Commentary on Romans 2.1–2.28

“Therefore you are without excuse, O man, everyone who judges. For in that in which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you do the same things which you judge.” Since he has shown that the one who does evil and the one who consents to those who do it are worthy of death, he teaches that a person of this kind will be without excuse, lest perhaps one who does evil but does not consent to those who do it should think he could excuse himself. For it is not just that impunity be granted to him, since by hypocrisy he shows himself not to be such, when he is found to be worse. For he deceives, so that while he deserves punishment he appears worthy of honour.

“But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who do such things.” That is, we are not ignorant that God will judge these things in truth, since we ourselves judge them. For if they displease us, how much more God, who is more just and is jealous for his work! When, then, he says that God will judge these things in truth, he strikes terror, so that the God whom these faithless people call unconcerned, he says will judge the wicked according to truth, that is, will repay most truly according to each one’s measure, and will not spare.

“But do you suppose this, O man, who judge those who do such things and do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?” That is, because the power of judging evil deeds and sexual crimes has been given you, though you do the same things and there is no one to judge you at present, will you escape the judgment of God? Certainly not; for if you have evaded the judgment of God in the world (since all this power and judgment is from him), you will not evade it in the future. For God will judge by himself, with whom flattery and respect of persons cease. Or certainly, if it seems just to anyone that such a person should be free of punishment, let him say so. But if it is just that he should not escape, let him believe that God will judge; so that what he judges to be just may be true and be fulfilled, and that he may confess that God, the Maker of the world, providently and carefully inquires into the merits of his work. For if he made it and neglects it, he is called a bad craftsman; because by neglecting it he shows that he did not make good things. But since it cannot be denied that he made good things (for it is unworthy and incredible that a good being should have made evil things), it must be said that he cares for them; since it would be an insult and an accusation against him if he were represented as neglectful of the good things he made; seeing that by his nod and providence life itself is sustained through the service of the elements, as the Lord himself says: “Who makes his sun rise on the good and the evil, and rains on the just and the unjust” (Matt 5:45). Does not he, then, who gives such care, act to preserve what he made, so as to reward those who love him and condemn those who despise him?

“Or do you despise the riches of his goodness and patience and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God calls you to repentance?” He says this so that a person may not think he has escaped because the goodness of God bears with him sinning for a long time, nor think that his patience is to be despised, as if he did not care for human affairs; but let him understand that he is overlooked because God’s judgment was not promised to take place in this life, so that in the life to come he may repent of not having believed that God is judge. For placed in punishment he will repent without the fruit of repentance, because he did not believe the judgment of God, which he then sees to be true. For it is necessary that one whom the long-suffering of patience did not correct should be corrected more sharply, or rather tormented with everlasting punishments. He speaks most severely, knowing that a malicious mind cannot easily be called back from vices except by fear.

“But according to your hardness and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will repay each one according to his works.” Hoping for impunity for his sins, he not only persists, remaining unconverted and intractable, but sins still more bitterly, secure that there will be no punishment, having an impenitent heart, not knowing that he is gathering wrath for himself on the day of wrath. For it is necessary that one who, through God’s long patience, not only refused to amend himself but even added contempt and heaped up his sins, should be struck with a more savage punishment, or rather tormented with everlasting flames. The day of wrath is for sinners, on which they will be punished; it is wrath for them because they feel punishment on the day of the revelation of the just judgment of God. For it will be revealed, that is, recognized, which is now denied to be coming; and therefore, when what is not believed to exist is shown, it is revealed. For it is shown to those who deny it, while to believers it is manifest; so that even against their will they may confess the just judgment of God, when he repays each one according to his works. Will they not confess that these things are done justly, when they see evils done to one another being punished?

