And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
οὐ μόνον δέ, ἀλλὰ καὶ καυχώμενοι ἐν τῷ Θεῷ διὰ τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, δι᾿ οὗ νῦν τὴν καταλλαγὴν ἐλάβομεν.
не то́чїю же, но и҆ хва́лимсѧ ѡ҆ бз҃ѣ гдⷭ҇емъ на́шимъ і҆и҃съ хрⷭ҇то́мъ, и҆́мже нн҃ѣ примире́нїе прїѧ́хомъ.
Paul teaches us not only that we should thank God, for the salvation and assurance which we have received, but that we should also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, because through his Son the Mediator God has been pleased to call us his friends. Therefore we can rejoice that we have received every blessing through Christ, that through him we have come to know God. As we rejoice in him, let us therefore honor the Son equally with the Father, as he himself bears witness, saying: "That they may honor the Son as they honor the Father."
COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLESWhat meaneth the "not only so?" Not only were we saved, he means, but we even glory for this very reason, for which some suppose we ought to hide our faces. For, for us who lived in so great wickedness to be saved, was a very great mark of our being exceedingly beloved by Him that saved us. For it was not by angels or archangels, but by His Only-begotten Son Himself, that He saved us. And so the fact of His saving us, and saving us too when we were in such plight, and doing it by means of His Only-begotten, and not merely by His Only-begotten, but by His Blood, weaves for us endless crowns to glory in. For there is not anything that counts so much in the way of glory and confidence, as the being treated as friends by God, and finding a Friend in Him that loveth us. This it is that maketh the angels glorious, and the principalities and powers. This is greater than the Kingdom, and so Paul placed it above the Kingdom. For this also I count the incorporeal powers blessed, because they love Him, and in all things obey Him. And on this score the Prophet also expressed his admiration at them. "Ye that excel in strength, that fulfil His Word." And hence too Isaiah extolleth the Seraphim, setting forth their great excellency from their standing near that glory, which is a sign of the greatest love.
Homily on Romans IXBut as to the fact that he set down, in like manner as in the earlier passages, "And not only so, but we also now glory in God," and added nothing to the "and not only so," it is to be understood, just as above, as said of those things which have been set forth above: that is, that not only "when we were enemies, were we reconciled to God through the death of his Son," and not only "shall we be saved in his life, but we also now glory in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received the reconciliation." And not without reason did he add "now," when he might have said: "But we also glory in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received the reconciliation"; but he did so in order to show that glorying has been given to us not only in the future, but also in the present, from the knowledge of God, the amendment of life, and the correction of errors — as the same Apostle also says in another place: "Having hope both of the present life and of that which is to come": of the present, because it is more honorable and more amended; of the future, because it is eternal.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANSNot only shall we have eternal life, but through Christ we are promised a certain likeness to divine glory as well. Paul wants to show that Christ suffered so that we who had forsaken God by following Adam might be reconciled to God through Christ.
PELAGIUS'S COMMENTARY ON ROMANSNot only, he says, are we saved, but we also boast in God, because we were saved when we were ungodly, and saved by the blood of the Only-Begotten. And we boast in the Lord Jesus Christ; for He, the source of our reconciliation, is also the source of our boasting.
Commentary on RomansThen when he says, not only so, he shows what benefits we obtain even now through grace, saying, not only so, i.e., not only in the hope of the glory we expect in the future, but also we glory in God, i.e., in being even now united to God by faith and charity: let him who boasts, boast in the Lord (1 Cor 1:31 and 2 Cor 10:17). And this through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have even now during this life received reconciliation, so that we have been changed from enemies to friends: through him he reconciled to himself all things (Col 1:20). The verse, not only so, can be connected with the preceding one, so that the sense would be: we shall be saved by his life from sin and punishment; and not only shall we be saved from evils, but shall rejoice in God, i.e., in the fact that we shall be the same in the future with him: that they may be one in us, even as we are one (John 17:22).
Commentary on RomansWherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Διὰ τοῦτο ὥσπερ δι᾿ ἑνὸς ἀνθρώπου ἡ ἁμαρτία εἰς τὸν κόσμον εἰσῆλθε καὶ διὰ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ὁ θάνατος, καὶ οὕτως εἰς πάντας ἀνθρώπους ὁ θάνατος διῆλθεν, ἐφ᾿ ᾧ πάντες ἥμαρτον·—
Сегѡ̀ ра́ди ꙗ҆́коже є҆ди́нѣмъ человѣ́комъ грѣ́хъ въ мі́ръ вни́де и҆ грѣхо́мъ сме́рть, и҆ та́кѡ сме́рть во всѧ̑ человѣ́ки вни́де, въ не́мже всѝ согрѣши́ша.
For death is alike to all, without difference for the poor, without exception for the rich. And so although through the sin of one alone, yet it passed upon all; that we may not refuse to acknowledge Him to be also the Author of death, Whom we do not refuse to acknowledge as the Author of our race; and that, as through one death is ours, so should be also the resurrection; and that we should not refuse the misery, that we may attain to the gift. For, as we read, Christ "is come to save that which was lost," and "to be Lord both of the dead and living." In Adam I fell, in Adam I was cast out of Paradise, in Adam I died; how shall the Lord call me back, except He find me in Adam; guilty as I was in him, so now justified in Christ.
On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus, Book 2Paul said that all have sinned in Adam even though in fact it was Eve who sinned because he was not referring to the particular but to the universal. For it is clear that all have sinned in Adam as though in a lump. For, being corrupted by sin himself, all those whom he fathered were born under sin. For that reason we are all sinners, because we all descend from him. He lost God's blessing because he transgressed and was made unworthy to eat of the tree of life. For that reason he had to die. Death is the separation of body and soul. There is another death as well, called the second death, which takes place in Gehenna. We do not suffer this death as a result of Adam's sin, but his fall makes it possible for us to get it by our own sins. Good men were protected from this, as they were only in hell, but they were still not free, because they could not ascend to heaven. They were still bound by the sentence meted out in Adam, the seal of which was broken by the death of Christ. The sentence passed on Adam was that the human body would decompose on earth, but the soul would be bound by the chains of hell until it was released.
COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLESEveryone, even little children, have broken God's covenant, not indeed in virtue of any personal action but in virtue of mankind's common origin in that single ancestor in whom all have sinned.
City of God 16.27When a man is born, he is already born with death, because he contracts sin from Adam.
TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 49.12.2If the souls of all men are derived from that one which was breathed into the first man … either the soul of Christ was not derived from that one, since he had no sin of any kind … or, if his soul was derived from that first one, he purified it in taking it for himself, so that he might be born of the virgin and might come to us without any trace of sin, either committed or transmitted.
LETTER 164As infants cannot help being descended from Adam, so they cannot help being touched by the same sin, unless they are set free from its guilt by the baptism of Christ.
LETTER 157These words clearly teach that original sin is common to all men, regardless of the personal sins of each one.
AGAINST JULIAN 6.20.63All men for whom Christ died died in the sin of the first Adam, and all who are baptized into Christ die to sin.
AGAINST JULIAN 6.7.21Since the Fall no organization or way of life whatever has a natural tendency to go right. In the Middle Ages some people thought that if only they entered a religious order they would find themselves automatically becoming holy and happy: the whole native literature of the period echoes with the exposure of that fatal error. In the nineteenth century some people thought that monogamous family life would automatically make them holy and happy; the savage antidomestic literature of modern times—the Samuel Butlers, the Gosses, the Shaws—delivered the answer. In both cases the "debunkers" may have been wrong about principles and may have forgotten the maxim abusus non tollit usum: but in both cases they were pretty right about matter of fact. Both family life and monastic life were often detestable, and it should be noticed that the serious defenders of both are well aware of the dangers and free of the sentimental illusion. The author of the Imitation of Christ knows (no one better) how easily monastic life goes wrong. Charlotte M. Yonge makes it abundantly clear that domesticity is no passport to heaven on earth but an arduous vocation—a sea full of hidden rocks and perilous ice shores only to be navigated by one who uses a celestial chart. That is the first point on which we must be absolutely clear. The family, like the nation, can be offered to God, can be converted and redeemed, and will then become the channel of particular blessings and graces. But, like everything else that is human, it needs redemption. Unredeemed, it will produce only particular temptations, corruptions, and miseries. Charity begins at home: so does un-charity.
The Sermon and the Lunch, from God in the DockThis condition was transmitted by heredity to all later generations, for it was not simply what biologists call an acquired variation; it was the emergence of a new kind of man--a new species, never made by God, had sinned itself into existence. The change which man had undergone was not parallel to the development of a new organ or a new habit; it was a radical alteration of his constitution, a disturbance of the relation between his component parts, and an internal perversion of one of them... Our present condition, then, is explained by the fact that we are members of a spoiled species.
The Problem of Pain, Chapter 5: The Fall of ManIt is probably therefore with reference to the consummation that Salome says: "Until when shall men die?" The Scripture uses the word "man" in two senses, the outward man and the soul, and again of him who is being saved and him who is not; and sin is said to be the death of the soul. That is why the Lord gave a cautious answer - "As long as women bear children," that is, as long as the desires are active. "Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death came to all men, in that all sinned, and death reigned from Adam to Moses," says the apostle. By natural necessity in the divine plan death follows birth, and the coming together of soul and body is followed by their dissolution. If birth exists for the sake of learning and knowledge, dissolution leads to the final restoration.
The Stromata Book 3Death 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 ROMANSSince the apostle said: "By man death entered into the world," it was surely essential that the victory over death should be achieved by man as well, and the body of death be shown to be the body of life, and the reign of sin that before ruled in the mortal body be destroyed so that it should no longer serve sin but righteousness.
PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 7.1In his new Utopia he says, for instance, that a chief point of the Utopia will be a disbelief in original sin. If he had begun with the human soul—that is, if he had begun on himself—he would have found original sin almost the first thing to be believed in. He would have found, to put the matter shortly, that a permanent possibility of selfishness arises from the mere fact of having a self, and not from any accidents of education or ill-treatment. And the weakness of all Utopias is this, that they take the greatest difficulty of man and assume it to be overcome, and then give an elaborate account of the overcoming of the smaller ones.
Heretics, Ch. 5: Mr. H. G. Wells and the Giants (1905)How could physical science prove that man is not depraved? You do not cut a man open to find his sins. You do not boil him until he gives forth the unmistakable green fumes of depravity. How could physical science find any traces of a moral fall?
All Things Considered, Science and Religion (1908)If it is not true that a divine being fell, then we can only say that one of the animals went entirely off its head. In neither case can we really argue very much from the body of man simply considered as the body of an innocent and healthy animal. His body has got too much mixed up with his soul.
Wine When It Is Red (All Things Considered)Carlyle said that men were mostly fools. Christianity, with a surer and more reverent realism, says that they are all fools. This doctrine is sometimes called the doctrine of original sin. It may also be described as the doctrine of the equality of men. But the essential point of it is merely this, that whatever primary and far-reaching moral dangers affect any man, affect all men. All men can be criminals, if tempted; all men can be heroes, if inspired.
Heretics, Ch. 12: Paganism and Mr. Lowes Dickinson (1905)Everyone in the following of Adam has died, because they have all inherited their nature from him. But some have died because they themselves have sinned, while others have died only because of Adam's condemnation—for example, children.
PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCHAs the best physicians always take great pains to discover the source of diseases, and go to the very fountain of the mischief, so doth the blessed Paul also. Hence after having said that we were justified, and having shown it from the Patriarch, and from the Spirit, and from the dying of Christ (for He would not have died unless He intended to justify), he next confirms from other sources also what he had at such length demonstrated. And he confirms his proposition from things opposite, that is, from death and sin. How, and in what way? He enquires whence death came in, and how it prevailed. How then did death come in and prevail? "Through the sin of one." But what means, "for that all have sinned?" This; he having once fallen, even they that had not eaten of the tree did from him, all of them, become mortal.
Homily on Romans XSo that no one can accuse God of injustice, in that we all die because of the fall of Adam, Paul adds: "and so all have sinned." Adam is the origin and the cause of the fact that we have all sinned in imitation of him.
PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH"Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into this world, and through sin death, and so death passed through to all men, in whom all sinned. For until the law sin was in this world. But sin is not imputed when there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who sinned after the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is the figure of him who was to come." After he had taught the difference between faith and the law, and between those who are justified through faith and those who cannot hope through the law for the promises that were made to the fathers; and when he had disclosed the hidden things of the secret mystery, that "when we were enemies of God, we were reconciled through the death of his Son," now he consequently sets forth also the reasons why we were enemies, and why that reconciliation required the death of the Son of God: so that, beholding how great the things are that Jesus has bestowed upon us — nay rather, how great the things are that he has endured for us — we may be held to him by a more deeply rooted faith and by an inseparable love. Therefore, though not in every respect laid open, he nevertheless indicates to us the account of yet another secret when he says: "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into this world, and through sin death," and the rest. But before we come to the exposition of the whole chapter, a few things must be said about what appears in what follows to be a defect in the expression itself. For where it is said, "Therefore, just as," it seems necessary that some completion ought to be added, so that it should say: So also this or that — as he himself writes in certain other places, for example when he says: "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." But here, when he has said, "Just as through one man sin entered into this world, and through sin death, and so death passed through to all men, in whom all sinned," he did not go on to say, for instance: So also through one man righteousness entered into this world, and through righteousness life, and so life passed through to all men, in which all were made alive. For this is what the sense of the statement set forth seemed to demand, according to those things which he himself declares elsewhere. For there is not much difference between what he says in another place, "For as in Adam all die," and what he says here, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into this world, and through sin death, and so it passed through to all men, in whom all sinned"; and again, what he said, "So also in Christ shall all be made alive," differs in no way from that sense which we said above was lacking to the expression and left to the understanding of the reader. But it seems to me that Paul — who says that "our sufficiency is from God, who also made us fit ministers of the New Testament," and who again says, "Do you seek a proof of him who speaks in me, Christ?" — did not suffer these things through a defect of speech, but foresaw through them something of usefulness: so that, even though those things which we said were lacking to the expression and are to be understood ought to be understood, nevertheless, on account of the more negligent sort who might perhaps be dissolved into laxity if they heard that, just as death passed to all men through sin, so also life passed through to all men through Christ, he judged that these things ought not to be said openly and publicly. And at the same time he shows this also: that even if through one man righteousness entered into this world, and through righteousness life, and so it passed through to all men, nevertheless this does not happen straightway in the present, nor does it fall to the idle, but to those who by much labor and sweat have been able to seek out the things that are hidden, to knock at the things that are closed, to long for the things that are concealed. Finally, in that chapter also which we brought forward for the likeness of these sayings, that is, "For as in Adam all die," he did not say, "so also in Christ all" have been made alive, or are being made alive, but "shall be made alive" — that he might show that the present time is indeed the time of labor and work, in which merits are gathered through good conduct, but that it is the future in which those shall be made alive who in the present life die together with Christ, as the same Apostle says elsewhere: "For if we die together with him, we shall also live together with him." And for this reason in the present passage as well he forbears to carry through and to fill out in words those things which seem to be understood by the sense and by logical consequence. Someone else perhaps will say that what seems to be lacking in the things we have spoken of above, according to the order of the expression, is indeed supplied late, but is supplied in what comes after, where he says: "But not as the offense, so also the gift. For if by the offense of one many died, much more the grace of God, and the gift, in the grace of one man Jesus Christ, has abounded unto many"; and he asserts that from these words those things have been completed which seemed to be lacking in the earlier ones; and that it makes little difference that there he said sin passed through to all men, while here he says that the gift and grace of Jesus Christ abounded unto many, since both all men are understood to be many, and it does not seem absurd that "many" should be understood as "all" — especially since in what follows he says more openly: "As through the offense of one, upon all men unto condemnation, so also through the righteousness of one, upon all men unto justification of life." And that he might show more evidently that "all men" and "many men" are the same, he added to these: "For as through the disobedience of one man many were constituted sinners, so also through the obedience of one many shall be constituted righteous." And what above he had called "all" men, here in the same sense he named "many." Unless perhaps someone should say that the Apostle, wishing rather to mingle and to obscure what he had disclosed above — lest, as we have said, he should unnerve and slacken his hearers — named "many" here those whom before he had called "all," so that even what he called "all" should be drawn to those alone who have obtained the gift of Christ's grace, who nevertheless are not few, but many. For it is the custom of the Apostle Paul, when he has disclosed something concerning the kindness of God and his ineffable goodness, again, on account of the more negligent sort of hearers, to sharpen a little, as it were, what he has said, and to hold out some fear to the more slack — as when, disputing with the Corinthians about the end of all things, he says: "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive"; and a little after: "Then the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father," and the rest. On account of which words, fearing lest anyone, despising the riches of God's goodness and patience and long-suffering, should according to his own hardness and impenitent heart treasure up for himself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, he added after those things which he had said about the end: "Do not be deceived. Evil conversations corrupt good manners. Awake, you just, and sin not. For some have ignorance; I speak it to your shame." He acts, therefore, as a prudent steward of the word; and when he comes to those passages in which something must be said about the goodness of God, on account of the more sluggish sort he brings these things forth in a more hidden and more obscure way, lest perchance, as we have said, they despise the riches of his goodness and patience and long-suffering, and treasure up for themselves wrath in the day of wrath, into which all must needs fall who have treasured up for themselves deeds of this kind. You too, after these things, may see what comes to pass. Let us now see what the inner understanding also contains. But this too I think must be pointed out in the first place, that the Apostle Paul seems to me, especially in these passages which we now have in hand, to speak these things somewhat in this fashion: as if some faithful and prudent servant were led in by a great king, his lord, into the royal treasuries, and there were shown him various great chambers whose approaches are diverse and uncertain, so that entrance is shown him by one way and egress by another; and sometimes from diverse entrances one comes to a single inner room, as we often see certain palaces built here on earth. And there is shown also to this faithful servant who is led about the treasury of the king's silver, and another of gold, and of precious stones and pearls and various necklaces, and the place too of the royal purple, and another of the diadems; and there are shown him besides the queen's bridal chambers, set in many and diverse apartments — and yet each of these is not thrown open to him with the doors standing altogether wide, but only half-opened in part, so that he may indeed recognize his lord's treasures and the royal wealth, and yet not know each single thing clearly and perfectly. But after these things, let this servant, who has been held so faithful that the king and lord made known to him the greatness of his riches, be sent to gather an army for the king, to hold a levy and to test soldiers. For inasmuch as he is faithful, so as to invite more men to the service and to gather a larger army for the king, he will be under necessity of setting forth in part what he has seen; and again, because he is prudent and knows that it is needful to hide the king's secret, he will use certain hints rather than full accounts, so that the king's power may not indeed be concealed, and yet the ordering and the adornment of the palace and the disposition of its furnishing remain hidden. So then, as I have said, the Apostle Paul also seems to me to do in these discourses, and to temper his speech not only for the reason that he himself says, that he knows in part and understands in part, but also on account of us, who cannot grasp even those things which he knows in part; and to touch upon and half-open each inner chamber of the mystery with single, or scarcely with two, sentences; and now, having entered by one approach, to go out by another; now, having entered by another, to run together to yet another chamber, so that if you seek him by that approach by which he entered, you do not find his going out. Having therefore first set these things in order in our mind and spirit concerning what Paul writes, let us now turn, according to our strength, to examining and contemplating the matters we have in hand. And first let us see in what manner "through one man sin entered into this world, and through sin death." For perhaps someone may ask: if before Adam the woman sinned, of whom it is said that "being deceived she was in the transgression," and again before her the serpent sinned — for he sinned when he said to the woman, "Why has God said this, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise?" and he sinned again when, whereas God had said that "in whatsoever day you eat of it, you shall die the death," he said to the woman, "You shall not die the death; but God knew that in whatsoever day you eat of it, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" — if therefore before Adam the woman also sinned, and before the woman the serpent, and in another place the Apostle says that "Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived," how will sin seem to have entered through one man, and not rather through one woman? For from a woman was the beginning of sin, and before the woman from the serpent, or from the devil, of whom it is said in the Gospel that "he was a murderer from the beginning." But see that the Apostle in these matters has kept the order of nature; and therefore, since he was speaking of sin, from which death passed upon all men, he ascribes the succession of the human posterity — which succumbed to this death coming from sin — not to the woman, but to the man. For posterity is not named from the woman, but from the man, as the Apostle himself says elsewhere: "For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man"; and again: "For as the woman is of the man, so also is the man" not of the woman, but "by the woman"; and for this reason mortal posterity and bodily succession is reckoned rather to the man as its author, and not to the woman. But that what we say may become still more evident, we will add this also which the same Apostle writes to the Hebrews: "But Levi also, who received tithes, was tithed; for he was yet in the loins of his father" (Abraham) "when Melchisedech met him returning from the slaughter of the kings." If therefore Levi, who is born in the fourth generation after Abraham, is declared to have been in the loins of Abraham, much more were all men who are born and have been born in this world in the loins of Adam while he was still in paradise; and all men were cast out of paradise with him or in him, when he himself was driven thence; and through him death, which had come upon him from the transgression, consequently passed also into those who were held in his loins. And therefore the Apostle rightly says: "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." Neither therefore from the serpent, who had sinned before the woman, nor from the woman, who was in the transgression before the man, but through Adam, from whom all mortals draw their origin, is sin said to have entered in, and through sin death. But this, doubtless, is the one man through whom sin entered in, and through sin death — the man whom elsewhere the Apostle himself calls the first man, of the earth, earthy, while the second is from heaven, heavenly, when he exhorts us, having cast off the image of the earthy, to bear the image of the heavenly; that is, that living according to the Word of God we may be renewed and reformed according to the inner man after the image of God who created him. This man, therefore, who is now being reformed and restored to the image of God, is neither earthy nor in this world, but his conversation is said to be in the heavens; and therefore, according to him who said, "But you are not of this world," death cannot pass through into him. But of the one who is still in this world, and is earthy, and bears the image of the earthy, of him it is said that through him sin entered into this world, and through sin death. But if sin and death entered into this world, and dwell in this world, it is certain that those are strangers to death and to sin who through Christ, or with Christ, have died to this world, and having been raised again with him have merited also to sit with him in the heavenly places, having their conversation no longer in this world but in the heavens. Whence also it is shown by a like consequence that every man is first "of the earth, earthy," as the same Apostle says elsewhere; when he bears the image of the earthy, and walks according to the image of the earthy, minds the flesh and savors the things that are of the flesh, and it is scarcely at some time that he turns to the Lord and is led by the Spirit of God, and being made spiritual becomes "the last Adam into a quickening Spirit." Inquire carefully, since he says that through one man sin entered into this world, and it is certain that he here calls "world" this earthly place in which men dwell, whether sin entered into no other place, nor is found in those places where "the spiritual wickednesses in the heavenly places" are named. But consider this too within yourself: whence did sin enter into this world, or where was it before it entered here, or whether it existed at all, or whether it was before him to whom it is said, "How long shall iniquities be found in thee? and on this account I have cast thee down to the earth." But it is not safe for us to discourse at greater length about these matters, since we see that the Apostle has here barely touched upon them with single phrases. "Through one man," therefore, "sin entered into this world." And "world," as we have said, is to be understood either as the place in which men dwell, or as the earthly and bodily life in which death has its place; to which world, that is, to the earthly life, the saints declare themselves crucified and dead. "And through sin," he says, "death" — that death, without doubt, of which the prophet also speaks, that "the soul that sins shall itself die"; of which death one might rightly call this bodily death the shadow. For wherever that death has entered, this must needs follow, as the shadow follows the body. But if anyone object that the Savior did no sin, nor was there in him the death of the soul through sin, and yet he underwent bodily death, we shall answer him that just as the Savior, though he himself did no sin, is nevertheless said for our salvation to have been made sin through the assumption of flesh, so also, though he owed this death to no one and was not liable to it, yet for our salvation he took upon himself this death — as it were the shadow of that dispensation which he had assumed, of which we spoke above — willingly, not of necessity, as he himself said: "I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it up again." But let us see how "death passed through unto all men, in that all," he says, "have sinned." The Apostle has pronounced an absolute judgment, that the death of sin passed through unto all men, in that wherein all have sinned, as also elsewhere: "For all," he says, "have sinned, and need the glory of God." And therefore, even if you name Abel as that righteous man, he cannot be excused. "For all have sinned." For why did he offer "after days," and offer his sacrifice from the firstborn after Cain, and not before him, and not at once? Even if you name Enos, who "hoped to call upon the name of the Lord" — why did he hope, and why does he not call upon him at once, but defer and delay? Even if you name Enoch: it is not written that he pleased God until he begot Methuselah; and Methuselah is interpreted "sending forth of death." From which it is shown that this death, which passed through unto all men, passed also into him; but scarcely at some point did he perceive that death was within him, and being turned to the Lord he sent it forth from himself, and cast it off through repentance. And therefore he is said to have begotten Methuselah, because he had cast off from himself the death that had besieged him. Rightly then, because he was no longer liable to death, but had cast it off from himself and put it to flight, it is said that God translated him, that he should not see death. But concerning Noah too, if you inquire more attentively, you will find that it is written of him only in his five hundredth year that "Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord God," and that "he was righteous in his generation," and that "he pleased God"; which surely, if he had merited it earlier, the divine Scripture, I think, would never have passed over in silence. But also, if anyone wishes to take into account that he drank wine, and was made drunk and uncovered, he will find from all these things that it is not without cause said by the Apostle, "in that all have sinned," even though Noah awoke from his wine. And what shall I say too of Abraham, to whom it is said: "Go out from thy land, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house"? Which surely would not have been said, if in his father's house he could have pleased God. But there is no need, with great peril, to enumerate the saints one by one in these matters, since the Apostle's judgment suffices, which says that death passed through unto all men, and that of him who said: "No one is clean from filth, even if his life has been but of one day." But this death of sin, which passed through unto all, when it had come to Jesus and had tried to pierce him with its sting (for "the sting of death is sin"), was repulsed and shattered. For he "was Life," and death was necessarily brought to an end by life; and then it is said to it: "Where, O death, is thy sting? where, O death, is thy victory?" For because it had conquered all, therefore it is here said to it: "Where, O death, is thy victory?" But as for the fact that he did not say that sin entered into all men, but "into the world"; and death, on the other hand, not into the world, but "unto all men," and not that it entered, but that it passed through — I do not think that Paul employed this distinction without purpose. I judge that by "world" he here designates all the earthly, and those who remain in the conversation of the earthy; but by "men" he means those who are now beginning to know themselves, and to know that they were made after the image of God.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANSJust as through Adam sin came at a time when it did not yet exist, so through Christ righteousness was recovered at a time when it survived in almost nobody. And just as through Adam's sin death came in, so through Christ's righteousness life was regained. As long as people sin as Adam sinned they die. Death did not pass on to Abraham and Isaac, of whom the Lord says: "They all live to him." But here Paul says that all are dead because in a multitude of sinners no exception is made for a few righteous.… Or perhaps we should understand that death passed on to all who lived in a human and not in a heavenly manner.
PELAGIUS'S COMMENTARY ON ROMANSSuch was the soul's first state. Created pure Through sordid union with the flesh it fell Into iniquity; stained by Adam's sin, It tainted all the race from him derived, And infant souls inherit at their birth The first man's sin; no one is sinless born.
THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST, LINES 909-15St. Paul says that when Adam sinned he became mortal because of it and passed both on to his descendants. Thus death came to all men, in that all sinned. But each person receives the sentence of death not because of the sin of his first ancestor but because of his own sin.
INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANSHaving said that the Lord Jesus justified us, he turns to the root of evil, to sin and death, and shows that both the one and the other, that is, sin and death, entered the world through one man, Adam, and again by one and the same Man, Christ, were removed. What then does "in him all sinned" mean? That all sinned in Adam. As soon as he fell, through him even those who had not eaten from the forbidden tree became mortal, as though they themselves had also fallen, because he fell.
