Pelagius — Commentary on Scripture

Jews and Gentiles have both believed in the same God and in the same Christ.

PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Is the law which enjoins us to be circumcised unnecessary? Not at all! On the contrary, we enable it to stand firm when we show that what it said is true, viz., that (spiritual) law would follow after (physical) law, (spiritual) testament after (physical) testament, (spiritual) circumcision after (physical) circumcision.

PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 4:1

Paul calls the Jews back to the beginning of circumcision, so that what it originally stood for might be fully understood.

PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 4:2

If Abraham was justified because of his circumcision, then God gave him nothing and he could have gloried in what he did to himself. Or it may mean that if Abraham carried out the ordinances, he had glory in his own eyes but not in God’s.

PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 4:3

Abraham’s faith was so great that his earlier sins were all forgiven him, and righteousness was counted as credit for every one of them by faith alone. Later he was on fire with such love for God that he piled one good work on top of another. Therefore he has glory in God’s eyes.

PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 4:5

When an ungodly person is converted, God justifies him by faith alone, not for good works which he does not have. On that basis he would have been punished for his ungodly works. But note that Paul does not say one who remains in sin is justified by faith but rather the ungodly, i.e., one who has just come to believe.

PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 4:6

It is a great blessing to obtain the Lord’s grace without the work of the law and penance, as if one were receiving some public honor without having earned it.

PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 4:7

What is forgiven is not retained in the mind, and what is covered does not come to light, and for that reason it is not counted against us.

PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 4:8

Some people say that sin is forgiven in baptism, covered by penitential works and through martyrdom not counted against us. But others say that when sins have been forgiven in baptism, love for God is increased, which covers a multitude of sins and keeps them from being counted against us as long as daily good works surpass past misdeeds.

PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 4:9

Paul means that the blessing is to be found in each of the three periods of nature, circumcision and Christian faith. Everyone agrees that faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness. Therefore, what reason discovers about Abraham, we will heed with regard to the rest.

PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 4:10

Now we must see whether circumcision is born of righteousness or righteousness of circumcision. It must be the former, because Abraham was righteous before he was circumcised.

PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 4:11

In case anyone says that Abraham was circumcised unnecessarily, Paul argues that it is the sign or seal of an existing righteousness, not of growth in an unfolding righteousness. This righteousness was so perfect that it deserved a seal, for something that is full is always sealed.

PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 4:12

Therefore all the Gentiles who believe are children of Abraham when faith alone is credited to them as righteousness and they too receive the circumcision—of the heart. Or perhaps this verse should be understood like this: Abraham was righteous in uncircumcision so that he could become the father of uncircumcised believers, and he remained righteous once he was circumcised in order to become the father of the righteous who are circumcised.

PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 4:13

Here Paul calls circumcision the law, because every commandment can be regarded as part of the law. Abraham inherited the world, either because in his seed (viz., Christ) all the nations which were given to him by the Father might be blessed or because the nations would sup with him in the kingdom of heaven.

PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 4:14

If only the circumcised are heirs, God has not fulfilled his promise to Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, and it will seem that the nations believed in God without any reason.

PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 4:15

The law brings wrath because it was ordained for the unrighteous, and it weighed sinners down rather than set them free.… Where there is no law there is nothing which can be broken. Or perhaps this means that there is nothing to be punished where the law is not necessary.

PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 4:16

The law does not forgive sins but condemns them, and therefore it cannot make all nations children of Abraham, because in the end all must be punished since all are found under sin. But faith makes all believers children of Abraham, because their sins have been forgiven by grace.

PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 4:17

Abraham is the father of all believers, not just of the nation of Israel. “Life to the dead” is given to those who are dead for the purpose of bearing children, which is the context of the present discussion.

PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 4:18

It was against all natural hope for a hundred-year-old man to believe that his seed would become as numerous as the stars, especially given that his wife had been barren in her youth and was now as feeble as he was.

PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 4:19

Faith takes no aspect of nature into account, because it knows that the one who spoke is almighty.

PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS