Commentary on Romans 7.12–7.15

“For I am confident that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The Apostle seems to have shown two orders of the things that usually stir up temptations for men. And in those we discussed first, the order of human temptations is understood to be described; of which he also said to the Corinthians, as to those who could not bear greater ones: “Let no temptation take you except what is human; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able.” But now, in these words that we have in hand, he indicates not human temptations but those greater than human. And therefore I think that in the former, when he had enumerated each one, at the last he says, “But in all these we overcome.” But in these temptations of the second order he does not say so confidently, “We overcome,” but says very slenderly that none of these will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. For of human temptations, as of small and light ones, he declares confidently that we overcome them; but those higher and more than human ones, even if we are not able to overcome and lay them low (for this is the work of Christ alone, who “stripped the principalities and powers, triumphing over them in himself”), yet this too stands in place of victory: if, when they have hurled against us all the engines of their assaults, they are nevertheless not able to separate us from the love of God.

But now let us try to discuss each point, and to open, as far as we can, what is to be thought of each word of the Apostle. Although the Apostle seems to have covered loftier things in these words than the power of our exposition is enough to bear, or the reckoning of brevity allows, let us nevertheless inquire whether all these things which the Apostle enumerated, or some of them, have this zeal or intent, to strive to separate human souls from the love of God, and for this reason set in motion against us all that we suffer. For death perhaps seems able to do this, that we be separated from the love of God, and angels, and principalities, and powers that are without doubt opposed to us, and things present, which are certainly slippery and perishable. And depth can be understood likewise. But how life, and things to come, and height, and any other creature strive to separate us from the love of God does not seem idle to explain. Unless perhaps someone says that the Apostle says these things by hyperbole, that is, that we are in no way turned aside from the love of God, not only through things that can happen, but not even through those that cannot happen at all: for example, if another life were given us than this which has been given by God, or if another hope of things to come were promised us, or height, or even a creature other than that which groans together and suffers pain together for us, which certainly cannot happen, not even these could separate us from the love of God. This, then, is one mode of exposition.

Yet let us see whether this understanding too can perhaps be admitted. The death of which he speaks here is to be taken as that which we explained above is said to be the last enemy of Christ to be destroyed. It is called death for this reason, that, as this common death separates the soul from the body, so that one strives to separate the soul from the love of God; and this certainly is the death of the soul. It may be, then, that there is also some life on its side, which acts with it to separate us from the love of God: which is the life of sin. For unless this life were evil, the Apostle would never urge us to die to sin, and to be baptized into the death of Christ and buried with him. It may be, then, that it is this life of sin that desires to separate us from the love of God. And I think that each sin too has a kind of life of its own within us: for each vice is a life of sin. The more vices, then, are found within us, the more lives of sins will be seen to be in us. And for this reason perhaps it is said: “For your mercy is better than lives.”

“Neither angels, nor principalities, nor powers.” It is easy to understand those angels for whom eternal fire is said by the Savior to have been prepared with the devil; and principalities and powers, without doubt, those against which our struggle is; or those principalities and authorities of which he says, “When he has destroyed every principality and authority and power”; from among which also the prince of this world is named. After this, “Nor things present,” he says, or “things impending.” This can be seen to be said of those whom the same Apostle elsewhere named “the rulers of this world and of darkness”; or also because the pleasure and delight of present things, and the vain glory of this world, strive to draw us away from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

After this let us see what the things to come are, which wish, but cannot, to separate Paul and those like him from the love of God. This too seems to me to be understood in two ways. For “things to come” can be understood from the time when he wrote these things, so that he seems to say this: If any trials, if any tribulations come upon me, they will not be able to separate me from the love of God. Or else understand “things to come” as those which will meet those departing from this world, when the prince of this world and the other powers under him will strive to hold back the soul setting out from the body, but will not be able to hold back those from whom perfect love, which is in Christ Jesus, casts out fear. And that Scripture will seem to confirm this sense which says: “For while we are in the body we are away from the Lord; for we desire rather to be away from the body and present with the Lord”; and, “We strive, whether absent or present, to please him”; calling us absent when placed in the body, but present when departing from the body; and he shows that the saints strive to please God even in departing from the body. If, then, love is perfect in them, none of the things to come, in which God is to be pleased, will be able to separate them from it; since those certainly will not please God who are so unstable in the love of God that they can be separated from it. These two ways of speaking of things to come we have given. But it may be that there is some third way higher than these, which let him who has been able to search it out judge worthy to be preferred to these.

