Commentary on Romans 4.10–4.12

"But God commends his love in us, since, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us; much more, then, now that we have been justified in his blood, will we be saved from wrath through him." When he had said above that "Christ, according to the time, died for the ungodly," he now wishes to show from this the greatness of God's love toward men: that if it was so great toward the ungodly and sinners that he gave his only Son for their salvation, how much more generous and abundant will it be toward those who have been converted and amended, and, as he himself says, redeemed by his blood? I do not think that this variety of words in Paul is idle, that he names sometimes the weak, sometimes the ungodly, sometimes sinners, for whom he says Christ died; and although he confesses that he is unskilled in speech, yet I do not think he varied in these through lack of skill, but rather through deep knowledge. For through these three every kind of sin is gathered. For either someone, not knowing God, sins in darkness and is called ungodly; or, wishing to keep the commandment, he is overcome by the frailty of the flesh and deceived by the enticements of the present life, and is called weak; or, knowing and willing, he despises the commandment and hates the discipline of God and throws his words behind him, and is named a sinner. And so Paul, who [calls] himself unskilled … that it comes about for this reason, that, abandoning the God of their fathers, they worship the gods of the nations. And as for Paul numbering himself among sinners, who says in other places, "We, Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles," this is the virtue of his humility. For he imitates him who, though he had done no sin, was made sin for us, and, though he was God, lived among men.

"God, then, commends his love in us." Here "commends" is understood either as "confirms" or as "makes lovable through benefits." For the fact that "Christ died for us while we were still sinners" gives us hope that much more will he save us, cleansed from sin and justified, from the wrath that hangs over sinners, through him; and he who so loved us, strangers and enemies, that he gave his Only-begotten to death for us, much more will give eternal salvation to us who have become his own and been reconciled to him. How Christ died for us, and how, since he is the Lamb of God, he took away the sin of the world, and bore our weaknesses, and grieved for us, has often been said by us in other places, where we also brought in what is reported in secular histories: that among them too some are said to have driven back pestilences or storms and other things like these by offering themselves to death, and to have freed their country or nation from the destruction of an impending disaster. How truly these things were written, or what reason they have if they are true, God alone knows. Yet none of those of whom these things are told is said, not even in a fictitious tale, to have absolved the sins of the whole world, except Jesus alone, "who, though he was in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself," and, according to the will of the Father, having taken the form of a servant, offered a victim for the whole world, handing over his blood to the ruler of this world, according to the wisdom of God, which none of the rulers of this world knew; for if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of majesty; nor would that blood which they had thirsted for have quenched not so much their thirst as their strength, and destroyed their kingdom; nor would there have happened to them what the Lord says in the Gospel: "Behold, now the ruler of this world has been judged"; and that: "Behold, I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven."

"Much more, then," he says, "now that we have been justified in his blood, will we be saved from wrath through him." Above he had said: "Having been justified, then, by faith, let us have peace with God"; and now he says: "Much more, now that we have been justified in his blood, will we be saved from wrath through him." By this he shows that neither does our faith justify us without the blood of Christ, nor the blood of Christ without our faith; yet of the two, the blood of Christ justifies us much more than our faith. And therefore it seems to me that, whereas above he said simply, "justified by faith," here he added, "much more, then, now that we have been justified in his blood," to teach that, even if our faith saves us from the wrath to come, even if works of righteousness do, yet above all these the blood of Christ much more makes us safe from the wrath to come. How the wrath of God ought to be understood has been said more fully by us in the exposition of the second Psalm; and how what is written can be fulfilled, that we may be made safe by fleeing from the wrath to come, and fleeing wrath so that it does not overtake us, while pursuing righteousness, piety, faith, love, patience, meekness, and the other things like these. Wrath, then, is that to which each one is handed over according to the measure and merit of his sins, God, however, according to what is written in the seventy-seventh Psalm, not kindling all his wrath. For who could bear it if the Lord kindled all his wrath against sinners, since that which is pronounced in the song of Moses is so terrible, where he says: "For a fire has been kindled in my fury, and it will burn to the lowest hell; it will devour the earth and its produce; it will set on fire the foundations of the mountains"? Look, then, how this fire, which is kindled from the wrath or fury of the Lord, devours the earth and the lowest hell, and consumes earthly works; it sets on fire not the heights of the mountains but their foundations, that is, not lofty souls nor heavenly minds, but those cast down to the ground and onto the earth, or even sunk into the depth of the earth, as the foundations of the mountains are. It was necessary, then, to discuss wrath a little too, so that it might be known more openly from what evils the blood of Christ has rescued us.

