Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He teaches the same thing about the Jews which in chapter I he taught about the Gentiles, namely that they are in sins, and stand in need of the faith and grace of Christ.
First, therefore, he refutes the Jews, who from the law given to them used to condemn the Gentiles as sinners, when they themselves committed the same things. From which he teaches that God, the just judge, will render to each one, both Jew and Gentile, according to his works.
Hence secondly, in verse 13, he asserts that not the hearers, but the doers of the law are justified, and that not only the Jews, but also the Gentiles have a law implanted in them by nature.
Thirdly, in verse 17, he reproves the Jews because from their law they teach others, but not themselves; and because they do the same things which they censure in others.
Fourthly, in verse 25, he teaches that true circumcision is not external but internal, which consists in the observance of the law; which is the circumcision of the heart in the spirit, not in the letter; before God, not before men.
Vulgate Text: Romans 2:1-29
1. Therefore you are inexcusable, O every man whoever you are who judge. For in that in which you judge another, you condemn yourself: for you do the same things which you judge. 2. For we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who do such things. 3. But do you think, O man, who judge those who do such things, and do them yourself, that you shall escape the judgment of God? 4. Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, and patience, and long-suffering? Do you not know that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? 5. But according to your hardness and impenitent heart, you treasure up to yourself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the just judgment of God, 6. who will render to every man according to his works: 7. to them indeed who, by patience in good work, seek glory, and honor, and incorruption, eternal life: 8. but to those who are contentious, and who do not yield to the truth, but believe iniquity, wrath and indignation. 9. Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that works evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek: 10. but glory, and honor, and peace to every one who works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek: 11. for there is no respect of persons with God. 12. For whoever has sinned without the law shall perish without the law: and whoever has sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law. 13. For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. 14. For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, naturally do those things which are of the law, these, having no law, are a law unto themselves: 15. who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them, and their thoughts between themselves accusing or also defending one another, 16. in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. 17. But if you are called a Jew, and rest in the law, and make your boast of God, 18. and know His will, and approve the more useful things, being instructed by the law, 19. you are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light of those who are in darkness, 20. an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having the form of knowledge and of truth in the law. 21. You then who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach not to steal, do you steal? 22. You who say not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you commit sacrilege? 23. You who glory in the law, by transgression of the law you dishonor God. 24. (For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written). 25. Circumcision indeed profits, if you keep the law: but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26. If therefore the uncircumcised man keeps the just precepts of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be reckoned as circumcision? 27. and shall not he who by nature is uncircumcised, fulfilling the law, judge you, who by the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law? 28. For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly: neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh: 29. but he is a Jew who is one inwardly: and the circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter: whose praise is not from men, but from God.
Verse 1: Therefore You Are Inexcusable, O Every Man Who Judges
1. Therefore you are inexcusable, O every man who judges. For in that in which you judge another, you condemn yourself, etc. — As if to say: Because the Gentiles, who did not understand the gravity and punishments of sins, as was set forth at the end of the preceding chapter, are nevertheless on account of the sins which they commit, or to which they consent, worthy of death; for this reason much more are you, O Jews, who have understood from the Mosaic law the gravity of sins and the punishments which God threatens against sinners; and who judge and condemn the Gentiles for their sins, and yet do and perpetrate the same things, worthy of death.
The Jews are entangled in the same vices as the Gentiles.
In the preceding chapter, the Apostle censured the Gentiles and the crimes of the Gentiles, by which they detained the truth of God in unrighteousness; here he censures the Jews for the same thing, indeed for a stronger reason. For, as I said in the preceding chapter, verse 18, he proposed the thesis that without the faith and grace of Christ all are subject to sins and to the wrath of God: he proved this there by showing that the Gentiles have been and are in sins and in the wrath of God: here he proves the same thing, by showing the same in the Jews, and from this he concludes in chapter III that all, both Gentiles and Jews, need Christ and the faith and grace of Christ, that they may be justified and saved.
Secondly, Maldonatus probably says in his manuscript notes: Paul, he says, has reference to verses 20 and 21 of chapter I: "So that they are inexcusable," etc. As if to say: Since God has delivered up to passions of ignominy those who knew Him, but did not glorify Him as God, those, I say, who detain the truth in unrighteousness; it follows that they are inexcusable when they condemn others who do evil: for they themselves do the like, indeed worse and more shameful things; but he changes the third person to the second, because he turns to them and addresses and reproves them, for greater emphasis. For thus far the Apostle blames in general all who are destitute of the faith and grace of Christ, both Gentiles and Jews, as is plain in verse 9, up to verse 17, where he turns to the Jews.
Verse 4: Or Do You Despise the Riches of His Goodness
4. Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, and patience, and long-suffering? — He calls God's overflowing kindness the "riches of goodness." Thus throughout, by catachresis, Paul takes 'riches' for abundance and plenty, as in chapter XI, verse 33: "O the depth of the riches of wisdom!" Thus elsewhere he speaks of "riches of glory, riches of grace," etc. And profane writers take to ploutein (to be rich) for to euporein (to be well off).
The lateness of God's vengeance, and His tolerance of sinners.
"The riches of God's goodness," says Origen, "he can recognize, who considers how many evils men daily commit on earth, and how nearly all, having gone astray and at the same time become useless, walk the broad and spacious way of perdition: if anyone should consider how many daily blaspheme against God, and stretch out their tongues unto heaven. What now shall I say of frauds, of sacrileges, and of crimes? If, therefore, anyone despises this goodness of God, and His sustenance, and His patience, he does not know that by these things he is being provoked to repentance; but let not this make us slack, and slow to conversion: because again there is a fixed measure of His patience and sustenance."
See Plutarch, book On the Late Vengeance of the Deity; where he treats that saying of Euripides about God: "He delays; for such is the nature of the Divinity."
