ACC ~ Romans 3 v31

CONFIRMING THE LAW THROUGH FAITH. ORIGEN: Whoever does not believe in Christ, of whom Moses wrote in the law, destroys the law. But whoever believes in Christ, of whom Moses wrote, confirms the law through faith, because he believes in Christ.

The Lord himself said: “I have not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it.”None of the saints nor even the Lord himself has destroyed the law. Rather its glory, which is temporal and transient, has been destroyed and replaced by a glory which is eternal and permanent. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

LAW NOT NULLIFIED. AMBROSIASTER: Paul says that the law is not nullified by faith but fulfilled. For its status is confirmed when faith bears witness that what it said would come has actually happened. Paul says this because of the Jews who thought that faith in Christ was inimical to the law because they did not understand the true meaning of the law. For Paul does not nullify the law when he says that it must come to an end, because he asserts that at the time it was given it was rightly given, but now it does not have to be kept any longer. In the law itself it is said that a time would come when the promise would be fulfilled and the law would no longer have to be kept. … “Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers.” COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

UPHOLDING AND PERFECTING THE LAW. CHRYSOSTOM: Paul’s use of the word uphold shows that the law was failing. … The purpose of the law was to make man righteous, but it had no power to do that. But when faith came it achieved what the law could not do, for once a man believes he is immediately justified. Faith therefore established what the law intended and brought to fulfillment what its provisions aimed for. Consequently faith has not abolished the law but perfected it. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 7.

ABRAHAM JUSTIFIED BY FAITH. [PSEUDO-] CONSTANTIUS: Paul does not contradict what he said above [in verse 27]. What he means by up-holding the law is that the law tells me that Abraham was justified not by works but by faith. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

THE LAW UPHELD BY RIGHTEOUSNESS. AUGUSTINE: How should the law be upheld if not by righteousness? By a righteousness, moreover, which is of faith, for what could not be fulfilled through the law is fulfilled through faith. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 19.

FREEDOM OF CHOICE. AUGUSTINE: Do we then make void freedom of choice through grace? God forbid! Rather, we establish freedom of choice. As the law is not made void by faith, so freedom of choice is not made void but established by grace. Freedom of choice is necessary to the fulfillment of the law. But by the law comes the knowledge of sin; by faith comes the obtaining of grace against sin; by grace comes the healing of the soul from sin’s sickness; by the healing of the soul comes freedom of choice; by freedom of choice comes the love of righteousness; by the love of righteousness comes the working of the law. Thus, as the law is not made void but established by faith, since faith obtains the grace whereby the law may be fulfilled, so freedom of choice is not made void but established by grace, since grace heals the will whereby righteousness may freely be loved. THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 52.

LAW CONFIRMED BY FAITH. AUGUSTINE: The law is confirmed by faith. Apart from faith the law merely commands, and it holds guilty those who do not fulfill its commands, so that it might thereafter turn to the grace of the Deliverer those groaning in their inability to do what is commanded. QUESTIONS 66.1.

NECESSITY OF THE LAW. PELAGIUS: Is the law which enjoins us to be circumcised unnecessary? Not at all! On the contrary, we enable it to stand firm when we show that what it said is true, viz., that (spiritual) law would follow after (physical) law, (spiritual) testament after (physical) testament, (spiritual) circumcision after (physical) circumcision. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

TRUTH AND THE IMAGE OF THE TRUTH. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: On account of his humanity Emmanuel is called a prophet, who following Moses is the mediator between God and humanity. The law was a shadow, but even so it presented an image of the truth. Furthermore, the truth hardly destroys its images; rather it makesthem clearer. COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.