Commentary on Romans 7.20–8.3

“What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have laid hold of righteousness, but the righteousness that is from faith.” This may perhaps seem contrary either to what we said above, that each one should cleanse and purge himself so as to become a useful vessel and a vessel of mercy, or to what we discussed in the passages above, that the Gentiles too use the natural law, in which without doubt there is also righteousness. How, then, does he say here that the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have laid hold of righteousness? See, then, whether we can answer in this way. It is one thing to pursue, another to have it implanted. He is said to pursue who desires to attain something through teaching and much reading; whence too such teachings as are learned by the tradition of men are called “sects,” from “pursuing.” The Gentiles, then, because they did not have the law written thus on tablets or in books, are not said to have pursued righteousness; yet they had it implanted, as the natural law taught them. For this reason, then, they were near to that righteousness which is from faith, that is, to Christ.

“But Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at the law.” This place too, as we said above must be observed, names the law in different ways in one and the same verse. For it is certain that Israel pursued the law of righteousness according to the letter, but did not arrive at the law. What law? Without doubt that of the spirit. For the Apostle would not say that the law which it pursued, and held, and had, it did not arrive at. He gives the reason, then, why Israel could not arrive at the law: “Because it was not from faith,” he says, “but as from works.” Of the faith of Christ and the works of the law we discussed abundantly at the beginning of this letter; and therefore, so as not to repeat the same things too often, let us explain the present place in a few words of the Apostle himself, in which he says: “For not knowing the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” Because, then, they pursued the law not according to the works of God’s righteousness but according to the works of their own righteousness, they therefore stumbled at the stone of stumbling, of which it is written: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; and he who believes in him will not be put to shame.”

But it must be known that in Isaiah the prophet this testimony is written thus: “Behold, I send into the foundations of Zion a precious stone, chosen, a cornerstone, splendid, into her foundations; and he who believes in him will not be put to shame.” But the Apostle inserted “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense” into this testimony from another place of the same prophet Isaiah, in which it is written thus: “And you will not meet him as a stone of stumbling, nor as a stone of falling”; and taking from each place what seemed suited to his assertions, he fitted them together.

Yet it may perhaps seem strange why the Lord Jesus, whom we find addressed by very many, but good and saving, names, is named in this place, which the Apostle took from Isaiah the prophet, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; since certainly to the good Lord, and the Son of the good Father, whatever things seem good and saving ought to be fitted, such as peace, and righteousness, and truth, and the door through which one enters to the Father, and the shepherd, and the lion of the tribe of Judah, or the lion’s whelp roused from sleep, or sanctification, or redemption, and the other things of this kind which seem to befit his dignity. But see whether we can show how far “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense” too can fittingly be applied to him. Stumbling and offense signify nearly one and the same thing. For it is called an offense (scandalum) when some obstacle is found in the way which hinders the step of one walking or climbing (scandere); thence, then, “scandal” is derived. Since, then, those who were in Zion, walking ways that were not good, were running with hurried foot on the road of perdition, favoring one another in their evils, as the prophet says, that the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and he who is unjust is blessed: our Lord and Savior, coming, began to rebuke their ways and to say, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees”; and again, “Woe to you rich”; and again, “Woe to you, Jerusalem, who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you.” And saying many things like these, and rebuking them, he began to block their ways of perdition, and became for them a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, not allowing them to enter the broad way that leads to death. So indeed it is written in Hosea the prophet too of those who walk the road of sin: “For this reason,” it says, “behold, I will hedge up her way with stakes, and block her ways, and she will not find her path.”

Let us, then, if it seems good, again set Paul himself in the middle, who, having once received letters from the priests, was going to Damascus to bring bound to Jerusalem all men and women who believed in Christ. While, then, he was making this journey of sin, the Lord Jesus met him on the way and struck him for a time with blindness; and he became to him, as far as concerns the purpose for which he was going there, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, so that he could not complete that journey of sin which he was holding to, but, being converted, believed in him who had shut off his way and blocked it with certain stakes of threatening; and, believing in him, he was not put to shame.

