Interpretation of the Epistle to the Romans

Head 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 PREFACE TO THE EPISTLE OF THE ROMANS 1 Constant reading of the divine Scriptures leads to their knowledge, because He is not false who said: Seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you (Matthew 7:7). And we will learn the secrets of the Epistles of the Holy Apostle Paul if we read those Epistles steadily and carefully. With his words of instruction, the apostle Paul surpassed all others. It is just, because he made the most effort of all and received the most abundant grace of the Spirit. This can be seen not only from his Epistles, but also from the Acts of the Apostles, where it is said that because of the perfection of his words, they considered him to be Hermes. The Epistle to the Romans is presented to us first, but not because it was supposedly written before the others. Thus, both Epistles to the Corinthians were written before the Epistle to the Romans, and before the Epistle to the Corinthians the Epistle to the Thessalonians, where the apostle Paul praises the alms sent to Jerusalem (see 1 Thess. 4:9-10, cf. 2 Cor. 9:2). Besides, the Epistle to the Galatians was written before the Epistle to the Romans. Regardless, I say that the Epistle to the Romans is the first among the other Epistles. Why did she get first place? Because chronological order is not necessary in the Holy Scriptures. Likewise, the twelve prophets, if we consider them in the order in which they are in a series of sacred books, do not follow one another in time, but are separated by long periods. On the one hand, Paul writes to the Romans because he had the duty to serve Christ, and on the other hand, because the Romans were the elders of the universe in their own way: what benefits the head also benefits the rest of the body. Neither Moses, nor many after him, nor even the evangelists, put their names in front of their writings. The apostle Paul, however, places his name before each of his epistles. He did this because they (prophets and evangelists) wrote for those who lived together with them, while he sent his writings from afar and, according to custom, fulfilled the rule by which epistles are distinguished. He did not act like that only in the Epistle to the Hebrews, because they hated him. In order that it might not happen that, as soon as they heard his name, they stopped listening to him, he withheld his name at the beginning. And why was he named Paul instead of Saul? So that in this respect he would not be inferior to the supreme among the apostles, who was called Cephas, which means stone (Peter, Jn. 1:42) or the sons of Zebedee called Woanerges, that is, sons of thunder (Mk. 3:17). Serving takes many forms. There is a service according to creation which is spoken of in Ps, 118; 91. Cultivate also service through faith, about which it was said: You obeyed from the heart the rule of science to which you surrendered ( Rom. 16:17 ). Finally, there is service according to the way of life, and in this sense Moses was called the servant of God (cf. Isaiah 1:12). Paul is a "servant" in all these ways. He recites the names of the Lord from the incarnation, descending from the lower to the higher, because the names are Jesus and Christ, i.e. The anointed of the name after the incarnation. He is not anointed with oil, but with the Holy Spirit, which is, of course, incomparably superior to oil. Regarding the fact that the anointing can be perfected even without oil, listen to the following: Do not touch My anointed ones (Ps. 104:15), because before the law there was neither a concept nor a name for oil anointing. Invited. This word signifies a calm mind, because it shows that he (the apostle) did not seek and find himself, but that he was called. He used that word to distinguish it from other titles. All who believe are called. However, they were called only because they would believe, and I, he says, was also entrusted with the apostleship, which was also entrusted to Christ when the Father sent Him. Chosen for the gospel of God In other words, chosen to serve the Gospel. Chosen is said instead of: destined for it, as God also said to Jeremiah: Before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you (Jer. 1:5). Paul himself says in one place: And when it pleases God, who chose me from my mother's womb (Gal. 1:15). Paul did not say in vain: chosen for the gospel of God. Since his word was addressed to the glory-loving, he intimates that, as sent from heaven, he is worthy of faith. Only the "gospel" ie. "Gospel" is called that not only because of the received but also because of the future goods. With the name "gospel" ie. The "good news" immediately comforts the listener, because the "good news" does not contain something sad, like the prophecies of the prophets, but a treasure of immeasurable goods. That good news is the good news of God, i.e. Father. Because it was given by Him and because it reveals Him. He also revealed himself in the Old Testament, although only to the Jews, but he was also unknown to them as the Father. Only later did he reveal himself to the whole universe, together with the Son, through the Gospel. 2. Which he promised in advance through the prophet Since this sermon was criticized as an innovation, it shows that it is older than Yelin (ie, polytheism) and that it was already described in the prophets. The word "good news" is also found in David, who says: The Lord will give word to those who bring good news with great power (Ps. 67:12), as well as in Isaiah: How beautiful are the feet of the good news on the mountains, who proclaims peace (Isa. 52:7). The prophets did not only speak, but also wrote, and depicted with actions, for example: Abraham through Isaac, and Moses through the snake, raising his hands and shielding the lamb. When God is preparing something great, He foretells it long in advance. Therefore, when He (Christ) says that many prophets wanted to see what you see and did not see (cf. Matthew 13:17), he expresses that they did not see His body only and therefore, he says, they did not even see the signs that were being completed before their eyes. 3. About His Son, who was born in the flesh from the seed of David. Here it clearly indicates two births, because through the words: about the Son of God, it indicates a higher birth, and through the expression: from the seed of David, it indicates an earthly birth. By adding the words: according to the flesh, he showed that the birth according to the Spirit also belongs to Him. That is why it is not the gospel, that is. the good news about an ordinary man, but (the gospel) about the Son of God, and not only about God, but about the One born of the seed of David according to the flesh, because He is both, i.e. and the Son of God and the Son of David. Finally, let Nestorius 2 be ashamed of it. The apostle also mentions His birth in the flesh, as did the three evangelists, in order to lift the listener from it (birth in the flesh) to a higher birth. That is how the Lord Himself was first seen as a man, and then they recognized Him as God. 4. Who was revealed in power by the Holy Spirit for the Son of God by resurrection from the dead. He previously said: about His Son, and now he proves that they also (re)knew Him as the Son of God, and says that He was revealed, that is, shown, confirmed and recognized; publication is only recognition, confirmation and decision. Everyone acknowledged and decided that He is the Son of God. How is that? In force, that is. through the power of the signs (signs) that he created, and that through the Holy Spirit with which he sanctified the believers, because it is characteristic of God to bestow this. Also by resurrection from the dead, because He was the first to be resurrected and at the same time He Himself was resurrected. Therefore, through the resurrection, he was recognized and confirmed as the Son of God, because that is also a great work, as he himself says: When you raise the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he (Jn. 8:28). 5. Through whom we received grace and apostleship, to bring us to the obedience of faith for His Name's sake. Note the recognition. Nothing says, it is not ours, but we received everything through the Son. I received grace and apostleship through the Spirit. He will teach you, says the Lord. And the Spirit says: Separate Paul and Barnabas from me (Acts 13:2) and through the Spirit the word of wisdom is given (1Cor.12:8). What does that mean? It means that what belongs to the Spirit also belongs to the Son, and vice versa. He says, we received grace and apostleship, that is, we did not become apostles according to our own merits, but by grace from heaven. And persuasion, however, is a work of grace, because the apostolic work (apostolic task) was to go and preach, while the persuasion of the listeners belongs entirely to God. In obedience to faith. We, he says, were not sent to argue, nor to examine and prove, but to bring obedience to the faith, so that those who were taught would listen, believing without any contradiction. We received the grace to bring all peoples to the obedience of faith, i.e. not I, but also the other apostles. Paul did not visit all nations. Someone will say that, if he did not do it during his life, after his death he visits all nations through the epistles. They would believe by hearing about the name of Christ, not about His essence. Namely, miracles were perfected by the name of Christ: and it only requires faith, because it cannot be understood by the mind either. Look at the gift of the gospel: it was not given to one nation, like the Old Testament, but to all nations. 6. Among whom you are the invitees of Jesus Christ. This is where the pride of the Romans crumbles. You have received nothing more than other peoples, whose masters you consider yourself to be. As I preach to other nations, so I preach to you: do not be arrogant. In other words, you too were called, forewarned of grace, and you did not come alone. 7. To all who are in Rome, loved by God. He did not simply say: to all who are in Rome, but: to the beloved of God. How can it be seen that they are kissing? On the basis of sanctification, he calls all believers saints. He added: to the invited, rooting in the memory of the Romans the benevolence of God, and although among them there are also consuls and prefects, it shows that God called everyone with the same call, with which he called the common people, equally loving and sanctifying them. Therefore, since you are equally loved, and called, and sanctified, do not exalt yourself over the worthless. The Lord commanded the apostles to say these words first when they entered homes. The battle, which Christ ended, and which sin gave birth to for us against God, was not an easy one. That peace was not obtained by our efforts, but by the grace of God. So, first grace and then peace. The apostle prays for the continuous and inviolable living of these two goods so that, if we fall into sin again, a new battle will flare up. From God, our Father and Lord Jesus Christ Oh, how the almighty grace flowed from the love of God! To the enemies and humiliated, God Himself became our Father! Therefore, from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, may you have unshakable grace and peace. They gave them away, and they can keep them. First, therefore, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, that your faith is being talked about all over the world A performance that befits Paul's soul! He also teaches us to thank God, not only for our own goods, but also for the goods of our neighbors. This is what love consists of: not giving thanks for earthly and perishable things, but for what the Romans believed. In words: He shows his God the disposition of his spirit at that time, appropriating a common God for himself, as the prophets and even God Himself do, calling Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in order to show His love for them in this way. Give thanks, he says, through Jesus Christ, because He is the representative of our gratitude to the Father. He not only taught us to give thanks, but also to offer our thanks to the Father. What should we give thanks for? Because the faith of the Romans is being talked about all over the world. Before them, he testifies to two things: both that they believed, and that they believed with complete conviction, because their faith is talked about all over the world and through them all who are burning with the desire to compete with the imperial city and to imitate it benefit. And Peter preached in Rome, but Paul, considering his effort to be the same as his, thanked for the faith of those whom Peter taught, so Paul was free from envy! 9. Because God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that I remember you without ceasing, always praying to God. Since Paul had not yet met the Romans, and he wanted to say that he always mentions them, he calls the One who knows hearts as a witness. Note the nobleness of the apostle: he always mentions people whom he has not even seen. Where does he mention them? In prayers, and constantly. I serve God, that is. I serve Him with my spirit, which means that I do not serve Him with physical service but with spiritual service. Namely, heathen service is carnal and false. Jewish service, while not false, is also carnal. Christian service is true and spiritual, which is what the Lord said to the Samaritan woman: True worshipers will worship God in spirit and in truth (Jn. 4; 23). Since God can be served in many ways (some serve God by organizing their actions, some by taking care of strangers and providing for widows, as did Stephen's fellow ministers, and some by serving with words), the apostle says: God whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son. Previously, he attributed the gospel to the Father, but that is nothing strange because the Father's belongs to the Son and the Son's belongs to the Father. By saying this, he proves that this care is necessary for him, because he, who is entrusted to serve the gospel, needs to take care of all who have accepted the word. 10. Always praying to God in my prayers that someday, by God's will, I would be able to come to you. Now he adds why he mentions them. Let me come, he says, to you. Pay attention: no matter how much he loves them and how much he wants to see them, he does not want to visit them against the will of God. However, we either do not love anyone or, when we love, we do everything against the will of God. The fact that Paul constantly prayed to see them and that stemmed from his great love for them, as well as the fact that he obeyed God's decision, was a sign of his great piety. Neither will we grieve if we do not receive what we ask for in our prayers. We are no better than Paul, who begged three times to be delivered from the sting in the body, and did not get what he wanted (2Cor.12:7-9), because it was not useful for him. 11. Because I fervently want to see you, to give you some spiritual gift. Others, he says, undertake long journeys for different purposes, and I do so in order to give you a gift. Some say because of modesty, because he did not say: I am going to teach you, but: I am going to hand over to you what I have received, and that little and in proportion to my spiritual powers. Namely, although teaching is a good deed, our good deeds are also gifts, because they also need help from heaven. For your fortification, 12. That is, to be comforted there with you by a common faith, both yours and mine In a hidden way he gives them to understand that the Romans need to improve in a big way. Since that was also said very strongly (because the Romans could have said: what are you saying? Do we waver and float, and do we need you to establish ourselves?), he adds: that is, to be comforted here with you. The meaning is this: you suffer many oppressions, and therefore I want to see you in order to console you to some extent or, rather, to console myself. It requires mutual benefit. It was necessary for the believers of that time, who lived as if in captivity, to go to each other, and thus they comforted each other immensely. Does this mean that Paul also needed their help? Not in the least, because he is a pillar of the Church. On the contrary, in order not to express himself harshly and, as we said, not to exasperate them, he said that he needed their consolation. If someone says that in that case the apostle was happy about the growth of faith among the Romans, then such a word will also be good; it can also be seen from the apostle's words: common faith, both yours and mine. In that case, the thought will be this: I too, seeing your faith, will be comforted and rejoiced, and you will be established by my faith, having received comfort in what you may be wavering about due to discouragement. However, he does not say it openly, but skillfully implies it. 13. But I will not deny you, brothers, that I intended to come to you many times... but I was prevented until now. He had previously said that he was praying to come to them and some probably thought: if you pray and want to comfort us and get comfort yourself, then what is stopping you from coming? That is why he added: I encountered obstacles from God. Pay attention to the fact that the apostle is not inquisitive and does not question why he encountered obstacles, but obeys the Bishop's commands, teaching us also not to question the works of God. He, therefore, proves that the cause of his not coming to them is not contempt or negligence. He says, I love you so much that, even though I encounter obstacles, I do not give up my intention, but, on the contrary, I constantly strive to come to you. That I have some fruit among you, as well as among other Gentiles Rome was a famous city, to which everyone flocked as if it were a city rich in strangeness and magnificent. Lest anyone think that Paul wanted to see the Romans for that reason, he says: I fervently want to come to you, so that I may have some fruit among you. At the same time, it cancels another suspicion, because someone could say: you encountered obstacles because you wanted to come against the will of God. He does not say: to instruct you in the faith and to teach you, but he expresses himself modestly: in order to have some fruit, as he said before: to give you some gift. At the same time, he also limits them, saying: as well as among other Gentiles. Do not think, he says, that you are better than other nations because you rule; you are all standing in the same line. 14. I am indebted to Jelins and barbarians, both wise and foolish. 15. Hence my desire to preach the gospel to you, who are in Rome. And this is a work of modesty. He says, I am not showing you some mercy, but I am fulfilling the Bishop's command. You are obliged to give thanks to God, because He does good deeds and I am also obliged. He said the same to the Corinthians: Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel (1 Cor. 9:16). That is why I am ready to preach to you too, even if there are dangers before my eyes. Such was his zeal in Christ! 16. Because I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. The Romans were too attached to worldly glory, while Paul was to preach Jesus, Who suffered every deprivation of glory, and it was natural that the Romans should be ashamed that such was the Savior. That is why he says: I am not ashamed, because he was not only not ashamed of the Crucified One, but also boasted and was proud of Him. Besides, as they have become too proud of their wisdom, I, he says, am going to preach the cross, and I am not ashamed of it, because it is the power of God for salvation. There is the power of God to punish, and God proved His power to the Egyptians by punishing them. There is also the power of destruction, as it is said: Fear him who can destroy in hell (cf. Mt. 10:28). Therefore, what I preach, Paul, contains neither punishment nor destruction, but salvation. To whom? To everyone who believes. The gospel (evangelion, gospel), namely, does not simply serve the salvation of all, but those who accept it. And first of all to Judej and Jelin Here the word "first" denotes precedence in order, not preeminence in grace, because the Jew should not be assumed to be more justified. He only deigned to receive justification first, which is why the word "first" only expresses priority in the order of preaching. 17. Because in Him the justice of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written: And the righteous will live by faith.. By saying that grace is unto salvation, he explains how it is unto salvation. God's justice, not ours, saves us, he says. What justice can we have, cursed in deeds and corrupted? However, God justified us, not because of works but because of faith, which should grow into greater and greater faith. It is not enough to believe in the beginning, but we should rise from the original faith to a more perfect faith, i.e. into a solid and unshakable state, as the apostles said to the Lord: Give us faith (Lk. 17; 5)! What was said, ie. that we are saved by God's justice is confirmed by the words of Habakkuk's prophecy: The righteous, he says, will live by faith. Since what God has given us surpasses all human thought, we justly need faith, because if we were to start investigating all the works of God, we would lose everything. 18. Because the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice of people who hold the truth in injustice Starting with what brings greater good and saying that the justice of God is revealed through the gospel, he now uses expressions that can intimidate, because he knew that fear attracts most people to virtue. That's how the Lord Jesus, speaking about the Kingdom, speaks about genea. And the prophets first utter promises and then threats. The first is a work of God's will that precedes, and the second is a consequence of our negligence. Pay attention to the word order. Christ came, he says, and brought you justification and forgiveness. If you do not accept them, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven, obviously - at the time of the Second Coming. And now we experience the wrath of God, but for the sake of our correction, and then - only for the sake of punishment. And now in many things we think we see an insult from people, and then it will be clear that the punishment for all impiety comes from God. True service and worship is one, while ungodliness is manifold, which is why he said: all ungodliness, because it has many ways, and the injustice of men. Godlessness and injustice are not the same thing. The first is against God and the second against people; while the first is a thought (theoretical) and the second is an active (practical) sin. And injustice has many ways, because someone can offend a neighbor in many ways - either in terms of property, or in terms of a woman, or in terms of honor. After all, some claim that Paul also means teaching by injustice. Now listen to what it means: who hold the truth in unrighteousness. The truth or knowledge about God is placed in people at their very birth. However, the Gentiles suppressed that truth and knowledge with injustice, i.e. they insulted her, going against what was handed down to them and attributing the glory of God to idols. Imagine a man who received money to spend it on the glory of the emperor; if he were to spend it on thieves and harlots, it would justly be said that he had insulted the glory of the emperor. That is how the Gentiles oppressed with injustice, that is. hid and unjustly darkened the glory of God and the knowledge of Him, using them as they should not have been used. 19. Because what can be known about God is known to them, because God revealed it to them. 20. Because what is invisible in Him, from the creation of the world with the mind is clearly seen by creatures, His eternal power and divinity, so that they have no excuse. 21. Because when they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor did they thank Him. He had previously said that the Gentiles had insulted the knowledge of God by using it as it should not. Whence it is seen that they had this knowledge, say now: Because what can be known about God is known to them. Then he also proves it, saying that the harmony of creation proclaims the good news about the Creator, as David also says: The heavens declare the glory of God (Ps. 18:1). And what can actually be known about God, find out from the following. Something cannot be known about God, and that is His essence. Something, however, can be known, and that is everything that relates to His essence, that is, goodness, wisdom, power, divinity or greatness. Paul called it invisible in Him, and it can be known through the consideration of the visible creation. In this way, the apostle showed the Gentiles what can be known about God, ie. everything that concerns His essence, which is invisible to the eyes of the senses, but can be known by the mind on the basis of the harmony of creation. Some here mean angels by invisible. However, such an interpretation is incorrect in my opinion. One of St. The Fathers say that the eternal power is the Son, and the divinity is the Holy Spirit. That they have no excuse. That's how it turned out in action. God did not create the world so that they would have no excuse, but that is how it was shown in action. Note that peculiarity of the Scriptures and do not criticize it. Such expressions are encountered in many places in Scripture, for the explanation of which it is necessary to look for the cause of what is mentioned in experience. So David says: I have done evil before You, because You are righteous in Your judgment (Ps. 50:6). That expression might seem strange, but it is not. The following is expressed in it: although You have done me good deeds beyond all expectation, I have sinned before You; from that it followed that if you assert your rights against me in court, you will win. So, God is justified by our actions, when we show ourselves ungrateful, and when we cannot justify ourselves with anything. This means that, in the same way, the Gentiles have no justification either, because they, although they knew God from His creation, did not glorify Him as He deserved, but showed the respect He deserved, to idols. But they went astray in their thoughts, and their unreasonable heart darkened. He gives the reason why they fell into such madness. In everything, he says, you relied on your wisdom. Wanting to find the Indescribable in images and the Incorporeal in bodies, they proved unsuccessful and unable to achieve this goal through their thinking. Their heart is called foolish because they did not want to know everything by faith. Why did they come to such a delusion, that they relied on their own reasoning in everything? Because they thought themselves wise, that's why they became foolish. Namely, is there anything more insane than bowing down to wood and stone? 23. And he replaced the glory of the immortal God with the likeness of mortal man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. The one who changes, before he changes, has something else in him. They also had knowledge, but they canceled it and, wishing they had something else instead, they lost what they had. They did not show the glory of the imperishable God to man, but the likeness of perishable mortal man, and, what is worse than that, they came to reptiles, and even to their images, to that extent they became foolish! The knowledge they should have had of Being, which incomparably surpasses all others, they applied to an object, incomparably more despised than everything else! The glory of God is contained in the fact that they know that God created everything, that He thinks about everything and everything else, which befits Him. Who actually sinned in what we talked about? The wisest, the Egyptians, because they respected even images of reptiles. 3 24. That is why God handed them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among themselves, 25. Who replaced the truth of God with a lie, and served things more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. The word surrender is used instead of allow, similar to how a doctor, wanting to be of use to a sick person and seeing that he does not care about restraint and does not listen to him, allows him to get even more sick, i.e. it abandons him and allows him to follow his own will, and thus does not relieve him of his illness. Some, after all, understood the expression God handed them over in the sense that he handed them over to insulting and insolence towards God, similar to how we say: so and so was destroyed by money, although it is not money that destroys, but our abuse of money. Or, we say that Saul was corrupted by the empire, that is, his (Saul's) misuse of the empire. Therefore, the Gentiles are given over to impurity by their own debauchery. Therefore, it was not necessary for others to offend them, but they offended themselves, because such are those impure passions. Why were they given over to impurity? Because they offended God. The one who does not want to know God, at the same time becomes morally depraved, as David also says: The fool said in his heart: there is no God, and then he disintegrated and became abominable in his actions (see Ps. 13:1). They changed what truly belonged to God and applied it to false gods. Respected was said instead of showed time and served instead expressed service by actions, which means honor, which is shown in action. He did not simply say: they respected and served matter, but he also added: instead of the Creator, increasing the guilt by comparison. Regardless, he says, God is blessed forever, ie. He did not suffer the least harm because they insulted Him, but He is blessed for ever and ever - unwaveringly and undoubtedly, because that means Amen. 26. That is why God gave them over to shameful passions, because their wives also turned their natural use into an unnatural one. 27. And likewise men, leaving the natural employment of women, and inflaming themselves with their desire against one another, men with men making shame, receiving upon themselves the due wages of their error. Again he says that God gave them over to the passions because they served matter. Just as they perverted themselves in the teaching of God and abandoned the management of creation, so in life they became abominable and abandoned natural pleasure (which is the most pleasant and pleasant) and surrendered to unnatural pleasure (which is the most difficult and unpleasant of all). It signifies the word replace which shows that they left what they had and chose another. In this way, both sexes accuse nature itself, which they transgressed. Having said something shameful about women in secret and such that it is indecent to speak clearly about it, he also says about men that they too were enflamed with desire for one another, showing that they had surrendered to voluptuousness and wild love. He did not say that they gratified desire, but that they did shame, showing that they disgraced nature; they are burning with desire, he said with the aim of not thinking that the disease was their desire. Doing shame. In other words, they earnestly indulged in impurity, creating it in the very act, receiving payment for falling away from God and for idolatrous error in that very shame and in that very pleasure, having the punishment in it as in unnatural and sexual impurity. Paul says this because it was not yet possible for him to convince them of the teaching of Gehenna (hell). If, he says, you do not believe the doctrine of the genie, then believe that their punishment is contained in their impure act itself. 28. And since they did not care to know God, God gave them over to a corrupt mind to do what is inappropriate. And for the third time he repeats the same thought and uses the same word, saying: he handed them over. The reason why God has always left them is the ungodliness of the people. And since he does not care that they know God, he gives them over to passion. The insult, he says, that they inflicted on God was not a sin of ignorance, but a deliberate sin. He did not say: since they did not know, but: How do you not notice, that is. they chose not to have God in mind and voluntarily chose godlessness. Therefore, their sins are not sins of the flesh, as some heretics claim, but of improper reasoning. At first they rejected the knowledge of God, and then God allowed them to be given over to a corrupt mind. In order to better interpret the expression God handed them over, some of the Fathers used a beautiful example. They reason as follows: when someone, not wanting to see the sun, closes his eyes and then falls into a pit, we do not say that the sun, which he does not see, threw the man into the pit, but that he fell there because it did not illuminate his eyes. And why didn't it light up his eyes? Because he locked them up. That's how God gave them over to shameful passions. Why? Because people did not know Him. And why did they not know Him? Because they did not reason and chose not to know Him. 29. Those who are filled with all injustice. Notice how it intensifies the word; he calls them filled with every injustice, that is, he says that they have reached the ultimate level of every vice. Then he enumerates the types of vice; Fornication. He calls fornication any impurity in general. It is cunning against one's neighbor. Murder always follows from envy. So Abel was killed because of envy, just as they wanted to kill Joseph because of envy. Quarrels and tricks come from envy, which should be to the ruin of the one they envy. Deeply hidden malice, forgotten for some kindness. Those who do not see God or whom God does not see. Thugs, braggarts, boasters. Ascend to the stronghold of evil. Namely, if the one who is proud of a good deed cancels that deed with pride, how much more does he lose it when he does evil? Such a man is not capable of repentance. Know that arrogance is contempt for God, and pride is contempt for people, from which insult is born, because he who despises people insults and tramples everyone. By its very nature, pride precedes insult; at the beginning we clearly see the insult, only to later meet its mother - pride. The inventors of evil, because they were not satisfied with the previously committed evil, and from where it can be seen again that they did not sin instinctively, but deliberately and according to their own inclinations. They rose up, he says, against nature itself. And that is fair: could those who were not obedient to their parents understand anything? Infidelity (verolomnit), i.e. those who are fickle in bargaining. Insensitive, implacable, merciless. The root of all evil is the cooling of love, because that's where it comes from that they don't get along with each other, that they don't kiss each other, that they don't love each other. Christ also said about this: And because iniquity will multiply, the love of many will grow cold. Nature itself unites us with each other, as well as other living beings. However, people did not understand this. 32. They, knowing the justice of God, that those who do it deserve death, not only do it, but also approve of those who do it. Having proved that the Gentiles were filled with every vice because they did not want to know God, he now proves that they do not deserve justification. They cannot say: we did not know good, because they knew that God is just. This means that they did evil voluntarily and, what is even worse, they approve of those who do it, i.e. they become protectors of evil: such is an incurable disease. 1. Therefore you have no excuse, O man, whoever you judge, because in what you judge another, you judge yourself; for you who judge do the same. Not all of us, people, have equal inclinations: sometimes we protect evil, sometimes we are judges of other people's evil and condemn those similar to ourselves. Therefore, since he first spoke about those who approve of evil, he now speaks about condemning others: Therefore you have no excuse. In other words, you knew that God's righteous judgment consists in punishing the wicked in a worthy way; that's why you have no excuse for condemning those who do the same thing you do. It seems that these words refer to rulers, especially the Romans, as the masters of the universe at that time, because judgment is the work of rulers. After all, it can be applied to every man, because every man can judge, even if he does not perform the duty of a judge. He says, therefore, that by condemning an adulterer and committing adultery yourself, you are condemning yourself. 2. And we know that the judgment of God is true on those who do this. So that someone would not say to himself: "I have committed adultery until now, and I have escaped judgment", the apostle scares him and says that with God it is not like that: with us, one is punished and the other escapes punishment. With God, however, it is not like that, because there is truly God's judgment on wicked people. And do you think that, O man, who judges those who do this, and you do the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? 4. Or do you despise the richness of His kindness and meekness and long-suffering, not knowing that God's kindness leads you to repentance! 5. Rather, with your persistence and unrepentant heart, you accumulate for yourself the Wrath of the Wrath and revelation and righteous judgment of God, 6. Who will give to everyone according to his deeds. He had previously said that the wages of wicked men for their delusions and reverence for matter consisted in the very impious acts in which they indulged, because impurity itself was a sufficient punishment for them. Now he reveals the punishment for them. For you, he says, man, there is another punishment: you will not escape the judgment of God. How will you escape the judgment of God, when you have not even escaped your own judgment? That in which you condemned another, you pronounced judgment on yourself. If you rely on the longsuffering of God because you have not yet been punished, then that impunity will serve as a reason for even greater punishment for you. The longsuffering of God is salutary for those who use it to improve themselves; for those who use it to multiply sins, it will serve as an occasion for a greater punishment, but not by its nature but because of the hard-heartedness of those (to whom it is indicated). You are gathering anger, he says. God does not collect it for you, but you collect it yourself. How is that? With his heart that is unyielding and petrified for good. What can be more hard-hearted than you, when neither kindness can soften you, nor fear can sway you? Further, speaking of the day of wrath, he adds: revelations and the righteous judgment of God. And that is just, so that someone does not start judgment by acting out anger. Revealing everything, he says. Therefore, the salary is commensurate with what is revealed, and the consequence is a just judgment. Here, justice does not always prevail, because the deeds are hidden, while there, the discovery will be followed by a just judgment. Notice this place and compare it with the following: I will stone the heart of Pharaoh (Exodus 4:21), because Paul expresses himself in almost the same words. 