Augustine of Hippo

In his own words on Romans

• Romans 1:1

  By these two words, called and set apart, Paul distinguishes between the church, which is acceptable to God, and the synagogue, whose glory has faded away. The church (i.e., ecclesia) is so called because it "calls forth": the synagogue, because it "gathers together."

  RUDIMENTARY EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS 2.1-3, 5

• Romans 1:2

  The prophets arose from the Jewish people, and Paul testifies that the gospel, in which believers are justified by faith, had been promised earlier through them.… For there are Gentile prophets as well, in whom also are found some things which they heard of Christ and prophesied. This sort of thing is even said about the Sibyl [Virgil, Eclogues 4.4] … but the writings of the Gentiles, so very full of superstitious idolatry, ought not to be considered holy just because they say something about Christ.

  RUDIMENTARY EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS 3

• Romans 1:4

  With respect to this predestination Christ was glorified before the foundation of the world, so that as a result of his resurrection from the dead he might have glory at the Father's right hand, where he now sits. Thus, when he saw that his predestined glorification had come, in order that what had already been done by predestination might now also take place in fact, he prayed: "Father, glorify thou me in thy own presence with the glory which I had with thee before the world was made."

  COMMENTARY ON JOHN 105.8

• Romans 1:4

  Christ is the son of David in weakness according to the flesh but Son of God in power according to the Spirit of sanctification.… Weakness relates to David but life eternal to the power of God.

  RUDIMENTARY EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS 5

• Romans 1:4

  Paul had to oppose the unbelief of those who accept our Lord Jesus Christ only according to the man whom he put on but do not understand his divinity, which sets him apart from every other creature.

  RUDIMENTARY EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS 4

• Romans 1:4

  Jesus was predestined, so that he who was to be the Son of David according to the flesh should nonetheless be in power the Son of God, according to the Spirit of sanctification, for he was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. This is that unique act, performed in an ineffable manner, the assumption of a man by the Word of God, so that he might truly and properly be called at once the Son of God and the Son of Man—the Son of Man because of the man who was assumed, the Son of God because of the only begotten God who assumed him.

  ON PREDESTINATION 15.31

• Romans 1:5

  Paul preserves the main point of his case very well, so that no one would dare say that he has been led to the gospel because of the merits of his previous life. How could one claim this, when even the apostles themselves … could not have received their own apostleship unless they had first … received grace, which cleanses and justifies sinners?

  RUDIMENTARY EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS 6

• Romans 1:6

  Paul teaches here that this salvation had come not only to the Jews, as some Jewish Christians thought.

  RUDIMENTARY EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS 6

• Romans 1:7

  Instead of saying "greetings," Paul says "Grace to you and peace." Grace then is from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, by which our sins, which had turned us from God, are forgiven; and from them also is this peace, whereby we are reconciled to God. Since through grace hostilities dissolve once sins are remitted, now we may cling in peace to him from whom our sins alone had torn us.… But when these sins have been forgiven through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall have peace with no separation between us and God.

  RUDIMENTARY EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS 8

• Romans 1:7

  Here again Paul has emphasized God's grace rather than the saints' merit, for he does not say "to those loving God" but rather "to God's beloved."

  RUDIMENTARY EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS 7

• Romans 1:17

  From where can man be just? From himself? Who gives bread to himself when he is poor? Who clothes himself when he is naked, unless he receives a garment? We did not have righteousness; there were only sins here. From where is righteousness? What righteousness without faith? For the just lives by faith. He who claims to be just without faith lies. How does he not lie, in whom there is no faith? If he wants to speak the truth, let him turn to the truth. But it was far away. Truth has sprung from the earth. You were sleeping, it came to you; you were snoring, it awakened you; it made a way for you through itself, lest it lose you. Therefore, because Truth has sprung from the earth, our Lord Jesus Christ was born of a Virgin; righteousness has looked down from heaven, so that men might have righteousness not of their own, but of God.

  Sermon 189

• Romans 1:17

  What is now the church, prior to the appearance of what will be, lives in toils and afflictions, and in her the just live by faith.

• Romans 1:17

  This righteousness is the grace of the New Testament, by which the faithful are just as long as they live by faith, until by the perfection of righteousness they are brought to the face-to-face vision, as they are also brought to the immortality of the body itself, by the perfection of salvation.

  THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 18.11

• Romans 1:18

  Those whom the apostle reproved knew but did not give thanks and, claiming to be wise, actually became fools and fell into idolatry. For when the apostle spoke to the Athenians, he showed plainly that the wise among the Gentiles had discovered the Creator.… He condemned the unbelief of the Gentiles first, in order to show that they could obtain grace if they converted. For it would be unjust for them to suffer a penalty for unbelief but not obtain the reward of faith.

  AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 3

• Romans 1:20

  How does Paul mean that they are without excuse, except by reference to a kind of excuse that usually prompts human pride to voice such protestations as: "If only I had known, I would not have done it." … This kind of excuse is taken away from them when a precept is given or when the knowledge of how to avoid sin is made clear to them.

  GRACE AND FREE WILL 2.2

• Romans 1:20

  Invisible things are seen in a special and appropriate way. When they are seen they are much more certain than the objects of the bodily sense, but they are said to be invisible because they cannot be seen by mortal eyes.

  LETTER 120

• Romans 1:20

  Notice that Paul does not call them ignorant of the truth but says that they held the truth in iniquity, and he does not fail to answer the obvious question: How could those to whom God had not given the law have a knowledge of the truth? For he says that through the visible things of the creation they reached an understanding of the invisible things of the Creator.

  THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 19.12

• Romans 1:21

  If they had given thanks to God who gave this wisdom, they would not have claimed any credit for their own ideas. Therefore they were given over by the Lord to the desires of their own hearts, and did improper things.

  AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 4

• Romans 1:21

  Surely that darkening of the heart was already a penalty and punishment, and by that penalty, that is by the blinding of the heart because of the abandonment by the light of wisdom, they fell into more and more serious sins.

  ON NATURE AND GRACE 22.24

• Romans 1:22

  It is pride that turns man away from wisdom, and folly is the consequence of turning away from wisdom.

  ON FREE WILL 24.72

• Romans 1:23

  Here the apostle has in mind the Romans, Greeks and Egyptians, all boastful of their renown for wisdom.

  City of God 8.10

• Romans 1:24

  When the evil will receives power to accomplish its purpose, this comes from the judgment of God, in whom there is no unrighteousness. His punishment is carried out in this way as well as in other ways. It is not less just merely because it is hidden. The wicked man only knows that he is being punished when some manifest penalty makes him feel, against his will, the evil of the sin which he committed willingly.

  THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 54

• Romans 1:24

  This means that God abandoned them to the desires of their own hearts. For Paul says that they got what they deserved from God.

  AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 5

• Romans 1:24

  Many are left to themselves, to their own hurt.… A man that has asked for great wealth may have received it to his own hurt. While he was without it he had little to fear; as soon as he has possession of it he has become a prey to the stronger.

  HOMILIES ON 1 JOHN 6.8

• Romans 1:25

  For by worshiping and serving the creature rather than the Creator they have not wished to be a temple of the one true God. By wishing to have him along with many other things, they have been more successful in not having him at all than in having him along with many false gods.

  LETTER 187.29

• Romans 1:28

  Whoever follows the pernicious attractiveness of his lusts and tries to push aside those who would stop him heads straight into sin.

  AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 6

• Romans 1:32

  Whatever they had done they did without compulsion. For when they give their consent to evil deeds, they approve even of things which they did not do themselves.

  AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 7-8

• Romans 2:1

  Paul is speaking here of sins already committed. And when he says "O man, whoever you are," he includes not only the Gentile but also the Jew who wanted to judge the Gentiles according to the law.

  AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 7-8

• Romans 2:3

  Is the fact that some persist in their wickedness any proof that God does not persist in his patience, punishing very few sins in this world, lest we fail to believe in his divine providence and, saving many for the last judgment, to justify his future decree?

  LETTER 153

• Romans 2:5

  Whenever Paul talks about the wrath of God he understands it to mean punishment.

  AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 9

• Romans 2:12

  The apostle did not mean to say that those who sin in ignorance will suffer worse punishment than those who know the law. It seems that it is worse to perish than to be judged. Rather the apostle here was merely distinguishing between Jews and Gentiles.

  GRACE AND FREE WILL 2.5

• Romans 2:12

  It is generally agreed that judgment is the usual expression for eternal damnation.

  FAITH AND WORKS 23.43

• Romans 2:15

  Compare this with 1 John [3:20]: "Dearly beloved, if our own hearts condemn us, God is greater than our conscience."

  AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 10

• Romans 2:17

  If a Jew boasts in God in the manner called for by grace, which is given not according to the merits of works but freely, his praise would be of God and not of men.… But they thought that they had fulfilled this law of God by their own righteousness, even though they were transgressors of it. And so for them it worked wrath as sin multiplied, committed by those who knew what sin was. Those who did what the law commanded without the help of the Spirit of grace did it through fear of punishment and not out of love for righteousness.

  THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 11.7

• Romans 2:25

  The apostle did not say this as if he favored forcing either the Gentiles to remain uncircumcised or the Jews not to adhere to the traditions of their fathers. Rather, he urged that neither group should be forced into the practice of the other but that each person should have the right, not the obligation, to adhere to his own custom.

  On Lying 5.8

• Romans 2:26

  Gentiles become members of the house of Israel when their uncircumcision is counted for circumcision, inasmuch as they do not display the righteousness of the law by the cutting of the flesh but keep it in charity of heart.

  THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 46

• Romans 2:29

  This means that the law should be understood according to the Spirit, and not according to what the letter says. This pertains especially to those who have interpreted circumcision more according to the flesh than according to the Spirit.

  AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 11

• Romans 3:4

  God in himself is true; you in yourself are a liar—in him you can be true!

  HOMILIES ON JOHN 1.6

• Romans 3:20

  Some think that statements like this are an attack on the law. But they must be read very carefully, so that neither is the law condemned by the apostle nor is free will taken away from man. Therefore, let us distinguish the following four states of human existence: before the law, under the law, under grace and at rest. Before the law we follow the lust of the flesh. Under the law we are dragged along by it. Under grace we neither follow it nor are dragged along by it. At rest there is no lust of the flesh.Prior to being addressed by the law, we do not struggle, because not only do we lust and sin, we even approve of sinning. Under the law we struggle but are defeated. We admit that what we do is evil and that we do not want to do it, but because there is as yet no grace, we are defeated. In this state we discover how far down we lie, and when we want to rise up and yet we fall, we are all the more gravely afflicted. The law is good because it forbids what ought to be forbidden and requires what ought to be required. But when anyone thinks he can fulfill the law in his own strength and not through the grace of his Deliverer, this presumption does him no good but rather harms him so much that he is seized by an even stronger desire to sin and by his sins ends up as a transgressor. So when the man who has fallen realizes that he cannot raise himself, let him cry to his Deliverer for help. Then comes grace, which can pardon previous sins, give aid to the struggling, supplement justice with love and take away fear. When this takes place, although fleshly desires continue to fight against our spirit in this life and try to lead us into sin, yet our spirit does not give in to these desires because it is rooted in the grace and love of God and ceases to sin. For we do not sin by having these perverse desires but by giving in to them. These desires arise from the mortality of the flesh, which we inherit from the first sin of the first man, which is why we are born carnal. Nor will they cease until, by the resurrection of the body, we shall obtain the transformation which has been promised to us. Then we shall be in the fourth state, where there is perfect peace. Perfect peace is the state in which nothing will resist us because we do not resist God. Free will existed perfectly in the first man, but in us, prior to grace, there is no free will which would enable us not to sin but only enough that we do not want to sin. But grace makes it possible not only for us to want to do what is right but actually to do it not in our own strength but by the help of our Deliverer, who at the resurrection will give us that perfect peace which is the consequence of good will.

  AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 13-18

• Romans 3:21

  The righteousness of God is not that by which God is righteous but that with which he clothes man when he justifies the ungodly. To this the Law and the Prophets bear witness.… The righteousness of God is not manifested outside the law, since in that case it could not have been witnessed to in the law. It is a righteousness of God apart from the law because God confers it on the believer through the Spirit of grace without the help of the law.

  THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 15.9

• Romans 3:22

  How could Paul have promised glory, honor and peace to the good works of Gentiles apart from the grace of the gospel? Because there otherwise is no acceptance of persons with God. And because it is not the hearers but the doers of the law who are justified, he argues that all, whether Jew or Gentile, shall alike have salvation in the gospel.

  THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 44

• Romans 3:28

  This must not be understood in such a way as to say that a man who has received faith and continues to live is righteous, even though he leads a wicked life.

  QUESTIONS 76.1

• Romans 3:30

  For "it is one God which justifies the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith;" in which clauses there is no real difference in the sense, as if the phrase "by faith" meant one thing, and "through faith" another, but only a variety of expression. For in one passage, when speaking of the Gentiles,—that is, of the uncircumcision,—he says, "The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen by faith;" and again, in another, when speaking of the circumcision, to which he himself belonged, he says, "We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Jesus Christ."

