Romans 5:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

In glory and boldness, nothing equals being loved by God and loving Him who has loved us. This makes angels, principalities, and powers radiant. This is greater than a kingdom.

For this reason Paul placed it before a kingdom. I bless the bodiless powers because they love God and obey Him in all things. Therefore the prophet marveled at them, saying, "Mighty in strength, who do His word" (Ps 102:20).

Isaiah praised the seraphim and ascribed great virtue to them, because they stand near the glory of God. This was a sign of the greatest love.

Let us also imitate the powers above. Let us strive not only to stand near the throne, but also to become a dwelling for Him who sits upon the throne.

He loved those who hated Him and does not cease loving. "He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous" (Mt 5:45).

You, then, love Him who loves you, for He also loves. Why, you ask, did this loving One threaten Gehenna, punishment, and torment?

Precisely because He loves. He cuts away your wickedness and restrains you from rushing toward worse things by fear, as by a bridle. He does and undertakes everything to stop your headlong fall.

By pleasant and sorrowful means alike, He seeks to bring you back to yourself and draw you away from every vice, which is more terrible than Gehenna.

If you laugh at what has been said and prefer always to live in vice rather than endure punishment for one day, this is not surprising. It is a sign of your imperfect mind, your drunkenness, and your incurable disease.

Little children act this way when they see that the physician is about to cauterize or cut the diseased place. They rush away, cry out, and struggle.

They prefer to suffer from constant bodily decay rather than endure temporary pain and afterward enjoy health. But people with understanding know that the disease is worse than the incision.

Likewise, being wicked is worse than being punished. From one it is possible to be healed and become healthy. From the other one may perish or remain in constant illness.

Everyone knows that health is better than disease. Therefore one should weep over robbers not when their ribs are broken, but when they break through walls and kill.

If the soul is superior to the body, as indeed it is, then it is more just to groan and weep when it perishes. If it does not feel this, we should grieve for it all the more.

So those who surrender to unbridled love should be pitied more than those who suffer severe fever. Drunkards should be pitied more than those subjected to torture.

But if all these things are more harmful, why, you ask, do we choose them more? Because many people, as the proverb says, like the worse and prefer it after passing by the better.

This may be observed in the choice of food and occupation, in worldly inclinations and enjoyments, in pleasures, in the choice of wives, houses, servants, estates, and everything else.

Tell me, what gives greater pleasure: union with women or with men? With women, or with mules? Yet we shall find many who avoid women and have intercourse with irrational creatures, thereby bringing disgrace upon men.

Nevertheless, what is according to nature is more pleasant than what is contrary to nature. In general, many people pursue as pleasant what is laughable, unpleasant, and brings punishment with it.

You will say that it seems pleasant to them. But that is why these people are pitiable, because they regard the unpleasant as pleasant.

So they consider punishment worse than sin. In reality this is not so, but quite the opposite. If punishment were evil for sinners, God would not have added evil to evil or wished to make them still worse.

For He who does everything to destroy evil cannot also increase it. Therefore, for the sinner it is not evil to be punished. On the contrary, it is evil not to be punished, just as it is evil for the sick not to be treated.

Nothing is so harmful to a person as immoderate passion. By immoderate passion I mean passion for pleasures, empty glory, domination, and generally for everything beyond need.

The one who spends his life in luxury and dissipation appears happier than all. In reality he is more miserable than all, because he delivers his soul into the power of cruel mistresses and tormentors.

God made our present life full of labor in order to free us from such slavery and bring us to perfect freedom. For this reason He threatens punishment. For this reason He assigned cares to our life, to bridle our inclination toward softness.

So the Jews, while they were occupied with digging clay and making bricks, were obedient and continually called upon God. But when they received freedom, they began to murmur, grieve the Master, and sink into thousands of vices.

But what shall we say, you ask, about people who under the influence of sorrow often change for the worse? Such corruption comes not from sorrow, but from human weakness.

If someone with a sick stomach cannot take a bitter medicine that would cleanse him, and he perishes, we blame not the medicine but the weakness of the organ. So here the cause is weakness of soul.

If a man is corrupted in need, he will be corrupted all the more in abundance. If he falls when bound, as a man in need is bound, he will fall all the more when set loose.

If he is corrupted in narrow circumstances, he will be corrupted more easily in prosperity. But how, you ask, can I avoid corruption under misfortunes?

Understand that, whether you wish it or not, you must endure what you are suffering. If you endure with thanksgiving, you will receive very great benefit.

But if you complain, grow indignant, and murmur, you will not lessen your misfortune by this, and you will raise an even greater storm.

With such thoughts, let us receive everything that happens to us by necessity as though it happened by our own will. Suppose one man has lost a beloved son, and another all his possessions.

If you judge that it was impossible to avoid what happened, you can still draw some benefit for yourself from the unavoidable misfortune. If you bear what occurred courageously, and offer praise to the Lord instead of blasphemy, you gain merit.

Misfortunes that befell you against your will are credited to you as though they had happened by your will. If you learn that your son has been snatched away by untimely death, say, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away."

If you see that your possessions have diminished, say, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I depart" (Job 1:21).

You see the wicked prospering, while the righteous suffer misfortune and endure thousands of calamities. You do not know how to find the cause of what occurs. Say, "I was as a beast before Thee, and I am continually with Thee" (Ps 72:22-23).

If you wish also to learn the cause of this, consider that God has appointed a day on which He will judge the world. Then all perplexity will disappear from you, for then each will receive according to his merits, as Lazarus and the rich man did.

Bring the Apostles to mind. They were scourged and persecuted, and endured thousands of afflictions. They rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Christ.

If you suffer from some infirmity, bear the sickness courageously and give thanks to God. In this way you will receive the same reward as the Apostles.

But how can one who is in sickness and torments give thanks to the Lord? If you love Him sincerely. If the three youths cast into the furnace gave thanks, so can the sick.

Others in bonds and in countless other afflictions did not cease giving thanks. All the more can those who are in sickness and held by grave diseases do this.

Truly there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that love would not impel. When the love of God appears, it is above all things. Neither fire, nor sword, nor poverty, nor sickness, nor death, nor anything else is fearful to the one who enjoys this love.

Laughing at everything, he will soar toward heaven. In the disposition of his soul, he will be in no way lower than those who dwell in heaven.

He will look to nothing else, neither heaven, nor earth, nor sea. He will be intent only upon the beauty of heavenly glory.

As the sorrows of the present life cannot cast him down, so earthly goods and pleasures will not be able to lift him up or make him proud.

Let us also love this love, for nothing equals it. Let us love it for the sake of the present and the future, or rather for the very nature of this love.

For we shall be delivered from punishments both in this life and in the age to come, and shall attain the kingdom. Yet besides deliverance from Gehenna and the obtaining of the kingdom, something else greater must be mentioned.

Above all these things is loving Christ and being loved by Him. If mutual love among men is valued above every pleasure, what word or what thought can depict the blessedness of the soul that loves God and is beloved by Him?

This blessedness is known only by experience. Therefore, in order to know by experience such spiritual joy, blessed life, and treasure of countless goods, let us leave everything and seek this love.

Let us seek it both for our own joy and for the glory of the beloved God. To Him belong glory and dominion, with the Only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

He truly gave His own Son for our sake, and we have been redeemed and delivered from death and sin. For no other reason did the Word become flesh and dwell among us (Jn 1:14), except that, by enduring death in the flesh, He might triumph over principalities and powers (Col 2:15). He did this also to render powerless Satan himself, who had the power of death (Heb 2:14), and to take away corruption. Together with it He removed the sin that ruled over us, and thus finally made inactive that ancient curse which human nature received in Adam, as in the firstfruits of our race and its first root.

For Adam, transgressing the commandment, insulted the Creator and therefore found himself under the curse and in the bonds of death. But the Master of all again had compassion on those who had utterly perished. The Son came down from heaven, taking away accusations, justifying the ungodly by faith, and, as God, transforming human nature into incorruption and raising it to its original state.

For what is in Christ is a new creation (2 Cor 5:17), since a new root has been established. He became the second Adam. He did not become, like the first, the cause of wrath and ancient apostasy for those who came from him. On the contrary, He became the mediator and giver of nearness to God through sanctification, incorruption, and justification by faith.

The wise Paul explains this to us in the present discourse: “Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, so death passed to all men, because in him all sinned.” For through sin, as I have said, death entered into the first-formed man and into the beginning of the race. Then it spread in succession to the whole race.

The serpent, the inventor of sin, having acquired power in Adam, made human thought easily passable for evil ways. For “all have turned aside; together they have become worthless” (Rom 3:12; Ps 13:3). Therefore, having withdrawn from the face of the all-holy God, because “the imagination of man’s heart is carefully bent toward evil from his youth” (Gen 8:21), we lived a most senseless life. “Death, having prevailed, swallowed up” (Isa 25:8), as the prophet says. “Hades enlarged its soul and opened its mouth so as never to close it” (Isa 5:14).

Since we became imitators of Adam’s transgression, because all sinned in him, we were subjected to the same punishments as he. Yet the world beneath heaven did not remain without help. For sin has been wiped away, Satan has fallen, and death has been abolished.

While scarcely anyone would die even for a righteous man, our Savior, according to His ineffable mercy, "while we were still sinners, died for us" (Rom 5:8). Therefore we no longer tremble or are terrified before God as criminals. "But we also boast in God," as children boast in their father, "through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation" (Rom 5:11).

According to blessed Theodoret, "God manifested the superabundance of His love in this, that Christ's death was accomplished not for the righteous, but for sinners. It is evident that, having undergone such a shameful death for the wicked and lawless, He will also deliver those who believe in Him from the wrath to come."

Besides, we are now no longer the former sinners. Therefore we can hope even more in the love of God. Moreover, we are now children of God, and in the person of His Son, risen from the dead, we have an ever-living Intercessor. We even proclaim to all our reconciliation with God, offering praise to Him and to His Son for all this.

After all this, shall we not be saved? According to St. John Chrysostom, "when the One who died is shown to be the giver of gifts, and very great gifts, such a benefaction surpasses every measure and leads every insensible person to faith."

Thus the whole force of the Apostle's words is directed toward persuading those who lack faith of the meaning and power of faith. Yet some believers misuse these and similar words of the Apostle. Repeating that they are saved, they do not do the works required by Christian faith. Therefore they perish in their vain hope in faith without works, as in a dead faith (Jas 2:17).

The whole inner course of the Apostle's thought speaks against these self-deceivers. He teaches that Christ died for us when we were weak, but now we are no longer such. We boast in the inward gift of God's love, poured out upon us by the Holy Spirit, and in the closest union with Him. At the same time, do we wish to reserve for ourselves the right to live sinfully?

Ordinary love is active. All the more must love for God be active. "Justification, reconciliation, inheritance are great and exalted blessings. But if there were not with them such communion with God, so that God is ours and we are God's, they would be colorless," says Bishop Theophan.

According to the Apostle, we boast in God. "To boast in God, or by God, means to boast in nearness to Him and close communion with Him. It means that He is ours and we are His, that we love Him and are loved by Him, and that in Him we have a ready Defender and Protector."

"Take a guilty servant whom his master has forgiven and received into his house. Tell me, must he, or can he, think again of being negligent? Is not the opposite true? So also we, beholding the great mercy of God shown in cleansing us from sins, must think not only that we are forgiven, but also that we must correspond to the mercies shown to us."

Boasting in God is therefore the summit of the treasures of faith, a good above which nothing can exist. What, then, does boasting in God mean? Let us explain it by comparison with what happens among us, with what is understood when someone boasts in another person. When we boast in someone, we boast of our closeness to him, of our access to him, of being loved by him, and of our confidence in his strong goodwill, ready to do everything for us and supply us with everything.

In such a case we usually say: see what kind of friend and protector I have. I fear no one and nothing. I am sheltered by him as by a mountain. I need only say a word, and all will be done. Applied to this, to boast in God, or by God, means to boast in nearness to Him and close communion with Him. It means that He is ours and we are His, that we love Him and are loved by Him, and that in Him we have a ready Defender and Protector.

This is truly given to us in Christ Jesus, and it is so precious and exalted that nothing else can compare with it. Justification, reconciliation, and inheritance are great and lofty goods. But if they did not include such communion with God, so that God is ours and we are God’s, they would be colorless.

Take a guilty servant whom his master forgave and received into the house. This cannot fail to gladden the one shown mercy. But if the master, after forgiving him and receiving him into the house, orders him to live in the back courtyard and forbids him to appear before his eyes, the first joy of mercy will soon fade in him and be replaced by sorrow and longing.

Our being shown mercy could also have been like this. God could have forgiven us and appointed for us an all-sufficient life in eternity, while also decreeing that we remain far from Him. He could have done this, for in our salvation everything depends on Him. In the distribution of goods, who can impose a law on Him? But if it had been so, it would certainly have been a good, and a great good. Yet it could not have made us blessed in all fullness, unless God had also been well pleased to draw near to us, so that we would be before His eyes, in living communion with Him.

Therefore, when God truly arranged our salvation in this way, we cannot fail to consider this nearness to God the summit of the goods granted to us by faith. While boasting in everything received by grace, we especially boast in God, or by God. Chrysostom says: “Nothing serves so much for glory and boldness as being loved by God and loving Him who has loved us. This makes the Angels, Principalities, and Powers radiant. This is more important than the Kingdom itself. For this reason the Apostle preferred it even to the Kingdom.”

How did it come about that we boast in God, in His nearness and in most intimate communion with Him? Through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. By faith and repentance, approaching the Lord, we receive remission of sins and obtain reconciliation. But the work of salvation does not stop there. We go further and deeper. In baptism we put on Christ. In Holy Communion we are counted worthy that He should abide in us and we in Him. We become one with the Lord.

And He is one with God the Father. Thus a grace-filled divine chain of union has come about: we are one with the Lord Jesus Christ, He is one with God the Father, and through Him we are one also. For this reason we now boast in God, that He is ours and we are His, and we boast through our Lord Jesus Christ.

These words of the Apostle call to mind the words of the Lord Himself, in which He explains the mystery of our communion with God, praying to God the Father: “that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us. The glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them, that they may be one, even as We are one. I in them and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one” (cf. Jn 17:21-23).