Translated by Qwen.
LITERAL COMMENTARY
Rom 9:1-2: Paul's Sincere Testimony
"I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart."
I speak a true, sincere matter from the heart in Christ; I do not lie. My conscience bears witness to me in the Holy Spirit. For since Paul had often been mistreated by the Jews, while on the other hand he was held in the highest honor among the Christians called from the Gentiles, it might be supposed that he was either hostile toward the former or more favorably inclined toward the latter. He removes this suspicion far from himself and confirms his wonderful love toward the Jews by an oath, calling three witnesses to his grief over their unbelief and rejection: namely, Christ, his conscience, and the Holy Spirit.
"I speak the truth in Christ": I speak a true, sincere thing from my heart, not for anyone's favor. Christ is my witness, but also my conscience bears witness to me through the Holy Spirit who governs it. That I suffer continuous and most grievous pain—such as that of women in labor—in my heart because of the rejection and blindness of the Jews, my brothers according to the flesh.
Rom 9:3-5: Paul's Extraordinary Wish
"For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen."
I myself, who so love Christ that nothing can separate me from His love, could wish to be excluded from Christ's glory and fellowship—if it were possible, if it were permitted—so that the Jews might be saved, and lest it seem that God had deceived their ancestors and that the promise made to Abraham had failed. Therefore, the glory of God alone and the salvation of the Jews urged Paul, and expressed that desire in him: not an absolute desire by which he would devote his own eternal salvation, but a conditional one—that it might be possible, while always loving Christ, to be alienated from His fellowship and glory, lest God be dishonored by blasphemies because of the rejection of the Jews.
Hence in verse 7 he adds: "Not that the word of God has failed," declaring that he would wish this, if it were possible, because of the word of God—that is, because of the promise made to Abraham. For just as Moses seemed indeed to the Jews to be performing a mission, but was actually doing the whole thing for God's glory, when he said: "I beseech You, this people has sinned a great sin, and they have made themselves guilty gods; either forgive them this offense, or if You do not, blot me out of Your book which You have written" (Exodus 32:31-32), lest the Egyptians say: "Cunningly He led them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the earth. Let Your anger cease and be placated concerning the iniquity of Your people" (Exodus 32:12). So also Paul: "Lest," he says, "they say that God's promise has failed and that what He promised He promised falsely, I would wish to be anathema." By this hyperbolic expression, St. Paul expresses the greatness of his love toward the Jews.
"Who are my kinsmen according to the flesh": that is, of the same stock of Abraham and Jacob, to whom the name Israel was divinely imposed—the descendants.
"Whose is the adoption as sons": whom God, passing over other nations, chose for Himself as a special possession and named and cherished as sons.
"Whose is the adoption as sons": of glory beyond other nations:
By reason of the law given to them by God: "He has not done thus for every nation, nor made His judgments known to them" (Psalm 147:20).
By reason of the miracles performed by God for the favor of that people.
By reason of the prophecies and promises.
By reason of singular protection: "Then the nations will say: The Lord has magnified His dealings with them" (Psalm 126:2). Hence the chief glory and renown of the Israelite people.
"Whose also is the covenant": that is, the multiple compact and agreement concerning the land of promise, concerning earthly prosperity and victories against enemies, concerning the priesthood and kingdom.
"And the legislation and the worship and the promises": By them the Law was given by God, sacred and divine worship was prescribed, and magnificent promises were made to them by God.
"Whose are the fathers": Who have as ancestors the holy Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who received the promises concerning Christ, which have been fulfilled by God, since indeed Christ was born from the Israelites.
"And from whom, according to the flesh, is Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen": True God, in no way inferior to the Father, God over all, blessed over all—that is, to be celebrated with praises for all eternity. Amen.
In this verse the heresy of the Arians and Socinians is refuted.
But when such great privileges belong to the Jews, when they have received so many promises, so many benefits from God—with all these honors—yet they have fallen away. Therefore, says the Apostle, "I am tormented," as if he were to say: I would wish to be separated and alienated from that choir which surrounds Christ—not from love, God forbid—but even to endure being deprived of that enjoyment and glory, so that my Lord not be subjected to reproach and ill repute, lest they say that the things themselves were done as if on a stage: He promised to some and gave to others; He was born of some and saved others; He promised to the ancestors of the Jews, but abandoning their offspring, He introduced those who had never acknowledged Him into their blessings. They labored in meditation on the Law, in reading the Prophets, and those who have most recently returned from altars and idols are superior to them. Therefore, lest these things be said about the Lord God—even though unjustly said—and I would willingly fall away from the kingdom of heaven, I would endure all adversities from that hidden glory, considering that the greatest consolation would be mine if I no longer heard Him being afflicted, He whom I love so ardently. See the same Chrysostom, On Compunction of Heart, book I, chapter 8.
On the Meaning of "Anathema"
"For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren": "Anathema" in Hebrew meant a wicked man or some thing which, with execration, was so utterly destroyed that, as far as possible, nothing of it remained; as the city was destroyed by God's command (Joshua 6:17; Numbers 21:2-3; Judges 1:17; Malachi 4:6; 1 Maccabees 5:5). The Greeks called "anathemata" the most wicked men who, when public calamity pressed, were sacrificed to the Manes gods and the infernal gods for the purification of the city.
St. Jerome wishes that in this place the word "anathema" be taken in this sense, as it signifies destruction or corporal killing by which someone, with execration, is removed from the society of men and avoided (Epistle 151 to Algasia, Question 9): "Behold," he says, "the Apostle, of how great charity toward Christ he is, that for Him he desires to die and to perish alone, provided that he believes the whole human race might be saved"—but to perish not forever, but for the present. For "whoever loses his life for Christ will save it" (Matthew 10:39). Whence also he takes an example from Psalm 43: "For for Your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." Therefore, the Apostle [wishes] to perish in the flesh so that others may be saved in the spirit; to pour out his blood so that the souls of many may be preserved. Moreover, that "anathema" sometimes signifies killing can be proved by many testimonies of the Old Testament.
St. John Chrysostom refutes this exposition—which is perhaps plainer, more probable, and more suitable—with harsher words, especially by this argument: that St. Paul says he wishes to be "anathema from Christ" for his brethren. But bodily death would not have separated him from Christ; indeed, it would have joined him more closely to Him, whence elsewhere he says: "Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ" (Philippians 1:23). But that phrase "from Christ" can fittingly be explained as "for Christ" or "for the love of Christ," as St. Jerome understood: "I could wish to be anathema from Christ for my brethren"—that is, "I would wish to devote my bodily life and undergo death for Christ's sake, so that my brethren the Jews might obtain eternal salvation."
But St. Chrysostom objects: It would be nothing great or singular that Paul was prepared to die for the Jews. On the contrary, this is an argument of singular and exceptional love: John 10:11 "The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep"; and chapter 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." And God gave the greatest argument of His love toward us: "Who did not spare even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all" (Romans 8:32). Photius approves both interpretations (Epistle 216).
Rom 9:6-8: The Word of God Has Not Failed
"Not that the word of God has failed." What I shall say concerning the rejection and fall of the Jews, and concerning the calling of the Gentiles in their place, does not overthrow the truth of God's word and the firmness of the divine promises. For it is necessary that all things be fulfilled which God has decreed, foretold, promised; nor can this be prevented by my grief or any other cause, but the word of God will be fulfilled in the faithful alone.
"For not all who are from Israel are Israel." Not all who are carnally descended from the Patriarch Jacob are elected by God and candidates for that blessed vision, whether from their happy number to whom properly belong the promises of salvation.
"Nor because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children." Nor are all who are propagated from the seed of Abraham therefore to be considered his children with respect to the right of inheritance, blessing, and promises.
"But in Isaac shall your seed be called" (Genesis 21:12)—that is, Isaac, with those who will trace their descent from him, shall be called your seed, in whom I will fulfill the promises made to your seed. That is: "Not those who are children of the flesh, these are children of God; but those who are children of the promise are counted as seed." This signifies allegorically that not all who are descended from Abraham according to the usual order of nature are adopted as sons of God, but those alone who are regenerated according to the spirit through the grace of faith, according to the promise made to the holy Patriarch by God in these words: "In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 22:18)—whether carnally descended from Abraham or not, whether Jews or Gentiles, are to be held by God as the true seed of Abraham; just as also Ishmael, born according to the flesh, was not counted in the seed nor was heir, but Isaac, born according to the promise. Compare with Galatians 4:22-23.