Commentary on RomansAfter indicating the benefits we obtained through Christ's grace, the Apostle now indicates the evils from which we were set free. And concerning this he does three things. First, he shows that through Christ's grace we have been freed from the slavery of sin; second, he shows that through his grace we have been freed from the slavery of the law, at or know you not, brethren (Rom 7:1); third, he shows that through his grace we have been freed from condemnation, at there is now therefore no condemnation (Rom 8:1). In regard to the first he does two things: first, he shows that by Christ's grace we are set free from original sin; second, that we are shielded against future sins, at what shall we say then (Rom 6:1). In regard to the first he does two things: first, he deals with the history of sin; second, of grace destroying sin, at but not as the offense (Rom 5:15). In regard to the first he does two things: first, he sets forth the origin of sin; second, he manifests it, at for until the law (Rom 5:13). Concerning the first, he does two things: first, he sets forth the origin of sin; second, its universality, at and so death passed. First, therefore, he says that we have been reconciled through Christ. For reconciliation came into the world from Christ, as by one man, namely Adam, sin entered into this world: as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Cor 15:22). Here it should be noted that the Pelagian heretics, who denied the existence of original sin in infants, claim that these words of the Apostle must be understood of actual sin which, according to them, entered this world through Adam, inasmuch as all sinners imitate the sin of Adam: but like Adam they transgressed the covenant (Hos 6:7). But, as Augustine says against them, if the Apostle were speaking of the entrance of actual sin, which is through imitation, he would not have said that sin entered this world through a man but rather through the devil, whom sinners imitate: through the devil's envy death entered the world (Wis 2:24). Therefore, the interpretation is that sin entered this world through Adam not only by imitation but also by propagation, i.e., by a vitiated origin of the flesh in accordance with Ephesians: we were by nature children of wrath (Eph 2:3) and the Psalm: behold, I was brought forth in iniquity (Ps 51:5). But it seems impossible that sin be passed from one person to another through carnal origin. For sin exists in the rational soul, which is not passed on by carnal origin, not only because the intellect is not the act of any body and so cannot be caused by the power of bodily seed, as the Philosopher says in On the Generation of Animals, but also because the rational soul, being a subsistent reality (inasmuch as it can perform certain acts without using the body and is not destroyed when the body is destroyed), is not produced in virtue of the body's being produced (unlike other forms which cannot subsist of themselves), but is caused by God. Therefore, it seems to follow that sin, too, which is an accident of the soul, cannot be passed on by carnal origin. The reasonable answer seems to be that although the soul is not in the seed, nevertheless there is in it a power disposing the body to receive the soul which, when it is infused into the body, is also adapted to it in its own way for the reason that everything received by something exists in it according to a mode of the recipient. That is why children resemble parents not only in bodily defects, as a leper begets a leprous child and a person with gout a gouty child, but also in defects of the soul, as an irascible parent begets irascible children and mad parents mad offspring. For although the foot subject to gout or the soul subject to anger and madness are not in the seed, nevertheless in the seed is a power which forms the bodily members and disposes them for the soul. Yet a difficulty remains, because defects traced to a vitiated source do not involve guilt. For they are not deserving of punishment but rather of pity, as the Philosopher says of one born blind or in any other way defective. The reason is that it is the character of guilt that it be voluntary and in the power of the one to whom the guilt is imputed. Consequently, if any defect in us arose through origin from the first parent, it does not seem to carry with it the nature of guilt but of punishment. Therefore, it must be admitted that as actual sin is a person's sin, because it is committed through the will of the person sinning, so original sin is the sin of the nature committed through the will of the source of human nature. For it must be remembered that just as the various members of the body are the parts of one human person, so all men are parts and, as it were, members of human nature. Hence Porphyry says that by sharing in the same species many men are one man. Furthermore, the act of sin performed by a member, say the hand or the foot, does not carry the notion of guilt from the hand's or foot's will but from the whole person's will, from which as from a source the movement of sin is passed to the several members. Similarly, from the will of Adam, who was the source of human nature, the total disorder of that nature carries the notion of guilt in all who obtain that nature precisely as susceptible to guilt. And just as an actual sin, which is a sin of the person, is drawn to the several members by an act of the person, so original sin is drawn to each man by an act of the nature, namely, generation. Accordingly, just as human nature is obtained through generation, so, too, by generation is passed on the defect it acquired from the sin of the first parent. This defect is a lack of original justice divinely conferred on the first parent not only in his role as a definite person but also as the source of human nature—a justice that was to be passed along with human nature to his descendants. Consequently, the loss of this original justice through sin was passed on to his descendants. It is this loss that has the aspect of guilt in his descendants for the reason given. That is why it is said that in the progression of original sin a person infected the nature, namely, Adam sinning vitiated human nature; but later in others the vitiated nature affects the person in the sense that to the offspring is imputed as guilt this vitiated state of nature on account of the first parent's will, as explained above. From this it is clear that although the first sin of the first parent is passed on to the descendants by generation, nevertheless his other sins, or even those of other men, are not passed on to their children, because it was only through the first sin that the good of nature, originally intended to be passed on by generation, was lost. Through all later sins the good of personal grace is lost, which does not pass on to one's descendants. This also explains why, although Adam's sin was removed by his repentance: she delivered him from his transgression (Wis 10:2), nevertheless his repentance could not remove the sin of descendants, because his repentance was performed by a personal act, which did not extend beyond him personally. Consequently, there is but one sole original sin, because the defect following upon the first sin is the only one passed on to the descendants. Therefore, the Apostle is careful to say that by one man sin entered into this world, and not sins, which he would have said, if he were speaking of actual sin. But sometimes it is said in the plural: and in sins did my mother conceive me (Ps 51:7) because it contains many sins virtually, insofar as the corruption of the fomes, or concupiscence, inclines one to many sins. It seems, however, that original sin entered this world not through one man, namely, Adam, but through one woman, namely, Eve, who was the first to sin: from a woman sin had its beginning and because of her we all die (Sir 25:24). This is answered in a Gloss in two ways: in one way, because the custom of Scripture is to present genealogies not through the woman but through the men. Hence, the Apostle in giving, as it were, the genealogy of sin makes no mention of the woman but only of the man. In another way, because the woman was taken from the man; consequently, what is true of the woman is attributed to the man. But this can be explained in another and better way, namely, that since original sin is passed on along with the nature, as has been said, then just as the nature is passed on by the active power of the man, while the woman furnishes the matter, so too original sin. Hence, if Adam had not sinned, but Eve only, sin would not have been passed on to their descendants. For Christ did not contract original sin, because he took his flesh from the woman alone without male seed. Augustine uses these words from the apostle Paul to respond to the heretic Julian, who asked: the one who is born does not sin, the one who begot him does not sin, the one who bore him does not sin; through what crack, therefore, in such a garrison of innocence do you suppose sin has entered? But Augustine responds: why do you seek a crack when you have a wide open gate? For according to the Apostle, sin entered into this world through one man. Then he touches on the entry of death into this world when he says, and by sin death entered this world: ungodliness purchases death (Wis 1:12). However, it seems that death does not arise from sin but from nature, being due to the presence of matter. For the human body is composed of contrary elements and, therefore, is corruptible of its very nature. The answer is that human nature can be considered in two ways: in one way according to its structural principles, and then death is natural. Hence Seneca says that death is natural, not penal, for man. In another way man's nature can be considered in the light of what divine providence had supplied it through original justice. This justice was a state in which man's mind was under God, the lower powers of the soul under the mind, the body under the soul, and all external things under man, with the result that as long as man's mind remained under God, the lower powers would remain subject to reason, and the body to the soul by receiving life from it without interruption, and external things to man in the sense that all things would serve man, who would never experience any harm from them. Divine providence planned this for man on account of the worth of the rational soul, which, being incorruptible, deserved an incorruptible body. But because the body, which is composed of contrary elements, served as an instrument for the senses, and such a body could not in virtue of its nature be incorruptible, the divine power furnished which was lacking to human nature by giving the soul the power to maintain the body incorruptible, just as a worker in metal might give the iron, from which he makes a sword, the power never to become rusty. Thus, therefore, after man's mind was turned from God through sin, he lost the strength to control the lower powers as well as the body and external things. Consequently, he became subject to death from intrinsic sources and to violence from external sources. Then when he says, and so death passed, he shows the universality of this process in regard both to death and to sin, but in reverse order. For above he treated first of the entry of sin, which is the cause of death's entry; but now he deals first with the universality of death as with something more obvious. Hence he says, and so death, or the sin of the first parent, passed upon all, because men merit the necessity of dying on account of a vitiated origin: we must all die (2 Sam 14:14); what man can live and never see death? (Ps 89:48). Then he touches on the universality of sin when he says, in whom all have sinned. According to Augustine this can be understood in two ways: in one way, in whom, i.e., in the first man, or in which, namely, in that sin; because while he was sinning, all sinned in a sense, inasmuch as all men were in him as in their first origin. But since Christ derived his origin from Adam (Luke 3:23ff.), it seems that even he sinned in Adam's sin. Augustine's answer in On Genesis is that Christ was not in Adam as completely as we were, for we were in him according to bodily substance and according to seed. But Christ was in him in the first way only. Some who interpreted these words incorrectly supposed that the entire substance of all human bodies, which is required for a true human nature, was actually in Adam and that in virtue of a multiplication traced to God's power, something taken from Adam was increased to form such a quantity of bodies. But this is unfitting, because it explains the works of nature by a miracle. Indeed, it is obvious that the human body, even though it is required for the integrity of human nature, corrupts and becomes a corpse. Hence it is better to say that, because everything generable is corruptible and vice versa, the matter which was present under some form other than human before a man is begotten, received the form proper to human flesh. Accordingly, not everything in our bodies that belongs to the integrity of human nature was in Adam actually, but only according to origin in the way that an effect is present in its active principle. According to this, therefore, there are in human generation the bodily material, which the woman proffers, and an active force, which is in the male's seed; both are derived originally from Adam as their first principle. Hence, they are said to have been in him according to seed and according to bodily substance, inasmuch as both came forth from him. But in Christ's generation there was the bodily substance which he obtained from the virgin; in place of the male seed was the Holy Spirit's active power, which is not derived from Adam. Consequently, Christ was not in Adam according to his seedly power, but only according to bodily substance. Thus, therefore, we not only receive sin from Adam and contract it; we also derive human nature from him as from an active principle—which amounts to being in him according to the power of the seed. But this is not true of Christ, as has been stated. Finally, it seems that original sin does not pass on to all, because the baptized are cleansed of original sin. Hence, it seems that they cannot transmit to their descendents something they do not have. The answer is that through baptism a man is freed from original sin as far as the mind is concerned, but the infection of sin remains as far as the flesh is concerned. Hence the Apostle says below: I serve the law of God with the mind, but with the flesh, the law of sin (Rom 7:25). But man does not beget children with the mind but with the flesh; consequently, he does not transmit the new life of Christ but the old life of Adam.
Commentary on Romans(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
ἄχρι γὰρ νόμου ἁμαρτία ἦν ἐν κόσμῳ, ἁμαρτία δὲ οὐκ ἐλλογεῖται μὴ ὄντος νόμου·
До зако́на бо грѣ́хъ бѣ̀ въ мі́рѣ: грѣ́хъ же не вмѣнѧ́шесѧ, не сꙋ́щꙋ зако́нꙋ.
Before the law was given, men thought that they could sin with impunity before God but not before other men. For the natural law, of which they were well aware, had not completely lost its force, so that they knew not to do to others what they did not want to suffer themselves. For sin was certainly not unknown among men at that time.How is it then that sin was not imputed, when there was no law? Was it all right to sin, if the law was absent? There had always been a natural law, and it was not unknown, but at that time it was thought to be the only law, and it did not make men guilty before God. For it was not then known that God would judge the human race, and for that reason sin was not imputed, almost as if it did not exist in God's sight and that God did not care about it. But when the law was given through Moses, it became clear that God did care about human affairs and that in the future wrongdoers would not escape without punishment, as they had done up to then.
COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLESPaul said this in opposition to those who thought that sin could be taken away through the law. He says that sins were made apparent by the law, not abolished. He says not that there was no sin but only that it was not counted. Once the law was given, sin was not taken away, but it began to be counted.
AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 27-28The 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 ROMANSSin was in the world before the law of Moses came, and it was counted, though not according to that law. Rather it was counted according to the law of nature, by which we have learned to distinguish good and evil. This was the law of which Paul spoke above.
PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCHThe phrase "till the Law" some think he used of the time before the giving of the Law-that of Abel, for instance, or of Noah, or of Abraham-till Moses was born. What was the sin in those days, at this rate? some say he means that in Paradise. For hitherto it was not done away, (he would say,) but the fruit of it was yet in vigor. For it had borne that death whereof all partake, which prevailed and lorded over us. Why then does he proceed, "But sin is not imputed when there is no law?" It was by way of objection from the Jews, say they who have spoken on our side, that he laid this position down and said, if there be no sin without the Law, how came death to consume all those before the Law? But to me it seems that the sense presently to be given has more to be said for it, and suits better with the Apostle's meaning. And what sense is this? In saying, that "till the Law sin was in the world," what he seems to me to mean is this, that after the Law was given the sin resulting from the transgression of it prevailed, and prevailed too so long as the Law existed. For sin, he says, can have no existence if there be no law. If then it was this sin, he means, from the transgression of the Law that brought forth death, how was it that all before the Law died? For if it is in sin that death hath its origin, but when there is no law, sin is not imputed, how came death to prevail? From whence it is clear, that it was not this sin, the transgression, that is, of the Law, but that of Adam's disobedience, which marred all things. Now what is the proof of this? The fact that even before the Law all died: for "death reigned" he says, "from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned."
Homily on Romans XWhen Paul uses the word sin here he is thinking primarily of the transgression of the law of Moses and its commandments, e.g., circumcision, sabbath observance, the food laws, etc. Nevertheless, sin in general already existed in human nature, and it was counted. By this I mean things like murder, robbery, child abuse and so on.… For there was a law of nature which covered things like that.
PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCHBut also that which he says, "For until the law sin was in this world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law," seems to show this: that until the law, that is, until Christ should come who takes away the sin of the world, sin was in the world. And it is manifest that sin cannot be imputed where there is no law to convict the sinner. "But death reigned," which had entered in through sin, "until Moses," that is, so long as the law endured, "over those who sinned after the similitude of the sin of Adam," through whom death itself received its entrance; "who," namely Adam, "is the figure of him that was to come" — not according to that in which he transgressed, but according to this, that as through him death, so through the last Adam life entered into this world; and as through the former came condemnation upon all men, so also through Christ justification upon all men. Let these things be said concerning the plain sense of the apostolic utterance itself.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANSTherefore he says that sin entered into those who are called "world," that is, the earthly ones, and nowhere does he set down its going out. But into those whom he wishes to be understood as already "men," he says that sin passed through, that is, that it was indeed there, but was driven out through the repentance of conversion, and passed through, and did not stand any longer in them. From which it appears that in Paul's writings not even one syllable ought to be felt to be empty of mysteries. Let us now see in what way it was said: "For until the law sin was in this world; but sin is not imputed, when there is no law." In this place, according to that comparison which we set forth above, Paul seems to me to have entered by one approach and gone out by another. For who can follow him through that approach by which he seems to most people to have entered, so that he would be understood to be speaking of the law of Moses when he says that "until the law sin was in this world: but sin is not imputed, when there is no law?" — as though before the law there had been no sin, and no one had sinned, nor had sin been reckoned to anyone before the law of Moses was given, when we read that sin was reckoned both to Cain and to Lamech, and (that we may not linger over individual cases) that God was so provoked by the sins of men that he brought a flood upon the world, and said: "I will blot out all flesh that is upon the earth;" and again that a rain of fire and a sulphurous flame laid waste the Sodomites. How then, in these sins, or in sins of this kind, can it be said that there was no sin, or in punishments such as these will it be denied that sin was reckoned? And therefore a more hidden approach of Paul's must be sought out by us in what he says: "For until the law sin was in this world: but sin is not imputed, when there is no law." We find him also in the later parts of this Epistle speaking in this manner: "For without the law sin was dead: but I was alive once without the law." In which one and the same meaning of both passages seems to me to lie. For what was lacking in the phrase here, he has filled up there. In "For until the law sin was in this world," there is lacking "dead," which there he expressed more plainly. If therefore here too we join that word, and say: "For until the law sin was in this world" dead: "but sin is not imputed, when there is no law," see how the sense will be able to stand complete. But this too we have already often said, that in this Epistle Paul disputes indeed about many laws, but more frequently about the natural law, which is especially detected in this passage as well. For until the natural law sin is dead. Therefore at a certain time of life, when someone begins to be capable of reason, and to have the discernment of just and unjust, of what is fair and what is unfair, then sin, which previously was held within the man as though dead, is said to revive, for the reason that there is now inwardly a law which forbids, and reason which shows that the thing must not be done. But so that what we say may be understood more openly, let us use a clear example. It is written: "He who strikes his father or his mother, let him die the death;" and: "He who curses his father or his mother, let him die the death." If then a little boy of about four or five years, as commonly happens, in anger strikes his father or mother with a rod, so far as the precept of the commandment looks to it, he owes death. But because the natural law is not yet in him, which would teach him that he ought not to do injury to father or mother, he does not even know that in this he is committing the crime of impiety: there is indeed a species of sin in what he does, since he strikes his father or mother, or curses them; but the sin is dead in him, because through the absence of the natural law, which is not yet in him, sin cannot be reckoned to him. For there is not yet within him so much reason as would teach him that what he does ought not to be done: and therefore even by his parents it is not only not reckoned as a fault, but is received with favor and delight. And in this way, consequently, as I judge, what the Apostle says can be understood: "For until the law sin was in this world," so that "dead" may be supplied. "But sin is not imputed, when there is no law." For it is fitting that according to this exposition that also be understood which the Apostle says: "But I was alive once without the law." For how is Paul found to have lived once without the law of Moses, when he himself says of himself that he is a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and, circumcised on the eighth day, was immediately from birth in the observance of the law of Moses? But it is agreed that he once, that is, in the age of boyhood, before he became capable of reason, lived without the natural law. For in that age there was not yet in him the distinction of just and unjust, nor did the examination of right and wrong lie open to him. And that this is said of the natural law he plainly shows in what follows, when he says: "But when the commandment came, sin revived: and I died." By which he declares that the sins of that age did indeed exist, but were held as dead, because they were not reckoned as fault. But when I began, he says, to know what must be done, what must be guarded against and avoided, and to receive the commandment of the law that is in force within me; then sin revived in me, which before, through the absence of the law, seemed dead, and "I," he says, "died:" for sin now began to be reckoned to me. But Basilides, not noticing that these things ought to be understood of the natural law, dragged the apostolic word off to foolish and impious fables, and from this saying of the Apostle tries to construct the doctrine of metensōmatōsis (μετενσωματώσεως), that is, that souls are poured over into one body after another. "For the Apostle said," he says, "that 'I was alive once without the law:' that is, before I came into this body, I lived in that kind of body which was not under the law; namely, that of a beast or of a bird." But he did not look to what follows, that is: "But when the commandment came, sin revived." For he did not say that he came to the commandment, but that the commandment came to him; and he did not say that sin had not been in him, but that it had been dead, and had revived. In which he certainly shows that he was speaking of both things with regard to one and the same life of his own. But let Basilides, and any who think this along with him, be left in their impiety. Let us, however, attend to the Apostle's meaning according to the piety of ecclesiastical doctrine. But let us also inquire what this itself may be, that he says, "Sin was in this world," and did not say, in men, since certainly there are in the world both beasts, and the other animals, and trees, and whatever else this world consists of, and yet sin is not believed to be in these. It seems to me that here the Apostle has in mind those persons who are already capable of reason and obey the natural laws; whereas that age which has not yet arrived at the capacity of reason he has called not so much "men" as "the world," inasmuch as they are indeed parts of the world, yet have not yet come to this, that they should express in themselves by the capacity of reason the image of God, according to which man is said to have been made. But I should also like to inquire into this (unless it seem more curious than is right), whether perhaps, according to those who wish the law of Moses to be understood in these passages, by the words "But sin is not imputed when there is no law," the devil also and his angels might seem to be absolved, if where there is no law sin is not reckoned. And how was the serpent condemned before the law of Moses, or how did death enter into the round world through the envy of the devil? How too shall what Jude the apostle says in his catholic Epistle be explained? For he speaks thus: "The angels also who kept not their princedom, but forsook their own dwelling, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." From all which it stands more and more firmly established that the Apostle is speaking of that law which each one, whether of men or even of angels, bears naturally within himself by a certain divine dispensation or gift; whose force is so great, and whose power is so great, that it convicts even angels, and excepts the person of no dignity whatever, and it is this law which brought about what the apostle Jude says above, namely that the angels who kept not their princedom but forsook their own dwelling should be kept bound in everlasting chains unto the judgment of the great day. This is the law which also drags the devil and his angels into the eternal fire which has been prepared for them. And just as it is certain that neither would those angels be kept bound in eternal chains unto judgment, nor would these be sent into the eternal fire prepared for them, save because they did not keep the law set for them by God, nor would they come unto judgment unless they had committed something against the law, so it seems certain that, if they had guarded the law set for them, neither would these have fallen into the eternal fire, nor those beneath the chains of eternal darkness.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANSThe law came to punish sin. Before it came, sinners enjoyed at least the length of this present life with less restraint. Sin indeed existed before the law, but it was not counted as sin because natural knowledge had been almost wiped out. How did death reign, if sin was not counted? You have to understand here that it was not counted "for the time being."
PELAGIUS'S COMMENTARY ON ROMANSThe coming of the law did not remove sin. On the contrary, even though the law was observed and kept by men, sin continued to increase and the law could do nothing to stop it.… So far was the law from being the cure for sin that Paul even says that there would not have been sin at all had there been no law! By "law" Paul means the discernment which comes by both the natural law and the law of Moses. For without this discernment, nobody would be able to call sin by its name, since there would be no way of knowing the difference between good and evil.
PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCHPaul is not, as some think, accusing those who lived before the law but rather everyone together. When he says "before the law" he does not mean before the law began but before the law came to an end, because as long as the law was in control, sin retained its force.
INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANSThe Apostle wants to prove that even those who did not eat from the forbidden tree and did not sin like Adam were, on account of his sin, also counted as having sinned and died. He proves this as follows: sin reigned before the giving of the law, that is, even before the law. But what sin was this? Was it sin from transgression of the law? But how could there be such sin when there was no law? Sin is imputed when there is a law, and people who transgress the law are necessarily called sinners.
Commentary on RomansAfter tracing the origin of sin and death and their entry into the world, the Apostle now clarifies what he has said. First, he explains his statement; second, he clarifies the comparison he suggested, when he said: wherefore as by one man (Rom 5:12); third, he explains it, at who is a figure of him who was to come. Now he had stated that sin and death passed on to all men. Here, in line with Augustine's exposition, he intends to explain this by the fact that sin remained even under the law, implying that it was unable to expel it. In regard to this he does two things: first, he explains his statement as far as sin is concerned; second, as far as death is concerned, at but death reigned. In regard to the first he does two things: first, he shows that sin existed under the law; second, what the law did in regard to sin, at but sin was not imputed. First, therefore, he says: it has been stated that all have sinned in Adam, because even the law did not take away sin. Until the law, i.e., even under the law, as until is taken inclusively, sin was in the world. This can be understood of the natural law and the law of Moses; similarly, of actual sin and original sin. For original sin was in the child until the law of nature, i.e., until he reached the use of reason through which man adverts to these laws: in sins did my mother conceive me (Ps 51:5). Nor does this sin pass away with the coming of the natural law in a man; rather, it grows through the addition of actual sin, because, as stated in Ecclesiastes: there is not a just man on earth who does good and never sins (Eccl 7:20). But if we understand it of the law of Moses, then the statement that sin was in the world until the law can be understood not only of original sin but also of actual, because both sins continued in the world before the law and under the law: who can say: I have made my heart clean? (Prov 20:9). But although the law did not remove sin, it produced knowledge of sin which previously was not recognized. Hence he continues, but sin was not imputed. This is obvious, if it is understood of the natural law. For although original sin is in the child before the natural law and is counted against him by God, it was not imputed to him by men. But if it be understood of the law of Moses, it is clear that some actual sins were not imputed before the law, as those which are specifically forbidden by the law, which men did not regard as sins; for example, you shall not covet (Exod 20:17). But certain sins were imputed, inasmuch as they were against the law of nature. Hence, Joseph is sent to prison on a charge of adultery (Gen 39:11ff.).
Commentary on RomansNevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
ἀλλ᾿ ἐβασίλευσεν ὁ θάνατος ἀπὸ Ἀδὰμ μέχρι Μωϋσέως καὶ ἐπὶ τοὺς μὴ ἁμαρτήσαντας ἐπὶ τῷ ὁμοιώματι τῆς παραβάσεως Ἀδάμ, ὅς ἐστι τύπος τοῦ μέλλοντος.
Но ца́рствова сме́рть ѿ а҆да́ма да́же до мѡѷсе́а и҆ над̾ несогрѣши́вшими по подо́бїю престꙋпле́нїѧ а҆да́мова, и҆́же є҆́сть ѡ҆́бразъ бꙋ́дꙋщагѡ.
Paul said this in order to contradict those who thought that the Genesis story of the fall applied to nobody but Adam himself. For here he says that all have sinned, even if not exactly in the same way as Adam, and that the Genesis account applies to all men.
PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCHAlthough sin was not imputed before the law of Moses was given, death nevertheless reigned in the supremacy of its own seizure of power, knowing those who were bound to it. Therefore death reigned in the security of its dominion both over those who for a time escaped punishment and over those who suffered punishment for their evil deeds. Death claimed everyone as its own, because whoever sins is the servant of sin. Imagining they would get away with it, people sinned all the more and were more prone to wrongdoing because the world abetted it as if it were legal. Because of all this Satan rejoiced, knowing that he was secure in his possession of man, who because of Adam's sin had been abandoned by God. Thus it was that death reigned.Some Greek manuscripts say that death reigned even in those who had not sinned in the way that Adam had. If this is true, it is because Satan's jealousy was such that death, that is, dissolution, held sway over even those who did not sin.… Here there is a textual difference between the Latin version and some of the Greek manuscripts. The Latin says that death reigned over those whose sins were like the sin of Adam, but some Greek manuscripts say that death reigned even over those whose sins were not like Adam's. Which of the two readings is the correct one? What has happened is that somebody who could not win his argument altered the words of the text in order to make them say what he wanted them to say, so that not argument but textual authority would determine the issue. However, it is known that there were Latin-speakers who translated ancient Greek manuscripts which preserved an uncorrupted version from earlier times. But once these problems were raised by heretics and schismatics who were upsetting the harmony of the church, many things were altered so that the biblical text might conform to what people wanted. Thus even the Greeks have different readings in their manuscripts. I consider the correct reading to be the one which reason, history and authority all retain. For the reading of the modern Latin manuscripts is also found in Tertullian, Victorinus and Cyprian. Thus it was in Judea that the destruction of the kingdom of death began, since God was made known in Judea. But now death is being destroyed daily in every nation, since many who once were sons of the devil have become sons of God. Therefore, death did not reign in everyone but only in those who sinned in the same way that Adam had sinned. Adam was the type of the one who was to come, because even then God had secretly decided to redeem Adam's sin through the one Christ, as it says in John's Apocalypse: "The Lamb of God which was slain before the foundation of the world."
COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES.This can be understood in two ways: either "in the likeness of Adam's transgression, death reigned," or (as surely it must be read) "death reigned over even those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam's transgression but sinned before the law was given." Thus those who received the law may be understood to have sinned in the likeness of Adam's transgression, because Adam also sinned after having received a law to obey…. Adam is the type of the one who was to come but in reverse, for as death came through Adam, so life came through our Lord.
Adam is the type of Christ but in reverse, because the good done by Christ to the regenerated is greater than the harm done by Adam to his descendants.
LETTER 157In the first epistle to the Romans the Apostle has declared Adam to be a type of Christ, saying: Who is a figure of him that was to come; and in like manner he has called Adam the first man, and Christ the second. Since God threatened the first man with death that very day should he transgress the commandment, and yet when he did transgress did not immediately visit him with death in accordance with the threatening, but was long-suffering towards him, and having disciplined him by means of the law, and cast him out of Paradise, and permitted him to live to a good old age before he died, God showed great forbearance and kindness towards man, particularly in having provided him with clothing, and in that he did not in wrath inflict death upon human nature, but instructed man in prudence and wisdom, and made sin hateful to him, and righteousness the object of his desires. Then, through the guarding of the tree of life, he taught men to love and hope for immortality. Glory to him who from the beginning to the end has bestowed his provident care upon man.
The Christian Topography, Book 5Paul's meaning is that, although Moses was a righteous and admirable man, the death sentence promulgated upon Adam reached him as well, and also those who came after, even though neither he nor they copied the sin of Adam in disobediently eating of the tree.
Catechetical Lecture 15.31Adam was a type of Christ not with respect to his sin or his righteousness—in this respect the two men were opposites—but with respect to the effects of what he did. For just as Adam's sin spread to all men, so Christ's life also spread to all men. Adam was also a type of Christ in another respect. For just as he was the head of Eve, in that he was her husband, so also Christ, being its bridegroom, is the head of the church.
PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCHWhen, therefore, according to these (heretics), the entire world and super-mundane entities were finished, and (when) nothing exists labouring under deficiency, there still remains in the (conglomeration of) all germs the third Sonship, which had been left behind in the Seed to confer benefits and receive them. And it must needs be that the Sonship which had been left behind ought likewise to be revealed and reinstated above. And His place should be above the Conterminous Spirit, near the refined and imitative Sonship and the Non-Existent One. But this would be in accordance with what has been written, he says: "And the creation itself groaneth together, and travaileth in pain together, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God." Now, we who are spiritual are sons, he says, who have been left here to arrange, and mould, and rectify, and complete the souls which, according to nature, are so constituted as to continue in this quarter of the universe. "Sin, then, reigned from Adam unto Moses," as it has been written. For the Great Archon exercised dominion and possesses an empire with limits extending as far as the firmament. And He imagines Himself alone to be God, and that there exists nothing above Him, for (the reason that) all things have been guarded by unrevealed Siope. This, he says, is the mystery which has not been made known to former generations; but in those days the Great Archon, the Ogdoad, was King and Lord, as it seemed, of the universe. But (in reality) the Hebdomad was king and lord of this quarter of the universe, and the Ogdoad is Arrhetus, whereas the Hebdomad is Rhetus. This, he says, is the Archon of the Hebdomad, who has spoken to Moses, and says: "I am the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and I have not manifested unto them the name of God" (for so they wish that it had been written)-that is, the God, Arrhetus, Archon of the Ogdoad. All the prophets, therefore, who were before the Saviour uttered their predictions, he says, from this source (of inspiration). Since, therefore, it was requisite, he says, that we should be revealed as the children of God, in expectation of whose manifestation, he says, the creation habitually groans and travails in pain, the Gospel came into the world, and passed through every Principality, and Power, and Dominion, and every Name that is named. And (the Gospel) came in reality, though nothing descended from above; nor did the blessed Sonship retire from that Inconceivable, and Blessed, (and) Non-Existent God. Nay, (far from it;) for as Indian naphtha, when lighted merely from a considerably long distance, nevertheless attracts fire (towards it), so from below, from the formlessness of the conglomeration (of all germs), the powers pass upwards as far as the Sonship. For, according to the illustration of the Indian naphtha, the Son of the Great Archon of the Ogdoad, as if he were some (sort of) naphtha, apprehends and seizes conceptions from the Blessed Sonship, whose place of habitation is situated after that of the Conterminous (Spirit). For the power of the Sonship which is in the midst of the Holy Spirit, (that is,) in, the midst of the (Conterminous) Spirit, shares the flowing and rushing thoughts of the Sonship with the Son of the Great Archon.