  On the Spirit and the Letter

• Romans 3:31

  The law is confirmed by faith. Apart from faith the law merely commands, and it holds guilty those who do not fulfill its commands, so that it might thereafter turn to the grace of the Deliverer those groaning in their inability to do what is commanded.

  QUESTIONS 66.1

• Romans 3:31

  Do we then make void freedom of choice through grace? God forbid! Rather, we establish freedom of choice. As the law is not made void by faith, so freedom of choice is not made void but established by grace. Freedom of choice is necessary to the fulfillment of the law. But by the law comes the knowledge of sin; by faith comes the obtaining of grace against sin; by grace comes the healing of the soul from sin's sickness; by the healing of the soul comes freedom of choice; by freedom of choice comes the love of righteousness; by the love of righteousness comes the working of the law. Thus, as the law is not made void but established by faith, since faith obtains the grace whereby the law may be fulfilled, so freedom of choice is not made void but established by grace, since grace heals the will whereby righteousness may freely be loved.

  THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 52

• Romans 3:31

  How should the law be upheld if not by righteousness? By a righteousness, moreover, which is of faith, for what could not be fulfilled through the law is fulfilled through faith.

  AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 19

• Romans 4:2

  Since Abraham without the law obtained glory not by the works of the law (as if he could fulfill the law in his own strength), since the law had not yet been given, the glory belongs to God, not to him. For he was justified not by his own merit, as if by works, but by the grace of God through faith.

  AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 20

• Romans 4:4

  Paul was speaking here of the way wages are given. But God gave by grace, because he gave to sinners so that by faith they might live justly, that is, do good works. Thus the good works which we do after we have received grace are not to be attributed to us but rather to him who has justified us by his grace. For if God had wanted to give us our due reward, he would have given us the punishment due to sinners.

  AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 21

• Romans 4:5

  The life of the soul is changeable. And when the soul lives in unrighteousness, that is its death; when again it becomes righteous, it becomes partaker of another life, which is not what itself is, inasmuch as by rising up to God, and cleaving to God, of Him it is justified. For it is said, "To him that believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." By forsaking God, it becomes unrighteous; by coming to Him, it is made righteous.

  Tractates on John 19

• Romans 4:5

  God makes the ungodly man godly, in order that he might persevere in this godliness and righteousness. For a man is justified in order that he might be just, not so that he might think it is all right to go on sinning.

  AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 22

• Romans 4:15

  Paul said this because God's wrath is more severe toward a transgressor who knows sin by the law and still commits it.

  GRACE AND FREE WILL 10.22

• Romans 4:15

  This applies to the second state of man, when he is under the law.

  AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 23

• Romans 4:17

  This means that faith is in the inner man, in the sight of God and not in human display, which is what the circumcision of the flesh is.

  AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 24

• Romans 4:17

  Everything which God did not beget of himself but made through his Word he made not out of things which already existed but out of what did not exist at all, i.e., out of nothing.

  THE NATURE OF THE GOOD 26

• Romans 4:20

  Paul says that Abraham "gave glory to God" when he was attacking those who were seeking their own glory in the sight of men by doing the works of the law.

  AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 25

• Romans 4:21

  God brings about the faith of the Gentiles, because he is able to perform what he has promised. If it is God who produces our faith, acting in a wondrous manner in our hearts so that we believe, surely we should not fear that he cannot do the entire work.

  PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS 2.6

• Romans 5:3

  Paul says this in order to lead us gradually to the love of God, which he says that we have by the gift of the Spirit. He shows us that all those things which we might attribute to ourselves ought to be attributed to God, who was pleased to give us his Holy Spirit through grace.

  AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 26

• Romans 5:5

  It is through love that we are conformed to God, and being so conformed and made like to him, and set apart from the world, we are no longer confounded by those things which should be subject to us. This is the work of the Holy Spirit.

  THE WAY OF LIFE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 1.13.23

• Romans 5:5

  That God may be loved, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, not by the free choice whose spring is in ourselves but through the Holy Spirit, who is given to us.

  THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 5.3

• Romans 5:5

  Who can hurt such a man? Who can subdue him? In prosperity he makes moral progress, and in adversity he learns to know the progress he has made. When he has an abundance of mutable goods he does not put his trust in them, and when they are taken away he gets to know whether or not they have taken him captive.

  OF TRUE RELIGION 92