ACC ~ Romans 2 v5

HEAPING UP JUDGMENT. IRENAEUS: Those who depart from God and despise his precepts, and by their deeds bring dishonor on him who made them, and by their opinions blaspheme him who nourishes them, heap up against themselves most righteous judgment. AGAINST HERESIES 4.33.15.

HARDNESS OF HEART. ORIGEN: In the Scriptures a hard heart refers to a human mind which, like wax hardened by the cold of wickedness, cannot receive the imprint of God’s image. The same thing is called a dull heart elsewhere. Its opposite is a soft heart, which in the Scriptures is called a heart of flesh…. When someone knows what is good and does not do it, he is said to be contemptuous of all good things because of the hardness of his heart. For hardness of heart occurs when the mind has no feeling for a refined and spiritual understanding. . . .

The day of wrath will be a day of vengeance and judgment, as is clear from many passages of Scripture. But note that it will also be a day of revelation, when all things are to be revealed. … Some people want to know why this day has been fixed for the end of the world, so that everyone who has died from the beginning to the end of time is held over for judgment on the last day. It is certain that the real reasons for this are concealed in the secret mysteries of God, but we shall try to give some explanation for it insofar as it is possible to do so in writing. There are many who, when they leave this life, leave behind them seeds of good or evil that will sprout after their deaths and become occasions either for salvation or for damnation for those who are left behind. I would say, for instance, that this applies to all those philosophers who founded depraved sects which are far from God, or who set up magical sacrileges, or who practiced astrology, not to mention those among us who promoted heresies and false teachings by the books they wrote, or who have brought about divisions, scandals and dissensions in the church. On the other side there is the work of the apostolic writings and the emergence through them of the universal church, conversion to God and the transformation of the entire world. These things will go on to the end of time, and therefore the judgment of God will not be just until the final results are known. This is what the apostle means when he says: “The sins of some men are conspicuous, pointing to judgment, but the sins of others appear later.”

It may also be that the saints who are outside the body and who dwell with Christ may be doing something and working on our behalf after the example of the angels, who minister to us for our salvation. On the other hand, perhaps sinners who too have left the body are doing something in line with the disposition of their mind, and no less after the example of the fallen angels. … These things too are among the hidden things of God and have not been committed to writing. But they will be made known on the day of wrath and revelation.

Now let us consider what is meant by the just judgment of God, in which he will reward each one according to his works. First of all, we must reject the heretics who say that souls are good or evil by nature and maintain instead that God will reward each one according to his deeds and not according to his nature. Second, believers are to be instructed not to think that it is enough merely to believe [lacking fruit]; they ought to realize that the just judgment of God will reward each one according to his works. … Nor are Gentiles to be excluded from this, if they do good. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

CHRIST WILL JUDGE. MARIUS VICTORINUS: Without doubt this is said of Christ, for he himself will judge. AGAINST ARIUS 1A.17.

STORING WRATH. SEVERIAN: When talking about the way they were “storing up” an accumulation of sins, Paul showed that there would also be a greater store of punishment, as a result of the patient endurance of the judge toward those who were suffering so incurably. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

UNAWARE OF FUTURE WRATH. AMBROSIASTER: The one who hopes he can get away with his sins not only remains unconvertible and intractable but in addition sins more seriously still, sure that there will be no future judgment. He has an impenitent heart, unaware that he is storing up wrath for himself on the day of wrath. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

FOR YOURSELF. CHRYSOSTOM: When a man is neither softened by goodness nor turned back by fear, what can be harder than he is? … The true originator of wrath is the one who has stored it up, not the one who judged, as Paul makes plain. For he says “you are storing up wrath for yourself,” not “God is storing up wrath for you.” HOMILIES ON ROMANS 5.

HARDNESS RESULTS IN WRATH. GENNADIUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE: God’s patience toward you gives you the opportunity for every kind of wickedness. Realize clearly therefore that you are storing up wrath for yourself because of your hardness. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

CONVERSION TO CHRIST. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: Before the revelation of God’s righteous judgment comes to you, that day says to everyone: “Behold the man and behold his works.” We must be converted to Christ all the more quickly therefore, lest we be deprived of our body by a hard heart and found naked, without the faith of Christ which was promised to us by the Law and the Prophets. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

WRATH MEANS PUNISHMENT. AUGUSTINE: Whenever Paul talks about the wrath of God he understands it to mean punishment. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 9.

REFUSING MERCY. PELAGIUS: Unaware that you are sick, you use the very cure in order to sustain even greater wounds. … Rejected kindness leads in the end to severer judgment, so that the man who refused to be touched by mercy is afflicted with punishment. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

CONCEALING WOUNDS. CAESARIUS OF ARLES: If a person sins once or even twice and then without excuses has recourse to the healing of penance, he will recover his former good condition without any delay. But if he begins to add sin upon sin and prefers to acquire an infection by concealing or defending the wounds of his soul rather than cure them by confession and the performance of penance, it is to be feared that these words of the apostle will be fulfilled in him. SERMON 65.1.

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