Commentary on Romans 4.3–4.5

"For the promise to Abraham or to his offspring, that he would be heir of the world, was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." In this place the Apostle seems to me to be discussing the law of Moses, and to assert that the promise made to Abraham, that he or his offspring would receive the inheritance of the world, that is, of the whole earth, did not rest on the law of Moses. For before Moses the lawgiver appeared, it says, "the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to him: Go out from your land and from your kindred and from your father's house, and come into the land that I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and magnify your name, and you will be blessed; and I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you, and in you all the tribes of the earth will be blessed." When he says, then, "In you all the tribes of the earth will be blessed," this means that he has been made heir of the whole world. This promise was certainly made to Abraham before anything was commanded through Moses about the observance of the law. So, then, the promise to Abraham or to his offspring, that he would be heir of the world, is not from the law, but through the righteousness of faith. What is this righteousness of faith? That of which it is written above, as we have often said, that "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." And not without reason: for the observance of the law only escapes punishment, but the merit of faith awaits the hope of the promise; and a precept is laid down for slaves, but faith is sought from friends. And if, according to what we discussed above, Paul is understood to be saying these things of the natural law, it will not be contrary to the reasons given above. For although the law of nature gives testimony about good and evil according to the judgment of conscience, it cannot be made equal to the law of faith, by which Abraham believed God and deserved to be justified and to be called the friend of God.

"For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith has been emptied and the promise made void. For the law works wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there transgression." "If," he says, "the promise was given to Abraham that he would be heir of the world not from the law but through faith, which was counted to him as righteousness, it will without doubt follow that all who hope that righteousness will be counted to them by God should hope for it not through the law but through faith." And to show this more clearly, he added: "If those who are of the law are themselves heirs of that promise which Abraham merited through faith, the fact that Abraham was justified by faith will be made void": since certainly, if the inheritance were to be from the law, Abraham too would have had first to fulfill the law and so to merit the inheritance of righteousness. And to show that this could in no way have happened so, he says that the law works wrath. But where there is wrath, there is no inheritance; and he added: "But where there is no law, neither is there transgression."

But let us go back a little and see of which law these things are said. Above, where he says, "For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith has been emptied and the promise made void," it can be referred both to the law of Moses and to the natural law. For it is certain that if the inheritance is granted from the law of Moses, what is written, that Abraham merited it by the trust of faith, is made void; and again, if the understanding is turned to the natural law, this can be said: if the natural law could have sufficed for faith, what was said to Abraham would seem superfluous: "Go out from your land and from your kindred and from your father's house, and come into the land that I will show you." For why would he go out from his land and from his house, if the natural law sufficed him, which he could certainly have had and kept while placed in his own land? But now, as though that were less than sufficient, he is commanded to follow the law of faith, without which neither he nor his offspring could be heir of the world, nor could he be called the friend of God. So, then, what he says, "For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith has been emptied and the promise made void," can, withdrawn from both laws, look to the law of faith alone.

But now in this place, where he says, "For the law works wrath," we must look more carefully at which law this word seems to refer to; and also the one that follows, "For where there is no law, neither is there transgression." But before a fuller explanation is sought by us, let us briefly answer what the heretics usually put to us from this place. For they say: "See how the Apostle says that the law of Moses works wrath, but where that law has not been, there will be no transgression either." Let us ask them, then: if where there is law there will be transgression of the law transgressed, then where there is faith too there will be the transgression of faith transgressed. For if one who turns aside from the law becomes a transgressor, without doubt one who turns aside from the faith is also a transgressor; and if the law itself is the cause of that transgression which is in the law, faith too would be believed to be the cause of this transgression which is in faith. But if it is absurd to say that faith is the cause of someone's transgressing the faith, and that if he had not come to the faith he would not have been a transgressor of the faith, so it will be absurd to take the transgression of the law as coming from the fact that someone has undertaken the observance of the law. And let us add this too. What will they say to us about those who were in transgression before the law of Moses? For if no one was a transgressor before Moses, no one was condemned, no one punished. What will they say of the Sodomites? What of those condemned in the flood? What of Cain? What of Adam himself? What will they answer about Eve, of whom the Apostle says: "But the woman was deceived and came into transgression"? If without the law of Moses there is no transgression, why are Adam and Eve named transgressors by the Apostle?

But, as we have often said above too, the Apostle introduces different laws in this Epistle, and now speaks of the law of Moses, now names the law of faith, as when he says: "Where then is your boasting? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith." He introduces besides other laws too, of which he says: "For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man; but I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind and leading me captive in the law of sin"; and so he passes from one law to another in such a way that unless the mind is watchful and attentive it can hardly detect and follow him. We must see, then, whether perhaps that law which is in our members and leads us captive in the law of sin is itself the law which the Apostle says works wrath. For without doubt it works wrath for one whom it has led captive in the law of sin. But where this law has not been, it is certain that there will be no transgression there either. And those who have been under this law will consequently not be heirs either.