Rom 9:9: The Word of Promise
"For this is the word of promise" (that is, it is written, Genesis 18:10): "According to this time, after a year, at this same time I will come to you"—words of the angel speaking to Abraham in God's name, from the Version of the Seventy Interpreters—"and Sarah your wife shall have a son," although old and barren, she shall have a son from you.
Rom 9:10: Rebecca's Conception
"And not only she, but Rebecca also, having conceived from one intercourse, Isaac our father." Not only did Sarah bear to Abraham the son of promise, namely Isaac, type of Christ and of all the elect in Him, just as Ishmael born from Hagar was a type of the reprobate; but also Rebecca at the same time conceived two twins from Isaac our father, namely Jacob and Esau, of whom the former was the son of promise and type of the elect, the latter merely the son of the flesh and type of the reprobate Jews. The Apostle curbs the pride of the Jews who trusted that they were just and would be saved because of the merits of their fathers. He shows that their confidence is vain by the example of the two sons of Abraham, of whom one was elected, the other reprobate. And lest anyone ascribe this to the difference of the mothers—because Isaac was born of a free woman, Ishmael of a handmaid—or to the difference of the father's merits—because he begot Ishmael uncircumcised, but Isaac circumcised—by another example he shows that the election of sons is not to be attributed to the condition or merits of parents, namely Jacob and Esau, of whom one was the son of promise and elected by God and a type of the predestined, the other merely the son of the flesh, reprobate and a type of the reprobate, although they were born from the same birth, from the same free mother, and from the same intercourse of the Patriarch Isaac.
Rom 9:11-13: Election Before Birth
"For when they were not yet born, the twin brothers—indeed before conception, which is birth in the womb—or had done anything good or evil, for which they might deserve love or hatred, so that the purpose of God according to election might stand, so that God's eternal decree, gratuitously choosing one before the other and distinguishing from the mass of perdition, might stand firm and be immutably fulfilled: 'not from works,' even future and foreseen, that is, not because of good or evil works, 'but from Him who calls,' it was said to her."
But because of the vocation and election of God, it was said to Rebecca: "The greater shall serve the lesser." The elder, namely Esau, served the younger, namely Jacob, the right of primogeniture having been transferred. The Idumeans, descendants of Esau, served the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, having been conquered by David until the times of Joram son of Jehoshaphat, when they threw off the yoke. Esau served Jacob unwillingly, for his salvation, with God ordaining his persecution for the testing of the holy brother.
The former sense is literal, as is clear from the divine oracle to Rebecca: "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from your belly shall be divided; and people shall overcome people, and the greater shall serve the lesser" (Genesis 25:23). Therefore, concerning those two peoples it was said: "The greater shall serve the lesser," which nevertheless the Apostle rightly refers to the two brothers, insofar as they were to be fathers and heads of two peoples.
The other sense is allegorical, but equally intended by the Holy Spirit speaking through the Apostle: The reprobate plainly serve the elect unwillingly, with God disposing for their sanctification and salvation, and turning all things to their good. "For all things are for the elect, that they themselves may obtain salvation in Christ Jesus." "All things are yours," says St. Paul elsewhere, "and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's" (1 Corinthians 3:21-23).
Moreover, what the Apostle says concerning the gratuitous election of Jacob and the reprobation of Esau, he confirms from the oracle of the Prophet Malachi: "As it is written: 'Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated'" (Malachi 1:2-3). God, by that response "The greater shall serve the lesser," signifies what was written much later from His person by the Prophet Malachi: "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated."
Moreover, not only do the Prophet and Apostle signify that it was plainly established by God to prefer the Israelites to the Idumeans in temporal benefits—or to have loved less, postponed, neglected, and as it were not cared for and despised Esau and the Idumeans his descendants in comparison to Jacob and the Israelites—as certain recent men, otherwise learned, comment; but the Apostle shows that this passage is to be referred to Jacob and Esau, both insofar as they were individual persons and insofar as the one was a type of the reprobate, the other of the predestined. The scope of the Apostle, who speaks and proves concerning election and vocation to eternal life and concerning spiritual things, that not all Israelites are sons of God and heirs of eternal life, shows this.
Therefore, hatred and love here are to be understood absolutely, not comparatively. Hatred of Esau signifies his eternal reprobation; love of Jacob, his eternal election to the heavenly kingdom and everlasting felicity. Both are to be referred to the immutable purpose of God, or to the supreme arbitrament of the divine will and liberty, as is demonstrated from this passage of the Apostle; yet with this distinction: that predestination is from the purpose of the divine will and eternal decree, both with respect to the end (namely, eternal life) and with respect to the means of attaining it (namely, grace, good works, perseverance); but reprobation only with respect to the end, namely, the eternal punishments of the reprobate, but not with respect to the means, namely, sins and evil wills. Whence it indeed signifies the will of God permitting that some fall away from the ultimate end and fall into sins, and inflicting the punishment of damnation for sins, but not the will that they sin or any cooperation in their sins.
Reprobation is the purpose of God by which from eternity He constituted to leave some in the mass of perdition and to consign them to eternal damnation because of sin, whether original alone or actual.
Predestination is the purpose of God by which from eternity He chooses some and distinguishes them from the mass of perdition, and prepares for them His benefits, namely, a series of graces and the gift of perseverance, by which they may most certainly be freed and saved.
St. Augustine's Exposition
St. Augustine, whom God gave to His Church as the best teacher and interpreter of the mysteries of predestination and grace, grasped and expounded this sense of the Apostle in Epistle 194 (otherwise 105) to Sixtus, where he speaks thus against the Pelagians:
"Therefore, let them not stubbornly oppose with madness the gratuitous mercy of God. Nor let them dare to judge concerning His inscrutable judgments why, in one and the same cause, His mercy comes upon one, His wrath remains upon another. For who are these who would answer God, since indeed He, to Rebecca having twins from one intercourse of Isaac our father, when they were not yet born nor had done anything good or evil, so that the purpose of His election might stand—namely, election of grace, not of debt; election by which He Himself makes those to be chosen, not finds them; not from works, but from Him who calls—it was said that the greater would serve the lesser? In which sentiment the blessed Apostle also took up the testimony of a much later Prophet: 'Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated,' so that it might be understood that this, later made manifest through the Prophet, was in God's predestination through grace before they were born. For what did He love in Jacob before he was born, having done anything good, unless the gratuitous gift of His mercy? And what did He hate in Esau before he was born, having done anything evil, unless original sin? For neither would He love justice in him which he had not done, nor hate nature in this one which He Himself had made good. It is wonderful, however, when they are constrained by these straits, into what precipices they throw themselves, fearing the nets of truth. 'Therefore,' they say, 'He hated one of the unborn, loved the other, because He foresaw their future works.' Who would not wonder that this most acute sense was lacking to the Apostle? For he did not see this when, as if an opposing question were objected to him, he did not rather respond so briefly, so clearly, so—according to what these men think—truly and absolutely. For when he had proposed a stupendous thing, how it could rightly be said concerning those not yet born nor doing anything good or evil, that God loved one, hated the other, expressing the movement of the hearer by the very question objected to himself: 'What then shall we say?' he says. 'Is there injustice with God? God forbid!' Here therefore was the place to say what these men think: 'For God foresaw future works when He said that the greater would serve the lesser.' But the Apostle does not say this, but rather, lest anyone dare to glory in the merits of his own works, he wished what he said to avail for commending God's grace and glory. For when he had said, 'God forbid that there be injustice with God,' as if we were saying to him, 'How do you show this, when you assert that it was said, not from works, but from Him who calls: The greater shall serve the lesser?'—'For He says to Moses,' he says, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will show mercy to whom I will have mercy.' Therefore, it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.' Where now are merits? Where are works, either past or future, as if fulfilled or to be fulfilled by the powers of free will? Has not the Apostle plainly uttered a sentence concerning the commendation of gratuitous grace, that is, true grace? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of heretics?"
"What moreover was being done that the Apostle should say this, that he should recall the example of those twins? What was he striving to persuade? What was he eager to inculcate? Was it not this which their madness opposes, which the proud do not grasp, which those are unwilling to understand who, ignorant of God's justice and wishing to establish their own, have not been subject to the justice of God? Concerning grace itself indeed the Apostle was sufficiently treating, and therefore he was commending the sons of promise. For what God promises, He does not do unless God does it. For it has some reason and truth that man promises and God does; but that man says he does what God has promised, is the reprobate sense of proud impiety."
