TRV
Origen of Alexandria
Ante-Nicene · to AD 325
2,651 passages across 61 books of the Bible · Who was this?
On Romans
20 of 296-
Romans 4:16
It might appear from this that faith is not a free gift of God but that it must first be offered to him by man in order for grace to be given in return. But consider what the apostle teaches about this elsewhere. For when he lists the gifts of the Spirit, which he says are given to believers according to the measure of faith, there among the rest he asserts that the gift of faith is also given. Therefore faith is given by grace.…If the promise rested on works, it would not be guaranteed. But now it is guaranteed because it rests on grace, not on works. I think this can be understood to mean that the things of the law are external to us, but the things of grace are internal … and therefore they have a firmer foundation.
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Romans 4:17
The dead here are those whose souls have sinned, for Scripture says: “The soul that sins will die.” For just as the senses perish in our mortal body so that the body can no longer hear, smell, taste or touch, so also the spiritual senses perish in the soul so that it cannot see God or hear his Word, or sense the sweet odor of Christ, or taste the good Word of God, or handle the word of life. People like that must be said to be dead. This is what we were like when Christ came, but he has given us life by his grace.
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Romans 4:18
As always, when the apostle Paul talks about faith, he adds hope as well, and rightly so, for hope and faith are inseparable.… Just as Abraham believed against hope, so all believers do the same, for we all believe in the resurrection of the dead and the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven. These appear to go against hope as far as human nature is concerned, but when we take the power of God into consideration, there is no problem.
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Romans 4:19
This may be understood literally or figuratively. In the literal sense, Abraham did not put his trust in his hundred-year-old body, which was obviously incapable of doing what God had promised him, but rather he trusted in God, the Almighty One who could perform what he had promised even when the laws of human fertility no longer functioned.… Figuratively, however, it may be understood in the light of what Paul says elsewhere: “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you.” It would be absurd to suggest that what Paul had in this respect was somehow lacking to Abraham. For Abraham also had put his earthly members to death, being neither excited by luxury nor inflamed by lust.… Sarah likewise did not suffer from lust or the desires of the flesh.… When they heard what God had promised them, they did not consider their own benefit.… All these things that would make them rich they regarded as worthless in order that they might win Christ, whose coming they foresaw.
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Romans 4:24
Note that Paul does not speak of those who believe that God is supreme, or of those who believe that he made heaven and earth, or of those who believe that he made the angels and the other hosts of the heavenly glory. Rather, he speaks of those who believe in the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Did Abraham believe in this God even before he had raised Jesus?… Abraham’s faith contained within it the form and image of this great mystery. For when he was ordered to sacrifice his only son, he believed that God could raise him up from the dead. Moreover, he did not believe this of Isaac only but also of his seed, which is Christ.
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Romans 4:25
Paul says this in order to show that we ought to hate and reject the things for which Christ died. For if we believe that he was sacrificed for our sins, how can we not consider every sin to be alien and hostile to us, considering that our Lord was handed over to death because of it?…If we have risen together with Christ, who is our justification, and we now walk in newness of life and live according to righteousness, then Christ has risen for the purpose of our justification. But if we have not yet cast off the old man with all his works but instead live in unrighteousness, I dare to suggest that Christ has not yet risen for our justification, nor has he been sacrificed for our sins.
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Romans 5:1
It is obvious from this that the apostle is inviting everyone who has understood that he is justified by faith and not by works to that “peace which passes all understanding,” in which the height of perfection consists. But let us investigate further in order to see what the apostle means when he talks about peace, and especially about that peace which is through our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace reigns when nobody complains, nobody disagrees, nobody is hostile and nobody misbehaves. Therefore, we who once were enemies of God, following the devil, that great enemy and tyrant, now, if we have thrown down his weapons and in their place taken up the sign of Christ and the standard of his cross, have peace with God. But this is through our Lord Jesus Christ, who has reconciled us to God through the offering of his blood.Let us therefore have peace, so that the flesh will no longer war with the spirit, nor will the law of God be opposed by the law of our members. Let there not be in us “yes” and “no,” but let us all agree, let us all think alike, let there be no dissension either among ourselv…
It is obvious from this that the apostle is inviting everyone who has understood that he is justified by faith and not by works to that “peace which passes all understanding,” in which the height of perfection consists. But let us investigate further in order to see what the apostle means when he talks about peace, and especially about that peace which is through our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace reigns when nobody complains, nobody disagrees, nobody is hostile and nobody misbehaves. Therefore, we who once were enemies of God, following the devil, that great enemy and tyrant, now, if we have thrown down his weapons and in their place taken up the sign of Christ and the standard of his cross, have peace with God. But this is through our Lord Jesus Christ, who has reconciled us to God through the offering of his blood.Let us therefore have peace, so that the flesh will no longer war with the spirit, nor will the law of God be opposed by the law of our members. Let there not be in us “yes” and “no,” but let us all agree, let us all think alike, let there be no dissension either among ourselves or between us and others outside our ranks, and then we shall have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. But let it most definitely be known that anyone in whom the vice of wickedness is found can never have peace. For as long as he is thinking how he can hurt his neighbor, as long as he seeks after ways of causing harm, his mind will never be at peace.
But if you ask me how a righteous man can have peace when he is attacked by the devil, who maintains his wars of temptation, I would say that such a man has greater peace than anyone else.… For the apostle says that we have peace with God knowing full well that war against the devil is a guarantee of peace with God. We shall have even greater peace with God if we continue our active hostility toward the devil and fight against the vices of the flesh. For the apostle James says: “Resist the devil and he will flee from you; draw near to God and he will draw near to you.” You see that James too felt that he was getting closer to God by resisting the devil. -
Romans 5:2
How we have access to grace through our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior himself tells us “I am the door,” and “No one comes to the Father except by me.” … This door is the truth, and liars cannot enter in by the door of truth. Again, this door is righteousness, and the unrighteous cannot enter in by it. The Door himself says: “Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart.” So neither the irascible nor the proud can enter in by the door of humility and gentleness. Therefore, if anyone wants to have access to the grace of God which according to the word of the apostle comes through our Lord Jesus Christ and in which Paul and those like him claim to stand, it is essential that he be cleansed of all the things which we have listed above. Otherwise those who do what is contrary to Christ will not be allowed to go in by that door, which will remain closed and keep out those who are incompatible with him.Why does Paul talk about the hope of glory and not just about the glory itself? After all, Moses saw the glory of God, and so did the people of Israel when God’s house was built. But thi…
How we have access to grace through our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior himself tells us “I am the door,” and “No one comes to the Father except by me.” … This door is the truth, and liars cannot enter in by the door of truth. Again, this door is righteousness, and the unrighteous cannot enter in by it. The Door himself says: “Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart.” So neither the irascible nor the proud can enter in by the door of humility and gentleness. Therefore, if anyone wants to have access to the grace of God which according to the word of the apostle comes through our Lord Jesus Christ and in which Paul and those like him claim to stand, it is essential that he be cleansed of all the things which we have listed above. Otherwise those who do what is contrary to Christ will not be allowed to go in by that door, which will remain closed and keep out those who are incompatible with him.Why does Paul talk about the hope of glory and not just about the glory itself? After all, Moses saw the glory of God, and so did the people of Israel when God’s house was built. But this glory, which was visible, the apostle Paul dared to claim would pass away … whereas the hope here is of a glory which will never pass away. It is the glory mentioned in Hebrews in connection with Christ: “He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature.” -
Romans 5:3
The word rejoice is sometimes used positively in Scripture and sometimes negatively.… For if someone rejoices in his wisdom or strength or riches, he is wrong to do so, but if he rejoices in knowing God and in understanding his judgments of mercy and righteousness, he is right to do so. In this case, Paul says that he rejoices in his sufferings, not as an end in themselves but because they lead to various virtues of the soul.… If suffering produces patience and patience is one of the virtues of the soul, then there is no doubt that suffering must be called not evil or neutral but definitely good.
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Romans 5:6
In order to show more fully what power the love which is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit has, Paul expounds the way we ought to understand it by teaching us that Christ died not for the godly but for the ungodly. For we were ungodly before we turned to God, and Christ died for us before we believed. Undoubtedly he would not have done this unless either he himself or God the Father, who gave up his only begotten Son for the redemption of the ungodly, had superabundant love toward us.
