Rom 5:1. Therefore, having been justified by faith, let us have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. They do not have peace with God who do not keep the righteousness of faith working through charity; who do not live according to faith; who are not united through our Lord Jesus Christ, the Mediator of our peace; who are not faithful to Christ by observing His law. We cannot have peace with God except on the conditions He has prescribed, namely, that we love righteousness and practice it. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Love righteousness and you will have peace; if you do not love righteousness, you will not have peace. They are two friends: perhaps you want one and do not do the other. No one does not want peace, but not all want to practice righteousness. Ask all people, “Do you want peace?” With one voice the whole human race answers you, “I desire it, I wish it, I want it, I love it.” Love righteousness also, because righteousness and peace are two friends; they kiss each other. If you do not love the friend of peace, peace itself will not love you nor come to you. For what great thing is it to desire peace? Every wicked person desires peace. But practice righteousness, because righteousness and peace kiss each other; they do not quarrel. Why then do you quarrel with righteousness? Behold, righteousness says to you: “Do not steal,” and you do not listen; “Do not commit adultery,” and you refuse to hear; “Do not do to another what you do not want done to you; do not say to another what you do not want said to you.” You are an enemy to my friend, peace says to you; why do you seek me? I am a friend of righteousness; whomsoever I find an enemy of my friend, I do not approach him. Do you want peace? Practice righteousness. Therefore another Psalm says: Turn away from evil and do good—that is, love righteousness; seek peace and pursue it. Turn away, and it will come to you; for you will not seek it long, because it will itself meet you, to kiss righteousness.
If someone has peace with God and is reconciled through the blood of Christ, he no longer thinks of what is hostile to God. Paul himself teaches you this when he says: The wisdom of the flesh is an enemy of God. If, therefore, you think carnally and expose your life to the desires of the flesh and dissolve it in an abundance of pleasures; or if, choosing according to a carnal understanding, you judge carnally and not spiritually, and by arguments sought from human skill twist the meaning itself and strive to soften holy severity so as to please people, by the wisdom of the flesh you become an enemy to God. “Little children,” says John, “do not love the world nor the things that are in the world; for all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not from the Father but from the world.” Therefore, whoever loves the world, who serves lust, pride, and ambition, does not have peace with God, but stirs up enmities against Him—for the settling of which Christ died. As far as lies in him, he empties the work of Christ and the power of His cross and passion. Let there be no dissension either within ourselves or outwardly among us, and then we shall have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Most certainly it must be known that the wicked never have true peace. For while they are torn by continual quarrels against themselves and are disturbed by the conflict of various desires, while they are always thinking how to harm their neighbor, their mind never enjoys peace, which is the fruit of the righteousness of faith and charity. Then we have peace with God when we fight more strongly against the devil. Let us have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our peace; through whom we have access to this grace in which we stand, and we glory in the hope of the glory of the sons of God.
How we have access to grace through our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior Himself teaches: “I am the door,” He says, “and no one comes to the Father except through Me.” But let us see what kind of door it is, so that we may know what kind of people they must be who enter through it and have access to grace. This door is truth, and through the door of truth liars cannot enter; it is righteousness, and through the door of righteousness the unjust do not enter. On this door is inscribed this saying: Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart. Through the door of humility and gentleness neither the angry nor the proud enters. Whoever, then, wishes to have access to grace through our Lord Jesus Christ—in which Paul says he stands, speaking in the name of all the righteous—must be free from these vices. Otherwise this door does not allow them to enter by it, but immediately closes and does not permit those unlike itself to pass through. The Gospel parable teaches that this happened to the foolish virgins, who, because they had not gathered the oil of good works in their vessels, coming late found the door shut.
Rom 5:2 Through whom we also have access into this grace. How many good things we obtain through the grace of Christ! With what grateful heart we ought to be toward so merciful and beneficent a Lord! The first fruit of the Savior’s grace is peace with God: Therefore, having been justified by faith, let us have peace with God. The second is perseverance in faith and good works: Through whom we also have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. Yet although we stand, let us fear a fall, because we cannot stand by our own strength but by the help of that grace. Free will has mutability from itself if it fails; it has progress from the help of grace if it advances. Therefore, let him who stands take heed lest he fall; let him not presume on his own strength; let him implore the grace of Christ with persevering prayers; let him know that he will fall unless the Lord puts His hand beneath him.