"Therefore, the intention of the Apostle is to be observed, how, for the sake of commending grace, he does not wish him concerning whom it was said, 'Jacob I have loved,' to glory except in the Lord, so that when from the same father, the same mother, one intercourse, before they had done anything good or evil, God loves one, hates the other, Jacob may understand that from that mass of original iniquity, where he sees his brother, with whom he had a common cause, deserved to be condemned by justice, he could be distinguished only by grace. 'For when they were not yet born, nor doing good or evil, so that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not from works but from Him who calls, it was said to him: The greater shall serve the lesser.'"
And in the Enchiridion, chapter 98: "Therefore, both twins were by nature sons of wrath at birth, bound by the chain of damnation, indeed not by their own proper works, but originally from Adam. But He who said, 'I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,' loved Jacob through gratuitous mercy, but hated Esau through deserved judgment. When this was owed to both, in the one the other acknowledged that he had not to glory concerning his differing merits, that in the same cause he did not incur the same punishment, but concerning the bounty of divine grace."
Rom 9:14-16: God's Mercy and Justice
"What then shall we say? Is there injustice with God? God forbid!" The Apostle meets an objection: "Are we teaching this, which some babble that we teach: that certain things are done unjustly by God?" For this seems to follow if God chooses some, reprobates others, having no regard for merits. But God forbid that we say God is unjust, which plainly repugns His very nature. Certainly He is not unjust when He shows grace to those whom He pleases to choose.
"For He says to Moses" (Exodus 33:19), after all had sinned in the worship of the golden calf: "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will show mercy to whom I will have mercy." "I will have mercy on whom I will, and I will be clement toward whom it pleases Me. I owe nothing to anyone; I show grace to whom I will." Where there is no debt, there is no injustice if benefits are dispensed to one before another. Moreover, the election, predilection, and liberation of one from the common mass of perdition, in which another is left, is not a work of justice nor owed to anyone by right, but of mercy alone and purely gratuitous; therefore it has no reason except the divine will. Those who here mix in the foresight of works—the very clear sense of the words and the mind and scope of the Apostle oppose them. Who, unless foolish, would think God unjust, whether He inflicts penal judgment on the deserving or shows mercy to the undeserving? says St. Augustine.
"Therefore, it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy." That someone is elected by God to eternal life is not from the merit of good will, nor from the merits of preceding or foreseen good external works, which are signified metaphorically by the name "running," but from the sole and free good pleasure of God showing mercy.
However, if a man is of such age that he now uses reason, he cannot believe, hope, love unless he wills, nor arrive at the prize of the upward calling of God unless he runs with will. How then "it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy," unless because the very will, as it is written, is prepared by the Lord? Otherwise, if it was said therefore, "It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy," because it comes from both, that is, both from the will of man and the mercy of God, so that we accept it thus: "It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy," as if it were said: "The sole will of man does not suffice if the mercy of God is not also present; therefore the sole mercy of God does not suffice if the will of man is not also present; and consequently, if it was rightly said, 'It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy,' because the will of man alone does not accomplish this, why is it not also rightly said on the contrary, 'It is not of God who shows mercy, but of man who wills,' because the mercy of God alone does not accomplish this?"
Moreover, if no Christian dares to say, "It is not of God who shows mercy, but of man who wills," lest he most openly contradict the Apostle, it remains that it is rightly understood to have been said, "It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy," so that the whole be given to God, who prepares the good will of man by helping, and helps it when prepared. For the good will of man precedes many gifts of God, but not all; but those which it does not precede, it is in them, and they are in it. For both are read in the holy Scriptures: "His mercy shall prevent me," and "His mercy shall follow me." He prevents the unwilling that he may will; He follows the willing lest he will in vain.
This exposition of St. Augustine, which he adduces also in the book On Grace and Free Will, chapter 7, book 1 to Simplicianus, Question 2, and Epistle 217 (otherwise 7) to Vitalis, is deservedly to be preferred to the interpretation of the Greeks, namely St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 31, St. John Chrysostom, Homily 6 on this Epistle and Homily 12 on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Photius, Theophylact, Oecumenius, who wish this passage to be understood thus: "Not only of the one willing, nor of the one running only of man, but also of God showing mercy." To which exposition St. Jerome also favors, book 1 of the Dialogue against the Pelagians. St. John Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Oecumenius, and among the Latins St. Jerome in the Epistle to Hedibia, question 10, expound these words, "Therefore, it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy," and the preceding verse and the following ones up to the twentieth, as if they pertain to the confirmation of an objection opposed by some adversary against the justice of God; but from the series of all the sentences and from the style and manner of St. Paul, it appears that in all these verses is contained the reason for the negation by which he had repelled the objection: Verse 14: "What then shall we say? Is there injustice with God? God forbid!"
Nevertheless, we should not dismiss the interpretation of the Greek Fathers, which St. Jerome followed and which St. Augustine mentions without condemnation in On the Predestination of the Saints, chapter 8. Yet we consider the interpretation of Augustine himself and of St. Thomas Aquinas to be more consonant with the Apostle’s intent and better suited to refuting the Pelagian heresy.
Romans 9:17–18: Divine Justice and Hardening
Rom 9:17: "For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth.’"
The Apostle has already demonstrated that there is no injustice in God who elects gratuitously and without merits, nor in Him who does not elect but reprobates and leaves souls in the mass of perdition. He now confirms this final truth concerning reprobation through the example of Pharaoh, whose heart God hardened not merely by withholding grace, nor only by permitting him to fall into sin, but by working many things both inwardly and outwardly that would serve as occasions for greater obstinacy—namely, signs and wonders that would both demonstrate Pharaoh’s hardness and God’s justice in punishment.
The sense, therefore, is this: God in Scripture says to Pharaoh (Exodus 9:16), "I have placed you and preserved you until now for this end: that I might exercise My divine power concerning you by producing so many and so great signs, by whose evil use you might become worse, and by filling up the measure of your obstinacy, draw upon yourself heavier punishments, and thus My name might be celebrated among the nations and fear struck into the whole world." This is the doctrine of St. Augustine on the hardening of Pharaoh and others, and on God’s justice toward them, in On Grace and Free Will, chapters 20 and 21, where he gathers from numerous scriptural testimonies that God works in the hearts of men to incline their wills wherever He pleases: toward good, out of His mercy; toward evil, in accordance with their merits and His own judgment—sometimes openly, sometimes hiddenly, but always justly.
It must remain fixed and immovable in your hearts: there is no injustice with God. And therefore, when you read in the letters of truth that men are led astray by God, or that their hearts are dulled or hardened, do not doubt that their evil merits preceded, so that they might justly suffer these things. Lest you fall into that saying of Solomon (Proverbs 19:3): "The foolishness of man subverts his way, and his heart murmurs against the Lord." But grace is not given according to human merits; otherwise, grace would no longer be grace, for it is called grace precisely because it is given freely. If God is able, whether through angels (good or evil) or by any other means, to work even in the hearts of the wicked according to their merits—whose malice He did not create, but which was either drawn originally from Adam or grew through their own will—what wonder is it if He works through the Holy Spirit in the hearts of His elect the good things He once worked to make those very hearts good from being evil?
Rom 9:18: "Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens."
As the supreme and most free Lord and Dispenser of His graces, owing nothing to His creature, God shows mercy to whom He wills, and hardens and leaves in the mass of perdition (or in sin) whom He wills, by not imparting to him the grace He owes to no sinner except just punishment. He shows mercy out of great goodness; He hardens without any injustice. Thus neither the liberated may glory in his own merits, nor the condemned complain of anything but his own merits. Grace alone distinguishes the redeemed from the lost, whom original sin had merged into one mass of perdition.
Thus God hardened Pharaoh’s heart by just judgment, and Pharaoh hardened it by his own free will. We seek the merit of hardening, and we find it: for by the merit of sin, the whole mass was condemned; nor does God harden by imparting malice, but by withholding mercy. For those to whom mercy is not imparted are neither worthy nor deserving of it; rather, they are worthy and deserve that it not be imparted to them. We seek the merit of mercy, and find none, lest grace be emptied if it is not given freely but rendered as a debt. God’s hardening consists in His refusal to show mercy, not by inflicting something that makes a man worse, but by withholding that which would make him better.
Romans 9:19–21: The Potter and the Clay
Rom 9:19: "You will say to me then: ‘Why does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?’"
The impious might object: If God chooses whom He wills to eternal life, abandons whom He wills in the mass of perdition and reprobates, and shows or withholds mercy according to His good pleasure, why does He complain through the Prophets that men do not turn to Him and are hard-hearted? Why does He threaten and grow angry with them if no one can withstand His will?
