ROMANS

EXPRESSIONS IN ROMANS BY AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

(Romans 1:4) The words: “According to the Spirit of sanctification by his resurrection from the dead,” they mean that the disciples, after his resurrection, received the gift of the Spirit. And he mentions the resurrection of the dead because in him we were all crucified and resurrected.

(Romans 1:11) The expression: “To impart to you the grace of the Spirit” means to love God and neighbor, so that, for love of Christ, they would avoid any jealousy of the Gentiles called to the Gospel.

(Romans 1:18) “It is revealed from heaven," says Paul, "the wrath of God on all impiety,” etc., which Solomon alluded to speaking about the wise men of the world, when he said: “If so much has been their science, that they have been able to deepen their knowledge of the world, how is it that they have not been able to discover their Creator and Lord with much less effort?” (Wis. 13:9) To those whom Solomon refers, they did not know the Creator through the creature; on the other hand, those whom the Apostle rebuked, they came to know him, but they did not give him thanks, and calling themselves wise, they turned out to be fools who fell into the cult of idols. (Cf. Rom. 1:21-23) Clearly the same Apostle says in the discourse to the Athenians that wise Gentiles came to discover the Creator: “Because in him we live, move and exist,” adding: “as one of yours has affirmed.” (Acts 17:28) His first intention was to denounce the impiety of the Gentiles, to prove from here that Gentiles by conversion could also achieve grace. It would be unfair to suffer the punishment of his impiety and not receive the prize of faith.

 (Romans 1:21) “Having discovered God, they did not glorify him as God, nor did they give him thanks.” Here is the root of sin, according to the words: “The origin of all sin is pride.” (Ps. 10:15) If they had surrendered thanks to God, who had granted them this wisdom, it would not have occurred to them to even attribute anything to themselves. That is why the Lord abandoned them to the desires of their heart, with which they came to act in their own harm.

(Romans 1:24) The expression: “He delivered them” means that he abandoned them to the desires of their heart. It implies that the deserved punishment they received from God was to be abandoned to the whims of their heart.

(Romans 1:28-29) The saying: God gave them to the perverse mentality, etc., full of all evil, we want to indicate that it is about hurting, or in other words committing crimes. Above he speaks of depravations, called offensiveness, from which one comes to fall into crimes. Because when someone goes looking for the pleasure of offensiveness, it becomes crime when trying to remove whoever gets in the way. Distinguishing well that passage from the Wisdom of Solomon, when, after enumerating the previous offensiveness, it says: “Let us stalk the poor righteous man, who is uncomfortable,” etc. (Wis. 2:12)

(Romans 1:32; 2.1) The words: “Not only those who perform such things, but those who approve them,” refer to those who have committed those crimes on their own, and also those who, without having committed them, approve with their consent the criminal works. Hence, talking about sins already completed when he says: “That is why you, whoever you are, who stand as a judge, are inexcusable.” In saying who you are, he points out, including not only the Gentiles, but also the Jews, who they tried to judge the Gentiles according to the Law.

(Romans 2:5) “You are accumulating anger for the day of wrath.” In all places where God's wrath is spoken of, it must be understood as "punishment." That is why he continues saying: “of the righteous judgment of God.” It is to notice that also in the New Testament it is said "anger of God". And when in the Old Testament they read this expression the enemies of the old Law condemn it. They say, not without reason, that God is not subject to the passions, like us, according to that of Solomon: “But you, Lord of armies, judge with serenity.” (Wis. 18:18) The word anger, as we have already said, has the sense of punishment.

(Romans 2:15) The words “according to the testimony of his conscience” are said with the same sense as those of the apostle John, when he says: “Dear beloved ones, if our heart accuses us, God is above our conscience,” etc. (1 Jn. 3:20-21)

(Romans 2:29) The expression: “By the spirit, not by the letter,” should be understood as follows: The Law must be interpreted according to the spirit, not literally, something that happened to those who took the circumcision in the sense purely material, rather than spiritual.

The phrase: “Whose approval does not come from men, but from God,” refers to the previous phrase: “He who is a Jew within himself.”

(Romans 3:20) “Nobody can be justified before him by observing the Law, because by the Law comes the conscience of sin.” This affirmation and other similar ones, which some take as offenses against the Law, must be read with great care, not whether it gives the impression that the Apostle despised the Law or annulled human freedom. Let us distinguish well these four states in which man can be found: before the Law, under the Law, under grace, in peace. We follow the desires of the flesh. Under the law we are dragged by it. Under grace we neither follow it nor be dragged by it. In peace there are no longer carnal desires. So before the Law we do not fight, since we not only follow our passions and fall into sin, but we give our approval to sin. Under the Law we fight, but we are defeated; we recognize the evil of our actions, and this recognition leads us not to want to put them into practice; but since grace is still absent, we are defeated. In this state it is clear to what degree of prostration we arrive, and when trying to resurface and, nevertheless, to fall again, our suffering is aggravated. That is why in this Letter it is said: “The Law was inserted in order for crime to abound.” (Rom. 5:20) And also in another paragraph: “By the Law came the conscience of sin.” This is not the remission of sin, since sin is only eliminated by grace. Good is the Law, since it prohibits what should be prohibited, and sends what must be done. But when one believes that he can fulfill it with his own forces, dispensing with the grace of the Liberator, such pretension avails him nothing; indeed, it harms him to the point that he is the victim of a stronger inclination to sin, finding himself again guilty of his sins. “Because where there is no law, there is no transgression.” (Rom. 4:15) When one becomes aware of the degree of prostration in which he is submerged, and that by himself he is not able to get up, he implores the help of the Liberator. It is then that grace comes with the remission of past sins, helps those who try to resurface, grants love to justification, and thus all fear disappears. When this takes place while we are still in this life, some desires of the flesh continue to fight against the spirit, to induce them to sin. But since the spirit does not give them consent, because it is rooted in the grace and love of God, it stops sinning. For it is not the bad inclination in itself that causes sin, but the giving of our consent. Here comes what the Apostle himself says: “Let no more sin reign in your mortal being by giving obedience to his wishes.” (Rom. 6:12) It makes clear with this recommendation that, although there are in us these crooked desires, not following them, we prevent sin from reigning in us. Now, such desires have their origin in the mortality of our flesh, inherited from the sin of the first man, of whom we are corporally descended. And this inheritance will not end except when we deserve, in the resurrection of the bodies, that immortality that is promised to us, where there will be a perfect peace, once we have arrived at the fourth state. Peace will be perfect, nothing will oppose us, by not opposing ourselves to God. This is what the Apostle affirms: “The body, it is true, is dead because of sin, but the spirit lives by justification. And if the Spirit who resurrected Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also vivify your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” (Rom. 8:10-11) In the first man there was perfect freedom. In us, however, before grace there is no freedom to not sin, but only to not want to sin. On the other hand, grace obtains not only an honest will, but that which can be put into practice, not by our strength, but by the help of the Redeemer, who will also grant us, in the resurrection, a perfect peace, a consequence of the good will. “Glory, then, to God in the highest and peace on earth to men of good will.” (Luke 2:14)

(Romans 3:31) “Then by faith we repeal the Law? In no way, on the contrary, we validate it,” that is, we reinforce it. But how was the Law to be reinforced, but through justice? Of course, the justice that comes by faith: in fact everything that could not be fulfilled by the Law, was fulfilled by faith.

(Romans 4:2) Let's look at this statement: “Because if Abraham was justified by his works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.” He refers to Abraham, when there was still no Law: by not gaining glory by the works of the Law, as one who fulfills it with his own power since this Law had not yet been promulgated, the glory belongs to God, not to him. He was not justified by his merit, as an achievement of his works. It was God with his grace by faith who justified it.