Leads you to repentance? — In Greek eis metanoian se agein, that is, drives you and impels you to repentance? Therefore He "leads," that is, He desires and endeavors to lead, and as much as is in Himself, He does lead. See canon 32.
Verse 5: According to Your Hardness and Impenitent Heart
5. According to your hardness and impenitent heart, you treasure up to yourself wrath. — "You treasure up," says Bernard, in his sermon On the Threefold Mercy, "treasures of wrath for yourself, in place of the treasures of mercy that have been extended, which you despise, and you empty out God's mercy upon yourself." St. Augustine beautifully on Psalm 100, on the words, "Mercy and judgment will I sing to You, O Lord," from this passage of the Apostle teaches that the present is the time of mercy, but the future will be the time of judgment.
A beautiful description of the hard heart.
Note: "The heart is hard," says Origen, "when the human mind, bound up like wax by the cold of iniquity, does not receive the seal of the divine image." St. Bernard depicts this excellently in book I of On Consideration to Eugenius: "What," he says, "is a hard heart? It is the very thing which is neither rent by compunction, nor softened by piety, nor moved by prayers, yields not to threats, is hardened by scourges; it is ungrateful for benefits, faithless toward counsels, savage in judgments, shameless toward base things, fearless of dangers, inhuman toward human matters, rash toward divine things; forgetting the past, neglecting the present, not foreseeing the future. It is that to which, of past things, except injuries alone, nothing whatever does not pass away, of present things nothing does not perish, of future things there is no foresight or preparation except perchance for taking vengeance: and, to embrace in brief all the evils of this horrible malady, it is that which neither fears God nor reveres man."
Note secondly: The Apostle here calls 'wrath' that vengeance which, collected after the manner of a treasure, is brought forth and poured out wholly upon sinners on the day of judgment. St. Jerome gives a similar comparison: "Just as," he says, "one who slowly bends a bow gives the other person time to flee; and if he is unwilling to flee, he is pierced by the shot arrow with such greater force as the time during which the tension of the bow was being made was greater: so God, who has woolen feet, but iron hands, indeed avenges slowly, but heavily; and inflicts the heavier blows in proportion as He has waited longer for the sinner." Hence St. Augustine, in Homily 11 on John, says: "So great is the suspension of vengeance, as great as the patience of divine mercy."
In the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God. — The day of judgment is called the day of God's wrath, because then God will be angry against sinners and will punish them. See canon 33. It is also called the day of revelation, because then all the works of men, both good and evil, will be revealed, and the secrets of hearts will be laid open, as the Apostle says, 1 Corinthians IV, 5: "Until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts."
Verse 6: Who Will Render to Every Man According to His Works
6. Who will render to every man according to his works. — Taken from Psalm 61:13: "You will render to every one according to his works." And Proverbs 24:12: "He will render to a man according to his works." And Matthew 16:27: "The Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels: and then He will render to every man according to his works." See what I have said there.
Good works are meritorious of glory.
Note: From this passage Catholics prove that good works are meritorious of glory and eternal life; for if God will render to every one according to his works, therefore good works merit glory, but evil works gehenna. For to render a reward is to give a recompense for labor and work due in justice. For thus God renders to every one, not only good for good, but also evil for evil, as is plain from what follows. But this would be done unjustly, unless works truly deserved both reward and punishment. It is confirmed from what the Apostle immediately adds: "To them indeed who according to patience in good work seek glory and honor and incorruption, eternal life:" therefore those who work with this patience merit eternal life.
The heretics respond that God renders to every one according to works, not as if works merit reward or punishment, but because works are signs of faith and unbelief, to which alone reward and punishment are attributed. But this is said gratuitously, and against the mind of the Apostle, who here in express words says that God will give eternal life to those who do good works, but death to those who do evil. Besides, it is asked why God gives eternal life to the faithful who work good things, and not to those who work evil? If on account of faith alone, then He will give it also to those who work evil, provided they believe; which is absurd. If on account of good works, then works are the cause and merit of eternal life.
Verse 7: To Them Who Seek Glory and Honor and Incorruption
7. To them indeed, who according to patience in good work seek glory and honor and incorruption, eternal life. — Construe: He will render eternal life to those who through patience in good work seek glory, honor, and incorruption. "Patience" here means perseverance in good works, which usually demands great patience, on account of the many adversities, contradictions, and persecutions that are wont to befall the good. So Christ, Luke 21:19: "In your patience you shall possess your souls." And Hebrews 10:36: "For patience is necessary for you: that, doing the will of God, you may receive the promise."
He calls "glory" the heavenly splendor, which will be in the blessed both in body and in soul; "honor," the dignity and excellence of the blessed, who will be as kings and priests of God forever, as Apocalypse 5:10 says. "Incorruption," finally, the immortality of body and soul, which will be in the blessed after the resurrection.
Note: Eternal life is given to those who "seek" glory, honor, and incorruption; therefore it is lawful, indeed expedient, and we ought to seek heavenly glory and beatitude. For this is to direct our works lawfully to their ultimate end, which is God and the enjoyment of God in heaven, in which our beatitude consists. So Christ, Matthew 6:33: "Seek first the kingdom of God, and His justice." And Colossians 3:1: "Seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God."
Verse 8: But to Those Who Are of Contention, Wrath and Indignation
8. But to those who are of contention, and who do not acquiesce in the truth, but believe iniquity, wrath and indignation. — "Of contention" are those who contend and quarrel with God and with the truth of God, and assail it; such were the Jews, who contended with the Apostles, and did not acquiesce in the truth of the Gospel, but pertinaciously resisted it. The Greek is ex eritheias, that is, from contention, ambition, or faction: for eritheia properly signifies ambition, faction, and sedition, by which someone strives for his own advantage and honor, against truth and justice.
