Chapter 43 [XXVI.]—A Question Touching the Passage in the Apostle About the Gentiles Who are Said to Do by Nature the Law’s Commands, Which They are Also Said to Have Written on Their Hearts.

Now we must see in what sense it is that the apostle says, “For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law written in their hearts,”207    Rom. ii. 14, 15. lest there should seem to be no certain difference in the new testament, in that the Lord promised that He would write His laws in the hearts of His people, inasmuch as the Gentiles have this done for them naturally. This question therefore has to be sifted, arising as it does as one of no inconsiderable importance. For some one may say, “If God distinguishes the new testament from the old by this circumstance, that in the old He wrote His law on tables, but in the new He wrote them on men’s hearts, by what are the faithful of the new testament discriminated from the Gentiles, which have the work of the law written on their hearts, whereby they do by nature the things of the law,208    Rom. ii. 14. as if, forsooth, they were better than the ancient people, which received the law on tables, and before the new people, which has that conferred on it by the new testament which nature has already bestowed on them?”

Chapter 44.—The Answer Is, that the Passage Must Be Understood of the Faithful of the New Covenant.

Has the apostle perhaps mentioned those Gentiles as having the law written in their hearts who belong to the new testament? We must look at the previous context. First, then, referring to the gospel, he says, “It is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”209    Rom. i. 16, 17. Then he goes on to speak of the ungodly, who by reason of their pride profit not by the knowledge of God, since they did not glorify Him as God, neither were thankful.210    Rom. i. 21. He then passes to those who think and do the very things which they condemn,—having in view, no doubt, the Jews, who made their boast of God’s law, but as yet not mentioning them expressly by name; and then he says, “Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile: but glory, honour, and peace, to every soul that doeth good; to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: for there is no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law; for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.”211    Rom. ii. 8–13. Who they are that are treated of in these words, he goes on to tell us: “For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law,”212    Rom. ii. 14. and so forth in the passage which I have quoted already. Evidently, therefore, no others are here signified under the name of Gentiles than those whom he had before designated by the name of “Greek” when he said, “To the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”213    Rom. i. 16. Since then the gospel is “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and, also to the Greek;”214    Rom. i. 16. and since “indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, are upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek: but glory, honour, and peace, to every man that doeth good; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek;” since, moreover, the Greek is indicated by the term “Gentiles” who do by nature the things contained in the law, and which have the work of the law written in their hearts: it follows that such Gentiles as have the law written in their hearts belong to the gospel, since to them, on their believing, it is the power of God unto salvation. To what Gentiles, however, would he promise glory, and honour, and peace, in their doing good works, if living without the grace of the gospel? Since there is no respect of persons with God,215    Rom. ii. 11. and since it is not the hearers of the law, but the doers thereof, that are justified,216    Rom. ii. 13. it follows that any man of any nation, whether Jew or Greek, who shall believe, will equally have salvation under the gospel. “For there is no difference,” as he says afterwards; “for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God: being justified freely by His grace.”217    Rom. iii. 22–24. How then could he say that any Gentile person, who was a doer of the law, was justified without the Saviour’s grace?

Chapter 45.—It is Not by Their Works, But by Grace, that the Doers of the Law are Justified; God’s Saints and God’s Name Hallowed in Different Senses.