The third effect of Christ is hope of the glory of God, which Christ has implanted in us through the Spirit. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are guarded by the power of God through faith unto salvation.” This glory, which will be fulfilled in us in the future, is now begun in us in the meantime: For we were saved in hope. Animated by this hope, Christians do what they do and endure what they endure for God. In this hope let us glory, and let our feet stand in the courts of that Jerusalem which is above, which is our mother. And we glory in the hope of the glory of the sons of God.
Rom 5:3–4. And not only so, but we also glory in tribulations. The fourth effect of grace is to rejoice in what we suffer for Christ and to glory in it. This is the fruit of Christian hope. For whoever hopes strongly for something readily endures any difficulties and bitterness for its sake; a sick person who strongly hopes for health willingly drinks a potion to recover it. Therefore, the sign of strong hope—which the grace of Christ has implanted in us with respect to the glory of the sons of God—is glorying in the adversities we suffer for Christ. We also glory in tribulations, through which we must enter the kingdom of heaven. This is the outstanding work of living faith, the triumph of the grace of Christ. Count it all joy, my brethren, when you fall into various trials. To be patient in adverse things is sufficient; to endure them with love is more than sufficient. It is proper to Christians truly to rejoice and glory in tribulations; this is an apostolic grace. Calamities and afflictions divine providence dispenses, orders, and sends—either to exercise those converted to God, or to call others to conversion, or to prepare the hardened for just condemnation at the end.
Thus tribulation in those who are right in heart produces patience, because they regard tribulation as a means to eternal goods; but in lovers of this world and of the present life it produces impatience, sorrow, and despair. Oh, what a great good patience is! Patience is what commends us to God and preserves us; it is what tempers the tongue, restrains the mind, governs conduct, guards peace, regulates discipline, breaks the impulse of lust, suppresses the violence of pride, extinguishes the fire of enmity, restrains the power of the rich, refreshes the poverty of the poor, preserves blessed integrity in virgins, laborious chastity in widows, and indivisible charity in the married and united. It makes the humble gentle in prosperity, the strong steadfast in adversity; against injuries and insults it makes them mild; it teaches them quickly to forgive those who offend, and, if they themselves offend, to ask forgiveness long and humbly. It overcomes temptations, endures persecutions, and perfects sufferings. It firmly strengthens the foundations of our faith; it sublimely advances the growth of hope; it directs action so that we may be able to walk the way of Christ while we advance through His endurance; it enables us to persevere as children of God by imitating the patience of the Father.
Knowing that tribulation produces patience, and patience produces proven character. For it is evident that we easily endure the loss of something for the sake of that which we love more. Hence, if someone patiently endures loss in bodily and temporal matters for the sake of acquiring goods, it is thereby known and proven that he loves eternal goods more than temporal ones. Compare Ecclesiasticus 2:4–5: “Whatever befalls you, accept it, and in pain endure, and in your humility have patience; for gold and silver are tested in fire, and acceptable people in the furnace of humiliation.” And with James 1:3: “Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Then truly we know that we love God and cling to Him when we are ready to lose all other things for Him. This preparation of the soul greatly increases Christian hope. And proven character produces hope. Compare Wisdom 3:5: “In a few things they were tried; in many they shall be rewarded; because God tested them and found them worthy of Himself.”
Certainly nothing prepares us for hope in eternal goods as much as a good conscience. Thus none of those who have lived rightly and holy distrust the future; on the contrary, many of those who have lived carelessly, pierced by the stings of a bad conscience, despair of future goods and persuade themselves that there is no judgment nor retribution. What then? In good hope of heavenly and eternal things we possess God Himself, and we already rejoice in the enjoyment that will most certainly be ours. Hope does not disappoint. Human hope often deceives—either because the one from whom help was expected has died, or though still alive has changed his will to do good. But not so is our condition; rather, our hope is firm and immovable. For He who promised always lives; and although we who are to enjoy the promises must die, we shall nonetheless rise again. Is there, then, anything that can frustrate our hope? Nothing.
