not in evil things whose iniquities have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered, and to whom the Lord has not imputed sin; it is fitting, then, that it should be in good things. Fittingly, therefore, in connection with the forgiveness of iniquities and the covering of sins, and with the Lord's not imputing sin, the Apostle says that righteousness is counted to a man, even though he has not yet done the works of righteousness, but only because he has believed in him who justifies the ungodly. For the beginning of being justified by God is faith, which believes in the one who justifies. And this faith, when it has been justified, clings in the soil of the soul like a root that has received rain, so that when it has begun to be cultivated by the law of God, branches may rise in it that bear the fruit of works. The root of righteousness, then, does not grow from works, but the fruit of works grows from the root of righteousness: that root of righteousness, namely, by which God credits righteousness without works.

For this reason, I think, David too gave this beginning to the thirty-first Psalm, which he entitled "Understanding of David," warning by the title itself that a higher understanding should be sought in what he was about to say, that "blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven"; of which we spoke, as we could, when we were dictating on the Psalms in order. But the difference in the order itself moves us: that first he said, "Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven"; second, "whose sins are covered"; third, "to whom the Lord has not imputed sin." And see whether perhaps this order can be understood in one and the same soul: that since the beginning of the soul's conversion is to abandon evil things, for this it deserves to receive the forgiveness of iniquities; but when it has begun to do good things, as though covering each of the evils that went before with recent goods, and bringing in a more abundant number of goods than there had been of evils before, it is said to cover sins; but when it has now come to perfection, so that every root of wickedness is wholly cut off from it, so far that no trace of it can be found in it, there at last the summit of perfect blessedness is promised, when the Lord can impute no sin. Iniquity indeed has this difference from sin: that iniquity is said of things committed against the law; hence the Greek word too calls iniquity anomia, that is, what is committed without law; but sin can also be said if one offends against what nature teaches and conscience convicts.

"Is this blessedness, then, in the circumcision, or also in the uncircumcision? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted? When he was in circumcision, or when he was in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which is in uncircumcision, so that he might be the father of all who believe through uncircumcision, that it might be counted to them too as righteousness, and the father of circumcision, not only to those who are of the circumcision but also to those who follow the footsteps of the faith of our father Abraham which is in uncircumcision."

When he had said above that "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness," and had shown what blessedness such faith had from what is written in the thirty-first Psalm, that the Lord does not impute sin to one who so believes, he now puts a question, from whose answer he may teach, from the very reckoning of times too, that the blessedness of Abraham's justification was given not in circumcision but while he was still placed in uncircumcision. And if Abraham, while he was still in uncircumcision, was justified by faith, everyone who believes God can also be justified through faith, even if he is in uncircumcision, and this blessedness of which it is said, "Blessed is he to whom the Lord has not imputed sin," can belong to him too. He shows, then, that the Lord does not fail to impute sin to just anyone, but does not count sins against one who has believed, because of his faith. For just as faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness, so too to every believer to whom faith is counted as righteousness sins are certainly not imputed. For he does not say of the righteous that faith is counted to them as righteousness. If it were thought so, what grace would it seem to count righteousness as righteousness to a righteous man? But he certainly says that faith was counted as righteousness to one who, before he had this faith, did not have righteousness; and this man is certainly blessed, to whom God credits righteousness without works, and to whom sin is not imputed, whose iniquities too have been forgiven, and whose sins, if there were any before, have been covered.

At the same time he also teaches us to attend more carefully to the reading, when he so watchfully recounts what is written of Abraham, that faith was counted to him as righteousness. He wants us to consider also when it was counted, so that the reckoning of time too may be gathered in what is written: whether he was still in uncircumcision when these things were said, or had already passed to circumcision; and he says: "How then was his faith counted as righteousness? When he was in circumcision, or when he was in uncircumcision?" For if he had been in circumcision at that time, the uncircumcision would certainly seem to have been excluded from the grace of this faith. But now he shows that faith was counted as righteousness to him while he was still placed in uncircumcision; and therefore he declares that since Abraham, placed in uncircumcision, was justified through faith, he is without doubt rightly called the prince and father of all who believe through uncircumcision.

And since after the faith in which he was in uncircumcision he received circumcision, he consequently sets out the reason why circumcision was given him: "That it might be," he says, "a seal of the faith that he had while placed in uncircumcision, so that through this he might be the father of all who believe through uncircumcision, that it might be counted to them as righteousness, and the father of circumcision, not only to those who are of the circumcision but also to those who follow the footsteps of the faith of our father Abraham which is in uncircumcision." And if Abraham, while he was still in uncircumcision, was justified by faith, he can also become the father of those who are born in circumcision, if only they belong to that faith which justified him while placed in uncircumcision. And since it justified Abraham while placed in uncircumcision, he is therefore made the father of both kinds: of those who are in uncircumcision through faith, and of those who are in circumcision through the flesh. And after circumcision he first begets Isaac, and with him begins the start of the ogdoad, that is, of the eighth day: in him the first mysteries are consecrated, and the posterity of Abraham begins in an eminent way to run with a twofold sacrament. For just as faith by its nature is understood to be one thing, and the righteousness counted to it through faith another, so too his posterity in uncircumcision is one thing and in circumcision another. For those who are uncircumcised I think are the very stones from which God is said to be able to raise up sons to Abraham; in whom too is fulfilled what is written: "For in you all the tribes of the earth will be blessed."

