Cyril of Alexandria

In his own words on Romans

• Romans 1:4

  As Christ was predestined to be the Son of God in power, so we too have been predestined to be sons of God, not however in power but by grace, having been made worthy of such a calling and having received it only by the will of God the Father. There is a big difference here between Emmanuel and us. For even if he was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and so we can say that the Son of God was one of us in his humanity, still, in power and in truth he is the natural Son, and it is through him that we are made sons as well.… We stand in the same relation to him as images do to their original.

  COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

• Romans 3:27

  For who will glory, or for what, when everyone has become worthless and gone out of the right way, and nobody does good works anymore? Therefore he says that all glorying is excluded.… How? We have acquired the forgiveness of our former sins and have been justified freely by the mercy and grace of Christ.

  COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

• Romans 3:31

  On account of his humanity Emmanuel is called a prophet, who following Moses is the mediator between God and humanity. The law was a shadow, but even so it presented an image of the truth. Furthermore, the truth hardly destroys its images; rather it makes-them clearer.

  COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

• Romans 4:2

  What can we say to those who insist that Abraham was justified by works because he was ready to sacrifice his son Isaac on the altar? Abraham was already an old man when God promised him that he would have a son and that his descendants would be as countless as the stars of the sky. Abraham piously believed that all things are possible with God and so exercised this faith. God reckoned him to be righteous on this account and gave Abraham a reward worthy of such a godly mind, viz., the forgiveness of his previous sins.… So even if Abraham was also justified by his willingness to sacrifice Isaac, this must be regarded as an evident demonstration of a faith which was already very strong.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 5:12

  Death entered into the first man, and into the beginnings of our race, because of sin, and very soon it had corrupted the entire race. In addition to this, the serpent who invented sin, after he had conquered Adam because of the latter's unfaithfulness, opened up a way for himself to enter the mind of man: "They are corrupt … there is none that does good." Therefore, having turned away from the face of the most holy God, and because the mind of man willingly inclined towards evil from its adolescence, we lived an absurd life, and death the conqueror devoured us accordingly.… For since we have all copied Adam's transgression and thus have all sinned, we have incurred a penalty equal to his. Yet the world was not without hope, for in the end sin was destroyed, Satan was defeated and death itself was abolished.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 5:13

  The law of Moses was the power constraining the weakness of sinners. It proved to be not the answer to sin but rather a provocation to wrath. For it was necessary for transgressors to undergo the punishments prescribed by the law, and wherever there was transgression, there was also sin. So if sin brought death in its wake, it may undoubtedly be said that death, having been born of sin, was strengthened by this very thing. But when sin was taken away death was also weakened, and it disappeared along with its parent. Therefore there was death in the world until the coming of the law. For as long as the law was valid, the crime of transgression could be laid against those who had fallen, but once the law was removed, the accusation of transgression disappeared as well. Therefore when the guilt ceased, death also came to an end.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 5:18

  What has Adam's guilt got to do with us? Why are we held responsible for his sin when we were not even born when he committed it? Did not God say: "The parents will not die for the children, nor the children for the parents, but the soul which has sinned, it shall die." How then shall we defend this doctrine? The soul, I say, which has sinned, it shall die. We have become sinners because of Adam's disobedience in the following manner.… After he fell into sin and surrendered to corruption, impure lusts invaded the nature of his flesh, and at the same time the evil law of our members was born. For our nature contracted the disease of sin because of the disobedience of one man, that is, Adam, and thus many became sinners. This was not because they sinned along with Adam, because they did not then exist, but because they had the same nature as Adam, which fell under the law of sin. Thus, just as human nature acquired the weakness of corruption in Adam because of disobedience, and evil desires invaded it, so the same nature was later set free by Christ, who was obedient to God the Father and did not commit sin.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 5:20

  The law entered in so that the many-sided nature of the fall of those who were under the law might be made clear. Nobody could ever be made righteous because of the weakness of human nature. Rather, everyone condemned themselves by their own crimes of transgression. The law came as the revealer of our common weakness, so that the human race would appear even more clearly to need the aid of the medicine of Christ.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 6:3

  Christ died to sin once, but in that he lives, he lives to God. We have undergone a death like his and have practically been buried together with him. For in that we carry his mortification about in our bodies, we have been buried together with him.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 6:4

  As we have been buried, so we must rise with Christ in a spiritual sense. For if to be buried together with Christ means dying to sin, then it is clear that rising with him means living in righteousness.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 6:5

  Emmanuel gave up his soul for us; he died in the flesh. We also were buried together with him when we were baptized. Does this mean that our flesh died in the same way as his did? Hardly. Come, let me explain in what sense we were buried with him in a death like his. Christ died in the flesh in order to remove the sin of the world, but we do not die to the flesh so much as to guilt, as it is written. Thus now we have to break down the power of sin within us by mortifying our earthly members.… As we have died a death like his, so we shall also be conformed to his resurrection, because we shall live in Christ. It is true that the flesh will come to life again, but still we shall live in another way, by dedicating our souls to him and by being transformed into holiness and a kind of glorious life in the Holy Spirit.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 6:6