“To those who, according to patience in good work, seek glory and honour and incorruption, eternal life.” Since the judgment of God has been proclaimed just, he has declared what it will be for the good. He means those who, knowing that God’s patience is prolonged partly for correction and partly for greater punishment of those who do not correct themselves, repent of their former works and live well, relying on the confidence of faith, lest, staying here long, they incur the loss of the promised life. He will give them, then, glory and honour. And lest this should not seem very great in comparison with the present life, since people here too appear glorious and honoured, he added, “and incorruption,” so that from this another glory and another honour might be understood, when incorruption will accompany them. For in the present, honour or glory is frequently lost, because he who gives, what he gives, and he who receives are corruptible; but on the day of God’s judgment honour and glory will be given incorruptible, so as to be wholly eternal: for the very substance will be glorified by a certain change according to merits. Those, then, seek eternal life who are good not only in profession but also in life.

“But to those who are of contention, and who distrust the truth but obey iniquity, wrath and indignation, tribulation and distress,” that is, redoubled distress. Distrusting the future judgment of God through Christ, and therefore despising his patience as well, they strive to make it void, though it is true and fixed. They believe iniquity; for it is iniquity to deny what God has foretold will be. He set down, then, three other things fitting for unbelief, saying, “wrath and indignation and distress.” For the wrath is not in the one who judges but in the one who is judged, when he becomes guilty. For God is said to be angry so that he may be believed to be about to punish; for the nature of God is free from these passions. And so that he may be believed not only to be angry but also to punish, he added, “and indignation”: indignation, added above wrath, signifies that God will avenge the injury done him. And the distresses are those by which, bound by the sentence, he will be afflicted in punishment.

“On every soul of man who works evil.” In this “work” he signifies not only deeds but also the profession of unbelief. For he speaks of the unbeliever; and he said “on the soul” so that you may understand a spiritual punishment, not a bodily one; because the soul will be constrained by invisible punishments. “Of the Jew first, and of the Greek.” He always puts the Jew first by the prerogative of the fathers, so that he is either crowned first or condemned first; because the believer is more honoured because of Abraham, but the one who distrusts is to be dealt with worse, since he rejected the gift promised to the fathers.

“But glory and honour and peace to everyone who works good, to the Jew first, and to the Greek.” As he set down three penalties for unbelievers, so also three splendid things for the faithful: that they may have double honour, as sons of God; glory, for the change; and peace, because those who live well will be at rest in the future, moved by no disturbance; since every person who abstains from contrary things has peace with the judge.

“For there is no respect of persons with God.” Since he has shown that neither Jew nor Greek is despised by God, provided he believes in Christ, but that the righteousness of faith is credited to both; and likewise that unbelievers are equally guilty, because circumcision without faith will do more harm, and uncircumcision through faith will profit; by this he teaches that God is not a respecter of persons. For he does not follow the prerogative of race, so as to receive one who distrusts because of the fathers, or reject from himself one who believes because of the unworthiness of his parents; but he rewards or condemns each by his own merit.

“For whoever have sinned without the law will also perish without the law.” How can one sin without law, since we are all subject together to the natural law? But he speaks of the law of Moses, to which the Jews are liable while they do not believe; and the gentiles too, but long since, because they would not join themselves to it. Gentiles who do not believe, then, are guilty in a double way, because they neither assented to the law given through Moses nor received the grace of Christ; therefore it is right that they perish. So, as one who sins without the law will perish, so too one who without the law has kept the law will be justified. For one who keeps righteousness by nature is a guardian of the law. For if the law is not laid down for the righteous (1 Tim 1:9) but for the unrighteous, one who does not sin is a friend of the law. He lacks only faith, through which he may become perfect; because it will profit him nothing before God to abstain from contrary things unless he receives faith in God, so as to be righteous through both; for that is the righteousness of time, this of eternity. “And whoever have sinned in the law will be judged through the law.” Since the Jews have the law, in which salvation was promised them, if they do not believe or do not receive what was promised, they will be judged through the law under which they lived. For with the law itself accusing them they will pay the penalty; for the case of the Jews is almost graver among themselves than that of the gentiles. For as, when they believe, they are preferred, so when they distrust they are found worse; for one who lost what he had displeases more than one who could not obtain what he had not hoped for. For the latter did not enter the palace; the former was thrown out of it.

