Romans 9:32Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Thus, after placing his hearer in difficulty, the Apostle then offers a brief solution and sets forth the reason for all that has been said. What is this reason? It is that man is justified not by faith, but by works of the law.

This is the clearest solution of the whole passage. It would not have been so readily accepted if the Apostle had offered it at the beginning. But after many perplexities, arguments, and explanations, and after many preliminary qualifications, he made it fully intelligible and accessible.

He says that the cause of the Jews' destruction was this: they wished to be justified not by faith, but as though by works of the law. He did not say, "by works," but "as though by works of the law," showing that they did not possess even this righteousness.

You ask why the Israelites did not acquire righteousness, although they pursued it greatly. Know that they sought justification not in faith, but as though in the works of the law.

Thus, presenting the reasons why not all the Jews were saved, he immediately weaves astonishment into his discourse and says, "What a wondrous thing! The multitude of those who remained in error and had no aim at all of doing good works has been justified. Yet Israel, though instructed by the law of Moses, did not attain what it hoped for and proved to have no share in this gift."

What is the cause? It is clear. They did not receive salvation through faith, nor righteousness in Christ. Instead, they considered it sufficient to boast in what was in shadows [...]

But the sons of Israel, who sought the law, did not make faith their own. Therefore they could not acquire it, the righteousness from faith, from the very works of the law, but "stumbled over the stone of stumbling," as Isaiah, who was from among them, said about them, Is 28:16; Is 8:14.

The Jews rejected faith, which, as I said, is the fulfillment of the law, saying that they were justified by the works of the law, that is, by keeping the Sabbath, the new moon, circumcision, and the like. They forget that Scripture says, "The righteous shall live by his faith," Hab 2:4.

"Why?" That is, do you wish to know the cause of this? "Because it was not from faith, but from the works of the law." They thought that life according to the law was sufficient for acquiring righteousness, and they neglected faith. Therefore they did not become partakers of the gifts of faith and did not acquire the righteousness of that life. Then the Apostle explains why they did not make use of the blessings of faith.

Paul speaks this way because the Jewish people, supposing they would be justified by the works of the law, could not come to the law of righteousness, that is, to faith in Christ.

Paul calls the Master Christ a stone of stumbling because those who did not accept His divine economy stumbled over Him. Because of their unbelief, they were deprived of the justification granted by grace through Him.

Fourth point. A positive answer to the question why the Hebrews appeared as "vessels of God's wrath," and what prevented these undoubted descendants of Abraham and Israel according to the flesh from being true descendants of those patriarchs, that is, descendants according to the spirit, so as not to be rejected from Christ (Rom 9:30-10:4).

It turns out that the Hebrews brought this rejection upon themselves. They did so, as it were, before the eyes of the saved and called Gentiles. Even after Christ the Redeemer appeared on earth and offered a new way of justification through faith in Him, they stubbornly continued to seek their salvation and justification before God in works of the law.

Although the rejection of the Hebrews is clear from what has been said, it is not fully clear how the Gentiles proved to be as near to salvation as the Hebrews, and even nearer.

Explaining this, the Apostle Paul says that the Gentiles received justification not through works, but through faith. The Hebrews, by contrast, sought to be justified through works of the Law, and not through faith.

Moreover, most of them did not have the right faith in the Savior. Therefore, when He appeared, many could not receive Him because of their false notions.

Thus He became for them an object of stumbling, an unexpected stone over which they stumbled and fell. He seemed a mere stone, although He proved to be the stone set at the head of the corner of your salvation.

The law of righteousness, inscribed in human nature, is this, as was said above: to remember God, to keep the fear of God, and to live according to His will, made known by conscience, in expectation of the blessed future.

The Gentiles also knew this law of righteousness, but dimly. It was entangled with falsehood in their notions of God, of what is due, and of the future life.

Israel had true knowledge of God. Israel had the law, which precisely and fully defined every duty. Israel also understood the future life more soundly and clearly. Therefore he could run by the true path, or pursue the law of righteousness, in order to attain it.

And indeed he did attain it. For everything among him was a divine ordinance, and such an ordinance is not vain. The saints and righteous who shone forth under the law all attained the law of righteousness.

The God-fearing, who kept God’s commandments and cleansed their sins according to the order established by God, are all in Abraham’s bosom. They were that God-preserved seed, for whose sake the whole mass of the people of Israel was preserved.

Now, through the apostolic preaching, that seed has been called and brought into the inheritance of Christ. It constitutes the remnant that is being saved.

When the Apostle says that Israel did not attain the law of righteousness, he means the Israel that stood before his eyes. This was the mass of the people, with the ruling authorities, both spiritual and civil, and with all the order of life under the law.

It was Israel in Jerusalem, in all the cities and villages, in Palestine, and in the dispersion. Everywhere there were those who believed in the Lord. But everywhere they were few, despised, persecuted, and excluded from the assembly of the sons of Israel.

Thus, in general, it was just to say that Israel did not believe in his Lord and Deliverer. This dominant mass is what the Apostle meant when he said that Israel did not attain the law of righteousness.

How did it happen that this mass did not attain it, while the small seed preserved among it did attain it? And why will this remnant be saved? Because it was not by faith, but by the works of the law.

This Israel also pursued the law of righteousness, but did not attain it. This was because it did not pursue it in the spirit of faith, but only by the works of the law.

Yet those few who now attained the law of righteousness were not strangers to the works of the law. They faithfully fulfilled every lawful righteousness, as the Savior Himself did.

Where, then, is the difference so great that, though they were alike, some attained and others did not? The Apostle characterizes this difference with the words: because it was not by faith, but by the works of the law.

Among the many there were only the works of the law. Among the few there were not only such works, but also faith. This faith had lived before in their heart as a shadow, but now it was fulfilled and received its true and firm form.

In works one must distinguish the works themselves, visibly done in their place and time. Then one must distinguish the disposition with which they are done. Still deeper, one must distinguish the spirit with which they are done.

Take an example. A good alms has been given to this person, in that place, at that time. This is the visible work.

The disposition beneath it is invisible. It may have been done from a natural feeling of compassion, from awareness of duty and commandment, from vainglory, or to gain a temporary reputation before men for some further purpose.

The first two are right, and the last are wrong. In the latter there is no mercy at all, and the alms appears without a merciful soul.

The spirit in which works are done usually embraces many dispositions and works. Sometimes, or for the most part, it embraces all of them. It is what moves the doer: self, the world, or God, and moreover from fear, for reward, or from love.

These motives, now singly, now in pairs, now accompanying one another, now crossing one another, make up the spirit of each person’s life.

The spirit required by natural righteousness is to do all things for God and according to God. In whatever strength this is done, all is right. The first two motives, however, are wrong.

Works are never without a disposition and a spirit hidden beneath them and within them. Yet it happens, and perhaps more often than not, that the latter, disposition and spirit, belong to a completely different kind than the former, the works.

Then the works remain alone, belonging to their own kind. In the example given, alms offered for self-interested aims, without heartfelt mercy and without thought of God, remains only a visible work belonging to the kind of good works.

But the disposition and spirit are not good. They are of another kind. Meanwhile the one who has done it may rely on it in evaluating himself, and others may evaluate him by this deed.

Only the eye of God will judge him otherwise. And if some test befalls him, then even from others it will not remain hidden what was within him.

Let us generalize this case. Suppose that all the works of the law are done so that only the visible side of the works conforms to the law, while the disposition and spirit do not conform to it.

Then it will be fair to say that a certain circle of persons has only the works of the law, and nothing more. What is within the works is alien to the law.

Meanwhile they themselves may rely on these works and consider themselves upright, and others may do the same. Only God sees how far they are upright. This also becomes evident if they are subjected to some test that can summon forth and reveal what is hidden within them.

Apply this to the words of the Apostle Paul. Why did the Jews, meaning the mass of the people, not attain the law of righteousness, although they acted according to the law and were sure that they were upright?

Why did they think that nothing more would be required of them? The Apostle answers: because they had only the works of the law. Everything else required here, the spirit and disposition, was not right and did not conform to the law of righteousness.

The Apostle gathered what was lacking into the word faith. What is required by this? In another place the Apostle writes: without faith it is impossible to please God. He who comes to God must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him (cf. Heb 11:6).

This is the faith common to all, imprinted in human nature. There is a God on Whom we depend in every way. We must please Him in all things, acting sincerely before His face according to the law He has given in conscience.

We must do this in expectation of blessed futurity. This is that natural righteousness which was mentioned above. It is the spirit that must penetrate all works and beget all good dispositions, that is, virtues, which are brought into actuality by works.

This was lacking in the people under discussion, and so they did not attain the law of righteousness. But this was also lacking among the Gentiles. How, then, is it said that they attained it?

They attained it because, when the gospel preaching disclosed to them the essence of the matter, they immediately supplied what was lacking. They had nothing on which to rely.

The Jews also heard of this lack, but they were deceptively sure that they possessed it because they had the works of the law.

They relied on the works of the law. Thinking that nothing more would be required of them, they rested in these works and considered every other measure unnecessary. Consequently they also rejected what the gospel preaching offered.

Their spirit, however, was entirely different. It was the spirit of selfhood and love of the world. Its essence is to arrange and secure earthly well-being or happiness, turning everything into a means toward it, not excluding even divine things.

In this sense they stood on one line with the Gentiles. God was on their tongue, but He was not in their heart, nor was His glory.

The Savior often exposed this. Their model was the Pharisee who said: God, I give Thee thanks (Lk 18:11). But what follows? On what did he rely?

He relied on the fact that he visibly did no unrighteousness. He did not extort, did not wrong, did not commit adultery. And what did he do? He fasted twice a week and gave tithes.

All this, of course, is not bad. But if there is no fear of God, no zeal for His glory, and no desire to do everything for Him, then it is worthless.

If there is no love for the brethren and no desire to do them good with self-sacrifice, then all of it is nothing.

And it is quite possible for all this not to exist with the things he stated. It is even possible that something exists which not only removes all value from such works, but places the doer among people altogether contrary to the works.

The Savior pointed to this. One man said: I have given to the temple what ought to have been provided for my father, a powerless old man. What then? Shall he die of hunger?

Is it not clear that such a man stands entirely among those opposed to the law? At another time the Lord reproached them because they did not seek the glory of God, but only the glory of men.

It follows that the common spirit then was such that God was not in their heart. They had no care for their brethren, but only that things should go well for them.

In everything they relied on their own powers, methods, and outward relations. They had no need of God. He was only on their tongue.

Of course, not all Jews were such. Among them were many in whom the faith indicated by the Apostle was alive, namely, that God exists and that He is the rewarder. This constitutes the essence of the natural law of righteousness.

They too performed all the works of the law alongside the others. But they did not rely on them, nor did they do them for their own sake. They did them for God’s sake, for His glory, and to please Him.

Therefore, like the Gentiles, they had nothing on which to rely. For that reason, when they heard the gospel preaching, they immediately received it, just as the Gentiles did.

There was only this difference between them: as Jews they met in it what they had expected, while the Gentiles received what they had not expected.

Such is the Apostle’s thought if by the word faith one understands only the law of righteousness imprinted in our nature. But in his use of this word there is something much greater.

The Old Testament, both by explicit word and by the ordering of all its rites, pointed to the Coming One, in Whom there is salvation not only for the Jews, but also for all nations.

All who lived in this covenant, or under the law, had faith in this. All expected that the Great and Wondrous One was coming. Yet not all believed and expected in the true spirit.

That part which lived only to arrange its earthly well-being did not attain the law of righteousness. Still less could it rightly believe in and expect the Coming One.

But the other part, hidden among them as seed and remnant, did attain the law of righteousness. It also believed in and expected the Coming One in the true spirit.

The first part expected that the Coming One would come and make them most happy on earth: rich, glorious, and rulers of all nations.

The second expected that when He came, everything they failed to acquire would be fulfilled in them. They desired this and strove for it in seeking to attain the law of righteousness.

In other words, they expected Him fully to satisfy their spiritual needs and wants. They expected Him to make them perfect in spirit, cleanse them from sins, and make them holy and pleasing before God.

Therefore, when Jesus, called Christ, appeared and declared that He was the Coming and Promised One whose coming they awaited, He offered satisfaction of all spiritual needs to those who would believe in Him and cleave to Him.

Those who were languishing from unsatisfied spiritual needs immediately believed in Him and cleaved to Him. Those who, for whatever reason, did not succeed in believing in the Lord while He was among them were later gathered by the apostolic preaching.