Commentary on Romans, Biblical exegesis 1 · Chapter 5 · Section 3 · Subsection 11 – Subsection 20
11. Quest. Of the meaning of the 7. v. One will scarce die for a righteous man, &c.
1. The Syrian interpreter readeth in the first place, scarce will any die for the wicked which reading Beza seemeth not to mislike, but that all the Greeke copies are otherwise: and Iunius thinketh that here one word by the writers was taken for an other, because of the neere similitude in the Syrian tongue: and thinketh it should rather be read according to the Greeke copie, for the righteous, not for the wicked.
2. Some doe take here these two, the righteous, and the good, to be one and the same: and some confounding these two, doe not vnderstand these words of the person of the iust and good man, but of the cause, Hier. epist. ad Alg. and so this should be the sense, that although scarce and sieldome, yet sometime one may be found to die for a iust and good cause: some likewise taking these two for one, applie it vntounto the person of the righteous and good man, Chrysost. Lyran. Tolet. Par. Faius. But the Apostle first saying negatiuely, one wil… scarce die, &c. and afterward vsing a kind of correction, that one may die for a good man, doth euidently distinguish these two clauses.
3. The most then doe diuide these two, and take the iust and righteous, and the good to be diuersly taken by the Apostle.
1. Wicked Marcion, Hier. epist. 151.as Hierome reporteth, by the iust did vnderstand the God of the old Testament, for whome fewe offered themselues to death: by the good, the God of the new Testament, that is Christ, for whom many are found readie to die. But this opinion beside the blasphemie thereof in making two diuers Gods, and authors of the Old and new Testament, containeth apparant absurditie and falshood: for both many gaue their liues in the old Testament in defence of the law of God, as the three children, Dan. 3. and many in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, as the historie of the Macchabees testifieth: and beside, many thousand Martyrs are found to hauehave died for Christ: whereas the Apostle speaketh of very few, that will die for a good man.
2. Arrius contrariwise by the iust vnderstandeth Christ, and by the good the Father, of whome Christ testifieth, that none is good but God. But if Christ be this iust one, for whom so many thousand Martyrs willingly gaue their liues, how saith the Apostle, that scarse any will die for a iust man?
3. Eucherius by the iust interpreteth the Law and old Testament, by the good Christ, and the new Testament: for few Martyrs are found in the old Testament, and many in the new. But beside that it is against the scope and mind of the Apostle, to vnderstand this of dying for Christ, who by this comparison setteth forth the louelove of Christ, who died for euill men, euen for his enemies, whereas few are found readie to die for the righteous and good: the words of the Apostle will not beare this sense, who in saying, for a good man it may be, that one dare die, noteth the paucitie and fewnes of them: whereas many thousands hauehave died for Christ in the New Testament.
4. Some by the iust vnderstand the vertuous, by the good the innocent, for whome one may die in commiseration and pitie toward him: Haymo, Thom. Aquin. Gorrhan: or because innocencie is fauoured of men, iustitia habet aliquid severitatis, iustice hath some rigour and seueritie in it. Hug. Cardinal. But a man can not be iust, but he must also be innocent: these two then are not thus distinguished.
5. Caietane vnderstandeth by the iust, an ordinarie, vertuous, or righteous man: by the good some excelling in the works of supererogation, for such one perhaps dare die. But such works of supererogation we acknowledge not: all that a man hath is too little for himselfe, he hath no superfluitie to supererogate to an other.
6. Osiander, and Emmanuel Sa, doe vnderstand in both those clauses, the things, not the persons: and the first they expound of iust punishment, which none willingly suffer: in the second the good and honest cause, for which one may be found readie to die. But the phrase to die for the iust, will not beare that sense: a man is not saide to die for iust punishment, but by it, or with it: and yet in this sense some hauehave beene found, which willingly suffered their iust punishment, as the theise conuerted vponupon the crosse, who said vntounto his fellow, Luk. 23.41. We are righteously here.
7. The best interpretation then is, that by the iust we vnderstand such an one, as is in himselfe a righteous and vertuous man: by the good such as hauehave deserued well of vsus, that are liberall and bountifull men, from whome we hauehave receiued good: so Beza interpreteth, one that is profitable to him: of whome he hath receiued good, Genevens. so also Catharinus a Popish writer: and some by the good vnderstand such as are deare vntounto them, as their children, parents, friends, countrey: as some such were found among the Romans, that gaue their liues for their friends and countrey. P. Mart. And this exposition may be confirmed by the opposite part: that Christ died for vsus beeing sinners, v. 8. yea his enemies, v. 10. whereas men will not die for the righteous, and hardly for their friends.
12. Quest. Of the difference betweene Christs dying for vsus, and those which died for their countrey.
We read in the forren histories of the Gentiles, that some hauehave giuen their liues for their countrey: as Codrus for the Athenians, Menoecius for the Thebanes, who killed himselfe and fell among his enemies for the deliuerance of his countrey: so Curtius threw himselfe into a gulph to preserue Rome from the pestilence. But there was great difference betweene the death of these, and of Christ. 1. They were not innocent as Christ was, and therefore as their life was not so holy, so could not their death be so pretious, nor their person to honourable. 2. They did not willingly offer themselues vntounto any iudge to be condemned, as Christ did: but in other manner and sort aduentured their liues. 3. They did it not of louelove, but of vain-glorie and desire of praise. 4. They by the instigation of Sathan were mooued so to doe, hauing no cogitation therein to please God, but Christ gaue himselfe to death … obedience to the will of his heauenly father. 5. They at such time gaue their liues, when as their case was desperate, and so were impatient to abide the extreame ha…d: and they died beeing mortall men, that could not liue long, as Solon, when he encouraged, the citizens to take armes against Pisistratus the tyrant, beeing asked, what made him bold so to doe, answered, his old age he knew he could not liue long: But Christ died for vsus, hauing no necessitie to die in himselfe. 6. Their death was glorious and honourable vntounto them: but Christ offered himselfe to the ignominious and shamefull death of the crosse. 7. They died for a temporall deliuerance: but we by Christs death are eternally deliuered. 8. And, that which maketh the greatest honour of all, they died for their countrey and friends: but our blessed Sauiour for his enemies: ex Martyr. Pareus. 9. Origen addeth further, that although there may be found among the heathen that died for their countrey, yet there is none of them, which died for all the world, as Christ onelyonly did, which by his death totius mundi peccata absolvit, did absolue all the world of their sinnes.
13. Quest. Of the greatnes of the louelove of God toward man, in sending Christ to die for vsus, v. 8.
This exceeding great louelove of God is set forth by three circumstances, what they were for whome Christ died, sinners and enemies to God; what Christ was, that suffered, euen the Sonne of God; and what he endured and suffered, euen to die for them.
1. The condition of them for whome Christ died is set forth by three names: they are said to be weake, as not able to helpe or deliuer themselues, vngodly, as they which had left the worship of the onelyonly true God, and had defiled themselues with idolatrie: sinners, which had eueryevery way transgressed the law of God: Tolet. annot. 10. Origen here comprehendeth all kind of sinnes: for either one of ignorance, and infirmitie sinneth, and he is called weake: or he is an obstinate and malitious offender, who is called the sinner: Sinners in Scripture are said to be those, not which commit any sinne, but those in whome sinne dwelleth and raigneth: as Ioh. 9.31. and such were we by nature: Beza. yea we were not onelyonly sinners, but enemies vntounto God: which setteth his louelove forth so much the more, that he sought our good, not onelyonly beeing euill, but also aduersaries vntounto him: So that while we were sinners, and so God hated vsus in respect of our sinnes: yet at the same instant, amabat, secundum quod opus eius, he loued vsus, as his owne worke. gloss. ordin.
2. Gods louelove further appeareth in sending his owne Sonne into the world: nothing is dearer to a man, then his owne sonne: and therefore Gods louelove doth herein most shew it selfe, in that he sent not either Angel or Arkangel, or any other of his glorious creatures to die for vsus, but his owne sonne. Martyr.
3. And this Sonne of God was not onelyonly made man for vsus, and liued in the flesh, and suffered many things for our sake, but he died for vsus: it had beene a sufficient demonstration of his louelove, to hauehave humbled himselfe, to take vponupon him the nature of man, and to walke and conuerse among sinnefull men: But in that he died, and that for his enemies, it sheweth an vnspeakable louelove: there is no greater louelove among men, then when one bestoweth his life for his friends, Ioh. 15.13. But Christs louelove here exceeded, that he gaue his life for his enemies: Gorrhan.