Hippolytus Refutation of All Heresies Book VIIFor it was incumbent upon the Mediator between God and men, by His relationship to both, to bring both to friendship and concord, and present man to God, while He revealed God to man. For, in what way could we be partaken of the adoption of sons, unless we had received from Him through the Son that fellowship which refers to Himself, unless His Word, having been made flesh, had entered into communion with us? Wherefore also He passed through every stage of life, restoring to all communion with God. Those, therefore, who assert that He appeared putatively, and was neither born in the flesh nor truly made man, are as yet under the old condemnation, holding out patronage to sin; for, by their showing, death has not been vanquished, which "reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression."
Against Heresies Book IIIBut the law coming, which was given by Moses, and testifying of sin that it is a sinner, did truly take away his (death's) kingdom, showing that he was no king, but a robber; and it revealed him as a murderer. It laid, however, a weighty burden upon man, who had sin in himself, showing that he was liable to death. For as the law was spiritual, it merely made sin to stand out in relief, but did not destroy it. For sin had no dominion over the spirit, but over man. For it behoved Him who was to destroy sin, and redeem man under the power of death, that He should Himself be made that very same thing which he was, that is, man; who had been drawn by sin into bondage, but was held by death, so that sin should be destroyed by man, and man should go forth from death.
Against Heresies Book IIIWherefore Luke points out that the pedigree which traces the generation of our Lord back to Adam contains seventy-two generations, connecting the end with the beginning, and implying that it is He who has summed up in Himself all nations dispersed from Adam downwards, and all languages and generations of men, together with Adam himself. Hence also was Adam himself termed by Paul "the figure of Him that was to come," because the Word, the Maker of all things, had formed beforehand for Himself the future dispensation of the human race, connected with the Son of God; God having predestined that the first man should be of an animal nature, with this view, that he might be saved by the spiritual One. For inasmuch as He had a pre-existence as a saving Being, it was necessary that what might be saved should also be called into existence, in order that the Being who saves should not exist in vain.
Against Heresies Book IIINor do I say this, but I say it according to the apostle, who affirms that we were all, in the transgression of Adam, cast down from paradise through sin. This the apostle says, that Adam fell even in us, who were afterward to be. Therefore now in Christ, that is, the heavenly Adam, we believe, so that we who through the sin of the first Adam fell from paradise, may now through the righteousness of the second Adam return to paradise.
Homily 66, on Psalm 88 (Alternate Series)How did it reign? "After the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of Him that was to come." Now this is why Adam is a type of Christ. How a type? it will be said. Why in that, as the former became to those who were sprung from him, although they had not eaten of the tree, the cause of that death which by his eating was introduced; thus also did Christ become to those sprung from Him, even though they had not wrought righteousness, the Provider of that righteousness which through His Cross He graciously bestowed on us all. For this reason, at every turn he keeps to the "one," and is continually bringing it before us, when he says, "As by one man sin entered into the world"-and, "If through the offence of one many be dead:" and, "Not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift;" and, "The judgment was by one to condemnation:" and again, "If by one (or, the one) man's offence death reigned by one;" and "Therefore as by the offence of one." And again, "As by one man's disobedience many (or, the many) were made sinners." And so he letteth not go of the one, that when the Jew says to thee, How came it, that by the well-doing of this one Person, Christ, the world was saved? thou mightest be able to say to him, How by the disobedience of this one person, Adam, came it to be condemned?
Homily on Romans XWhence, also, they say that Pharaoh was a type of the devil in Egypt, since he mercilessly commanded the males to be cast into the river, but the females to be preserved alive. For the devil, ruling from Adam to Moses over this great Egypt, the world, took care to have the male and rational offspring of the soul carried away and destroyed by the streams of passions, but he longs for the carnal and irrational offspring to increase and multiply.
Methodius Discourse III. ThaleiaBut also that which he says, "For until the law sin was in this world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law," seems to show this: that until the law, that is, until Christ should come who takes away the sin of the world, sin was in the world. And it is manifest that sin cannot be imputed where there is no law to convict the sinner. "But death reigned," which had entered in through sin, "until Moses," that is, so long as the law endured, "over those who sinned after the similitude of the sin of Adam," through whom death itself received its entrance; "who," namely Adam, "is the figure of him that was to come" — not according to that in which he transgressed, but according to this, that as through him death, so through the last Adam life entered into this world; and as through the former came condemnation upon all men, so also through Christ justification upon all men. Let these things be said concerning the plain sense of the apostolic utterance itself.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANSIt remains that we also discuss, so far as our powers allow, how this was said: "But death reigned from Adam unto Moses, even over those who sinned after the likeness of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come." This is now the third time the Apostle makes mention of death. First he says that "through sin death entered into this world"; secondly, "death," he says, "passed through unto all men." But now he says, "Death reigned from Adam unto Moses." And knowing that there are certain differences among these several statements, he has indicated when it entered and when it reigned. Then, he says, it entered, when the first man transgressed. And he said how it entered: "through sin," he says. And now he designates the time of its reign "from Adam unto Moses"; but how it passed through unto all men he does not show. It seems to me, therefore, that in these words the Apostle is describing something like the entry of a tyrant who wished to invade the kingdom of the lawful king, and who first seized the very gates and approaches of the kingdom through the transgression of the guard; then next attempted to bend the minds of all men toward himself, and for the greatest part succeeded, and thus claimed for himself a kingship not owed to him. While this man, then, was reigning by tyranny, there is sent a leader chosen by the lawful king, namely Moses, to call back the peoples occupied by him to the rights of civil governance, and to teach them to use the laws of the true king. That tyrant then, that is, the death of sin, who had crept in through the transgression of the first guard, was reigning over all those who had turned aside to him by a transgression like that of the first man. But this leader of the lawful prince does everything to snatch some out of the kingdom of sin and death; and he obtained at last that he should convert one nation, and any who wished to join himself to this nation; and at the king's command he was the first to institute sacrifices, by the offering of which with a fixed solemnity, as was fitting, sin might be remitted to them. And thus at length men began in some part to be freed from the kingdom of sin and death. For that tyrant who is called death, from Adam — who first by his transgression gave him an entrance, that he might pass through unto all men — was reigning up to that Moses whom we have called the leader, who, sent by God the king of all, began to break his kingdom and to call men back under the law of the just prince. "Death" therefore "reigned from Adam unto Moses," according to that likeness which we set forth above, not over all, but "over those who sinned after the likeness of Adam's transgression." For death indeed entered into the world, and passed through unto all, yet it did not reign over all. For it is one thing to pass through, and another to reign. For sin passed through even into the just, and grazed them with a certain light contagion. But in transgressors, that is, in those who subject themselves to it with their whole mind and devotion, it holds a kingdom and lords it with every power. "Death" therefore "reigned from Adam," who first by transgressing opened a passage for sin into this world, "unto Moses," that is, unto the law. For through the law the purification of sins began to be opened up, and in some part his tyranny to be resisted through victims, through various expiations, through sacrifices, through precepts. But since his domination was so great as to exceed the strength of the law, the prophets are sent to the law's aid. Yet they too, seeing that the tyrant's power was beyond their own strength, entreat the coming and presence of the King himself, crying out to God: "Send forth Thy light and Thy truth"; and again: "Bow down Thy heavens, and come down"; and once more: "Arise, O Lord, bring us help." Jesus Christ the Son of God, therefore, was present, and "in that wherein" the law "was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin by sin in the flesh," and reconciled the world to God; and He stripped off the princedoms and powers of the tyrant, triumphing over them in Himself. But we seem to have slipped into these matters by a kind of digression; let us, however, return to our proposition. Therefore the death of sin reigned from Adam unto Moses, that is, unto the coming of Christ. For Moses is called the law, and the law, as it is written, held its place unto the baptism of John, from which time Jesus began to preach the kingdom of God. But that he singled out certain particular persons over whom death reigned, when he says, "Death reigned over those who sinned after the likeness of Adam's transgression," does not seem to me to be said without the indication of some mystery. Perhaps, then, there were some, up to that time in which men were held under the law as under a pedagogue, who did something of such a kind as Adam is described to have done in paradise — and to have touched the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and to have blushed at his own nakedness, and to have fallen away from the dwelling of paradise. Or perhaps it seems rather that the passage is to be taken simply, and that the likeness of Adam's transgression is to be understood without any elaborate discussion, so that by this expression all who have been born from the transgressor Adam appear to be indicated, and to have in themselves the likeness of his transgression, received not only from his seed but also from his upbringing. For all who are born into this world are not only nourished by their parents but also instructed by them, and they are not only the children of sinners but also their disciples. But when their age has matured, and the freedom to act upon what they perceive has come to them, then a man either goes on in the way of his fathers, as is written of certain kings, or else he walks in the way of the Lord his God. Indeed, something of this sort seems to me to be signified about Abel in what is written: "And after some days Abel offered a sacrifice to God from the firstborn of his sheep, and from their fat." So then, in saying "after some days," he shows this: that in the first days of his life he was indeed held fast by the instruction of his father's transgression; but after those days, when he came to his senses, when he looked to God, admonished by the law of nature, then he is said to have offered a sacrifice to God. This passage, therefore, can either be expounded simply in this manner, or else a mystery concealed in the words "in the likeness of Adam's transgression," and hidden away almost inexpressibly, may be gathered by a certain fine thread of understanding — as if someone should suppose that the death spoken of here, which is said to have reigned from Adam until Moses, that is, until the end of the law and the beginning of Christ, is that death of which it is written in the prophet, as though the Lord were speaking in his own person: "I will snatch them from the hand of hell, and I will free them from death"; or else that certain persons are excepted, and are designated by a more hidden mystery, namely those who are recorded to have sinned after the likeness of Adam's transgression, over whom alone death has reigned. But if, as some copies have it, this death — that is, the death which was holding souls fast in hell — is said to have reigned "even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam's transgression," then we understand that even the saints, every one of them, fell under this death, if not by the law of sinning, yet certainly by the law of dying; and that Christ therefore descended into hell not only that he himself might not be held by death, but also that he might drag out from there those who were held there not so much by the guilt of transgression, as we have said, as by the condition of dying — as it is written: "Many bodies of the sleeping saints rose with him, and entered into the holy city." In this too the words of the Prophet are fulfilled, in which he says of Christ: "Ascending on high, he led captivity captive." And in this way, through his resurrection, he has already destroyed the kingdoms of death, whence he is also written to have set the captivity free. But hear how the Apostle says that the enemy and tyrant himself, whose kingdoms he dissolved, is yet to be destroyed: "The last enemy," he says, "that shall be destroyed is death." Now the kingdom of death has already been destroyed, and the captivity that was held under it has been led away. But because that enemy and tyrant himself is still to be destroyed at the last, at the end of the age, therefore even now we see him not so much reigning as playing the brigand; and, driven from his kingdom, going about through desert and trackless places, seeking for himself a band of the faithless. And for this reason the Apostle cried out: "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, so as to obey its desires." But let us be content to have touched briefly upon those things which the Apostle wished to remain covered, and let us look into what follows. After these things he added: "Who is the form of the one to come." This indeed seems to me ambiguous: whether Adam is called the form of "the one to come" reckoning from the time at which the Apostle was writing this — which would be the age to come; or from Adam himself, that is, "to come" relative to Adam, so that it is to be understood of Christ — a time which, for the Apostle writing these things, was not future but past. And yet in another place also, when the same Apostle was speaking of Adam and Eve, he said: "This is a great mystery: but I speak in Christ and in the Church"; in which he seems rather to have given us this to understand, that Adam is called the form of the one to come in that Christ came to join the Church to himself. I do not indeed see how anyone could fit his transgression, and his sin, and the fact that death passed through him upon all men, into a form of Christ — unless perhaps by contraries, as the same Apostle explains in the preceding passages, when he says: "For as by one man came death, so also by one man the resurrection of the dead"; and again: "For as by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so also by the obedience of one many shall be made righteous." But if we understand the Apostle to have said, reckoning from his own times in which he was writing these things, that Adam is the form of the one to come, then it is better understood thus: that just as in this age death has reigned through the one Adam, and the whole race of men has been made mortal, so also in the age to come life will reign through Christ, and the whole race of men will be endowed with immortality. And in like manner, just as we have said that the expression in which he says, "Who is the form of the one to come," is ambiguous, so we find that something was written ambiguously also to the Colossians, where he says: "Let no one therefore judge you in food, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day, or new moons, or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come." And likewise elsewhere the same Apostle says: "For the law has a shadow of the good things to come." In these passages there is certainly a similar uncertainty: whether food, and drink, and feast days, and new moons, and Sabbaths have a shadow of things to come in such a way that at the coming of Christ the truth of that shadow has been fulfilled, or whether it is to be fulfilled in the age to come. And likewise, as to what the Apostle says, that the whole law has a shadow of the good things to come, it is uncertain whether the truth of that shadow is to be fulfilled at the coming of Christ or in the age to come; for in another place too it is written, even concerning those things which are under the law, that they serve the forms and shadows of heavenly things. Whoever, then, wishes to maintain that these things were fulfilled at the coming of Christ will establish that the matters of food and drink were fulfilled in that place where Peter saw in a vision every kind of animal let down in a linen sheet, and heard a voice: "What God has cleansed, do not you call common" — which certainly refers to the diverse characters of men; and he will say that the drink is the cup of the New Testament; the feast day too he will prove, where "Christ our passover has been sacrificed," and we celebrate the feast day "not in the old leaven, but in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." Similarly he will show that new moons, that is, new months, come to be through Christ the Sun of righteousness and through his apostles. And he will teach that the Sabbaths too are to be observed, by not carrying the burdens of sin, but by each one standing firmly in his own place, and not kindling a fire — concerning which it is said through the prophet: "Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame which you have kindled for yourselves." But another, who transfers these forms and the shadow of the law to the age to come, and holds that these are images of the heavenly ministries, to be fulfilled in that heavenly Jerusalem, will attempt to assign the meaning of food and drink according to what the Lord says: "Until I drink it new with you in the kingdom of my Father." And he will speak of the feast day according to the saying of the prophet: "What will you do on the day of solemnity, and on the feast day of the Lord?" And the new moons, that is, the new months, he will look for in those eternal years of which the Prophet says: "I have called to mind the eternal years, and I have meditated"; and again in the canticle of Deuteronomy: "Remember the eternal days"; and concerning the Sabbath it is said: "There remains therefore a sabbath-rest for the people of God." And he will maintain that, just as each of these holds the form of the age to come, so Adam also, of whom it is said, "Who is the form of the one to come," can be referred to the account of the age to come; and that this is why, when it had first been said of those "who sinned in the likeness of Adam's transgression," there was added: "Who is the form of the one to come."