7. Eternal life to those who persevere in good deeds and seek glory and honor and immortality. Having said that the Lord will give everyone a reward, he began by rewarding the good, thereby making his word agreeable. In the words of constancy in good deeds, he expresses, first of all, that one should not depart from good, nor create it carelessly, but that one should live in it until the end, and secondly, that one should not rely only on faith, because a good deed is also necessary. The immortality of the word opens the door of resurrection. Then, as we will all rise - but not all for the same thing, but some for glory and others for punishment - he mentioned glory and honor. Therefore, the entire sermon has such a meaning. To those, he says, who seek future glory, honor and immortality and never lose them from their thoughts, God will give them a reward, i.e. in the resurrection, eternal life. How are future glory, honor and immortality to be obtained? By persevering in good works, because he who perseveres in good works and firmly resists every temptation truly gains glory and honor and immortality or the enjoyment of imperishable goods in an imperishable body. 8. And fury and anger to those who persistently oppose the truth and submit to injustice. 9. Tribulation and sorrow on every soul of a man who does evil, and first of all a Jew and a Jelin. Who persistently oppose, ie. with great effort. Here he shows that they did not become wicked through ignorance but through persistence, which is why they are unworthy of pardon. And obedience to injustice and disobedience to justice is also a sin of free will, because he did not say: who are forced and suffer violence, but: who obey. Notice that he spoke differently about the Lord's reward in eternal life than about the sad one. Rage, he says, and anger and sadness. Namely, he did not say: God will give them, but he left the speech unfinished, so that they would understand: he would. It is God's nature to give life, and punishment is the consequence of our negligence. In other words: every human soul is restrained by the pride of the Romans. Even if someone is a king, he says, he will not escape punishment if he does evil, that is, if he remains in evil and does not repent, because he did not say "who only does evil", but he says, "who does evil with love of glory". As the Judean received a greater lesson, he is also worthy of a greater punishment, because they will be severely tortured, and those who knew more will be punished more severely. 10. And glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, and first of all to Judea and Jelin. In what follows, the apostle intends to prove that neither circumcision benefits nor uncircumcision harms, and then to point out the necessity of faith, which justifies a person. Because of this, he humiliates Judaism at the beginning. Notice his wisdom: he talks about what happened before the coming of Christ, that the world was filled with vice and that everyone was subject to punishment, first the Judean and then the Hellene. Admitting that the heathen will be punished for evil, he concludes that he will be rewarded for good. If both the reward and the punishment are the consequence of the deed, then the law and circumcision have already become redundant, and not only redundant, but they also prepare a greater punishment for the Jew. If a heathen is accused because he was not guided by nature and then by natural law, then a Jew is condemned far more, who, in addition to that guidance, was also brought up in the Law. The word of the apostle is attached to this. Now recognize the meaning of the word. Jelins here do not mean idolaters, but God-fearing people who live devoutly even though they do not have the Law. Such were Melchizedek, Job, the Ninevites and, finally, Cornelius. In the same way, he thinks of the Jews who lived until the coming of Christ. Endeavoring to prove that circumcision has no force, he turns his attention to ancient times and shows that there was no difference between the God-fearing Gentiles and the virtuous Jews. If, on the other hand, the Jews did not surpass the Gentiles in any way until the coming of Christ, when Judaism was especially glorious, then it does not surpass it all the more now, when the Law has been abolished. Thus speaks the apostle, intending to destroy the pride of the Jews, who did not accept those who came from the Gentiles. Glory, he says, and honor and peace. Earthly goods always have enemies, they are associated with unrest, exposed to envy and cunning and, even when no one threatens them from the outside, the one who owns them is troubled in his mind; however, glory and honor in God delight in peace and are strangers to restlessness in their thoughts, because they are not subject to guile. As it seemed incredible that a heathen, who did not listen to the Law and the Prophets, should be honored, he proves it to them by the fact that God is not hypocritical. God, he says, does not pay attention to who is who, but examines deeds. If there is no difference in actions between a Jew and a Hellene, then nothing prevents the latter from deserving the same honor as the former. When, therefore, the law is abolished, do not be arrogant, Jew, in front of him who, coming from heathenism but doing good deeds, was your equal even when your Judaism was glorious. 12. For those who sin without the law will perish without the law, and those who sin under the law will be judged according to the law. He previously proved that a Gentile is worthy of the same status as a Jew. Now he proves that at the time of judgment, the punishment will also come to the Jews. Gentiles, he says, sin without the law, that is. they were not taught the law and that's why they will perish without the law, i.e. they will be more easily punished because they will not have a law to disprove them, since without a law means: they are not subject to condemnation according to the law. On the contrary, the Jew sinned under the law, ie. being taught the law, which is why the court will receive, i.e. he will be condemned according to the law, as one who is subject to the law which disfigures him and exposes him to a greater punishment. How can you, Jew, say that you do not need grace, because you will be justified by the law? Here, it has been proven that you have no use for the law! 13. Because those who listen to the law are not righteous before God; those who obeyed the law may appear honorable before men, but not so before God, because those who fulfill the law will be justified before Him. 14. For when the Gentiles, having no law, do from nature what is according to the law, they, having no law, are a law to themselves. 15. They prove that what is according to the law is written in their hearts, as their conscience testifies. He proves what he says against the Jews and speaks with wise skill, so that it does not appear that he is allegedly speaking against the law. As if he praises and exalts the law, he says that those who do not have a law "from nature" deserve admiration, i.e. they have conviction in their minds. Namely, they did not even need the law: however, they fulfilled the law, sealing in their hearts not written words but deeds and using, as a testimony of good, conscience and natural thoughts. Here he talks about three laws: the written law, the natural law and the law of deeds. Gentiles, having no law. What kind of law? Written. They make nature what it is by law. By what law? According to the law that is manifested in deeds. Having no law. What kind? Written. They are their own law. How is that? Guided by applicable law. They prove that what is according to the law is written in their hearts. By what law? Law in action. According to the course of the sermon, he should have said this: when the Gentiles, not having the law, by nature do what is lawful, then they far surpass those who are instructed in the law. The apostle, however, did not say so, but expressed himself milder: They are their own law. This proves that even in ancient times, even before the law was given, the human race was under the same Providence. It also closes the mouth of those who say: why didn't Christ come earlier and from the very beginning to teach the creation of good? He, he says, from the beginning placed in everyone the knowledge of good and evil; however, when he saw that it wasn't helping, Sam came in the end. And since their thoughts accuse or justify each other. 16. On the day when God judges the secrets of man according to my gospel through Jesus Christ. From these words he begins a new sermon, because the apostle is now talking about the way in which all people will be judged in general. On the day of judgment, our own thoughts will stand before us, to condemn us or to justify us, and man will not need other prosecutors or other defenders in that court. In order to increase fear, he does not say: "sins" but: secret deeds. People can only judge by public deeds, and God will say, judge by secret deeds through Jesus Christ, i.e. The Father through the Son, because the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son (Jn. 5:2). You can also understand the words "through Jesus Christ" in this way: according to my gospel, which Jesus Christ delivered to me. Here he hints that the gospel does not preach anything unnatural, but that it makes known to people what nature itself has been hinting to people from the beginning, i.e. that the gospel also testifies to judgment and punishment. 17. Behold, you are called a Jew, and you rely on the law, and you boast of God. 18. And you know (His) will, and you know how to distinguish what is good, learned from the law. Having said that the heathen who executes the law does not need anything more, he lists, finally, the advantages of the Jews in which they trusted and were proud of them before the heathens. First of all, he talks about the name of the Jews, because it represented enormous wealth, just like the name of the Christians now. He did not say: "You are a Jew", but you are called a Jew because a true Jew is one who confesses as such, since the name "Judas" means confession. And you rely on the law - you don't try, you don't step and you don't research what you should do, but you have the law, which teaches you in everything without your effort. You brag about God, that is. that God loves you and assumes you to other people; turning the love of God into a means of contempt for beings of the same kind is a sign of extreme indolence. You express His (God's) will. And you can tell the difference, that is. to decide what should be done and what should not be done. Being able to distinguish should mean "what is appropriate" or "what is beneficial to everyone". 19. And you think that you are a leader to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20. A tutor to the foolish, a teacher to children, who has the embodiment (pattern) of knowledge and truth in the law. He previously said that listening to the law does not bring any benefit, if it is not accompanied by its execution, because those who listen to the law are not righteous before God, but those who fulfill the law will be justified (v. 13). Now he says something more, that is, even if you were a teacher, if you do not fulfill the law, you not only do not gain any benefit, but attract an even greater punishment. Since the Jews were very proud of their dignity as teachers, he thereby especially proves that they are worthy of ridicule. When he says: A leader of the blind, a teacher of children and so on, he depicts the arrogance of the Jews, who called themselves leaders, light and teachers, while those who were converted from the heathen, they named as those who are in darkness, children and ignorant. You, however, do not have the form (pattern) of knowledge and truth in deeds and merits, but in the law, relying on it as an image of virtue. Someone, for example, has a picture of the emperor and does not copy anything from it, but those who do not have it and who have not seen him (the emperor) faithfully imitate this image. Therefore, every teacher creates in the soul of the student the knowledge of good, and thus the truth itself. If he achieves this in reality, he will be perfect; otherwise it will be such as the apostle now condemns. Some understood the appearance (pattern) of an untrustworthy form of truth. You, he says, have knowledge and grace that are not true, but forged and disguised with false vision. 21. Do you, therefore, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? 22. You, who preach not to steal, do you steal? Who say you don't commit adultery, you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, steal the sanctuary? 23. Do you, who boast of the law, insult God by transgressing the law? 24. For the Name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, as it is written. He presents his thought in the form of a question, embarrassing those who boast that they are teachers. Stealing of the sacred is called stealing what is dedicated to idols. Although they abhorred idols, avarice overcame them, and for shameful gain they touched that which was dedicated to idols. After that, he lays out the most serious guilt, saying: you boast of the law, as if through the law you are honored by God, and by transgressing the law you insult God. However, so that it would not be thought that he was the only one accusing the Jews, he also cited their accuser, the prophet Isaiah, highlighting two of their faults: not only did they themselves offend God, but they also lead others to do so, and not only do they not teach them to live according to the law, but they teach them what is against it, they teach them to blaspheme God, which is against the law. Namely, seeing their corruption, they say: should God love such people? Is the god who loves such a true God? 25. For circumcision benefits, if you break the law; if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Since the Jews respected circumcision very much, he did not say at the very beginning that it was superfluous and useless, but he allowed it in words, while in action he rejected it and said: I agree that circumcision is useful, but only when you fulfill the law. He did not say that it was useless, so that they would not think that he was demeaning circumcision, but he proved that the Jew does not have circumcision, saying: Circumcision has become your uncircumcision. It proves, therefore, that the Judean is not circumcised in heart. It implies two types of circumcision and two types of uncircumcision: one is external and the other internal. In other words, external circumcision is bodily, when one is circumcised in the flesh, while spiritual circumcision consists in rejecting bodily passions. Physical circumcision is spoken of when someone remains uncircumcised in the body, while spiritual circumcision is spoken of when someone, having a heathen soul, does not cut off his passions in the slightest. Paul's thought is the following: if you are circumcised in the flesh, but do not do what is established by the law, you are still uncircumcised, uncircumcised in spirit. In the same way, he who is uncircumcised in the flesh, but does what is established by the law, is circumcised in the spirit, because he is deprived of the passions of the flesh. He explains that below. Listen. 26. If, then, an uncircumcised man keeps the commandments of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? He does not say that uncircumcision is superior to circumcision, because that would be too painful (for them), but he says: It will be counted to him for circumcision. Therefore true circumcision is a good deed; in the same way, uncircumcision is an evil act. Note that he did not say: "if the uncircumcised keeps the law" because, probably, he assumed that someone could object: can an uncircumcised man keep the law at all, when uncircumcision itself represents a violation of the law? How did he express himself? The commandments of the law, that is. commandments, which they hope will be justified by their execution. Circumcision, namely, was not an act but suffering, such as the one who was being circumcised suffered, which is why it cannot even be called a justification of the law. It was given as a sign, so that the Jews would not be confused with the Gentiles. 27. And he, who is uncircumcised by nature and fulfills the law, will condemn you who, in addition to the Scriptures and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law! 28. For he is not a Jew who is external, nor is circumcision which is external, according to the flesh. 29. Rather, it is a Jew who is that inside, and circumcision is the circumcision of the heart in spirit and not in letter; such praise is not from men but from God. Here it clearly shows that it implies two uncircumcisions, one natural and one voluntary, which appears when, as has been said, a man does not in the least cut off the passions of the flesh. It also implies two circumcisions, one bodily and the other circumcision of the heart in the spirit. The uncircumcised, he says, by nature, having the circumcision of the passions through the fulfillment of the law, or as has been said, having justification by the law, will condemn, i.e. they will accuse - not the circumcised (because it was difficult for him to say so) - but you, who are indeed circumcised in the flesh on the outside but are uncircumcised in the heart, they will accuse you, therefore, as a transgressor of the justification of the law. In this way, he does not rebuke circumcision (which, it seems, he respects), but its violator or transgressor. Then, having clearly defined who is a true Judean, he also explains that the Judeans did everything out of love of glory. Because, he says, it is not the Jew who is on the outside... it is the Jew who is on the inside, who does nothing to be seen by the senses, but spiritually understands the Sabbath, sacrifice, and purification. When he says: circumcision of the heart by the spirit, he paves the way for a Christian way of life and points to the necessity of faith, because believing with the heart and spirit has praise from God, who examines hearts and judges nothing by the flesh. From all this it follows that life is always needed. By the name of uncircumcised or heathen, he does not mean, as has been said, an idolater, but a pious and virtuous man who, however, does not observe the Jewish rites. 1. What, then, is the superiority of the Jew, or what is the benefit of circumcision? 2. A lot, in every way. First, that they were entrusted with the words of God. 3. Because what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief abolish the faith of God? 4. No way! Rejecting all the commandments of the law with the words: What, then, is the predominance of the Jew, he sees that an objection will naturally arise from it and warns him. What kind of objection is that? Next: if there is no benefit in those commandments, then why was the Jewish people chosen at all? He resolves this objection with his inherent wisdom. He agrees with the words and says that it is a great benefit to the Jews, and as proof of this he does not cite the merits of the Jews but the gifts of God. He did not say that the Jews greatly surpass the rest of the nations because they did this or that, but because they were entrusted with the words of God. It is, however, God's benevolence, not their supremacy. What does it mean: trusted! Given, handed over. God considered the Jews worthy and therefore entrusted them with heavenly revelations. In saying so, he protects them from the outside; however, despite all this, he presents them with a new accusation, proving that they did not believe the words of God, which served their honor. On the other hand, he does not present this accusation in his own name and seems to say the following: what is the benefit to the Jews of the fact that they received God's revelation, when they did not believe it? It seems that he also resolves this objection, not justifying the Jews but God. If they did not believe, is it from God? Is their unbelief to abolish the faith of God, ie. the revelation and charity handed down to them? The unbelief of the Jews not only does not harm God in any way, but, on the contrary, also proves His great love for humanity, because God deprives those who will later offend Him of charity. Do you see how he accused the Jews of the same thing they boasted about, namely, that they had received the law? 4. God is true, and every man is a lie, as it is written: That you may justify yourself in your words and that you may win when you are judged. He previously said that some did not believe. However, it turned out that not some, but all, were unbelievers. As a result, in order not to embitter the Jews, he conducts the sermon very wisely and presents what has been proven in experience in the form of assumptions. Suppose, he says, that all were unbelieving. What follows from there? And in that case, God is justified. In other words, if you judge and compare what God gave to the Jews and how they behaved before Him, righteousness remains on God's side, as David also says (cf. Ps. 50:6). 5. If our injustice reveals God's righteousness, what will we say? Is God unjust when he shows anger? As a man I speak. 6. No way! Because then how could God judge the world! He raises one objection here. Some could say: if from the fact that God has done us a favor and we have shown ourselves to be ungrateful, it follows that He shows himself to be even more just, then why is He angry, i.e. why is he punishing us, when we were the cause of his justification and victory? Such is the objection. The apostle resolves it very wisely and debunking the Jews. From the fact that God punishes you, it does not follow that you are the cause of God's victory, because it is unjust for the victor to punish the one who was the cause of his victory. God, however, is not unjust; otherwise, how would God judge the world if He were unjust? Consequently, when God punishes you, and He is not unjust, it follows that you did not become the cause of victory for Him by sinning, because God could have won even if you had not shown yourself to be evil. The words: I speak like a man have such a meaning. Thus, he says, I answer, justifying God according to human reasoning, i.e. as much as a reasonable person can answer: God's actions have some incomprehensible basis for us, they go beyond human reason and they do not need our protection. 7. Because if the truth of God through my lie has been abundantly revealed to His glory, why should I, as a sinner, be condemned? 8. And will we, as they scold us and as some say we say, do evil so that good may come? Their condemnation is just. He repeats what has already been said before, to clarify. If through my transgression God has shown himself to be just and faithful, why, finally, would they condemn me, who was beneficial to the glory of God? In such a case, I do not deserve condemnation, but reward. If it is just, then what the Gentiles say about us will also be just. When the Gentiles heard Paul's words: Where sin abounds, grace abounds (Romans 5:20), they exposed them to ridicule and claimed that Christians were supposedly saying: we will do evil so that good may result, we will sin even more, so that grace may be multiplied. Those words of the Gentiles, which they uttered to mock us and expose us to ridicule, can be applied in this case too, if we allow God to manifest His goodness through our wickedness and ingratitude. In reality, however, it is not so. The word of the Gentiles is the word of those who always speak lies. Their condemnation is just, that is. they will be justly punished. Therefore, by sinning, I do not become the cause of God's justification, because I am condemned as a sinner; if I sinned for the glory of God, I would not be condemned. 9. So what? Do we have an advantage? No way! Because we previously proved that both Judeans and Gentiles are all under sin. 10. As it is written: There is none righteous. 11. There is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God. 12. They all went astray and became naughty together; there is no one who does good, there is none at all. 13. Their throat is an open grave, their tongues are a varach, poison is an asp under their lips. 14. Their mouths are full of curses and bitterness. 15. Their feet are quick to shed blood. 16. Desolation and misery are in their ways. 17. And they did not know a peaceful way. 18. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Having previously said that the Judeans have a certain advantage (preeminence, supremacy) because the law was entrusted and handed down to them, he now proves that they have no advantage by their works. Because they did not preserve what was entrusted to them, they are exposed to even greater condemnation. As a result, although, as chosen by God, they had some advantage, by their actions they offended the God who chose and honored them, and not only do they no longer have any advantage, but they will also be exposed to a greater punishment. He seems to be speaking on behalf of the Jews: What, then? Do we have an advantage, do we surpass others, are we, the Jews, who have received the law and circumcision, more pleasing to God than other peoples? Not at all. Because the Judeans, to say nothing more, sinned just as much as the Gentiles. Where can you see it? With the prophets, that is, with David and Isaiah. The quote that begins with the words: "There is no one righteous" and ends with "Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness" belongs to David (Ps.13:3-5 and 9:28,139:4), while the quote that begins with the words: "Their feet are swift" and ends with the words: "They have not known a peaceful way" belongs to the prophet Isaiah (Is. 59:7-8), and then again follow David's words (Ps.35:2). He presents the most famous prophets as accusers of the Jews and proves that what they say is completely consistent. Why did he quote David's words again after Isaiah's words? Isaiah clearly speaks of the Jews, of whom David also speaks. Besides, as soon as one moves away from the good, he immediately becomes useless. Wickedness, namely, is nothing but the perversion of natural impulses towards good, and since it encourages man to do what is contrary to nature, it makes him useless. Nature no longer uses them, just as it does not use the sick for its works. Desolation and misery are sin, because nothing devastates the soul as much as sin does with its irregular ways. As our natural good, virtue creates a straight and smooth path for us, while vice, as an unnatural act, known for its shortcomings and excesses, forces us to sometimes go up and sometimes down, which makes our movement uneven and difficult, not to mention preparing a punishment for us afterward. They did not know the way of peace, that is. they did not know the virtuous life, because the virtuous life is the path of tranquility. Take My yoke, says the Lord, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:29). That is the way to the true peace of Christ! 19. And we know that what the law says, it says to those who are in the law, that every mouth be shut, and that the whole world be guilty to God; 20. For by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified before Him; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. So that the Jews could not object: "It does not speak to us", he says: What the law says, it says to those who are in the law. What, he says, is the need to speak to others, when the law is given to you? The entire Old Testament is called the law, and not only the law of Moses, as he also called the prophecies of Isaiah and David. In the words: That every mouth should be closed depicts the ostentatiousness of the Jews and the unstoppable flow of their language. With those words, the prophet reined him in like a swollen stream. The apostle does not mean that they allegedly sinned so that their mouths would be shut, but he means that the prophets exposed them so that they would not present their sins as sins of ignorance and that they would not boast. And not only the Jews, but the whole world to be guilty to God, i.e. condemned, and that someone else's courage should be his, because he cannot be justified by his own deeds, but he needs help from outside, that is, the grace of Christ. Why do you, Judean, boast of the law, when you are as guilty as the rest of the world, which cannot be justified by works of the law? Through the law comes the knowledge of sins. 21. And now, without the law, the justice of God appeared, witnessed by the Law and the Prophet. If you, Jew, boast of the law, know that it serves you as a reason for greater punishment. Through him, you knew what sin is, and the one who commits a sin knowingly is threatened with a greater punishment. This happened due to your negligence, because you did not stay away from the sin that became known to you, and therefore you incurred an even greater punishment. How do you get rid of that penalty? If you accept the justice of God, independent of the law. Namely, we are justified by God, even if we had no works, because God is almighty. He said beautifully: she appeared to show that God's justice existed before, but that it was hidden. And with the words: Witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, it also shows that it is nothing new, but that the Law of Moses and the prophets spoke about it, which is why it is worthy of acceptance. Namely, although it is independent of the law, it, in full accordance with the law, aims to justify us. 22. And that is the justice of God through faith in Jesus Christ for everyone and everyone who believes, because there is no difference. 23. Because all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. 24. And they are justified by His gift, His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That justice, he says, ie. the justification by which God justified us, comes to all through faith. When we offer faith, we are all justified, both Jews and Gentiles. Because they didn't hate. Because he received the law, the Jew has no advantage over the gentile because he also sinned: from the law he only learned how to know what sin is and not how to avoid it. Even if he did not sin like that, as a heathen, he is still equally deprived of glory because he offended God, and he who offended reaps not the fruit of glory but the fruit of shame. However, do not despair! Everyone is justified by a gift, according to God's grace, and that grace comes through redemption, i.e. through the perfect deliverance created by Christ, because He justified us, giving Himself as a ransom for us. 25. Whom God appointed to be with His blood a sacrifice of reconciliation through faith, to show His justice by the forgiveness of past sins, 26. In the longsuffering of God, to show His justice in the present time, that He is just and justifies the one who is of the faith of Jesus. He mentioned purification (sacrifice of atonement, propitiation) and blood, in order to convince the Jews that forgiveness and justification are perfected through Jesus Christ. If, he reasoned, you believed that sins are forgiven by the blood of sheep, then they are all the more forgiven by the blood of Christ; if purification through the law, as the prototype of Christ, had such power, then the truth itself has far greater power. The cover of the ark, which was decorated with cherubs, placed on both sides, was called purification. He was pointing to the human nature that was the covering of the divinity and obscured it, but was glorified by the angelic forces, which served it because of its union with God the Logos. He said determine, in order to show that deliverance by the blood of Christ has been predestined since ancient times for healing from sickness (from-being-taken, paralyzed), i.e. from being numbed by sins committed before, during the longsuffering of God. Although we have used many good things, we have become like those taken away and numbed. This, in turn, happened to demonstrate the justice of God, so that not only God would show himself as just, but also so that others, dead in sin, could be resurrected and justified, similarly as the appearance of wealth does not consist in the fact that only one person is rich, but in being able to make others rich as well. Therefore, do not be ashamed that you are justified in this way. If God appropriates that work for Himself, i.e. if he boasts and is proud of him like the One who justified us in the present time, i.e. when sin reached its limit, and when we admitted that we are as if taken away and dead, why should you, Jew, be ashamed of such glory of God? 27. Where, then, is the boasting? It's off. By what law? Does he act by law? No, but by the law of faith. The apostle proved that we are justified through faith, which is why he justly asks the Jew: Where is that which you would boast and be proud of?" He does not say: "where is the virtue", because the Judeans had no virtues, only boasting. It goes on to say: It's off, which means: it's not time to brag. Before Christ, it was time to boast about the law, but now is not the time, because it has become obvious that your praise is useless. Namely, if the law could justify us, then we would not even need Christ. By what law, he asks, is it excluded? Is it by the law of works, for which it is said that the man who performs it will live, because the law of Moses said so (cf. 3 Moses 18:5)? No, he answers, but by the law of faith, which justifies by grace, not by works. Here, he also calls faith a law, because the word "law" was highly respected among the Jews. Therefore, Judean, boast of the faith that can justify you. 28. We think, therefore, that a man will be justified by faith without works of the law. 29. Or is the God of the Jews only and not of the Gentiles? Yes, and Gentiles. 30. Because there is one God, who will justify circumcision by faith and uncircumcision by faith. Having proved that justification is in the blood of Christ and not in the works of the law, he ends the sermon and says: from everything that has been said, we conclude that every man is justified by faith. Don't let that confuse you, Judean, as if it were meaningless. God is not a God of individuals, in order to save only you and not every person. Here he shames the Jews and greatly intimidates them, as God-fighters, if they do not allow the Gentiles to be saved through faith. Namely, they do not believe that He is the God of all and that He thinks about everyone equally. One, he says, is God, that is. The God of the Jews and Gentiles, who justifies the circumcised, but not by law but by faith, who also accepts the uncircumcised through faith. By mentioning circumcision and uncircumcision, he recalls what he previously said and proved that neither circumcision brings benefit when there is no work, nor is uncircumcision itself harmful. Therefore, both need faith. 31. Do we, therefore, abolish the law by faith? No way! Rather, we establish the law. When it was said that the law is abolished by faith, the Jews were in confusion. He therefore heals them with his great wisdom, saying that faith establishes the law. What the law wanted, ie. to justify man, but what he could not do, faith perfects. And he, who only believed, has already justified himself. Faith, therefore, did not abolish, but established the law. 1. What, then, will we say about Abraham, our father, that he achieved in the flesh? 2. Because if Abraham is justified by works, he has praise, but not before God. 3. Because what does the Scripture say? And Abraham believed in God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Having sufficiently proved that everyone needs faith, he also confirms it with the example of Abraham, who was highly respected by the Jews: he says that although he accomplished many great things excellently, he was not justified by works, but by faith. He calls him father according to the flesh, in order to show that the Judeans are not in any spiritual relationship with him or, rather, to oblige them to imitate him in everything. If he justified himself by works, then he has praise, but not before GOD, that is. he can boast that he has done something good with his own efforts, but this does not mean praise before God and is not directed towards God. On the contrary, the one who is justified by faith has praise before God and can boast in God as one whom God has saved and whom God loves. A believer can boast in a different way, that is, as one who glorified God by believing that He can do what seems impossible to us. Therefore, he has praise and boldness before God, because he has a true idea about Him and believes in His omnipotence. 4. And to the one who works, the salary is not calculated according to grace, but according to debt. 5. But to him who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the sinner, his faith is counted in righteousness. 6. Just as David says that blessed is the man to whom God imputes righteousness without works. 7. Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. 8. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute sin. The one who works, he says, receives the salary that is calculated for his labor according to the debt; believing, on the other hand, even if he does not act, on his part offers faith, which is a very important thing, because the conviction that God can not only free him from punishment but also make him righteous, even one who lives in sin, has a very great value. For this reason, even for a believer, his faith is counted as righteousness, i.e. God accepts his faith, but not to reward him, but to justify him. Therefore, the one who believes offers something from his side, that is, faith. Proving with Abraham's example that justice or justification comes from faith, he also mentions David, because he calls blessed the man to whom God does not impute sins, thus showing the preeminence and supremacy of faith. If the one who receives forgiveness by grace is blessed, then the one who showed faith and was justified by it is far more blessed. Why, he says, are you uncomfortable if he receives forgiveness of sins by grace? Do you see that the one who received forgiveness by grace is called blessed, because the prophet would not call him so if he did not know that he has great glory. Namely, bliss is something very important and higher than righteousness itself, it is above every good that we receive from God. 9. Does this beatitude, then, refer to circumcision or to uncircumcision? Because we say that faith was credited to Abraham for righteousness. 