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Romans 5:8
By saying that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, Paul gives us hope that we will be saved through him, much more so now that we are cleansed from sin and justified against the wrath which remains for sinners. The One who so loved his enemies that he gave his only Son to die for us will surely be much readier to grant those who have received this gift and been reconciled to him the further gift of eternal life.
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Romans 5:9
Paul shows by this that neither our faith without Christ’s blood nor Christ’s blood without our faith can justify us. Yet of either of these Christ’s blood justifies us much more than our faith. That is why, in my opinion, having said above that we are justified by faith, Paul now says that we are justified by his blood “much more.”
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Romans 5:10
In saying this Paul shows that there is no substance which is hostile to God, as the Marcionites and Valentinians think, for if something was hostile to God by nature and not simply by will, reconciliation with him would be impossible.…Christ’s death brought death to the enmity which existed between us and God and ushered in reconciliation. For Christ’s resurrection and life brought with it salvation to those who believe, as the apostle said of Christ: “The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.” Christ is said to be dead to sin—not to his own, for he never sinned, but dead to sin in that by his death he put sin to death as well. For he is said to live to God so that we also might live to God and not to ourselves or to our own will, so that at the last we may be saved by his life.
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Romans 5:11
Paul stresses the “now” in order to indicate that our rejoicing is not merely a future hope but also a present experience.
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Romans 5:12
Perhaps someone will object that the woman sinned before the man and even that the serpent sinned before her … and elsewhere the apostle says: “Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived.” … How is it then that sin seems to have come in through one man rather than through one woman?… Here the apostle sticks to the order of nature, and thus when he speaks about sin, because of which death has passed to all men, he attributes the line of human descent, which has succumbed to this death because of sin, not to the woman but to the man. For the descent is not reckoned from the woman but from the man, as the apostle says elsewhere: “For man was not made from woman but woman from man.”In this context the word world is to be understood either as the place in which people live or as the earthly and corporeal life in which death has its location. It is to this world, that is, to this earthly life, that the saints say that they are crucified and dead. The death which entered through sin is without doubt that death of which the prophet speaks when he says: “The soul which sins shall surel…
Perhaps someone will object that the woman sinned before the man and even that the serpent sinned before her … and elsewhere the apostle says: “Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived.” … How is it then that sin seems to have come in through one man rather than through one woman?… Here the apostle sticks to the order of nature, and thus when he speaks about sin, because of which death has passed to all men, he attributes the line of human descent, which has succumbed to this death because of sin, not to the woman but to the man. For the descent is not reckoned from the woman but from the man, as the apostle says elsewhere: “For man was not made from woman but woman from man.”In this context the word world is to be understood either as the place in which people live or as the earthly and corporeal life in which death has its location. It is to this world, that is, to this earthly life, that the saints say that they are crucified and dead.
The death which entered through sin is without doubt that death of which the prophet speaks when he says: “The soul which sins shall surely die.” One might rightly say that our bodily death is a shadow of this death. For whenever a soul dies, the body is obliged to follow suit, like a shadow. Now if someone objects that the Savior did not sin, nor did his soul die because of sin, yet nevertheless his body suffered death, we would answer that the Savior, although he did not himself sin, nevertheless by the assumption of human flesh is said to have become sin. As a result, although he owed his death to nothing else, nor was he bound to anything outside himself, yet for our salvation he voluntarily took on this shadow as part of his incarnation. As he himself said: “I have power to lay my soul down, and I have power to take it again.” …
The apostle stated most categorically that the death of sin has passed to all men because all have sinned.… Therefore even if you say that Abel was righteous, still he cannot be excused, for all have sinned, including him. -
Romans 5:14
