Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
From what was said in chapters I and II, he concludes that all men, both Jews and Gentiles, are under sin and stand in need of the grace of Christ.
First, therefore, lest he offend the Jews, he says that they excel the Gentiles in this, that to the Jews were entrusted the oracles and the promises of God, which God faithfully fulfills, even though some of them have been and are unbelieving: for God is truthful, but every man a liar.
Second, at verse 9, he equates the Jews with the Gentiles in that all are under sin, and he proves this by many testimonies of Scripture.
Third, at verse 20, he teaches that the same are freed from sin and justified, not by the works of the Law in which the Jews gloried, but by faith in Christ the propitiator.
Vulgate Text: Romans 3:1-31
1. What advantage then has the Jew? or what is the profit of circumcision? 2. Much in every way. First indeed, because to them were entrusted the oracles of God; 3. for what if some of them did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faithfulness of God of no effect? God forbid. 4. But God is true, and every man a liar, as it is written: That You may be justified in Your words and overcome when You are judged. 5. But if our iniquity commends the justice of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? 6. (I speak after the manner of men.) God forbid. Otherwise how shall God judge this world? 7. For if the truth of God has more abounded through my lie unto His glory: why am I also yet judged as a sinner? 8. and not (as we are blasphemed, and as some say we say) let us do evil that good may come: whose damnation is just. 9. What then? Do we excel them? By no means. For we have charged that Jews and Greeks are all under sin, 10. as it is written: There is none righteous, no, not one: 11. there is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God. 12. They have all turned aside, they have together become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not so much as one. 13. Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the venom of asps is under their lips. 14. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15. Their feet are swift to shed blood. 16. Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17. and the way of peace they have not known. 18. There is no fear of God before their eyes. 19. Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become subject to God: 20. because by the works of the Law no flesh shall be justified in His sight. For by the Law is the knowledge of sin. 21. But now without the Law the justice of God has been made manifest: being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. 22. The justice of God by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all who believe in Him: for there is no distinction. 23. For all have sinned, and need the glory of God. 24. Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, 25. whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood, for the manifestation of His righteousness, for the remission of former sins, 26. through God's forbearance, for the manifestation of His righteousness in this time: that He may be just, and the justifier of him who is of the faith of Jesus Christ. 27. Where then is your boasting? It is excluded. Through what Law? Of works? No: but through the Law of faith. 28. For we judge that a man is justified by faith without the works of the Law. 29. Is God the God of the Jews only? Is He not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. 30. Since indeed it is one God who shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith. 31. Do we then destroy the Law through faith? God forbid: rather, we establish the Law.
Verse 1: What Advantage Then Has the Jew?
1. WHAT ADVANTAGE THEN HAS THE JEW? — Here the Apostle meets an objection, as if to say: If what I said in chapter II is true, concerning the emptiness of the Jews' Law and circumcision, and that God will reward the Gentile equally with the Jew if he keeps the Law, and punish him if he does not: then it would seem the Jew excels the Gentile in nothing. He replies by denying that this follows from what he has said. He therefore shows here in what respects the Jew does excel the Gentile.
Note: for "what advantage," in Greek it is ti to perisson; that is, what is exceptional to the Jew? what great, what notable and distinguished thing does the Jew have over the Gentile? For perisson sometimes means superfluous, sometimes exaireton, that is, choice and exceptional.
Verse 2: Or What Is the Profit of Circumcision?
2. OR WHAT IS THE PROFIT OF CIRCUMCISION? MUCH, — that is, circumcision is profitable, and the Jew has much more than the Gentile.
IN EVERY WAY, — that is, altogether, in every manner.
FIRST INDEED, BECAUSE TO THEM WERE ENTRUSTED THE ORACLES OF GOD. — Some think the "first" is merely the opening of the sentence of the discourse.
Secondly, Origen judges that the prōton is the beginning of an exposition and enumeration, as if the Apostle were going to enumerate many privileges of the Jews in what follows; which, however, nowhere appears.
Whence thirdly, S. Ambrose says best: "first," he says, that is, chief, primary, and one of the foremost things, is that God entrusted to them — namely the Jews — as to a people chosen above others and distinguished by circumcision, as to depositaries and custodians, as a deposit "His oracles," that is, as Chrysostom and Theodoret have it, His Law; and as others have it, the Sacred Scriptures, and in them the divine promises and covenants and the predictions of future mysteries: for these are the ancient oracles of God. Hence in Greek it is logia, that is, oracles, as Hesychius testifies; for these were first revealed by God to the Jews, and given over to them in writing through the Prophets: so that they came to the Gentiles only through the Jews. The Apostle therefore brings forward only these oracles of God in which the Jew excels the Gentile; although he could have brought forward many others, such as God's benevolence, protection, and beneficence toward the Jews, true faith and religion, miracles, sacraments, sacrifices, holy Prophets, judges, kings, the Messiah promised to them and born from them, and the like: these, I say, the Apostle could have adduced; but He chose not to, because all these are contained either explicitly or implicitly in the oracles of God. Whence the Apostle adds:
Verse 3: For What If Some of Them Did Not Believe?
3. FOR WHAT IF SOME OF THEM DID NOT BELIEVE? SHALL THEIR UNBELIEF MAKE THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD OF NO EFFECT? — He meets a new objection: How were the oracles of God entrusted to the Jews, since many of them did not believe them? He replies: Granted that some did not believe, yet God on His part did entrust to them His oracles and promises, and faithfully fulfilled them: for the unbelief or infidelity of men cannot make void or weaken the "faith" of God — that is, His faithfulness — namely, so that God should not stand by the promises which He made to the fathers, especially concerning the Messiah to be born from the Jews and to justify all the faithful, in the oracles of the Sacred Scripture entrusted to them. Here you see that by "oracles of God" the Apostle includes God's promises.
Note: The Apostle raises this Jewish unbelief against himself so that, as though dealing with another matter, he may sting and rebuke their infidelity by which they refused to believe Christ and the Gospel.
Note second: for "shall make void," in Greek it is katargēsei, that is, will render idle, vain, ineffectual, null. For it answers to the Hebrew פרע para, or הפיר hephir. On which see more at Galatians 5:4.
Verse 4: God Is True, and Every Man a Liar
4. GOD FORBID; BUT GOD IS TRUE, AND EVERY MAN A LIAR. — The word autem (but) is here put for enim (for), as the Syriac translates; see canon 25. For he gives the reason why the unbelief of men cannot annul the faith of God: namely, because God is truthful, but every man a liar. The Greek for "is" has more significantly ginesthō, that is, "let it be," as if to say: God forbid; rather, let God be and be established as true, as every man is a liar. Hence Salmeron thinks that our translator rendered esto (let it be), and that this has been corrupted to est (is). But S. Augustine, Ambrose, Cyprian (in his epistle to Cornelius), and Latin codices and translators throughout consistently read est, not esto.
GOD IS TRUE. — Note: Truthfulness is a virtue that inclines a man to keep truth in his words, and is opposed to lying. Fidelity, however, is a virtue that inclines one to keep and fulfill covenants and what has been promised. Therefore every fidelity of a promise is truthfulness, but not the converse; often, however, as here, they are taken for the same thing.