Rom 5:5. And hope does not disappoint, because the charity of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. The Holy Spirit is the pledge of God’s love toward us and the living source of our love toward God. Moreover, our love for God is the foundation of our hope. What do lovers of the world not hope for from the world, even though their hope so often deceives them? What ought they not hope for from God who love Him, since He has given them pledges of His promises—His Son and the Holy Spirit? “The charity of God has been poured out into our hearts”—he did not say “given,” but “poured out,” showing abundance. For He gave what was greatest—not heaven, not earth, not sea, but what is older and more precious than all these: He made angels from humans, sons of God and brothers of Christ. And what is this? The Holy Spirit. If He did not wish to crown us with great rewards after labors, He would never have given us so many and such great goods before the labors. But now He shows the fervor of His love in this, that He did not honor us slowly and step by step, but poured out in abundance the fountain of goods, and that before the very contests. Therefore, even if you are not very worthy, do not despair, since you have a great patron in the cause—the love of the Judge. For by these words, Hope does not disappoint, he attributed the praise of the whole matter not to our merits but to God’s love and charity toward us.
Let us give thanks for the benefits received, and let us humbly pray that we may obtain from God the gift of charity—or its increase and perseverance—through our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. The fullness of the law is nothing other than charity. And indeed the charity of God has been poured out into our hearts not by ourselves nor by the strength of our own will, but by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Free will, therefore, is able to perform good works if divinely assisted, which happens by humbly asking and acting. But when abandoned by divine help, even if it excels in any knowledge of the law, it has no solidity of righteousness at all, but the inflation of impious pride and destructive swelling. The charity of God has been poured out into our hearts. The charity by which we are said to love God is poured into our hearts because it extends itself to perfect all the morals and actions of the soul; for charity is patient, charity is kind, and so forth.
Rom 5:8-10 But God commends His charity toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, now that we are justified by His blood, shall we be saved from wrath through Him. Hear how you were loved, not lovable; hear how you were loved—foul and unclean—before there was anything in you worthy of love. You were loved first so that you might become worthy to be loved. Did the impious perhaps deserve to be loved? I ask, what did the impious deserve? You answer, “To be condemned.” Yet Christ died for the impious. Behold what was bestowed on you when you were impious; now that you are pious, what is reserved for you? Christ died for us so that we might not despair. He died for us while we were still sinners, impious, His enemies; let us attribute this to Him. The infinite love of God toward us could not go further than to give His only-begotten Son for us. The vice of ingratitude in sinners could not go further than to despise so great a love and to refuse to love in return a God so merciful and so beneficent toward them. Let us hope for magnificent promises, considering and loving the most precious pledges we already hold—the death and blood of the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Does God regard the human being as something small, for whom He willed to die—His only Son? Let us attend to the proof of love. For the promise of God we have received such earnest-money: we hold the death of Christ; we hold the blood of Christ. Who died? The Only One. For whom did He die? If only for the good, if only for the just! But what then? For Christ, says the Apostle, died for the impious. He who gave His death to the impious—what does He reserve for the just if not His life? Let human frailty therefore lift itself up and not despair. He who promised is God; and He came in order to promise—He appeared to humans; He came to take upon Himself our death and to promise His life. He came to the region of our pilgrimage; He accepted here abundant reproaches, scourges, blows, spit upon the face, insults, a crown of thorns, hanging on the wood, the cross, death. Such things abound in our region; to such exchanges He came. What did He give here, and what did He receive? He gave exhortation, doctrine, remission of sins; He received insults, death, the cross. He brought to us from that region goods, and in our region He endured evils. He promised that we would be where He is, from where He came, and He said: “Father, I will that where I am, they also may be with Me.” So great love preceded this: because where we were, He was with us; where He is, we shall be with Him. What has God promised you, O mortal human being? That you will live forever. You do not believe? Believe. What He has done is greater than what He has promised. What has He done? He died for you. What has He promised? That you may live with Him. It is more incredible that the Eternal died than that the mortal should live eternally. But what is more incredible we already hold. If God died for the human being, the human being is not going to live with God? Will not the mortal live eternally, for whom He who lives eternally died? He took from you that by which He might die for you; He clothed Himself with what He might die in for you; He will clothe you with what you may live with Him. Where did He clothe Himself with death? In the virginity of His Mother. Where will He clothe you with life? In equality with the Father. Something of ours is already above—what He took here, where He died, where He was crucified. Already certain firstfruits of yours have gone before, and do you doubt that you will follow?