10. How, then, is it accounted for? When was he circumcised or uncircumcised? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. If, he says, bliss comes to the one whose sins God does not impute, i.e. justified, and Abraham was justified, he certainly gained bliss. Let's see, when did he justify himself? Before or after circumcision? Of course, until circumcision. This means that bliss refers to uncircumcision, that is, it belongs to a greater extent to uncircumcision than to circumcision. 11. And he received the sign of circumcision, the seal of the righteousness of the faith that he had in uncircumcision, so that he would be the father of all who believe in uncircumcision, that they too might be counted in righteousness. 12. Ida would be the father of circumcision not only to those who are circumcised, but also to those who walk in the footsteps of the faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision. It resolves the objection that naturally had to arise. Someone would perhaps object: if Abraham is justified by circumcision, then why was he circumcised? The apostle answers: Receive the sign of circumcision instead of the seal, which sealed his justification by the faith he had exercised before, while he was uncircumcised. Therefore, in relation to Abraham, two subjects are manifested: circumcision and uncircumcision. Through uncircumcision he appears as the father of the uncircumcised. However, what kind of uncircumcised ones? Those who, like him, believe that they too will be counted in righteousness, i.e. in order for them to justify themselves. On the other hand, Abraham appears through circumcision as the father of circumcision, i.e. circumcised. Father, but not only of those who are circumcised, but also of those who walk in the footsteps of his faith, such as he had in uncircumcision. Therefore, this passage should be read in the following way: he became a father to the circumcised, but not to those who are similar to him only by circumcision, but to those who walk in the footsteps of his faith, i.e. who, like him, believe in the resurrection of dead bodies. Namely, in his old age and numbness, he believed that God could make his seed fruitful and give him a son. The complete thought is the following: being still uncircumcised, Abraham believed and was justified, so that in this way he would become the father of the believing uncircumcised. On the other hand, he received circumcision, the seal and sign of the faith he had in uncircumcision, in order to become the father of the circumcised but, of course, of those who walk in the footsteps of his faith, which he had before he was still circumcised. As soon as there is no such faith, circumcision is vainly praised, imitating that which shows a sack, on which only a seal has been put but in which there is nothing. A Jew, therefore, is a bag sealed with circumcision, but who does not have the faith whose seal is circumcision. 13. Because the promise to Abraham or his seed that he would be the heir of the world was not by the law but by the righteousness of faith. 14. For if the heirs are those who are of the law, faith is in vain and the promise fails. The apostle has already proved that justification is not by the law but by faith. Now he proves that Abraham did not receive the promise by the law but by righteous faith. What promise? To be the heir of the world, that is. that all the peoples of the whole world may be blessed in it. If, he says, the promise is given by law, then faith is in vain, ie. it proves to be futile and useless. Who then will care for faith if the promise of inheritance is given by law? Things, however, are not like that. Abraham did not inherit the promise by law (because where was the law then?), but by faith, as it is written: Abraham believed (Genesis 15:6). 15. For the law creates wrath, and where there is no law, there is no transgression. Now he proves in what way the promise is ineffective. He says that transgression is united with the law, and transgression of the law creates anger and exposes one to curse and punishment. How, he asks, are those guilty of transgression worthy of inheritance? 16. That is why it is of faith, that it may be by grace, that the promise may be sure to all posterity, not only that which is of the law, but that which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17. As it is written: for I have made you a father to many nations before the God in whom you believe... Since the law creates wrath, it is said that Abraham was justified and became an heir of faith, so that everything would be according to grace. To make the promise sure. Grace is not like law, and there is no transgression, which would make the gift untrustworthy. As everything happens according to the grace and mercy of God, then it was given just and safe for all of us, i.e. for all believers, not only for those who are according to the law, i.e. circumcised, but also for those who are uncircumcised, who are Abraham's seed born by faith. Therefore, whoever does not have faith is not the seed of Abraham, who is the father of us all, i.e. believers, as it is written: I have made you a father to many nations. The meaning is as follows: Abraham is the father of all before God, i.e. similar to God: as God is the Father of all, so is Abraham, but not by natural kinship, but by the covenant (covenant) of faith. In whom he believed, he added because of this, to show that Abraham received the reward of faith - to be the father of all. If, therefore, you, Jew, do not acknowledge that Abraham is the father of all, you diminish the honor which he received by faith. Who revives the dead and calls the non-existent as the existent. Now he repeats what was said before, ie. that Abraham believed that God could not only revive a dead body, such as his, but also make it fruitful, which is why he now says: Who gives life to the dead. He added the words: he calls the non-existent as existing, to show that it is not impossible for God to make those who are not children of Abraham his (Abraham's) children. However, he did not say that he calls the non-existent into being, but that he calls. As easy as it is for us to name (name) something existing, it is so easy for God to call from non-being (non-existence) into being (existence). 18. When there was no hope, he believed with hope that he would be the father of many nations... Do not think, he says, that Abraham is worthy of honor without merit. Is this possible, when he, without human hope, with the hope of God, believed that he would become the father of many nations, and not those who descended from Ishmael (because they did not descend from Abraham by faith but by nature), but those who are similar to him in faith? As it is said: So shall thy seed be. 19. And not weakening in faith, he did not think of his already numb body, which was about a hundred years old, nor of the numbness of Sarah's womb. 20. And he did not doubt the promise of God with unbelief, but strengthened in faith and gave glory to God, 21. And he was completely convinced that what God promised, he could do. Having said that Abraham believed without any human hope with God's hope, he now proves it, saying that Abraham was told: I will multiply your seed like the stars of the sky and like the sand of the sea (Moses 15:5 and 22:17). He (Abraham), therefore, did not weaken in faith, but strengthened in it, not paying attention to his own body, which was numb due to old age, nor to the double numbness of Sarah's womb (which was numb from both old age and barrenness). He didn't waver, that is. he didn't have the slightest doubt, he didn't waver at the thought, but he grew stronger in faith. Notice how it proves that the believer needs a greater power. Many humiliated faith as a work that does not require effort, while glorifying works, because they require sweat and strength. The apostle, however, says that the believer needs a great and strong soul to reject the persuasions of unbelief, just as Abraham was strong in faith. And how was Abraham strong in faith? By giving glory to God, that is, he did not believe on the basis of human reasoning, but by thinking about what is worthy of the glory of God and being convinced that God can do the impossible, because that is the glory of God. He was about a hundred years old, it was said approximately, because Abraham was not yet a hundred years old at that time. 22. That is why it is counted in his righteousness. 23. And it would not be written only for him if it was counted to him, 24. But also for us to whom it will be counted, who believe in the One who raised Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead, 25. Who was delivered for our sins and rose for our justification. The apostle said many things in praise of Abraham, and someone could object: "Why is that important to us?" That is why he says that it is also written for us, that our faith will be counted as righteousness, only if we have it, believing in the One who resurrected Jesus. If you doubt that you can justify yourself, imagine in your soul Jesus, Who blotted out all your sins and Who did not die for His sin, but for the sin of the world. Because He died without sin, He was resurrected righteously. How could He, Who had no sin, be kept in hell? Therefore, He died and was resurrected for this reason, in order to free (us) from sin and make us righteous. And just as Abraham believed that his already mortified body would become fruitful, so you also believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that will be counted in your justice, just like your forefather Abraham. 1. Having been justified by faith, we have peace in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2. Through whom we have access by faith to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God. The apostle here reasons about the life of faith, so that we do not become careless, after he said so much in praise of faith and denigrating works. Since faith has justified us, we will no longer sin, but through a life that pleases Him, we will be at peace with God. How will that happen? Through our Lord Jesus Christ. By justifying us when we were sinners, He also helps us to remain in His justice, because we have access to that grace through Him. If he brought those who existed a long time ago, so much the more will he keep those who have recently existed (= whose existence is near). He brought us to that grace. In what way? By faith, that is. then, when we offered faith. What kind of grace is that? Obtaining all the goods that are given to us through baptism. In which we stand, having firmness and steadfastness. Divine goods always stand and never change. Besides, we will not only keep firmly what we have gained, but we hope to gain the rest as well. We boast, he says, in the hope of good things that will be given to us in the future. As they relate to the glory of God, they will inevitably be given to us, if not for our sake, then for the glorification of God Himself. Z. And not only that, but we also boast about troubles, knowing that trouble builds patience. 4. And suffering is experience, and experience is hope. 5. And hope is not ashamed. We do not boast, he says, only of future goods, but even more of our present troubles. Don't be confused, he says, because we are in trouble, because that is praise for a Christian. In what way? Adversity builds patience, and patience makes the tested experienced (= tested). An experienced man, calming himself in good conscience with the thought that he is exposed to troubles for the sake of God, hopes that he will receive a reward for those troubles. Such hope is not fruitless and does not shame the one who hopes. Human hopes, which are not realized, shame a person, while divine hopes are not like that. He, Who gives good things, is immortal and gentle, and we, though we die, will live, and then nothing will prevent our hopes from being realized. Because the love of God was poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. He assures us about the future with the love that God has already shown us and as if to say the following: "Do not lose faith, because hope for divine goods is not in vain. The One who loved us so much that without any effort on our part he made us children of God through the Holy Spirit, how could he not give us crowns after our efforts? He says, God's love has poured into our hearts, i.e. it is abundant and rich in us, because in our hearts we have the Holy Spirit, which was given to us by God Himself. 6. Because Christ, while we were still powerless, died at the appointed time for the wicked. 7. Because hardly anyone will die for the righteous; and maybe someone would dare to die for good. 8. But God shows his love for us, because while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9. Therefore, we will much sooner be saved from wrath through Him now that we are justified by His blood. By saying that God's love pours into us through the Spirit that we have within us as a gift from God, he also shows the greatness of that love based on the fact that Christ died for us who are weak (škr cdžt aavechš), i.e. sinful or, what is worse, ungodly, although hardly anyone would be found who would die for the righteous. Therefore, the superabundance of love is to die for sinners and the ungodly. At a certain time, that is, at an appropriate and predetermined (lat. predefinitum) time, because it was the right time, then he died. When He died because of that love and when He justified us with His death, all the more will He now save us from the wrath, which He has already justified. He gave us what is greater, ie. justification. how can he not save us from wrath? On the other hand, those who are saved from wrath, according to His great love, He also gives good things. 10. Because when we as enemies were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much sooner, already reconciled, we will be saved by His life. Although he seems to be talking about the same thing here, the conclusions he reaches through the comparison are different. He previously spoke about our sinfulness and, adding that we are justified, concludes through a comparison: He, who justified us sinners by His death, will all the more save the justified. Now, having mentioned Christ's life and Christ's death, he again draws a conclusion by way of comparison: when we are reconciled by the blood and death of the Lord, how can we not be saved by His life? Will not He, who did not spare His Son, but delivered Him to death for our reconciliation, save us all the more with His life? 11. And not only that, but we also praise God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we now receive reconciliation. He says, we are not only saved, but we also boast about God, because we were saved when we were ungodly, and we were saved by the blood of the Only Begotten. We boast in the Lord Jesus Christ: He, Who is the source of our reconciliation, is also the source of our praise. 12. Because just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so death entered all people, since they all sinned. After saying that the Lord Jesus has justified us, he turns to the root of evil, to sin and death, and shows that both, ie. and sin and death entered the world through one man, Adam, and that they came again through one man, i.e. By Christ, removed. What do the words mean: All have sinned? It means that everyone sinned in Adam. As soon as he fell, those who did not taste of the forbidden tree became mortal through him; since he had fallen, it was as if they themselves had fallen. 13. Because sin was in the world until the law, but sin is not counted when there is no law. 14. But the death of the kings from Adam to Moses and on those who did not sin with a similar transgression as Adam, who is the image of Him who is to come. The apostle wants to prove that even those who did not taste of the forbidden tree and who did not sin like Adam, were also considered sinners because of his sin, and died. He proves it in the following way: sin reigned until the giving of the law, that is, even before the law. What was that sin? Is sin due to transgression of the law? However, how could there be such a sin, when there was no law? Sin is counted when there is a law, and people who transgress the law are inevitably called sinners. But the death of the kings from Adam to Moses, i.e. and before the law was given. This means that there was sin, through which death reigned: if there were no sin to retain death, then it would not reign. Since it was proved that the sin due to transgression did not yet exist, it only remained that it was Adam's sin, through which death reigned over those who did not directly sin (because those who did not receive the law and did not transgress it are not said to have sinned). However, they transgressed in the likeness of Adam's transgression and became partakers of his fall as the fall of their forefather, who is the type of Christ. As ancient Adam made all guilty in his fall, though they themselves did not fall, so Christ justified all, though they had done nothing worthy of justification. Precisely because of this, he is the prototype of the One who will come, that is. Christ. 15. But the gift of grace is not like a transgression, because if the transgression of one leads many to sin, much more the grace of God and the gift of the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, is abundantly poured out on many. 16. And it would not be with a gift as it would be with a transgression through one; for the judgment for one would be condemnation, and the gift of grace would be justification from many transgressions. Christ, he says, did not benefit us only to the extent that Adam harmed us; if the sin was so strong that due to the fall of one, all his descendants were condemned, although they did not fall, then the grace of God the Father, and not only His, but also (the grace of) His Son, will affect many more and more abundantly. The gift of God cannot be equal to condemnation through one who has sinned. Transgression, ie. sin, which is subject to judgment, originated from Adam and would be condemned, i.e. death, and a multitude of sins always existed in his posterity, so that men were in the power of many sins and death. The benefactor would be justified from many transgressions, i.e. grace not only erased that one sin, but also the other sins that followed it. She became our justification, giving us forgiveness for all transgressions committed after the fall. 17. For if by the transgression of one death reigns through one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness in life reign through one, Jesus Christ. 8. So, therefore, just as by one transgression comes condemnation on all men, so also by one justification comes on all men the justification of life. If because one man ate from the forbidden tree, death reigned, then we, who have received the abundance and richness of grace and justification, will live and reign through one Jesus Christ, whose brothers and with whom we have joined in one body, with whom we have united as body with the Head. We did not receive a simple and uniform good, so that we could have doubts about the future, but our goods are the fruit of abundant blessings. Imagine that someone got into a lot of debt and because of that he was thrown into prison together with his wife and children and that after that he was not only released from prison and debt, but also that he received ten thousand talents, that he was introduced to the imperial palace, that he was worthy of high honor and became the emperor's son. That's exactly what happened with us. Therefore, says the apostle in concluding his thought, just as through the transgression of one (what he previously called a sin he now calls a transgression, referring to Adam's sin) all men were exposed to the curse, so also through the justification of one, Christ, grace was poured out on all men, giving them justification instead of sin and life instead of death. 19. For just as through the disobedience of one man many became sinners, so also through the obedience of one man many will become righteous. It might seem that he is repeating (what has been said) at this point, although in fact it is not. He previously said: Just as by one transgression condemnation comes to all people, so by one justification comes to all people the justification of life (v. 18), and now he explains what the transgression of one consisted of and says that it was disobedience, through which many became sinful, i.e. liable to punishment and sentenced to death. He also explained what the justification of the One consisted of, i.e. Christ, and says that it was obedience, even unto death, and even unto death on the cross. Through such obedience, death is destroyed and we are freed from the sentence of death. 20. And the Law came with that to multiply the transgression; and where sin is multiplied, grace is multiplied even more. After proving that in Adam all are condemned and in Christ all are saved, someone could probably doubt and object: What did he do during so many years of the law, if Christ justified us? The law, corresponds to come, that is. it was given temporarily, it was not the main and most important need. When he came, transgressions multiplied, because he gave many commandments. However, people transgressed all those commandments, which is why the transgression (lawlessness) multiplied. The conjunction "that" does not indicate the cause, but the effects. The law was given for the reduction and extermination of sin. However, quite the opposite happened, not because of the nature of the law, but because of human negligence. And while sin multiplied through the law, God's grace appeared abundantly through Christ. She not only freed us from sin, but also justified us, made us heavenly and made us sons of God. That is why he does not say that the grace has multiplied, but that it has multiplied even more (lit. overmultiplied), thus indicating its great abundance. 21. That, just as sin reigns in death, grace reigns in righteousness for eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Having said that grace appeared abundantly, so that we would not be unfaithful, the apostle shows that such an appearance corresponds to her purpose and says: sin was the king and death the soldier, whom she armed. If sin reigned over us, having death as a soldier, then the grace that bestows righteousness, destroys sin and together with sin, eradicates death and leads to eternal life will reign in us. And as in war the adversaries stand against each other, sin had death for its soldier, while grace (for its soldier) had justification. Therefore, justification mortified the emperor, sin, and with it death, and, finally, eternal life was introduced. 1. So what shall we say? Shall we remain in sin that grace may abound? No way! 2. We who have died to sin, how shall we still live in it? When sin multiplied, he says, grace multiplied. Based on this, one could reason as follows: "We will not stop sinning, so that grace may appear more abundantly." The apostle refutes such reasoning and expresses himself negatively: Not at all, as is usually expressed about something which, according to the common understanding, is extremely inappropriate. After that he states the proof: since we died to sin, that through baptism we became dead to it and no longer have to be obedient to it, how then can we continue to live in it, to be inclined and obedient to it? From there we know that through baptism every believer truly dies to sin, but that due to his own negligence, he "resurrects" himself and comes alive for it (that is, for sin), as soon as he unites with it. On the contrary, a caring person always keeps that numbness in himself and, no matter what sin commands him, he does not obey it, as if he were dead. 3. Or don't you know that all of us who are baptized into Christ Jesus are baptized into His death! 4. Thus we were buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ rose from the dead with the glory of the Father, so we too would walk in a new (renewed) life. He tells how we died to sin and says: through baptism. We have been baptized into the death of Christ, which means that we are obliged to die as He died. What is the cross and the grave for Christ, is baptism for us, although in a different sense. Christ died and rose again bodily, while we die for sin and rise again for virtue. Just as Christ rose bodily from the dead by the glory of the Father (i.e. by his own divinity because the glory of the Father is the Son), so we are resurrected by another resurrection, that is. a new way of life. When, for example, a fornicator becomes chaste, then it is the death and resurrection, the death of vice, and the resurrection and revival of virtue in man. 5. Because if we became united with the form (likeness) of His death, then we will also be with the resurrection; 6. Knowing this, let our old man be crucified with Him, so that the sinful body may be destroyed, so that we are no longer slaves to sin. 7. Because whoever dies is freed from sin. He did not say: we have joined (we have become partakers, we have joined), but he says that we have grown together, indicating with the word growing together the fruit of Christ's death in us. The body of Christ, buried in the ground, brought salvation. As we are buried (immersed) in water and Christ in earth, whereby we are buried for sin and He bodily, he did not even say: "with death", but: with the likeness of death. Therefore, we will be partakers of the resurrection and will inherit eternal life, manifesting our resurrection with good works. Our old man, that is. wickedness, is crucified with Him, i.e. just as the body of Christ was buried in the earth, so he was buried in baptism. In order to destroy the sinful body, ie. vice, which is made up of many aspects, or our body, which is prone to sin, which is why he adds: that we are no longer slaves to sin. I want, he says, for the body to be dead, but not in the sense that it is destroyed, but that it does not sin. Because whoever dies is freed from sin. It talks about the whole man. As the one who died was freed from sin, i.e. he was saved and is free, so you, who were baptized and died for sin, remain dead for him. 8. If we die with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. 9. Knowing that Christ, having risen from the dead, dies no more; death no longer rules Him. 10. Because he died, he died to sin once for all; and what lives, lives to God. 11. Likewise, consider yourselves to be dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. It might seem to us that he is repeating here what has already been said, although, in fact, it is not so. The apostle previously said that we are obliged to always remain dead to sin, and now he is reasoning about the resurrection of a new life according to God (i.e. a new way of life), which we are obliged to always have. If we died with Christ through baptism, we believe that we will always be partakers of the resurrection (that we will be partakers of the resurrection), which consists in a new life, just as the resurrected Christ always lives and never dies. Because he died, he died to sin once and for all means: Christ died for our sin, while He was not guilty of death by Himself. And what lives, lives to God, that is. he lives by divine power, because he always lives in the power of God and the Father. Just as Christ does not die a second time, so we do not die a second time through a second baptism (that is, there is no second baptism for us). Therefore, we will remain in the previous one, ie. in the death of sin, but also in the resurrection of life according to God. We got that in Jesus Christ, that is. with His help (lit. alliance, aiccahga), because He who raised us when we were dead, will all the more preserve us in life now that we are alive. 12. So that sin does not reign in your mortal body, so that you listen to it in its lusts. Wanting to show that we do not remain in the power of vice by force and compulsion but according to our own will, he did not say: "so that he does not tyrannize us", but he says: that he does not rule because the kingdom is the economy of those who have a will. By the expression: in your mortal body, first of all, he showed that even what is pleasant for the body is not permanent (because the body is subject to death), and that it (the body) therefore should not be pleased with it, but also that difficulties are not permanent, so that one should not shy away from adversity and struggle against pleasure. Secondly, he reminds us that mortality comes from sin and advises us to no longer be slaves to sin, since it leads to death. In what way does sin reign? If we submit to it in bodily lusts, because the flesh is not harmful by its very nature, but through obedience to sin. Notice the grace of Christ. Adam sinned, although he did not have a mortal body, while we, although in a mortal body, overcome sin. 13. Neither give your members to sin as weapons of injustice, but give yourselves to God as those raised from the dead, and your members to God as weapons of justice. Where are the Manichaeans, 4 who say that the flesh is sinful by its very nature? The body is a weapon, and a weapon is a tool for virtue and vice. Thus, a sword in the hands of a soldier serves as a weapon for the citizens, while in the hands of a robber it is a weapon against the citizens. Do not give your limbs to sin for weapons of unrighteousness. The one who sins often acts unjustly in relation to his neighbor, but always - in relation to himself. Rather, submit yourself to God, thinking about the difference between God and sin and who is better to submit to - to sin that deadens, or to God Who makes us alive? By saying that the limbs are weapons of injustice, he showed on the one hand that the body, as said, is not something ugly, if it can be a weapon of justice, and on the other - that the battle has already begun and that we must be soldiers, subordinate to God, who will take up arms to protect our souls. 14. For sin will not have dominion over you, since you are not under the law, but under grace. Until the coming of Christ, he says, it was easy for sin to conquer your bodies. At that time, there was no helper of the Spirit, and no baptism that could mortify sin. That is why the law, prescribing what to do, has not progressed. After the coming of Christ, the struggle became easier, which is why our feats are greater, like the feats of those who receive greater help. Therefore, sin will not dominate us, if we do not yield too much to it (submit). Now there is no more law, which only gives a command, but does not indicate any help, but there is grace, which forgives past sins and strengthens for the future. 15. So what? Will we sin when we are not under law but under grace? No way! 16. Do you not know that to whom you give yourselves as servants in obedience, you are servants of him whom you obey: either of sin for death, or of obedience for righteousness. The apostle always repeats such objections, which is why he both raises and resolves them. This is how he deals with this expression, responding to it: Not at all! Then he proves that it is not difficult for us not to sin. Think, he advises, what is better: whether to be a servant of sin, to which you surrender yourself of your own free will (because that is what the expression means: you give yourself) and to receive as a wage death, i.e. eternal punishment (because Adam's sin gave birth to bodily and temporary death, while the sin that is being perfected now exposes man to eternal death, i.e. eternal punishment), or to submit to God and receive as a reward righteousness and the goods that result from it? 17. But thanks be to God that you saved the servants of sin and obeyed from the heart the rule of science to which you surrendered. Thank God. Our deliverance from that evil is not the work of man, but of God's power, for which we should give thanks. After that, you did not become obedient by compulsion, but by the disposition of your own heart. Therefore, do not return to the worse one, from which you voluntarily fell away. In order to prove that, although they themselves approached, everything depended on God's grace, he adds: they surrendered, ie. you have been taught the rule of science by God. By what rule of science? To live an orthodox and most appropriate life. 18. Having freed themselves from sin, they became servants of righteousness. 19. As a man I speak because of the weakness of your body. for just as you gave your members to serve impurity and lawlessness for lawlessness, so now give your members to serve righteousness for sanctification. He says, you have received two benefactions from God: and you have been freed from such shame and have become servants of righteousness, and therefore you enjoy great glory. Wanting then to say that the Romans should serve God the way they once served sin, he first adds: I speak as a man, that is. I am presenting something insignificant, unworthy of the subject, but proportionate to your weakness. In this way, he should have shown an incomparably greater measure of service to God than to sin; however, due to your impotence, he says, imagine at least an equal measure. Notice how he clearly pointed out our voluntary slavery, saying: So now give your members. Having, he says, made yourselves slaves, you have surrendered to impurity, ie. adultery, fornication and the most shameful acts - and what can I say, only one impurity? Any iniquity in general, and that you are a slave to iniquity, i.e. to commit even greater iniquities. Namely, having committed a sin, you did not stop there, but found in it an incentive for further iniquity. Now, in the same measure, give your limbs to serve justice, that is, every virtue, so that you may spend your life in wisdom and holiness and not in former impurity. 20. Because when you were slaves to sin, you were free from righteousness. 21. What kind of fruit will you have then from what you are ashamed of now? Because the end of that is death. When, he says, you lived in vice, you were alienated from righteousness. Then you did not submit to her and did not want to serve her at all, and you were freeing yourself from her. So now, serving justice, do not submit to sin. And what kind of fruit did you have from impurity? None, except shame. And what do I say? Embarrassment? You had death as your fruit: because the end of that is death, often bodily, but always spiritual. However, you have been saved from death by the grace of Christ, and shame is also beneficial to you, because you are ashamed of those sins. 22. And now, having freed yourself from sin and become servants of God, you have your fruit for sanctification, and the end is eternal life. 23. Because the wages of sin is death, and the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. The fruit of sin is shame, and the fruit of justice is sanctification, purity, innocence. The end of the former is death, and the end of the latter is eternal life. Salary is also called the rent that the emperor gave to the soldiers. Likewise, you, who serve sin, have been given a wage (rent) and a reward for serving, i.e. death. A gift from God. He did not say: "a reward from God", but a gift. You did not receive a reward or a salary for your work, but all of that came from the grace of Jesus Christ, because He created everything. 1. Or do you not know, brothers, because I say to those who know the law, that the law rules over a man only as long as he lives? 2. Because a married woman is bound by law to her living husband; if the husband dies, he is freed from the law of the husband. 3. Therefore, while her husband is alive, she will be an adulteress if she marries another husband; if her husband dies, she is free from the law not to be an adulteress if she marries another husband. . Leaving the moral teaching, he returns to the dogmatic and shows that they should no longer remain under the law. The law, he says, as you know, has authority over man while he is among the living, because it (the law) does not extend to the dead. Thus, he says, you also died for the law, and because of that, he has no power over you. He hints at it at the beginning, and in the sequel he talks about it from the other side. For example, when the husband dies, the wife has the power to marry another. Here he compared the husband to the law, and the wife to his listeners. He should have said after that: "Therefore, brothers, the law has no authority over you, because he died." The apostle, however, did not say so, so as not to embitter the Jews, who therefore use a double freedom. Namely, if a woman is free from the rule of the law when her husband dies, she is that much freer (from the law) when she dies herself. 4. Thus, my brothers, you also die to the law with the body of Christ, that you may belong to another, to Him who rose from the dead, so that we may bear fruit to God. If, he says, you have died, then you do not stand under the law. If a woman is not subject to responsibility after her husband's death, then she is all the more free from the yoke of the law when she herself dies. Note how wisely he proves that the law itself wants to be abandoned. You too, therefore, have been freed from the law by the body of Christ, Who was crucified for us. Because of this, the body was mortified, so that you might die for the law and be under the authority of the Other, Who died for you and then rose again. After he died, the law no longer lived. Christ, however, lives even after He died, so you have no authority to depart from Him Who lives. And what is the use of that? To bring fruit to God, that is. that from that marriage, in which we were united with Christ, we give birth to God's children, i.e. good deeds. 