BUT EVERY MAN A LIAR. — In Hebrew at Psalm 115, which Paul cites here, it has כל אדם כזב col adam coseb; which first, Theodoret renders, "every man fails," as Theodoret and Euthymius say on Psalm 115: "Nothing is stable in human affairs; but all is vanity, every man living," Psalm 38:6.
Hence secondly, Aquila renders, "every man is a lie." So also Jerome (these read in the Hebrew with different pointing כזב cazab for coseb), that is, as Jerome explains on Psalm 115: "Everything we see in this life, everything we understand, is a lie," that is, a shadow and image, and is often error. For in God alone and in heaven is truth, stability, eternity. Or, as others explain, "every man is a lie," that is, every man is a nothing, futile, vain, and unworthy of God's caring for him; so that the meaning is the same as what is said at Psalm 30:23: "I said in the excess of my mind, I am cast away from before Your eyes," as if to say: It seems to me, David, in this my alarm, that You have forgotten me, O Lord, because I am a lying man, that is, vain, a nothing. Whence he immediately opposes to this, saying: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints," as if to say: Although man is so worthless, yet those who are holy God does not neglect, but holds dear and cares for.
Thirdly, Symmachus translates, "every man lies." Which S. Basil, on Psalm 115, explains thus: Because David, he says, before Achis was forced to feign himself a fool and as it were to lie; whence he says, every man is constrained from time to time to lie, as I am constrained here; or, as the same Basil has it, "every man lies," that is, deceives the hope given and conceived of him; as a crop "lies" when it disappoints the hope and labor of the farmer, as if to say: man has only a deceitful appearance and mask of truth. Fourthly, our translator renders best, "Every man a liar," that is, by the vice and proclivity of corrupted nature, by habit and custom, every man is capable and prone to lie and to deceive the trust given: again, man often does not know what he says; and forgets what he promised, or from weakness cannot fulfill it, and so in fact lies. Hence S. Augustine, in his Sentences, no. 322: "No man," he says, "has of his own anything but sin and lying. But if a man has anything of truth or justice, it is from that fountain which we must thirst after in this wilderness, that, sprinkled by Him as with certain drops, we may not faint along the way."
Note: The Apostle here cites Psalm 115, where it is said: "I said in my ecstasy," that is, as S. Basil explains, in an ecstasy and rapture of mind; or rather, as Jerome, Augustine, and Aquila translate from the Hebrew, in stupor, terror, and disturbance of mind (for this is what חפזון chippazon means): "Every man is a liar," as if to say: I, David, when I was in such great evils, that distrust of salvation and of the promised kingdom arose in me, from the precipitation of a troubled mind, said: "Every man is a liar." For behold, Samuel had promised me the kingdom, Saul a daughter, the friends and soldiers I commanded in the camp had promised me their faith and aid; and behold I, wretched and poor, am perishing here, all desert me and break the faith given me, while Saul pursues me.
You will say: Therefore these words are not Sacred Scripture, nor of the Holy Spirit, but of David driven by an evil and false spirit of distrust; for he in fact afterward became king and found men not liars but truthful.
I reply: It is true, namely that these words are not of the Holy Spirit insofar as they were spoken by David; yet insofar as they are here repeated and confirmed by S. Paul, they are of the Holy Spirit, who here makes these words of David His own, because in actual fact they are true in the sense I gave a little before. Add, even insofar as they were spoken by David, they are Sacred Scripture in this respect, that the Holy Spirit, Psalm 115, testifies that David said them, just as in the Gospel He testifies that the Jews said of Christ "He has a demon," even though they said this with a troubled, indeed malicious, mind.
Note second: Paul is here speaking of man according to the state of corrupted nature. For thus he is a liar: for through grace man becomes as it were God, and ceases to be a man and a liar, says S. Jerome and S. Augustine on Psalm 115.
Note thirdly here a moral lesson. From corrupted nature, four propensities to evil chiefly sprout in man: the first is to pleasure and lust; the second is to excellence and to excusing sins; the third is a propensity to vain, curious, and transient goods; the fourth is the propensity to lie and to deceive whenever one's own interest is at stake. Whence Aquila renders, "every man is a lie," that is, he lies so often that he seems wholly stitched together out of lies, frauds, and vanities.
Hence you may see how Luther wrongly proves from this passage that every work of a just man, though holy, is infected with some sin and is itself sin. Luther's reasoning is this: "It is easier," he says, "to speak the truth than to do good;" but a man cannot speak the truth, because every man lies, as the Apostle says here: therefore neither can a man do good. But Luther both deceives and is deceived; nor is his major proposition always true: for to a thief on the rack, to a martyr in torments, it is most difficult to confess and profess the truth; and that is far more difficult to him than to give alms, pray, or do any other good work. Then in the minor he himself assumes what is false: for the Apostle does not say that every man always lies, but only that every man is a liar.
AS IT IS WRITTEN. — He proves that "God is truthful, but every man a liar," from Psalm 50:6, where it is said: "That You may be justified in Your words." "That" here signifies not the intention but the outcome of David's homicide and adultery, as if to say: I have sinned, Lord; but spare me and have mercy upon me, and so it will come to pass that, through my sins which You forgive, You may be shown to be just and truthful, O God, in Your promises: so Theodoret, and that this is the meaning will be made plainer presently.
AND OVERCOME WHEN YOU ARE JUDGED. — First, S. Jerome on Psalm 50, and Gregory on the Fourth Penitential Psalm, explain this of Christ thus, as if to say: You alone among all who were judged, O Christ, free from sin, unjustly condemned to the cross, are victorious; because You rise gloriously from death, and will condemn Your judges to eternal death. "Being judged," says S. Gregory, "the Lord conquered, because from where He succumbed in the Passion, from there He manifested the greater glory of Himself by rising. Being judged He conquered, because those whose temporal judgment He underwent by dying, He has condemned by a just judgment to eternal death." But this sense is not literal but allegorical, or rather accommodated: for literally these words are David's, who is repenting and asking pardon for his sin, as is evident from the title of Psalm 50.
Second, Theodoret, Euthymius, and Jansenius on Psalm 50 explain it thus, as David saying: In the judgment by which You convict me of murder, O Lord, through Nathan, I confess that I am overcome by You, and am pronounced guilty of murder, adultery, and ingratitude and condemned. This sense fits David well enough in Psalm 50, but does not cohere well here in Paul with what precedes. For by this verse of Psalm 50 Paul wishes to prove that God is truthful in His promises, and every man a liar.
Thirdly, Hesychius and Didymus, in the catena of the Greeks, on Psalm 50, expound thus: "That You may overcome in Your words," by which You said, O Lord, that all have turned aside and are sinners. For although I, David, more insolently boasted against these of my virtue and constancy, saying in Psalm 29: "In my virtue I shall not be moved forever;" now, having fallen into the murder of Uriah, I acknowledge that I am a frail sinner, and that of my former grace and constancy not I but You were the author. But Paul here is treating not of victory over human arrogance, which God crushes and overcomes by withdrawing His power and grace, but of the victory of God's fidelity, by which God overcomes and surpasses our unbelief and ingratitude. As is evident from verses 3 and 4.
