Commentary on Romans 3.2–3.5

"What then do we hold more? For we have charged that Jews and Greeks are all under sin, as it is written: There is no one righteous, there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is no one who does goodness, there is not even one. Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they have dealt deceitfully, the poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes."

We have already said that in this Epistle Paul, as a kind of arbiter between those who have believed from the circumcision and those from the Gentiles, always tempers and balances his word, so that he seems now to rebuke these, now those, in some things, and again to encourage each side with sure hope of promise. Since, then, he had seemed to say above that if the uncircumcision keeps the righteous requirements of the law it will judge the one who in circumcision is a transgressor of the law, he added, in order to lift up again those whom he had humbled: "What advantage then has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. First, because the oracles of God were entrusted to them." After this, having pursued certain things in sequence with these, he now adds and says: "What then do we hold more? For we have charged that Jews and Greeks are all under sin." And if all are under sin, there will be no cause for boasting of one against another, since each comes to salvation not by his own righteousness but by the mercy of God. He proved, then, that the Greeks, that is, the Gentiles, are under sin when he said: "For claiming to be wise they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed beasts and serpents; therefore God gave them up to a reprobate mind," and the rest; and the Jews, when he says: "But if you are called a Jew and rest in the law," and the rest; to which he added: "You then who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one must not steal, do you steal?" and so on. After these things, then, he says that "we have charged that Jews and Greeks are all under sin."

After this, as is his custom, he wishes to confirm from the holy Scriptures what he had said; and at the same time he gives an example to the teachers of the Church, so that what they say to the people they may bring forward not taken from their own opinions but fortified by divine testimonies. For if so great and such an Apostle does not believe that the authority of his own words can suffice unless he shows that what he says is written in the Law and the Prophets, how much more ought we, the least, to observe this, so that when we teach we bring forward not our own opinions but those of the Holy Spirit? We think it necessary also to point out this: that in some Latin copies the testimonies that follow are found set down entire, in sequence, in the thirteenth Psalm; but in almost all the Greek copies no further in the thirteenth Psalm than the verse where it is written, "There is no one who does good, there is not even one." And what the Apostle said, "As it is written: There is no one righteous, there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God," is not found in the same words in the psalm, but some are changed, some added, some left out. If this is observed more carefully by the studious, I think apostolic authority is given in this, that when we have to use the testimonies of Scripture we should take the sense from it rather than the words. For you will find this done frequently in the Gospels too. In the thirteenth Psalm, then, it is written thus: "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there is anyone who understands or seeks God." And in the fifty-second Psalm it says thus: "God looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there is anyone who understands or seeks God." And the same sense seems to be kept also in what the Apostle set down: "There is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God." And as for his saying, "There is no one righteous," I think … "under their lips," which itself too is taken from a psalm, with the words changed, as we said above. What follows, "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness," seems to be taken from the ninth Psalm. Then: "Their feet are swift to shed blood" you will find either in Isaiah or in Proverbs. But as for "Ruin and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known," I do not fully remember where it is written; yet I suspect it can be found in one of the prophets. And in the Psalms it is written: "There is no fear of God before their eyes." He seems to have wished to gather all these testimonies in order to show that in charging that Jews and Greeks are all under sin he is pronouncing not so much his own sentence as that of holy Scripture.

But let us ask what it is to be under sin; for his word seems to embrace all without exception, whether Jews or Gentiles. But another sentence of his meets us, where he says: "But where there is no law, there is no transgression." Among the Jews, clearly, there is the law of Moses; but among the Gentiles he affirms that there is the law of nature, which convicts the offender by the testimony of conscience. Where, then, shall we look for a man in whom there is no law, and who for that reason does not seem to be in the transgression of sin, since Paul himself says of himself, "But I was once living without law"? When did Paul live without law, who again says of himself, "Circumcised on the eighth day, a Hebrew of Hebrews"? How then will it be true that he once lived without law, who on the eighth day of his birth received the sign of circumcision from the law? Hence it is clear that a man comes to be under the law when he has reached the age at which he can choose and discern what the law is; and that he does not take up the outward yoke of that law before he begins to have the firmness of the inner and natural law. Indeed, in the place where he said, "But I was once living without law," he added: "But when the commandment came, sin revived." In this he shows that in childhood, before someone has the discernment of good and evil, he is said to be without law; since even if he sins, because the law is not in him, sin is not imputed to him. But when he has received the discernment of good and evil, the law is said to have come to him and to have given commandments. And where the force of the commandment is present, that is, the conscience that convicts, sin, which was previously dead in him, is said to have revived. From this time, then, if someone submits himself to the law of Moses so as to observe it according to the letter, he becomes … [if he] follows it [according to the spirit], he becomes a Jew in secret.

