ACC ~ Romans 3 v1 - 8

OVERVIEW:

Did the Jews enjoy a special place in God’s plan? The Fathers believed that they did, for two reasons. First, they had received the divine oracles before the coming of Christ and therefore had an advantage when the gospel was proclaimed. Second, Jewish Christians were able to claim descent from Abraham and the faithful of the Old Testament. Nevertheless, the Fathers insisted that the salvation of the Gentiles was not inferior to that of the Jews, nor did unbelieving Jews have any advantage over Gentile believers. Human origins do not affect the promises of God. The Fathers pointed out that Jews were human beings like the rest of us. Some of them believed and inherited the promises. Others did not and were cast out. The important thing for everybody, Jews and Gentiles alike, is that we should all believe in Christ.

The problems of evil and God’s wrath were issues that preoccupied the Fathers. To them, God was just (righteous) by nature, and this could never change. The snag was that humankind had rebelled against God’s righteousness, thereby creating the conflict between good and evil. In such circumstances the presence and sovereignty of good in a world of evil could only appear as wrath, since it is in the nature of justice to destroy everything that is opposed to it. The fact that God’s goodness shines all the more brightly when contrasted with our evil does not justify evil. The early Christians were sometimes accused of being immoral, because of this misunderstanding, and the Fathers were determined to counter such reasoning. To be a Christian is to take on something of the character of God, in-cluding his holiness, goodness and righteousness.

3:1 | The Value of Circumcision

NOT FOR HUMAN PRAISE OF MAN. CHRYSOSTOM: If Paul means that there is no use in being a Jew or in circumcision, why was that nation called, and why was circumcision given? How does Paul solve this problem? By the same means as he did before: he speaks not of their praises but of the benefits of God. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 6.

3:2 | Entrusted with the Oracles of God

THE ORACLES OF GOD FIRST ENTRUSTED TO THE JEWS. ORIGEN: Even though the oracles of God are now entrusted to the Gentiles as well, they were first entrusted to the Jews, as Paul says. Is he speaking here of the letters and the books or of the meaning and the general gist of the law? For we see many Jews who from infancy to old age never stop studying, yet they never come to a knowledge of the truth. How can it be true that they have some advantage in having been entrusted with the oracles of God first, when they do not understand “what they are saying or the things about which they are making assertions?” … It must be understood that these things are being said about Moses, the prophets and others like them, to whom the oracles of God were entrusted, because there can be no doubt that they were Jews and that they had the circumcision. It would also apply to anyone who was wise, an intelligent listener or a gifted counselor. These the Lord is said to have removed from Jerusalem because he was offended by the ungodliness of the people. … Even the apostles of Christ and Paul himself, the vessel of election, came from the Jews and from the circumcision. He had far more in every way than those whom he taught who were of the Gentiles. For the oracles of God were entrusted to the Jews.

Note moreover that Paul says that the oracles of God were entrusted to the Jews, not merely the letter of the text. So it is possible for us to understand that those who read but do not understand, as well as those who read but do not believe, have had only the letter entrusted to them, of which the apostle says: “The letter kills.” But the oracles of God are entrusted to those who understand and believe what Moses wrote and who believe in Christ, as the Lord said: “If you believed Moses you would believe me, for he wrote of me.”

But if the Jew has received more in receiving the letter and something more in the oracles of God, does this mean that those of the Gentiles who have come to Christ are somehow left out? Or is there some way in which they have more than the Jews? Listen to what the Lord says to the Gentile centurion who believed: “Truly I say to you, I have not found such faith even in Israel.” Therefore you see that when it comes to faith, the Gentiles have much more. … When it comes to the letter, the Jews have much more in every way, but when it comes to faith, it is the Gentiles who have much more. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

THE ORACLES INCLUDE ALL GOOD THINGS. EUSEBIUS OF EMESA: When Paul says “To begin with,” he does not go on to list a second or third item. He means rather that what he begins with is comprehensive of all good things. For what could be better than to believe the words of God? PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

RACE NO ADVANTAGE, BUT REVELATION IS. AMBROSIASTER: Although Paul says that there are many things which pertain to the honor and merit of the seed of Abraham, he records only one of them openly, because it is their greatest boast: They were judged worthy to receive the law, by which they learned to distinguish right from wrong. Only after that was it possible for the value of other things to be understood. But as far as the Jews according to the flesh are concerned (that is, the unbelievers among them), Paul shows that the witness of their race is of no advantage to them. But so as not to appear to be treating them all, including the believers among them, badly, he teaches that the law is very useful to Jewish believers, because they are children of Abraham.