14. Quest. Whether mans redemption could not otherwise hauehave beene wrought then by the death of Christ.
1. It was not necessarie that Christ should die for our redemption, either by the necessitie of coaction, as though God had beene by some vrgent occasion compelled thereunto: set God is not forced, he worketh most freely: nor yet by necessitie of nature: as it is impossible in the diuine nature, that God should lie, or be vntrue: but no externall worke done by God proceedeth from the necessitie of his nature: there was then no absolute necessitie, that Christ should die for vsus, nor yet any hypotheticall or conditionall necessitie, the end beeing considered, namely, the saluation of man: for it had beene possible for God by other meanes, then by the death of his Sonne, to hauehave wrought the saluation of man.
2. Yet was it necessarie that Christ should die for mankind, the wisdome and counsell of God considered; because there was no other way whereby the greatnes of the louelove of God could be shewed vntounto man, then by giuing his owne Sonne to die for vsus: P. Mart. there might hauehave beene an other way, in respect of Gods power, to whome all things are possible, sed nullus humanae miseriae convenientoir, but none more conuenient in regard of mans miserie: for what can more comfort vsus, & deliuer vsus from despaire, then that it pleased God, that a man like our selues should die for vsus: gloss. ord. and though there must hauehave been an other way found out, Liberandi, to deliuer man; tamen non redimendi, yet not of redeeming man, Gorrhan: for man could not properly be saide to be redeemed, vnlesse the ransome had beene paied, and the punishment due vntounto man satisfied, which was by the death of Christ.
15. Quest. Wherein the force of the Apostles reason consisteth, saying, Much more beeing reconciled we shall be saued by his life, v. 9.
1. The ordinarie glosse thus collecteth, because it is more to take away sinne, then iustos & cooperantes salvare, to saue those that are iust, and fellow workers: as though this were the Apostles argument; it was an harder matter to worke our iustification, which was done without vsus, then now to purchase saluation, whereunto man himselfe worketh. But this is farre from the Apostles meaning, to make man a ioynt worker with Christ in the matter of iustification: for he ascribeth all here vntounto the death and life of Christ.
2. Wherefore the force of this comparison, beeing from the greater to the lesse, consisteth in these three points. 1. for whome Christ hath done this. 2. how he hath wrought it. 3. and what.
1. The first is obserued by Chrysostome: he iustified vsus by faith in his blood, when we were enemies, now amici facti sumus, we are made his friends, and therefore he will much more saue vsus.
2. The next is obserued by Oecumenius, and Chrysostome also toucheth it: it is not necessarie, … post hac silius moriatur, that afterward the Sonne should die any more: if then iustification be alreadie wrought for vsus, which required Christs death; much more now shall we obtaine the perfecting of saluation, to the which Christs death againe is not required. Pareus, and before him Gorrhan, doe place the comparison in the opposition betweene life and death: if he could iustifie vsus by dying, multo magis vivens, &c. much more beeing aliue can he saue vsus.
3 It is more to iustifie and reconcile sinners, then to saue them beeing iustified. Christ hath done the first, much lesse need we doubt of the second: Pet. Mart. But Lyranus hath here a corrupt glosse, giuing this reason, why it is a greater worke to iustifie a sinner, then to glorifie him beeing iustified, because one can not merit his iustification: but he that is iustified may per gratiam mereri de condigno vitam beatam, &c. may by grace deserue of condignitie a blessed life, &c. This is contrarie to the Apostle, who saith, Rom. 6.23. that the gift of God is eternall life, &c. it can not then be any wise merited.
3. Now saluation is ascribed to the life of Christ, not as though the life of Christ rising from the dead were the price of our redemption, but because Christ by his resurrection and life did perfect our saluation: and he now euer liueth to be an intercessor for vsus vntounto his father, and to bring vsus vntounto glorie: wherefore to finish and make perfect our iustification, the life of Christ and his resurrection must be ioyned with his death and suffering: as the Apostle concluded before in the verie last words of the former chapter, Pareus.
16. Quest. Why the Apostle saith, not onelyonly so, but we also reioyce in God, &c. v. 11.
1. Some doe make this connexion: that we onelyonly shall not be saued by Christ in the life to come, but now also reioyce in the hope thereof, Lyran. Gorrhan. and before them Theo…et: likewise Anselme we glorie in this, quia consider amus nos futuros cum illo in gloria, we consider we shall be with him in glorie.