It seems to me that Paul’s description of death and its power may be compared to the entry of a tyrant who wants to usurp the authority of the legitimate ruler and after seizing the entrance to the kingdom by the treachery of the gatekeeper then tries to get public opinion on his side. To a great extent he succeeds in this and can therefore claim that the kingdom belongs to him. It was during the rule of this tyrant that Moses, a leader chosen by the legitimate ruler, was sent to the occupied peoples in order to revoke the laws of the civil administration and teach them to follow the laws of the true king.… This leader did all he could to deliver at least some people from the control of sin and death, and in the end he managed to form a nation composed of those who chose to associate with him. At the command of the king, he instituted sacrifices which were to be offered with a certain solemnity, as was only fitting, and by which their sins would be forgiven. And so at last a part of the human race began to be set free from the rule of sin and death.…Many manuscripts read that death r…
It seems to me that Paul’s description of death and its power may be compared to the entry of a tyrant who wants to usurp the authority of the legitimate ruler and after seizing the entrance to the kingdom by the treachery of the gatekeeper then tries to get public opinion on his side. To a great extent he succeeds in this and can therefore claim that the kingdom belongs to him. It was during the rule of this tyrant that Moses, a leader chosen by the legitimate ruler, was sent to the occupied peoples in order to revoke the laws of the civil administration and teach them to follow the laws of the true king.… This leader did all he could to deliver at least some people from the control of sin and death, and in the end he managed to form a nation composed of those who chose to associate with him. At the command of the king, he instituted sacrifices which were to be offered with a certain solemnity, as was only fitting, and by which their sins would be forgiven. And so at last a part of the human race began to be set free from the rule of sin and death.…Many manuscripts read that death reigned over even those whose sin was not like that of Adam. If this reading is correct, then it may be said that it refers to that death which has kept souls in hell, and we would understand that even the saints have passed away because of this law of death, even though they were not subject to the law of sin. Therefore it may be said that Christ descended into hell not only in order to show that he could not be held by death but also that he might liberate those who found themselves there not because of the sin of transgression but merely because of their mortal condition.…
What did Paul mean when he said that Adam was a type of the one who was to come? Was he speaking of some future man who had not yet come when he was writing, or was he thinking about Christ, who would have been in the future from Adam’s point of view but was already in the past when Paul was writing? I do not know how Adam can be regarded as a type of Christ, unless it is by contrast.… I think it is better to say that Paul understood Adam as a type of Christ’s second coming. Thus just as death has taken control of this age because of the one Adam, and the entire human race has been subjected to mortality, so in the coming age life will reign through Christ, and the entire human race will be blessed with immortality. -
Romans 5:15
It makes no difference that Paul said [in verse 12] that sin spread to all, whereas here he says that the grace and gift of God have abounded for many. In Paul’s usage, all and many are almost synonymous.… Yet Paul refrains from saying that all will benefit from the free grace of God, because if men had the assurance that they would be saved, they would not fear God and turn away from evil.[In this verse] Paul starts to explain how Adam may be regarded as a type of Christ. Any close similarity between them is obviously absurd, which is why he insists that “the free gift is not like the trespass.” … The judgment on Adam was that through his one sin condemnation came to all men. But in sharp contrast to this, through Christ justification is given to all for the many sins in which the entire human race is bound up.
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Romans 5:17
Not only will death cease to reign in those who receive the abundance of grace, but two additional benefits will be given to them. First, Christ will reign in them by his life, and second, they will reign along with Christ. …It must be noted that Paul speaks of the abundance of grace, because it is not possible for someone who has received only one grace, i.e., who has pleased God in only one thing, to enter the kingdom of heaven.… Grace is multiplied and abounds if our conversation is always seasoned with salt and our work is done with the grace of humility and simplicity, and if all that we do is done to the glory of God.
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Romans 5:19
Why does Paul say that many were made sinners and not that all were when it is clear that all have sinned, as he has just said himself? It is one thing to sin and another to be a sinner. A sinner is someone who, as a result of much sinning, has got into the habit and, I would dare say, the enjoyment of it. In the same way, a righteous person is not someone who has done one or two acts of righteousness but rather someone who has become accustomed to acting righteously and has righteousness in him by habit.
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Romans 5:20
What Paul means here is that after the natural law had already been established—the law which he calls the law of the mind, which assents to the law of God—another law arose, the law of our members, which promotes the lusts of the flesh and leads men captive, inclining them to desire and excesses, so that sin may abound in them.…Grace abounded all the more, because not only does it absolve us from the sins which we have already committed, it protects us against sinning in the future.