These things on what is said, "For we have charged that Jews and Greeks are all under sin": that is, "all" is to be understood as said of those who are clearly taught by the natural or the written law not to sin. For we also understand that the Gentiles are made under sin in the same way as we said above: when they have begun by nature to do the things of the law and to be a law to themselves, they are then convicted by conscience in the things they seem to do against the law. That is why those seem to me to have judged truly and consistently who call the law of nature the law of God, but call the law of Moses the written law. If, then, Paul were saying of the written law, that is, of the law of Moses, "But sin is not imputed when there is no law," sin will seem not to have been imputed to Cain, nor to those who perished in the flood, nor to those whom fire consumed in Sodom. But since we see that not only were sins imputed to them, but vengeance was also given against them, it is shown from these that Paul speaks of the natural law, which, except in the first age of childhood, is present in all men; and through this he says most rightly: "For we have charged that Jews and Greeks are all under sin." Hence one of the wise does not seem to me to have defined against reason that in the whole race of mortals, when one has come to the age at which one receives the discernment of right and wrong by the entrance of the natural law, first of all wickedness is roused, and after this it is gradually driven out by teachings, training, and admonitions, and one passes over to virtue. For Paul seems to me to have thought in agreement with this when he says: "But when the commandment came, sin revived." And when the Savior says in the Gospels, "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin," he will seem to have spoken according to this principle: that by that power by which he is said to fill the world he comes to each man and speaks in his heart and teaches the judgment of good and evil.

That is why Paul says it is written: "There is no one righteous, there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless"; as the prophet also says elsewhere: "For no one living will be justified in your sight." This may seem contrary to other Scriptures, which bear witness to some as righteous, so far that it is even said to Jerusalem about Sodom that "Sodom has been justified by you." But look more carefully at the caution of divine Scripture, how it did not say, "Sodom has been justified," but said: … "you act so that you surpass all in the greatness of your sins; in comparison with your crimes Sodom has now been justified." And here too, then, in saying, "No one living will be justified in your sight," he did not wish it to be understood that no one living will be justified, but that in your sight, that is, God's, he will not be justified. For however righteous, however holy someone may be, not only among men but also among the heavenly and more eminent creatures, it is certain that in comparison with God he cannot be justified. Indeed, in the Apocalypse of John too, where the sealed book is brought before the Ancient of Days, and it is asked out of every tribe, tongue, and people who can open it, no one was found except the Lamb alone of the tribe of Judah, who was justified in the sight of God; and he alone was worthy to open the book, who alone is the one "who opens and no one shuts, who shuts and no one opens." Our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, alone, then, is justified in the sight of the Father, because "whatever the Father does, the Son also does likewise." But every creature is justified by comparison with inferiors. As if, for example, we should say: in comparison with the rest of the people, Miriam the sister of Moses was righteous; and again, in comparison with Miriam, Aaron was righteous; and again, in comparison with Aaron, Moses was righteous. Yet blessed is he who is called righteous by comparison with the better, and not by comparison with the worst, like Sodom, which is recorded as justified by comparison with Jerusalem.

Hence I too fear lest some unbelievers be found to be justified by comparison with us who seem to be in the Church of God and to give attention to his law and to serve the precepts of the Gospel. For example, if we serve lust and impurity, and a Gentile who is a stranger to the faith of Christ keeps chastity, that Gentile is justified by us. Likewise, if we are entangled in avarice, rapacity, pride, and other evils of this kind, while a Gentile abstains from all these, and those who do not know the law of God, they will be justified by us, and we will be condemned by comparison with them. Rather let us take pains that, as we go before the Gentiles in faith, so we may excel them in acts and works, lest our evils become others' goods and their temperance convict our intemperance.

What he said, "There is no one righteous," or what he says, "No one living will be justified in your sight," can also be explained in another way: that as long as someone … "Call no man blessed before death, for you do not know what his last things will be"; and again Ecclesiastes says: "And I praised the dead, who have already died, more than the living who are still alive; but better than both is he who has not yet been born." You have also another sentence of Scripture, which says that whoever is least in the kingdom of God is greater than one who is in the body, even if it is that John than whom there was no greater among those born of women. "There is no one righteous," then. And he added: "There is no one who understands." And indeed, since the Apostle himself says that he knows in part and understands in part, who will there be who may be called one who understands? For however much someone has understood, he will be seen to understand in a mirror and in a riddle; because after the laying aside of the earthly body it is reported that he understands face to face; but now, as Scripture says, "The corruptible body weighs down the soul, and the earthly dwelling presses down the mind that thinks many things." Hence it comes about that no one understands, nor "seeks God." For while we are occupied with the cares of the body and seek the things of men, we cannot seek God or think on the things of God.

