Romans 2:6Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

And he said well, "revelation," because it is then revealed, when each receives according to his worth. Here many often harm others and plot against justice, but there it is not so.

You are storing up wrath for yourself, he says. God is not storing it up for you; you yourself are storing it up for yourself. How? By your unyielding heart, hard toward good. For what could be harder than you, when you are neither softened by goodness nor bent by fear?

Then, having spoken of the day of wrath, he adds: "of the revelation and righteous judgment of God." He does so rightly, lest someone think judgment is an act of passion. He means the revelation of everything.

Therefore recompense corresponds to what is revealed, and because of this the judgment is righteous. Here justice does not always prevail, because deeds are hidden. But there, after the revelation, righteous judgment follows.

Note this passage by comparing it with the following: "I will harden Pharaoh's heart" (Ex 4:21). For Paul explains himself in almost the same words.

Such a man ought to be punished more severely, even to eternal torments in fire (see Mt. 3:12; Mt. 13:40-42; Mt. 25:41; Jude 1:7). For despite God's longsuffering, he not only refused to be corrected, but despised God and added sins. The day of wrath is for sinners. Then they will receive punishment. This is wrath against those who will receive punishment on the day when God's righteous judgment is revealed. It will be revealed, that is, it will be known, even if it is now denied because it still lies in the future.

Since your heart is hard and you remain in wickedness, you pronounce upon yourself the decree of punishment. God now delays it in mercy, but He will reveal it on the day of consummation and will measure out His recompenses according to deeds. The Apostle spoke well when he said, "you store up for yourself." He shows that none of our words or deeds is given over to oblivion. On the contrary, lovers of virtue store up good things for themselves, and workers of wickedness do the same.

As the least among you, I wish to warn you not to be caught on the hook of vanity, but to be fully assured in Christ [...] Who died, rose again. Ascended into heaven to Him Who sent Him, sits at His right hand, and will come with the glory of the Father at the end of the ages to judge the living and the dead.

The bitter delusion of the Jews here was that, firmly remembering only their rights and privileges as the people of God, they completely forgot that "there is no partiality with God." Therefore "those who sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law," according to the natural law written in their hearts, by which they will also be judged. "And those who sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law... on the day when, according to my gospel," says the Apostle, "God will judge the secrets of men through Jesus Christ."

At the dread judgment, eternal life will be given to everyone who constantly does good and is fully worthy of honor and immortality. But everyone who rejects the truth and lives unnaturally and lawlessly will then be condemned.

The more opportunity a person had to do good and instead did evil, the more he will be condemned. Such a person, through obstinate resistance to every divine means of conversion, has shown his complete stubbornness and impenitence. At the same time he has shown his complete immersion in the abyss of vice.

In this consists the righteousness of judgment. The measure of deeds is the measure of recompense. What you have done, that you will receive: by your works you will be justified, and by your works you will be condemned. Nothing external will be taken into account.

You recognized what had to be done, could do it, and did not do it, or did quite the opposite. Bear the punishment. You recognized what had to be done, compelled yourself to do it, and did it despite opposition within and without. Receive recompense.

Faith also is a work, but only an initial and guiding one, not the final and all-embracing work. Faith introduces one onto the path of salvation and supplies strength. But salvation itself is accomplished by works corresponding to faith.

The Apostle speaks of God the Father [...] in agreement with what is said in the book of Psalms. And the Savior says the following of Him: "Then He will repay each according to his works" (Mt. 16:27). If what is acknowledged as belonging to God proves to belong to the Son, then the communion of nature and true Sonship are manifest. Compare Ps. 27:4: "Give them according to their works, according to the evil of their deeds. Give them according to the works of their hands. Render to them what they deserve."