“For not the hearers of the law are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified.” He says this because those are not righteous who hear the law, but those who believe in Christ, whom the same law promised; and this is to do the law. But everyone who does not believe the law does not do the law, since he does not receive the one to whom the law bears witness. But one who does not appear to be in the law, because he is uncircumcised in the flesh, yet believes in Christ, is said to have done the law. And the one who says he is in the law, that is, the Jew, becomes a hearer of the law, not a doer, because he does not believe in the Christ written in the law, as Philip said to Nathanael: “We have found Jesus, of whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote” (John 1:45).

“For when the gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things that are of the law.” He means Christian gentiles, as in another place: “For I speak to you gentiles” (Rom 11:13); because, uncircumcised, they keep neither new moons nor sabbath nor the law of foods, and with nature as guide believe in God and Christ, that is, in the Father and the Son; for this is to keep the law, to acknowledge the God of the law. For this is the first part of wisdom, to fear God the Father, from whom are all things, and the Lord Jesus his Son, through whom are all things. Nature itself, then, by its own judgment acknowledges its Creator, not through the law but through the reason of nature; for the work perceives the Maker in itself.

“These, not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts.” It is the same sense; for while, with nature as guide, they believe, they show the work of the law not through the letter but through conscience. For the work of the law is faith, and one who shows it to God together with words shows by natural judgment that he is a law to himself, because he does of his own accord what the law commands, namely to believe in Christ. “Their conscience bearing witness to them.” With their inner conscience as witness they believe, because they are aware that what they believe is fitting for them; for it is fitting for a creature to believe and revere its Maker, nor is it absurd that a servant should acknowledge his master.

“And between you, your thoughts accusing one another, or else defending, on the day when God will judge the secrets of people, according to my gospel, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” He has said that the Jews who distrust will be judged through the law (for the law will accuse them, which promised them Christ, whom they would not receive when he came), and that the gentiles, who certainly do not have the law, will be judged through conscience if they refuse to believe. First, believing gentiles will be the accusers of unbelieving gentiles, as the Lord says to the unbelieving Jews about his disciples: “They will be your judges” (Matt 12:27); for the faithlessness of the Jews will be judged by the faith of the apostles, who, though they were from among them, believed while they distrusted. Then the gentiles will be accused by their own thoughts if, though pricked in heart, they refused to believe the faith and power of the Creator; or, if through a certain stupor they do not consider, so as to believe the Lord’s words and deeds, they will defend themselves by conscience on the day of judgment, because one did not think he ought to believe; and he will be judged not as malicious but as ignorant, though not without punishment, because it is not permitted to be ignorant of this. For he signifies gentiles of two kinds, believers as well as unbelievers; for above he speaks of believing gentiles, but afterwards he added also those gentiles who do not believe; and as believers are praised by their conscience, so the distrustful are accused by their conscience. For though one who did not believe seems to himself in no way guilty, since he could not weigh the matter within himself, he is nevertheless convicted by reason, because he did not persuade himself that this was true which he had seen confirmed by the testimony of mighty works and followed by many. I think it can also be understood thus, if the whole question is believed to have been said about believing gentiles, since he says: “What have I to do with judging those outside?” (1 Cor 5:12); and, “He who has not believed,” he says, “is already judged” (John 3:18); and, “Because the ungodly do not rise in the judgment” (Ps 1:5). For those who sin without the law will also perish without the law; and therefore they will not be able to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and plead their cause, because when they rise they will be led to Gehenna. For those who he says will be accused or defended by their own thoughts on the day of God’s judgment are those Christians who disagree with the catholic truth, holding differing views about Christ, or about the sense of the law in the tradition of the Church: whether Cataphrygians, or Novatians, or Donatists, or the other heretics. Their thoughts will accuse one another on the day of judgment. If someone understood that the catholic teaching is true, and would not follow it lest he seem to have been corrected, ashamed to withdraw from what he had long held, on the day of judgment he will be accused by his own thought. For two thoughts in a person will accuse each other, a good one and a bad one. The good accuses the bad, because it contradicted the truth; the bad in turn accuses the good, because it did not follow as it perceived; and by this he is made guilty who thought and perceived that the catholic Church is good and true, and remained in heresy or schism. But the thoughts of one who always thought this, believing what he followed to be useful, will defend each other. For he will say: “I always thought in my thoughts that what I followed was useful; this was my faith.” This man will have a lighter case, though he needs to be corrected, because he will not be accused by his own conscience on the day of judgment. In this way the secrets of people will be judged on the day of God’s judgment through Jesus Christ our Lord.