(Romans 4:4) “Now to him that works, the reward is not reckoned according to grace, but according to debt.” He wanted to refer to the wages that men pay each other. Now, what God gave was gratuitous, since He gave it to those who were sinners, so that they might live by righteousness through faith; in other words: so that his behavior was straight. Because our good works, when we have already received grace, we cannot attribute them to ourselves, but to those who justified us by grace. If he had tried to pay the salary due, the retribution would be the punishment deserved to the sinners.

(Romans 4:5) “He who justifies the wicked” refers to “transforming the ungodly” into a religious man, so that from then on he may remain in that attitude of piety and justice. Because he was justified to continue being righteous, not to come to believe that he is allowed to sin.

(Romans 4:15) The Law does not produce more than anger, it means punishment. It belongs to that category of "being under the Law".

(Romans 4:17) “Before God in whom he believed,” he meant that before God faith is in the inner man, not in the sight of men, as is the case with the circumcision of the flesh.

(Romans 4:20) He refers to Abraham when he says: “He gave glory to God.” This he said against those who sought his own glory before men by the works of the Law.

(Romans 5:3) The expression: “Not only this, but we are proud of the tribulations,” etc., gradually it takes us to the love of God. This love, by saying that we have it as a gift of the Spirit, shows us that whatever we could attribute to us, we must attribute it to God, who has deigned to grant us grace by the Holy Spirit.

(Romans 5:13) “Until the Law, he had already sinned in the world.” He wants to say until grace came. It goes against those who think that the Law suffices to erase sins. The Apostle affirms that sins have been revealed by the law, not that they have been abolished. Here are his words: “Sin was not imputed when the Law did not exist.” It does not say that it did not exist, but that it was not imputed. When the Law was promulgated, it does not mean that the sin disappeared, but that it began to be imputed, that is to say to manifest. We do not believe, then, that even the Law pretends to indicate that under the Law there was no sin. This is the meaning: even the Law includes the entire period of its validity, until the end of the Law that is Christ.

(Romans 5:14) “Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even in those who had not sinned, with a crime like Adam's.” We are faced with a double meaning; one can be: for a crime such as that of Adam, death reigned, since even those who had not sinned had death over them, because of their origin in Adam's mortality. Or if not, we must certainly understand it like this: Death reigned even in those who had not sinned with a crime like Adam's, but who sinned before the Law. Their sin must be understood similar to that of Adam, since they had received and a law, and Adam also sinned after receiving a mandatory law. The words until Moses, should be understood as the entire period of the validity of the Law. When Adam is called figure of the one who had to come, is in the opposite direction: just as by Adam came death, so also by our Lord came life.

(Romans 5:15-19) But just as was the crime, forgiveness was not so. In two ways forgiveness is superior: or that grace is much more abundant, because of it we can enjoy eternal life, while the death that reigned because of Adam was temporary; or that many suffered the punishment of death for the sole sin of Adam, while through our Lord Jesus Christ we receive the forgiveness of many sins with the gift of grace, which leads us to eternal life. This second difference explains it thus: And there is no ratio between one who committed the sin and the donation granted. “Because the judgment of one alone ended in condemnation, while the gift of grace over many crimes ended in justification.” One is only understood by the context that is "a single crime", since immediately afterwards it adds expressly: the gift of grace over many crimes. Here, therefore, the difference: the sentence of Adam was for a single crime; On the other hand, for the Lord, the forgiveness of many came to us. In the following paragraph Paul maintains these two differences. This explains: “Because if by the crime of only one death reigned through one man, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and justice, living reign by the work of only one, Jesus Christ.” Words much more reign, they refer to eternal life, and the others who receive the abundance of grace, make reference to the forgiveness of many sins. After clarifying these differences, he returns to the point of departure, which he had interrupted, when he said: “Just as sin entered into this world through one man, and death through sin.” (Rom. 5:12) Now connects with the above and continues: “So, just as the crime of one alone was condemned for all men, so the justification of one alone served as justification and life for all men. Just as by the disobedience of one man many sinners became sinners, so also by the obedience of only one many will become righteous.” Here we have the figure of the Adam that was to come, from which he had just begun to speak, and interspersed some differences, cut the thread of the speech. But now he picks it up and concludes by saying: “So, the same as the crime of one alone to all men,” etc...

(Romans 5:20) “And where sin abounded, grace did more abound.” In this sentence it is clearly understood that the Jews did not understand with what design the Law was promulgated. It was not given to be able to give them life. It is grace that vivifies through faith. The Law was given to make clear how many and how close bonds of sins were going to be chained to those who presumed to achieve justice by their own strength. In these circumstances, sin proliferated, as concupiscence for prohibition became more ardent, and in addition sinners were added to the crime of transgression against a law. This will be well understood by the one who reflects on the second state of those four that we have mentioned before.

(Romans 6:1-2) “What shall we say, then? Do we remain in sin so that grace may abound? No way! We, who have died to sin, how are we going to continue living in it?” It means that the forgiveness of past sins has come, and that grace abounds in this forgiveness of the past. If anyone, therefore, still seeks to grow in sin to experience an abundance of grace, he does not realize that he is setting the means for grace to produce no fruit in him, since the efficacy of grace is in the death to sin.

(Romans 6:6-8) “Keep in mind that our old man was crucified with him, to destroy the sinful body.” Paul makes reference to what Moses said: “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” (Deut. 21:23) The crucifixion of the old man is signified in the cross of the Lord, as the renewal of the new man is in the resurrection. It is evident that we act according to the old man, who was cursed. No one doubts that this curse refers to sin itself, but it also reaches the Lord, who bore our sins, (Cf. Isa. 53:11) and God made him sin for us, (Cf. 2 Cor. 5:21) and that from sin he obtained the condemnation of sin. (Cf. Rom. 8:3) What does it mean: “Destroying the sinful body?” He himself makes it clear to us: “That we may no longer be servants of sin;” and also when it says: “If we have died with Christ,” that is, “if we have been crucified with Christ.” In another place it is expressed as follows: “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their base instincts with their vices and desires.” (Gal. 5:24) In no way did Moses curse the Lord. What he did was to prophesy the extent of his crucifixion.

(Romans 6:14) “Sin will no longer have dominion over you, because you are not under the Law, but under grace.” This obviously already belongs to that third state, mentioned above, in which in your spirit man submits to the law of God, although still in his flesh he serves the law of sin. (Cf. Rom. 7:25) For he no longer pays attention to the desires of sin, although he still asks for his inclinations and provokes his consent, something that will continue to happen until the vivification, even corporal, comes and death is annulled in victory. (Cf. 1 Cor. 15:54) By not consenting to the perverse desires, we are already under grace, and sin no longer reigns in our mortal being. (Cf. Rom. 6:12) This man, already established under grace, describes it very well when he says: “Those of us who are dead to sin, how are we going to live in it?” (Rom. 6:2) For the one subjugated by sin, even if he tries to resist him, is still under the Law, not under grace.

