While almost all of the works in this vault use Victorian translations, due to the English translations of this commentary being in copyright, it was machine-translated (by Claude, 2026) from the public-domain Latin. It has not been checked by a human translator.
Commentary on Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, long printed among the works of Ambrose. Its author, whom Erasmus first called “Ambrosiaster”, wrote at Rome while Damasus was bishop there (366–384). Chapter 4 of the Epistle; the verse numbers are the Benedictine editors’.
(Verse 1.) What shall we say then that Abraham our father hath found according to the flesh? Having shown that no one can be justified before God by the works of the law, he added that not even Abraham could gain any merit according to the flesh. By “the flesh” he signified circumcision; for Abraham obtained nothing through circumcision, since he was justified before he was circumcised.
(Verse 2.) For if Abraham were justified by the works of the Law, he hath glory; but not before God. This is said by way of supposition. For Abraham was justified by faith, as no one doubts; and therefore he has glory before God. But since those who keep the law, whether that of Moses or the natural law, are justified for the present, so as not to be guilty in the present judgment, he says: if Abraham was justified by the works of the law, he has no glory before God. For, it says, he who has done the law shall live in it; that is, he will not die as one guilty; yet he will not have merit before God on that account, but only by reason of faith.
(Verse 3.) For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness (Genesis 15:6). He has made it plain that Abraham has glory before God not because he was circumcised, nor because he kept himself from wickedness, but because he believed God; it was by this that he was justified, and he will receive the reward of his praise in the world to come.
(Verse 4.) Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. It is evident that to one who is subject to the law of deeds, that is, of Moses, or to the natural law, merit is not reckoned for a reward, so that he should have glory before God. For he is a debtor to do the law, because a necessity has been laid on him by the law, so that willing or unwilling he must do the law, lest he be condemned; as he says in another place: And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation (Romans 13:2), for they are guilty here and now. But to believe or not to believe is a matter of the will. For no one can be compelled to what is not plain to see; he is invited, since belief is not extorted but persuaded. Therefore one who assents is to be honoured with rewards, as Abraham was, who believed what he did not see.
(Verse 5.) But to him that worketh not; that is, to him who is liable for sins, who does not do what the law commands. But believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. He says this because to the ungodly man — that is, the Gentile — who believes in Christ without the works of the law, his faith is counted for righteousness, as it was for Abraham. How then do the Jews think they are justified by the works of the law with the justification of Abraham, when they see that Abraham was justified not by the works of the law but by faith alone? There is no need of the law, then, since the ungodly man is justified before God by faith alone. According to the purpose of the grace of God. He says that it was so decreed by God that, the law ceasing, the grace of God should require faith alone for salvation.
(Verse 6.) Even as David also saith. He fortifies this same point with the example of the prophet. The blessedness of the man, unto whom God reckoneth righteousness without works. He calls them blessed concerning whom God has ordained that, without labour and without any observance, they should be justified before God by faith alone. He is proclaiming, then, the blessedness of the time in which Christ was born; as the Lord Himself says: Many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them (Matthew 13:17).
(Verses 7–8.) Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord hath not imputed sin (Psalm 32:1–2). Clearly they are blessed whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered without labour or any work, no works of repentance being required of them except only that they believe. Blessed too is the man to whom the Lord has not imputed sin. To forgive, to cover, and not to impute are one principle and one sense; for they are all obtained and given in one way. To some, however, there seems to be a threefold principle in these words, because the prophet used different words, and because he goes down from the plural to the singular. But when, to set out the abundance of grace, he wished to go through the words of God by the names of offences — since sin has various names — he spoke more broadly; yet the words are of one form and one meaning; for when He covers He forgives, and when He forgives He does not impute. He speaks at greater length to the praise of the grace of God, in order to magnify that grace. He made three steps on account of the variety of offences: the first step is iniquity, or ungodliness, when the Creator is not acknowledged; the second lies in deeds of grave sins; the third in deeds of light ones; and all these, he says, are blotted out in baptism. By these three steps he signified the whole body of sin. But how can the words Blessed are they whose sins are covered apply to the case of penitents, when it is well known that penitents obtain the remission of sins through labour and groaning? Or how does Blessed is the man to whom the Lord hath not imputed sin fit martyrdom, when we know that the glory of martyrdom is won through sufferings and afflictions? But the prophet, foreseeing the happy time at the Saviour’s coming, calls them blessed whose sins, without labour or any work, are forgiven, and covered, and not imputed, through the washing of baptism. The Apostle, however, because of the fulness of the times, and because there is more grace in the apostles than there was in the prophets, proclaims greater things, which we obtain from the gift of baptism; for he declares that we receive not only the remission of sins, but are justified and made sons of God; so that this blessedness may have perfect security and glory.