And if anyone wishes to say that this is mentioned of the law of Moses, and that it works wrath, perhaps he will be able to affirm it only because it orders one who sins against it to be stoned at once, or burned with fire, or whatever other punishment is decreed in the law for sinners: so that the very penalty inflicted on the sinner from the law seems now to be named wrath by the Apostle. Likewise also of transgression: so that he is not asserting that every transgression in general is named in this place, but that of one who has offended while placed in the law; so that the offense of one who sins though forbidden by the law seems graver than that of one who was warned by no law. And this too must be seen: that the Apostle did not say that where there is law, there is also transgression, but said: "But where there is no law, neither is there transgression." In this he shows that transgression can by no means exist unless there is law; yet not that, if there is law, there will in every case also be transgression. For it can happen that there is law and there is no transgression; but it cannot happen that there is transgression where there is no law. For even if we posit the law of Moses, not all who lived under the law of Moses were thereby in transgression; otherwise we would seem to involve the prophets and all the righteous along with them: unless perhaps someone says that all the righteous and the prophets lived not so much under the law as under faith, but sinners and the unrighteous were bound by the chains of the law, as the Apostle too says: "For the law is not laid down for the righteous, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the wicked and profane, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who lie with men, kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine." And if the law is laid down for such people, will not those seem much better to you of whom it is said: "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 let us set before our eyes, if you like, two people, for example, who have not lain with males as with a woman: one of them prevented by the precept of the law, who, if he had not had fear of it, would perhaps have done it; and another who by the judgment of his own mind has not allowed a defilement of this kind to approach even his thoughts: would you not much prefer the one who, frightened by no threat of the law, kept himself free from the defilement of the outrage? Likewise if an examination is held of the other sins.

And therefore, whether the law of Moses is understood, or that which is in our members and works wrath, those who are of it cannot be heirs, but those who are of the law of faith: of that faith, namely, by which Abraham was justified. But perhaps someone may ask how one who is under the law of Moses does not also seem to be under the law of faith, since it is written in Exodus: "And the people believed God and his servant Moses"; and again the Lord says in the Gospel: "If you believed Moses, you would surely believe me also; for he wrote of me." For it will seem that, just as he said of himself, "Whoever believes in me believes in him who sent me," so too he says of Moses: "If you believed Moses, you would surely believe me also." To this we will answer that what was said in the desert, "The people believed God and his servant Moses," is a narrative, by which it is shown that through the ministry of Moses, by which he ministered signs and wonders, the people believed God; but in the saying "If you believed Moses, you would surely believe me also," he convicts the unbelief of those who, by not believing him, show that they do not believe the writings of Moses either, in which the coming of Christ is contained in prophetic speech; but where he says, "Whoever believes in me believes in him who sent me," he raises the hope of believers up to God the Father, so that just as one who sees the Son knows that he has seen the Father too, so when he believes the Son he may know that he has believed the Father too.

"Therefore it is from faith, so that the promise may be firm according to grace for all the offspring, not only for that which is of the law but also for that which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written: I have made you the father of many nations), before God whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls the things that are not as the things that are." Above he gave a distinction between reward and grace, saying that reward is a matter of debt, but grace is a matter of no debt, but a benefit of goodwill. In the present place, then, wishing to show that God gives the inheritance of the promises not from debt but through grace, he says that the inheritance is granted by God to those who believe not from the debt of a reward but by the gift of faith. For just as (to give an example) the fact that we subsist cannot be understood as if we subsist by the reward of our work, but it is clearly the gift of God that we are, and the grace of the Creator who willed us to be: so too if we receive the inheritance of the promises of God, it is of divine grace, not the reward of some debt or work.

And if perhaps this very thing that is said, "from faith," seems not to be freely given, since faith must first be offered by man, and so grace merited from God, hear how the same Apostle teaches about this in other places too. For where he enumerates the gifts of the Spirit, which he says are given to believers according to the measure of faith, there among the rest he also asserts that the gift of faith is bestowed through the Holy Spirit. For after many things he says this too … to show that faith too is given through grace. And elsewhere the same Apostle teaches, saying: "For it has been granted to you by God not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for him." You find this indicated in the Gospels too, where the apostles, understanding that the faith which is from man cannot be perfect unless that which is from God is also added, say to the Savior: "Increase our faith." From all these it is most clearly proved what the Apostle says here: "Therefore it is from faith, so that the promise may be firm according to grace": because even the very faith by which we seem to believe God is confirmed in us by the gift of grace.