(Romans 7:2) Let us look at these words: “The married woman is subject to the law as long as the husband lives. If her husband dies, she is exempted from the law that bound her husband,” etc. We note that this comparison differs from the subject for which she was brought up, since here the death of the husband is discussed, with which the woman, free from the law of the marriage bond, you can marry whoever you want. There, on the other hand, the soul is considered as a woman, and her husband as the sinful passions that operate in the members, to obtain the fruit of death, that is, that the born offspring is worthy of such union. And the Law was not promulgated to erase sin or free from it, but to show the sin before grace came, which made those who were subject to the Law fall into a more burning desire to sin, even to become most guilty of transgression. In this parallelism three symbols are expressed: the soul, which would be the woman; the sinful passions, represented by man, and the Law, represented by the law that unites the woman with the husband. It is not said in this passage that the soul is freed from death or forgiven sins as from a dying husband: on the contrary, it is the soul itself who dies to sin and is free to belong to another husband, that is, to Christ. She has died to sin, although still the same sin gives the impression of being alive, which happens when the various inclinations that incite us to sin remain in us, although we ignore them and do not indulge them in our spirit, since we are dead to sin. At last the same sin will die, when the transformation of our body arrives in the resurrection, of which it speaks shortly thereafter: “It will also vivify your mortal bodies by the Holy Spirit who dwells in you.” (Rom. 8:11)

(Romans 7:8) “The sin, based on the precept, caused in me all the concupiscence.” The meaning of this phrase is that the concupiscence was not total before being increased by the prohibition. Lust grows when there is a lack of liberating grace, and logically it is not in full force before there are prohibitions. But when the prohibition comes, and, as we have said, grace is lacking, it grows in such a way that it becomes total in its kind, in other words, it reaches its culmination, turning against the Law on the one hand, and adding the crime of transgression, on the other.

(Romans 7:8, 13) When he says: “Without the Law sin is dead,” he did not mean literally that it is dead, but hidden. He clarifies it below: “Sin, to appear as sin, used something that is good in itself to provoke death.” The Law is good, but without grace it only reveals sins, does not erase them.

(Romans 7:9-10) The phrase: “I, at one time, without the law was alive,” that is to say, I thought I lived, because before the command the sin was less known to me. But when the commandment came, the sin began to revive, and I died, that is to say the sin began to declare itself, and I recognized that I was dead.

(Romans 7:11) He goes on to say: “For sin, taking the stand of the commandment, deceived me, and by the same commandment, it killed me.” What it means here is that the desire for the forbidden fruit makes it sweeter. The sins done in secret, are also sweeter, although this sweetness is deadly. In fact Solomon, wanting to represent this fallacious doctrine, describes a seated woman, who wants to seduce the inexperienced with words like these: “Eat with pleasure the hidden loaves, and drink the sweet forbidden water.” (Prov. 9:17) This sweetness is the occasion of sin, exposed by the precept: when it is liked, it deceives unfortunately, and becomes deeper bitterness.

(Romans 7:13) “Then something that is good caused me death? By no means, but it is sin that, to bring out its corruption, has given me death by something that was good.” Here it clearly insists on the above: “Without the Law, sin is dead,” which he expresses saying that it was "hidden". And now he affirms that it has not been a good thing, as it is the Law, what has caused death, but that sin is the cause of it, through something good, the Law, which brought out the sin, hidden before without the Law. It is then when one recognizes oneself dead: when he confesses that something is well ordered, but he is not capable of fulfilling it, and his sin increases more the guilt of the transgression, than if it were not prescribed. This is what it says next: “In this way, because of the mandate, it highlights to the extreme the crime of the sinner,” whereas before the mandate existed it was not so serious, since where there is no law there can be no transgression either.

(Romans 7:14) "We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal.” It is a clear teaching that the law can only be fulfilled by spiritual men, as the grace of God does. (I Retract., 23) A man who has become like the law easily accomplishes what he commands, he is no longer without the law, but with the law; such is the privilege of him who is neither seduced by the goods of the earth, nor spared by the afflictions of the present life.

(Romans 7:14) "I am sold to be subject to sin," that is, each one, by sinning, sells his soul to the devil and receives in exchange the sweetness of the pleasures of the earth, and Our Lord is called our Redeemer because we were sold the way we just said.

(Romans 7:15,13) “What I do I do not understand.” This phrase could seem to those less understood as contradictory to that other: “Sin, to manifest itself as such, used something good to cause me death.” How can it be manifested, if it is ignored? But here I do not understand it has the sense of "I do not approve". Just as darkness cannot be seen, but in contrast to light they are perceived, and that is why we say "perceive darkness", which is equivalent to not seeing, the same happens with sin: not being illuminated by the light of justice, its absence is perceived in the understanding, as we say to perceive the darkness by the absence of light. This is what the psalm alludes to: “Crimes who knows them?” (Ps. 18:13)

(Romans 7:19-20) “I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want. But if I do what I do not want, I agree that the Law is good.” The Law of all accusations is perfectly exempt here, but beware, do not believe someone who in these words is deprived of free will. No way. Here the man subject to the Law is described before grace comes. In this state, man, deprived of the help of the liberating grace of God, when trying to live as just with his own strength, falls defeated by his sins. However, in his freedom is to believe in the Liberator and receive grace. In this way, already freed and aided by the one who gave it to him, he will cease to sin and be under the Law; will be with the Law or in the Law, fulfilling it with love to God, instead of feeling helpless out of fear.

(Romans 7:23-25) “I see in my members another law that rebels against the law of my reason, and makes me a prisoner of the law of sin that is in my members.” This law of sin is that which keeps us chained in the bonds of the habits of the flesh. This law fights against his spirit and holds him captive under the law of sin, a clear proof that St Paul here describes the state of the man who is not yet under grace. (I Retract. 23) If only the carnal inclination rebelled, but without making it a prisoner, there would be no place for condemnation. Condemnation comes because we obey and submit to the perverse instincts of the carnal man. If such instincts continue in us, and continue to insist, but we ignore them, then we are not prisoners: we are already living under grace. He will speak of it when he begins to exclaim, imploring the help of the Liberator, so that love, by grace, will be able to accomplish what fear could not through the Law. Here are his words: “Woe to me! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” He adds: “The grace of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.” And then begins to describe the man established under grace, who occupies the third state of those four in which we divide it above. To this degree belongs what it says next: “I myself, on the one hand, serve the Law with my reason, but on the other, with my flesh, I submit to the law of sin.” That is, although the carnal instincts continue to be active, he consents them, and therefore he does not submit to them committing sin. Because he is established under grace, his spirit submits to the Law of God, even though his flesh follows the law of sin. It calls the law of sin to the mortal condition, derived from the sin of Adam, which makes us all mortal. As an inheritance of this fall of the flesh, carnal desires are always inciting; to this it refers in another passage: “We were also by nature children of anger, like others.” (Eph. 2:3)

(Romans 8:1) “Consequently, no condemnation now weighs on those who are united to Christ Jesus.” It clearly makes us see that there is no condemnation even if there are carnal instincts, provided they are not allowed to sin, which happens to those who are under the Law and not yet under grace. In fact, those established under the Law, not only have the instincts in continuous struggle, but they fall under their captivity when they obey them. This does not happen to those who in their spirit submit to the Law of God.

(Romans 8:3-4) Let us continue to see what the Apostle says: “What the Law found impossible because of the weakness of the flesh, God has achieved, sending his Son in a condition similar to sinful flesh, and since sin gave condemnation in his flesh to sin, and thus the justice demanded by the Law was fulfilled in us, that we no longer live according to the carnal instincts, but according to the spirit.” His teaching is clear: the same precepts of the Law, although they were obligatory, they were not fulfilled. Why? Because those to whom the Law had been promulgated, before the period of grace, were given over to material goods, and their desire was to achieve happiness from them, just as their fears arose only when some danger was coming against such goods. Therefore, when a problem arose in such temporal goods, they easily departed from the fulfillment of the Law. It was, then, logical that the Law should be weakened, since it was not fulfilled in its precepts, not by its fault, but by the flesh, that is to say, of those men, whose desires were not the love for justice that the Law inculcates, but the craving for material goods. In a word: they put temporal comforts before the Law. And then it is when our Liberator, the Lord Jesus Christ, arrives who takes a mortal body in the likeness of the flesh of sin. The flesh of sin has a debt: death. But let it be clear that the death of the Lord was a generous dignity of his, not the payment of a debt. However, the Apostle calls "sin" the assumption of mortal flesh, even if it is not sinful, since an immortal, when he dies, is as if he committed a sin. That is why he says: “But since sin he gave condemnation in his flesh to sin.” This is the attainment of the Lord's death, so that we no longer fear death, and for the same reason we did not desire temporal goods, nor did we fear temporal evils. Here was where that "prudence of the flesh" resided that prevented them from fulfilling the precepts of the Law. Once this prudence has been destroyed and annulled in that man who was the Lord, the fulfillment of the law of justice reigns, that one does not proceed according to the carnal instincts, but according to the spirit. Hence, those words are really loaded: “I have not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.” (Matt. 5:17) And also: “Charity is the fullness of the Law.” (Rom. 13:10) And charity is in those who live according to the spirit. She enters fully into the sphere of the grace of the Holy Spirit. But when there was no love for justice, but only fear, the Law had no fulfillment.