Rom 5:11. And not only so, but we also glory in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. We glory not only in the hope of glory which we await in the future, but also in this, that we are now united to God through faith and charity—not from ourselves but in God; not through ourselves, for we certainly know that we are nothing from ourselves, can do nothing from ourselves, and can merit nothing by ourselves—but through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we are now reconciled to God and from enemies have been made friends. For the Holy Spirit bears witness to our spirit—through the charity He pours into our hearts and through the communion of Christ’s sufferings which He works in us—that we are children of God and heirs, to be so in the future, through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Rom 5:12–13. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into this world, and through sin death, and thus death passed to all men, in whom all sinned. Although original sin is removed in all who are regenerated by Baptism in act, so that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, it nevertheless remains in a certain way by liability, because on account of it we are always subject to the penalties of this life and to the punishment of death, the sentence of which has been pronounced against us. Suspended by this expectation, how can we taste the pleasures of the world? How can we not groan over sin, far more horrible and to be feared than death, which is its wage and penalty? Let us, by the grace of God, turn the penalties and calamities of this life, diseases and death itself, into good, and let us change punishment into sacrifice through penitential love, so that God may be honored by the expiation of sin and the human being saved by the punishment of the sinner.
Through one man the whole mass of perdition became the possession of the destroyer. Therefore no one—absolutely no one—has been freed, is freed, or will be freed from it except by the grace of the Redeemer. Let us give thanks daily to the Lord our God, who has freed us from original sin through Baptism; and, having been happily loosed from that hereditary sin, let us not entangle ourselves in sins of our own will and action, which make us liable to more grievous punishments. For if death reigned from Adam to Moses even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam’s transgression, who would doubt that those are to be punished with eternal death who have violated not only the law of nature impressed on the minds of all, not only the written law given by the finger of God to Moses through the ministry of angels, but also the evangelical law established by Jesus Christ the Son of God, preached, confirmed by miracles, sanctioned and sealed by His blood—who have trampled underfoot His precious blood and done insult to the Spirit of grace?
Rom 5:14. But death reigned from Adam to Moses, and so forth, because it could not be conquered—neither by the law given through Moses. For the law was not given that it might give life, but that it might show those who were dead—who needed grace in order to be made alive—not only cast down by the propagation and dominion of sin, but also convicted by the added transgression of the law itself. Thus no one would perish who, even then, understood the mercy of God, but rather, being destined for punishment under the reign of death, might seek the help of God for himself through the law now made manifest, so that where sin abounded, grace might abound all the more—grace which alone delivers from this body of death.
Therefore, although the law given through Moses could not take away the reign of death from any human being, there were nevertheless, even in the time of the law, people of God who lived under a law that terrified, convicted, and punished, yet under a grace that delighted, healed, and liberated. Alas, how many even now do not live not only under grace, but not even under the law! How many offend God through a willful ignorance of the evangelical law and of the divine commandments and duties of the Christian life! They refuse to understand so as to do good—so blind that they neither recognize their own misery through transgression of the law and the reign of sin within themselves, nor implore the grace of God, which alone can destroy it.
Many, like the Jews, are under a law that terrifies, not under a grace that delights. They observe the law of God in some fashion through fear of punishment, not through delight in righteousness—fearing to burn eternally more than to sin and displease God.
Death reigned from Adam to Moses, and so forth. From Adam to Moses, and throughout the entire period of the law until Christ, humanity lived according to the body, that is, according to the flesh—what is also called the outer or old man—and to whom the Old Testament was given. Although religious, such people were still carnal in their works, yet they prefigured future spiritual realities. During all this time in which life was lived according to the body, death reigned even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam’s transgression.
But this phrase until Moses must be understood as until the works of the law, that is, as long as those sacraments were observed carnally. Even then, they held those bound by them for the sake of a certain mystery, those who were subject to the one God. But with the coming of the Lord, when the transition was made from circumcision of the flesh to circumcision of the heart, the call was given to live according to the soul—that is, according to the inner man, who is also called the new man because of regeneration and the renewal of spiritual conduct.
If, therefore, we do not live according to the inner man and according to the Spirit, if by newness we do not show that we have put off the deeds and affections of the old man, we do not belong to the New Testament. And in us—if we sin in the likeness of Adam’s transgression and, in the likeness of the devil, persist in sin without repentance—death will reign without end.
Rom 5:15–16. But the gift is not like the offense. For if by the offense of one many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift in the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abound for many. In the case of two men: through one we were sold under sin; through the other we are redeemed from sins. Through one we were cast down into death; through the other we are raised to life. The former lost us in himself by doing his own will, not the will of Him who made him; the latter saved us in Himself, not by doing His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him. In the cause of these two men, properly speaking, the Christian faith consists.