The Apostle could have answered that God justly finds fault with sinners who resist His commandments, harden themselves in sin, and by their sins merit the withdrawal of grace, since He does not will that men sin, indeed forbids it, and does not positively harden them by infusing malice or compelling them to sin, but only negatively by withholding mercy from the unworthy. Hence Tertullian (Against Marcion, book 2): "He hardened Pharaoh’s heart, but Pharaoh had merited to be handed over to destruction, having already denied God, having already proudly shaken off His messengers so many times, having already added burdens to the people. Finally, because Egypt had long been guilty before God, a Gentile nation worshipping the ibis and crocodile sooner than the one true God."
But the Apostle crushes human pride with a stronger reply:
Rom 9:20: "O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’"
O carnal and worldly man, who raise these objections, who are you to dare contend with, answer back, or murmur against God, like a wicked servant against his master? Does the clay say to the potter: "Why have you made me thus?" Does the vessel of clay say to its maker: "Why have you made me an honorable vessel, for example, a spice box or a serving dish, rather than a lowly or contemptible vessel, like a kitchen pot or a chamber pot?" Therefore, you who are lesser in relation to God than clay is in relation to the potter, do not justly criticize the works of your Maker. Isaiah 29:16: "Surely your perversity is as if the potter were esteemed as the clay; for shall the thing made say of him who made it, ‘He did not make me’? Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding’?"
Rom 9:21: "Has the potter no right over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?"
Does the potter not have the right and power from the same clay, mixed and kneaded with water, to fashion one vessel for honorable uses and another for vile and common uses? So too, God from the same mass of the human race, corrupted by Adam’s sin and liable to condemnation, by His own right chooses some to glory out of pure mercy, and rejects, reprobates, and condemns others by a just though hidden judgment.
St. Augustine notes that some foolish men think the Apostle here fails in his reply and silences the objector’s boldness out of lack of reasoning. But great weight lies in the words: "O man, who are you?" And in such questions, it recalls man to a consideration of his own capacity—a reply brief in words but immense in substance. If a man cannot grasp these things, who is he to answer God? If he can grasp them, he will find even less to say in reply. For he sees, if he understands, that the whole human race is condemned by so just a divine judgment in its apostate root that even if no one were freed from it, no one could rightly accuse God’s justice. And those who are freed ought to have been freed in such a way that from the many not freed, left in most just condemnation, it might be shown what the whole lump deserved, and where even these would be led by God’s due judgment unless His undeserved mercy came to their aid. Thus every mouth may be stopped that would glory in its own merits, and "he who glories, let him glory in the Lord."
Romans 9:22–23: Vessels of Wrath and Mercy
Rom 9:22–23: "What if God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared for glory?"
You have nothing to answer God, nor to murmur against His providence and supreme will, that willing to show His vindicating justice in punishing sinners and to make His power known by breaking the reprobate like a potter’s vessels who resist His commands, He bore with them in great patience, long deferring the punishment of those who, by propagation from the condemned mass or by the malice of their own will, are vessels worthy of wrath and fitted for destruction and eternal torment. God endured them to clearly manifest the abundance of His goodness and the glorious outpouring of His grace upon the vessels of mercy—that is, upon the elect, whom He willed to pity, and whom by eternal election, effectual vocation according to His purpose, justification, and the series of all graces mercifully bestowed upon them, He prepared for glory.
The Apostle does not say "vessels of wrath which He prepared for destruction," but "fitted for destruction," because sin comes from man alone, and by his own works and free will he fits himself for destruction and brings upon himself perdition and condemnation. But concerning the elect he says: "vessels of mercy, which He had prepared for glory," because whatever good, whatever merit is in them, by which they are most certainly led to eternal life, is from God, who mercifully prepared it for them from eternity.
God is said to endure the reprobate in much patience so that He might show the riches of His glory in the vessels of mercy, because the very condemnation and reprobation of the wicked manifests and commends God’s goodness toward the elect, who are mercifully freed by Him. It would rightly seem unjust that vessels of wrath are made for perdition if the whole mass from Adam were not already condemned. That some are born from it as vessels of wrath belongs to deserved punishment; that others are reborn from it as vessels of mercy belongs to undeserved grace.
God shows His wrath—not indeed as a disturbance of mind, as human anger is called, but as a just and fixed vengeance—because from the root of disobedience proceeds the offspring of sin and punishment. And man, born of woman, as written in Job, is "of few days and full of trouble." A vessel is named after what it is full of, hence they are called vessels of wrath. He also shows His power, which He uses well even with the wicked, granting them many natural and temporal goods, and accommodating their malice to exercise and admonish the good by comparison, so that in them men may learn to give thanks to God that they are distinguished from them not by their own merits (which in the same mass were equal), but by His mercy. This is especially clear in infants: when through Christ’s grace they are reborn and, ending this life in tender infancy, pass to eternal and blessed life, it cannot be said that they are distinguished by free choice from other infants who die without this grace in the condemnation of that same mass. If only those were created from Adam who would be recreated by grace, and no other men were born besides those adopted as sons of God, the benefit given to the unworthy would remain hidden, because deserved punishment would not be rendered to any coming from the same condemnable stock. But since He endured in much patience the vessels of wrath, which were completed in perdition, He not only showed His wrath and demonstrated His power by inflicting vengeance and making good use not only of the good but also of the wicked, but He also made known the riches of His glory in the vessels of mercy. For thus the one freely justified learns what is granted to him, when he is distinguished not by his own merit, but by the glory of God’s lavish mercy, from the condemned, with whom he too would have been condemned by the same justice.
And further: The whole mass of just condemnation would receive its due unless the just and also merciful Potter made from it some vessels unto honor according to grace, not according to debt, while He both assists infants of whom no merits can be spoken, and goes before adults so that they may have some merits.
Romans 9:24–29: The Calling of Jews and Gentiles
Rom 9:24–26: "Even us, whom He has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles. As He says also in Hosea: ‘I will call them My people who were not My people, and her beloved who was not beloved. And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, “You are not My people,” there they shall be called sons of the living God.’"
The elect, from whose number we trust to be by His mercy, He called to faith according to the purpose of His will by an effectual vocation, by which they believe or will believe, and live by faith and persevere in good works, all who are preordained to eternal life—not only from the Jews, as you Israelite men think, but also, indeed in greater number, from the Gentiles.
As God foretold through Hosea the prophet: "Those who were not My people, uniquely dedicated to My worship and singularly beloved by Me and heaped with extraordinary benefits, I will call My people. And those who were not beloved by God with a good love, giving spiritual and supernatural gifts, I will call beloved, bestowing upon them the gifts of faith, grace, perseverance in good works. And to those who until this day had not obtained mercy, I will show mercy, leading them to faith, worship, and eternal life. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ there they shall be called sons of the living God." And it shall come to pass that in the very places where it was said to them, "I do not acknowledge you as My people," they shall be called sons of God, receive and exercise the true worship of God. This is understood of the Gentiles because they did not have one appointed place of sacrifice as the Jews did in Jerusalem. But the Apostles were sent to the Gentiles so that each might believe in his own place, and wherever they believed, there they might offer sacrifices of praise, to whom He gave the power to become sons of God.
St. Jerome, referring this passage of the Apostle to Hosea 2, does not read "and her beloved who was not beloved." All the Greek commentators read these words but omit the last ones: "and her who had not obtained mercy, I will call ‘Obtained Mercy.’" Nor do the Greek manuscripts have words corresponding to these, nor the ancient Vulgate manuscripts of the Paris College of the Society of Jesus and St. Germain des Prés, nor St. Augustine in To Simplicianus, book 1, question 2, and Against Faustus, book 22, chapter 89. The variation in reading arose because the Hebrew text could be translated either way; some interpreters gave one version, others the other. In some Bibles, one was kept in the text and the other noted in the margin, then by scribal oversight crept from the margin into the text, as learned men conjecture. The Syriac version omits "and her beloved who was not beloved," reading instead: "As Hosea also said: I will call those who were not My people, My people, and her who had not obtained mercy, I will call her who obtained mercy." The Arabic omits the last words, keeps the middle: "As Hosea the prophet said: I will call those who were not My people, and the nation that was not beloved." The Ethiopic agrees.
Hosea indeed spoke these words of the ten tribes carried away by the Assyrians, who had turned to calf worship, and of whom few would return to their homeland and again become God’s people together with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Nevertheless, because those ten tribes by their defection to idolatry and dispersion were a type of the Gentile people, the Apostle, taught by the Holy Spirit, declares that this prophecy applies to the conversion of the Gentiles according to a higher spiritual sense.