"All have turned aside, together they have become useless." It seems to me that no one is said to have turned aside except one who once stood on the right way. Hence it appears that that first work of rational nature, which was made by God, was right and was placed on the right way by the gift of the Creator himself. But since it turned its course from this to the left, to sin, it is now rightly said to have turned aside, as the first man Adam is an example, who turned aside from the right way of paradise, by the evil-counseling fraud of the serpent, to the crooked and twisted paths of mortal life. Consequently, then, all who come into this world from his succession have turned aside and together with him have become useless. For this reason, I think, the Lord too gives a command in the Gospels that, when we have done all the precepts, we should nevertheless remember what we are and say: "We are useless servants; we have done what we ought to have done." For as long as someone does only what he owes, that is, what has been commanded, he is a useless servant. But if you add something to the precepts, then you will no longer be a useless servant, but it will be said to you: "Well done, good and faithful servant." What it is that is added to the precepts and done beyond what is owed, the apostle Paul says: "Concerning virgins I have no command of the Lord, but I give counsel, as one who has obtained mercy from the Lord." This work is above the precept. One, then, who after fulfilling the precepts adds this too, that he keeps virginity, will be called no longer a useless servant but a good and faithful servant. And again it is a precept that those who proclaim the Gospel should live by the Gospel; yet Paul says, "I have made use of none of these"; and therefore he was not a useless servant but faithful and prudent. "All," then, "have turned aside, together they have become useless."

To these he added: "There is no one who does goodness, there is not even one." A heavy sentence, and one difficult to establish. For how does it seem possible that no one at all, not even one, could have been found among the Jews or among the Greeks who did goodness? Are we really to believe that there was no one who ever received a guest, or gave bread to the hungry, or clothed the naked, or rescued the innocent from the hands of the powerful, or did some such good work? The apostle Paul does not seem to me to have wished to assert so incredible a statement; but I think it should be understood in this way: that he denies that anyone has made goodness complete. For example, if someone lays the foundations of a house and builds one or two walls and also brings together some material, will he be said to have made the house, although he seems to have worked on the house? But he will be said to have made the house who has brought every single part of the whole building to completion. So I think the Apostle says here too that no one has made goodness, that is, no one has brought it to completion and wholeness. But if we ask who is truly good and has made goodness perfect, we will find him alone who says, "I am the good shepherd"; and again, "The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep."

After this, taking from the fifth Psalm, as we said above, he says: "Their throat is an open grave." In these, as it seems to me, he describes sins of different kinds. Every grave covers the uncleanness of a dead corpse; hence the Lord too said in the Gospel of the scribes and Pharisees that they were whitewashed tombs, which outwardly seem beautiful to men, but inwardly are full of all uncleanness. But Paul seems in this place to show something more criminal in those of whom he speaks, when he calls them a grave not covered nor closed but "open." For those are called closed graves whom shame somewhat restrains from sinning openly and bringing their crimes out in public. But those are called an open grave who have their uncleannesses and impurities in the open, in whom the habit and practice of crimes, which is the last stage in evil, has taken away even shame for what they have committed: so that they no longer open their mouth and bring forth the word of God, the living word; but open their throat and bring forth a dead word, the word of the devil, not from the heart but from the grave. If, then, you ever see a man throwing out shameless words with a lewd mouth, or uttering insults and curses with a swollen and furious one, do not hesitate to say of him that his throat is an open grave. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

To this is added: "With their tongues they have dealt deceitfully." Deceit is when someone says one thing with the tongue and turns over another in the heart. I do not know whether this charge leaves even all the righteous and elect immune; but I think that one more, another less, yet no one is perfectly pure of it, except him alone of whom it is written: "Who did no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth." For even if someone is found careful and cautious, he can perhaps guard himself in graver matters; but whom will you find who does not fall into this, either from embarrassment or from negligence? Sometimes too through forgetfulness things that should have been attended to are omitted, and, lest the fault appear, they are excused otherwise than they were done. Hence Peter too, knowing that these are the varieties of deceit, writes in his epistle, saying: "Putting away, then, all deceit and pretense and envy and slander, like newborn infants, rational and without deceit, long for milk, so that by it you may grow to salvation."