Fourthly, this sentence is most aptly and most fittingly applied both to David and to Paul thus, as if to say: I, David, confess that I have sinned before You, O Lord; but spare me, and restore the promises once made to me by You, and from this it will come about that You overcome and in fact overturn the judgments of men, who think and falsely claim that You will not stand by the promises by which You promised both pardon to every penitent (so S. Gregory), and to me, David, properly a perpetual kingdom in my sons Solomon and the Messiah. Promises, I say, not conditional: for these, when the condition is not kept, can be made void and null, the faith and truth of the promiser remaining; but absolute promises — so S. Thomas — namely, so that men may at length pronounce this verdict: Just is this God, who keeps His covenants even with those (suppose me David and my descendants) by whom after the covenants He has been wronged. And so I, David, am shown to be a liar and deceiver; and from my own example and likeness, every other man like me is likewise a liar, that is, unfaithful to God and a sinner; but God is shown to be truthful and faithful: for this is what the Apostle intends to prove.
Verse 5: But If Our Iniquity Commends the Justice of God
5. BUT IF OUR INIQUITY COMMENDS THE JUSTICE OF GOD, WHAT SHALL WE SAY? IS GOD UNJUST WHO INFLICTS WRATH? 6. I SPEAK ACCORDING TO MAN. — Here the Apostle meets an objection of foolish men. Whence he says: "I speak according to man," that is, I oppose and raise here those things which a man not wise but carnal would object. Namely, if David's and our iniquity is the cause that God's justice and faithfulness toward us is the more displayed, then God seems unjust if He punishes us as iniquitous and does not rather reward us, as it were, the authors by whom His justice is the more brought to light. The Apostle replies:
GOD FORBID, — namely that God should be unjust, and that our iniquity should of itself and by its own nature commend God's justice. For this illustration of God's glory and justice follows from sin only accidentally. Whence the Apostle adds, saying:
Verse 7: For If the Truth of God Has More Abounded Through My Lie
7. FOR IF THE TRUTH OF GOD HAS MORE ABOUNDED THROUGH MY LIE UNTO HIS GLORY, — as some gather from what I said: "That You may be justified in Your words and overcome when You are judged," as if to say: if a lie and sin of itself redounds to the glory of the truthfulness and faithfulness of God, by which God keeps His promises to men, though sinners and ungrateful.
WHY AM I ALSO YET JUDGED AS A SINNER? — and not rather praised, as one who illustrates the divine glory?
Verse 8: And Why Do We Not Do Evil That Good May Come?
8. AND WHY DO WE NOT DO EVIL THAT GOOD MAY COME? AS WE ARE BLASPHEMED (that is, as we are slanderously charged), AND AS SOME SAY WE SAY, — as though we taught that our lies and sins of their own nature redound to the glory of God, and provoke and commend His fidelity and mercy. For if this were true, we should certainly have to sin, and God would be unjust in avenging sin. So commonly the interpreters with Theophylact. These foolish men seem to have taken the occasion for this slander from the Apostle's frequent teaching that the grace of God superabounded where the iniquity of men abounded, and that it had redounded to the praise of God's grace and justice.
WHOSE (that is, both of those who think this way and of those who slander us) DAMNATION IS JUST. — For these argue and act just as if someone should conclude concerning a pious and patient man: This man is of marvelous patience, he tolerates everything, he overlooks everything: therefore let us vex him and inflict a thousand injuries on him, that we may exercise and display his patience. For this is a paralogism and perverse argumentation: for both the virtue and glory of this man from the injuries of the insolent, and the glory of God from our sin, do not come about through themselves and by their own nature, but through the wisdom of the holy man, and through the wisdom of God, who knows how to order evil to the good of His mercy or justice, as S. Augustine teaches in Enchiridion, ch. 96, and bk. III On Genesis according to the Letter, ch. 24. "God," says S. Augustine, "is the best Founder of things and the most just Orderer of sins." The same teaches S. Dionysius, On the Divine Names, ch. 4, where he treats of evil, near the end; and Boethius, bk. IV On Consolation, prose 6, where he says: "It is a divine power for which evils too are good, since by using them suitably it draws forth the effect of some good. For a certain order embraces all things, so that what departs from the rule of the assigned order, this same thing falls back into another order, lest anything in the kingdom of providence be allowed to rashness."
Note here with Cajetan that no sin, not even the smallest venial sin, is a means to be chosen or to be done in order that even the gravest sins may be avoided.
You will say: S. Gregory, bk. XXXII Morals, ch. 20, seems to teach the contrary. For he says: "When the mind is constrained between lesser and greatest sins, if no way of escape without any sin lies open, let the lesser always be chosen."
I reply: S. Gregory is speaking of the scrupulous and the perplexed. For these, if it seems to them they will sin whatever they do, let them choose the lesser, namely that which seems to them less evil, if no opportunity of consulting the learned, or other means of unloosing the perplexed knot of conscience, is at hand.
Verse 9: What Then? Do We Excel Them?
9. WHAT THEN? DO WE EXCEL THEM? — Have we Jews, on account of our merits or law or circumcision, been called before the Gentiles to the faith and righteousness of Christ? For here Paul returns to his proposition, which he touched on at verse 2. He replies: "By no means" do we Jews excel the Gentiles themselves.
FOR WE HAVE CHARGED, — that is, we have previously alleged the cause; whence the Greek has more clearly proētiasametha, "we have charged beforehand."
Verses 10 and 11: There Is None Righteous, There Is None That Understands
10 and 11. AS IT IS WRITTEN: THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NO NOT ONE: THERE IS NONE THAT UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE THAT SEEKS AFTER GOD. — S. Jerome teaches, in the preface to bk. XVI of his Commentary on Isaiah, that these following verses, which Paul here cites, are taken from various places of Scripture, from Psalm 13:1; Psalm 52:3; Psalm 5:11; Psalm 139:4; Psalm 9:7; Isaiah 59:7; Proverbs 1:16; and all these verses, thus separated, were transferred from this passage of the Apostle, who joins them all here, into Psalm 13 of the Latin version, even in the Roman edition, but under the same verse. In like manner all are had together in the Syriac and Egyptian versions of Psalm 13, and in a codex of the English Hebrew Psalter (which Arias cites in his Apparatus, and Lindanus in bk. I On the Best Manner of Translating Sacred Scripture) all were found in Hebrew at Psalm 13. But the authority and antiquity of that English codex is uncertain. For these verses commonly do not occur in the Hebrew of Psalm 13, but are scattered in the passages of Scripture already cited. See Francis Lucas in his Notes on Psalm 13.
Note: these verses signify the corruption of man and of nature, not healed by faith and grace, as I shall presently show more fully; for this whole nature is subject to sin, not each man to every sin, but one to this, another to that. What therefore the Apostle proved particularly in chapter I of the Gentiles, and in chapter II of the Jews, namely that all are under sin, here, in the manner of rhetoricians, generally, by combination and exaggeration he concludes and amplifies.
THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS; THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS GOD.
