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 5 of the Epistle; the verse numbers are the Benedictine editors’.
(Verse 1.) Being justified therefore by faith, let us have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is faith that gives us peace with God, not the Law; for faith reconciles us to God by taking away the sins which had made us God’s enemies. And because the Lord Jesus is the minister of this grace, it is through Him that we have been brought to peace with God. For faith is greater than the Law: the Law exists for our sake, faith for God’s; and the Law belongs to the discipline of the present life, whereas faith belongs to everlasting salvation. But he who does not think of Christ as he ought will not be able to reach the rewards of faith, because he does not hold the truth of the faith.
(Verse 2.) By whom also we have access through faith into this grace wherein we stand, and glory in the hope of the glory of the sons of God. It is plain that through Christ we have access to the grace of God; for He is the arbiter between God and men, who, raising us up by His teaching, has made us hope for the gift of God’s grace as we stand in faith in Him. He says “stand” because before we lay prostrate; but by believing we have been raised up, and we glory in the hope of the splendour which God has promised us.
(Verse 3.) And not only so, but we glory in our tribulations also. Since we must through tribulations enter into the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22), he teaches that we must glory in these too. Tribulation added to hope increases the reward; for tribulation is the proof of a steadfast hope, and it bears witness towards the crown. Hence the Lord says: Blessed shall ye be when they persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you for the righteousness of God. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for behold, great is your reward in heaven (Matthew 5:11–12). For to despise present things, and whatever gives delight, and not to give way under pressure, through hope of the things to come, is of great merit with God. And so we must glory in tribulations; for a man believes that he will receive the more, the stronger he sees himself to be in tribulation. Knowing that tribulation worketh patience. This is what it means for tribulation to work patience: that the tribulation itself should suffer no stirring of weakness or of doubt.
(Verse 4.) And patience, proof. It is plain that patience, if it is such as we have described, will be seen to be a firm proof. And proof, hope. Hope is rightly spoken of in one who is seen to have been proved; for he will be known to be worthy, and will receive his recompense in the kingdom of God.
(Verse 5.) And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. Hope does not put us to shame, even when unbelievers judge us foolish and dull for believing things which have no worldly reason; for we have within us, as the pledge of God’s love, the Holy Spirit who has been given us. The Holy Spirit given to the apostles and to us proves that God’s promise is faithful; it was He who enabled unlearned men to speak in various tongues, with interpretations, to confirm their hope and also to commend the love of God in us (Acts 2:4). And since it is impossible that those who are dear should be deceived, He made us secure about the promise: for it is God who has promised, and He has promised it to those whom He wills to hold dear. For since human words cannot establish the reason of our faith except by the testimony of mighty works, which cry aloud even when they are silent, our faith is shown to be reasonable, to the confusion of the wise of this world, who with boldness of words fight with earthly weapons against heavenly things, and with carnal weapons against spiritual things, and are not ashamed to call themselves wise. For as the origin of a stranger cannot be proved in a foreign land, so too the truth of our faith is a stranger on earth; and because its nature cannot be set out in words, it is commended by the testimony of power, which is the greater thing.
(Verses 6–7.) For why did Christ, when we were yet sinners, die according to time for the ungodly? For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; for for a good man perhaps one would even dare to die. If Christ gave Himself up to death for a time for the unbelieving and for the enemies of God (and it was for a time that He died, since on the third day He rose again), how much more, now that we believe in Him, will He defend us with His help? For He died for us to this end, that He might win for us both life and glory. So if He died for His enemies, we must understand how much He will bestow on His friends. Among men, then, that is, according to time, He was seen to die; for in the underworld He was passing judgement on the irreverent and wicked spirits, for the salvation of souls. Times belong to the world, where the sun rises and sets, and the moon waxes and wanes, and day and night do not remain as they are; for whatever is subject to time and age is always changeable. It was to this time, then, that Christ died, when He departed from the body. But where there is no time and no age, there He was found not only alive but victorious. Hence he wished to commend the Saviour’s love towards us when he says: Scarcely for a righteous man will one die; but Christ died for the ungodly. For if scarcely anyone dies for a righteous man, how can it come about that anyone should die for an ungodly man? And if for one good man someone would perhaps dare to die, or perhaps would not dare — for he means that either is hard — how can it be thought that anyone would dare to die for the ungodliness of many? For if someone would perhaps dare to die for a righteous or good man, drawn by a kind of pity or by affection for his good works, in the case of the ungodly there is wanting not only anything to persuade a man to die for them, but even anything to move him to tears. Yet Christ died for the ungodliness of a people that was not yet His own, so as to make credible all the things that the world mistrusts. He has made two degrees, then, the righteous and the good. For although the righteous man must also be called good, he has nevertheless set down the two kinds, meaning by the righteous man one who is so by exercise, and by the good man one who is so by nature, who is called innocent through simplicity. So, although as far as this passage is concerned the righteous man is of greater merit than the good, still he says that for a good man someone would perhaps dare to die; for since the cause of innocence is the more pitiable, he means that someone might perhaps be driven to this. Good parents wish to die for good sons, to say nothing of wives for good husbands. For if we wish to set out the case of the good and the righteous, we find that sometimes the righteous man is better, sometimes the good is to be preferred. If a man is righteous according to the law of God, he is better than the good man, that is, than one who has not yet laboured with himself to enlarge himself with good things; for the righteous man improves by exercise the good of his own nature. But if he is righteous according to the world, the good man is preferred to him on account of his innocence, because righteousness of that kind is not without severity. All nature, then, is good, and righteousness is the fruit of God’s law that befits nature; and therefore righteousness is goodness, and that is why the righteous are always called good as well. But the good are not always called righteous, because they are called good not on account of their works but on account of their innocence; for righteousness is goodness made perfect, when it fulfils in deed the good things of its own nature.