ACC ~ Romans 1 v5

TO FAITH THROUGH GRACE. ORIGEN: Paul says that he has received grace and apostleship through Christ, the mediator between God and men—grace with respect to his patience in many labors and apostleship with respect to his preaching authority. For Christ was himself called an apostle, i.e., one who was sent by the Father, because he said that he had been sent to preach the gospel to the poor. And everything which is his, he gives to his disciples also. Grace is said to be spread on his lips. For he gives grace to his apostles, by which those who are struggling may say: “I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I but the grace of God which is with me.”… It was only through the grace which had been given to the apostles that the Gentiles, who were strangers from the covenant of God and from the life of Israel, could believe in the gospel. Through this grace it is said that they came to faith because of the preaching of the apostles, and it is recorded that by the grace given to them the sound of the name of Christ went out into all the world, reaching even those who were at Rome. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

ITS POWER MADE CREDIBLE THROUGH DEEDS. AMBROSIASTER: After the resurrection Christ was revealed as the Son of God in power. He gave grace to make sinners righteous and appointed apostles, of whom Paul says here that he is one, so that the apostleship might be granted by the grace of God’s gift and not because the apostles were Jews. They received this authority from God the Father through Christ the Lord, so that as representatives of the Lord they might make his teaching acceptable by signs of power. Unbelieving Jews, who had been jealous of this power when they saw it in the Savior, were all the more tormented at seeing it admired by the masses in his servants. For power bears witness to the teaching, so that although what is preached is incredible to the world, it might be made credible by deeds. He says that the apostles have been sent to preach the faith to all nations, that they might obey and be saved, that the gift of God may appear to have been granted not only to the Jews but to all the nations, and that this is the will of God, to have pity on all in Christ and through Christ, by the preaching of his ambassadors. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

NOT OF OURSELVES. CHRYSOSTOM: See the candor of the servant. He wants nothing to be his own but everything to be his master’s. And indeed it was the Spirit who gave him this freedom. … Paul says: “We have not achieved the apostleship by ourselves.” It was not by much labor and toil that we were given this dignity, but we received grace, and the successful result is a part of the heavenly gift. … It was the apostles’ duty to go about and preach, but conviction belonged to God, who worked in them. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 1.

GRACE, THEN APOSTLESHIP. AUGUSTINE: Paul preserves the main point of his case very well, so that no one would dare say that he has been led to the gospel because of the merits of his previous life. How could one claim this, when even the apostles themselves … could not have received their own apostleship unless they had first … received grace, which cleanses and justifies sinners? RUDIMENTARY EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS 6.

SENT BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. PELAGIUS: Paul received grace in baptism and apostleship when he was sent by the Holy Spirit, for apostle means “sent” in Greek. The purpose of this was that the Gentiles might submit not to the law but to faith. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

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