Note first: The Apostle here cites certain things not according to word but according to sense. For "there is none righteous," and, as the Greek adds oud' heis, that is, "not even one," is nowhere written in these words, but in others equivalent, namely these: "There is none that does good, there is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God." So it seems that the Apostle has gathered all the following verses of Scripture, in which the sins of men are particularly narrated, into one general sentence, as a synopsis and argument, saying first: "There is none righteous," and then divides this as it were into parts, saying: "There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God." For though these words seem to have been spoken by the Psalmist in Psalm 13 of any impious person, yet "there is none that understands" properly applies to the Gentiles, who worshipped idols and did not acknowledge the true God; while "there is none that seeks after God" properly applies to the Jews, who indeed acknowledged God, but did not seek out or observe God's law and will, and this seems to be what Paul here means, as if to say: Some do not understand or know God, such as the Gentiles; some indeed know God, but do not seek or keep God's commandments, such as the Jews; and therefore neither the Jew nor the Gentile, and so no one, is righteous among the sons of men.
Note second: Here Paul cites Psalm 13:2, where it is said thus: "The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there is any that understands and seeks God," as if to say: God sought whether any of men was understanding or seeking God: and however much He sought, He found none. For, as preceded in the same place, "there is none that does good, there is none, no, not even one." Whence Paul too, rendering not the words but the sense, translates, "there is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God." For the little word "if," which is in Psalm 13, with the Hebrews is often negative, and means the same as "not." This is plain in the oaths of the Hebrews, as: "May God do these things to me, if Elisha's head shall stand upon him," 2 Kings 6:31, that is, I swear that Elisha's head shall not stand upon him, I swear I will take off Elisha's head. So here: "He looked down to see if there is any that understands or seeks God," is the same as if He should say: God looked down and saw that there is no one who understands or seeks God.
You will ask whether these words of the Psalmist, "There is none who understands, there is none who seeks after God," were said of absolutely all men, or only of a certain class of men. Genebrardus, Jansenius, and others, on Psalm 13, hold that these were said only of atheists, as if the Apostle proves his universal proposition, namely that all are sinners, only by the example of atheists, who are the greatest sinners, just as he proved that every man is a liar by the example of David, verse 4. For of atheists alone it is said there in verse 1: "The fool has said in his heart: There is no God," in Hebrew אין אלהים en Elohim, "there is no Elohim," that is, there is no God as judge and avenger of the good and the bad; and, as the Chaldaean translates, "there is no power of God in the earth." For Elohim signifies not the essence of God but His providence, by which God rules, judges, punishes, or rewards the world. For men who deny this providence of God, without fear of the Deity or of an avenger, rush headlong into every crime, which the Psalmist there sets forth in order, as Chrysostom and Theodoret note on Psalm 13.
But I reply and say, with Salmeron, Toletus, and others, that these words of the Psalmist are to be understood not of atheists alone, but of any men whatsoever. This is plainly evident from this passage of the Apostle, who is the true interpreter of David. For from these words of the Psalmist the Apostle here intends fully and adequately and with all his force to prove that absolutely all men are under sin. But he could not prove this fully or adequately from them, if they were to be understood of atheists alone. For the Jews would reply to Paul, when he objected these words of the Psalmist, that David is speaking of idolaters and atheists, and that this does not pertain to them, since they are sworn enemies of atheists; and so the sinew and force of Paul's argument would fall apart. Whence Paul, in order to ward this off, says at verse 19: "But we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law."
Second, this is plain from the Psalmist himself, who clearly at the beginning of the Psalm intimates that he is speaking not of an atheist only, but of any fool. "The fool," he says, "has said." But "fool" in the language of David and the Wise Man is any wicked man, who foolishly subordinates God to his own concupiscence, and eternal goods to the perishable goods which he loves. Hence concerning such he immediately adds: "There is none that does good, no, not even one." Therefore the first fool was Adam our father, who foolishly believed Eve and the serpent, and so by one apple destroyed himself and all of us; and from him we all were made and born fools.
The Psalmist therefore in that Psalm 13 describes the foolishness and corruption of human nature and of all men, if their nature alone, vitiated by sin, without God's grace repairing and restoring it, be considered. For in such a state men rush prone into all sins, and at length come to the point of saying either explicitly or implicitly: "There is no God as judge and avenger of evils," so that, namely, they may sin more freely and with greater impunity.
Third, this same thing is plain from the fact that both here in Psalm 13:1 and elsewhere the Psalmist contrasts this state of folly and corruption of human nature with the state of grace, by which God heals, redeems, repairs, and justifies fallen nature. For he says: "Because the Lord is in the just generation. Who shall give out of Sion the salvation of Israel? When the Lord shall have turned the captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad." So when the Psalmist says, Psalm 13:1: "The fool has said in his heart: There is no God," he sets this forth not as the argument and scope of the whole Psalm, but as the extreme and highest of evils to which the foolishness of men finally comes. Whence in the following verses he sets forth the grades of sins by which men gradually mount up to this. Salmeron answers and explains that verse otherwise: "Every fool," he says, "that is, every impious man and sinner, by the very fact that he sins, in his heart implicitly and virtually says: There is no God," because he sins so freely and shamelessly against God, as if God did not see his sin, or could not or would not punish it, and so as if God were not judge and avenger; and this exposition is favored by the fact that the Psalmist seems to explain himself thus in verse 2, saying, as Paul translates here: "There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God."
Verse 12: They Have All Turned Aside
12. THEY HAVE ALL TURNED ASIDE (in Hebrew סר sar, that is, they have departed, namely from God), THEY HAVE TOGETHER BECOME UNPROFITABLE. — In Hebrew נאלחו neelachu, that is, they have rotted, become putrid; the Chaldaean translates "they have grown numb," and from this become unprofitable, bearing no good fruits of faith and good works, but only evil, vain, putrid and stinking fruits of gluttony, lust, pride, and other crimes.
THERE IS NONE THAT DOES GOOD, NO, NOT EVEN ONE. — "One," namely Christ, who is excepted, and who alone of Himself does good, says S. Augustine, p. 13. But this sense does not correspond to the Hebrew in Psalm 13; for there in Hebrew it has אין גם אחד en gam echad, that is, "there is not even one," that is, there is none.
Hence secondly, Cajetan expounds thus: there is no one who does good in all things, so as never to sin even venially. So also Chrysostom, on Psalm 13, who extends this sentence too loosely even to the Blessed Virgin, who in Christ's Passion is, as he says, dwelt in by S. Augustine on Psalm 13.
Thirdly, S. Thomas thinks there is here a hyperbole: "there is not one," or there is none, that is, few are those who do good.
Fourthly, Ambrose thinks the Psalmist speaks not of the pious, but of the impious: for of these none is good. But this does not satisfy; because the Apostle from this verse of the Psalmist proves that no one is pious and good, but absolutely all men are under sin and the wrath of God.
Fifthly therefore, this is the genuine sense of this passage: "There is none who" of himself, without the grace of God, that is, of Christ, "does good" absolutely, that is, such that he could thence be called good and just before God, and worthy of God's grace or of eternal glory: because all, corrupted by Adam's sin and infected with concupiscence, are inclined to fall into various sins. So S. Augustine on Psalm 13. Hence it does not follow that all the works of unbelievers are evil and sinful, but only that they are unfit to merit the justice and grace of God. For this is what is here called "good."