5. Because when we were in hell, sinful passions through the law worked in our members to bring forth the fruit of death. Proving that the law in no way helps us to avoid carnal passions, but only manifests them, he says: » When we were in carnal life and in bad deeds, sinful passions acted in our members, manifested by the law and recognized through the law.» He did not say that the limbs create vices, so as not to create room for accusing the body. The soul is like a musician, and the body is a lyre. If the musician plays badly, then the lyre also spreads bad sounds. Therefore, while we stood under the law and could not avoid the passions, we gave birth to the deaths of vile deeds. 6. And now we are freed from the law by dying to what held us, to serve (God) in a new spirit and not according to the old letter. In order not to anger the Jews, he did not say: "Abolish the law", but: we have freed ourselves from the law, i.e. we separated, delivered, and became dead and immobile in relation to that bridle by which they held us. That rein was a sin, because we held onto it like a chain. We died to sin, to serve God in the new spirit and not according to the old letter. In ancient times, virtue was difficult, because Adam received many natural defects in his mortal body. Now, thanks to the grace of Christ, our nature in baptism received help from the Spirit, who made us new and young, and freed us from the obsolescence and weakness of letters. That is why in the time of the law virginity was rare, while today in the Church thousands of pious souls live a virginal life. The same should be said about contempt for death. 7. So what shall we say? That the law is a sin? No way! But I didn't know sin except through the law, because I wouldn't even know about desire if the law didn't say: Do not desire! The apostle said many things, which could look like an accusation of the law, namely: Sin will not dominate you, since you are not under the law but under grace (Rom.6:14), the law comes to multiply the transgression (Rom.5:20) and according to the old letter (7:6). To remove such suspicion, he introduces an objection in the form of a question and says: "What am I saying about the law? Is that, that he is a sin?» He then disposes of this objection, and at first answers in the negative, as he usually speaks of the grossly improper, and then presents the proof. The law, he says, is not a sin, but indicates sin, because I would not know about desire, if the law had not said: do not desire. How did the flood finally happen? How was Sodom burned, if until the law they did not know that desire is evil? They knew even then, but the desire was not strengthened then and that is why they did not know it with such completeness as they understood it after witnessing the law. Originally, they knew desire only according to the natural, but later they also knew it according to the written law, which is why it became the reason for an even greater punishment. However, this did not happen because of the teaching of the law, but because of the negligence of those who did not care about the commandments of the law, as the apostle points out below. 8. And sin, taking the occasion through the commandment, caused every desire in me, because sin without the law is dead. He did not say that the law caused the desire, but that sin (which, according to St. Chrysostom, is a careless and corrupt will) and the devil (because some by sin meant him) or the inclination to pleasures and the desire for evil and the very teaching of the law used for evil. It would be unfair to accuse a doctor who, when suffering from fever, is ready to constantly drink water, does not allow him to drink and thus increases his desire to drink. It is the doctor's duty to forbid, and it is the patient's duty not to drink. Thus, the law had in mind to separate man from lust by teaching. However, the sinful will intensified the desire and created not just one, but every desire, in order to do evil with intensity. When someone is forbidden to do something, then he becomes even more enflamed with the desire for it. Therefore, sin manifested itself when the law was broken. Because sin without the law is dead, that is. it is considered not to exist. When there is a law, which commands what is necessary, then sin lives, ie. it exists and is shown as a sin to those who transgress the law and intentionally (literally, knowingly) sin. 9. And I used to live without the law, and when the commandment comes, sin revives. 10. And I died. Until Moses, he says, I lived without law and was not exposed to harsh condemnation (here the apostle speaks on behalf of human nature). However, when the commandment came, sin proved to be sin. And although they were wrong before, people were not aware of it. The good of the law consists precisely in the fact that it made people aware that they are wrong. The words: And I died, understood in two ways, both as: "I sinned", and as "became guilty of a greater punishment", for which the law is not to blame, but the one who watches over it. Imagine that someone is sick and does not know that he is sick. Then the doctor comes to the patient and reveals to him that he is sick, advising that he must refrain from this or that food, because it aggravates the illness. The patient, however, did not listen to the doctor and therefore died. It turns out that the commandment given to me for life would lead to death. 11. Because sin, having taken advantage of the commandment, deceived me and killed me with it. He did not say: "the commandment was death for me", but: it was for my death, thus explaining the outrageousness and strangeness of these confusing words. The goal of the commandment is to lead to life, which is why it was given. If death resulted from that, then it is not the fault of the commandment, because I was deceived and deadened by sin through the commandment, that is, the desire for evil and a corrupt and sinful thought or, rather, pleasure. If it were not for the commandment, which points to sin, I would not be considered a perpetrator of sin, and I would not be exposed to punishment, because the word kill me should be understood in connection with one and the other, both with sin and with punishment, as was previously said for the expression: I died. The conclusion of the apostle's thought is as follows: when there is no law, sin is not counted. When the law came and was violated, sin manifested itself and came to life, because sin appears through the violation of commandments, that is. manifestation and state of sin, while before it neither existed nor was counted, since there was no law. Therefore, the law itself was not the cause of sin. He, however, could not deliver from him, so that because of that weakness of the law we needed grace. 12. Therefore, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. Here he quite clearly shut the mouths of the Marcionites, 5 Manichaeans, Simonians 6 and all who condemn the Old Testament. He clearly declares that the law is holy, and that the commandment is holy, just, and good. He distinguishes law from commandment, as general from individual. In the law, namely, one is made up of dogmas, and the other is made up of commandments. Therefore, the dogmas of the law are holy, and the commandments, which concern actions, are holy, just and good. Therefore, they are laws established by a good and just God, although the aforementioned heretics blaspheme and say that the law comes from an evil god. 13. Does death bring me good, then? No way! But sin, to show itself as sin, caused me death through good. It was not the law, he says, that became death for me, but sin made me dead, so that it became clear what evil sin is, and that, regardless of the treatment by the law, it became even worse. By sin, as we said earlier, we mean the will inclined to pleasure, and the tendency towards sin, and therefore the devil and the act itself, attracted by pleasure. Praise be to Christ, who freed us from such evil! To be sinful to the extreme sinful through the commandment. Through the commandment, it was revealed what kind of calamity (ruin) sin is, because sin used the commandment for death. So also for a disease, when it worsens after the use of drugs, it can be said that it manifested its malignant properties through the drugs and that it did not benefit from the drugs. 14. Because we know that the law is spiritual, and I am carnal, sold into slavery to sin. The apostle said that sin was revealed through the commandment. Therefore, lest you think that the law is the cause of sin, he presents a general objection and says: We know that the law is spiritual. Everyone, he says, knows, and everyone accepts, that the law is by no means the cause of sin, but that it is spiritual, i.e. that he is a teacher of virtue and an enemy of vice. Where did sin come from, despite such a beautiful teacher? From the laziness and weakness of the disciples because, he says, I am carnal, which means: the whole human nature, both before the giving of the law and at the time of its giving, was filled with a multitude of passions. As a result of Adam's transgression, not only did we become mortal, but our nature also acquired passions, gave itself over to sin and became its servant, so that it could not even raise its head. 15. Because I don't know what I'm doing. He is not talking about perfect ignorance here because if we were to sin in ignorance, then what would we be punished for? What does he say then? I dwell in darkness, and I am drawn, not knowing how I am drawn to sin. Therefore, when he says: I don't know, it does not indicate ignorance of what should be done, but danger, intrigue, deception, attraction. All this speaks of people who lived until Christ's coming in the flesh, although he portrays it as if he were speaking on his own behalf. Because I don't do what I want. This is how he expresses himself, instead of saying the following: "The people of that time did not do what they wanted." When expressed in this way, it does not imply necessity or compulsion. So what is he saying? Here's what: what they didn't approve of, what they didn't like, that's what they did, because in the following he says: What I hate, that's what I do. Do you see that he does not introduce compulsion or necessity, because in that case he would add: "What I am forced to do by necessity, that is what I do." However, he did not say that, instead he says: What I hate. How did evil appear? Due to attraction, due to the impotence (weakness) they had due to Adam's transgression. It was precisely this impotence (weakness) that the law could not heal, even though it said what should be done. She was healed by the One who came, Christ. So here, in everything he said and what he intended to say, the apostle has one goal, that is, to assure that human nature has become incurable and that no one but Christ could heal it. 16. If I do what he does not want, I admit that the law is good. That the law is good, he says, can be seen from the fact that I naturally know what to do, and my mind (my thought) is not injured, even though I indulge in vice. 17. Then it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that lives in me. 18. Because I know that good does not live in me, that is, in my body. He did not say that the flesh does it, but sin, that is. the tyranny of sin that attracts me. What are they raving about, who have taken up arms against the body, and exclude it from God's creation? They state that the apostle says: good does not live in me, that is, in my body. Listen, in what sense he said that. Man consists of two parts, soul and body. The first of them, that is, the soul, is the master of everything, and the body is the servant. That is why the expression: good does not live in me means: it is not in the power of the body, but in the power of the soul. The body does what the soul chooses. Likewise, we can say that the harmonious sound is not in the lyre, but in the musician; it will not debase the lyre, but it will show the superiority of the artist over the instrument. Because I have it in me to want (good), but I don't find doing good. 19. Because I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want. 20. And when I do what I don't want to, I'm not doing that, but the sin that lives in me. With the words: I do not find, it means the attacks and intrigues of sin, because it removes the guilt from the essence of the soul and from the essence of the body and attributes everything to evil actions and will. When he says: I don't want to, he removes the guilt from the soul, and when he says: I don't do it, he removes the guilt from the body. So who does evil? Sin, which according to St. John Chrysostom, corrupt and sinful will. That will is not God's creation, but our movement. By itself, the will is a creation (work) of God; however, the will directed towards a goal is something of our own, the operation of our free will. It was previously said what sin is, ie. the tyranny of sin, which attracts our mind through pleasure. 21. Therefore, I find a law: when I want to do good, evil is present to me. The expression is unclear, because something is missing in it. It should be said: when I want to do good, I find my protector in the law. However, I do not do good, because evil is present to me. The meaning of this place is as follows: "The knowledge of good has been placed in me from the beginning." I also find that the law also protects good and praises it, and I want to do good, but some other force attracts me, evil is present in me, i.e. the effect of evil is not canceled in me.» After all, interpreting this place as incomplete, St. John Chrysostom hints that it can be understood differently, that is: I find that the law is not given to anyone else but me, who wants to do good. Law is law only for those who want to do good, as for those who want the same as him. This becomes clear from what follows. 22. Because I rejoice in the law of God according to the inner man. 23. But I see another law in my limbs that fights against the law of my mind, and enslaves me to the law of sin, which is in my limbs. Even before the (appearance) of the law I knew well, and when I find it depicted in writing, I praise the law and agree with it according to the inner man. But I see another law, ie. sin, and he called it a law because those whom he deceived obey him and fear to leave him, as a law that must be fulfilled. That law opposes the law of my mind, that is. natural law (previously he called it the inner man and now he calls it the mind). He takes the victory and turns me into a prisoner, and defeats even the natural and written law. How does it turn me into a prisoner? By the law of sin, that is. by force, tyranny. He did not say: "by the attraction of the flesh" or "by the nature of the flesh", but by the law of sin that reigns in my members. Hence it follows that the body is not to blame for it. If a robber takes over the imperial palace, it is not the palace's fault in the least. It is the same here: if sin dwells in my members, the body (in itself) is not evil on that account. Some observe four laws here: the first is the law of God, which teaches us what is proper; the other is opposed to it, and approaches us according to the workings of the devil; the third is the law of mind, i.e. natural, and the fourth and last - the law that is in our limbs, i.e. sinful free will and inclination to evil, which through habit make us hard-hearted. 4. I poor man! Who will deliver me from the body of this death? The natural law became insufficient, the written law proved impotent, and both were overcome by the tyranny of sin. From where shall we hope for salvation? Who will deliver me from the body of this death, i.e. that I may not be guilty of death, because the body, having become subject to suffering because of the transgression, has consequently become an accomplice of sin. Someone will say: if the body was a helper of sin, why were sinners punished even before the coming of Christ? Because they were given such commandments that they could fulfill even if they were in the power of sin. 25. I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. He, who was placed in a hopeless position and who found no other way out, necessarily found the Savior in Christ. Therefore, give thanks to God the Father through Jesus Christ, our Lord, i.e. through the cause of thanksgiving, Christ. He says, he fulfilled what the law could not do: He delivered me from the infirmity (weakness) of the body and strengthened it, so that it is no longer under the tyranny of sin. And just as through Adam's transgression it became mortal and an easy prey for sin, so, having obtained through obedience to the Crucified and Risen One the pledge of incorruption, it boldly opposes sin. So, therefore, I serve the law of God with my mind, and the law of sin with my body. 1. Therefore, there is no condemnation now for those who in Christ Jesus do not live according to the flesh but according to the spirit. He said I serve instead of I served, because he is admonishing the previous one. Intending to say that there is no condemnation now, etc., and to show the unspeakable grace of Christ, he is reminded of how we were before, when we knew good with the mind, but we were with the body, i.e. because of the infirmity of the flesh, submitted to the law of sin. Now, however, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, i.e., who have been worthy of baptism. Since many sin even after baptism, he added: who do not live according to the flesh, but according to the spirit, thus explaining to us that all evil originates from our carelessness. Now it is very easy to live not according to the flesh, while before Christ it was very difficult. However, we are not only obliged to live not according to the flesh, but also to live according to the spirit, because the crown is not obtained only by abstaining from vices, but also by participation (participation) in virtues and spiritual works. 2. Because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus set me free from the law of sin and death. He calls the Holy Spirit the law of the Spirit, just as he called sin the law of sin. He also called this (first) law the law of life, as opposed to the law of sin, which brought us death. The grace of God mortified both sin and death, thus making the struggle easy, leading us to a feat. Evil tongues have dared to say that by the law of sin here they mean the law of Moses. The apostle, however, nowhere so named him, and he called him all-time and spiritual. If, object some, the law of Moses is also spiritual, then what is the difference between it and the law of the Spirit? Very large. The law of Moses was only given by the Spirit, while the law of the Spirit also handed down the Spirit. 3. Because what was impossible for the law, since it was weakened by the flesh, God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and because of sin, condemned sin in the flesh. Having mentioned the Spirit, he now mentions the Father and the Son, teaching about the Holy Trinity. It could appear to be speaking against the law when, in fact, it is not. He did not say that the law did evil, but: Because he was weakened in the flesh, it was impossible for him. How weakened? By body, that is. body wisdom. After that, what the apostle spoke about is revealed. As we said before, he says that the law, though it taught, could not overcome too much carnal wisdom. That is why the Father sent His Son in the form of sinful flesh, i.e. in a body that is essentially similar to ours, sinful but sinless. As he mentioned sin, he added: in the form. Christ did not receive another body but the same one we have, sanctified and crowned it, condemned the sin in the received body and showed that the body is not sinful by nature. Imagine that the emperor's son saw a woman being beaten in the square, that he said he was her son and that he freed her from the hands of those who were beating her. Christ did the same. The expression: because of sin can be interpreted more simply, ie. like this: The Father sent His Son because of sin, i.e. to overcome sin. Explaining this place, the great John (Goldilocks) said: "Christ revealed the sin, which he sinned grievously. So long as sin put sinners to death, it rightly did so; when he found the sinless body of the Lord and put it to death, sin, being unjust and sinful, was punished. Therefore, God sent His Son to show the injustice and sinfulness of sin, in order to condemn it legally and so that the devil could not say: Christ has overcome me by force. 4. That the justice of the law may be fulfilled in us who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. So that someone would not say: "Do I benefit from the fact that Christ won the victory in the body he received", the apostle says: "It is intended for you." Justice, he says, that is. the purpose of the law (for the purpose of the law was to justify man) is fulfilled in us. What the law aspired to and could not fulfill, Christ fulfilled. It was his to lead the fight, and we take advantage of the victory. That is why we will not sin either, if we do not live according to the flesh, that is, if we do not think according to the flesh. That, that is physical wisdom is not enough, we also need, as previously mentioned, spiritual wisdom. That is why he added: by the Spirit. And David says: don't just turn away from evil, but also do good (see Ps. 33:14). When we hear that Christ has given us victory, we must by no means fall, but we are obliged to preserve the grace of baptism in water (cf. Eph. 5:26), because for us the fight is now easier than it was before. 5. For those who are according to the flesh think carnally, and those who are according to the Spirit spiritually. Those who, he says, have given themselves over to the immoderate slavery of the flesh, always think of the physical and never think of the divine. Those who have completely submitted to the Spirit, think and do everything spiritually. 6. Because carnal wisdom is death, but spiritual wisdom is life and peace. He calls the grossest thoughts carnal wisdom, and his name is borrowed from man's vilest work. Namely, the body itself has no thinking (wisdom), but the wisdom of the body is a crude and artificial thinking, what one might call a mind that thinks about the body. On the contrary, spiritual wisdom is a mind that thinks about the spiritual. Such thinking begets life, unlike death, which is begotten by carnal wisdom, and begets peace, as opposed to what is discussed below. 7. Because carnal wisdom is enmity to God, since it does not obey the law of God, nor can it. Spiritual wisdom gives birth to peace, but carnal wisdom gives birth to enmity towards God. Does this mean that thinking about the flesh raises a hand to God? No, he says, but it is said that he is enmity towards God, because he is not obedient to His law. However, do not be confused when you hear: nor can it, and understand those words as you should. Carnal wisdom cannot obey God as long as it remains so. It is the same as saying: a harlot cannot be chaste. He did not say this in the future tense: he will not be able, but in the present tense: he cannot, which means: now, while he remains bodily. If changes are not possible, then how could Paul himself, the robber, and countless other evil people become good from evil? This is how the Lord said in the Gospel: An evil tree cannot bear good fruit (Mt. 7; 18), i.e. while evil remains. Therefore, we will not think about the physical, but we will think about the spiritual, in order to be at peace with God, who gives us the Spirit through whom everything is easy for us, which in the time of the law could not be fulfilled. 8. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9. And you are not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. In other words, those who are carnally wise cannot please God as long as they remain so. Here, however, he did not call the essence of the body the body, but the gross and corporeal life, which makes the whole man corporeal. That's how it was said in the Old Testament: My Spirit will never be threatened with people, because they are flesh (Genesis 6:3). In the following, he says: and you are not according to the flesh, that is. you do not serve the carnal, but the spiritual life. Why did he not say: "You do not live in sin?" So that you would know that Christ not only extinguished the tyranny of sin, but also made the body lighter and more spiritual. Just as iron, if it stays with the fire for a long time, becomes fire by itself, so the body of those who have received the Spirit through baptism becomes completely spiritual. Because the Spirit of God lives in you. The word "because" does not express doubt but complete conviction: Since the Spirit of God is in you, you are also in the Spirit. If someone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. He did not say: "If you do not have the Spirit of Christ", because such an expression would be uncomfortable for them, but he said vaguely: If someone does not have the Spirit, he does not belong to Christ. And that is quite correct, because the Spirit is a seal. Therefore, if someone does not have a seal, he does not belong to the Lord, Whom that seal shows. 10. And if Christ is in you, then the body is dead to sin, but the Spirit is life to righteousness. Again he consoles the listeners, saying: If Christ is in you. Some have taken Christ to mean the Spirit here, but that is not true. The apostle explains that the one who has the Spirit has Christ Himself in him, because where there is One of the hypostases of the Holy Trinity, there are also the others. What will happen if Christ is in us? Then the body will be dead to sin, and the Holy Spirit in you is life, that is. not only does Sam live, but he can also give life to others. The Spirit is life for righteousness, because we are justified by God and that righteousness or justification is preserved in us. When it is preserved, then there is no sin, and when there is no sin, then there is no death. Then life remains, always, both in this age, when we begin to live according to God (because such a life, when we are dead to sin, is called life in the true sense of the word) and in the future, when life will be endless. 11. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, He who raised Jesus from the dead will also revive your mortal bodies with His Spirit who lives in you. He begins the letter about the resurrection again and says: "Do not be afraid that you are clothed in a mortal body." You have the Spirit of God, who raised Christ from the dead. And just as He resurrected Him, He will undoubtedly resurrect you, and even revive you. Those who do not have the Spirit will also be resurrected, but they will be resurrected in punishment, while those who have the Spirit will be resurrected to life. That is why the apostle did not say: the body will be resurrected, but: you will be revived by the Spirit who lives in you. He did not say: who lived, but: who lives, and remains there until the end. Seeing His Spirit in you, the Lord will take you to the marriage chamber. However, unless you have the Spirit, you will undoubtedly perish, even though you will be resurrected. Therefore, mortify the body so that the Spirit may live in you, and through Him life is given to you. 12. So, brothers, we are not bound to the flesh to live according to the flesh. Having shown the benefit of the spiritual life, that is, that through it Christ dwells in us and dead bodies are revived, at the end he adds advice and shows that we are not debtors of the body but debtors of the Spirit. What God poured out on us was a work of grace, and what is ours is owed and inevitably required. Explaining the expression, we are not beholden to the body, and so that you would not understand this about the essence of the body, he adds: that we live by the body. He says, I do not forbid you all care for the body (because we are obliged to do a lot for the body, to feed it, warm it, etc.), but (I forbid) that care which leads to sin. He lives by the body, who has made the body the master of his life and the king of his soul. 13. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. If by the Spirit you mortify the works of the flesh, you will live. He does not call death here only the immortal punishment in the Geena, but also the life spent on earth in bad deeds as death. On the contrary, if we mortify the evil deeds of the body with a spiritual life, we will live then - an infinite life, and now - a virtuous life. He who is dead to the world lives. Note that he did not say: mortify the body (because that is man-murder), but: the works of the body, obviously the evil ones. One should not simply deaden sight or hearing (because both seeing and hearing is a natural bodily work), but their use for evil. 14. Because those who are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. He previously made this promise: you will live if you mortify evil deeds. Now he mentions a more important crown and a greater reward, that is, adoption to God. He did not say: "all who live by the Spirit", but: all who are led by the Spirit, that is, those who are driven by the Spirit, like a chariot, and who have made the Spirit lord over the soul and body. Even though you received baptism and became a son of God through baptism, if you are not guided by the Spirit you will lose this gift. Although we all received the Spirit in this bath, we are required, as our work, to be guided by Him throughout our lives. That is why he did not say: "those who have received the Spirit are the sons of God", but he says: those who are led by the Spirit of God. 15. Because you did not receive the spirit of slavery, to be afraid again; but let us receive the spirit of adoption... The apostle said that those who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God. However, how the Judeans also appropriated the adoption of God for themselves, because it was said: Sons I raised and raised (Isa.1:2) and Israel is my son, and my firstborn (2Mos.4:22), shows what is the difference between our and the adoption of the Jews. The Jews, he says, received the spirit of slavery. That's what he calls writing the law. Although it was given by the Spirit, it was more like slaves. Hence, corporal punishment followed the works, and stoning, and burning, and threats: the sword, he says, will devour you (Isa.1:20). Hence, again, followed earthly rewards, and the promise of earthly goods, and a multitude of unimportant commandments, such as befit slaves. Therefore, although they were called sons, the Judeans were slaves. We, on the other hand, as noble and free, are called sons. We have both heavenly rewards and the Kingdom of Heaven. Our punishments do not consist of stoning and the like, to which the priests subjected the Jews. It is enough for us to decide the culprit from the mysterious Table, as a son (= to approach the Table as a son). Our commandments are divine and more appropriate for noble people, for example: do not look at a woman with an impure eye, do not swear, leave your property, etc. They are not fulfilled due to fear of punishment, but due to inner inclination and love. This is also proven by the fact that many of us progress beyond what is prescribed in many commandments. In addition, the Jews did not have the Spirit, while we have His abundant grace. He used the Jewish word, because that is exactly what His true sons call the Father. How is that, you will ask. Didn't the Jews also call God Father? It is said: You forgot God, your creator (Deuteronomy 32:18), and in another place: Didn't GOD create and didn't we all have one Father (Malach. 2:10). However, although this was said about the Jews, not a single Jew was found who called God Father in prayer, as we all now call Him after baptism. In addition, if the Jews called God the Father, they did so of their own free will, while believing, they call Him thus prompted by the action of the Spirit. Just as we know about the spirit of prophecy based on the fact that the one who received it predicts the future, so we recognize the spirit of adoption from the fact that the one who received it calls God the Father, because he is encouraged (moved) to do so by the Spirit. This is one of the gifts of the Spirit, as the apostle Paul himself hints at: 16. This Spirit testifies to our spirit that we are children of God. The Comforter himself testifies to the gift that has been given to us. We do not say the word "Abba" without a witness, not even by ourselves, but it is a gift from the Comforter. That's what the Spirit taught us, that is, the gift to speak like that in prayers. 17. And when we are children, we are also heirs; heirs, therefore, of God, and joint heirs of Christ... He says so, because not all children are heirs. This proves that we are both children and heirs. As not every heir receives the best inheritance, it also proves that we have inherited the best inheritance, because we are God's heirs. As, again, it is possible to be an heir but not a joint heir of the Only Begotten, he says that this also belongs to us, because we are joint heirs of Christ. Since we suffer with Him, let us be glorified with Him. By saying that we will be joint heirs with Christ, he proves that we will not reach it without reason. The One who honored us with so many good things even before we showed any merit, won't He reward us that much sooner when He sees that we are working hard? He does this so that those who received the gift would not be ashamed of it, as if they had received it without effort. Consider, however, that it is hinted here that he, who is worthy of such gifts, must undergo sufferings and dangers. 18. For I think that the sufferings of the present time are nothing compared to the glory that will be revealed to us. Having spoken of the sufferings, the apostle does not want the hearer to waver, being led to sufferings and dragged into danger. That's why he adds: "Don't be afraid. The sufferings of the present time, ie. that which is temporary and fleeting, is nothing compared to the glory to come. He did not say: "with future rest", but: with future glory, which many desire. Where there is rest, there is not always glory. However, where there is glory, there is always rest. By the word: reveal, he indicated that this glory exists even now, but that it is hidden, and that it will be revealed only then, i.e. fully show. As it is magnificent and far surpasses the present age, it is guaranteed for the future, because it extends into endless ages. Therefore, hearer, bear in mind that sufferings are temporary, while the glory of the age to come is eternal, and therefore accept sufferings and gain glory. 19. Because with ardent anticipation the creation expects the sons of God to appear. Wanting to show what kind of glory we will receive, he says that creation itself will change for the better and that we will reach a better state that much sooner. What was said has such a meaning. The prophets speak thus: rivers clap their hands, hills bounce, animals and man-made objects have faces. This is what the apostle does when he says that creation expects, ie. it is waiting to change for the better and it is waiting for the revelation of our glory, as the glory of the sons of God. Then, when we gain immortality, she too will be glorified by incorruptibility. Therefore, when you hear that creation is spoken of as living, assume that it is spoken in the sense of embodiment (= personification). 20. For matter submits to vanity not of its own will, but because of the one who submits it, with hope. 21. That matter itself will be freed from the slavery of corruption to the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Matter submitted to vanity, that is. of perishability, and it became perishable through you, man. Since you received a body that is mortal and subject to suffering, thorns and weeds have sprouted from the earth, and the sky has grown old and needs a change. In what way did matter become perishable through another? Because it was created entirely for man. The expression "not of your own will" means that it was all the deliberation (= care) of God and that it was not the merit of the creature, but it was arranged for your benefit, so that you, seeing its perishability (the perishability of matter), would despise it, and direct your gaze towards the heavens. Understand the words with hope and others similar to them in the sense of embodiment (= personification). Therefore, matter itself will be freed, not only you, but also those who are far lower than you, and that which is without soul and without senses, and everything will be worthy of the good. It will no longer be perishable, but will follow you. When the body became perishable, matter also became perishable. Likewise, when you become imperishable, she will also become imperishable. If, therefore, matter was exposed to suffering because of you, then you too, for God's sake, should suffer; if it (matter) hopes to be glorified, then you should hope for glorification all the more. To honor his sons, the father dresses his servants in better clothes. This is how God, for our sake, decorated creation. 22. For we know that all matter sighs and mourns together until now. 23. And not only her, but also we who have the first gifts of the Spirit (the first fruits of the Spirit) and we sigh within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the deliverance of our bodies. With these words, he encourages the listener to despise the present and as if to say the following: don't be worse than matter and don't get attached to the present. On the contrary, you should sigh, because you do not yet possess the future glory. If, therefore, all matter sighs, then all the more should you do so. He adds that we too, having the firstfruits (firstfruits) of the Spirit, i.e. having tasted future goods, we sigh because we do not yet possess them. On the basis of those spiritual gifts we have already received (which are the firstfruits, the first gifts), we have a pledge of future ones as well. So that the heretics would not have reason to think that the world is evil and that we are supposedly sighing because of that, he says: waiting for adoption. How is that? We are already adopted. What other adoption will we get? I, he says, am not talking about that adoption that is perfected through baptism (because we have already received that adoption), but about the perfect glory, which consists in the incorruptibility of the body. It is the perfect redemption, freedom and liberation from death and suffering, when we will no longer return to slavery to sin from the state of adoption. 