"They believe iniquity," that is, they consent to iniquity, and follow and embrace it. Or: They believe that to be honest which is iniquitous, and that to be lawful which is unlawful: as do heretics, who believe it lawful for monks and priests to take a wife, to eat flesh in Lent, etc. So Isaiah 5:20: "Woe to you who call evil good, and good evil: putting darkness for light, and light for darkness."
"Wrath and indignation." Understand: shall be to them, or shall be rendered. The wrath and indignation of God are the vengeance and retribution of God, which punishes sinners. But the Apostle adds soon after "tribulation and anguish," to signify the twofold punishment, namely, of loss and of sense: of loss, because they are deprived of God and of beatitude; of sense, because they are tormented in hell with eternal torments.
Verse 9: Tribulation and Anguish upon Every Soul That Works Evil
9. Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that works evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek. — "Tribulation and anguish" signify the most grievous and bitter punishments by which the impious will be tormented in hell. For tribulation is external affliction; but anguish is the internal anxiety and distress of soul, by which someone is pressed and confined, so that he does not know which way to turn. In Hebrew tsarah signifies anguish, and tsar signifies narrow: for afflictions narrow and confine the soul, so that it cannot expand and breathe.
"Upon every soul of man." It is a Hebraism, for: upon every man. So Genesis 12:5: "The souls which they had made in Haran," that is, the men, or the families and servants whom they had acquired for themselves in Haran. So also elsewhere often. Or: Upon the soul, that is, especially upon the soul: for the soul is the primary subject of the punishments of gehenna; but the body is the secondary subject, which will suffer punishments through the soul.
"Of the Jew first, and also of the Greek." Of the Jew first, because they had first been called to the faith and grace of Christ, and they first rejected it; therefore they will be first punished. For just as they were first called to grace, so they will first be punished, if they neglect grace. By "Greeks" here he understands all Gentiles, as we said in chapter I, verse 16. For the Greeks were the most renowned among the Gentiles, on account of their wisdom and eloquence; therefore the Apostle by them signifies all Gentiles.
Verse 10: Glory, Honor and Peace to Every One Who Works Good
10. But glory, and honor, and peace to every one that works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. — The Apostle here repeats what he had said in verse 7, but in a slightly different way. For there he said: "To those who according to patience in good work seek glory and honor and incorruption, eternal life:" but here he says: "Glory, honor and peace to every one that works good." Instead of "incorruption" and "eternal life" he here puts "peace," because peace is the highest good which the blessed obtain in heaven: for peace is the tranquillity of order, as St. Augustine says in book 19 Of the City of God, chapter 13. But in heaven there is the highest tranquillity and order, because there is nothing disordered there, nothing turbulent, but all things are in the highest peace and quiet.
"To the Jew first, and also to the Greek." By the same reason for which the Jews shall first be punished if they have sinned, so they shall first be rewarded if they have done well. Because they were first called to the faith and grace of Christ, they will also first receive the reward, if they have faithfully served Christ. For so Christ, Matthew 19:28: "You who have followed Me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His majesty, you also shall sit upon twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel."
Verse 11: For There Is No Respect of Persons with God
11. For there is no respect of persons with God. — He gives the reason why God will reward or punish Jews and Gentiles equally, namely, because there is with God no respect of persons, but only of works. Respect of persons is when someone judges another worthy of reward or punishment, not on account of his own merits or demerits, but on account of other things, such as kinship, friendship, riches, dignity, etc. But this does not fall upon God, who is the highest justice, and who knows the hearts of all, and who judges according to the works of each one, not according to the person.
So Deuteronomy 10:17: "God great and mighty and terrible, who accepts no person nor gifts." And 2 Chronicles 19:7: "For there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor desire of gifts." And Job 34:19: "Who accepts not the persons of princes: nor has known the tyrant, when he contended against the poor man: for all are the work of His hands." And 1 Peter 1:17: "And if you invoke as Father Him who, without respect of persons, judges according to every one's work, converse in fear during the time of your sojourning here."
Verse 12: Whoever Have Sinned Without the Law
12. For whoever have sinned without the law, shall perish without the law: and whoever have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law. — "Without the law" are the Gentiles, who did not have the written law, but only the law of nature. "In the law" are the Jews, who had the written law, namely, the Mosaic. The Apostle therefore wishes both — Gentiles and Jews — to be judged by God, but by a different law: the Gentiles indeed by the law of nature, but the Jews by the law of Moses.
"Shall perish without the law," that is, shall be condemned to gehenna, even though they have not had the written law: for the law of nature also is sufficient for condemning those who have sinned against it. For so the Apostle proved in the preceding chapter, verses 19 and following, that the Gentiles knew God from creatures, and yet did not glorify Him as God: therefore they are inexcusable, and will deservedly be condemned.
"Shall be judged by the law," that is, the Jews shall be more grievously judged and condemned, because they had the law of Moses, by which they knew the will of God, and yet sinned against it. For so Christ, Luke 12:47: "That servant who knew the will of his lord, and did not prepare, and did not act according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes." And John 15:22: "If I had not come, and spoken to them, they would not have sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin." For the greater the knowledge of the will of God, the greater is the guilt of him who sins against it.
Verse 13: Not the Hearers, but the Doers of the Law Shall Be Justified
Against the solifidians.
13. For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. — The Apostle proves what he had said, that the Jews are not excused from sin and punishment because they have the law of Moses: for it does not suffice for justice and salvation to hear the law, but it is necessary to do and observe it. Hence against the solifidian heretics, who require faith alone for justification, this passage is signal: for the Apostle openly teaches that not the hearers — that is, not those who only hear the law and believe — but the doers of the law — that is, those who fulfill the law in deed — are made just before God, and therefore are justified, that is, are made just. Calvin, in order to escape this dart of the Apostle, answers that the Apostle is speaking only of political justice, namely, that someone may appear just before men: for to this kind of justice external works are required.