Verse 13: Their Throat Is an Open Sepulcher
13. THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN SEPULCHER. — As if to say: All men, corrupted by sin and concupiscence, like an open sepulcher, exhale, utter forth, and belch out filthy, foul, fetid, deceitful, accursed things. Their throat, like an open sepulcher, ever exhales the foulness, stench, and deathly abomination of a dead heart, as it were of a corpse buried within. S. Augustine adds, on Psalm 13, that by an open sepulcher is signified the voracity of gluttony gaping after food.
THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS. — As if to say: These same men have lips and mouths so poisoned that scarcely anything else do they utter against those with whom they are angry and offended than insults and curses, nay, they add to the words blows and slaughters. Hence the Apostle adds: "Their feet are swift to shed blood."
16. AFFLICTION AND UNHAPPINESS IN THEIR WAYS. — As if to say: Their ways, steps, and efforts tend to this, that they may crush others and one another and make them miserable. This is plain from the Hebrew. Otherwise Theophylact: "Affliction and unhappiness," he says, is sin, because sin crushes and makes the soul unhappy. On the corruption of human nature, both as to soul and as to body, see S. Augustine, bk. 22 On the City of God, ch. 22.
Verse 19: Whatever the Law Says, It Speaks to Those Who Are in the Law
19. NOW WE KNOW THAT WHAT THINGS SOEVER THE LAW SAYS, IT SAYS TO THEM WHO ARE IN THE LAW. — This is an anticipation, as if to say: Do not say, O Jew, that these verses, which accuse all men of such grave sins, speak only of the Gentiles. For these verses are verses of the law, namely of the Psalmist and the Prophets, who speak not so much to the Gentiles as to those who are under the law, that is, to the Jews, and they rebuke and castigate their vices. So S. Chrysostom and Theophylact.
THAT EVERY MOUTH MAY BE STOPPED (so that no one may dare to excuse himself from sin), AND ALL THE WORLD MAY BECOME SUBJECT TO GOD. — For "subject," the Greek is ὑπόδικος, that is, liable to condemnation (for δίκη signifies cause, crime, condemnation, vengeance, and punishment). So the Syriac, Chrysostom, and Theophylact, as if to say: Holy Scripture by the verses just cited so reproves all of sin that every man in the world must confess himself guilty before God, and subject and liable to the wrath and vengeance of God on account of crimes committed against God. Hence S. Augustine, in his book On the Grace of Christ, ch. 8, reads: "that all the world may become guilty before God." Secondly, Ambrose: "that the world," he says, "may become subject," that is, prostrate and suppliant, "to God, and so may attain to the indulgence of its sins and to the grace of God." Theophylact adds a third interpretation: "that the world," he says, ὑπόδικος, that is, condemned, that is, lacking liberty and confidence, and needing the help of another, may acknowledge that it needs God's grace and clemency. But the first sense is most proper and genuine.
Verse 20: By the Works of the Law No Flesh Shall Be Justified
20. BECAUSE BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW SHALL NO FLESH (no man, by synecdoche) BE JUSTIFIED IN HIS SIGHT. — This is another anticipation, as if to say: You will object again, O Jew, and protest saying: Suppose I am a sinner and fall into sins; yet I have the works of the law, sprinklings, lustrations, and sacrifices for sin, by which I expiate sin. The Apostle answers that these works can indeed cleanse and expiate the flesh and external irregularity, that is, carnal and political, but cannot cleanse the soul and justify it from sin: both because Holy Scripture condemns absolutely all men, even those under the law, of sin after all their lustrations; and because the law and the works of the law are only an indication and demonstration, not an expiation, of sin.
Note: When the Apostle here asserts that no one is justified by the works of the law, understand this of the old law, or those things which the old law prescribes, apart from the faith and grace of Christ. This is plain from the fact that in v. 22 and throughout he opposes these works to the faith of Christ. Therefore, when he opposes the justifying faith of Christ to them, he does not exclude, but rather includes in faith works done from faith. For in like manner he includes under the law the works of the law, or what the law dictates is to be done. So S. Augustine, in his book On Grace and Free Will, ch. 7. See Canons 2 and 3.
BY THE LAW IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF SIN. — The law teaches what must be done, what must be avoided, what is virtue, what is vice and sin. Hence it is said of it, Prov. 6: "The commandment is a lamp, and the law a light, and the way of life." Whence in Hebrew it is called תורה thora, that is, doctrine and instruction.
Note: For "knowledge," the Greek is ἐπίγνωσις, that is, recognition. Knowledge and recognition differ: for we know new things, we recognize old things. The law therefore was not properly knowledge, but recognition of sin. For already before the law was given by Moses, men knew sin through the light and law of nature. But because this law was gradually obscured in man, hence God through Moses gave a law clearly explaining what is lawful and what is sin. Whence by this law of Moses the Jews again recognized sin, which they had previously known, though obscurely, through the light of nature.
Verse 21: But Now Without the Law the Justice of God Has Been Made Manifest
21. BUT NOW WITHOUT THE LAW (that is, as Theodoret and Ambrose say, the old law having ceased), THE JUSTICE OF GOD (that is, justification, by which God absolves us from sins, by infusing into us His own justice, that is, grace, charity, and other virtues, through the Gospel of Christ) IS MADE MANIFEST (which long ago, so many ages back) was testified to by the law and the Prophets. — For these, as it were, divine and most certain witnesses, foretold and affirmed that this justice was to be given through Christ. So S. Augustine, book On the Spirit and the Letter, chapters 9 and 11: "The Apostle did not say," says Augustine, "the justice of man, or the justice of one's own will; but the justice of God, not by which God is just, but by which He clothes man, when He justifies the impious," etc. Whence the same Augustine excellently in Sentence 320: "He," he says, "who gave the law, Himself also gave grace: but He sent the law through His servant, with grace He Himself descended: so that because the law shows sins but does not take them away, those willing to fulfill the law by their own strength, and not being able, may be compelled to grace, which removes both the disease of impossibility and the guilt of disobedience."
Verse 22: The Justice of God by Faith of Jesus Christ unto All
22. BUT THE JUSTICE ("but" — that is, I say, see Canon 25) OF GOD (which is set forth and given) by the FAITH OF JESUS CHRIST UNTO ALL (insofar as it is offered to all) AND UPON ALL (insofar as it is actually given to all and infused from above) who believe IN HIM, — namely those "who believe," not as the demons do, with bare and empty faith, but as friends, with faith formed by charity: "they believe," I say, in Christ, in such a way that they obey Him and His precepts. Or those "who believe" with humble, effective, and obedient faith, so as to perform the commandments which faith teaches must be fulfilled. Thus it is commonly said in conducting an army: If you believe this counselor, you will obtain victory, namely if you believe practically, that is, if you draw up your battle line and wage war according to his precepts. In like manner those who believe Christ not speculatively but practically, that is, those who obey Christ's words and admonitions, these are justified and saved.
Note: When the Apostle here says that the justice of God through Christ is "unto all, and upon all," — "unto all" signifies the universality and diffusion of justice, namely that this justice is offered and diffused unto all men who believe in Christ; while "upon all" signifies the sublimity of justice, namely that it is infused into man from above out of heaven, beyond the powers and merits of nature. So Anselm.