“But if you are called by the surname Jew.” Jew is a surname, because it comes from the prerogative of their ancestors that they are called Israelites. And yet, if we want to grasp the whole of what pertains to the matter, we ought to notice that the surname is signified for the Jews in a threefold way. First, because they are sons of Abraham, who through the merit of his faith was made father of all nations. Then because of Jacob, who was called Israel for the sake of increasing faith; for the dignity begun in the father is ennobled in the sons. Third, not so much because of Judah as because of Christ: because he was born of Judah according to the flesh, they are surnamed Jews; for in Judah was signified what was to be in Christ. For it was said: “Judah will be your leader” (Judg 20:18); and, “Judah, your brothers praise you” (Gen 49:8). This praise is not shown to have been given to Judah but to Christ, whom all praise daily whom he deigned to call his brothers. For he himself said to the women: “Go and tell my brothers that I go before you into Galilee” (Matt 28:7, 10). For who would not praise the one by whose kindness he lives? The apostle, then, wished the whole to be understood under this meaning, which is later in number but more perfect in merit; which the Jews, not understanding, claim for themselves the name of the carnal Judah.

“And you rest on the law and boast in God, and know his will, and approve the more useful things, being instructed through the law.” It does not seem very great if a Jew believes, since he is instructed through the law; but it is very dangerous if he does not believe, for he has the law as his guide. But that the believer is put first is made a merit by the fathers; for though someone may fail in himself, he is nevertheless honoured in his own.

“And you are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light of those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law.” These things are true; for this is the teaching of the law, to instruct the unskilled and to subject the profane to God, or to call the ungodly from the worship of idols to the confidence of a better hope by the promise made through the law. Rightly, then, does the teacher of the law boast in these things, since he hands on the form of truth. But if he does not receive the one whom the law promised, he boasts in vain of the law, to which he does injury when he spurns the Christ promised in the law; and he will no longer be an instructor of the foolish, nor a teacher of infants, nor a light of those in darkness, but the guide of all these to perdition.

“You, then, who teach another, do not teach yourself.” That is, you who rebuke the gentiles for being without law and God do not rebuke yourself: for distrusting the Christ promised in the law, you are found in the same things that you rebuke.

“You who preach that one must not steal, steal”; for you do what you preach ought not to be done. For while you steal away faith in Christ by bad interpretation, you deny our Christ promised in the law. “You who say that one must not commit adultery, commit adultery.” You adulterate the law when you take away the truth of Christ and put a lie in its place. Hence he says in another place: “adulterers of the word of God” (2 Cor 2:17). “You who abhor idols commit sacrilege.” You are sacrilegious when you deny Christ, whom the law and the prophetic word signify as God; for Isaiah says: “For God is in you, and there is no God besides you. For you are God, and we did not know it, the God of Israel, the Saviour” (Isa 45:14–15). Did the Jews say of God the Father, “For you are God, and we did not know it,” when the whole law proclaims the authority of God the Father, from whom are all things? But because the Son of God always appeared, yet who he was lay hidden, when he is recognized after the resurrection it is said to him in confession: “For you are God, and we did not know it.” And he who in the law was thought to be only an angel and the leader of the army of the Lord, when he is understood to be the Son of God, is addressed with thanksgiving: “For you are God, and we did not know it.” By this, then, he signifies that it was he who had appeared to the patriarchs as God, and afterwards became incarnate, but had not been understood by all.