24. Because we are saved by hope. And the hope that is seen is not hope. Because when one sees something, how can one hope? 25. If we hope for what we do not see, we wait patiently. Having spoken about future things, which many did not believe, he advises: you who believe, do not doubt what I am telling you. Through what you have already received, be confident about the future. Just as before, when God gave you great goods, you offered nothing but faith, so now, hoping for future goods, use faith. Hope is hope precisely when its object is invisible. Because when one sees something, how can one hope? Therefore, we should not look for everything here: we wait patiently for the future. When you hear that it is spoken about patience (patience), by that you mean exploits and increased effort, because the Christian is obliged to suffer (to be patient) expecting the unseen that he hopes for with faith. 26. And also the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses. After mentioning patience, he again strengthens the listeners and says that the Spirit also helps us. Therefore, do not allow yourself to become weak in hope and patience: you offer only hope and patience, and the Spirit helps you. Because we do not know what to pray as we should. It shows how the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses. We are so powerless, we don't even know what to pray for. I am so weak, Pavle. And Paul, as we know, prayed for deliverance from the sting in the body (see 2 Cor. 12:7-8) and to come to Rome (see Rom. 1:10). Moses prayed to see Palestine (see Deuteronomy 3:23-25), and Jeremiah prayed for the Jews (Jer. 11:14), not knowing what was necessary. Paul now speaks thus, because then the believing Romans, being exposed to persecutions and troubles, naturally longed for tranquility. However, as they did not receive it, they fell into despair. He therefore proves that none of the people know what they should pray for. Because of this, he says, you are obliged to suffer, and only the Spirit knows what is beneficial for you. That is why he adds what follows. But the Spirit himself prays for us with inexpressible sighs. In ancient times, God gave many and different gifts to those who were baptized, and they generally called them spirit. One had the gift of prophecy, another the gift of wisdom, and the third some other gift. In the same way, God gave the gift of prayer, which was also called the spirit. Since we do not know much of what is useful for us, we seek what is useless. That's why in previous times, the gift of prayer fell on an individual, and he was the only one who asked for it, teaching others to ask for what is beneficial to everyone. Therefore, the spirit here calls the gift of that kind and the soul, which has received the gift of prayer and which intercedes before God and sighs. Such a spiritual man stood with great contrition and with great sighs. Today, the symbol of this gift is the deacon, who stands and offers fervent prayers on behalf of the people. 27. And He who examines hearts knows what the desire of the Spirit is, because according to the will of God he intercedes for the saints. That man does not stand and pray because God, allegedly, does not know our needs. He who examines hearts knows what the desire of the Spirit is, ie. spiritual man; instead of believers who are present in the church - because they are holy - he seeks what is pleasing to God. This happens so that we learn to seek according to the will of God, that is, what is pleasing to God. Therefore, since the Spirit intercedes for us, do not be sad when you are in trouble. 28. And we know that everything works for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to purpose. All that was previously said, that is, that the substance submits to vanity (v. 20), will be freed from the bondage of corruption (v. 21) and that we do not know what to pray as we should (v. 26), served, as we have already noticed, to strengthen the persecuted in Rome. Now, however, it is added more clearly than before. For those, he says, who love God, everything, even what seems unpleasant and sad, helps for good. He did not say that no troubles happen to those who love God, but that, if they do happen, God uses them for the benefit of those who endure them. As it seemed incredible, he confirms it with what has passed and says: called according to (His) purpose. God, he says, called you when you were far away and He adopted you. Won't they help you all the more if you are called upon? Man, on the other hand, becomes called by intention, that is. and of his own free will. Namely, the call itself is not enough (because in that case everyone would be saved, since everyone is called), but a person's own will is also needed. 29. For those whom He foreknew, He predestined in advance, that they should be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers. 30. And whom he predestined, those he calls. God foreknows those who are worthy of calling, and then He determines. So, at the beginning there is foreknowledge, and then (pre)determination. By predestination, you mean the immutable and gentle will of God. Thus, He knew in advance that Paul was worthy of the evangelical call, and in this way He predestined, i.e. immutably determined, and then summoned him. Those whom He foreknows are worthy of calling, He makes conformable to the image of His Son. What the Only Begotten is by nature, they become by grace, becoming sons of God themselves. He is the First-Born among many brothers according to economy (domostroy), because according to divinity He is the Only-Begotten. When He received the body, He united it whole and completely with all His nature, He became our firstfruits and sanctified our condemned nature in Himself. That is why He is worthily the Firstborn, and we are called His brothers. Whom he calls, those he justifies, freeing them from their sins and making them righteous through the bath of regeneration. And those he justified, he also glorified, making them worthy of adoption and giving them other gifts. 31. What, then, shall we say to this? If God is with us, who will be against us? Do you see that here he shows very clearly that he is talking about those who are in trouble? He almost says the following: if we were worthy of such goods when we were enemies, what kind of goods will we be worthy of after our justification and glorification? If God is with us, who will be against us? Even if the whole universe rose up against us, God's wisdom would turn that rebellion into our salvation and glory. 32. He who did not spare His Son but gave Him up for us all, how can He not also give us all things with Him? I leave, he reasoned, the rest, which I mentioned earlier, that is, that God has justified and glorified us. Imagine that He did not even spare His Son, that is. The Only Begotten, the Beloved, Who is of His essence (= His nature) (because there are also sons of God adopted through baptism), but He handed Him over for us, He handed Him over for all, both for the noble, and for the ignoble, and for the famous, and for the worthless, and he did not simply hand Him over, but He handed Him over to be killed. How can He not give us everything else now? Didn't the One who gave the Bishop the other gifts as well? Therefore, if He does not give something, it does not follow that He will not give at all. Therefore, do not wish too much to be freed, you who are in trouble because of Christ, because you will get what you want when He gives it to you. 33. Who will accuse the elect of God! Among other temptations, it often happened to the believers that the Jews reprimanded them because they were easily changed and converted to Christianity at one point, which is why the apostle says: "You were chosen by God, who will accuse God's chosen ones! » If a man-artist chooses something, no one will judge his choice. Who will then condemn God's choice? God is the Justifier. 34. Who will judge? Christ is the One who died and rose again. He did not say: "God forgives sins", but, which is far more important, God justifies. Therefore, we will not fear those who tempt, nor those who offend. We were chosen and justified by God and Christ, who died for us and was also resurrected. Who will condemn us, who are worthy of such glory? Who is at the right hand of God, who intercedes for us. He said: he intercedes for us, in order to show Christ's love for us, i.e. that Christ, although he fulfilled the economy (domostroy) according to the flesh, did not stop His love for humanity towards us, but to represent us. That's what the word means: it mediates. That expression does not detract in the least from the glory of the Only Begotten. Previously, he said: Who is at the right hand of God (this is a sign of His greatness), which is why he adds: and intercedes for us, thereby showing nothing else than, as already said, His love for us. It was also said about the Father: It is as if God calls through us (2 Cor. 5:20). Does the glory of God diminish because of what He prays? On the contrary, it is a sign of His unspeakable concern for us. Some have understood the words: and intercedes for us in the following sense: since He wore a body and did not take it off, as the Manichaeans claimed, this fact alone signifies mediation and intercession with the Father. Looking at that, the Father reminds himself of the love for people, for which His Son accepted the flesh, and in this way he leans towards mercy and grace. As I have already noticed several times, Paul says so because he wants to inspire the afflicted and to show that the Spirit also intercedes for us, and that the Father did not spare his own Son, but justified and glorified us, and that the Son intercedes for us. Therefore, you should neither despair nor lose heart. 35. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Sorrow or anguish, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword? Having shown the unspeakable love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit towards us, as if exclaiming in divine inspiration: Who will grow from the love of Christ? The one who is so loved and who has made himself worthy of such consideration, nothing can separate him from that love. With the terms grief and anguish, he included everything that can cause trouble, although he did not list them individually. 36. As it is written: For Your sake they kill us all the time, they consider us sheep for the slaughter. That we should not consider grief and anguish as the end of God's love, cites the words of the prophet, who foretold them and showed that suffering and daily killing for the glory of God represent the greatest consolation. Such suffering or consolation happens according to free will, because by nature they are impossible. Killing means sacrificing to God. This is exactly what he is pointing to when he says: they consider us sheep for the slaughter. Just as sheep do not protest when they are slaughtered, so do we. 37. But in all this we overcome (literally overcome) through the One who loved us. Having previously said that they are killing us, so that no one would be weakened, thinking of human beings, the apostle encourages them and does not say: we are conquering, but: we are conquering, i.e. we win with ease, without effort and sweat, and that through what they set traps for us. This is the most perfect victory, to win when we are persecuted. Therefore, do not lose faith, because God helps us, and not only does he help us, but he also loved us. Therefore, there is nothing strange that we overcome in the very times of temptation. 38. Because I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor the present, nor the future, 39. Neither height, nor depth, nor any other substance will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. He previously said that God loved us, and then he speaks of his love for God, so that no one would think that he was presumptuous of himself. We are, he reasoned, so attached to the love of God that not only troubles, inseparable from this life, but also some tyrant cannot separate us from it: even if he threatened us with death and punishment, or if he promised us endless life in order to separate us from God in that way, he would not succeed in that in the least. And what are you telling me about emperors and tyrants? Neither the angels, nor all the higher forces, nor the present, nor the future, nor the height, i.e., can turn us away from that love. what is in the sky, nor the deep, ie. what is on earth, neither glory nor shame. Some mean by height the Kingdom of Heaven, and by depth its loss. Even if there were some other substance, whether visible or conceivable by the mind, it would not separate me from this love. He did not express himself in this way because the angels supposedly distance people from Christ, but in the form of a pretext and because of a greater desire to show the highest degree of love for God: not the kind that the Jews flaunt, but the kind that Christians have. Although the Jews say they love God, they do not love Him in Jesus Christ, because they do not believe in Christ. 1. I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie, my conscience testifies to me with the Holy Spirit. 2. That I am very sorry and my heart aches without stopping. In the words that follow, he intends to prove that not all who descended from Abraham are his seed. Lest anyone think that he is speaking in a great confusion of spirit, he warns them and, dispelling such a presumption, speaks favorably of the Jews, declaring that he loves them greatly. In order for you to believe me, he says, I am telling the truth about Christ, I am not lying. As evidence for this, he cites three witnesses: Christ, his own conscience and the Holy Spirit, saying: I am very sorry and my heart aches without ceasing for the Jews, because they are outside grace, which is what he intends to speak about. 3. Because I would like to be chosen by Christ for my brothers, my kinsmen in the flesh. First of all, you should know what determination is. It is separation or alienation. Just as no one is allowed to touch a gift that is dedicated to God, so it is with the decided, only in a different sense. No one was allowed to approach the sacred object out of respect, because it is an object dedicated to God. And with the decided (anathematized) everyone breaks ties, as with the desecrated and estranged from God. What does Paul mean? He seems to be saying here the opposite of what was said before. There he said that no one will separate us from the love of God, and here he says that he would like to be decided by Christ. It seems to contradict what has been said before, although, in fact, it is not so. And here he says that he wants to be decided by Christ because of his love for God. Everyone accused God of expelling and depriving of the honor of the Jews, worthy of adoption, who enjoyed special glory and were called the ancestors of Christ, and for bringing in people who never knew about God, Gentiles, instead of them. They grumbled and blasphemed Providence, as if it had been done unjustly and as if God had deceived the forefathers, to whom he had promised gifts. That is why Paul was tormented, he grieved for the glory of God and wanted to be judged himself, just so that the Jews would be saved and their blasphemy against God would stop. Do you see that because of his flaming love for God, he wants, if possible, to be decided by those who live eternally with Christ - not from His love, but from glory and enjoyment of it. That is how fathers often decide (separate) from their sons in order for their sons to become famous, without alienating themselves from the love of their sons and wishing that they themselves would be deprived of glory, but that the sons would become famous. Therefore, reasoned the apostle, I, who have performed countless exploits, who love God endlessly, want to deprive myself of the glory of Christ for the sake of the glory of God. This does not mean depriving yourself, but, rather, gaining it. In other words: for my brothers, my relatives by flesh, he shows the most merciful and warmest love for the Jews. 4. Who are the Israelites, whose adoption is the glory and covenants and law and worship and promises. 5. Whose are the fathers, and from whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is above all God blessed forever. Amen. Here he praises and exalts the Jews. Yes someone, as I said. he would not have thought that he was apparently speaking in a great confusion of spirit. It imperceptibly indicates that God wants them to be saved too. This can be seen from the fact that He made them worthy of adoption and glory, made a promise to their fathers, gave them all other blessings and approved that Christ be born from them (in the flesh). However, they themselves rejected charity. Therefore, admiring the love of God, he gives thanks to the Only Begotten and says: Who is above all God blessed forever. Although, reasoned the apostle, others blaspheme that the acceptance of the Gentiles was not founded, we, knowing the mysteries of Christ, know that He is worthy of praise. That is why Arius should be ashamed, 7 because Paul calls Christ "God over all". 6. But not as if the word of God had failed. He says, I am angry because they are blaspheming God and that is why I express my desire that everyone be saved. However, if not everyone is saved, it does not mean that God was wrong in the promises given to the fathers and that His words did not come true. He fulfilled his promise, although blasphemers say that he promised to some and gave to others. Listen to what he says next. Because not all Israelis are from Israel. 7. Nor are all children who are of the seed of Abraham; God, he says, has fulfilled his promise. He said: I will give to you and to your offspring (seed) (Genesis 13:15). Let us consider, therefore, what kind of offspring it is. Not all who descended from Abraham are his descendants, nor are all those who descended from Israel Israelis, but those who were born according to Isaac's example and who are celebrated for the virtue of Israel, through which he saw God. He did not say: "who are of Jacob", but: who are of Israel, mentioning the honorable name. Therefore, if you understand who is born according to the example of Isaac, you will discover that the promise is not false, because the promises were made to such. Therefore, God does not deserve blasphemy: what He said, He fulfilled, even though some do not understand it. But it was said: In Isaac shall your seed be called. 8. That is, they are not the desh of God that are desh according to the flesh, but the children of the promise are counted as seed. 9. For this is the word of promise: At this time I will come, and there will be a son in Sarah. I am not explaining to you, he says, what the true seed of Abraham is, but the Old Testament, where it is said: Your seed will be called Isaac (Genesis 21:12). Therefore, those who were born according to the example of Isaac, that is, according to the promise, are truly the children of Abraham and primarily the children of God. Everything was perfected by the word of God. Isaac was not born by law and by force of nature, but by force of promise. At this time I will come, and there will be a son in Sarah (cf. 1Mois.18:10). Isaac, therefore, was conceived and born by the word of God. In the same way, the words of God are spoken over us, the children of God, in the bath of baptism, as in the womb, which season us, because we are born by baptism in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And just as there God promised the birth of Isaac and then fulfilled that promise, so He also promised our birth through the prophets, and then fulfilled it (that promise). Therefore, the words: Your seed will be called Isaac should be understood as follows: the seed of Abraham are those who were born according to Isaac's example, i.e. by the word of God. Therefore, the word of God came true, but God gave the promise to the true seed, ie. believers who come from the Gentiles: they too have become children of God like Isaac, because they too are of the promise. If the Judeans say that the words: in Isaac your seed will be called mean that those who are born from Isaac will be counted among Abraham's seed, then the Idumeans and all who descended from him should also be counted here, because their forefather Esau was also Isaac's son. The Idumeans, however, not only do not call themselves sons of Abraham, but they are completely alien to the Israelites and are called foreigners. 10. And not only her, but also Rebekah who at the same time conceived two sons from one, from our father Isaac. He already proved that, although Abraham had many descendants, his seed was called Isaac and those who were born like him. Now he says: you can see that not only in Isaac, but also, what is even more important, in the brothers who are born from one father and one mother and who are also twins, i.e. on Esau and Jacob. They did not get equal rights, because one was chosen and the other was hated. So don't ask why God chose the Gentiles and made them Abraham's seed, that is, God's, while rejecting the Jews. 11. Because before she was born, she had done neither good nor evil, so that it would remain as God had determined by choice, 12. Not because of the work, but because of the one who calls, it was said to her: the greater will serve the lesser. 13. As it is written: I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau. Here it is necessary to indicate in advance the meaning of what the apostle intends to speak at length. Many have asked: Why are the Gentiles superior to the Jews (because no one could say: because of virtue, since all have sinned)? The apostle collected many doubts (difficulties, atgora), incomprehensible to us, but understandable to God. At the beginning, he explains that between the two twin brothers, the chosen one was not chosen because of virtue, and the hated one was not hated because of vice (because they had done neither good nor evil, since they were still in their mother's womb), but according to choice, according to God's foreknowledge, one was chosen and loved and the other was hated, as the prophet says: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated (Mal. 1:1-2), so that everything would be the work of God and His election and foreknowledge. However, what am I saying about them? All the Israelites worshiped the calf; however, some were punished and others were not. Pharaoh was truly cruel. However, others were also cruel: why then did the punishment overtake only one? Do you see that it is incomprehensible to people, and that it is understandable only to God? Thus, the choice of the Gentiles and the rejection of the Jews appear to us to be unfounded, but in the eyes of God both are very just. Such is the meaning of this whole place. 14. So what shall we say? Is there injustice with God? No way! Therefore, God is just, both in relation to us, Gentiles, and in relation to the Jews. 15. Because he says to Moses: I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have pity on whom I have pity. He adds, as previously mentioned, another saying from the Old Testament, proving that only God knows who is worthy of honor and who is worthy of punishment. Although they all made the same mistake when they spilled the calf, God spared some and handed the others over to the Levites to kill them. Even Moses, great before God, did not know the reason for this, and you are trying to figure out the reason why the Gentiles were superior to the Jews, even though they were sinners?! After all, Paul could have given that reason, as he has given it elsewhere: The Israelites thought that they would be justified by works, while the Gentiles believed that they would be justified by faith and grace. However, don't look for that reason now; shut the mouths of the curious and convince them not to inquire into the decisions of God. 16. So, therefore, it is neither to the one who wants, nor to the one who runs, but to God who caresses. Isaac wanted to bless Esau. However, Jacob hurried to the field to hunt game and receive a blessing from his father, and God, according to the just judgment, made Jacob, as fully worthy, receive a blessing. It might be thought that the apostle here annuls free will, although this is not the case. We say about the house that it is the work of a master in its entirety. Although the craftsman needs both expertise and assistants in construction, we say that he built the whole house, because it primarily depends on him. so we say of God that everything is His work, even though God needs our free will. He perfects, He crowns, He condemns; that is why we say that everything is the work of God. 17. Because the Scripture says to Pharaoh: This is exactly why I raised you up, to show My power on you, and to make my name known throughout the land. As, he reasoned, among those who spilled the calf, some were saved and others were punished, because only God knew who were worthy of salvation and who were worthy of punishment, so, despite the fact that there were many cruel people, only Pharaoh was exposed to the wrath of God. That's why I appointed you, he says. I singled you out, Pharaoh, so that through you they would know My power and that many would refrain, hearing about My name, as the name of the mighty and righteous judge throughout the whole earth. 18. Thus, therefore, whom He wills He has mercy, and whom He wills He hardens. He draws a conclusion and says that God should not be asked for an explanation. God has mercy on whom He wills, as He did with the Israelites who poured out the calf, and whom He wills stubborn, as He did with Pharaoh. What does it mean: stubborn? It could be seen as inappropriate. However, God is said to have caused Pharaoh's impure heart to harden, just as the sun causes mud to harden. How did he do it? With long-suffering, because by showing him long-suffering, he made him cruel. Here, then, something similar to what happens when someone has an evil servant and treats him humanely, happened here. And if he behaves more humanely towards him, he makes him more and more vile, but not because he allegedly teaches him vice, but because the servant uses his long-suffering to increase his own vice and thereby shows contempt for his long-suffering. 19. You will say to me: then why does he rebuke? Because who opposed His will? As I have said many times, the Apostle wholeheartedly tries to prove that the decisions and judgments of God are known only to God. That is why he always collects many doubts (difficulties) and does not offer a solution, in order to put the listener in a difficult position and convince him that the decisions and judgments of God are incomprehensible to man and that they go beyond his mind. The meaning of this place is as follows. The apostle presents an objection and a doubt. If God makes whoever He wants cruel, then why does He accuse the sinner? Who can oppose His will? He willed, and made someone cruel, and then rightfully sinned against the cruel. How then does He accuse and punish him? The apostle presented exactly such an objection, in order to show that only God can resolve the doubt about it. For this reason, he does not solve it himself, but closes the mouth of the one who is upset and says: 20. And who are you, O man, to argue with God: Do you see how it stops untimely curiosity, sets a bridle, and teaches the knowledge of the difference between God and man? And who are you? Do you participate with God in governing the world? Are you the judge of what He should do or not do? To say that it should be done this way and not otherwise means arguing with God and opposing Him. However, this must not be done in any way, but one must humbly accept what God has done, no matter how it was done. Does the handiwork say to its master: why did you make me like this? 21. Or doesn't the potter have power over the clay, to make one vessel for honor and another for shame from the same mixture! Paul did not use this example with the intention of degrading our free will and presenting us as inactive and immobile, but to teach us that we are obliged to submit to God and to show Him deep and unquestioning obedience. Just as the potter, he reasoned, makes from the same clay what pleases him and no vessel contradicts him, so don't you ask God why among people, even if they are of the same race, he punishes some and rewards others. On the contrary, feel awe before Him and imitate the clay. Just as she submits to the potter's hand, so do you submit to the will of the Master of the Universe. Know, reader, that just as among vessels it does not depend on the clay whether some will be for honor and some for shame, but that depends on the one who uses the vessels, so also among men it does not depend on nature whether some are worthy of punishment and others worthy of reward (because nature is one and the same), but it depends on man's free will. 22. And what if God, wanting to show His wrath and to declare His power, bears with great patience the vessels of wrath, which are prepared for destruction. 23. To reveal the riches of His glory on the vessels of grace, which He has prepared for glory. 24. He called us, not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles. Closing his mouth inquisitively, he now gives the solution. The meaning of what was said is as follows. Pharaoh was a vessel of wrath, that is. a man who ignited the wrath of God with his hard-heartedness. God bore him, that is. spared, endured, because he (the pharaoh) made him worthy of his great long-suffering. However, he used that longsuffering to become even more cruel and become a vessel capable of receiving wrath, ready for destruction, i.e. of himself and of his own will he was prepared for it, because he did not miss anything that served destruction and he did everything that led him to it. Or otherwise: he endured, in order to show that he (Pharaoh) did not become better because of long-suffering, that he was punishing him for that and showing his own power, so that others would become better because of it. Just as God showed His power by punishing Pharaoh, who had become a vessel of wrath according to his own will, so, having pardoned the Gentiles, who had sinned a lot but became worthy of mercy, He revealed the riches of His glory. He did not say: "human love", but: glory, because the perfect glory of God consists in mercy. In the following, he says: Which he prepared, ie. for which they predict. In addition, he did not say: "he saved all the Gentiles", but: from the Gentiles, that is. just some among them. Do not be deceived, therefore, you Jews, because even among the Gentiles some are pardoned and some are not. 25. Just as he says in Hosea: I will call my people my people who are not mine, and I will call my people my people. 26. And it will be that in the place where it was said to them: You are not My people, there they will be called sons of the living God. The Jews could say: "You, Paul, are deceiving us when you say that." That is why he quotes the words of the prophet Hosea, who exclaims and says: I will call my people a people who are not mine. What nation is that, which was not His? Gentiles. And who doesn't like her! Gentile church. However, the Gentiles became both the beloved people and, more importantly, the sons of the living God. If any one says that this is said of the Jews who were ungrateful, but were afterwards received into grace, such an objection will do no harm to our explanation. If it happened that they were accepted, then what prevented the Gentiles from being accepted as well? 27. And Isaiah cries out for Israel: If the number of the children of Israel is like the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved. Not content with referring to Hosea, he also calls Isaiah as a witness, who shouts, i.e. he says boldly and fearlessly that not all Israelites will be saved, but only those worthy of salvation (jerto means "remnant", i.e. the chosen ones) whom God has left behind and singled out as worthy. Saying: like the sand of the sea reminds them of the Old Testament promise of which they have become unworthy. Therefore, do not be alarmed that the promise seems to have been broken: all the prophets proclaimed that not all are worthy of salvation. 28. Because he will quickly fulfill his word according to justice, the Lord will quickly fulfill his word on earth. Now he shows how the remnant will be saved, and says that it is not necessary for them to labor, to go far, and to wear themselves out by the works of the law. God, he says, who finishes and quickly perfects the word of faith throughout the whole earth, will do it according to justice, i.e. to justify those who received it (the word). If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Rom.10:9). It is an abbreviated word, ie. a short confession of faith. 29. And as Isaiah prophesied: If the Lord of hosts had not left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom and like Gomorrah. Having said that the remnant will be saved, he now explains what this means and says that God has left us chosen seed and leaven, because he uses the word: left instead of the word: chosen. If God had not preserved it, we would have been exterminated like the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, and we would have been punished for our transgressions. 30. What shall we say, then? That the Gentiles, who did not seek righteousness, may obtain righteousness, but righteousness by faith. 31. And Israel, seeking the law of righteousness, does not achieve the law of righteousness. Here he gives the clearest resolution, showing why the Gentiles were accepted and the Israelites rejected. Adhering to the righteousness of faith, the Gentiles were truly justified, while the Israelites, constantly seeking the law of righteousness, i.e. the law of works, they did not attain righteousness, because the law, which consisted of works, was not able to justify them. 32. Why? Because they did not ask from faith, but from the works of the law. You will ask: "Why did the Israelites not obtain righteousness, although they achieved it in many ways?" Know that they did not seek justification in faith, but in the works of the law. Because they stumbled over a stumbling block, 33. As it is written: Behold, I place in Zion a stumbling block and a stumbling block, and everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame. He who observes something from the side, and does not pay attention to what is at his feet, stumbles. That's how the Jews also looked at the law, so they stumbled over Christ, that is, they didn't believe in Him. Christ was called a stumbling block and a Rock of offense because of the end and the end of those who did not believe. He Himself is laid in the foundation and support, which is why it is said: He who believes in Him will not be ashamed (Isa. 28:16), whether he is a Jew or a Gentile, because everything is perfected and justified by faith, not by works. 1. Brothers, it is my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel to be saved. Intending to strike a blow at the Jews, he warns him in mild words, so that they do not think that the words that follow come from unfavorability towards them and speaks of the desire of the heart, i.e. about his will, about his great desire for the Jews, not only to be freed from punishment but also to be saved. How, he says, can I be unkind to you, when I pray to God for your salvation? 2. Because I testify to them that they have zeal for God, but not according to reason. 3. Because not knowing God's justice and striving to establish their own justice, they do not submit to God's justice. At the beginning, it seems, he was benevolent and pleasant towards the Jews, because, saying: they have a zeal for God, but not by reason, he showed that they are more worthy of mercy than punishment. They, he says, are jealous of the law given to them by God. However, they are not zealous according to reason, because they do not want to know that the law has ceased and has been abolished. In the following, he points to their passion for contention and their love of power. They sought to establish their own righteousness, ie. a righteousness based on the law, composed of one's own works and efforts, which, having already fallen, can no longer stand. In this way, they neither established their own righteousness, nor did they submit to God's righteousness. This is a sign of ostentatiousness and a domineering spirit, and even foolishness: they strive to establish what cannot stand, and they spend all their time doing so. The righteousness of God is called that (righteousness) which does not depend on our efforts, but is a gift of God as a whole. 4. For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for justification to everyone who believes. Since he named as complete righteousness that which is in the law, so that those who believed from Judaism would not say: "We have become transgressors because we have abandoned that righteousness", and so that, again, even those unbelievers would not establish: "How complete righteousness is in the law, although we have not fulfilled it now, we can do it completely later", the apostle removes both one and the other thought, and says: The completion of the law is Christ. What the law wanted but did not create, Christ created, i.e. justification of man. Therefore you, who have believed from Judaism, do not say that you are a transgressor of the law; on the contrary, you knew the will of the law, which is perfected through faith in Christ. On the other hand, you, Judean, who have not yet believed, do not hope to perfect righteousness according to the law by yourself, because it is perfected by Christ. Therefore, if you want to obtain righteousness, accept Christ by faith and you will have everything. 5. For Moses writes of the righteousness which is of the law: The man who does it shall live in it. He confirms what was said: what the law did not accomplish, Christ accomplished, and adds: Moses reasoned about the justification of man through works. However, since there was no man to fulfill the works, justification by law is impossible. 6. And the righteousness that is of faith speaks thus: Lest you say in your heart: Who will ascend to heaven? That is, to bring down Christ, 7. Or: Who will descend into the abyss? that is, to raise Christ from the dead. 8. But what does the Scripture say? The word is close to you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that is, the word of faith that we preach. 9. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Knowing that the works of the law cannot justify a person, learn to be justified without effort and easily in Christ: for this faith in the heart and confession with the mouth is required. However, what has been said should be explained more fully: Who will ascend to heaven? Who will descend into the abyss? The apostle borrowed it from Moses (see Deuteronomy 30:11-14), but in the sense in which he understood it with his sublime wisdom. Moses literally said this: "The commandment of God lies before your eyes, Jew, and there is no need for you to go to heaven to find it, nor to descend into the abyss, nor to cross the sea, to take it there. It is close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, because God showed you everything through the law." So, it seems, Moses is speaking literally. However, the apostle connected it with Christ. Do not doubt, he says, and do not ask in your mind: how did Christ come down from heaven and become incarnate? Or how, having died, he rose from the abyss, i.e. from below? Believe that He came down and became incarnate, and that, being buried, He rose through the resurrection, because God raised Him up. That is why even looking at the dignity of the Resurrection, it is easy to believe. What is easier than that, when you have salvation in your mouth (ie in your words)? That someone, because of this ease, would not consider the work of faith worthy of contempt, indicates that the thoughts of unbelief are contrary to faith itself and must be resolutely rejected. Do not speak in your heart, advise, this or that, that is, do not allow any doubts in your thoughts. 10. Because with the heart one believes for righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses for salvation. The heart needs a mouth. What is the use if one believes in the soul, but does not confess it in front of people? Although faith justifies in the mind, perfect (complete) salvation depends on confession. Faith then shines and benefits many. However, the mouth also needs a heart. Many hypocritically profess Christ, although their hearts are far from Him. 11. Because the Scripture says: Everyone who believes in Him will not be ashamed. 12. Because there is no difference between a Jew and a Greek; for the same Lord is all, rich to all who call upon Him. 13. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Having said that with the heart they believe and with the mouth they confess, he cites from the Scriptures the testimonies of faith and confession or calling. When he says: everyone who believes, he points to faith, and he who is justified by it will not be ashamed. When he says: everyone who calls, he points to confession, which creates salvation. Now, therefore, everyone, regardless of whether he is a Jew or a Hellene, can be accepted by God. The same Lord of all, rich to those who call upon Him. In other words, it is an emperor, rich in both gold and silver. If, therefore, you make His wealth by believing, do not despair, thinking that you have sinned so much that you cannot be forgiven. He will accept you, in order to make you partaker of His wealth. 14. How then will they call on Him in whom they did not believe? How will they believe in Him, of whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? 15. And how will they preach if they are not sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who preach peace, who preach good news! He previously said that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Now he reprimands the Jews for not calling on the Lord's name. Why didn't they summon him? Because they didn't believe. And why didn't they believe? Is it because they didn't listen? No, they listened. Then comes the objection: How will they hear without a preacher! After that comes the answer again: No, there were also preachers, and many such were sent to them. How does one see that these emissaries were preachers? In response, he cites the words of the prophet: How beautiful are the feet of those who preach peace, who preach good news (cf. Is. 52:7). Having crossed the entire universe, the apostles preached nothing but unspeakable good and peace between God and people. Therefore, unbelief is the personal fault of those who did not accept the preacher. 15. But all did not listen to the gospel: because Isaiah says: Lord, who has faith in our preaching? The apostle says that the prophets testify that those heralds were sent by God Himself. So that someone would not object: "If they were from God, then everyone would have listened to them", it is determined that not everyone listened to the gospel (evangelion), but that this did not harm the truth in the least. Isaiah spoke about this many years ago: Who believes our preaching? He speaks like this, instead of saying: "Only a few believed what they heard from us." 17. And so faith comes from preaching (lit. listening), and preaching (listening) from the word of God. These words are connected to the previous ones and seem to represent a conclusion from what was previously said. The apostle, however, expresses something else with these words. The Jews were constantly looking for miracles, and even asked to see the resurrection. That is why he says that faith comes from hearing (sermons), and that one should not demand anything more than hearing (sermons). Namely, it is not simple listening, nor listening to ordinary words, but listening to the words of God. Therefore, if you are looking for miracles that originate (are) from God, believe the words that are spoken from God. 18. But I say: Do they not hear? Certainly: Their voice went throughout the earth, and their words to the ends of the earth. Someone might ask: "What if the evangelists were sent and the Jews did not hear them?" The apostle answers: "The whole universe has heard; then how could they not have heard, among whom the apostles spent so much time and from whom they came? Is that possible?» 19. But I say: doesn't Israel understand! Another new objection. If the apostles preached and the Jews did not understand, do they not deserve to be justified? The apostle solves that too. The first Moses says: I will stir you up to zeal through those who are not a people, I will anger you with a foolish people. They, he says, had to understand that Christ is being preached, if for no other reason, than for the honor that the Gentiles are worthy of. They saw that the idolaters suddenly became worthy of such goods. Zeal should have been awakened in them and they should have concluded that this is the same people that Moses spoke about. It was not only the greatness of the honor that was enough to incite the Jews to zeal, but also the fact that even a nation that was so low that it was not even considered a nation was worthy of the honor. I will make you angry with a foolish people, it was said. And what is more unreasonable than the heathen, who worshiped wood and stone? 20. And Isaiah speaks boldly: Those who do not seek Me have found Me, I have appeared to those who do not ask for Me. Having said that Moses spoke first, he also mentions another prophet, who also spoke clearly and openly. Isaiah, he says, speaks boldly, ie. he tries to express the truth in all its nakedness, and he prefers to expose himself to danger, rather than to keep the truth silent. With him it was said: They found Me who did not seek Me, who did not even ask about Me (Isa. 65:1). About those whom Moses called foolish people, Isaiah says that they neither sought nor asked, that is, he calls them ignorant and enemies of knowledge. Therefore, on the basis of all that, the Judeans should have understood that some were rejected and others were accepted. 21. And to Israel he says: I have always stretched out my hands to a disobedient and rebellious people. So that the Jews would not have the right to say to God: "Gentiles found you and you did not want to speak with us", the prophet adds: Vazdan, that is. at all times, I stretched out My hands, i.e. I attracted you, but you proved to be a disobedient and rebellious people. Therefore, it is your fault, not me. I stretched out My hands towards you and called you, but you did not listen. Hence, it is obvious that the Israelites listened and knew, but they did not want to submit. 1. And I say, therefore: Has God rejected His people? No way! Because I am also an Israelite, from the seed of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2. God does not reject His people, whom He foreknew. Calling the Jews a disobedient people, he pretends to doubt and says: "Were the promises of God not fulfilled because the people of Israel became disobedient?" "No," he answers. God does not reject His people, which He knows in advance, that is. whom he knew to be capable of accepting the faith. Because I am Israel, so that someone would not complain: "Are you making a nation yourself", Paul then adds:" God has not abandoned His people, because there are others, besides me, there are three, there are five thousand, there is a great multitude of people who have believed, as the Acts of the Apostles show (v. 2; 41,4; 4 and 5; 14). Or you don't know what the Scripture says about Elijah as he complains to God about Israel, saying: 3. Lord, they killed Your prophets and dug up Your sacrifices, and I am left alone, and they seek my life. 4. And what does God's answer say to him: I left seven thousand men, who did not bow the knee to Baal. They could object to the apostle: "What are you saying, Paul? Are you limiting the people, who are compared to sand and stars, to three or five thousand?" That is why he says: Not even in Elijah's time were more than seven thousand saved, but Elijah did not know them. And now, probably, there are many who believed. If you do not know them, it is nothing new: even Elijah did not know them (that is, those seven thousand). At the same time, his speech imperceptibly turns to another subject and shows that the murder, which they committed, was predicted a long time ago. In other words, so that they would not say: "We killed Christ as a deceiver", he asks them: "How did your ancestors kill the prophets of the Old Testament?" Were they also cheaters? Were they offended by their audacity? How did your ancestors dig up altars? Did the altars insult them? How is it that they tried to kill Elijah himself, who was zealous for the Jews and became famous for performing miracles? If in those times, when there were so many wicked people, the Lord chose for Himself only seven thousand, as the Scriptures show, that is, the revelation and the word of God, then it is nothing new if He chooses only the worthy now." He explains that below. 5. So, therefore, even in the present time there is a remnant according to the choice of grace. And now, he says, there is a remainder, ie. the best. When they pass the grain, there are grains in the rest. In the same way, God, rejecting the wicked, leaves the worthy for Himself. When he said: by election, he pointed to the effort of the saved, because they deserved to be chosen as a result of their effort, and when he said: grace, he pointed to the gift of God. 6. If it is by grace, then it is not of works, because grace would not be grace. Here he showed that those among the Jews, who did not believe, had no justification whatsoever. You cannot, he says, say that God required works and effort from you. Everything is a work of grace. Why won't you save yourself, when you are offered such a treasure without any effort on your part? Therefore, those who wanted to were saved. It is they who make up the people of God. This means that God did not reject His people, who were worthy of salvation. If it is from a work, it is no longer a grace, because the work would no longer be a work. If we could please God by works, grace would not be needed. If there is grace, then there is no more work and work is not work. Where there is grace, no works are required. But there, where there are works, there is no grace. 7. So what? What Israel is looking for is not achieved, but the chosen ones achieved it. Having explained what grace is, that is, that it is a gift of God independent of works, he says that the Israelites, seeking righteousness, failed to obtain it, because they sought it in an evil way and by works, by which it cannot be obtained. The chosen ones achieved. With the words of the achievers, he points to the greatness of the goods and that all this is the work of God's grace. And in ordinary speech, we often say: "He achieved", when we think that someone has obtained a benefit without effort. The others were bitter. 8. As it is written: God gave them a spirit of insensibility (lit. drowsiness, numbness), eyes not to see and ears not to hear to this day. He cites Isaiah as a witness to their blindness, so that it would not appear that he was speaking his own words. The words: God gave them were used instead of: let, ie. allow, grant that they have a spirit of insensitivity. Insensitivity is the habituation of the soul to evil, which cannot be corrected or changed. To be insensible is to attach oneself, or attach oneself to something. Having eyes to see miracles and ears to hear the teaching of the Lord, they did not use either as it should. They did this not only in relation to Christ, but also in relation to the apostles. To this day, it is said. 9. And David says: let their table be their snare and snare and stumbling block and retribution. 10. Let their eyes darken so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever! As, he says, they are unchangeable in malice, they will be exposed to the greatest punishment. Their table, that is. all their goods and pleasures will turn into their opposite. They will be caught in traps and traps, they will become easy prey and anyone will be able to overcome them, they will always have temptations and stumbling blocks in their life. To show that they will suffer this because of sin, he said: retribution. In addition, due to adversity, their eyes, both mental and physical, were darkened. Their backs are bent, because they will endlessly enslave the Romans. That is what the word means: forever, that is, they will never be freed from that slavery. 11. I say therefore: Have they stumbled to fall away? No way! Having rebuked the Jews enough, he now thinks of how to console them and asks: Have they stumbled to fall away, that is? have they sinned so much that they can no longer be healed? They stumbled, but the fall was not so bad that it could not be repaired. As it says below, at the time of the end of the world they too will be saved. Rather, their fall is the salvation of the Gentiles, so that they too may be encouraged to zeal. Here he wants to fulfill two tasks: firstly, to comfort the Jews, and secondly, to curb the arrogance of the Gentiles. He says: "When the Jews stumbled and did not believe, salvation became the inheritance of the Gentiles." In order, the Jews were to be saved first, and only then the Gentiles. However, since the Jews did not believe, the Gentiles were chosen. It is indicated in many places in the Gospels. Gentiles were saved so that they too would be encouraged to act, ie. that the Jews would be hurt by the honor shown to the Gentiles and that at least in that way, that is, out of jealousy towards the Gentiles, they would be persuaded to approach Christ. 12. And if their fall is wealth to the world and defeat is their wealth to the Gentiles, how much more is their fullness! If, he says, the Jews prepared salvation for the Gentiles by their stumbling, and if the Gentiles were accepted when the Judeans were rejected, if the fall of the Jews became the wealth of the Gentiles, then all the more is their fullness, i.e. then when they are converted and all are saved. Even though the Jews had fallen, even the Gentiles would not have been saved if they had not had faith. 13. For I speak to you Gentiles, since I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I praise my service. 14. How would I not incite my kindred (according to the flesh) to zeal and save some of them. Comforting the Jews again and demolishing the arrogance of the Gentiles, he says: "I praise you for two reasons. First of all, because in the future I am appointed as your teacher, I am obliged to celebrate my service, ie. you, and secondly, because I want to incite to zeal my race according to the flesh, the Jews. In words: through his body he expressed his kinship with the Jews and his compassionate love for them. I would not save, but he did not say everything, but: some of them, because it imperceptibly exposes their stone-heartedness; so it could happen that some, because of envy, were inflamed with zeal, that they imitated the Gentiles and believed. 15. For if rejection is their reconciliation to the world, what would be acceptance - if not resurrection from the dead! If, he says, being angry with them, he gave so much to others and made his enemies his friends, what then will he not give when he accepts them? Then there will be a resurrection from the dead, that is. infinite goods, because they are indicated by the word revival. At the same time, it also hints at something higher, namely that, just as the resurrection of the dead will not depend on the acceptance of the Jews, so the salvation of others will not depend on them, if they do not have faith. All this seems to speak in favor of the Jews, giving them fresh drink, as doctors often do with seriously ill patients. 16. If the leaven is holy, it is also the dough; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. He calls the (Old Testament) patriarchs leaven and root, and their descendants who believed are dough and branches. Consoling the Jews who did not believe, he says: "You too will be holy if you believe." It is necessary that the dough and the branches are similar to the yeast, that is, the branches. If you are not like them, then it is a sign of great wickedness. 17. If some branches broke off, and you, who are a wild olive tree, clung to them and became partakers of the roots and juices of the olives, 18. Do not be too proud of the branches... He called the unbelieving Jews broken branches, because they became unworthy of the holy root. He said beautifully: they broke away, because God never rejected them like that, even though they sinned in various ways. Instead of them, he says, who broke away, you, heathen, clung to yourself. He didn't say: "you are planted", but: you are attached. With this, he injures the Judean and shows that on the Judean tree, i.e. to the patriarchs, the heathen finds, and that he became a partaker of the roots and juices, i.e. that God gave him the same prosperity and glory as the Jews. So, don't get too proud and don't be proud of the branches. If you are exalted, you are not carrying the root, but the root is you. What are the benefits of broken branches? Bearing, namely, is inherent only to the root. Do you see that he only apparently praises the Jews, trying only to comfort them? After all, he encourages the Jews to be zealous, pointing out to them the damage they have suffered, the fact that others have received their property and are in possession of it. 19. You will say, therefore: the branches broke off so that I could cling to them. 20. Good! By unbelief they broke, but you stand by faith. Don't be proud, be afraid. Here he proves that the Gentiles were not chosen instead of the Jews because the Jews sinned, but because of the faith the Gentiles showed. Therefore, where it seems to debase the Gentiles, it shows that the fall of the Jews cannot be justified. However, he corrects both. You, heathen, say that the branches broke off so that you could cling to them? Yes, they broke off, but because of their unbelief, not because God is supposedly obligated to show you such an honor. You stand by faith, clinging to the root. And therefore, be afraid, because vaccination is not a work of nature, but a work of faith. 21. Because if God doesn't spare the natural branches, he probably won't spare you either. The Jews were the sons of the holy patriarchs by nature, but they broke away through unbelief. All the more should you fear, the one who is caught, whether God will spare you in the event of your fall. 22. See, then, the kindness and severity of God: severity on those who have fallen away, and kindness on you, if you remain in kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off. 23. And they too, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be pierced, because God is powerful to pierce them again. He did not say: see your merit, but God's goodness, because everything is the work of God's grace. Make sure you stay, but he didn't say in faith, but: in goodness, that is. until the end of his life, he does what is worthy of God's love for humanity. If you don't act like that, you will be cut off. That is how the Jews will be caught, if they do not remain in unbelief, because God did not cut them off in the beginning, but they themselves fell away and cut themselves off with their unbelief. When he says that God did not spare, he means that God did not spare the Jews, but considered them unworthy of the community and society of the holy ancestors. Paul very wisely intimidates the Gentiles with what happened to the Jews, while using the example of the Gentiles, he encourages the boldness in the Jews to cling to faith, filling them with hope in God's omnipotence. God, he says, is powerful to bring them together again, He does everything, which exceeds our hopes. 24. Because when you were cut off from the olive tree, wild by nature, and clung, not by nature, to a tame olive tree, how much sooner will these, who are by nature, cleave to their olive tree? If you, a heathen, whose nature is evil and who have ancestors similar to the wild olive tree, are cut off from them by faith and grafted to the good olive tree, i.e. with the patriarchs, and what was not in your nature, won't he return to his olive tree that much sooner, i.e. to their fathers, the Jews, to whom by nature good is related? When you hear that Paul says: by nature, understand "natural and consistent", for example: it was natural that the son of holy Abraham should also be holy. On the contrary, understand the expression: not by nature as: unnatural and inconsistent, for example, it was unnatural for the son of an unclean heathen to be holy. 25. For I will not, brethren, that ye should not know this secret, that ye should not be wise in yourselves: I will harden part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles shall come in. 26. And thus all Israel will be saved... The secret here is the unknown and the hidden. What is that secret? In that not all Jews remained in unbelief, but some among them hardened. And among them many believed, and for them, as was said before, God foreknew, and many will believe later. The Israelites hardened themselves until all the Gentiles, who are foreknown to God, are saved. Then all Israel will be saved, obviously, when they believe. As it is written: A Deliverer shall come from Zion, and shall turn away wickedness from Jacob. 27. And this is a promise from Me to them, when I take away their sins. Again he mentions Isaiah, who exclaims that the One who can save and cleanse the sins of the Israelites will come from Zion. When will that be? When I take away their sins, ie. when I make them worthy of forgiveness (of sins) through baptism. Therefore, although they have not received remission of sins now (since they have hardened), it will be fulfilled later. 28. According to the gospel, therefore, they are enemies for your sake; and by choice they are lovely for the sake of their fathers. 29. Because God will not repent of His gifts and calling. As, he says, you submitted to the gospel and as God accepted you, they became jealous, they became even more distant and became enemies. However, since their ancestors were chosen by God from the beginning, God will not allow them to completely perish (because they are nice), but will accept them if they believe. 30. For just as you once disobeyed God, but now you are pardoned, because of their disobedience, 31. So they also do not submit now because of your pardon, so that they too may be pardoned. You, he says, who were once called Gentiles, did not want to obey. This is why the Judeans were chosen and given the law. And again, when the Jews were called and did not obey Christ, you were chosen and pardoned. However, your pardon will also be their pardon: they will become zealous because of their envy of you and will believe, thereby deserving of your pardon (ie to be pardoned as you are). 32. Because God imprisons all in disobedience, to have mercy on all. That is disfigured, and showed them as disobedient, in order to save some by the jealousy of others. Previously, when the Gentiles were disobedient, he saved, as has been said, the Jews. And again, when the Jews did not obey Christ, the Gentiles were saved. When the Gentiles are saved, because of the zeal caused by envy towards them, the Judeans will also be saved, and in this way they will all be pardoned. 33. Oh, the depth of wealth and wisdom and reason (Gr. omniscience) of God! How inscrutable are His judgments and unsearchable are His ways! Thinking about the economy (economy) of God from the beginning of the world, about how God organizes the opposite through the opposite, and through the disobedience of some shows the obedience of others, Paul was overcome with elation: he is convinced that the One who organizes our actions in this way will inevitably organize the future salvation of the Jews. Wealth is called goodness (auabottusss), the depth of which leads to exhilaration, and the magnitude of which is unknown to us: to enrich the Gentiles in this way is truly a work of abundance. Along with goodness, they delight in wisdom through which God governs our lives and makes the unenlightened (lit. ignorant) heathen wise, and omniscience (in Serbian translation: reason), through which He knows what is useful for each of us. He did not say about the roads that they are incomprehensible, but unexplorable, that is. that they cannot even be examined. His ways, that is. His domostroj (economy), not only cannot be understood, but cannot even be examined, i.e. not even their tracks can be seen. 34. For who knows the mind of the Lord? Or who would be His adviser? Only He, he says, knows His works, and there is no other besides Him. Being all-wise, He does not borrow wisdom from consulting with others, but was and is self-sufficient by Himself. He is also the source of all good, and what He gives, He does not give like the one who is obliged to reward, similar to the one who took something from another, but He gives according to His goodness. Or who previously gave to Him, so that it would be reciprocated, i.e. that charity, given by God, would be considered a return to the one who gave? Because everything is from Him and through Him and for Him. He Himself is the source of everything, and that is what the words mean: from Him. He is also the support of everything, and that means: through Him. Everything has a beginning from Him, and everything He created, everything stands and holds on to Him as a foundation. To him be glory forever. Amen. Whenever he speaks about something important, Paul has a habit of closing his letter with thanksgiving. That's how he acts now. Since he was filled with exultation because of the goodness, wisdom, omniscience and home order of God, at the end he glorified God, thereby teaching us to thank God for His great benefits and to glorify Him with our deeds and life. 1. I am asking you, therefore, brothers, for the sake of God's mercy, to give your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, as your spiritual worship. Having talked enough about dogmas, he finally moves on to teaching about morals. Since he pointed out the unspeakable domostroj about us and the goodness of God, he prays by the grace of God, i.e. it is as if the mercy of God itself is begging, to at least be ashamed of it and not to show anything that would be unworthy of it. What is he praying for? To hand over our bodies, that is. to put them into battle. This is how they are usually expressed in ordinary speech: the general led the army to war. In other words, we are obliged to present our members to God as to a king, blameless and unblemished, as befits a king. In addition, we are obliged to give them as a living sacrifice, because when we mortify them, then we live according to the spirit. The Jewish sacrifice is therefore not pleasing to God. Do I, it was said, need the multitude of your sacrifices (cf. Isa.1:12)? God, however, requires the sacrifices of believers, ie. ritual service. Offer God a sacrifice of praise ( Ps.115:8 ) and the Sacrifice of praise will glorify Me ( Ps.49:23 ), it was said elsewhere. Verbal service does not consist only in addressing God through words, but also in living as Christians, so that no wordless passion reigns in us, but that everything is ruled by the mind, so that everyone can be a high priest for himself who will slaughter every evil that is hidden within him, imagining that he is always standing before God and that, like the high priest who stands before God's altar, he trembles with fear because of every action and every word. 2. And do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind... He suggests to us the way in which we can perfect our verbal service. It consists in the fact that we do not compare ourselves to this century, because there is nothing permanent and permanent in it. On the contrary, everything in him is temporary and has only an external form (shlca) and not a hypostasis (personality or permanent essence). Do not conform, he says, to this age, which has no permanent essence, that is, do not think about what is in it. Instead, transform yourself by renewing your mind, that is. always renew yourself. Have you sinned? Has your soul grown old? Restore it. Have you improved a bit? Make sure that you improve more and more, and you will become new, always changing for the better. Note that he called the world an external appearance, indicating that it can be easily destroyed and is temporary. On the contrary, he named virtue as a real form, since it possesses natural beauty and does not need external masks and decorations. The world has an outward appearance to mislead us, while virtue shows its true character, without a mask. That is why we are obliged to always transform ourselves towards virtue, to renew ourselves from evil to good and from a lesser virtue to a greater one. To know by experience what is the good and pleasant and perfect will of God. By telling us that we are always being renewed and made new, he shows the benefit of renewing the mind. It is useful, he says, for you to know what is the good and pleasing and perfect will of God. The one who has grown old in mind, does not know what the will of God consists of, does not know that God wants us to live in a calm mind, to love poverty, to cry and fulfill everything else that God has commanded us. On the contrary, the one whose mind has been renewed knows what the will of God is, and he knows it exactly as the Jews who kept the law knew it. The will of God was also the law, but not mild, pleasant and perfect. It (the law) was therefore not given as the main will, but as a (will) adapted to the weakness of the Jews. The perfect, gentle and pleasant will of God is the New Testament. After all, according to St. Basil the Great, you can understand it that way. There are many things that God wills: He wills something for the sake of benevolence towards us, and it is called gentle (good), since it is filled with gentleness (goodness). He wants something because our sins angered Him: we call it evil, because it angers us, even though its goal is good. Therefore, what God wants is for our good and we are obliged to imitate, while what arouses the feeling of sorrow, we should not do. We are not servants of evil, they are unclean spirits. Therefore, first of all, discover the will of God and see if it is mild, and then, when you find that out, see if that will is also pleasing to God. Namely, there is a lot of good that is not pleasing to God, because it is perfected either at the wrong time, or by the person who should not be doing it. For example, it is good when we burn incense to God; however, when Uzziah did it, it was not pleasing to God (see 2 Days, 26; 16). In the same way, it was good for the disciples to know the secrets, but it was not pleasant for them to know them before the time: Now you cannot carry (Jn. 16:12). When it turns out that something is good and pleasant, make sure that it is perfect and without defects, exactly as it is required, and without deviation from it. For example, you should give sincerely (Romans 12:8), i.e. generously. However, if it is done with stinginess, then the giving is not completely consistent with what is required of him. 3. Because through the grace that was given to me, I say to everyone who is among you: not to think of yourself more than you should think. Being humble, Paul never considered his words to be sufficient, but, to confirm them, he mentions either God's mercy or grace. I, he says, do not speak these words from myself, but from God, as His grace advised me. Don't think more of yourself than you should, he says to everyone, both the common man and the elder. Above all, he judges about a calm mind and imitates the Lord, who began with the one: Blessed are the poor in spirit (Mt. 5:3). The meaning of his words is as follows: we should think, that is, have a lofty thought, but in order to think about the heavenly and to rise above the earthly, and not because we would exalt ourselves over our neighbors. This means: thinking about yourself more than you should. Instead of thinking soberly (in the Serbian translation: calm-minded). We did not receive reasonableness in order to turn it into arrogance, but in order to turn it into prudence, that is, into a calm mind. He speaks in this way to show that the conceited has lost his reason and gone out of his mind, while the calm-minded has sound thoughts, which is why he is called all-wise. Each according to the measure of faith as God has given him. Having said that we should not have a high opinion of ourselves, he now shows that we should think of ourselves modestly, thinking that God has given to everyone a measure of faith. As many have fallen into arrogance due to spiritual gifts, he says that one should think of oneself modestly, because God has given everyone a measure of faith. Nothing depends on your success, but it is a divine gift: whether it is big or small, God has given it. Here he calls the gifts, that faith, with which they created miracles. There are, namely, two types of faith; one belongs to us, for example: your faith saved you (Mt. 9:22), and the other is a gift of God, It is that faith that creates miracles, for example: If you have faith as much as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain: move from here to there, and it will pass, and nothing will be impossible for you (Mt. 17:20). 4. For just as we have many members in one body, and all the members do not have the same work, 5. So we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually we are members of one another. With the example of the body and limbs, he destroys the great arrogance of self-loathing. The body is one, but it has different limbs, which perform different actions. In the same way, we, believing, form one body in Christ as the Head, while individually we are members of one another, not only the small for the big, but also the big for the small. Therefore, do not be arrogant in front of one another because, like members, you need each other. 6. We have different gifts according to the grace given to us: if it is prophecy, let it be according to the measure of faith. He did not say that we have greater or lesser gifts, but different gifts. That's how he calms arrogance by naming himself! Besides, he does not call them virtues, but gifts. What you got, he says, is a gift from God, not your work: it was given to you by grace. So, to appease the arrogant, he says that it is given by God and calls it a gift. On the other hand, in order to encourage the lazy, he shows that in order to receive gifts, we also offer something and says: If it is a prophecy, some according to the measure of faith. Although it is a grace, it is not simply poured out, but is poured out as much as it can encompass the vessel of faith that is offered to it. Why does he mention prophecy at the very beginning? Maybe for no particular reason, but probably because some were proud of that gift. If they were proud, why didn't God deprive them of that gift? For the benefit of people and for our instruction, so that we would not judge those who have gifts when they make a mistake. If I, says God, do not deprive him of My grace, then who are you to humiliate the one who possesses a gift?» 7. If it is service, let it be in service. There is a service and a special gift in the ecclesiastical rank, such as the service of the seven deacons. Here, however, the word service means any spiritual work in general. No matter what kind of service you got, he says, stay in it and ask for nothing more. Do not be arrogant in front of others, and be satisfied with what you have received. Teacher training, let it be in learning. If we understand the service in a general sense, its types are listed below. If by that is meant a special (deacon's) service, notice how he first mentioned below and then mentioned more, i.e. teaching, not taking into account the order. It teaches us not to be proud and not to be too proud of what seems more to us. 8. If he is a comforter, let him comfort. And consolation is a form of teaching. Teaching in general means reasoning about every subject, while consolation means comforting with words that soul that is clouded by grief or anger. Therefore, let the comforter console and do his work, and let him not be arrogant in front of others. He who gives, let him give honestly; who governs, let him be zealous. Speaking of teaching and consolation, that is, of that which relates to the care of souls, he now speaks of the bodily, as of that which takes second place. He calls generosity, generosity, honesty, and therefore teaches to give generously. Namely, no virtue is a virtue, if it is not perfected in a proper way. Although they had oil, the girls did not have enough of it, which is why they were rejected (cf. Mf. 25). The manager is also obliged to perform his service carefully and diligently. Management means helping with word and deed the one who needs help. Since he was talking about the distribution of property and that, at the same time, not everyone has (property) in abundance, he adds: if you are an elder, be it in a different way, and help, but zealously, those who are in need. Whoever gives alms, let him do it joyfully. He previously said that one should give sincerely and generously. Many, however, even though they give, do it forcibly and with regret. Therefore, he teaches that giving should be without regret, and even with pleasure and joy. You should rejoice, that for a small price you get heaven. Understand the difference between a giver and a benefactor. The one who gives alms from what he has received from another gives, and the benefactor is the one who gives from his inheritance. 