Now he could not mean to contradict himself in saying, “The doers of the law shall be justified,”218    Rom. ii. 13. as if their justification came through their works, and not through grace; since he declares that a man is justified freely by His grace without the works of the law,219    Rom. iii. 24, 28. intending by the term “freely” nothing else than that works do not precede justification. For in another passage he expressly says, “If by grace, then is it no more of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace.”220    Rom. xi. 6. But the statement that “the doers of the law shall be justified”221    Rom. ii. 13. must be so understood, as that we may know that they are not otherwise doers of the law, unless they be justified, so that justification does not subsequently accrue to them as doers of the law, but justification precedes them as doers of the law. For what else does the phrase “being justified” signify than being made righteous,—by Him, of course, who justifies the ungodly man, that he may become a godly one instead? For if we were to express a certain fact by saying, “The men will be liberated,” the phrase would of course be understood as asserting that the liberation would accrue to those who were men already; but if we were to say, The men will be created, we should certainly not be understood as asserting that the creation would happen to those who were already in existence, but that they became men by the creation itself. If in like manner it were said, The doers of the law shall be honoured, we should only interpret the statement correctly if we supposed that the honour was to accrue to those who were already doers of the law: but when the allegation is, “The doers of the law shall be justified,” what else does it mean than that the just shall be justified? for of course the doers of the law are just persons. And thus it amounts to the same thing as if it were said, The doers of the law shall be created,—not those who were so already, but that they may become such; in order that the Jews who were hearers of the law might hereby understand that they wanted the grace of the Justifier, in order to be able to become its doers also. Or else the term “They shall be justified” is used in the sense of, They shall be deemed, or reckoned as just, as it is predicated of a certain man in the Gospel, “But he, willing to justify himself,”222    Luke x. 29.—meaning that he wished to be thought and accounted just. In like manner, we attach one meaning to the statement, “God sanctifies His saints,” and another to the words, “Sanctified be Thy name;”223    Matt. vi. 9. for in the former case we suppose the words to mean that He makes those to be saints who were not saints before, and in the latter, that the prayer would have that which is always holy in itself be also regarded as holy by men,—in a word, be feared with a hallowed awe.

Chapter 46.—How the Passage of the Law Agrees with that of the Prophet.

If therefore the apostle, when he mentioned that the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the law, and have the work of the law written in their hearts,224    Rom. ii. 14, 15. intended those to be understood who believed in Christ,—who do not come to the faith like the Jews, through a precedent law,—there is no good reason why we should endeavour to distinguish them from those to whom the Lord by the prophet promises the new covenant, telling them that He will write His laws in their hearts,225    Jer. xxxii. 32. inasmuch as they too, by the grafting which he says had been made of the wild olive, belong to the self-same olive-tree,226    Rom. xi. 24.—in other words, to the same people of God. There is therefore a good agreement of this passage of the apostle with the words of the prophet so that belonging to the new testament means having the law of God not written on tables, but on the heart,—that is, embracing the righteousness of the law with innermost affection, where faith works by love.227    Gal. v. 6. Because it is by faith that God justifies the Gentiles; and the Scripture foreseeing this, preached the gospel before to Abraham, saying, “In thy seed shall all nations be blessed,”228    Gal. iii. 8; Gen. xxii. 18. in order that by this grace of promise the wild olive might be grafted into the good olive, and believing Gentiles might be made children of Abraham, “in Abraham’s seed, which is Christ,”229    Gal. iii. 16. by following the faith of him who, without receiving the law written on tables, and not yet possessing even circumcision, “believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.”230    Gen. xv. 6; Rom. iv. 2. Now what the apostle attributed to Gentiles of this character,—how that “they have the work of the law written in their hearts;”231    Rom. ii. 15. must be some such thing as what he says to the Corinthians: “not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.”232    2 Cor. iii. 3. For thus do they become of the house of Israel, when their uncircumcision is accounted circumcision, by the fact that they do not exhibit the righteousness of the law by the excision of the flesh, but keep it by the charity of the heart. “If,” says he, “the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?”233    Rom. ii. 26. And therefore in the house of the true Israel, in which is no guile,234    See John i. 47. they are partakers of the new testament, since God puts His laws into their mind, and writes them in their hearts with his own finger, the Holy Ghost, by whom is shed abroad in them the love235    Rom. v. 5. which is the” fulfilling of the law.”236    Rom. xiii. 10.

CAPUT XXVI.