“Brothers, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness.” Both at the beginning and as the text of the letter has proceeded, we have said that Paul speaks now on behalf of the Gentiles, now also on behalf of Israel. Since, then, in what has just been expounded he made use of many testimonies of the prophets against Israel, so that he cited from Isaiah, “Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us seed, we would have become like Sodom and would have been made like Gomorrah,” and again, “If the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant will be saved,” and to these he added that “Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not attain to the law”: therefore now, wishing to console his people again and by this to invite them to faith, he says, “Brothers, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.” And he shows the reason why his desire and prayer for them is held before God. “For I bear them witness,” he says, “that they have a zeal indeed for God, but not according to knowledge.” Although, he means, they are entangled in so many and such great evils of their sins, yet there is in them an inexpressible zeal and emulation for God; and this cause has moved me to pray to God for them, that even at the end they may at some time come to salvation. For they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. And he proves how it is that they do not have their zeal for God according to knowledge: because, “being ignorant,” he says, “of God’s righteousness,” they comply with their own righteousness. It is of little profit, then, to have zeal for God and not to have knowledge of that zeal. Indeed, the Jews, thinking that they were acting out of zeal for God, became sacrilegious against the Son of God, because they were not zealous according to knowledge, as was Phinehas son of Eleazar, who, zealous according to knowledge, slew the Midianite woman together with the Israelite who was committing sexual immorality with her; and as was Elijah, who said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the almighty God of Israel, because the sons of Israel have forsaken you; they have killed your prophets and overthrown your altars”; and as was Mattathias, of whom it is written in the first book of Maccabees that “he was zealous in the law of God, and his reins trembled, and his anger rose up according to judgment.” The zeal and emulation of all these was according to knowledge. But the zeal of the Jews was not according to knowledge, because, being ignorant of God’s righteousness, they tried to fulfill their own, that is, what seemed righteousness to men, when it would surely have been more fitting for them to obey God’s righteousness, which is Christ.

But see now whether this saying, that “they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge,” may not be spoken of them alone. For the Apostle could likewise say of others, “I bear them witness that they have a fear of God, but not according to knowledge,” and of others that they have love for God, but not according to knowledge. For if someone has affection toward God but does not know that love must be patient, kind, not envious, not acting wrongly, not puffed up, not ambitious, not seeking its own; if he does not have these and similar things in his love, but loves God with affection alone, it will fittingly be said to him too that he has love for God, but not according to knowledge. Likewise it can be said of another that he has faith in God, but not according to knowledge, if he does not know that “faith without works is dead,” and that faith in God does not consist in words alone, which are sometimes learned as composed or written by someone else, but in a certain disposition of mind such as she had who said within herself, “If I touch the fringe of his garment, I shall be saved.” If anyone, then, does not have faith in such a way as to show by his good acts the one in whom he believes, it can be said to him too that he has faith, but not according to knowledge. It can also be said of another that he has chastity for God, but [not] according to knowledge. And another takes care of the poor, but not according to knowledge, since he wishes to be praised by men. And another can be called abstinent, but not according to knowledge, if he fasts in order to be seen by men. And so in every single thing we do, unless we do it according to knowledge and understanding, it can be said to us … knowledge. And therefore effort must be given above all to knowledge, lest it befall us unhappily that, though placed in the faith, we are cheated of the faith, and, though having a zeal for good things, we fall away from good things. Do you want to know that someone who does not have knowledge can come to nothing in faith? Hear Paul himself saying to certain people, “unless you believed in vain.” It happens, then, that those have believed in vain who do not apply themselves to knowledge, so as to receive also an understanding of the truth in what they have believed. Indeed, the apostles too, perceiving that there is this difference between faith simply handed down and faith that is according to knowledge, said to the Savior, “Increase our faith”; that is, that having the faith which is not according to knowledge, we may have also the faith which is according to knowledge. So Paul bears witness to the Jews that they have a zeal for God, although not according to knowledge. Yet because they have a zeal for God in some fashion, they gave the Apostle a reason to offer prayer for them to God. For it is better to have zeal for God, even if not according to knowledge, than not to have it at all. For “to him who has,” as it is written, “it will be given,” even at the last, when all Israel will be saved; “but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