Verse 23: For All Have Sinned, and Need the Glory of God
23. FOR ALL HAVE SINNED, AND DO NEED THE GLORY OF GOD. — "They need," Greek ὑστεροῦνται, which the Syriac translates as "are destitute"; Chrysostom, "they lack." More properly translate: they are behind in the glory, that is, the glorious and munificent grace of God, by which they may be justified; nor can they attain it by the powers of nature; but they need another, prior and prevenient, grace of God, by which they may prepare themselves for justification, and therefore they are justified freely. For both graces, both prevenient and justifying, are freely given; the prevenient, however, prepares and disposes man for justification through the works of penance. So Oecumenius, Theodoret, and S. Augustine, On the Spirit and the Letter, ch. 9.
Note: When the Apostle says: "All need the glory of God," Cyril, in his book On the Right Faith, by glory understands Christ, who is the glory of the Father precisely insofar as He is our redeemer and justifier, as if Paul were saying: All need Christ the redeemer.
Secondly, S. Chrysostom translates and explains thus: All, he says, have sinned and are destitute of the glory of God, because to a sinner not glory, but disgrace and confusion belong. Whence some take "glory" here properly, namely the blessed glory, which God will repay to the just in heaven for grace and a life well led. For of this sinners are destitute and stand in need.
Thirdly, others, as I said, more genuinely according to the mind of the Apostle, take "glory" here as the grace by which God is glorified. Whence S. Jerome, bk. VI on Isaiah, near the end, and S. Augustine, bk. I On the Merits of Sins, ch. 27, citing not so much the words as the sense of the Apostle, read: "All need the grace of God." Although all these senses tend almost to the same thing. For the grace of Christ is a certain inchoate glory, just as glory is consummated grace. For we need Christ and the grace of Christ to this end, that through it we may attain in heaven the glory which we need in order always to live well and blessedly.
This therefore is the sentence which, as it were judicially after hearing both sides, Paul pronounces from the mouth of God, by which he prostrates and condemns both parties, namely both Jews and Gentiles, as if to say: You, O Jews, arrogantly grow insolent against the Gentiles, and reckon yourselves just by the law: you Gentiles in turn despise the Jews as if circumcised, and on account of moral virtues claim justice for yourselves: I have examined your case on both sides — your justice, life, and morals — in chapters 1 and 2, and from what has been alleged and made public, I judge: All, both Jews and Gentiles, have sinned, and need the grace of God.
This sentence levels the pride of all men, casts down the crests of all, condemns all of sin, declares all sinners liable to the wrath of God, makes all beggars and needy of God's grace, makes all suppliants to God; so that they can appeal and call out to nothing else but the grace, clemency, mercy, and indulgence of God. Whoever therefore swells, puffed up with the opinion of his own virtue or wisdom, let him hear this sentence of God: "All have sinned, and need the glory of God," and applying it to himself, let him say: Therefore I too have sinned, therefore I too am a sinner, and I need the great and glorious grace and mercy of God: why then should I be proud? Why should I swell up? What of wisdom, virtue, honor, and praise shall I claim for myself? Especially if I consider what S. Augustine says, book of 50 Homilies, homily 23, vol. 10: "There is no sin which a man has committed, which another man could not commit, if the ruler, by whom man was made, were lacking." Again, if I consider that, just as I was conceived and born in sin, so likewise I live in sins, and shall die in sins: a sinner therefore I came into the world, a sinner I live, a sinner I shall die.
Verse 24: Being Justified Freely by His Grace
24. JUSTIFIED (that is, that they may be justified and become just, and may be justified) freely. — For these words depend on what preceded, "All need the glory of God." Hence in the Greek also it is a present participle, δικαιούμενοι, which in the Hebrew manner is put for the indicative δικαιοῦνται, which the Hebrews lack. Hence the Syriac clearly translates, "but they are justified freely." More simply, however, you may translate "that they may be justified freely," both because in the Greek there is no "but," and because, as I said, these words depend on the preceding, and Hebrew participles are often taken as subjunctive. Our Interpreter translates word for word, "justified," namely by the past participle, because the Latins lack a present passive participle, such as "justified" is here; they are therefore compelled to use the past participle for the present.
FREELY, — that is, by faith alone, says Beza; but wrongly: for "freely" is the same as "without preceding merits of faith, or even following ones." For to give freely means to give gratuitously without merit: for grace and the gratuitous are opposed to merit. Whence when Paul had said: "Justified freely," he adds in explanation, "through His grace." Here he alludes to the Hebrew הנם chinnam, which is derived from תחנה techinna, just as the Latin gratis from gratia. Therefore the word "freely," in this signification, does not exclude the dispositions (of hope, fear, sorrow for sins committed, a new resolution of amending one's life) preparatory to justification, which Scripture elsewhere requires (for thus also faith itself, as preliminary, would have to be excluded), but excludes only merits: so the Council of Trent, session 6, chapter 8. Thus a rich man is said to adopt a poor man freely as heir, even if he requires of him that he first learn good morals and disciplines: because these have the place not of merit, but of disposition. For it is fitting that the future son of such and so great a man should appropriately dispose himself thereto by good morals and disciplines. See Canon 3.
Therefore we are justified freely, that we may say with the Apostle: "By the grace of God I am what I am;" and with Jeremiah and the Psalmist: "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed; The mercies of the Lord I will sing forever;" and with Isaiah, ch. 1:9: "Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed (tropologically, of grace), we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah."
BY HIS GRACE (which we obtain) THROUGH THE REDEMPTION WHICH (was made) IS IN CHRIST JESUS, — that is, through Christ Jesus. For the Hebrew ב, that is "in," signifies "through" or "on account of." See Canon 25.
Note 7°, on "through redemption." For from this Marcion inferred: therefore man is not the creature of God, but of the devil. For no one buys what is his own; but God bought and redeemed man. So Epiphanius reports, in heresy 41. Origen replies, in homily 6 on Exodus: "All of us," he says, "by creation were God's, but for the price of sins we sold and handed ourselves over to the demon: therefore, freed from the power of the demon by the price of Christ's blood, we are said not so much to be bought as to be redeemed."
Verse 25: Whom God Has Set Forth as a Propitiation Through Faith in His Blood
25. WHOM (Christ) GOD HAS SET FORTH AS A PROPITIATION THROUGH FAITH IN HIS BLOOD. — "Propitiation": so the Roman Bibles read. The Greek ἱλαστήριον may be translated, with Theophylact, as "propitiatory," so that Paul alludes to the propitiatory, or the golden plate covering the ark (for this the Septuagint, whom Paul usually follows, call ἱλαστήριον), which was as it were the throne of God's clemency, from which, being propitiated, He gave responses, and hence in Hebrew is called כפרת capporet, that is, place of placation, reconciliation, propitiation, and was the figure of Christ the propitiator, Exodus 25:17: so Theodoret, Theophylact, Origen; as Paul would say: In place of the old typical propitiatory, God has now given the true antitype, the propitiatory itself, namely Christ Himself.