  Perhaps some people will think that "the body of sin" is meant to refer to our earthly flesh, which has been joined to the soul as a kind of punishment, in that the soul sinned before bodies were created. Some people think and talk like this, but as it is a pagan idea we must reject it as being incompatible with the truth. Therefore, Paul says that our earthly body is the body of sin and our old man, because it has inherited the necessity of corruption from the old Adam.… Moreover, because of its weakness it has contracted a love for wickedness, and thus sin appears in the flesh as a congenital defect.We were crucified with Christ at the moment when his flesh was crucified, because it somehow included universal human nature in itself, just as universal human nature contracted the sickness of the curse in Adam at the same time that he incurred the curse.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 7:7

  Paul did not say that he had no sin apart from the law but rather that he was unaware of it. Therefore the law is not the cause of sin but rather the instrument which points it out, making it clear to those who did not know what it was. It did not do this in order that, once sin was made known, those who committed it should continue in what they were doing.… On the contrary, its intention was to convert people to better things by making their sins known to them.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 7:8

  I think that what Paul means here is something like this: Even though the person who sins in ignorance is guilty, there will be a harsher punishment for the one who sins knowingly.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 7:9

  We were not righteous before the law came, but given that sin was dead as long as there was no law to condemn it, we lived having the excuse that we did not know what it was that we ought to be doing.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 7:12

  The law was holy because it testified that those who kept it were holy, righteous and good and were not guilty of sin in any way whatsoever.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 7:13

  Even those who do not know God's will deserve God's punishment because they sin, even if it is in ignorance. Nevertheless, they have some excuse, for when the law is explained to them they will probably excuse themselves in front of those who are under the law, on account of their ignorance. But those who have chosen to sin and do so not out of ignorance have committed a crime of madness and have completely rejected God. Such people are said to be "sinful beyond measure." Someone who sins in ignorance is still sinful, but he is not, nor is he said to be, "sinful beyond measure."

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 7:14

  The will of the Spirit is one thing, that of the flesh is another. These two wills fight against each other and can never reach agreement. Man is carnal, but the law is spiritual. How then can the law ever become tolerable to those who struggle so hard against the sickness of sin? There is wisdom here, for if a man is carnal he is in some sense captive and reduced to the condition of slavery.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 7:15

  It appears that this refers to the ignorant Gentiles, whose thoughts Paul is reproducing. For having consigned their destiny and future to their own lusts even to the point of regarding vain idols as having some power over our lives, they deprive man of his glory, which is the ability to live freely, and to have full and complete control over his own will to do whatever he wishes.… It may be that someone who is forced to act against his will cannot be blamed for it, but at the same time no rational person will praise him for his godliness and righteousness either. For why should somebody be praised for doing things against his own will, even if he is forced to do so by a power over which he has no control?

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 7:21

  If sin inheres in my flesh and corrupts it, it may well be that the law offers help and gives advice, but even so it does not set me free from sin. Yet for those who are bound by the weakness of sin, it is hardly enough to know that they should be doing better; what they need is the strength to do what is right and in accordance with the law.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 8:2

  I think it is necessary for an accurate explanation of the meanings which are found here, to say this: Paul calls the lusts of the flesh which lead us into all kinds of wickedness "the law of sin and death." So also he calls the spiritual will, that is, the inclination of the mind to do what is right, "the law of the Spirit of life." … This law has not set us free by itself; rather it has restored us to freedom by the merits of Christ. Just as those who have sinned under the law have necessarily been trapped by the snares of death as well, so it is necessary also that those who are not under the law but who have been set free by Christ should lead lives of holiness and show themselves to be above corruption, because they are no longer under the law of death.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 8:3

  God forbid that Paul should ever say that Christ's body was made of sinful flesh! Rather, it was in the likeness of sinful flesh, for although it was similar to our bodies it can scarcely be compared with them in the sense that it could not be ill with carnal uncleanness. Even from the womb Christ's body was a holy temple, and no one is afraid to state that in so far as it was flesh, when it attained the age of reason it behaved in the way flesh normally does. Nevertheless, because the Word which sanctifies all things dwelt in his body, the potential for sin was condemned so that the fruit of this blessing might come across into us as well. For we have been transformed into his likeness, not only in spirit but in body also. When Christ dwells in us by the Holy Spirit and the sacramental blessing, then the law of sin is really condemned in us. So it is truly said that what was impossible for the law, which had been weakened by the flesh, became possible through Christ, who condemned and destroyed sin in the flesh so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 8:15

  We have been enriched with God's Spirit, for his Spirit has come to dwell in our hearts, and we have taken our place among the children of God and yet have not lost being what we are. For we are men according to nature, even though we cry: "Abba! Father!"