"The poison of asps is under their lips." The bite of a serpent kills the body with poison; the bite of a poisoned word kills the soul by deceit. This can happen through those who ensnare men with fabricated slanders; it can happen also through those who deceive the souls of the simple by heretical doctrine infected with the devil's poison. "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." Of the poison of asps he did not say that their lips are full. For in that vice perhaps many may be found, yet not many who put forth the venom of that poison fully and completely. But to have the mouth filled with cursing and bitterness belongs to very many. For who has a mouth so corrected that the habit of cursing does not tempt him, I will not say against those who are worthy of cursing, but against those whom the Lord has not cursed, that is, righteous and innocent men? This vice of human frailty is ready and easy, especially toward subordinates and inferiors, so that they no longer think this kind of name-calling to be cursing. And therefore their mouth is said to be full, and cursing to flow incessantly as from the full vessel of the mouth. To this, however, bitterness too is joined, because it is drawn from the gall of anger. For the tongue is driven to curse through anger and rage. And therefore the same Apostle says: "Bless, and do not curse"; and elsewhere: "Lest any root of bitterness springing up should hinder."

It is added next: "Their feet are swift to shed blood." Yet this crime will perhaps not seem applicable to many of those of whom he said, "For we have charged that Jews and Greeks are all under sin"; unless perhaps we understand it thus: that blood is shed not only bodily, of those whose bodies are slaughtered, but also those who separate a soul from God by any scandal whatever are called men of blood. For just as he is called a murderer who separates the body from the soul by which it is given life, so much more truly is he to be called a murderer who separates the soul from the true life, which is God. And understand the feet in this place as those of which the prophet says: "But my feet were almost moved"; that is, the counsel by which we travel the road of life.

"Ruin and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known." By ruin (contritio) he means here not that by which the spirit is crushed for its sins in repentance, of which it is said in the Psalms, "A contrite and humbled heart God does not despise," but that crushing by which sinners are said to break the yoke of the Lord and throw it off their necks. Likewise misery, or, as it is read elsewhere, wretchedness, is to be taken as that by which man was made wretched and unhappy, who, "when he was in honor, did not understand," but "was compared to senseless beasts and became like them." "And the way of peace they have not known." Christ is our peace. The way of peace, then, is the way of Christ. But if we also take it that sinners, while they are always pressed by the wars of the vices, do not know the way of peace, we understand rightly. For the prophet says to the Lord: "Great peace have those who love your name, and there is no scandal for them." And that people too which was led out of Egypt went by the way of peace, so as to come to the land of promise and dwell in Jerusalem, which is interpreted "vision of peace," as the prophet also says: "His place has been made in peace, and his dwelling in Zion." But he knows the way of peace more fully who is making for the dwelling of the heavenly Jerusalem, so as to ascend to the holy city of the living God.

After this it is added: "There is no fear of God before their eyes." If there is someone who always thinks of the fear of God, and seeks what pleases him and what displeases him, of him it is said that the fear of God is before his eyes. But he must be skilled and carefully instructed in the law of the Lord, lest perhaps he fear with fear where there will be no need of fear. The fear of God, then, is always to be set before the eyes: not these eyes of the flesh (for nothing visible or bodily is sought), but before the eyes of the mind, by which the understanding and teaching of the fear of God is perceived, through which, as we said above, it may be understood what is to be feared and what is not to be feared. One who fears God does not fear the powers of the world. And what do I say of the powers of the world? He does not fear even those principalities and powers and rulers of this world, nor the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. And that we may confirm this by the authority of Paul himself, hear how he speaks of human powers: "Do you wish," he says, "not to fear the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from it." And the prophet says: "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear what man may do to me." And the same prophet seems to me to have had in mind the adverse powers of the spirits when he says: "Many who fight against me from on high will fear by day"; and again: "Though camps stand against me, my heart will not fear." It is, then, a great and magnificent work always to have the fear of God before the eyes of the heart: that fear which filled the rod that rose from the root of Jesse and the flower that rose from its root, of whom he had said: "And the spirit of the fear of the Lord will fill him." And the fear of God makes a man so perfect that nothing is lacking to him, as the prophet says, that "there is no want to those who fear him."

These things we have fitted, as we could, to each of the testimonies taken up by Paul, showing how they seemed to suit those of whom he says, "For we have charged that Jews and Greeks are all under sin." Yet I think they should be understood not as though all these things are charged as having been in each single man, but one thing in one and another in another, yet so that in all of them together this whole sum of vices was fulfilled.