But that this is false is plain from the very words of the Apostle, in which he says of those justified here: "They are just before God." Therefore God (and not men, as Calvin would have it) will judge them to be just, because they have done the law and the just works of the law, by which they have truly been made just or more just before God and in the eyes and judgment of God; and consequently God will render glory and eternal life, as a kind of reward, not to those who merely believe, but to those who work good, as the Apostle said in verses 7 and 10. "To be justified, therefore, before God," is to be made just before God, and to be declared just. For the Apostle in this verse explains 'to be justified' by 'to be made just'; since therefore he says that not the believers but the doers of the law are justified, it is plain that justice comes to a man not from the faith by which one believes, but from the works by which he does the law.
Secondly, the same thing is plain from the fact that, as Beza himself confesses in chapter III, verse 20, it is repugnant to the justice of God to hold someone for just who is not truly just: therefore the doer of the law must first be justified, that is, made just, before he can be declared just by God.
You will say: he is made just and has been made just through faith prior to works, which faith and justice — after the faith has already been received — the just person afterwards declares and demonstrates by good works: so that justification properly takes place by faith, but the declaration of justification takes place afterwards by good works. But this cannot be said. First, because, as I have said, the Apostle holds 'to be justified' and 'to be made just' as the same; therefore when he says: "The doers of the law shall be justified," 'shall be justified' does not only mean: They shall be declared just, but it also means: They shall really be made and shall be just.
Secondly, this response is diametrically opposed to the words of the Apostle; for he says: "Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." I subsume: but when someone only believes purely through faith, he is only a hearer, not a doer of the law: therefore if the one who believes, by the very fact that he believes, without works — indeed before works — is justified, it will be true that the hearer of the law, and not the doer of the law, is justified, the contrary of which the Apostle here directly asserts.
Thirdly, because the Jews believed in God and in the law; and yet against them the Apostle hurls this sentence, saying: "Not the hearers, but the doers of the law shall be justified." Therefore it is clear from the mind of the Apostle that we are justified, not by faith alone, but by works of faith.
Beza objects, in the place already cited: If we are justified by works, then God does not justify us, but we ourselves make ourselves just through our own works. I answer: First, the same thing can be inferred from Beza's 'special faith,' in this way: If by believing that Christ suffered for me, by that very fact I am justified; therefore I justify myself, for this believing is mine: for believing is an act not of God, but of the man believing.
I therefore answer secondly, by denying the consequence; for it is not man, but God who freely infuses justice into the man preparing himself for justice and repenting: therefore the repentant man is said to dispose himself toward justice; but God alone is properly said to justify him. But if a man is already just, then by good works he indeed merits an increase of justice, that is, of charity and grace; but God alone infuses this very thing into the just person, and consequently God alone properly justifies him further as well.
To be justified is taken in three ways in Scripture.
13. For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. — Note, 'to be justified' is taken in Scripture in three ways: First, it means to become just from a sinner; secondly, to become more just from being just; thirdly, in a forensic manner, to be reckoned and pronounced just or more just. In all these ways it is taken here (for this sentence of the Apostle is indefinite and general), but most of all in the third sense, for here the Apostle opposes 'to be justified' to 'to perish' and 'to be judged,' or condemned, in the preceding verse. First, therefore, "the doers of the law shall be justified," because the works of faith, fear, hope, and repentance, which are done according to the prescription of the law, dispose and prepare the sinner for justice, and so dispositively and meritoriously by way of congruity make a just person out of a sinner and justify him.
Secondly, because the works of charity and of every virtue which are done according to the prescription of the law, if they are done by the just person out of charity or grace, by condign merit deserve an increase of justice, and they preserve and increase the justice of the just.
Thirdly, finally, because the same works declare the worker to be just. For he who does justice or just works, he is just and is reckoned as just by all.
Note, the Apostle supposes that these works are done from faith and the grace of Christ; for he is treating of the whole observance of the law, and of works that are truly good and accepted by God unto eternal life, which cannot exist unless they are born of faith, as will be plain at the end of chapter III. For the Apostle here intends only to prove that the mere knowledge of the law does not suffice for justice, but that besides this, good action and the observance of the law are required for justice. Which is to be much noted against the heretics, who want faith alone, sitting in Rome, in this way: If by believing that Christ suffered for me, by that very fact I am justified; therefore I justify myself: for to believe purely is mine, not God's. I answer secondly, by denying the consequence: for although man in some manner prepares and disposes himself for justice through faith, fear, hope, and penance, nevertheless he is not the principal cause of his own justification, but God alone, who through Christ infuses grace and justice into man.
From what has been said it is plain that Calvin and Beza wrongly expound this place of the Apostle, as if it is indeed true in itself, but yet contains a condition and a thing that is impossible, as if the Apostle were saying: If anyone could fulfill the law, he would be justified; but, because no one can fulfill the law, since all are sinners, for this reason another justification must be sought, namely, that we be justified not by works, but by the faith of Christ, by which the justice of Christ is applied and imputed to us; and so we are made just, not by the justice of works inhering in us, but by the justice of Christ imputed to us. For these are the three principles and axioms of Calvin.
First: "It is impossible for us to fulfill what the law commands." Second: "A legal promise attached to an impossible condition proves nothing. Such is: If you are a doer of the law, you shall be justified." Third: "Those who have advanced far beyond others (says Calvin, book III of the Institutes, chapter XIX, section 4) in the way of the Lord, if they look upon the law of the Lord, see that whatever work they attempt or meditate upon is accursed." For my part I would readily believe that such is the progress of Calvin and his followers in the way of the Lord. But this exposition is perverse, violent, inept, and blasphemous, and it plainly overthrows and perverts the meaning and mind of the Apostle.