“For Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes that the man who does the righteousness which is of the law shall live by it. But the righteousness which is of faith speaks thus: Do not say in your heart, Who has ascended into heaven? that is, to bring Christ down; or, Who has descended into the abyss? that is, to bring Christ back from the dead. But what does Scripture say? The word is near, in your mouth and in your heart; that is, the word of faith which we preach. For if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For Scripture says, Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” “Christ is the end of the law,” that is, the perfection of the law, and Christ is righteousness, but to those who believe. Those who do not believe, however, since they do not have Christ, do not have the perfection of the law, and therefore they will not be able to attain to righteousness either. “For Moses writes that the man who does the righteousness which is of the law shall live by it. But the righteousness which is of faith speaks thus.” Already above the Apostle had mentioned two righteousnesses, where he says that Israel, ignorant of God’s righteousness, sought to establish its own righteousness; and here now again he speaks of two righteousnesses, one which is of the law and another which is of faith. But it seems to me that the righteousness of God which he said above was not known by Israel is this very righteousness which is of faith, while the one of which he says, “seeking to establish their own righteousness,” is the one he suggests here in the words of Moses, that “the man who does the righteousness which is of the law shall live by it.” But see the difference of the righteousnesses, and likewise of the lives. For see how that righteousness of God, that is, Christ, who “became for us righteousness from God” and peace, says, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” This righteousness, then, supplies not only life but eternal life. But of that righteousness of the law he did not say, “the man who does it shall live forever,” but only, “shall live by it”; since, if Christ is the end of the law, as the Apostle says, one who does not receive Christ as the end of the law will not be able to fulfill without Christ even the righteousness which is of the law.

This righteousness which is of faith, then, which is Christ, as living and subsisting, speaks thus, he says: “Do not say in your heart, Who has ascended into heaven? that is, to bring Christ down; or, Who has descended into the abyss? that is, to bring Christ back from the dead.” And do not be surprised that, though Christ himself is righteousness, he seems to say these things of himself as though of another. For in many places you will find the Savior speaking of himself as though of another; as in the Gospel he says, “And he will set the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left; and he will say to those at his right,” and again to those at the left, the things that are written. As for what he says, then, “Do not say in your heart, Who has ascended into heaven, or who has descended into the abyss?” (apart from what he inserts in between, “that is, to bring Christ down,” or “to bring him back from the dead”), and also, “The word is near, in your mouth and in your heart,” it seems to be taken from Deuteronomy, where it is written thus: “This commandment which I command you today is not exalted above you, nor far from you. It is not in heaven, that you should say, Who will ascend into heaven for us and receive it for us, so that we may hear and do it? Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, Who will cross the sea for us and receive it, so that we may hear and do it? The word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart and in your hands, that you may do it.” Since, then, these words are taken from Deuteronomy, and the Apostle writes that the righteousness which is of faith, which is Christ, itself says them, without doubt the Apostle declares that the things said in Deuteronomy were spoken by Christ. It is he, then, who says, “This commandment which I give you today is not exalted above you, nor far from you,” and the rest that follows.

What, then, does the Apostle teach by this? Clearly, that we should not say in our heart and suppose that Christ is contained in some place and is not everywhere, though he is diffused through all things; for even when he was on earth he said that he was also in heaven. For thus he spoke to his apostles: “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven.” He did not say “who was,” but “who is in heaven.” And again, lest we suppose that he is in heaven only and that the abyss is empty of his presence, therefore the righteousness which is of faith says, “Do not say in your heart, Who has ascended into heaven?” And since this would be like saying, “to bring Christ down from heaven,” the Apostle added, “that is, to bring Christ down.” And again, if someone descends in mind and thought into the abyss, supposing that Christ is contained only there, since that would be like calling Christ back from the dead, he adds, “that is, to bring Christ back from the dead.” But you ought, he says, to think of Christ as the Word and the truth and the wisdom and the righteousness of God. Now all these things are not sought in a place, but are present everywhere; nor are they called up from the regions below, but are grasped by the mind and the understanding alone. As the Word and wisdom, then, he is near, in your mouth and in your heart. “And this,” he says, “is the word of faith which we preach. For if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