Then he adds: “Nor powers.” This seems to be one kind among the many rational creatures, not leading its life in a mortal body, but like the angels, though of another order than the angels are. These powers too, then, have a contest to separate us from the love of God; but not even they, he says, will be able, if our love is rooted and founded. Likewise both height … [the scan has lost text here] … “Out of the depths I have cried to you, O Lord,” when he was assailed by those assigned to hell and by the spirits of Gehenna. But not even these, says Paul, will be able to separate us from the love of God.

“Nor,” he says, “any other creature.” He can be understood to have spoken of another creature besides this which we see: for there is another, invisible to us now. But it can also be taken thus: besides those which I enumerated above, that is, angels and powers, and if there is any other creature; so that he might not seem, by enumerating each by kind, to draw out a long and superfluous discourse. Or in yet another way: since Paul knew that the creatures of God are many and innumerable, of which he himself had received not the whole knowledge but knowledge in part, and of which not only the kinds but even the names are unknown in the present age; of which the same Apostle also says elsewhere that the Savior sat above every principality and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that to come: on account of these, then, which he knows can be named not only in the present age but also in that to come, he will seem to have said: “Nor will any other creature be able to separate us from the love of God.”

Yet from all these Paul shows the confidence of his salvation, when he says he can now be torn from the love of God neither by angels opposing, nor by powers assailing, nor by things present, nor by things to come struggling against him, nor by any creature at all opposing; and that he feels no fear of so many adversaries, so as truly to show that perfect love had now cast out fear from him too. For he too once had fear, and feared lest perhaps he should fall; and he who now did not fear if the wars of the heavenly powers were stirred up against him, once feared his own flesh and dreaded the snares rising from it, when he said, writing to the Corinthians: “I bruise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, after preaching to others, I myself should be found reprobate.” And therefore beyond all others the snares of the flesh are to be dreaded, and that enemy who comes forth from ourselves is to be guarded against, until the soul comes to such progress that, bound to God by the sweetness of love, it shrinks from the blandishments of the body and the enticements of the flesh, made one spirit with God.

“I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual pain in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brothers, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, whose is the adoption of sons, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and from whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed forever.” Paul sees that, according to what he set out above, that by no power, heavenly or earthly, present or to come, opposing him could he be separated from the love of Christ, what he now proposed to say would seem contrary and incredible: that he wished to become anathema from Christ, whom he loved so inseparably, that is, to be made a stranger to him. Lest he seem to incur the mark of a lie, he sets first a satisfaction, so that there may be no doubt at all about his words, and says: “I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit.”

But let us see why he said, “I speak the truth in Christ,” as though showing that there is some truth which is not in Christ. And see whether we can in some such way distinguish truth which is in Christ from that which is not in Christ; for elsewhere too the same Apostle says: “The truth of Christ is in me, that I do not lie.” The truth of Christ, then, is to be believed to be there where the other virtues also are which Christ is described as being: that is, where righteousness is, where peace is, where the word of God is, there is also the truth of Christ. But there is also truth in unrighteousness: as if, for example, we speak of that Pythonic demon which, it is related in the Acts of the Apostles, dwelt in a certain slave girl and cried out after the apostles that “these men are servants of the most high God, who proclaim to men the way of God”: there was truth in these words, for what was said was true; but this truth was not in Christ; and therefore Paul turned to her and said: “Be silent, and come out of her.” And what Caiaphas said was truth too: “It is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish”; but yet this truth was not in Christ. And therefore the Apostle, to distinguish it from that truth which is apart from Christ, says that he speaks the truth in Christ.

And this too which he says, “my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,” seems to me to have a like meaning. For conscience bears witness to the Gentiles too, according to what the same Apostle says above: “their conscience bearing witness to them, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or even defending them.” In those, then, in whom their thoughts have something to accuse and conscience comes to bear witness, it cannot be said that conscience bears witness in the Holy Spirit for evil deeds. But in the Apostle, where thought now has nothing to accuse, conscience rightly bears witness in the Holy Spirit. Yet see the greatness of the apostolic heart. From the love of God he cannot be separated; what he speaks, he speaks in Christ; what he has in his conscience is held by the Holy Spirit. What heavens, I ask, what thrones, what minds of the heavenly powers, however vast, will be able to hold the whole Trinity in such ample seats?