“You who boast in the law dishonour God through transgression of the law.” You are a transgressor of the law when you pass over the sense of the law, which concerns the incarnation and divinity of Christ; and you dishonour God when you do not receive his testimony, which he gave about his Son. For he himself said: “This is my beloved Son” (Matt 3:17).

“For the name of God is blasphemed among the gentiles through you, as it is written” (Isa 52:5). The prophet Isaiah said this, that the name of God is blasphemed among the gentiles, because they did not perceive that the Jews had been handed over to them for their offences, but gave glory to their idols, as if they had conquered the God of the Jews in the Jews. So too in the time of the apostles the name of God was blasphemed in Christ; for the Jews, by denying that Christ is God, blasphemed the Father too, as the Lord says: “Whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me” (Luke 9:48). And therefore it was blasphemed among the gentiles, because the Jews strove to persuade the believing gentiles that Christ was not to be believed God; so that the blasphemy of the gentiles proceeded from the Jews or from the followers of Photinus.

“Circumcision indeed profits, if you keep the law.” It can be said in reply: If circumcision profits, why is it set aside? But it profits then, if you keep the law. Circumcision must then be retained, and, so that it can profit, the law must be kept. Why, then, did he forbid what he shows to profit if the law is kept? It seems, then, wrongly forbidden, since it does not displease of itself but is said to be frustrated by another’s negligence. “But if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.” This is what he says: that if the law has not been kept, the Jew becomes a gentile. But he used circumcision for the race of Abraham, since circumcision comes from Abraham; for he could not build up what he had destroyed. He says this to teach that being of the race of Abraham profits then, if the law is kept, that is, if one believes in Christ, who was promised to Abraham; because those justified by faith both have their own merit and are exalted by the honour of the fathers. For all salvation in the law concerns Christ. He, then, keeps the law who believes in Christ; but if he does not believe, he is a transgressor of the law, because he does not receive the Christ whom the law sang would come for justification, which it could not give; and it will profit him nothing to be called a son of Abraham, because he is a son of Abraham by merit who follows the faith through which Abraham proved worthy of God. Hence he says, “Your circumcision has become uncircumcision”: that is, you have become like a gentile, not believing in the one who in the sign of circumcision was promised as a son to Abraham.

“If, then, the uncircumcision keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not their uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?” The righteousness of the law is the Christian faith, as he says in another place: “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom 10:4). It is plain, then, that if a gentile believes in Christ, he becomes a son of Abraham, who is the father of faith.

“And the uncircumcision which is by nature, fulfilling the law, will judge you, who through the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law.” The gentile who believes in Christ with nature as guide condemns the Jew, to whom the law had promised Christ and who would not believe in him when he came. As much glory, then, as the gentile deserves, who through nature alone understood the Author, as the apostle Peter says, “But you killed the Author of life” (Acts 3:15), so much the more is the Jew to be punished, who acknowledged Christ as Author neither through nature nor through the law.

“For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not the letter; whose praise is not from people but from God.” It is not obscure that he denies that circumcision of the flesh has praise with God (for Abraham was not justified because he was circumcised, but he was justified because he believed, and afterwards was circumcised), but says that circumcision of the heart is praiseworthy with God. For to circumcise the heart, when error is cut off, is to acknowledge the Creator. And because circumcision of the heart was to come, Moses first said: “You shall circumcise the hardness of your heart” (Deut 10:16); and Jeremiah likewise: “Circumcise the foreskin of your heart” (Jer 4:4). He said this to Jews who followed idols; for there is a veil about the heart, which one who turns to God circumcises; because faith takes away the cloud of error and grants perfect knowledge of God in the mystery of the Trinity, which was unknown for ages. The praise of this circumcision, then, is from God, hidden from people; for it is the merit of the heart that God regards, not of the flesh. For the praise of the Jews is from people; for they boast in the circumcision of the flesh, because it comes from the fathers. Hence he says among other things: “And their glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things” (Phil 3:19), that is, who think circumcision of the flesh a glory. For one who boasts in the flesh minds earthly things; but one who boasts in the spirit, his praise is from God; for one believes with the spirit, not the flesh.