Rom 9:27–29: "Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: ‘Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved. For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.’ And as Isaiah said before: ‘Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and been made like Gomorrah.’"
Isaiah speaks of the Jews with great grief, crying out to arouse their attention concerning the reprobation of the people and the calling of the few among them. Though the Israelite people according to the promise made to Abraham is innumerable, yet few of them will be saved, the rest being rejected for unbelief, and believing Gentiles taking their place, so that the promises made to the fathers may be fulfilled more in spiritual Israel than in carnal Israel.
Isaiah, under the type of the ten tribes led into Assyrian captivity, from which very few returned, or of the Jews who remained after the disaster brought by Sennacherib, signified the fewness of the Jews who would believe in Christ and be saved. "For the Lord will execute a finishing and cutting short in righteousness." God will execute the just judgment of which we speak, reducing Israel, whom He will save, to a brief, small number, so that it is almost consumed. The Lord will make a great cutting off and diminution on earth by saving few from the Jews scattered throughout the world.
St. Jerome renders Isaiah’s passage, not quoted by the Apostle in exactly the same words, thus: "If your people, O Israel, are like the sand of the sea, a remnant will be converted. A completion that is cut short will overflow with justice. For the Lord God of hosts will make a completion and cutting short in the midst of all the earth." What was to happen under Hezekiah, Isaiah compares with what happened under King Ahaz, who sent messengers to the King of Assyria saying: "I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel, who have risen against me." And having gathered all the silver and gold found in the house of the Lord and in the royal treasures, he sent gifts to the King of Assyria, who agreed to his request, went up to Damascus, captured it, carried its inhabitants to Kir, and killed Rezin. But when "the Light of Israel and the Holy One of Carmel" shall consume the thorn and briar, and the King of Assyria flees with few, then, says the prophet, the remnant of Israel, who with Hezekiah their prince will be besieged in Jerusalem after the other cities of Judah are taken, will no longer trust in Assyria as they now do under King Ahaz, but, freed from that Assyrian scourge who was first a friend and then an enemy, will lean upon and trust in the Holy One of Israel, not falsely as under former kings, but in truth. This we read happened under Hezekiah, so that forsaking idols they turned to the worship of God. And because he said a remnant would be saved, he passes to later times and says their full salvation will come under Christ, as the Apostle here explains.
Romans 9:30–33: Righteousness by Faith and the Stumbling Stone
Rom 9:30–31: "What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness."
What then shall we say? What do we gather from those prophetic oracles? What follows, namely: That the Gentiles, who were ignorant of the justice of the Law and much more of the justice of Faith, and therefore did not strive for true justice by which man is pleasing and friendly to God, have attained true justice, which is given and received through faith in Christ the propitiator and mediator. But Israel, striving for the law of justice, for the most part did not attain to the justice commanded by the Law, even though they professed observance of the Law given to them by God.
Rom 9:32–33: "Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written: ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’"
Why did this happen? Because they sought it not by faith, but by works. They thought that external observance of the Law sufficed for attaining justice, and they despised faith in Christ. Therefore, they were not made partakers of the gift of faith, nor did they possess that justice which comes from the way of life based on it. For they pursued shadows, namely, legal ceremonies, of which our Apostle says: "The Law has a shadow of the good things to come," and they rejected the truth. Thus they did not attain to the law of justice, or the law of the Spirit of life, because they did not seek it by the proper way, namely, through faith in Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life, and who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification—that is, the author of justice and holiness.
They stumbled at the stone of stumbling. Against Christ, who is the cornerstone, foundational, approved, precious, called by the prophets, they struck as against a stone of offense. To those puffed up with carnal sense, He became an occasion of ruin because of His humility, the weakness of His flesh, and the cross. The metaphor is drawn from runners or travelers who, unawares, stumble over a stone they do not see on the path because of its smallness, and fall. As written by Isaiah the prophet: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense." I will place in Zion, that is, in Jerusalem, from which the preaching of the Gospel and the Church began, Christ, against whom the proud and unbelieving Jews will grievously strike and fall. "Stone of stumbling" and "rock of offense" mean the same thing; skandalon in Greek is offendiculum in Latin. Yet St. Thomas’s reverent exposition refers "stumbling" to ignorance, of which our Apostle says in 1 Corinthians 2: "If they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." And "offense" to the striking and fall by which they fell through unbelief, persecuting Christ and His apostles. Whence the same Apostle says in 1 Corinthians 1: "We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness." Compare Luke 2:34, where Christ is said by holy Simeon to be set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against.
"And whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame." Whoever believes in Him, whether Jew or Gentile, embracing His whole doctrine and ordering his life and morals according to it, will not fall from his hope, because he will obtain the eternal life promised by Him. In the Hebrew text of Isaiah it reads: "He who believes will not make haste." But the Seventy Interpreters, whose version the Apostle follows here to make the sense clearer, rendered it: "Whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame." The sense in both is the same. The prophet says "will not make haste," that is, there is no need to hurry, because he is certain he will receive what he hopes for, and therefore will not be covered with shame as if he had hoped in vain. In this sense our Apostle said earlier (Romans 5): "Hope does not disappoint." So St. Jerome explains Isaiah’s passage in his commentary: "He who believes will not be put to shame," or according to the Hebrew, "will not make haste," lest the coming of Christ seem slow to him. For if it tarries, according to Habakkuk, let no one despair, "for He who is coming will come and will not tarry, and will fulfill His promises."
MORAL COMMENTARY
Rom 9:1
I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit. To always speak the truth is a duty not only for Ministers of the Church, but for all Christians, who have three most truthful witnesses to their deeds, words, and thoughts: Christ, who is Truth; the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth; and conscience, which, informed by truth and marked by the light of the face of God, who is Truth, accuses whatever is contrary to His Law and truth. How unworthy it is for Christians, regenerated by the word of truth, to lie! By oath, truth may sometimes be confirmed, following the example of the Apostle, if necessity demands it and charity directs: “You shall swear: As the Lord lives, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness.” Cursed are those who, for earthly things or even to preserve mortal life, would make an oath innocuous to uphold a lie, which they cover over with equivocations and ambiguities of words, as if with certain leaves. And among them there are learned men who even devise rules and set boundaries for when one ought and ought not to swear falsely. O where are your fountains of tears? And what shall we do? Where shall we go? Where shall we hide ourselves from the wrath of Truth, if we not only neglect to avoid lies, but even dare to teach perjury?
Rom 9:2
Because I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. Carnal men grieve immoderately over trivial things, over the loss of temporal goods, over their own or their loved ones’ temporal misfortunes. Their sorrow, which springs from love of the world, works death. But spiritual men grieve chiefly over their own and others’ sins, as our Apostle does, who elsewhere says: “And I mourn for many of those who sinned previously and have not repented.” They grieve deeply that souls redeemed by Christ’s blood should perish. This sorrow is born of charity and works salvation. Such sorrow befits true Pastors, growing greater in proportion to the fervor of their love for God and neighbor. “I have great sorrow.” It does not pass swiftly like worldly sorrow, but endures as long as they see God offended and souls perishing, for whom Christ shed His blood. Hence Jeremiah says: “Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes, that I may weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people?” Animated by this charity, the Apostle grieved over the infidelity, blindness, reprobation, and ruin of the Israelites: “and unceasing anguish in my heart.” This sorrow is not slight or merely superficial, but rooted in the depths of the heart. “For my sighs are many, and my heart is sorrowful.”