Whence secondly, more clearly, propitiation here is the same as propitiator (so the Syriac, see canon 21), namely the victim propitiating and appeasing God to men, and that "through faith in His blood," that is, through faith in His own blood and passion, as if to say: Those who by faith believe that Christ has suffered and died, and so has become the propitiator for our sins, for these God willed that Christ should be the propitiator. So Anselm. Or more fully thus, as if to say: God willed us to become partakers of Christ's propitiation or reconciliation through faith, by which we believe that He is our propitiator, by which faith we are excited to hope of pardon, love of God, and detestation of sins, and so are disposed to justification: so the Council of Trent, session 6, chapters 2 and 6. S. Anselm beautifully, in his book Cur Deus Homo, ch. 9: "What," he says, "can be conceived more merciful than that, when to a sinner condemned to eternal torments, and having nothing wherewith to redeem himself, God the Father says: Take My only-begotten and give Him for yourself; and the Son Himself: Take Me, and pay for yourself?"
Therefore the heretics have nothing here in support of their "special justifying faith," by which, namely, I would believe with utmost certainty that to me, to me, I say, in particular and individually, sins are remitted through Christ; and so by this very fact, that I believe this, sins are remitted to me and I am justified, as they would have it. For the Apostle says nothing of the sort here; but his words are general: "Through faith," he says, "in His blood," that is, through faith in the passion of Christ.
Otherwise Chrysostom, Theodoret, Ambrose, and Toletus refer the "in His blood" to the propitiator, as if to say: Christ became the propitiator with blood not of animals or of another, but of His own. But these transpose and insert the "through faith." The former sense is therefore plainer. Add, that then it should be translated "in His own blood," not "in His," as our translator renders. Otherwise if you look only at the Greek and the Apostle's phrasing, this sense of S. Chrysostom is more probable: for the Apostle is wont to transpose words, as I said in Canon 38.
TO THE SHOWING FORTH OF HIS JUSTICE. — He refers these words to "whom God set forth as a propitiation," namely to this end, that through Him He might show forth His justice. Now by "justice" here Theodoret understands goodness: for God shows this above all in Christ.
Secondly, Ambrose takes "justice" as fidelity, by which God, just as He had promised to give us this propitiation and justice through Christ, so also actually performed and exhibited it.
Thirdly, Origen interprets the justice of God as the just vengeance of sin, by which God did not will to remit sins freely, but for sin willed that the just price of Christ's blood be paid to Him. But because this showing forth of God's justice consists in the remission of sins and our justification, as follows: hence
Fourthly, more genuinely, Chrysostom, Augustine, and Anselm take "justice" here properly, as it is also taken a little before, in this sense, as if to say: God set Christ before us as propitiator to this end, namely that He might show forth the riches of the justice by which God is just in Himself, by communicating to us sinners the same justice; that He might show forth, I say, that He is the one who justifies sinners through Christ, and that this justice is His, not man's. For this justice was not shown forth or made manifest in the old law. That this is the sense is plain from the fact that a little after, in v. 26, the Apostle so explains himself, saying: "That He Himself (God) might be just, and the justifier of him who is of the faith of Jesus Christ."
Note, that in these words of the Apostle all the causes of justification are noted and designated. For the first efficient cause is God; the second, the meritorious, is Christ; the third, the instrumental, is the blood of Christ; the fourth, the applying, is faith; the fifth, the formal, is the remission of sins through sanctifying grace; finally, the final cause is the showing forth of God's justice.
FOR (that is, unto) THE REMISSION OF FORMER SINS, — namely those of Adam and others before Christ; or "for," that is, "through" the remission. For in Greek διά with the accusative among the Attics signifies "through," as if to say: Christ has abolished all sins, even the preceding ones; therefore now we must sin no more after such great love and so great a price has been displayed for us: enough has been given to vices, enough to lust and to the belly — now live unto Christ.
Note: For "remission" the Greek is πάρεσιν, which firstly signifies condonation. So Anselm, Origen, and our Interpreter explain it, so that πάρεσιν is the same as ἄφεσιν. For παρίεναι sometimes signifies to remit something of one's own and to pass over, that is, to condone, as Budaeus notes.
Secondly, πάρεσις signifies wasting away, corruption, remission of strength, and debility; so S. Chrysostom and Theodoret explain it, as if to say διὰ πάρεσιν, that is, on account of the wasting of preceding sins, namely that He might abolish ancient and as it were wasting sins and vices, and heal the world as it were languid and paralytic; for this cause Christ and Christ's justice came into the world.
Thirdly, S. Augustine, On the Spirit and the Letter, ch. 3, and Ambrose, for πάρεσιν read πρόθεσιν, that is, "purpose." Now by "the purpose of preceding sins" they understand the benign will and good pleasure of God, or εὐδοκία, by which it pleased God to come to the aid of sinners and to free them from their past sins. But the first sense is clearest and plainest.
Verse 26: That He Himself Might Be Just, and the Justifier
26. PRECEDING SINS (which were committed) IN THE FORBEARANCE OF GOD, — as if to say: which sins God forbore, that is, tolerated, long awaited, until Christ should come and expiate them, and so might show forth true justice in this time of grace, and might give it to those who believe: so Anselm.
THAT HE HIMSELF MIGHT BE JUST, AND THE JUSTIFIER OF HIM WHO IS OF THE FAITH OF JESUS CHRIST. — "Just," that is, faithful in His promises; or rather "just," that is, holy and most upright. So greatly does God hate sin, that He gave His Son to death for this purpose, that He might satisfy in justice for sin, and might bring men back from sin to His holiness and original rectitude, in which they had been founded by God in paradise; and so that He Himself, being just, might communicate His own justice to us, and might justify us through Christ: see what was said on verse 25.
Verse 27: Where Then Is Thy Boasting?
27. WHERE THEN IS THY BOASTING? — by which, O Jew, you boast and claim for yourself justice from circumcision, sacrifices, and other works of the Mosaic law.
IT IS EXCLUDED. BY WHAT LAW? OF WORKS? NO; BUT BY THE LAW OF FAITH. — Note from S. Augustine, bk. I On the Spirit and the Letter, ch. 13, and frequently against the Pelagians: The law of works is that which commands what is to be done; the law of faith is faith itself, which obtains grace for doing what the law commands.
The law of works is the old law; the law of faith is the new law.
The law of works contains the precept; the law of faith, the help.
The law of works gives light, that we may know; the law of faith gives strength, that we may do.
By the law of works God says: Do what I command; by the law of faith we say: Give what You command.
The law of works is that which prescribes external works and deeds, and many of them; the law of faith is that which orders interior actions, among which the first are faith and love.
Finally, what the Apostle here says, that justice is to be sought from the law of faith, not from the law of works, is the same as what he said in chapter 2, verse 29, that circumcision of the heart is made by the spirit, not by the letter.
Verse 28: A Man Is Justified by Faith Without the Works of the Law
28. WE RECKON. — Greek λογιζόμεθα, that is, we gather and reason.
FOR. — Greek οὖν, that is, therefore: for this is the conclusion of all that has been said up to this point, as if to say: Therefore from what has been said we gather and conclude, "that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law."