"For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled … Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation." When he says, "while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God," he clearly shows that there is not some substance which, according to the definition of Marcion or Valentinus, is by nature hostile to God: otherwise, if what is hostile were of nature and not of will, it would certainly have no reconciliation. But where someone is made a friend from an enemy, it is certain that while he does the works that God does not love, he is an enemy of God; and each one becomes as grave and as hateful an enemy as he has multiplied works worthy of enmity. There are, then, measures and certain degrees, distinguished by the quality or quantity of sins, in those who are enemies of God. Hence too he who has sinned above all is recorded by Paul as the last enemy to be destroyed. And on the other side and in the reverse order, it is certain that those who have been reconciled through the death of his Son are counted among friends: and that someone is a friend in such a way as Moses was called the friend of God; and that there are others to whom the Savior says: "No longer will I call you servants, but friends." And I believe that there are still more intimate friends with God in the heavenly places, either those who always see the face of God, or those who always stand in the sight of the Most High; so that, just as we said above that there is a certain last enemy, so there too, according to the merits of virtues, some may be held as the highest friends.

Since these things are so, I do not know whether one who still remains in those works which God hates, and for which there are enmities between God and men, is rightly said to have been reconciled to God through the blood of Christ. For how is he reconciled who does the things of enemies? Paul, then, rightly says of himself and those like him that "while we were enemies, we were reconciled through the death of his Son." It is a great shame, where such a reconciliation has been made, where not the word of a sinner but the blood of an intercessor has dissolved the enmities between God and men, for us to turn again to enmities and do the things that he hates, whom no one had reconciled to us except the outpouring of sacred blood.

Paul himself, writing to the Ephesians, recalls more fully the principle of reconciliation and enmity and the outpouring of the blood of Christ; and if we join these, they can more easily open up the place of the present passage. He says thus: "Therefore remember that you, who were once called Gentiles in the flesh, uncircumcision, by what is called circumcision in the flesh, made by hands, that you were at that time without Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in this world. But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who has made both one and broken down the middle wall of the partition, the enmity, in his flesh, abolishing the law of commandments in decrees, so as to create the two in himself into one new man, making peace, and might reconcile both in one body to God through the cross, killing the enmities in himself; and coming he preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father."

But observe especially in these that Christ broke down the middle wall of the partition in his flesh, that is, the enmity; and that he reconciled both in one body to God through the cross; and that he killed the enmity on the cross. In this Paul seems to me not without cause to have named the enmity twice, and in the one place to have said that Christ dissolved the enmity in the flesh, but in the second that he killed it on the cross. For he seems to me to dissolve it in those who are still waging the contest against sin and resisting it with all their strength; but to kill it in those who now in no way at all receive sin, but have on every side put their members to death to sin; among whom was he who said: "I have been crucified with Christ; I live, yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me." In this way, then, Christ too killed the enmity in his flesh, when, having undergone death, he gave men an example of resisting sin even to death; and so at last, the enmity having been dissolved in his flesh, he reconciled through his own blood men to God: those, that is, who keep the covenant of reconciliation inviolate by not sinning any more. His death, therefore, gave death to the enmity that was between us and God, and was the beginning of reconciliation. But his resurrection and life conferred salvation on those who believe, as the Apostle also says elsewhere of Christ: “For the death he died, he died to sin once; but the life he lives, he lives to God.” He is said to have died to sin, not to his own, for he committed no sin; but he died to sin, that is, as one who by his death brought death upon sin itself. And he is said to live to God, so that we too may live not to ourselves nor to our own will but to God, and so at last may be saved in his life, according to him who said: “I live, yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me.” As for his writing, as in the previous verses, “Not only so, but we also now boast in God,” and adding nothing to “not only so,” this is to be understood, as above, as said of the things included earlier: that is, that not only “while we were enemies were we reconciled to God through the death of his Son,” and not only “shall we be saved in his life,” but “we also now boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received the reconciliation.” And not without reason did he add “now,” when he could have said, “But we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received the reconciliation”; he did so to show that boasting is given to us not only in the future but also in the present, from the knowledge of God, the amendment of life, and the correction of errors, as the same Apostle says in other places: “having hope both of the present life and of the life to come”: of the present, because it is more honorable and more amended; of the future, because it is eternal.