ACC ~ Romans 1 v17

INDIVIDUAL AND CORPORATE FAITH. TERTULLIAN: Where three people are gathered together, there is a church, even if all three are laypersons. For each individual lives by his own faith. ON EXHORTATION TO CHASTITY 7.

THROUGH FAITH FOR FAITH. ORIGEN: The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel in that no one is excluded from salvation, whether he be a Jew, a Greek or a barbarian. For the Savior says to everyone equally: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden.” Concerning “through faith for faith,” we have already said that the first people were in the faith, because they believed God and Moses his servant, from which faith they have now gone over to the faith of the gospel. The quotation from Habakkuk means either that the one who lives in the law will also believe the gospel or that the one who believes the gospel will also believe the law and the prophets. For one of these does not have the fullness of life without the other. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

SECURE IN THE PROMISE. CYPRIAN: If you are a just man and live by faith, if you truly believe in God, why do you, who are destined to be with Christ and secure in the promise of the Lord, not rejoice that you are called to Christ and be glad that you are free from the devil? TREATISE ON MORTALITY 3.

THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD REVEALED. AMBROSIASTER: Paul says this because the righteousness of God is revealed in the one who believes, whether Jew or Greek. He calls it “the righteousness of God” because God freely justifies the ungodly by faith, without the works of the law, just as he says elsewhere: “That I may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” He says that this same righteousness is revealed in the gospel when God grants faith to man, through which he may be justified.

The truth and righteousness of God are revealed in this, when a man believes and confesses. The righteousness is of God because what he promised, he gave. Therefore, whoever believes that he has received what God promised through his prophets proves that God is just and is a witness of his righteousness.

“Through faith for faith.” What does this mean, except that the faith of God is in him because he promised, and the faith of man is in him because he believes the one who promises, so that through the faith of the God who promises the righteousness of God might be revealed in the faith of the man who believes? For to the believer God appears to be just, but to the unbeliever he appears to be unjust. Anyone who does not believe that God has given what he promised denies that God is truthful. This is said against the Jews, who deny that Christ is the one whom God promised.

“As it is written: ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.’” Paul now moves over to the example of the prophet Habakkuk in order to declare that in the past it was revealed that a just man lives by faith and not by the law, i.e., that a man is not justified before God by the law but by faith. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

LAW AND NATURE. ACACIUS OF CAESAREA: The righteousness of God is revealed in … the believer. Paul says that the revelation of righteousness is the approbation of those who do right. Thus he is able to say likewise that wrath is revealed toward those who do the opposite. The Jew has been brought from the faith of the appointed law to the faith which is through Christ and the Gentile from the faith of nature to the same faith in Jesus Christ. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

LIFE THROUGH FAITH. APOLLINARIS OF LAODICEA: In place of righteousness by works, which is neither sincere nor life-giving, Paul praised life through faith. The prophet said: “through faith for faith.” “If you had believed in Moses,” said Jesus, “you would have believed in me also.” PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

THIS RIGHTEOUSNESS IS NOT OURS. CHRYSOSTOM: Whoever has become righteous through faith will live, not just in this life but in the one to come as well. Paul does not merely hint at this but adds something else along with it, viz., that such a life will be bright and glorious. For since it is possible to be saved yet still be ashamed (as, for example, criminals whose crimes have been remitted by imperial clemency), Paul adds “righteousness” here so that no one may think like this about salvation. This righteousness is not ours but belongs to God, and in saying this Paul hints to us that it is abundantly available and easy to obtain. For we do not get it by toil and labor but by believing. Then, since his statement does not seem credible, if the adulterer and homosexual, the graverobber and the magician are not only to be suddenly set free from punishment but to be made righteous, and righteous with the righteousness of God, Paul backs up his assertion from the Old Testament. … He sends the hearer back to the dispensations of God which took place in the Old Testament … showing that both the righteous and the sinners were justified by faith even then.

For since what God gives transcends reason, it is only reasonable that we need faith to understand it. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 2.

COMING TO THE GOSPEL FROM THE LAW. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: Paul shows that faith may be strengthened in any one through preaching. The first faith, in the law, was to believe in God; the second faith is to believe that Christ is his only begotten Son.

“Through faith for faith” therefore means to come to the gospel from the law and to believe that both Old and New Testaments hold that both the Father and Christ are God. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH. AMBROSE: It is right for you, my son, to have begun with the law and to have been confirmed in the gospel, from faith to faith, as it is written: “The just shall live by faith.” LETTER 47.

AUGUSTINE: What is now the church, prior to the appearance of what will be, lives in toils and afflictions, and in her the just live by faith. QUESTIONS 81.2.

AUGUSTINE: He who claims to be just without faith is a liar. SERMONS FOR THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY, HOMILY 189.2.

THE RIGHTEOUSNESS BY WHICH THE FAITHFUL ARE JUST. AUGUSTINE: This righteousness is the grace of the New Testament, by which the faithful are just as long as they live by faith, until by the perfection of righteousness they are brought to the face-to-face vision, as they are also brought to the immortality of the body itself, by the perfection of salvation. THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 18.11.

RIGHTEOUSNESS REVEALED TO FAITH. THEODORET OF CYR: The righteousness of God is not revealed to everyone but only to those with the eyes of faith. For the holy apostle teaches us that God foresaw this for us from the beginning and predicted it through the prophets, and even before the prophets, had it hidden in his secret will.

Paul quoted Habakkuk for the benefit of the Jews, because he wanted to teach them not to cling to the provisions of the law but to follow the prophets. For many centuries before they had predicted that one day there would be salvation by faith alone.

Then departing from his admonition to the Jews, he accuses everyone else of having brazenly departed from the natural law which the Creator had placed in them. For when God made them, he did not allow them to live like beasts but honored them with reason and gave them the ability to know the difference between good and evil. Those who lived righteous lives before the time of Moses confirm this by their witness. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

REPRISE. GENNADIUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE: What is the overall meaning of the above? It is that our gospel is very great and truly marvelous if you pay careful attention to its power. For through faith in Christ all are saved, those whom the natural law has enlightened and those who follow the written law which was added to it. For when someone is informed about the resurrection from the dead, he learns that he too may share in this by obeying the gospel according to the design of the Savior. And this, says Paul, God had in ancient times announced through Habakkuk the prophet when he said: “The righteous shall live through faith.” PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.