THAT A MAN IS JUSTIFIED BY FAITH. — Luther adds "alone," as if the Apostle were saying: By faith alone, without any works, we are justified. And when a certain Catholic objected this to him, and accused him as a kind of forger, Luther answered as follows, as appears in volume 4 of Luther's German works, printed at Wittenberg in the year of Christ 1551, fol. 475, p. 2: "Doctor Martin Luther wills it to be so, and says that a Papist and an ass are one thing. So I will, so I command, let will be the reason. For we do not wish to be students of the Papists, but their judges. Luther wills it so, and says he is Doctor above all Doctors of the whole Papacy." You have heard Lucifer speaking through Luther's mouth. I say therefore: the Apostle says we are justified by faith, not alone, but as the root, foundation, and beginning of justification: so the Council of Trent, session 6, chapter 8; "by faith," I say, of such kind that it pours itself forth into hope, penance, and charity, as is plain in Galatians 5:6; 1 Corinthians 13:3. Add that justice is attributed by the Apostle to faith above other virtues, because faith clearly shows that men are justified, not by their own virtue or merit, but by Christ's, in whom by believing they are saved. For this had to be especially inculcated to the world at the beginning of the Church.
Where note: When the Apostle here throughout separates and distinguishes faith from works, by "works" he understands works of the law, not only ceremonial and judicial, as Ambrose and Theophylact would have it, but also moral, or those of the decalogue (as S. Augustine rightly teaches, On the Spirit and the Letter, ch. 4), done by the sole dictate of the law, and by the sole powers of nature. Under faith, however, he places and embraces grace, hope, charity, and the other Christian virtues. That this is so is plain firstly from chapter 12, verse 3, where the graces, gifts, and virtues which God variously distributes to various people, Paul calls "the measure of faith" which God distributes to each.
The same is clear from the Epistle of S. James, ch. 2, verses 21 and following, where he says thus: "Was not Abraham our father justified by works, offering up Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou that faith cooperated with his works; and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled, saying: Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice." What could be said more clearly against the Novelists, who would have a man justified by faith alone?
Secondly, the same is plain from the Apostle's purpose. For the Apostle here only wishes to prove the necessity of faith and the grace of Christ, from this, that the works of the law or of nature, without this faith and grace of Christ, could not have justified us from sin; otherwise Christ would have died in vain. But this does not follow, if we say that we are justified by works done from the grace of Christ, because we have those from Christ; whence we glory in them not in ourselves, but in Christ, nay, through them we more illustrate the faith and grace of Christ. So the Fathers and S. Augustine, On Faith and Works, ch. 4. For the Apostle is acting against the Jews, who boasted of works not of faith, but of the law. See Canons 2 and 3.
You will say: The Apostle does not seem here to be acting against the Jews; for the Jews before Christ had faith in the Christ to come, and were justified by it.
I reply: So it is; but when Christ came, then the Jews lost this faith in Christ, and without faith in Christ, whom they refused to receive, they asserted that justice was due to themselves from the works of the law, namely from circumcision, sacrifices, and other lustrations and observances of the law; and so they fell from justice and salvation. Whence S. Augustine, in the place already cited, skillfully noted that S. James, fearing lest anyone should err from S. Paul and think that faith alone justifies, wrote his epistle to this end, that he might teach that works are required for justification. Therefore when S. Paul denies that works justify, he understands works of the law and of nature, which are done by the law and the powers of nature, apart from the faith and grace of Christ. But when S. James asserts that works justify, he understands works done from the faith and grace of Christ. And, as S. Augustine says in book 83 Questions, ch. 76, Paul understands works that precede faith, while James understands works that follow faith.
Although Paul generally speaks of the works of any law whatsoever, even of the natural law and of the decalogue, as is plain in verse 20: "By the law," he says, "is the knowledge of sin;" and chapter 2, verses 12, 13, and 14, where he says that the doers of the law, not the hearers, are justified, and that the Gentiles naturally do those things which are of the law: nevertheless, when he says we are justified by faith without the works of the law, by "the works of the law" he chiefly takes the ceremonial works and those commanded by the ceremonial law, such as circumcising the foreskin, washing oneself with lustral water, offering victims for sin, etc. For he speaks of that law which is opposed to faith; and properly speaking, what is opposed to faith is not the decalogue, but the ceremonial law, because it was a figure, just as faith is the truth: for figure and truth are opposed. This is plain from this verse, where he opposes faith to the works of the law, and to faith, not to these, attributes the power of justifying; and verse 30: "There is," he says, "one God, who justifies circumcision (the circumcised) by faith, and uncircumcision (the uncircumcised Gentile) through faith;" and verse 31: "Do we then destroy the law through faith? God forbid; but we establish the law." From all which it is clear that the Apostle here is principally treating of that law which, as shadow and figure, is opposed to faith as to truth and body; and consequently the "works of the law" are called by him the works of the ceremonial law rather than of the natural law and the decalogue. So Maldonatus. For he wants us to be justified by faith, not by circumcision and other ceremonies and sacrifices of the old law, by which the Jews thought themselves justified.
Verse 29: Is He the God of the Jews Only?
29. IS HE THE GOD OF THE JEWS ONLY? IS HE NOT ALSO OF THE GENTILES? — This is a new argument, by which Paul proves from absurdity that we are justified, not by the works of the law, but by the faith of Christ: namely, because if we were justified by the works of the law, then justice would be bound to the Mosaic law and to the Jews, and consequently God would seem to have care only of the Jews, and to be the God of the Jews only, not of the Gentiles, which is absurd.
Verse 30: There Is One God, Who Justifies Circumcision by Faith
30. THERE IS ONE GOD (of Jews and Gentiles), WHO JUSTIFIES CIRCUMCISION (that is, the circumcised, namely Jews) BY FAITH, AND UNCIRCUMCISION (that is, the uncircumcised, namely Gentiles: see canon 21) THROUGH FAITH.
Verse 31: Do We Then Destroy the Law Through Faith?
31. DO WE THEN DESTROY THE LAW THROUGH FAITH? — He meets the objection of the Jews saying: You, Paul, take justice from the law, and claim it for faith, therefore you destroy the law through faith. Paul answers:
GOD FORBID: BUT (rather) WE ESTABLISH THE LAW. — Because the law is established and confirmed from this, that what that law signified and promised has been fulfilled through the Gospel (which Paul here calls faith). For the Messiah in the new law fulfilled, and by fulfilling, as it were, established and confirmed whatever Moses prefigured in the old law.
Note: Paul opposes the verb ἱστάνω (which corresponds to the Hebrew הקים hekim), that is, "I establish, I make firm, I cause something to stand, otherwise wavering and about to fall," to the verb καταργέω (which corresponds to the Hebrew הפיר hephir), that is, "I destroy, abolish, make void," as if to say: I through the Gospel so far from destroying or casting down the law, rather make it stand by this, establish it, and confirm it. For the Gospel is the confirmation, ratification, and sealing of the law and the Prophets. Excellently S. Prosper, in the Sentences extracted from S. Augustine, which are at the end of vol. 3 of S. Augustine, number 44: "The law," he says, "was given that grace might be sought; grace was given that the law might be fulfilled. For not by its own fault was it not fulfilled, but by the fault of the prudence of the flesh, which fault had to be demonstrated by the law, and healed by grace."