Thus the first is a figure of the one to come, but the grace of Christ is more effective for saving than Adam’s sin was for destroying. For sin proceeds from the weakness of the human will, but grace from the immensity of divine goodness, which is infinitely more powerful than the will of man. But the gift is not like the offense. A human being can destroy the gifts of God by himself; God alone can restore what has been lost and extinguished. Sin destroyed original righteousness in Adam and his descendants. The grace of Christ forgives, wipes out, and destroys this sin—and the innumerable others which Adam’s descendants have added by their own will—restores righteousness in a victorious and triumphant way, bestows it in greater abundance, enables perseverance in it, and crowns it with glory and immortality in heaven.
Adam received grace which, if he had not abandoned it by free choice, would have kept him always good; but he abandoned it and was abandoned. Such was that help: one which he could abandon if he wished, and in which he could remain if he wished—not one that would make him will. This was the first grace given to the first Adam; but this grace is more powerful in the second Adam. The first made it possible for a human being to have righteousness if he willed; the second does more—it even brings it about that he wills, and wills so strongly and with such ardor that by the will of the Spirit he conquers the will of the flesh, which desires what is contrary.
Rom 5:17. For if by the offense of one death reigned through one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift and of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. The extreme poverty of humanity is answered by the abundance of God, rich in mercy, from whose fullness we have all received.
To our unworthiness corresponds grace—for no merits precede the forgiveness of sin. To our powerlessness—for we can will and do nothing good from ourselves as though from ourselves—corresponds gift and donation. To our iniquities corresponds righteousness, that is, the rectitude of works and justice. To death, which is the penalty of sin, corresponds life, by which Christ Jesus will raise us to the eternal kingdom, opposed to the reign of death. They will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.
Woe to those who, not recognizing their poverty, misery, unworthiness, powerlessness, and sins, do not implore with penitential groans the abundance of grace and of gift and of righteousness! Woe to those who think themselves just because they perform the outward works of the law, while lacking the spirit of the Gospel—that is, charity! You say, “I am rich and have grown wealthy and need nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. These will not receive the abundance of grace and of gift and of righteousness, which God gives only to the humble. Woe to those who love death and the slavery of sin more than the life and kingdom of Christ!
Rom 5:18. Therefore, as through one man’s offense condemnation came upon all men, so through one man’s righteousness justification of life came upon all men. We received the former in baptism, when, laying aside the remnants of the old Adam, we put on Christ and were made participants in His righteousness. Let those who are so happy as not to have fallen from it strive to preserve it by pious humility and continual thanksgiving; let those who have unhappily lost it labor to repair it by acts of penance. For righteousness alone—either preserved or restored—leads to life.
But both its first bestowal and its restoration, its increase and its future consummation in glory, we owe to the one Mediator, Christ Jesus. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Thus also through one man’s righteousness came justification of life to all men.
Let us therefore cling to Him inseparably, like branches to the true vine, so that in Him we may have life—and have it more abundantly.
Rom 5:19. For just as through the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one man many shall be made righteous. Disobedience is, as it were, a universal sin, since it is found in all other sins, insofar as they are transgressions of the divine law. Obedience, however, is the soul and perfection of all virtues; for unless virtues truly serve God and are subject to Him, they cannot be true virtues. The will of God and the human person’s own will are two sources: the former establishes virtues, the latter vices; the former constitutes the kingdom of God, the latter the kingdom of sin; the former founds religion, the latter idolatry; the former eternal happiness, the latter eternal misery.
Obedience, in every rational creature, is the origin and perfection of all righteousness—so much so that, in the case of the two men, namely Adam, who was the head of our death, and Christ, who is the head of our salvation, this greatest distinction is rightly emphasized: that just as through the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man many shall be made righteous. Obedience alone carries off the prize; disobedience alone finds punishment. Let us obey Christ our Lord, who became obedient unto death in order to make us righteous. For nothing is so beneficial to the soul as obedience. And if it is beneficial to the soul that a servant obey his master, a son his father, a wife her husband, how much more that a human being obey God!
Adam experienced the evil he ought not to have experienced had he believed the one who said, “Do not touch.” Now, having experienced the evil—indeed every human being is Adam, just as in those who believe every human being is Christ, because they are members of Christ—having therefore experienced the evil which he should not have experienced, let him at least afterward obey the commands of the Physician, so that he may rise again, since he did not wish to believe the Physician so as not to fall sick.