Rom 9:3
For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh. The good Shepherd vows not only all temporal comforts, but even his holiest desires, for the glory of God and the salvation of his neighbor. To surrender, or even exchange, some path to his own salvation for so holy an end, under the guidance of God’s Spirit, is not to lose it, but to transform it. Nothing is more certain than what is offered up for charity. The way of charity, as it is more excellent, so it is more secure. He who is not willing to lose anything or endure any loss or damage for the salvation of souls is not a shepherd, but a hireling. The example of St. Paul will cover mercenary and cowardly shepherds with shame before men, and will condemn them before God. The former refuse to endure even possible, indeed the easiest things, to promote God’s glory and the salvation of souls; but he, driven by zeal for apostolic charity, wished not only to do and suffer the most difficult things, but even the impossible, for Christ and his brethren. He was so inflamed with the fire of Christ that, even if you brought immortal flames upon him, he would neither know, nor feel, nor be consumed by them. For far more vehement is the fire of Christ by which they are burned through love. Paul was not like us hirelings, who seek Christ’s kingdom out of fear of hell, but he, constrained by a far more excellent and blessed desire, bore all things so that from the sufferings he endured he received more consolations of his love than bodily pain. For the love of Christ had so bound his entire mind that he would willingly endure to lack even that which was dearer to him than all else—to be with Christ, because it would so please him and Christ—and even the kingdom of heaven, which seemed the reward of his labors; for Christ’s sake, he would suffer to be deprived of it, and even to be made anathema by Christ himself would be desirable for Christ’s sake. Lest this so generous affection of an apostolic heart seem incredible to you, consider that many parents have done such things for their children, preferring to see them flourish more, counting their glory and temporal happiness sweeter than their own company and presence. But because we are far from this love, we cannot even grasp these words in thought. “For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren.” I myself, the Master of all, who await infinite crowns, who so love Him that my love for Him is older to me than all things, I would wish, if it were possible, to be anathema from Christ for my brethren—that is, separated from heavenly glory, either perpetually (if it could be done while preserving my love for Christ and Christ’s love for me) or temporarily, provided that by that deprivation or delay of my beatitude I might cooperate in the salvation of my Israelite brethren and promote God’s glory. “For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren.” He is an imitator of apostolic charity who prefers to endure reproaches and hardships of every kind, even anathema or unjust excommunication by which he is cast out of the visible society of the Church, rather than betray the truth of the faith, the purity of Evangelical morality, or the most sacred discipline of the Church, established by Canons composed by the Spirit of God and consecrated by the reverence of the whole world, or abandon the defense of justice, whether the life, reputation, or goods of the innocent be brought into danger. It is an act of charity, I say, in such circumstances to bear unjust excommunication with a peaceful spirit, while preserving reverence for legitimate authority and the bond of ecclesiastical unity. “Divine providence often permits,” says St. Augustine, “that even good men be expelled from the Christian Congregation through the excessively turbulent seditions of carnal men.” When they have borne this insult or injury with utmost patience for the peace of the Church, and have contrived no innovations, schisms, or heresies, they will teach men with what true affection and sincerity God must be served. “These the Father, who sees in secret, will crown in secret.” This kind of virtue may seem rare, yet examples are not lacking; indeed, there are more than one might believe.
Rom 9:4–5
Who are the Israelites? Theirs is the adoption as sons, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; theirs are the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, is Christ. These privileges, honors, and ornaments belong far more excellently to the Christian Church than to the Synagogue. For the sons of the Church are the true Israelites according to the Spirit, born to new life and restored to the vision of God. Theirs is the adoption of sons in Christ Jesus, the only-begotten Son of God, in whom all the fullness of deity dwells bodily, in place of the glory of the Temple and the Ark; the New Testament in place of the old; the eternal covenant in place of the temporal; the Law of the Spirit of life in place of the ancient legislation and the letter that kills; the Gospel in place of the Law of Moses; worship in spirit and truth, and the Eucharist, which is the true body of Christ, in place of typological worship and external ceremonies; a heavenly inheritance in place of an earthly one; the fulfillment of the promises in place of figures and shadows of future blessings; the Father of Christians is not only the Patriarchs, but the one Father of all, God; and the brother according to the flesh of the Patriarchs is Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Hence our Apostle says elsewhere: “He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of one.” For which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying: “I will proclaim your name to my brethren; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.” Let us give thanks to God for so many and such great blessings, and take heed lest by abusing them we make ourselves unworthy of the heavenly inheritance, lest the kingdom of God be taken from us as it was taken from the Jews, and given to a nation producing its fruits.
Rom 9:6–8
Not that the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. In the saints, elected and predestined to eternal glory, who are the true Israelites, all of God’s promises are fulfilled. Of the children of Jacob according to the flesh, few are true Israelites. Of those initiated by baptism who are members of the Church militant, few are elect, few true Christians—that is, few with a faith worthy of its name in belief and conduct; few will be citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, where there will truly be the people of Israel, that is, “Seeing God,” for the desire of which reward a pious life through faith must be led in this sorrowful pilgrimage. Many brought out of Egypt crossed the sea, were fed with manna in the desert, yet did not reach the Promised Land. Many freed from sin by baptism, nourished in the desert of this life with the true manna, namely the body of Christ, do not see God in the Land of the living. They are members of the Church that pilgrim on earth, but by God’s predestination they are not members of the Church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven. To that little flock, to that blessed few of the saved, belong only those who enter through the narrow gate, who walk the strait way, which alone leads to life. God does not count among His sons in the book of life except Jesus Christ and those whom He elected and adopted in Him before the foundation of the world through His grace, that they might be His co-heirs. Just as among Abraham’s children, He counts none except Isaac and his descendants. For “not all who are of the seed of Abraham are children, but ‘In Isaac shall your seed be called.’” Only Isaac is worthy of the name of son—that is, he who, following Isaac’s example, is always most ready to obey God, who prefers God’s will even to his own life, who lives holily as a victim pleasing to God, who willingly carries the wood to the mountain where he is to be sacrificed to the Lord, who daily takes up his cross and follows Christ, destined to be crucified with Him on the mountain. Those alone, finally, are the sons of God promised and given by the Father to Christ Jesus, from whom none shall perish, who renounce carnal desires and exhibit throughout their lives the signs of divine election, namely Christian virtues and the fruits of good works. “For not all who are children of the flesh are children of God, but children of the promise are counted as offspring.”
Rom 9:9-10
For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” Isaac was born not according to the law of nature, nor according to the power of the flesh, from a decrepit father and an old, barren mother, but according to the power of the promise. Thus, the very word of promise formed and begot Isaac; the strength of the promise brought forth this son to Abraham. So too we are regenerated by the word of God in baptism. For God has begotten us voluntarily and by entirely gratuitous mercy by the word of truth, and has cleansed us by the washing of water through the word of life. Baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we are reborn. This, moreover, is not a generation of nature, but of God’s promise. For just as He both foretold and fulfilled the generation of Isaac, so He long beforehand foretold our regeneration in baptism through the Prophets, and later accomplished it: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your impurities; I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” This is daily fulfilled in those whom God has adopted as His sons in and through Christ. In that divine regeneration, the flesh accomplishes nothing; the entire work is of the Spirit. Just as God once granted fertility to old, barren Sarah, so He made the waters, inherently barren, fruitful by His word and Spirit, that they might generate us as a new creation in Christ, sons of God. From this let us learn what our true nobility is, and let us live a life worthy of it.
Rom 9:11–14
For though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God’s purpose of election might remain, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her: “The older will serve the younger,” as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” Let human merits be silent here. The gratuitous pre-dilection of the elect can no more be attributed to their own or their parents’ merits, or to preceding or foreseen good works, than the love of Jacob over Esau, born of one father and one mother, affected in the same way, conceived at the same time, and born in the same delivery, can be ascribed to their merits. The less we deserve, the more we belong to God. Our unworthiness is the foundation of Christian humility, so that we hold it as certain that we must glory in nothing, since nothing is truly our own. For what merit does man have before grace, by which merit could he receive grace, since every good merit of ours comes not from ourselves but from grace, and when God crowns our merits, does He crown anything but His own gifts? For just as from the beginning of faith we have obtained mercy, not because we were faithful, but that we might become so; so at the end, when eternal life will be ours, He will crown us, as it is written: “in tender mercy and compassion.” Therefore it is not in vain that we sing to God: “His mercy will prevent me, His mercy will follow me.” Hence even eternal life, which will be given at the end, and is therefore rendered to preceding merits, is nevertheless itself called grace, because those very merits by which it is rendered were not prepared by us, nor from our own sufficiency, but wrought in us by grace. It is called grace not because it is given without merits, but because the merits themselves by which it is given have been given to us. Wherever we find eternal life also called grace, we have the same defender of grace, the Apostle Paul: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The eternal and gratuitous love of God is the sole reason for the predestination of the saints, and why they are chosen above others. To these He bestows the good things He wills to love; in the reprobate, however, He finds evils which He has decreed to damn. Let us adore God’s goodness and love, fear His just judgments, but let us not presume to scrutinize them with proud curiosity. For the Christian who still lives by faith and does not yet see what is perfect, but knows only in part, let it be enough meanwhile to know or believe that God delivers no one except by gratuitous mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ, and condemns no one except by most equitable justice through the same Lord Jesus Christ. As for why He delivers one rather than another, or does not deliver him, let him who can fathom the immense depth of His judgments investigate it, yet let him beware of the precipice. “Is there unrighteousness with God? By no means!" For His judgments are unsearchable and His ways past finding out.