9. Love should not be arbitrary. He shows what completes everything that was said before and says: Love should not be hypocritical. Such is true love, and with it everything will be easily perfected: the benefactor will be happy to do good deeds and give to his neighbor as well as to himself. The manager will manage zealously, fighting for his neighbor as for himself, etc. d. Hating evil, cling to good. He previously spoke about love. However, as love also happens to be harmful, as, for example, among people who have agreed to rob, the apostle adds: hating evil (lit. turning away from evil), that is. hating evil with all my heart, because the preposition "sgo" indicates strong and wholehearted hatred. There are many who, although they do not do evil, long for it. That's why, he says, I demand that evil be hated with all the heart, so that the soul can be purified. Since I commanded you to love one another, do not think that I am encouraging you to help each other in bad deeds. On the contrary, I want you to be foreign not only to every bad deed, but also to every mental tendency towards it. It is not enough just to distance yourself from evil, but it is also necessary to attach yourself to the creation of good. That is why he says: Hold fast to the good, that is. let inclination and love lead you to him. In this sense, God, uniting a man and a woman, said: He will stick to his wife (1 Moses 2:24). 10. Be kind to one another in brotherly love. He says, I have taught you love and it is quite natural for you to fulfill it, because you are brothers, born from one womb, i.e. from the baptismal bath. Therefore, you are obliged to love one another, because friendship serves as a sign and manifestation of brotherhood, and friendship is created and established by brotherly love. With honor, you make each other bigger than yourself. He teaches them how to preserve brotherly love, that is, by respecting each other and showing honor to each other, because making another greater than yourself means: preempting each other in showing honor. 11. Do not be lazy in your zeal. Since, at first glance, many sincerely respect and love each other but do not extend their hands to them, he teaches them to take care of each other and to help their neighbors by their actions. An objection is assumed: "How is it possible for us not to be lazy in our zeal?" » If, he answers, we are burning with spirit, that is. if we are earnest and zealous. Note also that be ardent in spirit is said after the enumeration of many kinds of virtue. The one who has fulfilled the above attracts the grace of the Spirit and is kindled by His fire. When you are fraternal, when you have love and the other virtues mentioned above, then you serve the Lord, because He applies to Himself what you do for your brother. 12. Be joyful in hope. As what the apostle requires is something great and difficult, he now teaches that which makes the fulfillment easy: he teaches to act in hope, because hope makes the soul bolder and braver in dangers. Be patient in times of trouble. Hope is about the future. You, however, even in the present, he says, can obtain great good, because suffering in adversity makes you tolerant and experienced. In prayer (be) steadfast. It is thought that prayer means a great help in carrying out everything that was previously mentioned. He didn't simply say: "pray", but: be persistent in prayer. If at this moment you are not getting anything, be persistent and you will achieve what you want. 13. Help the saints in need (lit. Participate in the needs of the saints). He previously said: Whoever gives alms, let him do it joyfully and let him open his hand to everyone in general. Now he teaches about almsgiving towards believers, because he calls them saints. He did not say: "help the saints", but: Participate in the needs. This shows that this help is a purchase and a general benefit: you give money, and they pay you back with the sky. In addition, he did not say: "in great expenses", but: in needs, so that you may meet the needs of the saints. How are they not cruel and similar to beasts, who do not help the saints in their (necessary) needs? Be hospitable (lit. Be zealous for hospitality). He did not say: "Be hospitable", but: be zealous for hospitality. With this, he teaches us not to wait for the poor to come to us, but to approach them ourselves and bring them to us ourselves, as Abraham and Lot did. 14. Bless those who persecute you, bless and not curse. After learning about brotherly love and love for one's own, he finally gives a lesson about how we should behave towards our enemies. He didn't say: "don't be admonished by insults", but: bless, and then he added: don't swear, so that we don't curse, but only bless. Whoever blesses those who persecute him for Christ's sake shows that he suffers with joy for the sake of the Beloved. The one who curses shows that he does not rejoice and reveals that he does not love the One for whom he is persecuted. 15. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. A strong spirit is needed, not only to avoid envy, but also to rejoice with the joyful. It shows a soul that is completely free from envy. This means far more than weeping with those who weep, because nature itself incites to weeping, drawing towards compassion. He teaches us, therefore, both one and the other, i.e. and compassion, and a disposition that is the envy of others, towards everyone and even towards persecutors. 16. Be of one mind among yourselves. Again he reasoned about a calm mind because it was natural that in Rome, as in the capital, the disease of pride was present. The meaning of what was said is as follows: "Do you consider yourself a great man? Then consider your brother as such. You suspect that he is small and low-hearted? Make such a judgment about yourself. In this way, you will calm your arrogance and you will not loathe him as if you are supposedly better than him, but you will start to respect him as your equal and as yourself. Do not think proudly, but associate with the humble. It teaches how to fulfill what was said before, that is: if we do not think proudly and if we associate with the humble, if we begin to imitate the humiliated and despised, i.e. if we condescend and adapt to them. Don't think yourself wise. Do not think that you are sufficient in everything and that you do not need the advice of others or those who suggest what you should do. Moses talked with God, and in addition consulted with his father-in-law. 17. Do not return evil for evil to anyone. If you rebuke another for doing evil, why do you imitate him and do evil yourself? He did not say: "do not do evil to a believer", but: to anyone, regardless of whether he is a heathen or someone else. Strive to do good before all men. He does not speak like that because we live for the love of glory, but so that we would not give reason to be reproached by those who want to do so. It demands that we live without stumbling and stumbling, because there are many who are watching us and everything that concerns us. 18. If possible, as far as you can, be at peace with all people. He beautifully said: If possible, as far as you are concerned. Sometimes it is impossible to be at peace, for example, when there is a fight for honor or for the offended. Therefore, he advises: fulfill your obligation and do not give anyone an opportunity for enmity and confusion. If you see that they are insulting holiness, stand up boldly and fight for the truth. Do not, however, fight against man, but against ungodliness. As for man, take pity on him and spare him. In this way, what previously seemed impossible will be possible. As for you, you are at peace with him, and you wage battle only with ungodliness. 19. Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to the wrath of God, it is written: Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. In relation to those who insult you, give place to the wrath of God, he says. If you shine for yourselves, God will not shine for you. If you forgive, God will take more severe revenge. He also cites a testimony, with which he confirms his words. He says this to comfort the faint-hearted, for they want nothing more than to see their enemies punished for their sakes. 20. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink; because in doing so, you will heap live coals on his head. The highest degree of wisdom is required of you here. What do I say, he reasoned, that you should live in peace? I even command you to do good deeds for them. He said: You will heap live coals on his head, condescending to the despondency of the offended, because it is most pleasing to a man to see how his enemy is punished. With that, he seems to say: «Do you want to take revenge? Do good to him, and that way you will avenge him much more." That's why he said: You will heap live coals on his head, thereby signifying a great punishment. In this sense, he said previously: Give place to the wrath of God. 21. Do not let evil overcome you, but overcome evil with good. Here he shows that we must not feed our enemies with the thought that by doing so we will bring greater punishment upon them. The meaning of what was said is the following: Do not let evil defeat you, that is, do not do it with the intention of taking revenge and do not imitate the one who does evil (because that means being defeated), but try to defeat him with your good deeds and turn him away from malice. What, therefore, he had previously said, he spoke with the intention of strengthening the faint-hearted, and now he set forth what was more perfect. 1. Every soul to obey the governing authorities. Having given his listeners enough lessons about morality and teaching them to be kind even to their enemies, he also gives this advice, teaching every soul - whether he is a priest, monk or apostle - to submit to the elders (managers), because this does not undermine holiness. The apostle presents this advice with the aim of showing that the Gospel does not teach treachery or disobedience to authorities, but noble thinking and submission. Because there is no authority that is not from God, and the authorities that exist from God are established. What are you saying? Is every elder appointed by God? "No, I'm not saying that," he replies. Now I am not talking about each elder individually, but about the eldership itself. The fact that there is an eldership, and that some rule and others are subordinated, and that the higher do not mix with the lower, I call a part of God's wisdom. He did not say: "there is no elder", but: there is no authority that is not from God. Therefore, I say, I reason about the subject itself, ie. about the government. Similarly, when the Wise One says: A woman of understanding is from the Lord (Proverbs Sol. 9; 14), he is not saying that God unites everyone who enters into marriage, but that marriage is instituted by God Himself. Therefore, whatever authority I consider - whether it is the authority of the father over the son, the husband over the wife or all the others, and even those that exist among animals, that is, among bees, cranes or fish - they are all established by God. 2. Because whoever opposes the government, opposes the decree of God, and those who oppose will receive judgment upon themselves. If they believed, they could not say: "You humiliate us, because you subjugate those who are supposed to receive the Kingdom of Heaven" through evil deeds. It shows that the one who submits to the authorities also submits to God, or else, which is far more terrible, that the one who opposes the authorities also opposes God Who established the eldership. The one who opposes will, therefore, be punished by both God and men. He foreshadowed this by saying: Those who oppose will receive judgment upon themselves. 3. Because elders are not afraid of good deeds, but of evil. Do you want to not be afraid of the authorities? Do good, and you will have praise from her. What are you afraid of and what are you afraid of? Will the elder chastise you if you do good? Is he terrible to you, if you are zealous for virtue? On the contrary, if you do good, the elder will praise you. He is so far from intimidating you that he even praises you. 4. Because he (the elder) is a servant of God, for your good. He, he says, cooperates with God's will. For example, God advises you to be prudent, and the elder prescribes the same in laws. God advises you not to be selfish and a thief, while the elder is appointed as the judge of such. Therefore, the elder is our helper in good deeds, if we surrender to him. If you do evil, be afraid, because you do not carry the sword in vain. This means that our fear is not caused by the elder, but by our vices, for which the elder's sword, that is, the authority, punishes. The elder, he says, does not carry the sword in vain, but carries it to punish the wicked. Because he is God's servant, the avenger, to pour out his wrath on the one who does evil. When an elder praises virtue, he fulfills the will of God. And when he uses the sword, he is again a servant of God, who protects virtue and persecutes vice. Many do good not so much because of the fear of God, but because of the fear of the elders. Therefore, when an elder protects virtue and punishes vice, he is a servant of God. 5. That is why it is necessary to obey not only because of anger, but also because of conscience. It is necessary for you to submit, he says, not only so that you would not, as a disobedient, experience the wrath of God and the wrath of the elders and be exposed to an unbearable punishment, but also so that you would not be shown to be unscrupulous and ungrateful to the Benefactor. Elderships provide states with large benefactions. Our well-being is supported by them, and if they didn't exist, everything would have collapsed a long time ago, because the stronger would have swallowed the weaker. Let your own conscience, he says, convince you to respect your elders, who provide you with so many benefits. 6. Because that's why they paid taxes. You, he says, testify for yourself that the elder does good deeds for you because you give him a reward, apparently as one who thinks about you. We would not have paid taxes from the beginning, if we did not know that in this way we would benefit from the elders, who tirelessly watch over us while we are free from worries about it. Because they are God's servants, who constantly deal with it. That is why it is pleasing to God that we pay taxes to His servants. God wants civil society to be peaceful, to live virtuously and to defeat vice. In this, the elders serve the will of God, since they take care of general tranquility and tirelessly make sure that we live in peace and quiet. But if someone uses seniority for evil, that does not say anything against the benefits of seniority itself. 7. Therefore, give to everyone what you owe: to whom tax - tax, to whom customs - customs, to whom fear - fear, to whom honor - honor. Gratitude to elders, he says, is your inevitable duty. To everyone who is entrusted with various seniorities, give what you owe: to whom he owes taxes, i.e. general tax, to pay tax; who is being chased by the earthman, give him the earthman. Don't just give money, though. Add fear too, ie. respect, awe and due respect. That is why he adds: to whom honor - honor. There are two types of fear. One is the fear that criminals feel, and that is the fear that comes from an unclean conscience. The apostle rejected that fear even earlier. There is, however, another fear that those who love feel in front of those they love. That fear is the highest degree of respect, as it is said: There is no want for those who fear him (Ps.33:10) and the Fear of the Lord is pure and remains forever and ever (Ps.18:10). This sgraha means awe. 8. Do not owe anything to anyone, except to love one another. Submit the other debts, he says. However, never wish to repay love, and let it be your permanent debt. If you always show love to your neighbor, don't even think that tomorrow you can neglect him. On the contrary, always remember that you have one duty - to love your neighbor. For he who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9. Because that: do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not covet and any other commandment is fulfilled in this word: Love your neighbor as yourself. Whoever loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. Everyone is obliged to love his neighbor because he receives so many benefits from him and from his love for him that he fulfills the entire law. He did not say: "it is supplemented", but: it is fulfilled, i.e. that commandment sums up all the others, because the beginning and end of virtue is love. Besides, the law requires love in a higher degree: Love, it says, your neighbor as yourself. Our Lord demands even more and advises us to love our neighbor more than ourselves, because he teaches us to lay down our lives for one another (cf. Jn. 15:13). 10. Love does not do harm to its neighbor; love, therefore, is the fullness of the law. It shows that love possesses both perfections. When he says that love does not do evil to one's neighbor, he means that it is abstaining from evil, and with the words: Love is the fullness of the law, he indicates that it is the creation of good. Therefore, love creates virtue in us, which the law points to, in all its fullness. 11. And this all the more before you know the time, that it is already time to get up from sleep. You are obliged, he says, to value love very highly, and through it all other virtues. Such a time has come. The day of resurrection is near, the day of judgment is near, and we must wake up from sleep and idleness and be ready for deeds worthy of resurrection. Because salvation is closer to us now than when we believed. It is likely that at first, after their conversion, they were more zealous and then, over time, cooled down. That is why he says: "Now we are closer to the future age", because he means it by salvation. He called him so from his better side, because he is not salvation for sinners, but destruction. Approaching the future life, we are obliged to sharpen (strengthen) our attention. He talks about it below. 12. The night advanced, and the day drew near. That is, the night will soon end. For example, suppose a night consists of twelve hours. When ten o'clock has passed, we say that the night has advanced, instead of having passed and drawing to a close. The night signifies the present age, for in it many are in darkness, and the life of everyone is covered with darkness. The day signifies the age to come, both because of the light of the righteous, and because then the secrets of all will be revealed. In the Gospel, the present century is called the day, because in its time we must act. Night, on the other hand, signifies (in the Gospel) the future age, because then no one can work (cf. Jn. 9:4). Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. The works of darkness he called sinful actions, as something that is difficult, associated with many disadvantages and exposed to thousands of dangers, even in the present age. He called virtuous actions weapons of light, because those who possess them, like weapons, protect them from danger, and make them bright like weapons of light. With the words: let's throw it away and get dressed, he showed the ease of both, i.e. and moving away from bad deeds and turning to virtue. Just as it is not difficult to take off (discard) one's clothes and put on another, so it is possible to move away from vices and embrace virtues. 13. Let's walk (behave) well-groomed (properly) as in the daytime. He said before: the day is near. Now he shows that he has already appeared and teaches us to behave appropriately in him. With his propriety, he attracted those who enjoyed fame among the people. He did not say: "behave", but: let's behave, thus making his advice more appropriate. Nothing is so monstrous as sin, nor anything so pleasurable as virtue. Not in feasting and drunkenness. It does not prohibit drinking, but drinking excessively. It does not prohibit the use of wine, but drunkenness. Feasting means drunkenness combined with insults, which is also called indecency in drunkenness. Not in debauchery and shamelessness. Having previously spoken of drunkenness, he now speaks of the evil that comes from it, because debauchery comes from drunkenness. Here, however, it is not forbidden (legal) intercourse with one's wife, but fornication. Having extinguished the evil that is born of lust, he now also extinguishes the evil that is born of anger. Nothing inflames lust to such an extent, nor so inflames anger, as drunkenness and intoxicated licentiousness. Dissension and strife come from envy, because the one who envies another leads to strife. That's why, rejecting the argument, he came to its beginning, i.e. to envy. He mentions strife and envy together with debauchery, because from debauchery come reproaches and the destruction of homes. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Having stripped us of our sinful clothing, he adorns us and dresses us, but no longer in the weapons of light, but - what else can terrify us more - he makes our clothing to be the Lord Himself. He who is clothed in that garment possesses every virtue. Don't turn caring for your body into lust. It does not prohibit the care of the body, but lust. Take care, he says, of the body, for the sake of health, not for vanity. If he lit the flame and ignited the furnace to his own detriment, it would no longer be caring. Take care only that you have a healthy body; for what is above that, don't worry and don't inflame carnal lusts, but turn all your care towards the spiritual. 1. And accept the weak in faith without arguing in opinions. Many of the Jews who believed, even after their conversion, preserved the regulations related to food, abstained from pork and did not dare to deviate completely from the law. In order not to misrepresent them as abstaining only from pork, they abstained from all meat in general and fed on plants. Others were more perfect, they paid no attention to anything like that and were reprimanded by those who abstained. Paul was afraid that those who are more perfect, if they untimely and inappropriately expose the imperfect, could lead them away from the faith. That is why he approaches the work wisely, taking care of the benefits for both parties. He did not dare to openly say to those whom they reprimanded: "You behave badly", so as not to confirm the imperfect ones in the preservation of (old) rites. In the same way, he did not even dare to say to the detractors: "You are doing well", so as not to make their attacks even stronger. On the contrary, he gives advice, which is adapted to both. His disfigurement seems to have been directed more towards the stronger side although, in essence, all his power falls on the weaker side. Right at the beginning, he used the term "weak" to indicate his illness. When he says: receive, he indicates that he needs a lot of care, which is a sign of his ultimate weakness. Without discussing opinions, i.e., do not condemn him for weakness, do not be deceived, and do not be troubled by many thoughts, but strive wholeheartedly to heal him as weak. 2. Because one believes that he can eat everything, and he who is weak eats greens. He makes a comparison between the perfect and the imperfect, and says that the perfect, having obtained boldness by faith, eats all food without distinction, while the weak eats greens. This is why the latter deserves healing and not rebuke. 3. He who eats should not despise the one who does not eat; and he who does not eat, let him not judge the one who eats, because God accepts him. Those who, as perfect ones, ate everything, humiliated those who did not eat, as those of little faith and still attached to Judaism. On the other hand, those who did not eat condemned those who ate everything as intemperate. Since among them many came from polytheism, he says: God received him, that is. revealed to him His unspeakable grace. Why do you argue with him about the law, when Christ justified him? 4. Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his Master he stands or falls. It speaks to the perfect, removing it from both humiliation and condemnation. The perfect did both, because they both humiliated and condemned the imperfect. After all, in a hidden way, the disfigurement here also falls on the imperfect. I do not forbid you, he says, to judge because the behavior of another does not deserve condemnation, but because he is someone else's servant, i.e. it is not yours but God's. Although he is weak, he has not ceased to be a servant, and therefore we should not despair of him. Strengthening the weak, he did not say: "he falls", but: he stands or falls. Whether one or the other happens to him, the Lord has the right to judge both the loss of the fallen and the gain of the standing. But it will stand, because God is able to raise it up. The words: But he will stand shows that he is wavering so much and that he has come so far, that only God can straighten him up. We are talking about completely hopeless people. 5. Thus one distinguishes day from day, and the other holds all days to be equal. One exhausted himself by starvation or abstained from pork on certain days, while others took food and condemned those who fasted. It is said of them that one judges this way and the other that way, although the matter is unimportant and one should not attack the brothers because of it. In this he condescends to the rebuked, because they were still new in the faith. Let each one be convinced in his own mind. When it comes to dogmas, we must not be swayed by the conviction (testimony) of our mind, but we must firmly adhere to what we have received, even if an angel from heaven tells us something else. Here we are talking about fasting and eating. Those who stumbled upon it are still new in the faith and need condescension. Therefore, it was necessary to show them a certain indulgence in terms of life, arranged with the greatest accuracy. 6. He who distinguishes the days, the Lord distinguishes, and he who does not distinguish, the Lord does not distinguish. Whoever, he says, distinguishes the days, distinguishes them for the Lord, as a pious one. And he who does not distinguish the days, does not distinguish them to the Lord, as he who is more perfect in Christ and who has risen above the rules of the law. He who eats, eats to the Lord, because he gives thanks to God; and he who does not eat, does not eat to the Lord, and gives thanks to God. For one thing, he says, we ask, and that is whether they do it for the sake of Christ, and whether both the one who eats and the one who does not give thanks to God? What is perfected in this way is not subject to accusations and slander. He says this, as I said, because the Romans were still new in the faith. However, in a covert way, he deals a blow to those who still adhered to Judaism. How can he give thanks who still obeys the law? Therefore, only the one who eats gives thanks. 7. Because none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself. 8. Because if we live, we live to the Lord; if we die, we die to the Lord. We, he says, have a Lord who takes care of us and who considers our life a gain and our death a loss. Therefore, we live or die not only for ourselves, but also for the Lord. Life here is called life in faith, and death is falling away from faith. Therefore, the Lord will by no means allow us to die in the faith, while those who seemed weak fell away from it. Therefore, both when we live and when we die, we are the Lord's. From death by faith he passes to natural death, because now he is reasoning about it. If we live, he says, a natural life, we are the Lord's. If we die a natural death, we belong to the Lord again. 9. Because that is why Christ died and rose again and came to life to rule both the dead and the living. Let that convince you, he says, that the Lord takes care of correcting the weak. Can He, Who shed blood and died to be our Lord, not take care of those who have become His servants? This reminds us of what we usually say: "Is it possible that someone does not care for his servant, whom he paid so dearly?" And if, he says, he takes care of the dead, then he will take care of the living all the more. He says all this in order to shame the Judaizing Christian and to convince him to judge how ungrateful he is to Christ, Who died for him, by still keeping the law. 10. And you, why do you condemn your brother? Or you, why do you underestimate your brother? Because we will all appear before the judgment of Christ. Why do you, who do not eat, condemn your brother who eats as intemperate? Is it because he eats? He is a brother, and you must not humiliate your own member. Will you answer for him? He will appear in court himself, and he will bear the punishment himself. Do you see how, directing the word towards the perfect, it causes fear in the Jew himself, who will also have to give an answer at the Last Judgment? 11. Because it is written: As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to Me, and every tongue will confess God. 12. Therefore, each of us will give God an answer for himself. The prophet speaks and testifies that we will be judged as a master judges his servants. With the words: Every knee will bow to Me, and every tongue will confess God showed the highest degree of submission. He will confess, that is. he will give an answer about what he did. To whom? Not to the law, but to Christ. Why, then, do you submit to the law? 13. Therefore, let us not judge one another any more, but rather take care not to cause a stumbling block or a stumbling block to your brother. Both, he says, leave the dispute that exists between you. Even you who eat, do not give the imperfect a reason to stumble. Even you, who do not eat, do not give your brother an opportunity to be offended because of the preservation of the Jewish laws. Stumbling and stumbling are mutually appropriate for one person and another. 14. I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus Christ that nothing is impure in itself, except when one thinks it is impure, it is impure to him. Having taught that one should not rebuke the weak, he finally teaches about food, advising the weak not to be afraid and afraid of food as unclean. I, he says, know and am convinced, but not according to human reasoning, but in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is impure in itself, that is, that there is nothing impure by nature, but that it is made impure by the free will of the one who uses it. It is desecrated and impure only for him, but not for everyone. 15. If your brother grieves over food, you are not acting out of love. Here he addresses the perfect and instructs: "If you wanted to preserve love, even if the food were not a thousand times impure by nature, you should have refrained from pork, so that your offended brother would not be saddened." He then adds: Do not waste with your food the one for whom Christ died. You, he says, are killing and corrupting your brother by arguing about food, who is so precious in the eyes of Christ that He died for him! Noticing that you, unlike him, eat swine's flesh, he became even more persistent in this, and, fearing lest he should fall away from Christ, at last bound himself entirely to the law. 16. Therefore, let him not blaspheme your good. You have perfection in faith (for that which is named by the word good). Therefore, do not abuse your perfection and do not give occasion to blaspheme it. If you, being perfect, execute the imperfect, you have given cause to blaspheme the good that you possess. You, however, understand that our teaching is also good, and that it does not want to be subjected to the blasphemy of unbelievers, when they see schisms and stumbling blocks concerning food. 17. Because the Kingdom of God did not eat or drink. We will not earn God's favor by doing so. If, he says, you don't eat, will that take you to the Kingdom of God? Reprimanding them for considering it important, he also mentioned drinking. But righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. He introduces righteousness into the Kingdom of God, that is. all virtues, blameless life and peace with the brother, not enmity; it introduces the joy that comes from consent, not the sorrow that comes from reproach. Since peace and joy can come from bad deeds, he added: In the Holy Spirit. I am talking, he says, about joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. The great Chrysostom explained deeply why Paul mentioned righteousness. Therefore, he says, in order to prove that he who did not abstain from pork offends his brother in regard to the salvation which Christ obtained for him by His death. On the contrary, the one who abstained for the sake of his brother preserved the justice that leads to the eternal Kingdom. 18. He who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and worthy of men. Here he hints that the perfect rebuked the weak because of the love of glory. If, he says, you want people to admire you, encourage them not so much with perfection, but with peace and other virtues. This is exactly how you should serve and please God, not by eating pork. 19. Let us therefore take care of what contributes to peace and mutual progress. He spoke of peace as imperfect, because this one had no peace. He spoke perfectly about mutual progress, so as not to sway his brother by seducing him. After all, saying: mutual, he addressed his letter to both. By first mentioning peace and then progress, he showed that it is difficult to progress without peace. 20. Do not destroy the work of God because of food. He calls the salvation of his brother an act of God. Therefore, do not violate what God has obtained for him, and that for the sake of food, that is, for the sake of not abstaining from pork, so that you too may obtain benefit. Because everything is clean; but it is evil for the man who eats with stumbling. Having sternly threatened the perfect, he feared that the weak would be fixed in evil thoughts. That is why he turns again to dogma (= teaching of faith) and says that everything is clean, but that it is evil for the one who eats with an unclean conscience even after he has been offended. Namely, if an imperfect person, who considered pork to be impure, began to eat it under compulsion, he would suffer great harm. That's why you have to convince him first that everything is clean. 21. It is good not to eat meat and not to drink wine and not to do that which causes your brother to stumble, or stumble, or weaken. You, he says, force your brother to eat what he does not dare to taste, and I say that you are obliged to refrain from everything that seduces your brother, not because it is evil, but because he is being seduced. With the words: he stumbles, he showed that he was blinded, because the blind stumble. On the other hand, he is insulted as a frivolous person and weak as a skeptic. All this attracts the stronger to help his brother, as completely weak. 22. You have faith? Have it for yourself before God. Here he secretly hints that the perfect man manifested his perfection due to the love of glory. He says: "You want to show me that you are perfect in your faith regarding food, believing that everything is good and clean? Don't show it to me, but content yourself with the testimony of your conscience before God, to whom you show it." Blessed is he who does not condemn himself for what he finds good. Although others do not see your bliss, be satisfied with yourself, if you do not condemn yourself and if your conscience does not condemn you in what you have chosen. Understand it only with regard to this subject, ie. in terms of food. 23. And he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not act according to faith; and everything that is not of faith is sin. Whoever doubts, he says, and whoever hasn't convinced himself to eat, condemns himself. Why? Not because the food is impure, but because he is not convinced that it is clean and thinks that he is touching it as impure. Whoever is not convinced and does not believe that the food is clean, but eats it with an unclean conscience, is, of course, wrong. 24. And to Him who can establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the secret about which there has been silence from eternal times, 25. And now published also through the prophetic writings, according to the command of the eternal God, made known to all the Gentiles for obedience to the faith, 26. To the only wise God through Jesus Christ, to Him be glory forever. Amen. Ending the council with a prayer is the daily custom of the Apostle Paul. That's how he acts now. He prays for the imperfect, and not only teaches them with words, but also asks God for help in prayers. The connection between the words is as follows: To him who is able to establish you through Jesus Christ, glory forever and ever. Amen. Which can determine you. You, weak and wavering. In what way? According to my gospel, i.e. that you may maintain what I teach you. My gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ are one and the same, because it is not our teaching, but His laws. After revealing the secret. It is a sign of the greatest honor that we have become participants in the secret, i.e. in a matter which has long been foreordained, but is now revealed through the prophetic writings. Why are you afraid of something, you weakling? That you don't break the law by eating pork? However, all the Scriptures make known that secret, which introduces non-discrimination of food. It is even perfected according to the commandment of the eternal God. Your duty is not to contradict, but to believe and obey God, because faith requires obedience and not curiosity. Besides, all nations believe so, because that secret has become known to all. How come you still slavishly serve the law? He said the only all-wise God, in order to distinguish God from the angels and us, but by no means from the Son, because the wisdom of the Father is the Son. Therefore, glory be to Him Who revealed the secret, and not to the law to which you still resort, being careful of the difference in food. The words: Through Jesus Christ can, as said, be united in the following way: Who can establish us through Jesus Christ. However, they can also be understood in this way: revealed to all nations through Jesus Christ, because the secret was revealed to the nations by the same One who sent the disciples to teach all nations. 