(Romans 8:7) "As the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy of God, because it is not subject to the law of God, for it cannot be." He describes here the sense of an enemy, let's not think of someone who is dealing with some being from an adverse principle, not created by God, and who is dedicated to making war against God. No. Enemy of God is called the one who does not abide by his law, protected by the prudence of the flesh, which is like saying that his desires are temporal goods, and his fears temporary evils. In fact, prudence is usually defined as the search for good and the rejection of evil. The Apostle, therefore, calls the prudence of the flesh to which he has as important goods those who do not survive with man, and he is afraid of losing what he will irretrievably lose. Such prudence is incapable of obeying the Law of God. Only when this prudence disappears will the Law be obeyed. Then the prudence of the spirit will happen to her: she makes our hope not reside in temporal goods, nor our fear in evils. However, our very soul, in its unique nature, is in simultaneous possession of the prudence of the flesh, when it goes after the goods of this world, and of the prudence of the spirit, when it chooses the superior goods. Thus the same water freezes by the cold and liquefies under the action of heat. St. Paul declares, therefore, that "the prudence of the flesh is not subject to the law of God, and that it cannot be," in the same sense that we say that the snow is not heated and cannot but when it dissolves under the action of heat and the water reaches a higher temperature, it can no longer be said that it is snow.

(Romans 8:10) "The body, it is true, is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness.” St. Paul says: "The body is dead," that is to say, subject to death: it is because of the mortality of our body that the necessities of the present life powerfully invoke our soul, excite in it guilty desires which are not granted by him who is submitted by the spirit to the law of God.

(Romans 8:11) “If the Spirit who resurrected Jesus Christ from the dead dwells in you, the same one who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also revive your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” We are already in the fourth state of those four indicated above. Only that this degree does not occur in the present life. It belongs to hope, through which we await the redemption of our being, when this corruptible is clothed with incorruption, and this mortal is clothed with immortality.” (Cf. 1 Cor. 15:53-54) There will be a perfect peace; the soul cannot suffer any discomfort from part of the body, already vivified, and transformed into a celestial condition.

(Romans 8:15-16) “You have not received a spirit of slaves, to fall back into fear, but a Spirit of adopted children, by which we cry: Abba, Father!” The periods of the two Testaments are here clearly distinguished: The Old, belonging to the age of fear, and the New, in which charity reigns. But the question arises: What does "the spirit of slavery" mean? Because the spirit of adoptive children undoubtedly is the Holy Spirit, and therefore the spirit of slavery that makes one fall into fear is one who has the power to kill. Throughout their lives they were reduced to the bondage of fear those who lived under the Law and not under grace. And do not be surprised that those who followed the temporal goods have received that spirit of divine providence, not because of it comes the law and the precept. “For the Law is holy and the commandment is holy, just and good;” (Rom. 7:12) On the other hand, the spirit that reduces servitude there is no doubt that it is not good. It is the one received by those who feel incapable of fulfilling the promulgated Law, by submitting to low instincts and not yet being elevated by the grace of the Liberator to the category of adopted children. In fact, the spirit of servitude has no power over anyone, that is not assigned to him according to the divine providence, which rewards each one according to the justice of God. One such power had received the Apostle, when he refers to some in these terms: “I gave them to Satan so that they learn not to blaspheme.” (1 Tim. 1:20) And another says: “I have already made the decision to surrender that individual to Satan, to ruin his flesh and salvation of his soul.” (1 Cor. 5:3-5) Hence, those who do not yet live under grace, but who are established under the Law, are constrained by sin to obey low passions, and with their transgression they increase the guilt of their crimes. These have received the spirit of slavery, that is, the spirit that has the power to cause death. Because if by spirit of slavery we understood the same spirit of man, we would have to understand by spirit of adoption that same spirit that has changed for the better. But given that we have the Holy Spirit as the spirit of adoption, as Paul openly testifies, when he says: “That same Spirit assures our spirit,” the spirit of servitude is necessarily that of which sinners follow inspirations. In the same way that the Holy Spirit delivers us from the fear of death, so the spirit of servitude which exercises the power of death keeps the sinners enslaved to this fear of death. The only way for all to escape is to implore the help of the Liberator despite all the efforts of the devil who wants to always have us in his power.

(Romans 8:19-23) "So the creature awaits with a strong expectation the manifestation of the children of God. Because it is subject to vanity, not voluntarily, etc.” to these words: "And we who possess the first fruits of the spirit, groan within us, waiting for the adoption of the children of God, the redemption of our body."  We will not believe these words that trees or vegetables or rocks or any other creatures of this type are capable of feeling pain or complaining, here lies the Manichaean error, nor are we going to think that holy angels are subject to this failure, and imagine that they are going to be freed from inner servitude. No, they will never die anymore. We must interpret all of creation, without forcing the text, contained in man alone. That's right: every creature is necessarily or spiritually, that par excellence is in the angels, or animal, which we all know is in the beasts or corporeal, something that can be seen and touched. All of them are contained in man, which consists of spirit, animal life and body. Then the sentence: "So the creature awaits with a strong expectation the manifestation of the children of God,” it has this meaning: everything that now in man is in misery and subjected to corruption, is waiting for that manifestation of which the Apostle speaks: “You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God; when your life is revealed, which is Christ, then you too will manifest with him in glory.” (Col. 3:3-4) John also says: "My beloved, we are now the children of God, but what we will one day do not yet appear. We know that when he comes in his glory, we will be like him, because we will see him as he is." (1 Jn. 3:2) This manifestation of children of God, is what awaits creation, creation that for now in man is subject to failure, while being given to temporary things, passing like a shadow. This is what the psalm says: “Man is like a breath, his days pass like a shadow.” (Ps. 143:4) Solomon also speaks of this void of creation in these terms: “Vanity of vanities, everything is vanity. What does a man get out of all his hardships with which he struggles under the sun?” (Songs 1:2-3) And David still says again: “Why do you follow the fancy of the useless and seek the lie?” (Ps. 4:3) He does not say that the creation has submitted on its own to that uselessness, since it is a punishment imposed. If it is true that man sinned freely, it was not he who chose the punishment. Yes, this punishment was imposed on our nature, but not without hope of redemption. That's why Paul says: “By the work of the one who submitted it, but with hope, because that same creation will be freed from the bondage of death to achieve the freedom and glory of the children of God.” It is about what is only creature, not yet added by faith to the number of the children of God, but in the group of those who were to believe. The Apostle, when contemplating them, was when he said that the creation will be freed from the bondage of death, so that they are no longer under the tyranny of destruction to which all sinners submit. Because that is how the sinner was sentenced: “You will die without remedy.” (Gen. 2:17) But also: “She will be liberated with the glorious freedom of the children of God,” that is, so that she too, the creation, will come to enjoy the freedom and glory of the children of God through faith. And when that faith still did not possess her, she was simply called a pure creature. The following is precisely what she refers to: “Because we know that the creation sends moans of pain to the present.” It would be time for those who, even in their spirit, were subject to regrettable mistakes, to pass to faith. And so that no one would be called deceptive, believing that with such words he was referring only to non-believers, he also adds some considerations for those who had already embraced the faith. Although with the spirit, that is, with reason, the Law of God is obeyed, nevertheless, since with our passions one becomes a slave of the law of sin, (Cf. Rom. 7:25) while we have to suffer the annoyances and incitements of our mortal being, therefore the Apostle says: “Moreover, we too, who possess the first fruits of the Spirit, groan in the depths of our being.” It is clear: not only, he says, in what we can call merely a creature among men, for not have still believed, and cannot be counted among the children of God, there are these groans and this pain: we ourselves, who already have the faith and we have the Spirit as a first fruits, that already in our spirit we are united to God by faith, and therefore we stop calling ourselves pure creatures, to call ourselves children of God, but we also make moans in our interior waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. Because this adoption, already made in those who have believed, it is done in the spirit, not in the body. The body has not yet received that celestial transfiguration, as the spirit has achieved, which has been renewed by the reconciliation worked by faith, turning from its errors to God. Yes, also in those who are already believers it is waiting for that manifestation that will take place with the resurrection of the bodies, and that belongs to the fourth of the conditions of man. There will reign a perfect peace and an endless rest: there will be no corruption that can resist us, nor annoyance that causes us concern.