For first, the Apostle here places our justice not in hearing, nor in faith, but in the doing and fulfillment of the law of faith, as I have already shown: therefore if this justice, which consists in the observance of the law, is none — indeed is impossible — there will be absolutely no justice in man, and justice will be impossible for man.
This again is plainly clear from what Paul said in the preceding verses 5, 6, 9, to which he here looks back and refers: for there he said that God will render to each one according to his works, namely, that to those who are according to patience in good work, He will render eternal life; and that glory, honor, and peace are for everyone who works good. For if to good work and to the one working well, as a kind of reward, glory and eternal life are rendered, then justice is situated in the good work: for eternal life is the reward and recompense of nothing other than justice.
Secondly, this proposition: "The doers of the law shall be justified," is not conditional, as is plain, but assertive: just as therefore, if you say: 'Not the spectators, but the wrestlers and the victors in the contest shall be crowned,' I shall rightly infer from this proposition that some can be victors, and can wrestle and conquer in the contest; in like manner, when the Apostle says: "Not the hearers, but the doers of the law shall be justified," it rightly follows that some can be doers of the law, and can fulfill and accomplish the law. Whence the Apostle here also adds that "the Gentiles by nature do those things which are of the law."
Thirdly, if this proposition of the Apostle is conditional, having an impossible condition, then it is impossible, and signifies an impossible thing. For when the condition is impossible, that also which requires this condition is impossible. As if I should say: 'A man who has wings can fly'; this proposition is indeed conditionally true, but absolutely it is false and impossible. For since the condition, namely 'to have wings,' is impossible for man, it is also impossible for man to fly, which requires this condition, namely wings. In the same way, then, justice will be impossible for man, since the condition which the Apostle here requires, namely the doing of the law, is impossible for man, according to Calvin; and consequently, according to Calvin, this proposition of the Apostle: "The doers of the law shall be justified," will be simply and absolutely false.
Fourthly, to say that for a man, even when aided by the grace of Christ, it is impossible to fulfill the law, is a vast blasphemy against God and against Christ: for this is in fact to say that God is a tyrant, inasmuch as He commands us things that are impossible; for, according to Calvin, to fulfill God's law, or what God commands, is impossible for us. Again, this very thing is to say that Christ has not sufficiently redeemed us, and that the grace of Christ is weak and ineffective for fulfilling the law and for overcoming sin.
Truly and in a Christian manner St. Augustine, and after him the Council of Orange and the Council of Trent, session VI, chapter XI: "God," he says, "does not command impossible things, but in commanding He admonishes you both to do what you can, and to ask for what you cannot, and He helps you that you may be able."
Verse 14: When the Gentiles Naturally Do Those Things Which Are of the Law
14. For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, naturally do those things which are of the law, these, not having the law, are a law unto themselves. — Paul here meets a tacit objection: How can the Gentiles, if they do not have the law, sin against the law? He answers that they have another law naturally implanted, which they do, and against which they sin. And so they are a law to themselves, that is, in the place of a law, by which they are condemned. For he returns to the verse as if to the very point of this and the preceding chapter, namely, that he may prove that both those who lived under the law, and those who lived without the law, that is, both the Jews and the Gentiles, are sinners and have need of the faith and grace of Christ.
You will say: How do the Gentiles by nature do those things which are of the law? I answer first Zwingli, and Numa, he says, to Quirinus, ch. 99; Jerome to Algasia, Question 8 (St. Augustine also, in ch. 28 already cited, admits this exposition, although he prefers the former), D. Soto, Cajetan and frequently more recent authors, take this passage of the Apostle to refer to the Gentiles living in gentilism. And that it must be so taken is clear from the word naturally and from those who do not have the law, namely the written law of Moses or of Christ (for Gentiles converted to Christ have the Evangelical law, which is a fuller and more perfect law than the law of Moses given to the Jews); but they have only the law of conscience and the worm accusing and defending. The same point is also clear secondly from the fact that here the Apostle wishes to prove that both Gentiles and Jews need the grace and faith of Christ: therefore he understands both these and those, who are without the faith of Christ. As if to say: Do not be proud, O Jews, against and above the Gentiles, on account of the Mosaic law, as if hearers of the law were justified. For the Gentiles, not having the written law, have it naturally implanted, which directs them and impels them to perform most of the works of the natural law naturally, that is, by the leading, light and power of nature.
Without supernatural knowledge it is impossible to be justified.
You will say with St. Augustine: Shortly before the Apostle said, "Doers of the law shall be justified;" yet Gentiles without faith cannot be justified: therefore when he calls them doers of the law, he does not understand them as without faith, but as converted to the faith. I answer: "Doers of the law," namely of the whole law, "shall be justified." But although the Gentiles do those things of the law that are easy, such as honoring parents, giving alms, avoiding theft and murder, nevertheless they cannot do and fulfill the whole law without the faith and grace of Christ, both because they cannot, by nature and the powers of nature, fulfill the law of faith, hope, charity, and others which are supernatural; and also because they cannot fulfill the difficult laws of nature, such as, "Thou shalt not covet," "Thou shalt love God more than thyself" and any others, if a serious temptation arises, without the help and powers of grace. For they cannot long resist a serious temptation by their own powers, but for this they need God's grace. Here observe diligently: The Apostle does not say that the Gentiles do or fulfill the law; but "those things which are of the law," that is, some, namely the easier precepts of the law, they perform. But when he says that those who do are justified, he does not say "those things which are of the law," but the law, namely the whole and entire law. This however cannot be done without the faith and grace of Christ.
Gentiles before Christ's coming can fulfill some precepts of the law, but not all. Those internally doing the law are justified.
15 and 16. Who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them, and their thoughts between themselves (so it is to be read with St. Cyprian and the Roman Bibles, not 'of thoughts,' as others read) accusing one another, or also defending, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my Gospel, through Jesus Christ. — For 'thoughts' (cogitationibus), the Greek is λογισμῶν, that is, reasonings or disputations, "accusing," namely the man, even the Gentile, when he acts wickedly (since conscience naturally dictates to man that pollution is a sin: because over it young men blush, are anguished, and judge in others that it is a thing abhorrent to reason and natural honor and modesty, foul and base), and "defending" the man, when he acts well: by which thoughts and disputations conscience operates to convict a man of having acted well or ill — and this conscience is a witness greater than any objection, that the Gentiles have a law implanted in their mind. And this witness will appear most fully "in the day of judgment," where each one's own conscience will either excuse or accuse him before God, who shall judge "through" the man "Jesus Christ." So Theophylact.
Note here a remarkable moral lesson. In the basilica of the human heart God has set up a tribunal, and engraved laws on its tablets with His own finger; He has created reason as judge, conscience as plaintiff, thoughts as witnesses, which either accuse or defend the man as defendant. For this is what Paul clearly signifies by these words. And this is what Menander meant when he said: Βροτοῖς ἅπασι συνείδησίς ἐστι Θεός, that is, "For all mortals conscience is God," that is, in the place and stead of God. And the Psalmist, Ps. IV, 6, when he says: "The light of Thy countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us." Hence we read that God has referred the cases of man himself to this judgment: for David had his own case proposed under the guise of another's lawsuit, and being asked, he gave judgment against himself, saying: "As the Lord lives, the man who has done this is a son of death," 2 Kings XII, 5. And against Ahab too, by a similar stratagem, the sentence of death arose against himself, pronounced in these words: "This is your judgment, which you yourself have decreed," 3 Kings XX, 40. And to what end, you will ask, are these enigmas? Surely lest the cleverness of the human heart should make light of its own offense and accuse God's justice, the design was that the offender himself, examining the gravity of sin free from affection, should pronounce punishment against himself according to his merits. And this is what David meant when he protests: "Against Thee only have I sinned, etc., that Thou mayest be justified in Thy words, and overcome when Thou art judged" — that is, I confess that I have grievously offended, that by this confession of Yours Your justice may shine forth, and the mouths of detractors may be shut.
Rightly does the faithful David openly confess his offense: for sometimes the cunning human heart dares to wish to lie even to God Himself, as may be seen in Jeremiah, ch. II, v. 23: "How do you say: I am not polluted, I have not walked after Baalim? See your ways in the valley," etc. And again, v. 33: "Why do you strive to show your way good? I will contend with you in judgment, because you have said: I have not sinned," etc. And Peter says in Acts V, 3: "Why has Satan tempted your heart, to lie to the Holy Spirit?" And Ahaz to Isaiah, ch. VII, v. 12: "I will not ask," he said, "and I will not tempt the Lord." The impious Ahaz said he was deserving well of God in not wishing to tempt Him, when in reality he rather distrusted Him. And Saul boasts in 1 Kings XV, 20, saying: "Indeed I have heard the voice of the Lord, and have walked in the way through which the Lord sent me, etc. The people however took of the spoil sheep and oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord," etc. But further on he betrays himself: "I have sinned, fearing the people and obeying their voice." These masked and lying excuses of conscience God therefore reveals and dispels when He sets conscience itself before its own eyes, that it may accuse and condemn itself, which it will do most fully on the day of judgment. And so the Apostle adds, saying: "In the day, when God shall judge the secrets of men." So Prado, on ch. VIII of Ezekiel.
Now if our conscience will thus accuse us, indeed will accuse itself on the day of judgment, consider how the demons your sworn enemies will accuse you. Hear St. Augustine in his Sermon to the Catechumens, vol. VI: "The devil will be ready as adversary, the words of our profession will be recited. And if anyone is found such, that he departs from this life as a debtor: that adversary will exult in the sight of the most severe judge, declaring himself the superior, and arguing such a case before such a judge: Most just judge, he will say, judge; justice and judgment are the preparation of Your throne. Judge that he is mine, who refused to be Yours; he is mine, with me he must be condemned. After his renunciation, why did he invade my rags? What was unchastity doing with him, who had renounced it? What intemperance, what avarice, what wrath, what the rest of my things? Finally, most justly, fleeing from me, taking refuge with You, afterwards I caught him with my things which he had renounced; I held the invader. In what was in some way my own possession he was caught by me. What was the renouncer of base pleasures doing in the theater? He has stored up wrath for himself in the day of wrath. He has invaded after his renunciation all these things of mine, he wanted to be mine, and coveted my judgments; judge most justly, since he whom You did not disdain to redeem at so great a price, has afterwards wished to bind himself to me. Will he be able to open his mouth, who after his profession is found such, as justly to be assigned to the devil?" Whence he concludes: "See what you do, my sons, my brothers, see what you do, how you keep this your profession. We call to witness for you the judge Himself, and all the heavenly powers, who both hear us as we admonish, and receive you as you profess, that you receive not the grace in vain; but with whole heart, with all your strength renounce so ruinous an inheritance of the devil."
According to my Gospel, — according to what I am accustomed to evangelize and teach concerning the day of judgment and its penalties and rewards, having been taught by Christ: so Theophylact.
From this learn, against heretics, that there pertains to the Gospel not only the preaching of the faith of grace and salvation promised through Christ, but also of just judgment, by which God will render to each according to his works, as the Apostle here says.
Verse 17: But If You Are Called a Jew, and Rest in the Law
17. But if you are called a Jew, and rest in the law. — Supply from the preceding: And yet you do not do or observe the law itself; for this reason you will be more gravely condemned. As if to say: If you, O Jew, boast that you are a Jew, and that you are skilled in the law, so that you rest in the doctrine of the law, and yet do not do or fulfill the law itself, you will deservedly be punished more bitterly. For 'but if' (si autem), our translator reads εἰ δέ. So also Origen, Ambrose, and Theophylact read. The Greeks read ἴδε, 'behold' — so Theodoret and Oecumenius read; and thus the sentence is independent and absolute.