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANSThis may mean that as long as there was no one who distinguished between the righteous and the unrighteous, death imagined that it was Lord over all. Or else it may mean that death reigned not only over those who, like Adam, broke a commandment—like the sons of Noah who were ordered not to eat the life in the blood or the sons of Abraham, on whom circumcision was imposed—but over those who, lacking the commandment, showed contempt for the law of nature. Adam was a type of Christ either because he was made by God without sexual intercourse, just as Christ was born of a virgin by the aid of the Holy Spirit, or he was an antithetical type, that is, as Adam was the source of sin so Christ is the source of righteousness.
PELAGIUS'S COMMENTARY ON ROMANSDeath came to all men not because they committed the same sin as Adam but because they sinned.… Death is not just the punishment for one particular sin; it is the punishment for every sin.
PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH"Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses," that is, until the giving of the law. Therefore, there was a sin through which death reigned: if there had been no sin that sustained death, it would not have reigned. Since it has been demonstrated that sin from transgression of the law did not yet exist, it remains that it was the sin of Adam through which death reigned even over those who did not sin directly (for those who did not receive the law and did not transgress it are not called sinners), but sinned in the likeness of Adam's transgression and became partakers of the fall of their forefather, who is a type of Christ. For just as the ancient Adam made all guilty of his fall, even though they did not fall, so also Christ justified all, even though they did nothing for which they should be justified. This is why he is "a type of the one to come," that is, of Christ.
Commentary on RomansThen he deals with death, saying: although sins were not imputed before the law, yet death, i.e., spiritual, i.e., sin or eternal damnation, of which it is written: the death of the wicked is very evil (Ps 34:21), reigned, i.e., exercised its power over men, by bringing them to damnation, from Adam through whom sin entered the world, unto Moses, under whom the law was given: the law was given through Moses (John 1:17), not only over those who sinned actually, but even over them also who have not sinned, after the similitude of the transgression of Adam, who sinned actually: but like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me (Hos 6:7), because even the children incurred damnation. Under this sense it is also possible to understand bodily death, through which is shown the presence of sin, even when it was not imputed. As if to say: sin indeed was not imputed before the law, but we know that it existed, because death reigned, i.e., bodily, first by bringing suffering, such as hunger, thirst and sickness, and finally by destroying life, even over them who have not sinned, after the similitude of the transgression of Adam, i.e., even over children who committed no actual sins, because even they suffered bodily death before and after the law: what man can live and never see death? (Ps 89:48). Ambrose explained these words in another way, namely, of actual sin only, and of the Mosaic law. According to him these words were written to explain that sin entered this world through the first parent and passed on to everyone. For until the law, i.e., before the law of Moses, sin was in the world, namely, actual sin. For men sinned against the law of nature in manifold ways. Hence, it is said: the men of Sodom were the wickedest (Gen 13:13). But sin was not imputed, when the law was not, not as though it was not imputed as something to be punished by men, since there are records of men being punished for sin before the time of the law (Gen 39–40); but it was not considered as something to be punished by God. For at that time men did not believe that God would punish or reward men's actions: he walks about the poles of heaven, nor does he consider our things (Job 22:14). But after the law was given by God, it was recognized that sins are imputed by God for punishment and not only by men. Consequently, because men did not believe that they would be punished by God for their sins, they sinned freely and without restraint, whenever they did not fear human judgment. Hence he adds: But death, i.e., sin, reigned, i.e., exercised its power in every way, from Adam unto Moses excluded. For when the law was given through Moses, it began to weaken the reign of sin, inculcating fear of divine judgment: oh, that they had such a mind as this always, to fear me and keep my commandments (Deut 5:28). Sin reigned, I say, until Moses, not over all, but over them who have sinned after the similitude of the transgression of Adam. For Ambrose says that not is not found in the ancient manuscripts; hence, he believes it was added by corrupters. Adam, indeed, believed the devil's promise more than God's threat, as is clear in Genesis 3; in a way, then, he preferred the devil to God. Therefore, idolaters sin in the likeness of Adam's sin, because they abandon the worship of God to venerate the devil. Over such, therefore, death, i.e., sin, reigned completely, because it possessed them entirely. But there were true worshippers of God before the law; yet even if they sinned, sin did not reign over them, because it did not separate them totally from God. Rather, they sinned under God, i.e., under faith in the one God, if they sinned mortally, or under the charity of God, if they sinned venially. From both these interpretations a third can be obtained which seems more in accord with the Apostle's intention. For he had said that by one man sin entered into this world (Rom 5:12); but because sin is a transgression of the divine law, it might seem that this would not be true during the time before the law, especially since he had stated: for where there is no law, neither is there transgression (Rom 4:15). Consequently, one might suppose that sin entered the world not through a man but through the law. To exclude this he says, until the law, i.e., the time before the law, sin was in the world, both original and actual, but it was not recognized as something to be punished by God. And this is what he adds, but sin was not imputed, namely, as something against God, when the law, i.e., the divinely given law, was not. For there were certain persons, as the Philosopher says, who believed that nothing is just by nature and, consequently, nothing unjust, but only because there is a human law. According to this, a sin was not imputed as being contrary to God, especially original sin, since it was not known. But the error of this opinion is shown by the effect, because bodily death reigned from Adam, through whom original sin entered the world, until Moses, under whom the law was given. Consequently, since death is the effect of sin, especially original, it is clear that before the law there was original sin in the world. But lest anyone suppose that they died on account of actual sins, he excludes this, when he says that it reigned even over them who have not sinned by their own act, namely, children and the just who did not sin mortally, but did sin in the first man, as has been stated. Therefore, he adds, after the similitude of the transgression of Adam, inasmuch as they contracted the likeness of that sin through their origin along with the likeness of nature. As if to say: the fact that they died without personal sin shows that the likeness of Adam's sin had been spread in them in virtue of origin. And this is what the Apostle intends to convey, namely, that original sin entered the world through Adam. Then when he says, who is a figure of him, he explains the likeness which was understood in the adverb, as (Rom 5:12). Hence he says, who, namely, Adam, was a figure of the one who was to come, i.e., of Christ, although in an opposite way. For just as sin and death entered the world through Adam, so justice and life entered through Christ: the first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven (1 Cor 15:47). There are other likenesses between Christ and Adam, namely, that just as Adam's body was formed without intercourse, so Christ's body from the Virgin. Again, just as the woman was taken from the side of the sleeping Adam, so from the side of the sleeping Christ flowed blood and water (John 19:34), which signify the sacraments by which the Church was formed.
Commentary on RomansBut not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
Ἀλλ᾿ οὐχ ὡς τὸ παράπτωμα, οὕτω καὶ τὸ χάρισμα. εἰ γὰρ τῷ τοῦ ἑνὸς παραπτώματι οἱ πολλοὶ ἀπέθανον, πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἡ χάρις τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ ἡ δωρεὰ ἐν χάριτι τῇ τοῦ ἑνὸς ἀνθρώπου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ εἰς τοὺς πολλοὺς ἐπερίσσευσε.
Но не ꙗ҆́коже прегрѣше́нїе, та́кѡ и҆ да́ръ. А҆́ще бо прегрѣше́нїемъ є҆ди́нагѡ мно́зи ᲂу҆мро́ша, мно́жае па́че блгⷣть бж҃їѧ и҆ да́ръ блгⷣтїю є҆ди́нагѡ чл҃вѣ́ка і҆и҃са хрⷭ҇та̀ во мно́гихъ преизли́шествова.
Paul said that Adam was a type of Christ, but in order to assure us that they were not alike in substance, he says that the gift is not like the trespass. The only similarity between them is that just as one man sinned, so one man put things right.If by the trespass of one man many have died by imitating his transgression, how much more has the grace of God and his gift abounded in those who flee to him for refuge! For there are more who have received grace than who have died because of Adam's trespass. From this it is clear that Paul was not talking about ordinary death, which is common to us all, since everybody dies but not everybody receives grace. Death does not reign in everyone. It only reigns in those who have died because of the sin of Adam, who have sinned by a transgression like his. Paul is talking only about these when he says that although many have died because of Adam's sin, many more have received grace.… For both to those who sinned in a way similar to Adam and to those who did not sin in that way but who were nevertheless confined to hell because of God's judgment on Adam's sin, the grace of God has abounded by the descent of the Savior to hell, granting pardon to all and leading them up to heaven in triumph.
COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLESThe gift excels in two ways: first, because grace abounds much more in that it bestows eternal life even though death reigns in the temporal sphere because of the death of Adam, and second, because by the condemnation of one sin the death of many came about through Adam, whereas by the forgiveness of many sins through our Lord Jesus Christ grace has been given for eternal life.
AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 29At first sight it may seem that this verse contradicts what Paul said [in verse 12] above, for there he spoke of death having come to all humanity, whereas here he says only that many have died. In fact there is no contradiction, because death, although it came upon all because we have all sinned, came only to test and to try everyone. Death does not destroy all sinners automatically but only those who persist in their sins. By saying that "many died" Paul shows merely that many turned out to be unrepentant in their sins.
PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCHFor what he says is somewhat of this kind. If sin had so extensive effects, and the sin of one man too; how can grace, and that the grace of God, not the Father only, but also the Son, do otherwise than be the more abundant of the two? For the latter is far the more reasonable supposition. For that one man should be punished on account of another does not seem to be much in accordance with reason. But for one to be saved on account of another is at once more suitable and more reasonable. If then the former took place, much more may the latter. Hence he has shown from these grounds the likelihood and reasonableness of it. For when the former had been made good, this would then be readily admitted.
Homily on Romans XChrist's obedience was greater than Adam's disobedience in the following sense. Death, which originated with the sin of Adam, had our cooperation in the sins which we all committed, and so it was able to gain control over us. For if men had remained free of all wrongdoing, death would not have been in control. But the grace of Christ has come to us all without our cooperation and shows that the grace of the resurrection is such that not only believers, who glory in their faith, will be resurrected, but also unbelievers, both Jews and Greeks. Something which works in us against our will is therefore obviously greater than something which works in us with our cooperation.
PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCHThus Christ brings back to life more than Adam led to death; for Christ has called back to life even Adam himself, who was for the rest the cause of death — so that what the Apostle writes in what follows may be true, namely that "as through the trespass of one man there came upon all men the condemnation of death, so also through the grace of one there came upon all men the justification of life." But Adam too is a man: therefore the justification of life will reach him also. But perhaps you will say: If, when one sinned, death passed through into all men, and again through the righteousness of one the justification of life has come to all men, then nothing was done by us either that we should die or that we should live; rather, Adam is the cause of death and Christ of life. Now we have already said, even in the passages above, that parents do not only beget children but also instruct them; and those who are born become not only sons to their parents but disciples as well, and they are driven into the death of sin not so much by nature as by training. For example: if someone departs from God and worships idols, will he not immediately, if he begets sons, teach them also to venerate idols and to offer sacrifices to demons? This he does after the manner of Adam, and in this way death reigns from Adam — that is, from birth — up to the time of the Law, when a person, coming to the discernment of right and wrong conduct, can be made capable of the grace of Christ; and there he leaves behind Adam, who either begot him or taught him unto death, and follows Christ, who both teaches him and begets him unto life. But do you wish to know that the state in which death reigned from Adam is a matter not only of birth but also of teaching? Learn this from its opposites. For when the Lord Jesus Christ had come to set right what had been wrongly done, in view of the fact that the first birth, which came from Adam, brought forth unto death, he introduced a second birth, which he called not so much generation as regeneration, by which he would without doubt abolish the defect of the first birth; and just as he substituted regeneration for generation, so also he substituted another teaching for the former teaching. For when he sent his disciples to this work, he did not say merely: Go, baptize all nations; but he said: "Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Knowing, therefore, that both were at fault, he gave a remedy for both, so that mortal generation might be changed by the regeneration of baptism, and the teaching of piety might shut out the teaching of impiety. It is not, then, without any sinning on our part that death has reigned in us; just as, on the other hand, life will not reign in us while we are idle and do nothing. But the beginning of life is indeed given by Christ, not to the unwilling but to believers, and one arrives at the perfection of life by the perfection of the virtues, just as formerly one arrived at death by the likeness of transgression and by the filling up of vices. And although the apostle Paul, as a prudent steward of the word of God, wished these things to be hidden and covered over in his Letters, nevertheless he did insert it and did not keep silent about it in the place where he says: "But death reigned from Adam until Moses over those who sinned after the likeness of the transgression of Adam." Do you see how Paul excuses no one from sin? But he also indicates the kind of sin, placing in each one the likeness of the transgression of Adam — although he did not think it safe to declare more openly where, when, or in what manner this likeness of transgression was committed by each one. But he who has been trained in the law of the Lord knows how to understand a dark saying, and the words of the wise, and their riddles. And so for this reason he speaks also more secretly about the salvation which is in Christ; and when he had said, "For as in Adam all die," he did not say, "so also in Christ all" are made alive, but "shall be made alive"; and again, when he had said, "For as by the sin of one death reigned through one, so also through the justification of one," he did not say, life reigns, but "life shall reign through the one, Jesus Christ." For he knows, as I have said, that it is written that "one faithful in spirit conceals matters"; and likewise elsewhere: "How great is the multitude of your sweetness, O Lord, which you have hidden for those who fear you." For if you ask when life will reign through Jesus Christ, and when his righteousness will be brought about unto the justification of life in all men, and when this blessedness will reach all: learn it from the words of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, in which he says to his disciples: "Have you heard all these things? They say to him: Yes, Lord. He says to them: Blessed are you, if you do them." Then, therefore, shall we be blessed, when we are able not only to hear and understand the word of God, but also to do it. For although it is promised that one is at some time to come out of the prison, yet it is indicated that one cannot come out from there unless each one pays back even the last farthing. But if even a farthing — which is the penalty of the smallest sin — is not remitted unless it be paid off in prison and through punishments, how shall anyone grow slack in the hope of impunity, or think that the gift of grace is a license for sinning? Therefore from one man, Adam, sin began to reign in this world, and it reigned over those who followed the likeness of Adam's transgression; and for that reason "the judgment came from one unto condemnation"; and again, through one, our Lord Jesus Christ, grace began to reign through righteousness — which will also reign in all who obey him and keep his words, and through these come from many trespasses to the justification of life.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS"But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by the trespass of one many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift in the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abound unto many. And the gift is not as it was by one sin. For the judgment indeed was from one unto condemnation, but grace is from many trespasses unto justification." Since in what precedes the Apostle had said of Adam, "who is a figure of him who was to come," and since he saw that it could be asked whether, if Adam is a figure of Christ, then it is necessary that he bore the figure of Christ also in that wherein he sinned, and in that wherein death reigned from Adam until Moses — but this seemed absurd to think concerning Christ — he at once adds: "But the gift is not like the trespass"; and beginning from this statement he proceeds, as it were, to explain himself, in what sense he called Adam a figure of Christ. "For if," he says, "by the trespass of one many died," namely in Adam, "much more did the grace of God and the gift in the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abound unto many": that is, if, when one man sinned, death, finding a place, was able to be spread abroad into many, much more is the grace of God, which abounded in Christ more copiously and more widely than death did in Adam, spread abroad into many; and so far is the condition of the trespass not the same as that of the gift, that whereas judgment was passed upon Adam, and from that one man who trespassed condemnation came upon all men, on the contrary through Christ, out of the many trespasses by which the whole race of men was held fast, justification was given unto all: so that, as death had reigned through one man in trespasses, so also through the obedience of one might life reign through righteousness. Therefore it was not without a profound art of speaking that the Apostle laid it down that Adam is a figure of Christ — a figure that is similar in genus but contrary in species. For in genus the figure is similar in this, that just as from the one Adam it is spread abroad into many men, so also from the one Christ it is spread abroad into many men. But in species it is contrary, in that from Adam, once the transgression had begun, "many were constituted sinners"; but by Christ's "obedience many shall be constituted righteous." Since, then, it has been explained according to the logic of his own language in what way Adam was a figure of Christ, whether in things similar or in things contrary, let us now also see what inner meaning the Apostle indicates in these words, or rather conceals. And although it may seem hazardous to lay open those things which have been set down more secretly in the Apostle's writings, nevertheless, so far as it is possible, I do not think it will seem absurd to gather from them certain indications of the divine goodness. The Apostle set out to show what "the first Adam," who "was made into a living soul," brought upon the human race, and what also "the second Adam," who is "unto a life-giving spirit," brought. From the transgression of the former, he says, sin appeared, and through sin death entered into all men; or rather, that we may preserve for Paul's writings the restraint which he has maintained in the present passage, death passed through into many men. But through the obedience of Christ justification, and through justification life, abounded much more unto many. And he wishes to show that life is far stronger than death, and righteousness than sin; and by this to teach that if sin and death were able so to reign in all, taking their beginning from the disobedience of one man, how much more powerfully and more worthily will life reign through righteousness, taking its beginning through the obedience of the one Christ — Christ, I say, who came to this work moved not by any necessity of his condition, but by mercy alone. For he was "in the form of God," and, seeing death reigning throughout the peoples by the trespass of one man, he does not forget his own creature, "nor does he count it robbery that he is equal to God": that is, he does not reckon it any great thing for himself that he indeed is equal to God and is one with the Father, while death, having entered by the trespass of one man, feeds upon his own work. Therefore he "emptied himself" of equality and of the form of God, and took "the form of a servant," and becomes man, to tempt whom that one who reigned in all would indeed dare to come, but could not enter in. Yet he took upon himself this common death, though he did not receive that death of sin which reigned in all; that as "through a man came death, so through a man" there might come "the resurrection of the dead": and that as "by the trespass of one many died, much more the grace of God and the gift in the grace of the one man Jesus Christ" might abound "unto many." And it was not without that profound wisdom which Paul says he speaks among the perfect that he tempered his words in this place, and those whom elsewhere he had called "all," here he named "many" or "the more," where he makes a comparison between the sin and death spread abroad from Adam into all men and the justification and life that are from Christ; lest perhaps, if he declared absolutely that by an equal reasoning and in the same order in which from Adam the death of sin was spread abroad into all men, the justification and life which are from Christ are also spread abroad into all men, he might make his hearers lax, and they might become more sluggish toward observance, being sure of the security of a life that would be handed over to all men through Christ's grace. And therefore he restrains his speech, and does not set down "all men" (as he is accustomed to do elsewhere), but "many," who by the trespass of one were constituted sinners; and again he asserts that in the grace of God the gift through the one man Jesus Christ abounds not unto all, but unto many: whereby he may both hold the more negligent in suspense with fear and make them anxious, and yet not close off from the more perfect the secrets of the divine goodness. And it is well that he set down as "more" those to whom the gift of grace pertains than those who by the trespass of one were constituted sinners. In which I do indeed judge that there is something of a hidden mystery, since elsewhere too he says that death reigned from Adam until Moses, not in all, but only in those who sinned after the likeness of the transgression of Adam. Nevertheless, by a simpler understanding also it can be seen that they were called "more" for this reason: that although those who were made sinners from Adam are many, yet those who are made alive through the grace of Christ are for this reason called "more," because even that very man from whom the death of sin was spread abroad into the rest is added to their number, inasmuch as together with all those whom he himself had placed under trespass, he too is saved; as it is said of Wisdom: "She," it says, "guarded him who was first formed, the father of the world, when he alone had been created, and delivered him from his own sin." And what is this Wisdom which delivered the first man from his own sin, if not Christ, who is the power of God and the wisdom of God?
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANSThe gift is not like the trespass, because one must not give equal value to the type as to the original. Righteousness had more power to bring to life than sin had to put to death. Adam killed only himself and his descendants, whereas Christ freed both those who were then in the body and also succeeding generations. Those who oppose the idea of the transmission of sin try to attack it as follows: "If Adam's sin harmed even those who were not sinners, then Christ's righteousness must help even those who are not believers. For Paul says that people are saved through Christ in the same way or to an even greater degree than they had previously perished through Adam." Secondly, they say: "If baptism washes away that ancient sin, those who are born of two baptized parents should not have that sin, for they could not have passed on to their children what they did not possess themselves. Besides, if the soul does not exist by transmission, but only the flesh, then only the flesh carries the transmission of sin and it alone deserves punishment." Declaring it to be unjust that a soul which is born today, not from the lump of Adam, bears so ancient a sin belonging to another, these people say that on no account should it be accepted that God, who forgives a man his own sins, imputes to him the sins of someone else.
PELAGIUS'S COMMENTARY ON ROMANSPaul calls Jesus a man in this passage in order to underline the parallel with Adam, for just as death came through one man, so the cure for death came through one man as well.
INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANSChrist, he says, brought benefit not merely to the same degree that Adam caused harm. If sin was so powerful that through the fall of one all his descendants were condemned, even though they themselves did not fall, then how much greater and more abundant will be the effect of the grace of God the Father upon many, and not only His, but also of His Son. And the gift of God cannot be equal to the condemnation through the one who sinned.
Commentary on RomansAfter discussing the entry of sin into this world, the Apostle treats of the history of grace, which abolishes sin. And concerning this he does two things. First, he shows how the grace of Christ removed sin, which entered the world through one man; second, how it removed sin, which superabounded with the coming of the law, at now the law entered in (Rom 5:20). In showing how Christ's grace removed the sin introduced into the world by Adam, he compares Christ's grace to Adam's sin, stating that Christ's grace can accomplish more good than Adam's sin accomplishes evil. And concerning this he does two things. First, he compares the causes, namely, Christ's grace with Adam's sin; second, he compares their effects, at and not as it was by one sin. In regard to the first he does two things: first, he gives the comparison; second, he clarifies it, at for if by the offense of one. First, therefore, he says: it has been stated that Adam is the type of the one who was to come, but not as the offense, so also the gift. As if to say: the efficacy of Adam's trespass must not be considered the equal of Christ's gift. The reason is that sin came from the weakness of the human will, but grace comes from the immensity of the divine goodness, which excels the human will, especially in its weakness. Therefore, the power of grace exceeds every sin; consequently, David said: have mercy on me, O God, according to your abundant mercy (Ps 51:1). For this reason Cain's attitude is justly reproved: my sin is too great to merit pardon (Gen 4:13). Then, when he says for if by the offense of one, he explains what he had said, namely, that the gift of grace exceeds the offense of Adam, saying for if by the offense of one, namely of Adam, many died, that is, if from the offense of Adam sin and death crossed into many others, because into all who sinned in him, much more the grace of God and the gift, that is, the gratuitous gift of God, in order that and be expositively comprehended. Or the grace of God refers to the remission of sin. As above: being justified freely by his grace (Rom 3:24). Gift however is referred to the good superadded beyond the remission of sins, as a psalm says, according to another version, the Lord gave gifts to men (Ps 47:19). Much more, I say, grace and gifts of this kind, has abounded unto many. For the more potent something is, the more it can extend to a greater number. But the fact of death, which was Adam's sin, extended to many. Hence, he says significantly that by the trespass of one many have died. For death is the argument for original sin, as stated above, for God said to Adam: in the day that you eat of it, you shall die (Gen 2:17). God's grace, which is stronger, extends much more abundantly to many: who brings many sons to glory (Heb 2:10). It should be noted that he says, abounded, because God's grace reached many not only to erase the sin incurred from Adam but also to remove actual sins and to bestow many other blessings: God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance (2 Cor 9:8). For just as sin abounded from one man to many through the first suggestion of the devil, so God's grace abounded to many through one man. Hence, he says, by the grace, i.e., through the grace, of one man, Jesus Christ. For grace is poured out by God upon many, in order that we might receive it through Christ, in whom every fullness of grace is found: from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace (John 1:16). This is how the text should be read according to Augustine's interpretation, such that the word many is not taken comparatively but absolutely. So Augustine would have it that the comparison points to this, that if the sin of the one man Adam spread to many, much more will the grace of the one man Christ spread to many. But according to Ambrose the word many should be taken comparatively, so that the meaning is that by the offense, i.e., the actual sin, of one, namely Adam, many, not all, died by the death of sin, namely by imitating the sin of Adam by idolatry, as was explained above. It is said of idolaters: they are unhappy, and their hope is among the dead (Wis 13:10). And much more the grace of God . . . has abounded unto many, namely more than in the idolaters who sinned in the likeness of Adam, because not only their sins are taken away by the grace of Christ but also the sins of those who persevered in the faith of the one God: he will put away our iniquities: and he will cast all our sins into the bottom of the sea (Mic 7:19).
Commentary on RomansAnd not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
καὶ οὐχ ὡς δι᾿ ἑνὸς ἁμαρτήσαντος τὸ δώρημα· τὸ μὲν γὰρ κρῖμα ἐξ ἑνὸς εἰς κατάκριμα, τὸ δὲ χάρισμα ἐκ πολλῶν παραπτωμάτων εἰς δικαίωμα.
И҆ не ꙗ҆́коже є҆ди́нѣмъ согрѣ́шшимъ дарова́нїе: грѣ́хъ бо и҆з̾ є҆ди́нагѡ во ѡ҆сꙋжде́нїе: да́ръ же ѿ мно́гихъ прегрѣше́нїи во ѡ҆правда́нїе.
There is an obvious difference between the fact that those who have sinned in imitation of Adam's transgression have been condemned and the fact that the grace of God in Christ has justified men not from one trespass but from many sins, giving them forgiveness of sins.
COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLESThis is the difference: in Adam one sin was condemned, but by the Lord many sins have been forgiven.
AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 29Paul wants to say that it was because of Adam's sin, although it was only one, that God condemned many, on account of the fact that they copied Adam. But the grace of the Lord was measured not according to that one sin but according to the many sins which all had committed. Thus Christ transformed many sins into righteousness.
PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCHAnd what is this that he is speaking of? It is that sin had power to bring in death and condemnation; but grace did not do away that one sin only, but also those that followed after in its train. Lest then the words "as" and "so" might seem to make the measure of the blessings and the evils equal, and that you might not think, upon hearing of Adam, that it was only that sin which he had brought in which was done away with, he says that it was from many offences that an indemnity was brought about. How is this plain? Because after the numberless sins committed after that in paradise, the matter issued in justification. But where righteousness is, there of necessity follows by all means life, and the countless blessings, as does death where sin was. For righteousness is more than life, since it is even the root of life. That there were several goods then brought in, and that it was not that sin only that was taken away, but all the rest along with it, he points out when he says, that "the gift was of many offences unto justification." In which a proof is necessarily included, that death was also torn up by the roots.
Homily on Romans XThus Christ brings back to life more than Adam led to death; for Christ has called back to life even Adam himself, who was for the rest the cause of death — so that what the Apostle writes in what follows may be true, namely that "as through the trespass of one man there came upon all men the condemnation of death, so also through the grace of one there came upon all men the justification of life." But Adam too is a man: therefore the justification of life will reach him also. But perhaps you will say: If, when one sinned, death passed through into all men, and again through the righteousness of one the justification of life has come to all men, then nothing was done by us either that we should die or that we should live; rather, Adam is the cause of death and Christ of life. Now we have already said, even in the passages above, that parents do not only beget children but also instruct them; and those who are born become not only sons to their parents but disciples as well, and they are driven into the death of sin not so much by nature as by training. For example: if someone departs from God and worships idols, will he not immediately, if he begets sons, teach them also to venerate idols and to offer sacrifices to demons? This he does after the manner of Adam, and in this way death reigns from Adam — that is, from birth — up to the time of the Law, when a person, coming to the discernment of right and wrong conduct, can be made capable of the grace of Christ; and there he leaves behind Adam, who either begot him or taught him unto death, and follows Christ, who both teaches him and begets him unto life. But do you wish to know that the state in which death reigned from Adam is a matter not only of birth but also of teaching? Learn this from its opposites. For when the Lord Jesus Christ had come to set right what had been wrongly done, in view of the fact that the first birth, which came from Adam, brought forth unto death, he introduced a second birth, which he called not so much generation as regeneration, by which he would without doubt abolish the defect of the first birth; and just as he substituted regeneration for generation, so also he substituted another teaching for the former teaching. For when he sent his disciples to this work, he did not say merely: Go, baptize all nations; but he said: "Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Knowing, therefore, that both were at fault, he gave a remedy for both, so that mortal generation might be changed by the regeneration of baptism, and the teaching of piety might shut out the teaching of impiety. It is not, then, without any sinning on our part that death has reigned in us; just as, on the other hand, life will not reign in us while we are idle and do nothing. But the beginning of life is indeed given by Christ, not to the unwilling but to believers, and one arrives at the perfection of life by the perfection of the virtues, just as formerly one arrived at death by the likeness of transgression and by the filling up of vices. And although the apostle Paul, as a prudent steward of the word of God, wished these things to be hidden and covered over in his Letters, nevertheless he did insert it and did not keep silent about it in the place where he says: "But death reigned from Adam until Moses over those who sinned after the likeness of the transgression of Adam." Do you see how Paul excuses no one from sin? But he also indicates the kind of sin, placing in each one the likeness of the transgression of Adam — although he did not think it safe to declare more openly where, when, or in what manner this likeness of transgression was committed by each one. But he who has been trained in the law of the Lord knows how to understand a dark saying, and the words of the wise, and their riddles. And so for this reason he speaks also more secretly about the salvation which is in Christ; and when he had said, "For as in Adam all die," he did not say, "so also in Christ all" are made alive, but "shall be made alive"; and again, when he had said, "For as by the sin of one death reigned through one, so also through the justification of one," he did not say, life reigns, but "life shall reign through the one, Jesus Christ." For he knows, as I have said, that it is written that "one faithful in spirit conceals matters"; and likewise elsewhere: "How great is the multitude of your sweetness, O Lord, which you have hidden for those who fear you." For if you ask when life will reign through Jesus Christ, and when his righteousness will be brought about unto the justification of life in all men, and when this blessedness will reach all: learn it from the words of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, in which he says to his disciples: "Have you heard all these things? They say to him: Yes, Lord. He says to them: Blessed are you, if you do them." Then, therefore, shall we be blessed, when we are able not only to hear and understand the word of God, but also to do it. For although it is promised that one is at some time to come out of the prison, yet it is indicated that one cannot come out from there unless each one pays back even the last farthing. But if even a farthing — which is the penalty of the smallest sin — is not remitted unless it be paid off in prison and through punishments, how shall anyone grow slack in the hope of impunity, or think that the gift of grace is a license for sinning? Therefore from one man, Adam, sin began to reign in this world, and it reigned over those who followed the likeness of Adam's transgression; and for that reason "the judgment came from one unto condemnation"; and again, through one, our Lord Jesus Christ, grace began to reign through righteousness — which will also reign in all who obey him and keep his words, and through these come from many trespasses to the justification of life.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANSThe effect of the gift is greater than that of the sin. From the sin of one righteous man came the judgment of death. Adam never came across all the righteousness which he destroyed, but Christ discharged the sins of many by his grace. Adam was only the model for sin, but Christ both forgave sins freely and gave an example of righteousness.