(Romans 8:26-27) "In the same way the Spirit helps our weakness, because we do not know what we need to ask.” It is evident that the Apostle here speaks of the Holy Spirit, which he clearly indicates in the following: "Because he asks for the saints what is according to God." We, in reality, do not know how to pray properly, and this for two reasons: first, because the future that we long for and toward which we tend is not yet manifested; and then because in this our life there are many things that may seem beneficial and harmful, and others that seem harmful to us and are actually beneficial. For example, when suffering comes to a servant of God, either as a proof or as a correction, the little understood ones find it pointless. But if we pay attention to those words: “Give us your help in the tribulation, because the salvation that comes from man is useless,” (Ps. 59:13) we realize that there are many times that God helps us in our troubles, and that it is useless to sigh for the health, when it may not suit us, because it may be that it puts the soul in danger because of its passionate love for the present life. This is what the words of the psalm refer to: “I encountered tribulation and pain, and invoked the name of the Lord.” (Ps. 114:3-4) That I found was something useful, since we were not happy to have found anything but what we were looking for. That is why we do not know how to ask in prayer what is convenient. God does know what is good for us in this life and what he will grant us at the end of it. But the Holy Spirit in person intercedes for us with ineffable groans. He says that the Spirit groans, and that is because it makes us moan, stoking our love towards the desire for the future life. Hence those words: “The Lord your God puts you to the test to know if you love him.” (Deut. 13:3) What he really wants is for you to know. There is nothing hidden from God.

(Romans 8:28-30) These words: “Those he called, he justified them,” can move to ask themselves with concern if all who have been called will be justified. In fact, we read in another passage: “Many are called and few are chosen.” (Matt. 22:14) But since all the elect have been called before, it is evident that they are not justified if they are not called before; But it is not about all the calls, but about those who have been called according to God's plan, as he had said shortly before. And it's about God's design, not theirs. Paul himself explains the scope of this design, when he says: “For those whom he foreseen in advance, he also predestined them to be like his Son.” No, not all those called are according to the divine plan; this design is part of the foreknowledge and predestination of God. Well understood that no one predestined, but the one whom he foresaw that he would believe and be faithful to that vocation. It is these whom he calls elect. Because many are called, but do not come to the call; on the other hand nobody comes if they are not before called.

(Romans 8:29) “That he may be the firstborn among many brothers.” In this phrase he teaches us clearly that we must understand how our Lord is only begotten in a different way than firstborn. As only Son, he has no brothers, he is by nature the Son of God, the Word who was from the beginning and by whom all things were made. (1 Jn. 1:1) He is called, on the other hand, firstborn because he has been associated with other brothers, something that took place when he assumed human nature in the mystery of the incarnation. Thanks to he, he deigned to call us also his children, not natural, but adopted. When we say that one is the first, we obviously say that he is not alone, but that there are other brothers who follow him, after having preceded them. For example, in another place he is called the firstborn among the dead, so that it is he who maintains the primacy. (Cf. Col. 1:18) Indeed, before him no death is resurrected to die no more; after him a great number of saints, whom he does not blush to call his brethren, because of the humanity which is common to them, have in part to this resurrection.

(Romans 8:35) “Who will separate us from the love of Christ The tribulation, the anguish, the persecution?” etc. It is a consequence of the previous paragraph: “If we share with him his sufferings, it is also to share his glory.” I maintain that the present sufferings are not proportionate to the future glory that will be revealed in us. (Rom. 8:17-18) The only goal that St. Paul proposes here is to exhort those to whom he addresses himself not to be driven down by persecutions by living according to the prudence of the flesh which makes us desire the goods and fear the evils of the present life.

(Romans 8:38-39) "I am certain," says the Apostle, and not simply I think, that is to say that his faith gives him a full conviction, that neither the threat of death, whatever it is, nor the promise of the present life, nor any of the things of which he enumerates, cannot separate from the love of God the one who believes in him. No, no one turns it aside: nor the one who threatens death, since whoever believes in Christ, even if he dies, lives on; Neither does he who offers life, because he who gives eternal life is Christ. There is no room for hesitation, since the promise of temporary life becomes contemptible in comparison with eternal life. Nor does it exclude the angel, since even when an angel, he says, descended from heaven to announce something different from what you have received, let him be anathema. Nor is the principality, the adversary, naturally, since he has stripped himself of such principalities and powers, triumphing over them in himself. (Cf. Gal. 2:15) Neither the present nor the future, it is understood temporary things that can flatter or be difficult, that offer hope or instill fear. Neither force, this force should be understood as adverse, according to these other words of the Gospel: “No one can strip the hope chest of a strong man, unless it is first tied,” (Matt. 12:29) neither height nor depth, or whose discovery is useless, separates from God, unless charity prevails by inviting men to certain knowledge of spiritual goods, whether from the sky or from the abyss, that we are not capable of penetrating, and even if we do it, they are useless. Unless the charity comes out victorious, it makes its impulse feel not towards the inconsistent exterior, but towards the certain spiritual realities that are in the inner man. “No creature whatsoever.” This can be understood in two ways: either the visible creatures, since we, that is, our soul, is a creature, but invisible, in which case I would say that no creature will separate us, that is, no love of body type; or rather that there is no possible creature that can separate us from the love of God, since no creature comes between us and God, that is adverse and can prevent us from embracing it. That's right, above the human mind, which is rational, there is no longer any creature, only God.

(Romans 9:5) Paul says: “His are the patriarchs, from whom Christ descends according to the flesh,” and adds: “Who is above all, God blessed forever.” He transmits a faith without hesitation for which we profess that our Lord, by his incarnation, it is authentic man, and by his eternity, he is the Word that already existed from the beginning, God blessed on all and for always. As the Jews only maintained a part of this profession of faith, it is because of what the Lord denies them. In fact, when he asked them to see who they believed that the Christ should be a son, they answered: David. (Cf. Matt. 22:42-43) This, of course, is according to the flesh. But of his divinity, for which he is God, nobody responded. And it is when the Lord replies to them: “Then, how is it that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls him Lord?” (Matt. 22:43) To make them realize that they had confessed only that Christ is the son of David, and they had kept silent that Christ, He is also Lord of David himself. The first is for his incarnation, and the second for his eternal divinity.