We ought also to know this: that it is one thing for something to be in someone as a possibility, another as actuality or effective working, which the Greeks call dynamis and energeia. For example, a newborn infant is a rational human being in possibility, for he can become rational if he grows up. And in possibility he is also called a craftsman and a helmsman and a grammarian, for it is possible that he will become one of these. But in actuality or effect, that is, in reality and in fact, he is none of these while he is an infant; but if he begins to be capable of reason, or to accomplish something in the craftsman’s art or in any other, then he is called rational in actuality, or a craftsman, or whatever it is that he does in the effect of his work. In this way, too, Christ, who is the Word of God, must be believed to be near us in possibility, that is, near every human being, as reason is in infants; but he is said to be in me in actuality when I have confessed with my mouth the Lord Jesus and believed in my heart that God raised him from the dead. Do you want to know that he is present everywhere and is in the midst even of those who do not know him and do not confess him? Hear how John the Baptist testifies these very things of him: “There stands in your midst,” he says, “one whom you do not know, who comes after me.” He is in the midst, then, even of those who do not know him; but he is in their midst in possibility, not in actuality. For they can receive him, but do not yet receive him. But in actuality or effective working he is in the midst of those to whom he said, “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst.” For these confessed with their mouth the Lord Jesus and believed in their heart that God raised him from the dead. Otherwise it seems absurd for him to be said to be in the midst both of those gathered in his name and of those who do not know him, unless a distinction of this kind is kept: that among those who are ignorant and do not yet believe he is said to be in the midst in possibility, but among believers in actuality, that is, in the effect of the reality itself and of the work.

But observe this too, that he says, “For if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” … even if someone lacks the merits of good works, even if he has not applied himself to the virtues, yet by the very fact that he has believed he would not perish but be saved and have salvation, even if he will not be able to have the glory of blessedness. But see whether it ought not rather to be understood that whoever truly and not falsely confesses the Lord Jesus with his mouth and believes in his heart confesses at the same time that he is subject to the lordship of wisdom and righteousness and truth and all that Christ is; and that mammon is no longer his lord, that is, that neither avarice nor injustice nor unchastity nor falsehood any longer rules over him. For once he has confessed Jesus Christ as Lord, he professes that he serves none of these. And also, believing in his heart that God raised him from the dead, it is certain that he believes him raised for his own justification. Otherwise, what will it profit me to know and believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, if I do not have him raised in myself? So if I do not walk in newness of life and do not flee the old habit of sinning, Christ has not yet risen from the dead for me. With this sense the words that follow also agree, when he says, “For Scripture says, Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” This is written in Isaiah. If, then, everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame, but everyone who sins is ashamed, as Adam sinned and was ashamed and hid himself, then one who still incurs the blush of sin does not seem to believe.

“For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is Lord of all, rich toward all who call upon him. For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” How there is no distinction in faith between Jew and Greek we have already shown frequently above. That the same one is Lord of all you will understand in accordance with what we have just set out: that is, if righteousness and truth and sanctification and wisdom, all of which is Christ the Lord, rule over us. For these are his riches, inasmuch as in him are hidden the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Yet he did not say that he lavishes these riches on all people, but on all who call upon his name. But here too a question seems to arise similar to the one in earlier passages. For not all who call upon the name of the Lord in any manner whatever can be saved, even if they have not done works worthy of the name they called upon; especially since the Wisdom of God too says in Proverbs, “For it will be, when you call upon me, but I will not hear you.” In this it seems to me that Wisdom exhorts and presses those who wish to be saved to call upon Wisdom quickly, and not to delay or put it off, lest perhaps, when the appointed time has passed (that is, the time in which there is opportunity to repent), they call too late afterwards, when there is no place for repentance. And hence she says, “You will call upon me, and I will not hear you.” Yet the saying which the Apostle has set down here, that is, “Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved,” is written in the prophet Joel thus: “And I will give wonders in heaven above and on earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord comes. And it will be: whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” Yet it seems to me that something great is signified in the divine Scriptures under this name of “calling upon.” For it is written not of men of any sort whatever, but of great and outstanding men, that “Enosh first hoped to call upon the name of the Lord”; and in the Psalms, “Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among those who call upon his name. They called upon the Lord, and he heard them; he spoke to them in the pillar of cloud.”