PELAGIUS'S COMMENTARY ON ROMANSThere is one great difference between Adam's sin and God's gift in Christ. Adam's sin brought punishment on all those who came after him, and so they died. But the free gift is different. For not only did it take effect in the case of those who came afterward; it also took away the sins of those who had gone before. It is therefore much greater, because where sin harmed those who came after, grace rescued not only those who came after but those who had transgressed before as well.
PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCHFor the "transgression," that is, the sin subject to condemnation, proceeding from Adam, led "to condemnation," that is, to death, and a multitude of sins always existed among his descendants, so that people were in the power of many sins and death. "But the gift of grace is unto justification from many transgressions," that is, grace not only blotted out that one sin, but also the other sins that followed after it; for it became our justification, granting us forgiveness of all transgressions committed after the fall.
Commentary on RomansThen when he says, and not as it was, he compares Christ's grace to Adam's sin as regards the effect, because not only does each affect many, but Christ's grace had a greater effect than Adam's sin. And concerning this he does three things. First, he states his proposition; second, he clarifies it, at for judgment indeed; third, he proves it, at for if by one man's offense. First, therefore, he says: not only does Christ's grace more abound for many than Adam's sin, but it produces a greater effect in them. And this is what he says: and not as it was by one sin, so also is the gift. As if to say: not as great an effect comes to many through the one sin of Adam as comes to many through the gift of Christ's grace. For the effect of a stronger cause is stronger. Hence, since it has been established that grace is stronger than Adam's sin, it follows that it produces a greater effect. Then when he says, for judgment, he clarifies what he has said: for judgment, i.e., God's punishment, indeed was by one, i.e., by the sin of the first parent, unto condemnation on all men, because they sinned in his sin, as stated above: death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned (Rom 5:12). But the grace of God, which is given through Christ, is of many offences, i.e., following not only that one original sin but also many actual sins, unto justification, i.e., complete cleansing: and such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified (1 Cor 6:11).
Commentary on Romans
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
εἰ γὰρ ἐχθροὶ ὄντες κατηλλάγημεν τῷ Θεῷ διὰ τοῦ θανάτου τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ, πολλῷ μᾶλλον καταλλαγέντες σωθησόμεθα ἐν τῇ ζωῇ αὐτοῦ·
[Заⷱ҇ 89] А҆́ще бо вразѝ бы́вше примири́хомсѧ бг҃ꙋ сме́ртїю сн҃а є҆гѡ̀, мно́жае па́че примири́вшесѧ спасе́мсѧ въ животѣ̀ є҆гѡ̀:
And what he has said looks indeed like tautology, but it is not to any one who accurately attends to it. Consider then. He wishes to give them reasons for confidence respecting things to come. And first he gives them a sense of shame from the righteous man's decision, when he says, that he also "was fully persuaded that what God had promised He was able also to perform;" and next from the grace that was given; then from the tribulation, as sufficing to lead us into hopes; and again from the Spirit, whom we have received. Next from death, and from our former viciousness, he maketh this good. And it seems indeed, as I said, that what he had mentioned was one thing, but it is discovered to be two, three, and even many more. First, that "He died:" second, that it was "for the ungodly;" third, that He "reconciled, saved, justified" us, made us immortal, made us sons and heirs. It is not from His Death then only, he says, that we draw strong assertions, but from the gift which was given unto us through His Death. And indeed if He had died only for such creatures as we be, a proof of the greatest love would what He had done be! but when He is seen at once dying, and yielding us a gift, and that such a gift, and to such creatures, what was done casts into shade our highest conceptions, and leads the very dullest on to faith. For there is no one else that will save us, except He Who so loved us when we were sinners, as even to give Himself up for us. Do you see what a ground this topic affords for hope? For before this there were two difficulties in the way of our being saved; our being sinners, and our salvation requiring the Lord's Death, a thing which was quite incredible before it took place, and required exceeding love for it to take place. But now since this hath come about, the other requisites are easier. For we have become friends, and there is no further need of Death.
Homily on Romans IXThe God who acts on behalf of his enemies will not be able to love his friends any less than that. Therefore if the death of the Savior benefited us while we were still ungodly, how much more will his life do for us who are justified, when he raises us from the dead?
COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLESThere are many passages of this sort, which set forth with clarity and splendor the great, ineffable benevolence of God in freely pardoning our sins and granting us the means and the power of performing righteous acts for the glory of God and his Christ, in the hope of receiving eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
CONCERNING BAPTISM 1.2He was not returning love but freely offering it. For who had given him anything first, that it should be returned to him? "Not that we had loved him, but that he first loved us." He loved us even before we existed, and in addition he loved us when we resisted him. According to the witness of St Paul: "Even when we were still his enemies we were reconciled to God through the blood of his Son." If he had not loved his enemies, he could not have had any friends, just as he would have had no one to love if he had not loved those who were not.
Sermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon 20[Lewis: once a man has seen he is at enmity with the absolute goodness behind the Moral Law, Christianity begins to answer the question of how reconciliation is possible]
They offer an explanation of how we got into our present state of both hating goodness and loving it. They offer an explanation of how God can be this impersonal mind at the back of the Moral Law and yet also a Person. They tell you how the demands of this law, which you and I cannot meet, have been met on our behalf, how God Himself becomes a man to save man from the disapproval of God.
Mere Christianity, Book 1, Chapter 5: We Have Cause to be UneasyNow what was the sort of 'hole' man had got himself into? He had tried to set up on his own, to behave as if he belonged to himself. In other words, fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realising that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor—that is the only way out of our 'hole'. This process of surrender—this movement full speed astern—is what Christians call repentance.
Mere Christianity, Book 2, Chapter 4: The Perfect Penitent"For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved in his life. And not only so, but we also glory in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation." What he says, "when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God," plainly shows that there is no substance which, according to the definition of Marcion or Valentinus, is by nature hostile to God; for otherwise, if what is hostile belonged to nature and not to the will, it would surely admit of no reconciliation. But where someone is made a friend out of an enemy, it is certain that, so long as he does those works which God does not love, he is an enemy of God, and each one becomes an enemy so much the more grievous and more hateful as he has multiplied works deserving of enmity. There are therefore certain measures and degrees, distinguished by the quality or quantity of their sins, among those who are enemies to God. Whence also he who has sinned above all others is recorded by Paul as the last enemy to be destroyed. But conversely and in like order it is certain that those who have been reconciled through the death of his Son are held among his friends: and that one is a friend in such a way as Moses was called the friend of God; and that there are others also to whom the Savior says, "Now I will no longer call you servants, but friends." And I believe that there are yet others still more intimate as friends with God in the heavenly places — either those who always behold the face of God, or those who always stand in the sight of the Most High: so that, just as we said above that there is a certain last enemy, so there too, according to the merits of their virtues, some are reckoned the highest friends. Since, then, these things are so, I do not know whether he who still remains in those works which God hates, and on account of which there is enmity between God and men, can rightly be said to have been reconciled to God through the blood of Christ. For how has he been reconciled, who does the deeds of an enemy? Paul therefore rightly says of himself and of those like himself, that "when we were enemies, we were reconciled through the death of his Son." It is a great shame that, where such a reconciliation has been made, where the enmities between God and men were dissolved not by the word of a sinner but by the blood of an intercessor, we should turn back again to enmities, and do those things which he hates whom no one but the pouring out of sacred blood had reconciled to us. But Paul himself, writing more fully to the Ephesians, mentions the principle of reconciliation and of enmity, and the shedding of Christ's blood; and if we join these passages together, they can more easily open up the passage of the present chapter. He says, then, thus: "Wherefore be mindful, you who were once Gentiles in the flesh, who were called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision in the flesh, made by hand, that at that time you were without Christ, alienated from the way of life of Israel, and strangers to the promise of his covenants, having no hope, and without God in this world. But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been made near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both one, and, dissolving the middle wall of partition, the enmity in his flesh, abolishing the law of commandments in decrees, that he might create the two in himself, making peace in one new man, that he might reconcile both in one body to God, slaying the enmities in himself through the cross; and coming he preached peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near, since through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father." But especially note in these words this: that Christ dissolved the middle wall of partition in his flesh, that is, the enmity; and that he reconciled both in one body to God through the cross; and that he slew the enmity on the cross. And in this it is not without reason that Paul there seems to have named the enmity a second time, and in the one place to have said that Christ dissolved the enmity in the flesh, but in the second that he slew it on the cross. For "to dissolve" seems to me to apply to those who still wage the struggle against sin and fight against it with all their strength; but "to slay" to those who now no longer admit sin at all, but have in every part mortified their members to sin — among whom was also he who said: "I have been crucified with Christ. But I live, now not I; rather Christ lives in me." In this way, therefore, Christ also slew the enmity in his flesh, when by undergoing death he gave men an example of resisting sin even unto death: and so at last, the enmity having been dissolved in his flesh, he reconciled men to God through his blood — those, at least, who keep the covenant of reconciliation inviolate by sinning no more. Therefore his death gave death to that enmity which was between us and God, and was the beginning of reconciliation. But his resurrection and life conferred salvation on believers, as the Apostle also says elsewhere concerning Christ: "For in that he died to sin, he died once; but in that he lives, he lives to God." He is said to have died to sin — not to his own, for neither did he commit sin — but he himself died to sin, that is, as one who by his own death brought death upon sin itself. And he is said to live to God, so that we too may live not to ourselves, nor to our own will, but to God, that so at last we may be able to be saved in his life, according to him who said: "But I live, now not I; rather Christ lives in me."
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANSSinners are enemies because they show contempt. We were enemies in our deeds but not by nature; we have been reconciled in peace, because by nature we have been united in peace. If we have been saved by Christ's death, how much more shall we glory in his life if we imitate it!
PELAGIUS'S COMMENTARY ON ROMANSOnce more, Paul calls the Lord Christ "the Son," who is both God and man. But it is clear, I think, even to the greatest heretics in which nature his suffering took place.
INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANSAlthough, it would seem, he says here the same thing, the inferences through comparison are different. Above he speaks of our sinfulness and then, adding that we have been justified, concludes through comparison: He who justified us sinners by His death will all the more save those who have been justified. But now, mentioning the death and life of Christ, he again reasons comparatively: when we were reconciled by the Blood and death of the Lord, how shall we not now be saved in His life? For He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him over to death for our reconciliation, will He not all the more now save us by His life?
Commentary on RomansThen when he says, for if, when we were enemies, he shows the necessity of his conclusion, which proceeds by arguing from the lesser to the greater. And one should observe here two comparisons of lesser to greater, one on our part and one on the part of Christ. On our part he compares enemies to those who are reconciled. For it seems a lesser thing that someone should treat enemies well who are already reconciled. On the part of Christ he compares death to life. For his life is more powerful than his death because, as is said the last chapter of 2 Corinthians: he died through weakness, namely the weakness of our flesh, but lives through the power of God (2 Cor 13:4). And this is why he says: with reason I concluded that much more, being enlivened, shall we be saved through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, and this by the death of his Son: much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved, and this by his life. Now one should note that a man is said to be an enemy of God in two ways. In one way, because he practices hostility towards God when he resists his commands: he has run against him with his neck raised up (Job 15:26). In another way, a man is said to be an enemy of God by the fact that God hates men, not indeed insofar as he made them, because in this regard it is said, you have loved all things, and you have hated nothing of the things you have made (Wis 11:25); but insofar as the enemy of man, i.e., the devil, has worked in man: i.e., as regards sin: similarly God hates the ungodly (Wis 14:9), and the Most High hates sinners (Sir 12:7). Once the cause of enmity, namely, sin, has been removed by Christ, reconciliation through him follows: God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself (2 Cor 5:19); for our sin was removed through the death of his Son. In this regard it should be noted that Christ's death can be considered in three ways. First, precisely as a death; and so it is said: God did not make death (Wis 1:13) in human nature, but it was brought on by sin. Accordingly, Christ's death, precisely as death, was not so acceptable to God as to be reconciled through it, because God does not delight in the death of the living (Wis 1:13). In another way Christ's death can be considered with emphasis on the action of the killers, which greatly displeased God. Hence St. Peter says against them: you denied the holy and just one . . . and killed the author of life (Acts 3:14). From this aspect Christ's death could not be the cause of reconciliation but rather of indignation. It can be considered in a third way according as it proceeds from the will of Christ suffering, which was a will formed to the endurance of death, in obedience to the Father: he became obedient to the Father even unto death (Phil 2:8) and out of love for men: Christ loved us and gave himself up for us (Eph 5:2). From this aspect Christ's death was meritorious and satisfied for our sins; it was accepted by God as sufficient for reconciling all men, even those who killed Christ, some of whom were saved at his prayer: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34).
Commentary on Romans