(Romans 9:11-13) To continue God's purpose of choosing not by works, but because he calls, before being born and doing something good or bad, he was told: “The elder will serve the younger, as it is written: I loved Jacob and I rejected Esau.” Some are worried about these words, thinking that Paul eliminates the free will of the will, for which we deserve God through good and pious works and with the evil and impious we offend him. And they reason saying that before any good or bad work, before being born, one of the two had love and the other hatred. But our answer is that God, by his foreknowledge, knows, before he is born, what each one will be like. And here is where someone could object: Then God chose the works in which he loved, although they still did not exist, because he foresaw that they would be done. Well, if he chose the works, how is it that the Apostle Paul affirms that the election was not made by the works? We have to understand this passage like this: good works are done out of love, and love is present in us through the gift of the Holy Spirit, as the Apostle himself says: “Charity has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (Rom. 5:5) No one should, therefore, boast of the works as if they were his: they are the fruit of a gift from God, since it is love that operates in him good works. What, then, was what God chose? If it is he who gives the Holy Spirit to whom he wills, thanks to which love works good in him, on what basis does God choose to whom to give it? Because in the absence of all merit, there is no choice: we are all equal before deserving, and we cannot talk about choice when things are exactly the same. But since the Holy Spirit is given only to those who believe, it means that God chose not works, but faith: works are a gift of God, the fruit of charity that works in us good, which it comes with the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is clear: if one does not believe in God, nor keep oneself in the will to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, he does not receive it. Because it is he who infuses us with charity, which enables us to do good. So God, in his foreknowledge, does not choose works in anyone, which must be a gift of his, but he chooses the faith: to whom he knows in advance that he has to believe, he chooses, to give him the Holy Spirit, and by his means, with well-doing, he can also attain eternal life. Thus says the Apostle himself: “It is the same God who works all in all.” (1 Cor 12:6) But no Scripture says: "God works to believe everything in everyone." Therefore believing is our thing, and doing good is the work of the one who gives the Holy Spirit to those who have believed in him. It was this point that was proposed to the Jews who had believed in Christ, and they gloried in their works before receiving the grace. They claimed to have received the grace of the Gospel for their good works an example, being that good works are impossible without having received grace. If he corresponds to this first grace by obeying the voice of the one who calls him, which depends on his free will, he will deserve to receive the Holy Spirit who will give him the power to do good, and if he persevering in this state, which also depends on his free will, he will deserve eternal life, which is safe from all corruption and defilement.

(Romans 9:11-15) "I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion, and I will have mercy on whom I will please to have pity." This phrase clarifies that in God there is no injustice, something that some may object to this other: “Before they were born, I loved Jacob, and instead I rejected Esau.” So he says: “I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” First, while we were still sinners, God has compassion on us and called us. And then, as he says, who I pity for, calling him, I will again have pity for him when he creates. How is it that we say "again", but because the Holy Spirit gives it to the one who believes, and also asks for it? And once granted to anyone who shows his mercy, he will continue to offer it, until he becomes merciful, with which he is capable of doing good for love. That no one should think, then, to attribute to himself the works he performs of mercy. It is God who, through the Holy Spirit, has granted him love, without which no one can be merciful. God has not chosen those who do good, but rather those who believe, to make possible the practice of good. It is up to us to believe and to want, but it is up to God alone to give those who have faith and good will the power to do good by the Holy Spirit, who spreads charity in our hearts to render us merciful. (I Retract., 23. 3)

(Romans 9:15-21) “So the important thing is not wanting or worrying, but God has mercy.” This phrase does not eliminate the free will of our will. He limits himself to saying that it is not enough for us to want it, if God does not help us by making us merciful in order to do good, by the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is what has been said a short time before: "I will have pity on whom I will please to have pity, and I will have mercy on whom I will please mercy." It is that we cannot even want, if we are not called; and when we want, after the call, our will and our efforts are not enough, if God does not lend vigor to those who labor, and leads them to the goal. It is clear that the thing, then, is not that one wants or cares for us to work good, but that God has mercy, although here also our will is implied, which by itself nothing can. St. Paul confirms this truth by a proof from Pharaoh's retribution, when God says of him in Holy Scripture: "I have caused you to stir up my power in you, and to make my name famous throughout the world.” Indeed, we read in Exodus: "The heart of Pharaoh was hardened to the point that the most brilliant prodigies made no impression on him.” (Exod. 1:10) Now this disobedience of Pharaoh to God's orders was a punishment. And no one can say that Pharaoh had not deserved this hardening of the heart, for it was the just chastisement of which God punishes his unbelief. He was not accused of not obeying at that moment, since with a hardened heart he could not obey, but had become worthy of hardening by his previous disbelief. The same thing happens with those God chooses: the principle of merit is not works, but faith. Good works are a gift from God. And in a parallel way it happens with those God condemns: it is infidelity and impiety that is at the base of the deserved punishment; his bad deeds are already the consequence of this punishment. Thus the Apostle affirms it above: And since they did not recognize God as worthy of being known, he gave them to his reprobate feelings, so that his conduct would be disordered. (Rom. 1:28) And this is how the Apostle himself concludes: “Then he has compassion on whom he wills, and on whomsoever he hardens him.” So it is: to him with whom he has mercy, he causes him to do good works. On the other hand, whoever he hardens he abandons so that he may give him up to bad deeds. Note that this mercy must be attributed to the merit of the previous faith, just as the hardening is to the previous impiety. The good work, then, is due to a gift from God, and evil to a punishment. But man is not deprived of the free will of his will, either when he believes in God to reach his mercy, or when he rejects God, thus falling into punishment. When Paul came to this conclusion, he asks himself this question as if he were from an adversary: “​​Now you will object to me: Why do you still complain? Who can resist his will?” To this question he responds in a way that we understand him as spiritual men, not as those who live according to earthly criteria: it is evident that the first merits can be faith or impiety, and that God, with his foreknowledge, chooses those who believe and reject unbelievers; that he does not choose those for his works, nor does he condemn them for them; that it is good for them to act for their faith, and for others to abandon them to hardening in their unbelief, the cause of their evil deeds. Since this explanation, as I have already said, is well understood by men of spirit, while the prudence of the flesh is unacceptable, the refutation of the objector is first directed at convincing him that in order to understand this he must first divest himself of the man of clay, and thus deserves to carry out this investigation through the ways of the spirit. Says Paul: “Oh man! Who are you to reply to God? Will the clay tell the one who modeled it: Why did you make me this way? Is it not for the potter to have the right to make a noble and a despicable glass from the same clay?” As if to say: while you are being made and you are a mass of clay, which has not yet reached the level of spiritual realities; Until you become the spiritual man who judges everything and is judged by no one, it is better for you to abstain from this kind of inquiry and to reply to God. If one wishes to know his designs, he must first be received in his friendship, something that can only be achieved by the spiritual ones, who already carry in themselves the image of the heavenly man. It is he himself who says: “I am no longer going to call you servants, but friends, because everything I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” (Jn. 15:15) But as long as you are a fragile vessel of clay, that same fragility must be broken in you with that rod of iron to which the psalm refers: “You shall rule them with a scepter of iron, and as a vessel of clay you shall break them.” (Ps. 2:9) And so, annihilated the outer man and renewed the interior; rooted and grounded in charity, you will be able to understand the width and the length, the height and the depth, getting to know also what surpasses all knowledge, the love of God. (Cf. Eph. 3:16-19) Now, if God of the same mass has made some honorable and other despicable vessels, you are not the one to discuss it, you who are still part of this mass, which means that you have a sense of earthly and carnal life.

(Romans 9:22) “He endured with great patience the vessels of wrath, ready for destruction.” He explains how the hardness of Pharaoh's heart came from having deserved it because of his secret and previous impiety. God patiently endured it until he judged that it was useful to exert against him his vengeance for the instruction of those whom he had resolved to deliver from error and to bring to his worship calling them in kindness and mercifully granting help to their prayers and groans.