2. Oecumenius giueth this sence, least any might thinke it a shame vntounto vsus, that we could not be otherwise redeemed then by the death of Christ: the Apostle addeth that we …eede not be ashamed thereof, but rather glorie therein, because it was a signe of the great louelove of God, that he spared not his owne Sonne for vsus.
3. Some referre it to our glorying in tribulations, Sa: but it is more to glorie in God, …en to reioyce in tribulation.
4. But the Apostle setteth downe here the highest degree of the reioycing of Christians: they doe not onelyonly reioyce vnderunder the hope of glorie, nor in tribulation, which two degrees the Apostle mentioned before, ver. 2. but they reioyce in God: which is to reioyce, quod Deum propitium habeas, that thou hast God thy mercifull father, Pareus. …care, Deum habere patrem, &c. to boast, that we hauehave God our father, protector, and …ender, Tolet. gloriamur Deum esse nostrum, we reioyce, that God is ours: Calvin. gloria… de ipsius in nos clementia, we glorie of his clemencie and louelove toward vsus, Osiander. And …s the Apostle here amplifieth three effects of iustification, before propounded, v. 1, 2. to …e peace with God, to stand in the state of grace, and to reioyce: so here he saith we are reconciled by his blood, then we are saued by his life, and so hauehave a perpetuitie and certentie in our state, and we dare also glorie in God. Pareus.
17. Quest. Whether any thing neede to be supplied in the Apostles speach, v. 12. to make the sense perfect.
v. 12. As by one sinne entred into the world, &c. 1. Some doe thinke that the redditiue of this similitude is wanting: for vntounto this, as by one, &c. should answer the other part, so &c. Origen giueth this reason thereof, that S. Paul omitted the other part: so by one mans obedience came righteousnes, propter negligentiores, least the negligent and carelesse sort, should hauehave presumed too much: but this can be no reason, because the Apostle both before and after had expressed as much, that we obtaine life and righteousnes by Christ.
2. Bullinger consenteth with Origen, that there is in this speach of the Apostle an foreign, some inconsequence: and that he omitted the other part, through vehemencie.
3. Erasmus thinketh, that here is an anantapodoton, a comparison without a reddition: which he would hauehave vnderstood by supplying the word foreign, so, in the particle foreign and death by sinne, that is, so death came by sinne, as by one man sinne entred: but all this belongeth to the proposition or first part of the comparison: As sinne came in by one, and death by sinne: the reddition must be, that so righteousnes came in by Christ, and life thereby: for otherwise there should be small coherence in the words.
4. Tolet thinketh that the reddition is included in those words in the ende of the 14.1. where Adam is saide to be the figure of him that was to come: insinuating thereby, that life and righteousnes came in by the second Adam, as sinne and death entred by the first.
5. But their opinion seemeth to be the better, which supplie the reddition of this comparison concerning Christ in the words following: Origen referreth vsus to those words, v. 15. the gift is not so as the offence: but I rather with Beza, and Pareus thinke, that the second part of the comparison is suspended by a long parenthesis in the words comming betweene vntounto the 18. and 19. verses, where the Apostle setteth downe both parts of the comparison.
18. Quest. Who was that one by whome sinne entred into the world, v. 12.
1. Ambrose, and Hierome vponupon this place, by this one man would vnderstand the woman, because the beginning of sinne came in by her: as Ecclesiastic. 25.26. it is saide, of the woman came the beginning of sinne, and through her we all die: and S. Paul saith, 1. Timoth. 2.14. Adam was not deceiued, but the woman was deceiued, and was in the transgression: But the woman here is not vnderstood, seeing the word is put in the masculine gender: and true it is that from the woman came the beginning of sinne, by the seducing of man: but the Apostle here speaketh of the propagation of sinne, which was by the man, not by the woman: Perer.
2. Some will hauehave both the man and woman here vnderstood, which both made as it were but one: as when the Lord said, Let vsus make man according to our owne likenes, both the man and woman are vnderstood: Pareus: so also the ordinarie gloss. quia mulier de vi…, & vtrius que vna caro, because the woman is of the man, and both made but one flesh.