Rom 5:20. But the law entered in so that the offense might abound. What does it mean, that the offense might abound? It means that where grace was not present, prohibition increased desire; and when something is presumed to be done, as it were, by one’s own strength, a great vice is produced. But where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more. The Lord came and forgave everything—everything you drew from Adam, everything you added by your own corrupt habits; He remitted it all, wiped it all away. He taught prayer, promised grace, appointed the contest, helped the one who labors, crowned the victor.
The law, insofar as it depends on itself, forbids sin. Hence the Prophet says, “In my heart I have hidden Your words, that I might not sin against You.” But once the law was given, sin increased, because concupiscence burned more fiercely, and this for a threefold reason.
First, because what lies within human power is usually held in little esteem, whereas what lies beyond one’s power is customarily magnified. Prohibition places the desired thing, as it were, outside human power, and therefore desire burns more fiercely for the thing that is forbidden.
Second, because inner passions, when they are restrained inwardly so that they do not break forth outwardly, are inflamed more intensely—as is evident in pain and anger; but if they find some outward expression, their force is diminished. Prohibition, however, out of fear of punishment, restrains concupiscence from being outwardly fulfilled in action; therefore concupiscence, held inwardly, is inflamed all the more.
Third, because what is not forbidden we grasp as something available to us whenever we wish, and therefore, even when opportunity is given, we often refrain from it; but when something is forbidden, it is apprehended as something we may never be able to enjoy. Therefore, when opportunity is given to obtain it and enjoy it without punishment, we rush toward it with greater inclination.
Thus, when the law was given—which forbade the use and acts of concupiscence but did not moderate concupiscence itself—concupiscence drove human beings toward sin with a more fervent impulse. Hence sin abounded, because it was not fulfilled by fear, which never fulfills unless it is fulfilled by charity.
Would that for the far greater part the evangelical law were not an occasion of sin and ruin because of the perverse disposition of those in whom concupiscence reigns! For instructed by the letter of the Gospel, they know that greed, ambition, impurity, revenge, and other vices are forbidden to them; but because they have extinguished the Spirit of the Gospel within themselves, their desires burn more fiercely, and sin abounds. Though at times they may be restrained by fear of hell, they are not restrained by love of righteousness, and therefore they daily become more guilty—so much so that of that crowd of evil Christians it could rightly and deservedly be said by the Lord: “This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations, and the lands are around her. And she has despised My judgments, so as to be more impious than the nations.”
Rom 5:21. So that, just as sin reigned unto death, so also grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Apostle shows that sin held the place of a king, and death the place of a soldier standing in battle under sin and armed by it. If, therefore, sin armed death, it is clear that righteousness, brought in through grace, which removes sin itself, strips death of its weapons and dissolves its entire reign, leading us to immortal and everlasting life. The reconciler of these goods for us is Christ. Therefore, do not doubt life if you possess righteousness, for righteousness is better than life, since it is the parent of life.
Righteousness given through Christ does not, in the present age, free us from temporal death; yet death itself is no longer wholly an evil, but in some way becomes good and beneficial to us through the grace of Christ, for the destruction of sin. Now, by a greater and more marvelous grace of the Savior, the penalty of sin has been turned to the service of righteousness. Then it was said to the human being, “You shall die if you sin”; now it is said to the martyr, “Die, lest you sin.” Then it was said, “If you transgress the commandment, you shall die”; now it is said, “If you refuse death, you will transgress the commandment.” What once was to be feared so that one might not sin must now be embraced so that one may not sin.
Thus, by the ineffable mercy of God, even the penalty of vices has passed into the weapons of virtue, and the punishment of the sinner becomes the merit of the righteous. For then death was incurred by sinning; now righteousness is fulfilled by dying. This, however, applies to the holy martyrs, to whom the persecutor proposes one of two things: either that they deny the faith or that they endure death. The righteous prefer, by believing, to suffer what the first unrighteous suffered by not believing. For if those had not sinned, they would not have died; but these will sin unless they die. Those died because they sinned; these do not sin because they die. Through the fault of the former, punishment came to pass; through the punishment of the latter, it comes about that one does not fall into fault—not because death itself has become some good which before was evil, but because God has bestowed such great grace upon faith that death, which is known to be contrary to life, has become an instrument through which one passes to life.
So that, just as sin reigned unto death, so also grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. For the righteous person, death is not the end of nature but of guilt. Through life there is a passage to death; through death there is a return to life.
CONTINUE
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