43. Quaestio in locum Apostoli de Gentibus quae naturaliter facere legem, eamque habere scriptam in cordibus dicuntur. Videndum est autem quomodo dicat Apostolus, Cum enim Gentes quae legem non habent, naturaliter quae legis sunt faciunt, hi legem non habentes, ipsi sibi sunt lex, qui ostendunt opus legis scriptum in cordibus suis: ne videatur non esse certa distantia Novi Testamenti, quod leges suas Dominus in cordibus populi sui se scripturum esse promisit, 0227 quandoquidem hoc Gentes naturaliter habeant. Pertractanda igitur haec quaestio, quae non mediocris exorta est. Dicet enim aliquis, Si Deus hinc discernit a Vetere Testamento Novum, quod in Vetere legem suam scripsit in tabulis, in Novo autem scripsit in cordibus: fideles Novi Testamenti unde discernuntur a Gentibus, quae habent opus legis scriptum in cordibus suis, quo naturaliter quae legis sunt faciunt; quasi jam illo populo vetere potiores, qui legem accepit in tabulis, et novo populo priores, cui hoc praestatur per Testamentum Novum, quod his natura jam praestitit?

44. An forte eas gentes commemoravit Apostolus, scriptam in cordibus habere legem, quae ad Novum pertinent Testamentum? Ad hoc enim unde venerit, intuendum est. Primo Evangelium commendans, ait: Virtus enim Dei est in salutem omni credenti, Judaeo primum est Graeco. Justitia enim Dei in eo revelatur ex fide in fidem, sicut scriptum est, Justus autem ex fide vivit. Deinde loquitur de illis impiis, quibus propter superbiam nec cognitio Dei profuit, quia non sicut Deum glorificaverunt, aut gratias egerunt. Inde transit ad eos qui judicant et agunt talia, qualia condemnant, nimirum propter Judaeos, qui de lege Dei gloriabantur; quamvis adhuc eos nominatim non exprimat, et ideo dicit : Ira et indignatio, tribulatio et angustia in omnem animam hominis operantis malum, Judaei primum et Graeci: gloria autem et honor et pax omni operanti bonum, Judaeo primum et Graeco. Non est enim personarum acceptio apud Deum. Quicumque enim sine lege peccaverunt, sine lege et peribunt; et quicumque in lege peccaverunt, per legem judicabuntur. Non enim auditores legis justi sunt apud Deum, sed factores legis justificabuntur. His verbis hoc unde agitur subjungit, et dicit, Cum Gentes quae legem non habent, naturaliter quae legis sunt faciunt: et caetera quae jam supra commemoravi. Proinde non videtur alios hic significasse sub nomine Gentium, quam eos quos nomine Graeci supra significabat, cum diceret, Judaeo primum et Graeco. Porro si Evangelium virtus Dei est in salutem omni credenti, Judaeo primum et Graeco; et ira et indignatio et tribulatio et angustia in omnes animam hominis operantis malum, Judaei primum et Graeci; gloria autem et honor et pax omni operanti bonum, Judaeo primum et Graeco (Rom. I, 16 II, 14); iste autem Graecus nomine Gentium significatus est naturaliter quae legis sunt facientium, et quae scriptum habent opus legis in cordibus suis: profecto ad Evangelium pertinent Gentes, quibus lex in cordibus scripta est; eis quippe credentibus virtus Dei est in salutem. Quibus autem Gentibus bene operantibus gloriam et honorem pacemque promitteret, extra Evangelii gratiam constitutis? Quia enim personarum acceptio non est apud Deum, et non auditores legis, sed factores justificantur; ideo sive Judaeus sive Graecus, hoc est, quilibet ex Gentibus crediderit, salutem in Evangelio pariter habebit. Non enim est distinctio, sicut postea dicit. Omnes enim peccaverunt, 0228 et egent gloria Dei; justificati gratis per gratiam ipsius (Rom. III, 23, 24). Unde autem factorem legis Graecum justificari diceret, sine gratia Salvatoris?