1. We, the strong, are obliged to bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves. After the prayer, he again presents the advice and delights the perfect by placing them on par with Himself, calling them strong. He did not simply say: "weaknesses", but the weaknesses of the weak. He doubled the expression, to draw them to greater mercy. After speaking about our obligation to bear the infirmities of the weak, he also teaches how to fulfill it. For that, he says, it is necessary that we not only seek our own benefit. 2. Let each of us please our neighbor for good for the sake of progress. In other words, let each one do what is pleasing to his neighbor, and let him serve his brother, but only for good. So that one of the perfect ones would not say: "Here, I am also leading my brother to good", he adds: for the sake of progress. Although what you are doing now is good, it is untimely, and your work turns into destruction, since untimely distortion does not lead to progress. 3. Because even Christ did not please Himself, but as it is written: The insults of those who insult You fell on Me. The apostle points us to the example of Christ. If He wanted to please Himself and seek His own, He could have avoided the taunts and not suffered what He suffered. He, however, did not want that, but accepted the sufferings upon Himself, gained bad fame from many, was considered weak and even a fraud and a criminal. They said about him: You saved others, but you cannot save yourself (Mt. 27; 42). Thus, the insults of those who insult You, the Father, in the Old Testament, fell on Me (Ps. 68; 10), Your Son. And that is nothing new. 4. Because what was written earlier was written for our instruction, so that through patience and the consolation of the Scriptures we may have hope. That, he says, was written earlier so that we would imitate him. Here he advises them to be patient in trials, saying that, strengthened by the Scriptures, we suffer, and through patience show a living and steadfast hope in ourselves. The one who suffers shows that he has hope for future goods, and the one who does not suffer has lost hope. 5. And may the God of patience and consolation grant you to think the same among yourselves through Christ Jesus. It shows that God gives us patience and comfort with the Scriptures. As the Giver and Causer of those goods, he calls Him the God of patience and comfort. He also asks Him to give them the gift of thinking the same among themselves. It is characteristic of love that it thinks about its neighbor the same as one thinks about oneself. As this love is worldly (worldly), he added: according to Christ Jesus, that is, think what is pleasing to Jesus Christ. 6. In order to glorify God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one accord, with one mouth. What is the fruit of a single thought? Glorifying God not only with one mouth, but also with one soul (because that's what the word means: unanimously). Here the word God should be separated, and tied to the previous one, and then read from a new beginning: And the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. After all, it will not be inappropriate if those words are not read separately, i.e. implying God and the Father in relation to the One and the Same, i.e. Christ, because God the Father is God to Christ according to human nature, and the Father according to divinity. 7. Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received you for the glory of God. He repeats the previous advice and cites Christ as an example, so that we too may receive one another, because this also serves the glory of God. Our unity will glorify God the most, as it was said: The world will believe that You sent Me, if the disciples are one (Jn. 17:21-23). On the contrary, our disagreements dishonor God because the Gentiles, seeing that Christians do not agree with each other, accuse the faith itself. 8. But I say that Jesus Christ was the servant of the circumcision of the truth for the sake of God, to confirm the promises to the fathers. He sticks to the previous subject of the sermon and, showing that Christ did not please Himself, but accepted everything for our sake, convinces the Gentiles not to be arrogant before those who believed from Judaism. Namely, the Jews were saved according to the promise given to their fathers, and the Gentiles only according to mercy and philanthropy. Such is the meaning of what was said. Abraham was promised that his seed would inherit the land (Genesis 13:15). However, all those who descended from Abraham became worthy of punishment, because they violated the law and became unworthy of the promise. That is why Christ came and fulfilled the law, accepting both the rest and circumcision. By fulfilling the law, receiving circumcision and becoming the seed of Abraham, He quenched the wrath of God and made us capable of receiving the promise. He received circumcision so that God's promise would not be in vain, not to establish the law. Why do you, being a Jew, tie yourself to the law, which put you in danger of losing the promise? 9. And the Gentiles to glorify God because of mercy. Those who came from Judaism, even though they were unworthy, had a promise. You, who were called from paganism, were saved only by love of humanity. That is why you are obliged to glorify God especially. God is glorified when you live in mutual alliance and unity, when you carry the weak. As it is written: therefore I will acknowledge You among the heathen, O Lord, and I will sing to Your name. 10. And again He speaks: rejoice, Gentiles, with His people. 11. And again: Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and praise Him, all the peoples. 12. And again Isaiah says: There will be a root of Jesse, and he who will rise to rule over the Gentiles, in Him the Gentiles will trust. He cited all these testimonies as evidence that those called from Gentiles must live in unity and be of the same mind with those who came from Judaism. He calms them down, so that they would not be arrogant before those called from heathendom, because they were called by all the prophets. Those, on the other hand, who are called from ignorance, convinces them not to be puffed up and shows them that they are more obliged to God, because they have received greater grace. Namely, although they were not a people, they were united with the people. The words: I will acknowledge You (glorify You) among the Gentiles, were said in the name of Christ, instead of the words: "I will preach You, Father, among the nations", while the words: There will be a root of Jesse were said instead of: from the root of Jesse will grow the One Who will rise up to rule the nations, i.e. Christ. 13. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in faith, so that you abound in hope with the power of the Holy Spirit. He prays that the believers from Judaism will be filled with joy, because they grieved over the punishment, and that the believers from the Gentiles will be filled with peace, because they treated those who kept the law with hostility. Better said, pray that both of them will be filled with joy and peace. How will they achieve this? By faith. And what good does faith give us? The wealth of hope. He who believes in future goods and is satisfied with the present is rich in hope. He expects future goods and endures all temporary troubles. What good does hope give us? Receiving the power of the Holy Spirit, which strengthens our hope. Hope, on the one hand, gives us the power of the Holy Spirit, and on the other hand, because of the Holy Spirit, it (hope) becomes stronger in us. 14. And I, my brothers, am also convinced of you, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, that you can also teach one another. After severe reprimands, he heals the inflicted wounds. He did not say: "I listened", but: I am also convinced, who was debunking and accusing you, that you yourself are full of goodness, i.e. good thoughts and brotherly love. Perhaps here he calls goodness the fullness of virtues. Likewise, he did not say: "you have goodness", but: you are full of goodness. Since there is no use in having goodness without knowing how to use it, he added: you can also teach each other. Not, therefore, only to learn, but, what is even better, to teach others. 5. And I wrote to you brothers, a little bolder and partially, as if reminding you. The Romans enjoyed respect and were very haughty. That's why he heals them when he says: I wrote to you a little more boldly, because with those words he deeply grieves them. However, he was not satisfied with that either, but added: And partially, that is. in short, and not as a lesson, but as a reminder. By the grace given to me by God, 16. To be a servant of Jesus Christ among the Gentiles, ministering to the gospel of God. Giving his words a calm tone, he says: "I did not grab the honor for myself, but God commanded me to do so, setting me apart for that, but not because I was worthy, but by grace." Why was I given this grace? To be a servant and priest of the gospel. So don't blame me for what I'm telling you. My priesthood consists in proclaiming the Gospel to you." And who will dare to accuse the priest, who offered a knife to what was chosen as a sacrifice? That the offering of the Gentiles be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. I did not write to you so that I would glorify myself through it, but so that you, together with other nations, would be saved, and that in this way the offering of the Gentiles would be completely pleasing, because they all offer fruits to God. Sanctified by the Holy Spirit, that is. spiritual life, because not only faith is sanctified, but also life. True, when we believed and were baptized, we received the Spirit; however, unless we live spiritually, the grace of the Spirit will be extinguished. It soothes the pride of the Romans, so that they would not consider it unworthy to have as a teacher the one who brings all nations to God. 17. Therefore, I have praise in Christ Jesus in what is according to God. Having completely humbled himself before that, he delivers the sermon again, so that he would not be despised, and says: "I do not boast of myself and my care, but of the grace of Christ. What am I bragging about? In what is according to God, that is, not some unimportant things, but spiritual things. 18. For I will not dare to say anything that Christ has not done through me in word and deed for the obedience of the Gentiles. 19. In the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit of God. As he said about himself: "I am a minister of the Gospel in all nations", he adds: "I do not brag and am not proud of something that I did not do. I didn't even do it myself, but Christ did, using me as a tool. Whether I say something, speaking and waxing wise (philosophizing) about heaven, whether I do something, living my life according to God, whether I create miracles - all this belongs to Christ." There is a difference between signs and wonders. A sign is what is perfected in accordance with nature, but in an unusual way. Such was the sudden healing of Peter's mother-in-law, who was suffering from fever. Here, the healing of the fever is a work, which is in accordance with nature, but it happened in an unusual way: as soon as Christ touched it, the fever disappeared (cf. Mt. 8; 14-15). A miracle, on the other hand, is an effect that is perfected over that which does not happen according to nature. Such is the healing of the man born blind (Jn. 9; 1-7). Since miracles and signs (signs) can also happen by demonic power, he added: by the power of the Spirit of God. Here, the dignity of the Spirit is also indicated, which can create true signs (signs) and miracles. So I filled from Jerusalem and around all the way to Illyricum with the gospel of Christ. Would you, he says, have proof of what I am saying? There are many of my students, from Jerusalem all the way to Illyricum (which is today's Bulgaria). He did not say: "I preached", but: I filled with the Gospel, to show that his word was not fruitless, but active. When you hear: from Jerusalem to Illyricum, don't think that the apostle followed the right and great path. And around, he says, preaching, I visited peoples both in the north and in the south. 20. And so I took care to spread the gospel, not where the name of Christ was known, so as not to build on someone else's foundation. Not only did I evangelize those and so many peoples, but I didn't even go to those people, to whom the name of Christ had already been announced. I am far from subjugating other people's students and doing it for my own glory. That's why I wrote to you, but not to make myself famous, but to fulfill my service. He calls the disciples of the apostles a foreign foundation, but not because they were foreign to him or because they preached something else, but in relation to the reward, because the reward for their labor was someone else's to Paul and did not belong to him. 21. But as it is written: To whom it is not revealed for Him, they will see; and those who have not heard will understand. Here it indicates the fulfillment of prophecy. For the one who, like Paul, decides to teach the ignorant, a lot of work and sweat is ahead. 22. That is why I was prevented from coming to you many times. At the beginning of this epistle, he said: I would have been prevented until now (Rom. 1; 13). Here he represents the very reason that prevented him from coming to them. He says, I went everywhere and preached, and that's why I encountered many obstacles, that is, I often intended and wanted to come to you, but I always encountered obstacles. 23. And now having no more place in these parts, and having a desire for many years to see you, 24. When I go to Spain, I will come to you; because I hope that I will see you in passing, and you will accompany me there, once I have at least somewhat had enough of you. I, he says, encounter obstacles because I want to preach. Now I am writing to you and coming to you even though I have no business in those parts. I do not come for any other reason, for example, from the desire to gain fame. In order not to object to him: "You are visiting us by the way, because you no longer have any work there", he adds: Having a wish for many years, and I am in a hurry to fulfill that wish. So that they would not be proud even this time, thinking that he had a desire to come to them, as to those more exalted than all the others, he added: When I go to Spain, I will come to you. Yes, again, they wouldn't say that he just wants to stay with them, he continues: You will accompany me there, that is. you yourself, seeing the necessity that prompts me to go to those nations, will accompany me there, because I am not passing you by out of contempt for you, but due to necessity. Since that also offended them, he calmed them down by saying: When I have had enough of you at least to some extent first. This shows that he wants to see them because of his great love for them. That's why he didn't say: "to see you", but: to have my fill of you, imitating the way parents speak to their children. He said: to some extent, that is, no matter how much time I spend with you, I will never get enough of you, and I will never get tired of spending time with you. That's why I will be satisfied if I get even to some extent satiated by spending time with you. 25. And now I am going to Jerusalem, serving the saints, 26. Because Macedonia and Achaia voluntarily decided to collect some joint contributions for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. He had previously promised to come to them. However, it was necessary to wait. So that they do not think that he is mocking them, he gives them the reason for his hesitation and says: I am going to Jerusalem, serving the saints. He did not say: "I bring alms", but: to serve, so that we can find out how high it is, who perfects it and how important it is. In this way, he also advises the Romans to give alms. When he says: Macedonia and Achaia voluntarily decided, etc. he puts in them the zeal to imitate them. The words: they voluntarily decided were used instead of: "htedoše", they thought it would be good to send a contribution. Thus, that is, contribution, he always calls almsgiving, as a joint profit of both those who give and those who receive. He said: some, not "little", so that the Romans would not think that he was reprimanding them as stingy and narrow-minded. Saints, he said, that is, believers, because they are worthy of double compassion: firstly, because of poverty, and secondly, because of their virtues. 27. They made a voluntary decision, but they are also obliged to them, because when the Gentiles became participants in their spiritual goods, they are also obliged to serve them in their physical needs. He says that there is nothing new in the fact that they wanted to give some contribution to the saints. They are their debtors. In what way? Christ (in the flesh) comes from the Jews and came for them. Prophets, apostles and all good things come from there. However, the entire universe became a participant in all this. Therefore, those who converted from heathenism are obliged to give them their bodily goods, just as you are also obliged. He did not say: "to allow them to participate", but: to serve them, and thus it seems to show them as deacons. He didn't even say: "in physical goods". He said that spiritual goods belong to the Jews, but he did not say that physical goods belong only to the Gentiles. Money belongs to everyone, not just the masters. 28. When I finish this and hand over this fruit to them. That is when I put it as in the royal treasury, as in a safe and inaccessible place, because that is what is sealed. By saying: fruit, he showed that even those who give alms have a great profit from it. I will go to Spain through you. He mentions Spain again, showing that it was necessary for him to travel there and that he did not bypass Rome out of contempt for them. 29. And I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. In other words, I will see you in the glory of all the gospel goods. He calls the fullness of the evangelical blessing all good things worthy of blessing, i.e. praise according to the Gospel. By blessing, however, you can also mean almsgiving, so that the thought would be the following: I will find you perfect in almsgiving and philanthropy. He tells them this so that they would be ashamed of the praise, and then make an effort to truly show themselves as such. 30. But I beg you, brothers, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, and for the love of the Spirit... He never considers himself worthy of faith, but cites mediators. Even now, it points to Christ and the Spirit. He did not mention the Father, so that you would know that when he mentions only the Father, it does not exclude the Son and the Spirit. He said: For the love of the Spirit because, just as the Father and the Son loved the world, so the Holy Spirit also loved it. To be my comrades in prayer to God for me. He shows the greatest calm when he says he needs their prayers. 31. To deliver myself from the unbelievers (in the Serbian translation: disobedient) in Judea. He does not say: "To enter the fight and to defeat them", but: to deliver myself, because it fulfills the divine law, which commands us to pray so as not to fall into temptation (cf. Mt. 26; 41). At the same time, he shows that contributions must be given to those who live among so many unbelievers (for whose deliverance he himself prays) and are in danger of dying of hunger. And that my service for Jerusalem be according to the will of the saints. To kindly accept the contribution. From there it can be seen that giving alms is not enough for it to be accepted. When someone gives out of necessity, out of injustice, or for the sake of glory, then everything perishes and the fruit of charity is destroyed. 32. May I come to you with joy, according to the will of God. I pray that I may be delivered from there, so that I may soon see you too, and that with joy, carrying no sorrow from there. And to settle down with you. He did not say: "to teach you, to instruct you in religion", but: to calm down, that is. that you may be revived by my teaching, and that I may be revived by the growth of your faith. With that expression, he shows that both he and they, as ascetics and hard-working people, need a break. 33. And may the God of peace be with you all. Amen, It is the daily custom of the apostle to add a prayer to the council. 1. I recommend to you Fiva, our sister, who is a minister (deaconess) of the church in Cenchrea. This epistle was brought to the Romans by Thebes, and that is why she introduced them to it. He expresses his respect for her by mentioning her in the first place, and by calling her a sister, but also by pointing to her service, calling her a deaconess. 2. To receive her in the Lord, as befits the saints, Honor her in the Lord. Those who, for the Lord's sake, receive even the most insignificant person, show honor to the Lord. Thebes, on the other hand, was holy, and it was all the more appropriate to honor her. That's why he added: As befits the saints, that is. as the saints should be received. And to help her in everything she needs from you. Give her what you can, give her a helping hand, because he didn't say: "Please do whatever she needs." Because she also helped many people, including myself. At the beginning, he praised, in the middle he gave advice, and at the end he praised again, surrounding his advice on both sides (with praises) - to honor her. She says, she was a helper to many, and even to me, the ecumenical preacher, who suffered so much. 3. Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. They, he says, helped me in sermons and studies, and they shared with me labor and danger. Some assumed that these co-workers were Paul's assistants in making the tent (see Acts 18:3). 4. Who laid down their necks for my life. They were true martyrs, because in Nero's time there were countless dangers. To whom I thank not only myself, but also all the Churches from the Gentiles. Here hints at their hospitality. So that they don't think he's flattering them, he cites many other witnesses. Greet their local church as well. They were so virtuous that all their household became believers, so he called them the church. He named them so because of their hospitality, because the church is the home in which there is exemplary piety and virtue. Let those who lead a married life understand that the marriage alliance is not an obstacle to their virtue. 5. Greet my dear Epenetus, who is the firstborn of Achaia in Christ. It is a great thing to be kind to Paul, who loved prudently and not without reason. He calls Epenetus the firstborn either because he was the first to believe and thus became the beginning and the door to faith for the whole nation, or else because he showed great piety, which is why it is said: Who is the firstborn in Christ, that is, not in worldly things, but in what relates to Christ. 6. Say hello to Maria, who worked hard for us. He adorns a woman with exploits for the truth. Mary, he says, strove, watched and prayed, not only for herself, and what is even more important, she also performed the duty of us, the apostles. How then does he say: I do not allow a woman to be a teacher (1 Tim. 2:12)? He does not forbid her to teach with words, but to occupy a place of honor in the church and to sit on a high place, while he fully approves of her teaching at home. In this way, a woman also teaches her husband (1Cor.7:16) and children (1Tim.2:15). And Priscilla taught Apollos in the faith (see Acts 18:26). He didn't even say: "she taught a lot", but: she worked hard, to show that Maria helped with money in other ways as well. 7. Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my companions in captivity, who are notable among the apostles, who believed in Christ before me. The fact that they are followers of Paul is not as much praise as the fact that they are his companions in captivity. They suffered much more than other slaves, because they were dragged from place to place and beaten. It was important to be an apostle, especially considering that Junia was a woman; it was all the more important to be notable among the apostles. They became famous for their deeds, and Paul is not ashamed to say: They believed in Christ before me, praising them for stepping forward and taking the treasure first. 8. Greet Amplius, my beloved in the Lord. If it is a great honor when someone is loved by an emperor, how much more glorious is it when someone is loved by Paul, who loves for virtue and for the sake of God? 9. Greet Urban, our co-worker in Christ. This praise is greater than the last; it is even its cause, and it contains it in itself because, he who is a collaborator, he is also the beloved. And my dear Stachi. And he crowns him with the same praise. 10. Greet Apellius, hardened in Christ. That is, blameless and blameless in everything. Some say that this is said to distinguish him from another Apellius, who does not deserve praise. They probably weren't like the previous ones, as soon as he didn't mention them individually. 11. Greet Herodion, my kinsman. Greet the Narcissus, who are in the Lord. 12. Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord He previously said of Mary that she labored (v. 6), and of these that they are still laboring. It is a great praise to always be on the job and make an effort. Greet dear Persida, who labored much in the Lord. She is more than those who were mentioned before her, because she not only worked hard, but she is also dear. In this way, he appoints everyone according to their dignity, encouraging some to zeal and others to competition. 13. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine. Double good: both the son is blameless and the mother blameless. Paul, of course, he would not have said: his mother and mine if that woman did not possess great virtue. 14. Greet Asyncritus, Flerontus, Hermas, Patrova, Ermias, and the brothers who are with them. Do not look here at the fact that he enumerates them but does not attribute any praise to them, but look at the fact that, although they are lower than all, they are worthy of the apostle's greeting. Rather, he praised them too, calling them brothers. 15. They greeted Philologus and Julia, Nireus and his sister, and Olympos, and all the saints who were with them. He attributes great praise to these persons, because he called them saints. 16. Greet each other with a holy kiss In order not to give them cause for discussion by greeting some in this way and others in that way, by speaking of some with greater and others with less praise, he equalizes them all with the holy kiss, so that neither the higher would despise the lower nor the lower would not envy the higher, because the holy kiss calms and equalizes everything. The Churches of Christ greet you. Not only did he unite them, but he sends them greetings from all the Churches, so that they would unite, because he is talking about everyone in general and not about this or that one individually. In this Epistle he greeted more people than in any other, because up to that time he had not yet seen the Romans. Since many of his relatives found refuge in Rome, he mentions them by name and introduces them to the Romans through this epistle. 17. I beseech you, brothers, to beware of those who create divisions and scandals against the doctrine you have learned, and stay away from them. He advises them again, but not as a counselor, but as a submissive supplicant and with great respect for them, because he calls them brothers. Pointing to the snares of harmful people, he says: Beware, ie. inquire about them carefully. At the beginning he mentions the schisms and then the scandalous ones. However, as long as unity is preserved in the body of the Church, there can be no discord. Those divisions are heresies, because he says: Against the science you have learned. He did not say: "which we have taught you", but: which you have learned, thus preempting them and indicating that they are already convinced and have received the teaching, which is why they are obliged to remain in what they have already received. Therefore, schisms or heresies are introduced by those who teach contrary to the apostolic teaching. Stay away from them. 18. Because such people do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly. Get away, he says, from them. If they were to do this due to ignorance or delusion, they should be corrected. However, as they are intentionally wrong, stay away from them. He points to the Jews, whom he usually reprimands for pandering, because such is their entire race. Besides, all heresies are born from serving the passions and the belly. How come you, brother of Christ, are not ashamed that your teachers are servants of the belly? Note that those who serve the belly do not serve Christ. With gentle and flattering words they deceive the hearts of the innocent. They, he says, scheming through flattery, because the expression: with gentle and flattering words means: Honey on the lips and in the middle of the meal. He didn't say: "they are deceiving you", but: the hearts of the innocent, that is. simple ones. 19. And your obedience is announced everywhere. That's why I'm happy for you. They, he said, deceive the simple-minded. However, your obedience, which originates from great meekness, is known to everyone. Not only I, but the whole universe is a witness to it. That's why I'm glad you weren't deceived. But I want you to be wise for good and harmless for evil. It indicates that some among them were deceived. It clearly expresses the same thing that the Lord said: Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves (Matthew 10:16). He wants them to be wise or careful for good, that is, in the work of their own salvation and their own benefit, and to be harmless for evil, that is. in that they do not harm others, because the simple-minded do no harm to anyone. 20. And the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. As disputes arose, he called upon the Giver of Peace to end the strife. He does not say: "he will subjugate" but, which is far more powerful: "he will crush". They will not only destroy those who bring discord, but also their leaders. He comforts them also in terms of time, because he added: quickly. The word satreće expresses both prayer and prophecy, because it is in the future tense. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you! Amen. He also mentioned to them the grace that, on the basis of what they have already received, they would become more zealous in their belief and in relation to the future. If the Lord saved them at the time when they were enemies, he will crush Satan before now. Note that the apostle does not separate works from prayer, nor prayer from works. At the beginning, he testified about their obedience, and then he prays. With this, he informs them that we not only needed the grace of God before, but that we need it now, even if we are experienced. 21. Timothy, my colleague, greets you. Timothy worked hard with him on the evangelization, and to do what Paul also did is a great praise. And Lucius, and Jason, and Sosipater, my kinsmen. This Jason is also mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, as a man who was very courageous in danger (see Acts Ap. 17:6). They are not relatives of the apostles only in flesh but, more importantly, also in godliness. If they weren't like that, he wouldn't even mention them. 22. I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle, greet you in the Lord. It is a great work to be Paul's scribe. Tertius does not write for this reason, to praise himself, but to attract the greater love of the Romans, since he served in the writing of the epistle addressed to them. 23. Gaius, my host and the whole Church, greets you. That is, the one who welcomed me into his home. Besides, it is a great praise that Gaius received Paul himself and the whole Church, because Paul would not have come to him if he considered him unworthy. Erast, the Town Treasurer, and Brother Kvart greet you. That is, the treasurer of the city of Corinth. He mentions it so that you know that neither wealth nor rank serves as an obstacle to faith and true life. 24. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. At the base or at the beginning of his Epistle, he placed the following words: Grace to you and peace (Romans 1:7). And now, when he sets the limit or end of the epistle, he ends with the same words, praying that the grace of God may always be with all the Romans. That is the mark of a teacher - that he helps students not only with words, but also with prayer. That is why the apostles said: And we will remain diligent in prayer and in the ministry of the word (Acts 6:4). May grace protect us too, who do not hope to find a place of salvation by works, but trust fully in divine grace and mercy, May we rise above the snares of Satan through it, crushing him under our feet in Christ Jesus, our Lord, to whom be glory forever. Rome and its inhabitants were first mentioned by the prophet Daniel, and then in the Books of Maccabees. As is known, Palestine became a Roman province around 60 BC. After capturing Jerusalem, Pompey took numerous prisoners of war to Rome. In addition, it is known that Judeans from the dispersion already lived in Rome, in the Trastevere district. Thanks to the efforts of Christian preachers - by all accounts, primarily the apostle Peter - the first Christian Roman municipality (community) appeared in that environment. This church mainly consisted of converted Gentiles, from the time when Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews (about 61 AD) until the arrival of the Apostle Paul in Rome. During Nero's reign, this Christian church was exposed to the cruelest persecutions, whose victims were the apostles Peter and Paul. The Epistle to the Romans is the oldest and most reliable testimony about the existence of an early Christian community in Rome, around the year 57. Apostle Paul says that his apostolic labor prevented him from coming here in person, but he hopes that after he leaves Jerusalem for Spain, he will pass through Rome. In this, the longest of his epistles, he presents to the Romans in writing what he preaches to others orally. The main theme, which he chose for this Epistle, is salvation through faith and not through the works of the law. It is characteristic that as a confirmation of his opinion he cites Abraham and compares the faith of Abraham with the faith of Christians. This epistle was written in Corinth, around 58 AD. just before the apostle Paul's journey to Jerusalem. The authenticity of this epistle is indisputable. It was also studied by St. Clement of Rome, and they refer to her and call her the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Romans, St. Justin, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian and others. Nestorius was of humble origin. He ended up in a monastery in Antioch, from where he managed to ascend to the patriarchal throne of Constantinople during the time of Theodosius II. At first he persecuted the Arians and other sects, but he himself became a heretic, claiming that the Blessed Virgin is not the Mother of God, because she gave birth to the man Jesus, destined for our salvation, and that man, through the descent of the Holy Spirit, became Christ. The greatest theologian of that era, St. Cyril of Alexandria. Which is completely true, because the Egyptians revered the crocodile as one of their main idols, which they call the god Sobek. They attached so much importance to it that they even depicted it in scenes representing the weighing of souls (psychostasy): on them, a crocodile is depicted with gaping jaws, ready to swallow those souls that cannot justify themselves and turn them into trash in its belly. A heresy that appeared in the second half of the 3rd century in Persia, and was named after its leader, Manes. He was a Babylonian by origin and well-educated. His teaching initially had nothing to do with Christianity, and was mainly an attempt to restore Zoroastrian dualism. Later, he introduced some Christian elements into it, claiming that Jesus came down from the sun to the earth, that he received an apparent body and that he apparently suffered. Manes demanded great sacrifices from his followers, because he despised matter as evil. This heresy was so widespread that even Emperor Diocletian issued a decree against it. Marcion's teaching was based on dualism, and he claims that there are two gods: the Old Testament, who is strict and cruel, and the God of Jesus, who is gentle and merciful. He claims that Christ is the saving Spirit and that he has nothing in common with the Old Testament Messiah. From there it follows that the Old Testament prophecies, related to the Messiah, do not refer to Jesus but to another, who is yet to come. In addition, Marcion claims that Christ was not born, but that he suddenly, in the fifteenth year of Tiberius' reign, came down to the city of Capernaum. V. Dogmatics of the Orthodox Church, I. He probably means the followers of Simon Magus (see Acts of the Apostles, 8), who also gathered a certain number of followers. "The heretic who alarmed the Church so much with his teaching that in 325 the First Ecumenical Council had to be convened in Nicaea, where the Arian heresy was condemned and the Church dogma about the Son of God was formulated in the Symbol of Faith. Arius claims that God is one and uncreated, and that the concept of birth cannot be associated with him. When this God wanted to create the world, he first created a higher being, whom the Holy Scriptures call Son and Logos. Arius claims that the Logos was born, but that he is not the Son of God by nature but by grace. Logos, therefore, is not God in the true sense of the word, but only in the sense in which the Holy Scriptures call the righteous gods and sons of God. Since the Son is not God by nature, His knowledge is not perfect either: the Father is invisible to Him, and He cannot fully see or know the Father. As for the Incarnation of the Logos, Arius agrees with the Holy Scriptures, but claims that the feelings He manifests show that He is not God by nature, but a being subject to suffering.» V. Hieromonk Dr. Justin, Dogmatics of the Orthodox Church, I.