And this is the grace that one who is blessed deserves to find like a great treasure. This Noah found; and therefore it is written of him: "But Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord God." This grace Moses too had found; and therefore he said to God: "If I have found grace in your sight." Yet we find some of the saints who found grace not only in the sight of the Lord God but also in the sight of men. For it is written of blessed Joseph: "And Joseph found grace in the sight of his master." But this grace that is found in the sight of men is granted by God's bounty. For thus it is written of the same Joseph: "And the Lord was with Joseph, and poured mercy upon him, and gave him grace in the sight of the chief of the prison." Something still greater of grace of this kind is recorded in the divine writings of blessed Esther. For it says thus: "For Esther found grace with all who saw her." A little after Scripture says: "Esther found grace above all the other virgins, and the king set the woman's diadem on her." I think that we have not inappropriately sought these things from the holy Scriptures to confirm the apostolic saying in which he discusses faith and grace.

He says, then: "Therefore it is from faith, so that the promise may be firm according to grace." And this too is to be noted, that he says, "Therefore it is from faith, so that the promise may be firm according to grace," as if wishing to show that if the promise were from the law and not from grace, it would not be firm; but now it is firm for this reason, that it is not from the law but through grace. In this I think he wishes something of this sort to be understood: that the things of the law are outside us, but the things through grace are held within us. For example, what is written in the law is written with reed and ink on parchments or papers; but what descends from grace is written by the Spirit of God in our heart, as the same Apostle, the minister of this grace, indicates in other places and says: "You are our letter, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on fleshly tablets of the heart." Therefore, as it seems to me, he calls the things through grace firmer than those of the law, because those are outside us and these within us; and those consist in fragile material, so that they can easily decay, but these, written by the Spirit of God and impressed in the innermost parts of the soul, obtain the firmness of perpetuity. The soul, then, is inscribed with such letters of the promise which has offered its faith to God like prepared wax, so that the grace of God may graciously be written on it; and therefore faith of this kind, which has been eager to seize heavenly grace, is counted as righteousness.

And this happens to the offspring of Abraham, not only to that which is of the law but also to that which is of faith. For the succession of Abraham from faith is much nobler than that from the flesh, because he is recorded to have been justified not from the flesh but from faith. For if the succession is to be given not from faith but from the seed, it will be fitting for the posterity of Ishmael too, and those who descend from Keturah, to be brought to the sacraments of the promises. This is certainly not accepted, but only the posterity of the law and of faith is brought in.

But let not a somewhat wavering and ambiguously expressed phrase of the Apostle in this place escape us. For what he said, "so that the promise may be firm for all the offspring, not only for that which is of the law but also for that which is of faith," if it is understood as though he called one offspring of the law and another of faith, so that the promise of inheritance should be expected by both offspring, he is found to be saying things contrary to what he wrote above, when he said, "For it is not those who are of the law who are heirs"; likewise elsewhere: "For we hold that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law"; and again: "For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith has been made void." For if a man is justified by faith without the works of the law, and those who are of the law do not become heirs, how will what he says in this place not seem contrary, that the promise is firm through grace not only for the offspring which is of the law but also for that which is of faith? And since above he seems to have rejected those who are of the law, how does he here somehow make them equal to those whom he says hope for grace from faith? But it seems to me that when he says, "for all the offspring, not only for that which is of the law but also for that which is of faith," he here indicates by "law," as we have often said, the natural law, and asserts that the promise is firm not for those only who come from the natural law, but also for those who have added to the natural law that faith which Abraham our father had: so that he seems to indicate not two peoples, one from faith and the other from the law, but one and the same, which pleases God not only from the natural law which all men use but from the faith of which Abraham was the author. By this, namely, he shows that if someone has whole all that the natural law teaches, and the conscience of sin rebukes him in nothing, yet does not also have the grace of faith, he cannot be justified. For it is faith that is counted as righteousness. And the distinction held in this way makes the understanding plainer, and the things thought contrary are found to be in harmony and in agreement with one another. As for the diversity of laws, and that especially in this Epistle the Apostle often changes the order of his speech from one law to another, even covertly and suddenly, we have often shown, and to repeat it is superfluous.