Verse 18: And You Approve the More Useful Things
18. And you approve the more useful things. — δοκιμάζεις τὰ διαφέροντα, which others render, you examine those things which differ. But our translator, more plainly with Theophylact, renders, you approve the more useful things: because, as Budaeus rightly noted, διαφέρειν is sometimes the same as συμφέρειν, that is, to be useful.
19 and 20. You trust yourself to be a guide of the blind, etc. Having the form of knowledge and of truth in the law. — "Having the form," Greek μόρφωσιν, that is, formation, formula, rule of things to be done and believed; as if to say: You think, O Jew, that you have in the law, by which you may teach others that same law, the knowledge and worship of God, in order to form them to virtue and piety. So Theophylact.
Verse 21: You Therefore Who Teach Another, Do You Not Teach Yourself
21. You therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself: you who preach not to steal, do steal. — Beautifully and truly St. Prosper says: "To teach well and live ill, what is this but to condemn oneself by one's own voice?" And St. Bernard, in book II Of Consideration to Eugenius, before the middle, says: "It is a monstrous thing, the highest rank and the lowest spirit; the first seat and the lowest life; a grandiloquent tongue and idle hands; much speech and no fruit; a grave face and a frivolous act; great authority and tottering stability; a wrinkled face and a trifling tongue." The same Bernard, sermon 3 on the Vigil of the Nativity of the Lord, condemns that doctrine which is destitute of good works, and teaches that knowledge alone is true which orders life and reforms morals. "That knowledge," he says, "in the first degree works repentance and sorrow, so as to convert laughter into mourning, song into wailing, joy into grief; and what before vehemently pleased you begins to displease you, and you specially shrink from those things which you specially desired. For so it is written: 'He who adds knowledge, adds also sorrow,' that sorrow may be the proof following true and holy knowledge. In the second degree it works correction, that you no longer present your members as weapons of iniquity to sin, but restrain gluttony, kill lust, suppress pride, and make the body serve holiness which before served iniquity. For repentance without correction will not profit, as the Wise Man says: 'One building up, and one destroying, what does it profit them but their labor? For he who is washed by a dead man, and touches him again, his washing profits nothing.' But since these things cannot be long maintained unless the unwearied mind keeps watch and pays attention with much circumspection, in the third degree it works solicitude, so that, now solicitous, it may begin to walk with its God and search itself on every side, lest by the slightest matter the gaze of that dread majesty be offended. In repentance it is kindled, in correction it burns, in solicitude it shines, that it may be renewed inwardly and outwardly."
In the Lives of the Fathers, book V, ch. X, Abbot Pastor says: "If anyone teaches something and does not do what he teaches, he is like a well, which satisfies all who come to it and washes off filth; but it cannot cleanse itself, and all foulness and uncleanness is in it."
Verse 22: You Who Abhor Idols, Commit Sacrilege
22. You who abhor idols, commit sacrilege, — namely, when, overcome by avarice, you usurp things consecrated to idols or sacrificed to demons, contrary to the law, says St. Chrysostom and Theophylact; or also when you violate vows, or steal sacred things, or sell and profane them. For this is sacrilege, and he who does this is a sacrilegious man.
Verse 25: Circumcision Indeed Profits, If You Observe the Law
25. Circumcision indeed profits, if you observe the law. — "Circumcision profits," not of itself for justifying at least adults; but because it makes you to be of the people of God marked out, to whom God committed His oracles, as Paul says in the next chapter, v. 2. For circumcision was first a distinguishing sign of God's people from other peoples, which was heir of the word of God and of divine worship, of true religion and piety.
Secondly, it was a sign reminding of original sin, which is transmitted by generation to descendants: for this generation, and consequently the transmission of original sin, takes place by that member which was circumcised.
Thirdly, circumcision was a sign prefiguring the Messiah, and likewise sharing in Him: for to the circumcised first the Messiah and the Gospel, as promised, was also revealed.
Fourthly, it was a sign reminding of spiritual circumcision, namely that they should cut off vices from their heart.
Verse 26: But If You Are a Transgressor of the Law
Doctrine destitute of good works is damnable. The threefold meaning of circumcision.
26. But if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision, — as if to say: If you violate the law, even though you are circumcised, you are nevertheless just as if you had the foreskin and had put on gentilism. Here Paul represses the arrogance of the Jews boasting of their circumcision. So Theophylact.
If therefore the uncircumcision (that is, the uncircumcised Gentile) keep the just precepts of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be reckoned for circumcision? — as if to say: If the Gentile keep the law, then uncircumcision will not harm him, but he will rather be reckoned as if he were circumcised, because the keeping of the law alone, indeed more, will avail him, than circumcision avails the Jew: because, as Theophylact says, true circumcision is the cutting off not of the flesh, but of sins, or it is the very true and good action separated from vices; whereas uncircumcision is the bad and base action.
Note, "uncircumcision" here in the latter place is taken properly for uncircumcision (the state), but in the former for the uncircumcised one, that is, the Gentile. So also it is taken in v. 27, and often below. For by a Hebraism the abstract is put for the concrete. See Canon 21. Add that the Jews, for greater detestation of the Gentiles, called them not the uncircumcised but "the uncircumcision"; and themselves, for greater honor, called not the circumcised but "the circumcision," as is clear from Eph. II, v. 11.
Note secondly: Moral precepts are here called justices, Greek δικαιώματα, that is, justifications of the law, because they prescribe what is equitable and just, and what makes a man just, as I said on Psalm 118, at the beginning.
