(Romans 1:3) 2ND CATEGORY NT QUESTION 44. WE CONFESS THAT THE SAVIOR WAS BORN, HOW COULD THE APOSTLE SAY THAT HE WAS MADE FROM THE RACE OF DAVID (ROM. 1), THAT THERE IS A GREAT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEING BORN AND MADE? — The expression to be made, can be heard here in the sense of being born. There is no doubt a difference between what is done and what is begotten, but in other matters where there is no question of the flesh and the body. However, it is not without reason that the Apostle used this expression which he still uses in another place: "He was made or formed of a woman," he tells us. (Gal. 4) So it has a special meaning here. The Apostle used it on purpose because the flesh of the Lord was not produced, nor his body formed of a principle from man, but by the operation and virtue of the Holy Spirit. There is indeed a great difference between the formation of the blood, the generation due to the union of the two sexes, and the conception which is the effect of a supernatural power. This is why the Apostle says that he was made rather than born.
(Romans 4:15; 7:12) 2ND CATEGORY NT QUESTION 46. THE APOSTLE CALLS THE LAW GIVEN BY MOSES, A HOLY AND JUST LAW, A GOOD AND SPIRITUAL LAW (ROM. 7:12). ELSEWHERE HE SAID, THE LAW PROVOKES ANGER, AND WHERE THERE IS NO LAW, THERE IS NO TRANSGRESSION (ROM. 4:15). INDEED, THE ABSENCE OF LAW AND TRANSGRESSION IS A CAUSE OF SECURITY. — By carefully comparing these two passages, you could have solved this question yourself, because it is the characteristic of critical minds to raise difficulties by complaining of encountering antilogies, contradictions in the words of an author who does not offer a trace of it. The Apostle calls the law a holy and just law, good and spiritual; to establish faith, it would suffice for the testimony of this man so worthy of all praise, and leaning everywhere on the truth; and it would only remain to examine without obstinacy and without prevention what seems contradictory in his words. But no, the question that one raises would want to arrive at the liberty of sin. We must therefore remember that the Apostle proposes to establish the superiority of the law of faith under the reign of grace in his epistle to the Romans who, under the guise of the faith of Jesus Christ, had allowed himself to be subjected to the law. This law is not the natural law, for the Romans were subject to this law only ten men sent from Athens, and two others afterwards had brought them; this law was written on two tables which were buried under the ruins of the capitol. St. Paul therefore wants to speak here of the law which is called the law of truths, which commands circumcision, the observance of the Sabbath and the new moons, the distinction of food, the honorable purification of the vessels, and the other observances prescribed by the law: it is from this law that he says that he produces anger, for God, angry with his people, added these prescriptions to be like a heavy burden to the infidelity of the Jews; in fact it was almost impossible not to transgress any of these laws so multiplied. This is what made the apostle St. Peter say: "Why do we want to impose on our brothers a yoke that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?" (Acts 15) God also says through his prophet Jeremiah, "I gave them imperfect precepts." (Ezek. 20) After their multiplied offenses, their repeated murmurs against God, which they continually tempted, and their outrages upon Moses, he imposed on them these precepts, the observation of which must weigh on their head so hard, for on whatever side they might turn, they met the law which left them no rest, and to deliver them from this law, the Apostle says to them, "Where there is no law, there is no transgression," so that they may safely serve God spiritually in a shorter way, wanting to observe the law of the Jews he said to them, it is necessary that you should become the prevaricators, for the precepts are so numerous and so difficult that it is impossible to fulfill them, and the Apostle would not speak so in speaking of the natural law because Moses only wrote for to affirm the authority of this law, not that it did not exist before, since we see that before Moses the transgression was punished. The Apostle therefore wished to teach the Romans that they should no longer live under the law, because their interest made them a duty to practice the law. Indeed, there was no other way for them to observe justice. This is what the Apostle tells them in another place: "Do you want to have no fear of power? Do good," and again: "Those who resist, draw on them damnation." (Rom. 13:2) He therefore calls spiritual this law which he showed holiness, justice and goodness. This is the law that we call natural who defends sin, and who is given to us as a guide in the way of good. The law of faith which is added to this law makes the man perfect. As the name of law is a generic name, the Apostle here seems to speak against the law, but to establish that he does not want to destroy this law which gives the necessary direction to our lives, he says, "We know that the law is spiritual," to see thus that the law which he fights is the law of the sabbath, circumcision, food, and new moons, the first is called spiritual because it punishes all sins.
(Romans 8:7) 2ND CATEGORY NT QUESTION 47. WHY IS THE WISDOM OF THE FLESH AN ENEMY OF GOD, OR WHAT IS THIS WISDOM WHICH IS NOT SUBJECT TO THE LAW OF GOD? — This question, as to the meaning, does not differ from the preceding one in which we have explained what St. Paul means by the flesh; we can therefore know more easily what is the wisdom of the flesh. We have said that the name of flesh is given to all elements, it is to all visible beings who have the principle that nothing can be done without a mixture of simple substances and which have a horror and treat of madness the reason and the action of power. In fact, those who do not believe in spiritual things and follow the inspirations of the flesh do not esteem and admit as true that which is contained in the nature of the elements. Thus they refuse to believe in the virgin birth, in the resurrection of the flesh, because the nature of the flesh, that is, of the elements, does not admit such phenomena. In fact, all the beings that are begotten in time are only by the effect of the mixture of different substances, and the bodies once dead and fallen into dissolution cannot be restored to life, for every element under of dissolution, resumes its own nature. Swollen with these vain prejudices, they openly deny what we believe we have already done, or have to make, and by the same their affirmations are enemies of God, because they treat with madness and lies what God has made and promised to do. |