But let us go back again to what he says: "And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which is in uncircumcision," and let us contemplate the deep wisdom of Paul in these words. For perhaps to some he may seem to say the same word twice, that is, "sign" and "seal." But to me each word seems to have much difference from the other. For a sign is so called when through what is seen something else is indicated: as when, for example, the Lord says in the Gospel: "This generation seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. For as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so the Son of man must be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights." This, then, is a sign, where Jonah was seen and Christ was understood. Likewise it is said of the Lord himself in the Gospel: "Behold, this one is set for the fall and the rising of many, and for a sign that will be spoken against." For the sign in which Christ had come was spoken against, because one thing was seen in him and another understood: flesh was seen, and God was believed. So, then, Abraham too received a sign; and what the sign was he says next: "circumcision," he says, which circumcision was a seal of the righteousness of the faith that he had before he was circumcised. Rightly, then, he called circumcision a sign in Abraham, because it too was one thing seen and another understood; and he shows that already then that fleshly circumcision was a sign of the spiritual circumcision, which is received not in the flesh but in the heart.

And what he called a seal I think should be understood thus. A seal is so called when it is placed on something to be kept, as a safeguard for a time, which no one else ought to unseal except the one who impressed it. Through this seal, then, as the Apostle explains, the righteousness of faith which Abraham deserved to receive while placed in uncircumcision is shut up, and that he is the father of many nations: which we believe is then to be unsealed when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and all Israel will be saved. For then what the Apostle says will come about, that Abraham is father through faith not only of the Gentiles but also of the circumcision.

And let us discuss still more openly the sign and the seal. Since a sign is, as we said, where something is indicated through what is seen, while by a seal something is shut up for a time and is not open, it can also be understood thus: that the mysteries foreshadowed in the law and in the patriarchs were of such a kind that they had to be indicated by signs and kept by seals. Because they had to be indicated by signs in those who believed from the Gentiles, he is said to have received a sign … he is said to have received a seal. And this seal will at last be unsealed in that time when, in the last days, after the fullness of the Gentiles, as we said, has come in, all Israel will be saved. That is why Abraham is first justified in faith while he was still uncircumcised, and afterward is circumcised, to show that he would be first the father of many nations, and afterward of those who would believe from the circumcision. For those who are born from Abraham according to the flesh are not to be called sons of Abraham unless they have the faith and works of Abraham. That is why the Lord too says in the Gospel to the Jews who boasted that they were sons of Abraham: "If you were sons of Abraham, you would surely do the works of Abraham."

Do you want to be taught from the old Scripture too that one is called the son not only of him from whose fleshly seed he descends, but also of him whose acts and works he imitates? Hear what Daniel says to one of those elders whom he convicts of adultery: "Seed of Canaan," he says, "and not of Judah, beauty has deceived you and lust has perverted your heart." You see that one who had descended carnally from the race of Judah is denied to be a son of Judah, but of Canaan, that is, of him whose acts and works he followed. So, then, those too who trace their descent from Abraham's seed according to the flesh are not called sons of Abraham if they do not have his faith. Thus too the prophet says to them: "Your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite"; to whom, certainly, not the bond of race but likeness of character joined them. "That he might be, then," he says, "the father of all who believe through uncircumcision, that it might be counted to them as righteousness, and the father of circumcision, not only to those who are of the circumcision, but also to those who follow the footsteps of the faith of our father Abraham which is in uncircumcision." In this he clearly declares, as we said above, that from both peoples what must be sought is not the origin of the flesh but the distinction of faith.

About the sacrament of circumcision we have already spoken at length above, and we have also set out in many other places what seemed to occur for the subject and the occasion. But the careful reader, from whom not one iota or one stroke of the law escapes, ought not to miss even this: that when the Apostle said, "Faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness," at that time when it was written of him that "he believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness," he was not yet called Abraham, but his name was Abram. For he was still uncircumcised, as the Apostle explains. About this it will perhaps seem to some that there is an error in the copies, since "Abraham" could easily have been written for "Abram." But since this supposition is uncertain rather than a firm proof, let us answer more briefly that the Apostle, observing the sentence of God who said, "No longer will your name be Abram, but Abraham," now called him not as it is written in that place of Genesis, but as God had declared concerning him. For what is sanctioned by God should be observed thereafter. These things, brought forth as we could in places so arduous and so difficult, anyone who perhaps considers the zeal of our mind will be able to embrace. But if he wishes to mark the weakness of our understanding, we ask pardon, and we gladly yield to anyone who can discuss or explain these things better. We, however, turn our foot, though with a slow step, to what follows.