For it was to them that the oracles of God were entrusted. It is by the merits of their ancestors that they received the law and were called God’s people. … Egypt was hit by different plagues because of the wrongs which it did to them. They dined on heavenly manna; they were a terror to all nations, as Rahab the harlot bore witness. Moreover, it was to them that Christ the Savior was promised for their sanctification. Therefore Paul says that in many ways it was useful to the Jews, because they were the children of Abraham and came before the Gentiles. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

THE JEWS ENTRUSTED THEMSELVES TO THE ORACLES. CHRYSOSTOM: What does entrusted mean? It means that the Jews had the law put into their hands because God thought so highly of them that he entrusted them with oracles which came down from on high. I know that some people take the entrusted not of the Jews but of the oracles, as if to say: “The law was believed in.” But the context does not allow this interpretation. For in the first place he is saying this in order to accuse them and to show that, in spite of the fact that they enjoyed many blessings from above, they still showed great ingratitude. Then look at [verse 3]. If some of the Jews did not believe, how is it that some say that the oracles were believed in? So what does Paul mean? He means that God entrusted the oracles to the Jews, not that the Jews entrusted themselves to the oracles, for the context does not make sense otherwise. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 6.

[PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: The Jews benefited not because they accepted circumcision in the flesh but because they believed the oracles of God. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

PELAGIUS: The Jews were at an advantage because the oracles of God were entrusted to them, while nothing was entrusted to the Gentiles. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

3:3 | The Faithfulness of God

THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD NOT NULLIFIED. ORIGEN: The oracles of God were entrusted to the Jews, as we have said above, but some of them did not believe either God or his oracles. Those who did not believe were carnal, as Paul says elsewhere: “The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him.” But their faithlessness does not nullify the faithfulness of God. By God’s faithfulness we understand either the faith which God had when he entrusted his oracles to them or the faith by which those who received the oracles from God believed in him. We are therefore reminded that their faithlessness has not nullified the faithfulness of God, which he has shown to us. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

CYPRIAN: The sanctity and worth of the confessors (i. e., martyrs) was not shattered because the faith of a few of them was broken. TREATISES ON THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH 22.

GRACE GIVEN TO THOSE WHO BELIEVED. AMBROSIASTER: Paul says this because it was not foreordained that believing Jews would not be thought worthy of receiving what God had promised just because the others were unbelieving, for the promise was such that the gift of grace would be given to those who believed.

Therefore God is not put out because of the unbelief of the Jews and will grant eternal life to their believers, which he promised would be given to those who believed in Christ. Those who did not believe excluded themselves from consideration without doing the rest any injury. Having said this, Paul commends Jewish believers, because it was not their fault that many of their kinsmen refused to believe. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

GOD REMAINS FAITHFUL. APOLLINARIS OF LAODICEA: Let it be agreed, Paul says, that God is faithful and true in every case, whereas men have been judged as unfaithful and untrue, so that God by his goodness may conquer the self-righteousness of men by bestowing his own right-eousness upon them. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

WHAT DOES IT MATTER IF SOME WERE UNFAITHFUL? CHRYSOSTOM: The unbelief of the Jews does not reflect badly on God but rather shows his honor and love of man to be all the greater, in that God is seen to have bestowed honor on people who would dishonor him. Look how he has revealed them to be guilty of misdeeds because of what they gloried in. The honor God showed to them was so great that even when he saw what the result of it would be, he did not withhold his good will toward them. But the Jews made the honors bestowed on them a means of insulting him who honored them.