45. Neque enim contra se ipsum diceret, quod ait, factores legis justificabuntur; tanquam per opera, non per gratiam justificentur: cum dicat gratis justificari hominem per fidem sine operibus legis (Id. III, 28), nihil aliud volens intelligi in eo quod dicit, gratis, nisi quia justificationem opera non praecedunt. Aperte quippe alibi dicit, Si gratia, jam non ex operibus; alioquin gratia jam non est gratia (Id. XI, 6). Sed sic intelligendum est, factores legis justificabuntur, ut sciamus eos aliter non esse factores legis, nisi justificentur: ut non justificatio factoribus accedat, sed ut factores justificatio praecedat. Quid est enim aliud, justificati, quam justi facti, ab illo scilicet qui justificat impium (Id. IV, 5), ut ex impio fiat justus? Si enim ita loqueremur, ut diceremus, Homines liberabuntur; hoc utique intelligeretur, eis qui jam homines essent accedere liberationem: si autem diceremus, Homines creabuntur; non utique intelligeretur eos creari qui erant , sed ipsa creatione homines fieri. Ita si dictum esset, Factores legis honorabuntur; non recte acciperemus nisi honorem illis qui jam essent factores legis accedere: cum vero dictum est, factores legis justificabuntur; quid aliud dictum est quam, justi justificabuntur? factores enim legis utique justi sunt. Ac per hoc tantumdem est ac si diceretur, Factores legis creabuntur, non qui erant , sed ut sint: ut sic intelligerent etiam Judaei legis auditores, indigere se gratia justificatoris , ut possint esse factores. Aut certe ita dictum est, justificabuntur, ac si diceretur, justi habebuntur, justi deputabuntur, sicut dictum est de quodam, Ille autem volens se justificare (Luc. X, 29); id est, ut justus haberetur et deputaretur. Unde aliter dicimus, Deus sanctificat sanctos suos: aliter autem, Sanctificetur nomen tuum (Matth. VI, 9). Nam illud ideo, quia ipse illos facit esse sanctos, qui non erant sancti: hoc autem ideo, ut quod semper apud se sanctum est, sanctum etiam ab hominibus habeatur, id est, sancte timeatur.

46. Si ergo Gentes commemorans, naturaliter quae legis sunt facientes, et scriptum habentes opus legis in cordibus, illos intelligi voluit qui credunt in Christum; quia non sicut Judaei praemissa sibi lege veniunt ad fidem: non est cur eos conemur discernere ab iis quibus Dominus per Prophetam promittens Testamentum Novum, dixit leges suas se scripturum in cordibus eorum; quia et ipsi per insertionem, quam oleastro praestitam dicit, ad eamdem oleam, hoc est, ad eumdem Dei populum pertinent (Rom. XI, 24): potiusque concordat prophetico etiam hoc apostolicum testimonium: ut hoc sit pertinere ad Testamentum Novum, legem 0229 Dei habere non in tabulis, sed in cordibus scriptam; hoc est, in intimo affectu justitiam legis amplecti, ubi fides per dilectionem operatur (Galat. V, 6). Quia ex fide justificat gentes Deus; quod Scriptura praevidens, praenuntiavit Abrahae, dicens, In semine tuo benedicentur omnes gentes: ut per hanc promissionis gratiam olivae insereretur oleaster, et fierent fideles Gentes filii Abrahae in semine Abrahae, quod est Christus (Id. III, 8, 16); sectantes ejus fidem, qui non accepta in tabulis lege, nondumque habens ipsam circumcisionem, credidit Deo, et deputatum est illi ad justitiam (Gen. XV, 6; Rom. IV, 3). Ac sic tale erit hoc quod de ejusmodi Gentibus dixit Apostolus, quod opus legis scriptum habeant in cordibus suis (Rom. II, 15): quale est illud ad Corinthios, non in tabulis lapideis, sed in tabulis cordis carnalibus (II Cor. III, 3). Ita enim fiunt de domo Israel, cum praeputium eorum in circumcisionem deputatur, eo quod justitiam legis non praecisione carnis ostendunt, sed cordis charitate custodiunt: quoniam si praeputium justitias legis custodiat, nonne praeputium ejus, inquit, in circumcisionem deputabitur (Rom. II, 26)? Et propterea in domo veri Israel, in quo dolus non est (Joan. I, 47), participes sunt Testamenti Novi, quia dat Deus leges in mentem ipsorum, et in cordibus eorum scribit eas digito suo, Spiritu sancto, quo ibi diffunditur charitas (Rom. V, 5), quae legis est plenitudo (Id. XIII, 10).