Rom 9:15–16
For He says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will show compassion on whom I show compassion.” There is in us no foundation for divine graces, but in God’s mercy alone; nor is there any reason for mercy, save the will of Him who shows mercy. Why then do we trust in our own will, which of itself is weak, infirm, and inconstant? Why in our efforts, whose trust is presumption and pride, the enemy of grace? Why in merits, when at the root of nature there is nothing but poverty and unworthiness? Therefore, “it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who shows mercy.” Let us beg His mercy with humble, fervent, and persevering prayer, as if everything depended on Him, who works in us both to will and to accomplish; yet let us work good, let us run in the way of God’s commandments, as if everything depended on us. Let us thus run toward the prize of eternal life proposed to us by God through good works, that we may one day lay hold of it and attain it. Let us not glory in ourselves if we do anything good, since it does not originate from us. Our freedom, both for good and for evil, remains intact; but while it suffices for evil, it does not suffice for good unless aided by the Almighty Good. Hence St. Prosper says:
“Yet when we direct our minds to holy deeds,
When the chaste mind resists the flesh’s desires,
When we do not yield to the tempter, and though harassed
By bitter pains, remain with unharmed heart,
We act by freedom, but by redeemed freedom,
Whose guide is God, and from the highest light, the light,
Life, salvation, strength, wisdom, is the Grace of Christ.
By it one runs, rejoices, endures, guards, chooses, presses on,
Believes, hopes, loves, is cleansed, is justified.
For if we do anything right, Lord, we do it with Your help;
You move the heart, You grant the petitioner’s desires,
What You will to give, You bestow, preserving, bestowing, creating,
From merits, merits, and crowning Your gifts with crowns.
Nor should it be thought that this lessens care or dissolves
The effort of virtues, or that the work of the mind grows dull,
Because the good of the saints is Yours, and whatever in them
Is healthy or strong, thrives by You, so that
The human will, accomplishing nothing while You govern all,
What does it do without You, except wander far from You?
It would ever take steep and crooked paths by its own motion,
Unless You, Good One, take up the weary and sick,
Restore, cherish, protect, and honor them.
Then the race will be swift, the eyes seeing,
Freedom truly free, wisdom wise, judgment just,
Virtue strong, and capacity sound.”
Rom 9:17
For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Pharaoh is a type of the reprobate. Riches, dignities, honors, and prosperity, though gifts of God, are often given to the reprobate and usually withheld from the elect. Let no Christian magnify them, let no one desire them, and let no one who is granted them not tremble, lest perhaps he be numbered among the reprobate. Let him beware lest he abuse these temporal benefits to his own hardening and destruction. Let him not think himself secure about the impunity of his sins because God does not punish him in this present age. God endures him, gives him time for repentance, which he abuses to heap up the measure of his crimes. God gave him room for repentance, and he abuses it in pride. Therefore God reserves the wicked for the day of evil, that He might show His power in him. Sometimes also in this present age He shows it through temporal punishments, which are preludes to eternal ones. God uses the malice of the wicked for the end of His glory, for the exercise and progress of the good: that, knowing the hardening of the wicked, they may humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, be grateful in spirit for His grace, remain faithful to Him, acknowledge His supreme power, and praise Him. Let them confess that just as God is the best Creator of good natures, so He is the most just Orderer of evil wills, so that while they make evil use of good natures, He makes good use even of evil wills. Show in me the riches of Your goodness and mercy rather than the power of Your anger, my God. I owe to Your patience that I am not consumed. Spare me, O Lord; correct me, but truly in judgment and not in Your fury, lest You reduce me to nothing. Correct me as a son, do not destroy me as an enemy. Save me according to Your mercy.
Rom 9:18–20
So then “He has mercy on whom He wills, and He hardens whom He wills.” He is the supreme Lord and dispenser of His graces. That He shows mercy is pure liberality; that He withholds it is just judgment. We seek the merit of election and find none except in Christ Jesus. We seek the merit of hardening and find it in ourselves. Let this therefore be fixed and immovable in a sober mind, pious and stable in faith: that there is no unrighteousness with God. And let it be held most tenaciously and humbly that this very thing—that God “has mercy on whom He wills, and hardens whom He wills,” that is, shows mercy to whom He wills and withholds mercy from whom He wills—belongs to a certain hidden equity, unfathomable to human measure, which must be observed even in human and earthly contracts. For unless we held to certain imprints of heavenly justice, our weak intention would never dare to gaze into the innermost, most holy and pure chamber of our spiritual precepts. Therefore, since human society is bound together by giving and receiving, and what is given and received is either owed or not owed, who does not see that no one can be accused of injustice who demands what is owed to him, nor certainly he who chooses to forgive what is owed to him? This, however, depends not on the will of the debtors, but on the one to whom the debt is owed. All men are therefore debtors, since, as the Apostle says, “In Adam all die,” from whom the origin of offense is drawn into the whole human race: one certain mass of sin, owing punishment to divine and supreme justice. Whether this be exacted or forgiven, there is no unrighteousness. But as to from whom it should be exacted and to whom it should be forgiven, the debtors arrogantly judge, just as those hired into the vineyard were unjustly indignant when the same amount was given to others as to them. Therefore the Apostle rebuts the impudence of this question thus: “O man, who are you to answer back to God?” For thus does one answer back to God, when he is displeased that God complains about sinners, as if God compelled anyone to sin, merely because He does not grant the mercy of justification to certain sinners, and is said on this account to harden certain sinners because He does not show them mercy, not because He drives them to sin. Moreover, He does not show mercy to those whom He judges by a most hidden equity, far removed from human senses, ought not to receive mercy. For “His judgments are unsearchable and His ways past finding out.” Let no one therefore murmur against God and say: “Why does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?” For He justly complains about sinners, as about those whom He Himself does not compel to sin. At the same time, He wills that those to whom He shows mercy may also have this calling: that while God complains about sinners, they may be pricked in heart and turn to His grace. He therefore complains justly and mercifully. But if this troubles you—that no one resists His will, because He helps whom He wills and abandons whom He wills, since both he whom He helps and he whom He abandons are from the same mass of sinners, and although both deserve punishment, yet from one it is exacted and to the other it is forgiven—if this troubles you, “O man, who are you to answer back to God?” Let only this be held by unshaken faith: that there is no unrighteousness with God, who whether He forgives or exacts a debt, neither he from whom it is exacted can rightly complain of His unrighteousness, nor he to whom it is forgiven ought to glory in his own merits. For the former receives nothing but what is owed, and the latter has nothing but what he has received.
Rom 9:21
Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable? How does God, who hates nothing that He has made, hate Esau, whom He Himself made a vessel for dishonor? St. Augustine replies: God does not hate Esau the man, but hates Esau the sinner. Just as it is said of the Lord: “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.” To whom He also says: “You do not hear, because you are not of God.” How are they His, and how are they not of God? Unless this is said of men whom the Lord Himself made, and that of sinners whom the Lord Himself rebuked. The same persons are both men and sinners, but men by God’s creation, sinners by their own will. What then of Jacob, whom He loved—was he not a sinner? But He loved in him not the guilt which He blotted out, but the grace which He bestowed. For Christ died for the ungodly, not that they might remain ungodly, but that, justified from ungodliness, they might be converted, believing in Him who justifies the ungodly. For God hates ungodliness. Therefore in some He punishes it through damnation, in others He removes it through justification, as He judges it must be done by His unsearchable judgments. And that from the number of the ungodly, whom He does not justify, He makes vessels for dishonor, He does not hate in them what He makes. Indeed, insofar as they are ungodly, they are abominable; but insofar as they become vessels, they are made for some use, that through their ordered punishments, vessels made for honor might profit. God therefore hates them neither insofar as they are men, nor insofar as they are vessels—that is, neither what He makes in them by creating, nor what He makes in them by ordering. For He hates nothing that He has made. Yet He makes them vessels of destruction for the use of correcting others. For He hates in them the ungodliness which He Himself did not make. Just as a judge hates theft in a man, but does not hate what is handed over to the mines (for the former is the thief’s act, the latter the judge’s), so God, who makes vessels of destruction from the mixture of the ungodly, does not hate what He makes—that is, the work of His ordering in the deserved punishment of the perishing, in which occasion of salvation those whom He shows mercy may find. Let us humbly adore the supreme goodness of God, who mercifully saves those He could justly damn. But let us not presume to scrutinize His incomprehensible judgments with reckless curiosity. The works of the Creator must always be venerated without question, because they can by no means be unjust. For to seek a reason for His hidden counsel is nothing else than to pridefully rebel against His counsel. When therefore the cause of His deeds is not discovered, it remains that we keep silent humbly beneath His works, because “the sense of the flesh is not sufficient to penetrate the secrets of Majesty.” Whoever therefore does not see the reason in God’s works, considering his own weakness, sees why he does not see the reason. For inasmuch as he perceives himself to be the creature of divine work, he rebukes himself, lest he kick against the hand of the Worker, since He who benignly made what was not, does not unjustly abandon what is. Let the mind therefore return to itself, and not seek what it cannot grasp, lest if the cause of divine anger is scrutinized, it be provoked more deeply by the scrutiny, and pride kindle inextinguishably what humility could have appeased. God from the same mass of perdition, which flowed from Adam’s stock, makes one vessel for honor, another for dishonor: for honor through mercy, for dishonor through judgment, that no one may glory in man, and consequently not in himself.