Paul said: “What if some of them did not believe?” Wasn’t it clear that it was all of them who did not believe? If Paul had told the truth directly he might have appeared to be a severe and hostile accuser. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 6.

THE PROMISES TO ABRAHAM. PELAGIUS: The faithfulness meant here is that to the promises made to Abraham, to whom it was said that “in your seed all the nations will be blessed.” PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

UNABLE TO BLOCK GOD’S BLESSINGS. THEODORET OF CYR: God knew in advance who would obey the law and who would break it. Therefore those who did not believe were unable to stand in the way of his blessings. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

3:4 | Let God Alone Be True

WHETHER THIS MAKES DAVID AND PAUL LIARS. ORIGEN: If one is to be righteous, one must keep the law in every particular, which is almost impossible for human nature to achieve. Therefore every one is a liar. For since every man is a liar, it follows that on that day when the Lord comes to judgment with men, only he will be justified in what he says. For his words are true in everything, because they are the words of truth.

It should also be understood that this saying, i.e., that every man is a liar, is taken from Psalm 115:28 … Now someone might object that if all men are liars, then Paul too, being a man, will also be a liar! But in that case David, who originally said it, would also be a liar, and what he said would be false, just because he was a liar. … The whole statement would thus become nonsense, which is absurd! COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

OBEYING GOD’S PRECEPTS. CYPRIAN: If every man is a liar and God alone is true, what else ought we servants and bishops of God to do except to reject human errors and lies and to remain in the truth of God, obeying the precepts of the Lord? LETTER 67.8.

GOD REMAINS JUST. EUSEBIUS OF EMESA: Even if all men loved a lie before the coming of the truth, the true God nevertheless remained just, holding fast to the things which were proper to God and fulfilling everything which was said that was fitting. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

WHETHER GOD CAN LIE. AMBROSE: Does God tell a lie? He does not. It is impossible for God to tell a lie. Is this an impossibility because of some weakness? Certainly not! How could he be the cause of all things if there were something which he could not cause? What then is impossible to him? Nothing that is difficult for his power but only that which is contrary to his nature. It is impossible, it is said, for him to tell a lie. The impossibility comes not from weakness but from his power and greatness, for truth admits of no lie. LETTER 14.

LET GOD BE TRUE. AMBROSIASTER: Because God is true, he gives what he has promised. To fail is human, for the times and the foolishness of nature make man unstable in that he does not have foreknowledge. But God, for whom there is no future, remains unchanging, as he says: “I the Lord do not change.” Therefore Paul says that all men are liars, and this is true. For nature is fallible and is not unreasonably called a liar. It may be a liar intentionally or accidentally, but we must not expect God to be like that, for he is perfect and full of good will and will accomplish what he has promised. He even confirms this by the prophetic oracle: “Thou art justified in thy sentence and blameless in thy judgment.” COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

HOW IS GOD JUSTIFIED? CHRYSOSTOM: Paul is saying something like this: “Even if every one of the Jews was an unbeliever … God would only be the more justified.” What does the word justified mean? It means that if there were a trial and an examination of the things which God had done for the Jews and also of what they had done to him, the victory would be with God, and all the right would be on his side. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 6.

[PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: God is said to be true because he does not give to sinners what he has promised to the saints. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

THE HERETIC DESTROYS SOULS. JEROME: If everyone who utters a lie has already destroyed his soul, and all of us are liars, are we all going to perish? What Scripture says … we should interpret as referring to heretics. … The doer of the deed has indeed killed his own soul, but the heretic—the liar—has killed as many souls as he has seduced. HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 2.

GOD IS TRUE. AUGUSTINE: God in himself is true; you in yourself are a liar—in him you can be true! HOMILIES ON JOHN 1.6.