(Romans 9:24-25) "He called us not only from among the Jews, but also from among the Gentiles, as he says in Hosea, I will call my people those who were not my people," etc. Words that let us see how the purpose of all this controversy is to reaffirm what I had already been teaching: that our good works are due to the mercy of God. The Jews should not boast of their works, convinced that having received the Gospel was due to their own merits, and therefore they refused to spread it among the pagans. They must lay down that arrogance and realize that if we are called to believe not by works, but by the mercy of God, and that we as believers are granted good works, there is no reason to exclude the Gentiles from this mercy as if the Jews had gone ahead in the merits, when in reality they have none.

(Romans 9:27) “Isaiah cries out in favor of Israel: If the number of the children of Israel were like the sand of the sea, a remnant will be saved.” These words show us how God is the cornerstone that unites the two walls in itself. (Cf. Eph. 2:20) In fact, the testimony of the prophet Hosea is in favor of the Gentiles: “I will call my people to the one who is not my people, and I will call the unloved one my beloved.” (Hos. 2:24) Isaiah, for his part, gives his testimony in favor of Israel, that a remnant will be saved, (Isa. 10:22) the remains will be saved and put among the children of Abraham who believed in Jesus Christ. It is thus that God unites the two peoples into one, according to what Jesus Christ says in his Gospel when speaking of the Gentiles: "I have other sheep that are not of this sheep; I must bring them, and there will be one flock and one shepherd.” (Jn. 10:16)

(Romans 10:1) “Brethren, the deepest desire of my heart, and what I ask of God for them is that they be saved.” Begin now to speak of the hope of the Jews, lest the Gentiles also brag boastfully against them. Because if on the one hand the Jewish arrogance, which gloried in their works, was rejected, so it would be necessary to stop the Gentiles' feet to avoid the pride of believing themselves to be preferred to the Jews.

(Romans 10:8-10) “The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart; this word is the faith we preach; and if your lips confess that Jesus is the Lord, and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. With the faith of the heart we come to justification, and with the oral profession we reach salvation.” All this paragraph refers to what has been said above: “The Lord will fulfill his word on earth and without delay.” Abolished, in fact, the innumerable and complicated rites that oppressed the Jewish people, God with his mercy has made us reach salvation by the simplicity of the confession of faith.

(Romans 10:19) Then quote a testimony of Moses: “I will cause you envy towards one who is no nation; I will irritate you with a fatuous nation.” By saying "fatuous nation" it explains the previous "no nation". As if to imply that a fatuous nation does not deserve the name of nation. He says, however, that the irritation of the Jews would come from the faith of the Gentiles, since they took advantage of what they despised. Or, better yet, that this no nation, this fatuous nation, as all people who worship idols, knew how to leave them embracing the faith. This is what the words refer to: “If an uncircumcised person observes the mandates of the Law, will he not be considered a circumcised one?” (Rom. 2:26), as if to say: I will provoke you envy of a nation that had not become one, but knew how to change its paganism by faith in Christ, in spite of having been a fatuous nation for his cult to idols.

(Romans 11:1) “Has God rejected his people? No way! I am also an Israelite, of the offspring of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.” Here reference is made to the above: “The word of God cannot fail. What happens is that not all the descendants of Israel are authentic Israelites, nor are all of Abraham's lineage his children, but Isaac's will be named after your descendants.” (Rom. 9:6-7) It means that among the Jewish people only those who have believed in the Lord will be considered descendants of Abraham. It is what he refers to shortly before: “The rest will be saved. (Rom. 9:27)

(Romans 11:11-12) “And I say: Is their crime so great that it has caused them to succumb? There is no such, but for their crime salvation went to the Gentiles.” This does not mean that they have not fallen, but that their fall was not useless, since it served for the salvation of the Gentiles. By saying that if their crime was so great that he made them succumb, he means that their fall was not without consequences, as a simple punishment, but that the very act of falling helped the salvation of the Gentiles. From here begins to praise the Jewish people, taking the foot of the same fall of their infidelity, to avoid the conceit of the Gentiles, since the fall of the Jews was so valuable for the salvation of the Gentiles, yes, but for the most part pagans should avoid conceit, lest they fall like them.

(Romans 12:20) “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; By doing so, you will pile burning coals on your head.” This affirmation may seem to many that it contradicts the command of the Lord to love our enemies and to pray for our persecutors, (Cf. Matt. 5:44) and even what the same Apostle said shortly before: “Bless those who persecute you, bless them, yes, do not curse them” (Rom. 12:14); or also: “Do ​​not repay evil for evil.” (Rom. 12:17) How can one love the one who gives him food and drink, precisely to pile coals burning on his head, if the burning coals mean in this text a serious punishment? No, it's not like that. We must understand that these words are an invitation, with our good behavior towards those who have offended us, to repent of their bad behavior. Such burning coals are aimed at burning, that is, at the contrition of the spirit, which is like the head of the soul, in which all malice is reduced to ashes, when man becomes better by conversion. These are the coals of fire spoken of in the Psalms: “What is going to be given to you, what is going to be offered to you, to your deceitful tongue? Sharp arrows of a warrior with scorching coals.” (Ps. 119:3-4)

(Romans 13:1) “Submit yourselves to the higher authorities; there is no authority that does not come from God.” It is an opportune warning to the new Christians, lest they rise to the head to be called by the Lord to freedom, and come to think that in the pilgrimage of this life there is no reason to comply with the established order or submit to the higher authorities, to whom only the government of transitory realities has been temporarily granted. Being us, as we are, soul and body, while we are in this temporal life we ​​make use of temporary things for the necessities of our life. It is logical, therefore, that we submit, in relation to the realities of present life, to the authorities, that is, to the men constituted in dignity, who govern human realities. Now, as regards our faith in God and the call to his kingdom, we do not have to submit ourselves to any man, when his intentions are precisely to overthrow what God has given us in order to eternal life. If someone, then, thinks that because he is a Christian he is not obliged to pay the taxes or the contribution, or not to pay due honor to the authorities responsible for these things, he is in serious error. But it would fall into a more serious error even if he thought that the authorities invested with some superior dignity should abide by the government of temporal realities, but taking this to the field of faith, as if they also had authority over it. The right balance in this field is prescribed by the Lord in person, when he says that we must “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.” (Cf. Matt. 22:21) And although we are called to that kingdom, where there will no longer be any authority of this world, as long as our pilgrimage lasts, until we reach that world, where all principality and powers are annulled, let us be tolerant with our condition, for the good order of the human realities. Let us not walk with falsehood, and let us give obedience in all this not so much to men, but to God who prescribes this behavior to us.

(Romans 13:3-4) "Do you want to have no fear of power? Do good and you will receive praise." It may be that these words cause irritation to some, when they remember that Christians have suffered frequent persecution from the authorities. Were they not behaving well, not only because they were not praised by such authorities, but even when they were tortured and killed? We must consider well the words of the Apostle. He does not say, "Be good and the authority will praise you," but: “Do good and you will receive praise." That is to say, whether he persecutes you, you will receive his approval, either because you succeed in conquering him in the service of God, or because you deserve the crown of martyrdom in persecution. The same can be deduced from what he says about authority immediately: “He is at the service of God for your good,” (Rom. 13:2) even though it is for his own misfortune.

(Romans 13:5) “Be submissive by necessity.” Paul wants to make us understand with this phrase that it is necessary, for the sake of this life, to be submitted, without resisting even when they want to take something away from our temporal things, within the limits of their authority. As we are talking about temporary goods, our submission does not have to reach the assets, say, permanent, but only those we need in this temporary life. The Apostle, however, fears that these words may not be permitted: "Be submissive by necessity" to obey only reluctantly and without true love, and he hastens to add: "Not only by fear, but also by conscience," that is to say, not only to avoid anger, which can be done by a simulated obedience, but so that your conscience assures you that you act with love for the one to whom you are subject by the command of the Lord, who wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Tim. 2:4) And when the Apostle said this, he meant the legitimate authorities. This is what he advises the slaves in another place: “Offer your service not only to be seen, as to please men,” (Eph. 6:6) that in the very act of submitting to their masters, they do so without bitterness and not to gain their favor by means of deceit.