“That I have great sorrow and continual pain in my heart.” Granted, have sorrow; granted, feel pain over the perdition of your brothers who are your kinsmen according to the flesh: surely not so far as to wish to become anathema, to be separated from Christ? And how will you save others, if you yourself perish? It is not so, he says; but I have learned from my Master and Lord that he who wishes to save his soul will lose it, and he who loses it will find it. What wonder, then, if the Apostle is willing to become anathema for his brothers, who knows that he who was in the form of God emptied himself of it and took the form of a servant, and was made a curse for us? What wonder, then, if, when the Lord was made a curse for servants, a servant becomes anathema for brothers? And I think this is what Moses too said to the Lord when the people had sinned: “And now, if you forgive them their sin, forgive; but if not, blot me out of the book of life which you have written.” What then? Do you wish Paul to seem inferior to Moses? He asks to be blotted out of the book of life for his brothers; ought Paul not to wish to be anathema for his brothers? But perhaps someone will say that Moses, offering this, deserved to obtain the salvation of the people, while Paul wishes it but was not heard. What if I show you that Paul was heard more than Moses? For all those who had gone out of Egypt through Moses fell in the wilderness; and their descendants who received the land of promise even now wander from it as exiles and outcasts. But hear what Paul says of Israel: “I do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, and so all Israel will be saved.” You see, then, that Paul was heard, and because he offered himself as anathema, he won salvation for his brothers. And therefore he seems to me to have set first all those things, that he could by no power be torn from the love of God, so that, when he offers himself as anathema for his brothers, you should not judge a fall of his possible; but as he who is inseparable from the Father by nature and immortal came into death and went down into hell, so this man too, imitating his Master, although he cannot be separated from the love of Christ, becomes anathema from Christ for his brothers, by devotion, certainly, not by transgression.

That the Israelites are Paul’s kinsmen according to the flesh needs no explanation. “Whose,” he says, “is the adoption of sons.” For the sons of Israel were adopted by God at the time when the Most High divided the nations and scattered the sons of Adam according to the number of the angels of God, and Jacob became the Lord’s portion and Israel the lot of his inheritance. This, then, is the adoption of sons. “And the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law.” Of the glory of the law that was given it has often been said already, as the Apostle himself also says: “For if what is done away was through glory,” that is, the Old Testament, “much more what remains is in glory,” namely the preaching of the gospel. But when he says, “the covenants and the giving of the law,” he may perhaps seem to say one thing. For the law that was given is also called a covenant. But I think there is this distinction: that the giving of the law was one, and held once through Moses; but covenants were often established. For as often as they sinned and were cast off, so often they seem to have been disinherited; and again, as often as God, propitiated again, called them back and brought them into the inheritance of his possession, so often he must be believed to have renewed the covenants and written them in as heirs. “And the service, and the promises.” By service he means the priestly offices; the promises, those which were made to the fathers and are hoped to be given to those who through faith are called sons of Abraham.

Yet it is certain that from that very race according to the flesh, that is, the Israelite, came not only the fathers but also Christ; as he also says through the prophet: “Woe to them, because my flesh is from them.” And why “woe to them”? Because Jesus was born for the fall and the rising of many, and because he was rejected by those whose flesh he was, and was received by the Gentiles by whom he was not known; as he also says through David: “A people whom I did not know served me.” From them, then, is Christ according to the flesh. “Who is God over all, blessed forever.” That Christ is one thing according to the flesh and another according to the spirit he already indicated in the earlier parts of this letter, where he says: “Who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was destined Son of God in power according to the spirit of sanctification.” And how he is Son of God according to the spirit and son of David according to the flesh we explained there more fully, according to our strength. Him, then, whom there he called Son of God according to the spirit, here, the order of teaching advancing, as the hearers make progress, he declares to be God, who is blessed over all.

And I wonder how some, reading what the same Apostle says elsewhere, “One God the Father, from whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things,” deny that the Son of God ought to be confessed God, lest they seem to speak of two gods. And what will they do with this place of the Apostle, in which Christ is openly declared to be God over all? But those who think thus do not notice that, just as he did not call the Lord Jesus Christ one Lord in such a way that God the Father is not therefore called Lord, so neither did he call God the Father one God in such a way that God the Son is not believed to be God. For true is the Scripture which says: “Know that the Lord himself is God.” But both are one God, because there is no other beginning of divinity for the Son than the Father; but of that one paternal fountain, as Wisdom says, the Son is the purest emanation. Christ, then, is God over all. Over what all? Without doubt those which we spoke of a little before: above principalities and authorities and powers and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that to come. And he who is over all has no one over himself. For he is not after the Father, but from the Father. And the Wisdom of God gave this same to be understood of the Holy Spirit too, where it says: “The Spirit of the Lord has filled the world, and that which holds all things together has knowledge of the voice.” If, then, the Son is called God over all, and the Holy Spirit is recorded to hold all things together, and God the Father is he “from whom are all things,” it is plainly shown that the nature and substance of the Trinity, which is over all, is one.