THOUGH EVERY MAN BE FALSE. PELAGIUS: “Every man” means the majority. Paul’s opponents had quoted this text as if David had meant: “For this reason have I sinned, that thou might appear just in judging me.” But the true meaning is that God promised to punish sinners without showing favoritism and that some thought his delay in doing so amounted to a lie. God prevails when he judges the deeds of those from whom no one thought vengeance would ever be exacted. Or it may also mean that God has shown that he is concerned about mankind … and that he has overthrown those who wrongly suggest that he is not interested in human affairs. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

OPPOSITE PATHS. THEODORET OF CYR: Human beings are thus given over to their own free will. Hence they are divided into two groups: those who prefer the worship of God and those who take the opposite path and come to a dire end, corresponding to their choice. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

3:5 | The Justice of God

WHETHER GOD’S WRATH IS UNJUST. ORIGEN: Paul says that it is wrong to say that God is unjust for bringing wrath on men. For how will the one who judges the world be thought to be unjust, when his very title of Judge shows that he does nothing without judgment? And where there is judgment, it follows that there will be justice. For the words judge and judgment are both derived from justice.

The idea being expressed here does not accord with God or with the wisdom of God, but with man and with what has just been said, viz.: “All men are liars.”

But it is perfectly logical and right to say that justice is the enemy of unrighteousness, just as life is the enemy of death and light is the enemy of darkness. Therefore God, in whom is justice, is said to bring wrath on men, in whom unrighteousness dwells. For justice and unrighteousness are natural enemies. So how could God be regarded as unjust, simply because he is fighting unrighteousness? COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

WHETHER OUR WICKEDNESS SERVES TO SHOW THE JUSTICE OF GOD. AMBROSIASTER: David had sinned in the case of Uriah the Hittite. Because he knew that the promise would not be given to sinners, he pleaded that the righteousness of the words of God might overrule the judgment which said that the promise should not be given to sinners and that it might sanctify the penitent in order to give him what God had promised he would give to the righteous. To this Paul adds that … if God is justified because we are sinners, it would be wrong of him to pardon us on that account. If it can really be said that our wickedness is of some advantage to God, then there is some measure of truth in this reasoning. But it is dangerous to speak like that. God is not unjust if he judges, because our unrighteousness is of no benefit to him. It is not as if he would somehow be justified by our sins or as if he would somehow rejoice at our sins, by which he alone would then appear to be righteous.

This way of thinking suits men but not God, because it does not happen that God should ever be unjust, only man. Nor does our unrighteousness make God righteous if he gives to us sinners what he promised to the saints, for although we are sinners, we are reformed by repentance so that it is not as sinners but as those who have been cleansed that we are readied to receive the promise. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

WHETHER GOD’S JUSTICE EXCEEDS OUR CONCEPTIONS OF JUSTICE. CHRYSOSTOM: What does Paul mean? God honored the Jews, but they dishonored him. This gives God the victory and shows the greatness of his love toward man, in that he continued to honor them in spite of what they were like.

But if this is true of us (someone might say), why am I to be punished when I have contributed to God’s victory by dishonoring him? Paul answers this by a corresponding absurdity. In effect, he says that if this man were the cause of God’s victory and he was punished as a result, it was an injustice. But if God is not unjust and the man was punished, then he could not have been the cause of God’s victory. … For God’s justice far exceeds what we think of as justice and is based on other ineffable criteria. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 6.

PELAGIUS: Now the apostle begins to answer the objection. It is unjust if God punishes sinners merely in order to appear even more righteous. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

DEPRIVED OF GOD’S PROMISES. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: It is not that our wickedness increases God’s justice, but at that time when we come into judgment with God we shall be deprived of his promises as retribution for not having obeyed his commands. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

THE SOURCE OF ADVERSITIES. CAESARIUS OF ARLES: When adversities come … or when by God’s just judgment hostility, dryness or death is imposed, we should attribute this to our sins rather than to God’s injustice. SERMON 70.1.