Rom (22–23
What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory? All punishments of the reprobate are also ordered to God’s glory and the salvation of the elect. They make known God’s wrath and simultaneously His holiness, to which sin is infinitely opposed; therefore He arms Himself against it and does not permit it to go unpunished. Second, in the punishment of the reprobate He shows His power, which makes good use of evils and brings them back into order, showing more severe deviations from order and more horrendous monsters of perversity and disorder. Third, He shows the riches of His glory and goodness in the elect, whom He mercifully delivers from the same mass of perdition in which they were commonly involved with the reprobate, and chooses them for the possession of His kingdom. Fourth, He shows His patience in enduring and tolerating the reprobate, which is certainly greater than His severity. He endures with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. What profit is it to vessels perfectly destined for perdition that God patiently endures them, that He might orderly destroy them and use them as instruments for the salvation of others to whom He shows mercy? But it certainly profits those for whose salvation He thus uses them, that, as it is written, “the righteous washes his hands in the blood of the sinner,” that is, is cleansed from evil works through the fear of God when he sees the punishments of sinners. Therefore, what God, desiring to show His wrath, endured with much patience in vessels of wrath, serves to impart useful fear to others, and “to make known the riches of His glory in vessels of mercy, which He prepared for glory.” Indeed, that hardening of the impious demonstrates both: what is to be feared, that each may be converted to God in piety, and what great thanks are due to God’s mercy, who in the punishment of others shows what He gives to others. If however that punishment which He exacts from others is not just, He gives nothing to others from whom He does not exact it. But because it is just, and there is no unrighteousness with God the Avenger, who is sufficient to give thanks to Him who remits this, which if He willed to exact, no one could rightly say he did not owe it? Let us therefore give thanks to the Savior, while we see that it is not returned to us, which we recognize was also due to us in the condemnation of our fellows. For if every man were delivered, it would certainly be hidden what is owed to sin by justice; if no one, what grace bestows.
Rom 9:24–26
Even us whom He has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? As He says in Hosea… He confirms the gratuitous predestination of the saints by the example of the Gentiles, some of whom were called to the faith of the Gospel without any merits, while others were left in the darkness of unbelief, though all were equally sinners. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God, who called us into His marvelous light from those alienated from the truth of God because of the ignorance that was in them. We must faithfully respond to the grace of our calling, persevering in good works worthy of a holy calling, since in Christians it is not beginnings that are crowned, but the end. Let us be cooperators with the grace of God which works in us. Let us run that way which the Lord Himself testified to be: who provided for us by sacrament and by example, that without any merit of works, He might raise those called to adoption to salvation through the former, and train them to labor through the latter. The Prophet and the Apostle commend three effects of divine mercy in the elect: 1. He calls them, guides them, and leads them by the hand as a people, the incorruptible inheritance of our Lord, acquired by the precious blood of His Son Jesus Christ. “I will call them ‘My people’ who are not My people,” and “her who was not beloved, ‘Beloved.’” Hence our Apostle says elsewhere: “He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession.” 2. He reveals His truth and secrets to them as to a beloved bride, and “not beloved, beloved.” Hence the Apostle again says: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” 3. God gives Himself to His elect as an inheritance, as a father to his sons. “And in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” Moreover, to the sons, pure and spotless, God Himself is prepared as the eternal object of enjoyment by His gratuitous mercy, and “not obtained mercy, obtained mercy.” That is, the glorification of the elect is the consummation of God’s mercy toward them. Let us be subject and obedient to God in all things as His people. Let us keep faith and show love to Him as His bride. Let us always have a grateful spirit and pious confidence in Him as His sons. Let us fear and beware lest by our sins and rebellion against His command and most holy law we be blotted out from His people, and He say to us, “You are not My people.” Let us fear and beware lest by our unfaithfulness and attachment to creatures we deserve to be rejected by Him and hear that terrible voice on the day of judgment: “I do not know you.” Let us fear and beware lest by the vice of an ungrateful spirit and degenerate conduct we deserve to be excluded from the inheritance of the best and most loving Father, which He has prepared for those who love Him and persevere in His love to the end. Let us beware lest God justly complain of us also, saying: “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.”
Rom 9:27–28
And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant will be saved.” The fewness of the elect in the people of Israel, whom God chose as His special possession, ought to strike fear into Christians. He has worked greater wonders for our grace than for that of the Jews; He has bestowed more signal blessings upon us. “He has not dealt thus with any nation, and His ordinances they have not known.” Yet we ought not on this account to be secure about our election to glory. The number of Christians is great, far greater than that of the Israelites, and yet few will be saved. “For many are called, but few are chosen.” Who does not tremble? But however small the number of the elect, to none of those whom He excludes from that number is He unjust. “For the word that He speaks will be finished and shortened in righteousness.” These, I say, who do not belong to this most certain and most happy number of the predestined, are judged according to their merits. For either they lie under the sin which they drew by original generation, or they depart with that hereditary debt, which has not been remitted by regeneration, or by free will they have added further sins—free will, I say, but not freed; free for justice, but a slave to sin, by which they are rolled into various harmful desires, some more, some less, but all evil, and according to their diversity are to be judged with diverse punishments. Or they receive God’s grace but are temporal and do not persevere; they abandon, they are abandoned. For they are left to free will, not having received the gift of perseverance, by God’s just and hidden judgment. Moreover, the elect are brought to salvation by the accurate observance of the Gospel, which is a word “finishing and shortening,” that is, perfect and abbreviated. For in place of all the ceremonies of the Law, it gives the briefest precept of love and faith, and that we not do to another what we would not have done to ourselves. Hence the Lord says: “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Rom 9:29
And as Isaiah foretold: “If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah.” That not all perish as in Sodom and Gomorrah is not due to their merit, but to the grace of God, who leaves a seed from which a harvest of good works may arise. The sin of the Jews was graver than that of the Sodomites. Hence the Lord says through the Prophet: “And the iniquity of the daughter of My people is greater than the sin of Sodom.” The sins of Christians are graver than the sins of the Jews, because they are ungrateful for greater benefits of God. Therefore it must be attributed solely to God’s mercy that we are not exterminated like the Sodomites, nor abandoned like the Jews. “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed.”
Rom 9:30–31
What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because it was not by faith, but as it were by works. No sinner is such that he cannot be saved if he abandons sin and flees to Christ Jesus as to the fountain of all righteousness and author of salvation with living faith and penitent love. No one is so just and full of good works that he cannot perish if he trusts in himself and in his own works. To pursue the law of righteousness merely outwardly, to avoid sin out of fear of punishment and not out of love of justice, to trust in superficial devotions and merely external works of piety, while lacking the spirit of the Gospel, namely charity—this is Jewish. Those who are so affected are Christians in name only, Jews in spirit; they do not attain to true righteousness, which is of faith working through love; they do not belong to the new people of God, of whom it is written by the Prophet: “My people, My law is in their hearts.”
Rom 9:32–33
For they stumbled over the stumbling stone. As it is written: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense.” Those are accustomed to stumble who turn their mind elsewhere and refuse to look at the path. This happened to the Jews. Walking in the way of legal ceremonies, they did not attend to Christ, whom those ceremonies signified. They were blinded by their pride, so that they did not see with the eyes of faith Him whom the Law and Prophets foretold and proclaimed by manifold figures and oracles. Woe to worldly and carnal men, to whom Christ is a stone of offense, because they refuse to look to Christ made humble for us, and to follow His way of humility.
CONTINUE
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