  LETTER 1.35

• Romans 8:17

  Good works can hardly be done without suffering, yet the suffering of the saints is nourished by a great hope. For nothing earthly is promised but rather eternal glory.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 8:19

  The creation is waiting for the revelation of the sons of God at some point in the future which is still unknown. Who can know when this will be? But by the secret plan of God, which orders all things for the best, it will come to this end. For when the sons of God, who have lived a righteous life, have been transformed into glory from dishonor and from what is corruptible into what is incorruptible, then the creation too will be transformed into something better.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 8:20

  The visible and tangible creation knows nothing of the promises which have been made to us because it has no understanding of them. For if it should ever happen that the creation acquired some understanding of these things, it would hardly endure such base servitude, nor would it want to be subject to or be on friendly terms with those whose lives bear no good fruit. Nevertheless, Paul says that the creation is subject in hope, for one day the saints and the elect will be saved, and then the yoke which has been imposed on it by God will be removed.… In the meantime, the creation groans and in some sense labors and grieves, and if it had any awareness of our works, probably it would burst out crying.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 8:23

  The corruptible body weighs down the soul, and the earthly body pulls down a mind full of cares. For as soon as the Spirit comes to dwell in us and turns us to the study of virtue, the love of the flesh jumps up to combat it, and the law in our members, which is prone to silly lusts, begins a bitter struggle. That is why we groan waiting for the liberation of our bodies as a result of the adoption.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 8:24

  We believe that our bodies also will overcome corruption and death. For the time being this is a hope, because it is not yet present, but it is a future certainty.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 8:28

  To be called according to God's purpose is to be called according to the will. But is this the will of the one who calls or the will of those who are called? Naturally, every impulse which leads to righteousness comes from God the Father. Christ himself once said: "No one can come to me unless the Father draws him." Nevertheless it is not wrong to say that some are called according to God's purpose and according to their own intentions as well.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 8:29

  If as the only begotten he became the "firstborn among many brethren" and yet remains the only begotten, what is the paradox if, although suffering in the flesh according to his humanity, he is known to be impassible according to his divinity?

  LETTER 55.33

• Romans 8:30

  Jesus said: "Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." He calls everyone to himself, and no one is lacking in the grace of his calling, for when he says everyone he excludes nobody. But those whom he long ago foresaw would come into being he predestined to participate in the future blessings and called them to receive justification by faith in him and not to sin again.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 9:5

  God chose Israel for himself from the beginning, which is why he called it the firstborn. But the Israelites fell because they were proud, wicked and, worst of all, murderers of their Lord. Therefore they perished, for they were rejected and abandoned and excluded from God's company, placed behind even the Gentiles and cut off from the hope promised to their ancestors.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 9:21

  It is not possible to say on the basis of this [verse] that there are different types of human nature, nor does holy Scripture claim that some people have been made cruel or obdurate or even vessels of honor and wickedness, nor does it attribute this kind of nature to them. Rather, it should be understood to mean that some men are made like clay vessels and that we use them either for honor or for dishonor.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 10:11

  Israel ought not to suppose that salvation by faith is a blessing peculiar to it. For Scripture says that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, whether Jew or Gentile, whether slave or free. The universal God saves everyone without distinction, because all things belong to him. Thus we say that all things are recapitulated in Christ.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 11:1

  Wisely, Paul does not make the plight of Israel appear worse than it is. Even though he says that the nation is struggling in its blindness, he manages to say something positive at this point.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 11:7

  Israel tried to find righteousness in the type which was the law but did not obtain it. However, those who were sealed were elected and did obtain it on account of their belief, being justified by their faith. The rest were blinded, being hardened and rebellious.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 11:11

  I marvel at your kindness, Paul, and the way in which you so artfully craft the words of the divine dispensation. You assert that the Gentiles were called not because the Israelites had lost all hope of salvation after they had stumbled on Christ the stumbling stone but rather that they would imitate those who were so unexpectedly accepted by God, that they would recognize their wickedness, that they would want to understand better than before and that they would accept the redeemer.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 11:26

  Although it was rejected, Israel will also be saved eventually, a hope which Paul confirms by quoting this text of Scripture. For indeed, Israel will be saved in its own time and will be called at the end, after the calling of the Gentiles.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 11:30

  Paul shows that both Jews and Gentiles were guilty of the same thing and that they were likewise cleansed by one and the same grace.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 14:14

  Christ had said: "Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man but what comes out of the mouth—this defiles a man." This applies to food as well.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

• Romans 15:7

  We are all one body and members one of another. Christ obliges us to be united with one another in the bonds of charity.

  EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS