(Verse 7.) For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto His glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? It is plain that if men’s lying serves the glory of God, so that He alone appears true, then those who sin are not to be called sinners; for they will seem to sin not by their own will but at His impulse — which God forbid.

(Verse 8.) And not rather, as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say, Let us do evil, that good may come? Now he discloses on whose account he argues these things so carefully and with such reverence. For perverse men raised this objection, as though the meaning of those who preached the remission of sins were that men should do evil so that good might come; that is, that they should sin, so that God, by forgiving them, might be seen to be good, according to what was said above. This he calls blasphemy, and casts it out from the meaning of the divine teaching. For the faith does not teach that we ought to sin, since it proclaims that God will judge; rather it takes thought for those who have offended, so that, having recovered salvation and living under the law of God, they may sin no more. And so he added: Whose damnation is just; that is, the condemnation of those men is just who, out of jealous envy, interpret us in the way described above. For the Jews made a great deal of this in order to discredit the apostolic teaching, saying that when they preach the remission of sins they furnish fuel for sinning, so that men, as though secure of forgiveness, might sin readily; whereas it is certain that after faith has been received it is dangerous to sin, and this is proclaimed to believers.

(Verse 9.) What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin. That is, why do we linger any longer speaking at length? For we have shown, giving the reasons, that both Jews and Greeks are all guilty, and that it is therefore vain to keep the law. First he showed the Greeks to be guilty according to the law of nature, and because they did not receive the Law of Moses either; for which reason their case is the worst and most grievous. Next he showed the Jews to be guilty as well, who seem to live under the law of God and claimed dignity for themselves by the merit of the fathers — guilty above all in this, that they spurned the promise made to the fathers, bringing the grace of God to nothing. To confirm this he added a prophetic example from the thirteenth psalm, saying:

(Verse 10.) As it is written, There is none righteous (Psalm 14:3). He began from unrighteousness to list their evil deeds, adding in part things worse still, to make plain that no hope was to be seen in them unless they implore the mercy of Christ, who forgives sins.

(Verses 11–12.) Then he added: There is none that understandeth. It is true; for if he took pains to understand, he would not be unrighteous. There is none that seeketh after God. This too is not hidden; for if he understood what would profit him, he would seek God, and not be like Asa king of Judah, who after many benefits from God became so corrupted that, when he suffered a disease in his feet, he did not seek God, though a prophet was at hand (1 Kings 15:23). They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable. No one doubts that all who do not seek God turn aside to seek help from vanity; and vanity is an idol; and so they become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Since, having neglected God, they have become unprofitable, they certainly cannot do good; for once corrupted they go on from bad to worse.

(Verse 13.) Their throat is an open sepulchre. Enslaved now to evil, they would have devoured the good if they could; so that as a tomb lies open to receive corpses, so their throat lay open against the good. With their tongues they have used deceit. Those who had grown so used to evil works spoke only in falsehood. The poison of asps is under their lips. He says this because the words of such men are snares. For they speak in order to deceive; so that as venom is poured in through the lips of a serpent, so through their lips come guile and treachery.

(Verse 14.) Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. It is plain that the wicked always set curses and bitter words against the good, breaking out into abuse and slander of them.

(Verse 15.) Their feet are swift to shed blood. He said this of the slaughter of the prophets, whom they killed without hesitation — slow to good, swift to murder their own.

(Verse 16.) Destruction and misery are in their ways. Since they were quick to do evil, he declares their way, or their going, to be troubled and unhappy. And the way of peace have they not known. The way of peace is gentle and untroubled; for every good life is tranquil, and modest conduct is itself peaceable, and by these one goes to God. But they, refusing to know these things, chose the way of tribulations, by which one goes to Gehenna.

(Verse 17.) There is no fear of God before their eyes. Since men of this kind are without understanding, they have not the fear of God; for, as Solomon says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7). And he did not say that they have not the fear of God, but: There is no fear of God before their eyes. For seeing their own deeds so wicked and not shuddering at them, they are said not to have the fear of God before their eyes. All these the prophet Jeremiah also signifies, saying among other things: Then all rose up against the prophet of the Lord, wishing to kill him. And it follows: But all the people did not allow it (Jeremiah 26:8, 16). He speaks, then, of “all” in the one case, but the wicked, and of “all” in the other, but the good. For when he says, They are all gone out of the way, he does not mean the whole people without exception, but that part of the people in which, as the prophet mentioned relates, all the wicked had banded together. For there are always two peoples in one nation. This, then, is the people which the Lord rebukes under the name of Jerusalem, saying: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets (Matthew 23:37); and in another place: An evil and adulterous generation; and: O generation of vipers (Matthew 12:39). Of such the prophet Isaiah also complains, saying: Ah sinful nation, a most wicked seed! (Isaiah 1:4). For through an evil will, by bearing such fruits, they are a most wicked seed. And that they can be converted if they will is proved by the words of the Apostle in another epistle, where he says: We too were once by nature the children of wrath, even as others (Ephesians 2:3).

(Verse 19.) Now we know that what things soever the Law saith, it saith to them who are in the Law. It is plain that the Law rebukes those who from the first did not believe Moses their leader, nor the prophets their forefathers, whom they persecuted and killed, nor the apostles, their kinsmen according to the flesh, whose blood they shed — ever ungodly and rebellious against God — so that they are condemned by the law whose authority they thought fit to despise. For as all the wicked have one cause in their wickedness, so also have all the good. In these men, then, the wickedness of all who are like them is reproved. These things serve to confound the Jews, who claimed testimony from the law for themselves and for their fathers.

That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become subject to God. He says this because, when the Jews are held fast in their sins, the whole world becomes subject to God. For no one doubts that the pagans are buried under offences and impieties; and so the whole world lies prostrate before God, so that it may come to pardon. For the whole world was the Jews and the Gentiles, from whom the faithful have been set apart. When, therefore, he proves that the Jews, who received the law from God and to whom the promise was made, are liable for sins, there is no doubt that all the Greeks are guilty of death. That is why he says, That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become subject to God; since all, proved guilty, need the mercy of God, Jews and Greeks alike.

(Verse 20.) Because by the works of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight. He asserts that men are not justified before God, not because they failed to keep the law of righteousness in its precepts, but because they would not believe the sacrament of the mystery of God which is in Christ. For it is by this that God decreed to justify man, not by the law; since the law justifies for a time, not before God. So those who keep the law are righteous for a time, but not before God, because the faith by which all are justified before God is not in them. For faith is greater than the law; because the law concerns us, but faith concerns God. And so the law has a righteousness for time, faith an eternal one. In saying “all flesh” he signified every man; as the prophet Isaiah also says: And all flesh shall see the salvation of God (Isaiah 40:5); that is, every man shall see the Christ of God, in whom the salvation of all is contained. And they are called flesh because they are liable to sins; for as righteousness makes men spiritual, so offences make them carnal, so that a man takes his name from what he does. For by the Law is the knowledge of sin; but by faith its abolition; and therefore faith is to be followed. What is this law by which he says sin was made known, and how was it made known? For we see that the men of old were not ignorant of sin, since Joseph was cast into prison, though through a false charge (Genesis 39:20), and Pharaoh’s butler and baker for a fault (Genesis 40:3). How then were sins hidden? The law is threefold: the first part concerns the sacrament of the Godhead of God; the second is that which agrees with the natural law, which forbids sin; and the third is the law of deeds, that is, of the sabbath, the new moon, circumcision, and the rest. This, then, is the natural law, which, partly restored through Moses and partly strengthened in its authority for restraining vices, made sin known — not that sin was hidden, as I have said, but it showed that the sins that are committed will not go unpunished before God; lest anyone, escaping for a time, should be thought to have made a mockery of the law. This is what the law shows.

(Verse 21.) But now the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the prophets. It is clear that the righteousness of God has appeared without the Law — but without the law of the sabbath and circumcision and the new moon and vengeance, not without the sacrament of the Godhead of God; since the righteousness of God springs from the sacrament of God. For when the righteousness of God pardoned those whom the law held guilty, it certainly did this without the law; for to those whom the law would have punished, it forgave their sin. And lest this should perhaps be thought to have been done against the law, he added that the righteousness of God has testimony from the Law and the prophets; that is, the Law itself, in another of its parts, had long ago said that this would come, because One was to come who would save men (Isaiah 19:20) — a thing not granted to the law, to forgive sins. It is called the righteousness of God, though it seems to be mercy, because it has its origin in the promise; and when God’s promise is fulfilled, it is called the righteousness of God. For it is righteousness that what was promised has been rendered. And when He receives those who flee to Him, it is called righteousness, because not to receive one who flees for refuge is unrighteousness.

(Verse 22.) Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ. What else is “by faith of Jesus Christ” than that the very righteousness of God is the manifestation of Christ? For through faith in the preaching of Jesus Christ the gift long ago promised by God is recognised, or rather received. Unto all, or upon all, them that believe; that is, upon all the Jews and Greeks who believe is the righteousness of the true God.

(Verse 23.) For there is no difference: for all have sinned, and need the glory of God. Since he had said that the righteousness of God is upon all, Jews and Greeks, he added, to prove it: For all, he says, have sinned. This is to be taken generally, so that both Jews and Greeks are understood. Hence he says, There is no difference; for he includes all here, even the priests, to show that the law without faith had profited nothing. For the law was given in such a way that there should be faith in the law, hoping for the salvation to come. Therefore the death of Christ profited all; for both here in this world He taught what is to be believed and observed, and He snatched all out of the underworld.

(Verse 24.) Being justified freely by His grace. They are justified freely because, doing nothing and making no return, they have been justified by faith alone, by the gift of God. Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. He testifies that the grace of God is in Christ, because by the will of God we have been redeemed by Christ, so that, set free like slaves released from bondage, we might be justified; as he says also to the Galatians: Christ hath redeemed us (Galatians 3:13), offering Himself for us. For He gave Himself up to the raging devil — but the devil did not know beforehand what would follow. Thinking that he could keep hold of Christ, he received Him as he would any other; but since he could not withstand His power, he lost together with Him all whom he held.

(Verse 25.) Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiator of faith. He says this because in Christ God set forth — that is, determined — that He would be propitious to the human race, if they believe. In His blood. “In His blood,” because we have been set free by His death; so that He might both make manifest that Christ had died, and condemn death by His passion.

(Verse 26.) To declare His righteousness; that is, to make plain His promise, by which He would free us from sins, as He had promised before; and when He fulfilled it, He showed Himself righteous. Because of the purpose concerning sins that are past, in the forbearance of God. God, knowing the purpose of His kindness by which He determined to come to the help of sinners — both those who are among the living above and those who were held in the underworld — waited a very long time for both, setting aside the sentence by which it seemed just that all should be condemned; so as to show us that He had long ago decreed to set the human race free through Christ, as He promised through the prophet Jeremiah, saying: I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins I will remember no more (Jeremiah 31:34). And lest He should seem perhaps to have promised this gift to the Jews alone, He says through Isaiah: My house shall be called a house of prayer among all nations (Isaiah 56:7). For though the promise was made to Judaism, God, foreknowing that the ungodly Jews would reject His gift, promised to admit the Gentiles to receive His grace, so that the ungodly Jews, provoked to anger by jealousy of them, might be tormented. At this time; that is, in our time, in which God gave what He had long ago promised to give at the time when He gave it. That He might be just, and the justifier of him which is of the faith of Jesus Christ. He says rightly that, in order to be just, He gave what He promised; and what He promised was to justify those who believe in Christ. And He says in Habakkuk: The just liveth by faith (Habakkuk 2:4); so that, having faith in God and in Christ, a man may be just.

(Verse 27.) Where is thy boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of deeds? Nay: but by the law of faith. Having given his reasons, he addresses those who live under the law, telling them that they glory without cause when they flatter themselves about the law and about being of the race of Abraham, since they see that a man is not justified before God except through faith.

(Verse 28.) For we reckon that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. By “a man” he means the Gentile: it is held for certain that, by believing, he is justified without doing any of the works of the law, that is, without circumcision, or new moons, or the veneration of the sabbath.

(Verse 29.) Is He the God of the Jews only? is He not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. Without doubt there is one God of all. For the Jews alone cannot claim for themselves that their God is not the God of the Gentiles too, since they read that all have their origin from the one Adam, and that no stranger who wished to come to the law was forbidden. Indeed, a number of the Egyptians went out with them into the wilderness, whom they were commanded to receive (Exodus 12:38 ff.), provided only that they were circumcised and ate the unleavened bread, or the passover, with them. They read too that Cornelius, a Gentile who did not judaize, received the gift of God, and that he was justified was confirmed by divine testimony (Acts 10:31).

(Verse 30.) Seeing it is one God, which justified the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. By the circumcision he means the Jews, in that they were justified by faith in the promise, believing that this is the Christ whom God had promised in the law; by the uncircumcision he means the Gentiles, justified before God through faith in Christ. For He justified Gentiles and Jews alike in no other way than as believers; for since there is one God of all, He justified all on one principle. What then does circumcision of the flesh profit, or what harm does uncircumcision do, when nothing but faith confers dignity and merit?

(Verse 31.) Do we then make void the Law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the Law. The law is certainly not emptied by faith but fulfilled; for its standing is confirmed when faith testifies that what it said would come has come. This is said on account of the Jews, who think that the faith of Christ is hostile to the law, not knowing the sense of the law. He does not, then, make the law void when he teaches that it must now cease; for he maintains that it was rightly given in its own time, but that it ought no longer to be in force. For in the law itself it was said that the law must cease when the promise was fulfilled. For the angel Gabriel showed the prophet Daniel, who desired to know this thing (Daniel 9:25), saying among other things that at the coming of Christ the chrism — that is, the royal anointing, by which power is understood — would cease. And judgment, he says, shall be no more — that is, the law — and my sacrifice shall be taken away. He says “my” so that it might be known that the old offering would cease. Opening this sense, the Saviour says: The Law and the prophets were until John (Luke 16:16). And because, when the law of Moses ceased, God was to give better precepts, the prophet Jeremiah sang, saying: Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I will accomplish for the house of Israel and for the house of Judah a new covenant, not according to that which I gave to their fathers (Jeremiah 31:31) — to those, that is, who received Christ when He came according to the promise. So the Saviour says: I am not come to destroy the law, or the prophets, but to fulfil (Matthew 5:17). And because the house of God was to be not in Jerusalem alone but in other places too, the prophet Zechariah says: I will set Jerusalem among all nations (Zechariah 12:2); which is the Church.