(Romans 13:8-10) “He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.” The Apostle teaches us that perfect fulfillment of the law consists in love, that is to say, in charity. That is why the Lord says that all the Law and the Prophets are included in these two precepts of love for God and for one's neighbor. (Cf. Matt. 22:37-40) This is the reason why he himself, who came to give fulfillment to the Law, gave us the love for the Holy Spirit so that what the fear was not able to fulfill before, it would be achieved later by charity. The same thing makes him say: “The fullness of the law is charity.” And also: “The end of the mandate is charity, which springs from a pure heart, an honest conscience and a sincere faith. (1 Tim. 1:5)

(Romans 13:11) "We know that time is running out and the time has come to wake us from our slumber." What is expected is what is written: “Now is precisely the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor. 6:2) He wants to imply that the time of the Gospel has arrived and the promising occasion to save those who believe in God.

(Romans 13:14) “And do not listen to the lust of the flesh.” What Paul tells us is that the care of the flesh is not to be blamed, when it is provided for the needs of bodily health. Another thing is when one is pleased to feed the demands of the flesh with unnecessary pleasures and luxuries. Here, rightly, it becomes reprehensible, since to satisfy the carnal passions brings as a consequence that the one who sows in his flesh, from the flesh will reap corruption. (Gal. 6:8) And it refers to those who rejoice in carnal pleasures.

(Romans 14:1-3) “To the weak in faith receive him without making judgments.” Saint Paul wants us to receive with kindness one who is weak in the faith, that our strength is the support of his weakness and that we do not seek to discuss his opinions, that is to say to make a judgment on the thoughts of the heart of others, which we do not see. This is why he adds: "One believes he can eat of all things, and the other, on the contrary, weak in faith, only eats vegetables." Already at that time there were many with firm faith, experts in the wisdom of the Lord, according to which does not contaminate what enters the mouth, but what comes out of it,  and with all tranquility of conscience they ate everything. There were others, weaker in their faith, who abstained from flesh and wine, lest they should come across, without knowing it, with something sacrificed to idols. At that time all the meat of the immolations was sold in the marketplace, just as the first fruits of the wine made libations to their idols, some of which were already made in the same wineries. Well, to those who consumed these foods with a clear conscience the Apostle orders them not to despise the others, who are weaker, who abstained from such food and drink. In the same way, he tells them not to believe that they contract impurity, who see no inconvenience in eating meat and drinking wine. The following is true: “The one who eats does not judge,” that is, does not despise the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat, who does not judge the one who eats. It was the case that the stronger Christians stubbornly despised the weakest, and the weaker Christians judged the strong ones recklessly.

(Romans 14:4) “Who are you, to judge the other servant?” St. Paul teaches us here that in things that can be done in good or bad intention, we must leave it to God to judge, and not have the nerve to make a judgment on the heart of our brother whom we do not see. On the contrary, it is these actions, which were evidently made with a vicious and culpable intention, and which cannot be interpreted otherwise, we are not forbidden to judge them. Thus, in the question of food, we do not know in what intention we use it; he does not want us to be the judges, it is up to God to judge. On the contrary, he commands us to judge as he deserves this abominable incest committed by a son with his father's wife (Cf. 1 Cor. 5:1); for this man could not excuse on the righteousness of his intention a crime so monstrous. Thus, every action that bears with it such a character of evidence that it cannot be said: I have done it with a good intention, we can judge it, but all those whose motives and reason cannot be grasped. Let us beware of judging them and reserving their judgment to God, as it is written, "That which is secret shall be known to God, but manifest things shall be made known to you and to your children." (Deut. 29:29)

(Romans 14:5-6) “One, for example, judges on alternate days, another, on the other hand, judges any day.” Leaving aside, for the moment, some possible more accurate consideration, I believe that it is not about two men here, but of man and of God. He who makes judgments every other day is man, because he can judge today one way and tomorrow another; can today condemn one as bad, convicted or confessed, and tomorrow it turns out that it looks good, since it has been corrected. Or the other way around, today he praises one as a good person, and tomorrow he seems a degenerate. But he who judges every day is God, because he knows not only how each one is now, but how he will be day after day. Then: “Everyone is sure of their way of thinking,” says Paul. That is to say, each one arrives in his judgments to where it is allowed to the human understanding, or to each man in particular. The one who thinks one day, he continues, does it for the Lord, that is, what he judges correctly today, he does for the Lord. The one who gives exact judgment only for one day, regarding someone whose fault you see today as evident, is for you to learn that there is never to despair of its correction.

(Romans 14:22) “Blessed is he who does not deserve his own condemnation in what he approves.” This must necessarily be referred to the foregoing: “That the good that we have is not denigrated.” (Rom. 14:16) And in turn this phrase coincides with the happiness immediately before we commented: “The faith you have for yourself, put it before God. As this conviction, for which we believe that everything is pure for the pure,” (Titus 1:15) we are convinced that it is correct, let us use well of that good that we have, lest by abuse, we are cause for scandal for the weakest, sinning against the brothers. In this case we would have to condemn ourselves in the same good that we approved and in the conviction that satisfies us, if with that we scandalize the weak.

(Romans 15:8-9) “I say that Christ became the servant of the circumcised by the faithfulness of God and to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs, making the Gentiles glorify God for his mercy.” He wants with these words that the Gentiles understand that Christ the Lord was sent to the Jews, and therefore that they did not get angry. Once the Jews rejected what was sent to them, it was then that they began to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. This is very clear in the Acts of the Apostles, when they say to the Jews: “We had to announce the word to you first, but since you do not consider yourself worthy, we go to the pagans.” (Acts 13:46) The same Lord also testifies when he says: “I have not been sent except to the lost sheep of Israel,” (Matt. 15:24) and in another place: “It is not right to throw the children's bread out of the dogs.” (Matt. 15:26) If the Gentiles stop to consider this, they will realize that this is their conviction, for which they are sure that for those who are pure everything is pure, (Titus 1:15) it should not lead them to mock those who are weaker, perhaps from the Jews, who dare not touch any flesh, to avoid all contamination of idols.

(Romans 15:16) “May I be a servant of Christ among the pagans, and my sacred action is to announce the Gospel of God, so that the oblation of the pagans, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, may be acceptable.” We understand here that the Gentiles must be offered to God, as an acceptable sacrifice, which will happen when, by faith in Christ, they are sanctified by the Gospel. As it says before: “I beg you, brothers, by the mercy of God, to offer your bodies as a living, holy, pleasing host to God.” (Rom. 12:1)

(Romans 16:17-18) “Attention, brothers; Beware of those who create dissensions and scandals against the doctrine you have learned.” As you can see, he speaks of those of those who, writing to Timothy, also say: “When I went to Macedonia I begged you to stay in Ephesus, to order some that they did not teach different doctrines, and that they did not deal with fables and endless genealogies, that lend themselves more to arguments than to formation according to God, based on faith.” (1 Tim. 1:3-4) And likewise to Titus: “Because there are many insubordinate, charlatans and tricksters, especially those who come from the circumcision, who must be challenged, who go from house to house, putting everything upside down, teaching what is not due, for the sleazy desire to take money.” One of them, their own prophet, said: "Cretans, always liars, wicked beasts, lazy bellies.” (Titus 1:10) It is the same thought that he expresses in this epistle: "Such men do not serve Jesus Christ our Lord, but are slaves to their senses, (Titus 1:10-12) of whom he also says elsewhere: “Those whose god is the belly.” (Eph. 3:19)