3:6 | God Judges the World

THE WHOLE WORLD. ORIGEN: In this passage the word world means the people who are in this world, just as we read elsewhere that “the whole world is in the power of the evil one.” COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

WHETHER OUR SINS ARE OF SOME BENEFIT TO GOD. AMBROSIASTER: It is true that it would not have been just if God had judged the world if its sins were of some benefit to him, so that whenever sinners received forgiveness at his nod, God would appear to be good. Then if they had not sinned, according to this reasoning, he would not appear to be righteous. For if they had not sinned there would be nothing to forgive, and God would not be good. But this kind of thinking is absurd! COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

RIGHTEOUSNESS AND JUDGMENT. [PSEUDO-] CONSTANTIUS: Paul taught after the authority of the Scriptures that God is righteous. Therefore when we come into judgment with him, he demonstrates that it is said by the very meaning of the text that God may rightly wreak vengeance on evildoers. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

PELAGIUS: By what righteousness will God condemn the unrighteous, if in your opinion human wickedness makes him even more righteous? PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

3:7 | Human Falsehood, God’s Truthfulness

EVEN THROUGH HUMAN FALSEHOOD GOD’S TRUTHFULNESS ABOUNDS. ORIGEN: There are many kinds of religion in this world, many schools of philosophy, and many teachings which promote false assertions and are backed up with lying arguments. Those who invent them have a false reputation for wisdom—people of little or no authority. We should recognize them for what they are. Because of them many false statements are commonly accepted as true. The whole world, including religion, is now burdened with lying opinions. Even the elect are being led astray, if you can imagine that. The truth of God is now attacking and refuting every lie. Faith in God’s truth, God’s wisdom and God’s Word is undercutting all claims of false teaching. By each of these lies which had previously been asserted by men, the truth of God is abounding, by demonstrating their superficiality and by communicating the simple truth of faith in each and every case. In this way, says the apostle, the truth of God abounds through the falsehood of men. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

WHETHER EVIL IS THE CAUSE OF GOOD. CHRYSOSTOM: The logic of this argument can easily tend toward the absurdity that good comes out of evil and that evil is the cause of good. In that case, one of two options follows: Either God is clearly unjust in punishing, or if he does not punish, then he gets his victory from our vices. Either of these conclusions is absurd. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 6.

3:8 | Why Not Do Evil?

TWISTING SCRIPTURE. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: These people twist the Scriptures when they read them by their tone of voice, in order to serve their own preferences. They alter some of the accents and punctuation marks in order to force wise and constructive precepts to support their taste for luxury. STROMATA 3.39.2.

WHY NOT DO EVIL THAT GOOD MAY COME? ORIGEN: This is an argument raised by unjust people against the Christian faith. They blaspheme us even more by suggesting that because we believe that God’s truthfulness abounds in the falsehood of men and that his justice is confirmed by our unrighteousness, we also believe that we should do evil so that good may come of it and that we should tell lies so that God’s truthfulness will shine out even more clearly because of it. But in claiming that this is what we think they are blaspheming us, as if these things were somehow the logical conclusion of our beliefs. But in fact the logic of our beliefs does not accept this line of reasoning, because we understand that God is a just and true judge. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

WHETHER FORGIVENESS ENCOURAGES SIN. AMBROSIASTER: This is why the apostle asked himself this question. The matter was raised by opponents, as if this were the meaning of the preaching of the forgiveness of sins—that they should do evil and good would come of it. That is, they should sin so that by forgiving their sins God should appear to be good, according to what has just been said above. Paul calls this blasphemy and rejects it as a bad interpretation of God’s teaching. Faith is not meant to encourage people to sin by preaching that God will ultimately be vindicated. Rather, it gives sinners a remedy so that having recovered their health they may live under the law of God and not sin again. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

CHRYSOSTOM: The people Paul is referring to here are Gentiles who thought in this way themselves. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 6.

WHETHER WITHOUT MY LIES GOD WOULD NOT APPEAR TO BE TRUE. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: This is aimed at the Carpocratians, who are the worst of heretics and Gentiles to boot. The text is directed at those who say that unless they sin God’s grace will not abound, and unless they tell lies God will not appear to be true. The apostle answers them by saying that if what they think is true, then they should not be judged as sinners. But given that vengeance is wreaked on sinners, Paul says that they have not thought correctly. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

PELAGIUS: It is not true that, as some people think we say, the more evil we have done, the greater good we shall receive. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

ABSTAINING FROM WICKEDNESS. THEODORET OF CYR: This was not the intention of the apostles’ teaching. On the contrary, they demanded that everyone abstain from all manner of wickedness. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.