Romans 4:15Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

If the law produces wrath and makes men guilty of transgression, then it is clear that it subjects them to the curse. Those who are subject to curse and punishment and are guilty of transgression deserve not to inherit, but to be punished and cast out. What happens, then? Faith comes, drawn by grace, and the promise is brought to fulfillment. Where there is grace, there is forgiveness. Where there is forgiveness, there is no punishment. If punishment is abolished and righteousness from faith then appears, there is no longer any obstacle to our becoming heirs of the promise from faith.

Now he proves how the promise is made ineffective. With the law, he says, transgression is joined. The transgression of the law produces wrath and subjects one to curse and punishment. How, then, it is asked, is one guilty of transgression worthy to inherit?

When Paul says, "The law produces wrath," he points to punishment, which belongs to the stage in which a man is under the law. The Apostle spoke this way because the wrath of God is intensified toward the transgressor who knows sin from the law and nevertheless sins. Such a man is, of course, a transgressor of the law.

“For the law produces wrath.” Believers and unbelievers had to receive circumcision, so that no one might refuse. Since faith depends not on a tyrant but on the will of man, all the works of tyranny were performed in the name of the law, and the works of freedom in the name of faith.

And since the world sinned in relation to Abraham’s faith, which was the work of free will, while the law was a fearful tyrant, he compared the time of the law with childhood and the other time with youth. He did this not because these times rule over us, but because these very times received their names from our works, as people do from the fruits of their deeds.

To show that man cannot be justified before God by the law, and that the promise could not be given through the law, Paul says: “For the law produces wrath.” The law was given in order to accuse those who transgress it.

Faith, however, is the gift of God’s grace, so that those who are guilty under the law might receive forgiveness. Therefore faith produces joy. He does not speak against the law, but places faith before it. For the one who could not be saved by the law is saved through faith by the mercy of God.

Thus the law itself is not wrath, but it produces wrath, that is, punishment, for the sinner. It does not forgive, but avenges. Punishment is born from wrath, and wrath from sin.

"For the law produces wrath." For it is proper to the law to punish those who transgress it, and the Apostle called punishment wrath. "Where there is no law, neither is there transgression." For the law punishes transgressors. Keeping and transgression are joined to the law, when some, through their care for virtue, resolve to keep the law, while others, through negligence, fearlessly consent to transgress it.

Verses 15-17. "For the law produces wrath." Theodoret says that he called punishment wrath. The Apostle proved the impossibility of fulfilling the Law. Now he proves that, because of transgression of the Law, all are under wrath and ought to receive not inheritance, but punishment. Yet in that case the promise would not have been fulfilled. But it was fulfilled. How? According to grace, in Russian, according to mercy. Grace is according to faith, and faith is apart from the Law, because only where there is no Law is there no transgression. That is, people without the Law are not governed by fear of transgression and of punishment for it, though they are sinners (Rom. 5:13). The Apostle did not say hamartia, but parabasis.

The Apostle then sets forth, in the form of a dilemma, that Abraham could not have obtained the promise of being heir of the world otherwise than through the righteousness of faith.

Indeed, this great promise could be received either through faith or through fulfillment of the law. But “the law produces wrath, for where there is no law there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith,” the Apostle concludes, “that it might be according to mercy” (Rom 4:15-16).

By this very mercy the immutability of God’s promise is secured for all “the seed of Abraham according to faith, who is the father of us all” (Rom 4:16).

As a second gift, after justification, Abraham received the great promise that he would be heir of the world. This too was granted before the law. Therefore all believers have the right to be heirs with him in this promise, not only those under the law.

Those under the law, by the force of the law, can count on only one thing: punishment. For where there is law, there are also transgressions foreseen by the law, which provoke the Lawgiver to wrath.

Where there is law, there is transgression. Where there is transgression, there is punishing wrath. Where there is punishing wrath, blessing is cut off. By the cutting off of blessing the promise is destroyed.

Therefore, by removing faith and putting forward the law, you destroy the promise. If those under the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is destroyed. This reasoning is clear and definite.

Yet it is not entirely clear how the law produces wrath. When God gave the law, He testified that if the people were faithful to Him, they would receive blessing and enjoy an abundance of goods, both temporal and eternal.