“But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are of Israel are Israelites; nor because they are the seed of Abraham are they all sons; but in Isaac shall your seed be called: that is, not those who are sons of the flesh are sons of God, but those who are sons of the promise are reckoned as seed.” Since he had said above that for his brothers, who are his kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, he could wish even to become anathema, because theirs were the adoption of sons and the giving of the law and the promises, he now says of them that the word of God has not failed, that is, the promise which was made to them has not come to nothing. For he who is the true Israel, not drawing his descent from Abraham by fleshly kinship alone (for not those who are sons of the flesh are also sons of God), but he who has descended from Abraham according to the promise of faith, he too obtains the promises of God. For many are of the race of Israel, but not all are called Israel. For Israel was named from seeing God. For so Jacob himself says: “I have seen the Lord face to face, and my soul has been saved.” Because, then, he saw God, he was called Israel. But he who does not see … [the scan has lost text here] … in Isaac alone, who was the son of promise, the posterity of his seed was set. And now, then, those who are sons of promise according to Isaac, that is, of that faith through which Abraham deserved to receive the promise of the future inheritance, they alone are reckoned as seed; for in them the succession of the inheritance is declared.

“For this is the word of promise: At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son. And not only so, but Rebecca too, having conceived from one intercourse with Isaac our father. For when they had not yet been born, nor had done anything good or evil, so that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not from works but from him who calls, it was said to her that the elder will serve the younger; as it is written: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” The Apostle set out to show that, although the people of Israel has been rejected through unbelief, yet the promises of God which had been made to them have not fallen away or been frustrated; and he teaches that, although Abraham had many sons, the promise was made in Isaac alone. For “not those,” he says, “who are sons of the flesh are sons of God.” And he strives to show how Isaac is not a son of the flesh but a son of God; and he goes back to what was written of him in Genesis. “For this,” he says, “is the word of promise: At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.” Isaac, then, he says, was not born by the order of fleshly birth, since Abraham was already held to have a body as good as dead, and Sarah’s womb was already dead, as was said above, but by the power of him who said, “At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.” Rightly, then, he is called a son not of the flesh but of God, who is born from the coming and the word of God.

This reasoning, then, he says, is to be accepted not only of Isaac but also of Jacob. For Rebecca too, he says, did not bring forth her offspring according to the order of fleshly birth. For when she had conceived twins from one intercourse with Isaac, the birth not yet having taken place, and no actions of the boys, good or evil, having been done among men, the divine election is directed toward Jacob, and it is said that “the elder will serve the younger,” and, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” And why these things were said so he teaches: “So that the purpose of God according to election might stand,” he says, “not from works but from him who calls, it was said”; that is, so that not those who are sons of the flesh, but those who are sons of God, may be reckoned as seed. For as there, out of many sons of the flesh, Isaac is chosen by God to be adopted as a son of God, so here too, of the two, the younger, Jacob, is chosen to be adopted as a son of God; and so it comes true that the promises of God rest not in the sons of the flesh but in the sons of God.

But all these things look to this, that the Apostle may prove that, if either Isaac or Jacob had been chosen by God for the merits which they had acquired while placed in the flesh, and had deserved to be justified through works of the flesh, the grace of their merit could certainly pass also to the posterity of flesh and blood. But now, since their election was made not from works but from the purpose of God and from the choice of him who calls, the grace of the promises is fulfilled not in the sons of the flesh but in the sons of God, that is, in those who likewise are chosen from the purpose of God and adopted as sons. For in them too is fulfilled what we have already set out above, that “those whom he foreknew, these he also predestined; and those whom he predestined, these he also called; and those whom he called, these he also justified; and those whom he justified, these he also glorified.” And whatever we set out above about these words suffices fully and abundantly for the explanation of the present place too, lest by repeating the same things we breed weariness in the readers.