And he did well not to say of Abraham, "the father of all," but "the father of us all": that is, not of us who descend from the law, but of us who succeed the law from faith. And since he is the father of all who are of this kind, he rightly set down next the sentence of the divine promise, saying: "As it is written: I have made you the father of many nations, before God whom he believed." If, then, he is promised to be the future father of many nations, he is not without reason named father both of those who come from the Gentiles and of those who come from the circumcision. And the Apostle rightly added from his own interpretation, "before God whom he believed": that is, he has been made father of many nations before God himself, whom he believed, whose promises he believed, and from whom he received the seal of faith in circumcision. How, then, does the circumcision claim Abraham as its own father, when that very God who gave him circumcision made him the father of many nations? And if anyone wishes to turn this to the posterity of Ishmael or of Keturah, what is written meets him: "For in you all the tribes of the earth will be blessed." This John too said in the Gospel: "For God is able from these stones to raise up sons to Abraham."

And he added next: "who gives life to the dead and calls the things that are not as the things that are." By the dead here we understand those dead by the sin of the soul, since "the soul," it says, "that sins will die." For just as in bodily death the senses perish, so that no one any longer receives through the body either hearing or smell or taste or touch, so too those who have lost the spiritual senses in the soul, so that they do not see God, nor hear the word of God, nor catch the sweet fragrance of Christ, nor taste the good word of God, nor do their hands handle the word of life: such men are rightly called dead. Such the coming of Christ found us, but it gave us life by his grace, as the same Apostle says elsewhere too: "And when we were dead in our offenses and sins, he raised us up together with him." And do you want to have it proved to you from the prophetic Scriptures too that all who worship idols and trust in them are dead? Hear how David says: "The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the works of men's hands. They have a mouth and will not speak; they have eyes and will not see; they have ears and will not hear." And some way after: "Let those who make them become like them," he says, "and all who trust in them." You see that those who worship them and trust in them are dead and have become like the idols. Hence let us look more carefully whether perhaps, just as those who worship idols and trust in them are said to become like them, so too those who worship the true God and trust in him may become like him. And perhaps this is why in the beginning man, when it had been proposed that he be made according to the image and likeness of God, was made according to the image, but the likeness was deferred, so that he might first trust in God and so become like him, and he himself might hear that everyone who trusts in him will become like him. These things we have joined, by a kind of digression, to what we discussed about the kind of death, so that it might become more manifest in what ways God gives life to the dead.

But let us see how what he says next, "and calls the things that are not as the things that are," should be understood. We have often explained in other places too that God alone is the one who says, "I am who am"; and that substance of God which always is, is one; and if anyone joins himself to it, he becomes one spirit with him, and through him who always is, he too is said to be. But one who is far from him and does not take participation in him is not even said to be, as we Gentiles were before we came to the knowledge of the divine truth; and therefore God is said to call the things that are not as the things that are. For among those who are, that is, who have participation in him who is, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the other saints are numbered. And if the Gentiles, by believing, come into the faith of Abraham, the Apostle consequently declares that God has called the things that are not as the things that are. Yet this too can be noticed: that in this place the Apostle seems to have poured himself out more broadly in the praises of God, and to have recalled with wonder the beginning of his first creation, when he made all things to be out of nothing, and by the strength of his power called forth the things that were not as though they were and subsisted; and that nothing was so difficult for him in creating that, when nothing existed, all things, suddenly called, were present as though they had always existed.

And if anyone objects to us that word of the Apostle which he writes to the Corinthians, where he says that "God chose the despised things of the world, and the things that are not, to destroy the things that are, so that no flesh may boast before God," and says that according to this exposition it is not fitting that the things that are should be said to be destroyed when the things that are not have been chosen, we will say to this that in that place he called some "those who are," and in this passage of the Epistle to the Romans others. For to the Corinthians he declared that he was speaking of those whom he had enumerated above. For he said above: "For consider your calling, brothers, that not many of you are wise according to the flesh, not many powerful, not many noble; but God chose the foolish things of the world to put the wise to shame, and God chose the weak things of the world to put the strong to shame." Just as he says, then, that God chose the foolish things of the world, that is, the Gentiles, to put to shame the wise, without doubt the Jews, and the weak things of the world to put to shame the strong, in the same order he speaks in this place of the things that are not, to destroy the things that are: and he shows that the Gentiles are not, but the Jews are, that is, those who were in the law but did not fulfill the law, so that they might be destroyed, and those might be brought in who were not in the law and might be joined to the faith of Abraham by the merit of belief. And when he said, "to put the wise to shame," it was not that they were truly wise; otherwise God would never put to shame those who are wise according to the wisdom of God; but he means those who think they are wise and are not, as he also says elsewhere: "Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" He puts to shame, then, the wise of this world by choosing the foolish: not because these too were likewise foolish through poverty of understanding, but according to what was said: "Whoever wishes to be wise, let him become a fool in this world, that he may be wise before God; for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God."