Verse 27: And Shall Judge That Which by Nature Is Uncircumcision
27. And shall judge (that is, condemn) that which by nature is uncircumcision (that is, uncircumcised by birth and nativity, or Gentile; thus Gal. II, 15, it is said: "We by nature," that is, by birth and lineage, "Jews"), fulfilling the law (namely, if he do and fulfill the law), you, who by the letter and circumcision (that is, you, who have the letter of the law and circumcision, and yet) are a transgressor of the law.
Note the Graecism, "by the letter," that is, having the letter. For so διά is taken by the Greeks. Similar is 1 Tim. II, 15: "She shall be saved by the bearing of children," that is, she shall be saved bearing children, "if she remain in faith," etc.
Secondly, however, and better, you may take τὸ 'by' here properly: because the bare letter of the law without the grace of Christ provokes concupiscence and sin, as Paul says in ch. VII, v. 13. Hence in 2 Cor. III, 6 and 7, he says that the letter of the law kills, and calls the ministry of Moses in the legislation "the ministration of death and condemnation." Hence again in 1 Cor. XV, 56, he says that "the strength of sin" is the law. Thus then the Jew, through the letter, or the law, as an occasion that incites him, is a transgressor of the law.
Note secondly: The Apostle is wont to call the Mosaic law γράμμα, that is, letter or writing. First, because that law was written by God on tablets of stone. Secondly, because this law indicated Christ and led men to Him: just as writing and letter indicate the concept of the writer, and the very thing that is written. Thirdly, because the bare law, separated from Christ, was as it were γράμμα, that is, as it were a kind of dead writing, which availed little or nothing for salvation; because, namely, it could only indicate, but not heal, the disease, that is, sin and concupiscence lurking in our entrails: nay rather it more provoked and sharpened the same, as I have already said. For which reason the Apostle opposes to this letter the Spirit and grace of Christ giving life to souls.
Verse 28: For He Is Not a Jew Who Is One Outwardly
28. For he is not a Jew who is so outwardly (by the external and public observance and profession of Judaism): neither is that circumcision which is outward, in the flesh. — Understand: this is the true Jew pleasing to God, this is the true circumcision pleasing to God.
Verse 29: But He Who Is a Jew Inwardly
Jew means one confessing and praising God. The threefold sense of circumcision of the heart.
29. But he who is a Jew in secret, — namely, he who in heart and spirit, by observance of the law, faith and grace, confesses Christ (who is the goal of the law, whom the whole law proclaims and professes). Understand: this man is truly a Jew before God, and a spiritual son of Abraham. He alludes to the name of the patriarch Judah (for from him, as patriarch, all his descendants were called Jews, not however from Judas Maccabaeus, as some have thought); for in Hebrew he is called יהודה Jehuda, that is, confessing, or praising, namely, God, in Genesis ch. 29, 35, and 49, v. 8. Thus the Jew, born from Judah, is one confessing God, in Christ, as the Messiah sent by God, who was born both from God and from Judah and the Jews: according to the promises made to Judah, Gen. 49, 10.
And circumcision of the heart, — which circumcises the heart, that is, the mind, from vices and passions, namely, this is the true circumcision pleasing to God. See St. Cyprian, in his treatise On the Reason of Circumcision, vol. III.
In spirit, not in the letter. — First, Toletus thus explains, as if to say: This circumcision of the heart is done "by the spirit," that is, in the soul by the cutting off of vices; "not by the letter," that is, not in the body, the circumcision of which is commanded by the letter of the law.
Secondly, this circumcision of the heart is done by the spirit, that is, according to the spiritual sense of the law, not the literal, which is concerning carnal circumcision. So St. Augustine.
Thirdly, this circumcision of the heart is done "by the spirit," that is, by grace assisting and healing, not "by the letter" teaching and threatening; that is, it is done by grace, not by the law. So St. Augustine, On the Spirit and the Letter, ch. VIII. This third is more genuine, and more in accord with the mind and phrasing of the Apostle. For so he himself speaks in 2 Cor. III, 6.
Fourthly, more elegantly with the Greek, Maldonatus refers the τὸ "in spirit, not in the letter" not to τὸ "circumcision" (for this is not done in the letter, but in the flesh), but to τὸ "Jew," as if to say: Not he who is a Jew by the written law and by the letter of the law, but he who is a Jew in mind and spirit. For he calls 'to be a Jew' to have the law. This is clear from the relative οὗ, that is, 'whose,' as I shall say presently.
Whose (namely, the Jew's, not the circumcision's: for the Greek οὗ, being masculine, refers to the Jew, not to circumcision) praise is not from men, but from God, — as if to say: Of such a hidden, inward, and spiritual Jew the praiser is God who knows the heart. So Oecumenius. Or secondly, "whose praise is," whose praise is sought and expected from God, as if to say: He who strives to prove himself and please God inwardly, not men outwardly, who desires and seeks to be praised not by men but by God, this man is truly a spiritual Jew, in the sense which I have stated at v. 28.
Why did God not institute circumcision in another part of the human body?
Hence tropologically St. Jerome (or rather Paulinus, as Erasmus holds; or certainly Maximus of Turin, as Marianus holds), in the epistle to Terasia, on true circumcision, which is found in vol. IV of the works of St. Jerome, asks why God instituted circumcision not in the ear, finger, or any other open part of the body, but in the member which is hidden. And he answers, and gives this reason: "The Lord prefigured," he says, "that which He afterwards taught, that we should not do our justice before men; but in secret, before Him alone to whom alone nothing is secret, and whom alone we know to be the rewarder of good deeds. Hence we ought to be Jews not in the flesh openly, but in the secret of the heart, not in the letter, but in the spirit. For the letter is subject to our eyes, but the spirit shrinks from our carnal gaze, that praise, according to the Apostle, may be obtained from God, not from men."