3. But by this one we better vnderstand Adam: though both our parents sinned, and the man was seduced and deceiued by the woman, yet the man onelyonly is named: 1. not because the man is the head of the woman, and so the sinne of the woman, is imputed to the man, because he might hauehave corrected her, Hugo. 2. nor because the man perfected the sinne of the woman, which if he had not consented, had not beene finished: so the woman was principium incompletum, was the incomplete or imperfect beginning of sinne, the man was the complete and perfect beginning, Gorrhan. 3. neither is this the reason, because the Apostle consuetudinem tenens, &c. doth followe the custome, which ascribeth the succession of posteritie to the man, not to the woman, gloss. ordinar. 4. But this indeede is the reason, the Apostle here sheweth not the order how sinne entred simply into the world: for the woman sinned first, and before the woman the serpent: but how sinne was propagated into mankind: now posteritas ex viro, non ex m… liere nominatur, the posteritie is named of the man, not of the woman: as the Apostle saith, 1. Cor. 11.8. the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man: to this purpose Origen, so also Pet. Mart. ex quo tanquam principio peccatum per propagationem traductum fuit, &c. by the man as the first beginning sinne was traduced by propagation: the Apostle then here speaketh of the beginning of the propagation of sinne, not of the beginning of seduction, which was by the woman, or of imitation, which was by the deuill: who was a liar from the beginning, and the father thereof, Iob. 8.44. not by propagation, but by seduction, and imitation, Mart.
Quest. 19. What sinne the Apostle speaketh of here, originall or actuall; by one man sinne entred.
1. Some vnderstand here originall sinne, whereby the nature of man is corrupted, and not actuall: actuale non per vnum, sed per plures intrat, because actuall sinne entreth by many, and not by one, Gorrhan.
2. Some comprehend here sinne generally, both actuall and originall: this word sinne, non solum complectitur vitium originia, sed omnia mala quae eo ex sequuntur, doth no: onelyonly comprehend the originall corruption, but all other euills, that come from thence, &c. Martyr. but of the propagation of originall sinne, the Apostle speaketh afterward in the ende of the verse, in as much as all men hauehave sinned, &c.
3. Wherefore the Apostle here vnderstandeth, the actuall sinne which Adam committed: for the word is put in the singular number, and hath the article prefixed before it, foreign which sheweth some particular sinne: & afterward the Apostle calleth it foreign, transgression, and foreign, disobedience: which must be vnderstood of Adams transgression: which was in him actuall, but originall in respect of vsus, because it was the fountaine of all sinne: but it was not originall sinne passive, passiuely: as now we call that originall sinne, which is in the corrupt nature of man, issuing from Adams sinne, Pareus: this sinne of Adam, in respect of him, was peccatum personale, a personall sinne, but as thereby the whole nature of man was corrupted, it was peccatum naturae, the sinne of nature, Faius.
4. Neither are we here to vnderstand all the actuall sinnes, which Adam committed: but onelyonly his first transgression in eating of the forbidden fruit: for like as the sinnes of parents now are not transmitted to their children, so neither were all Adams sinnes propagated to posteritie, but onelyonly the first, betweene the which and his other sinnes there is this difference: that by the first, bonum naturae, the goodnesse of nature was lost, by the other, bonum gratiae personalis, the goodnesse and grace in Adam was taken away: And though Adam repented of his sinne, and so were deliuered from the guilt thereof, yet because that was a personall act, it extendeth not beyond his person: the corruption of nature could not be healed by his repentance, Perer. disput. 6. numer. 29.
Quest. 20. How sinne is said to hauehave entred into the world.
1. Origen by the world vnderstandeth, terrenam & corporalem vitam, the terrene and carnall life, to the which the Saints are crucified, but P. Mart. reiecteth this interpretation vponupon this reason, that by this meanes the Saints should not hauehave originall sinne, if they be not comprehended vnderunder the name of the world.
2. Some doe take the world for the place continent and place of the world: but this is reiected by Pererius numer. 32. vponupon this reason, because sinne did not in that sense first enter into the world by Adam: for before him sinned the Angels that fell, and the woman, that was first deceiued.
3. Neither by the world can we well vnderstand paradise: for the woman had first sinned in Paradise, before the man had consented.
4. Therefore by the world we better vnderstand by a figure the inhabitants of the world: the thing containing is taken for that which is contained, totum genus humanum, all mankind is here signified, Gorrhan, Martyr, with others: as afterward the Apostle expoundeth himselfe, by the world vnderstanding all men: And thus sinne entred into the world: first Adam sinned beeing in and a part of the world, and in him all mankind sinned, beeing then in his ioynes.