羅馬書講道集 第 3 章

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.

Observe the sagacity of Paul, how, having first exhorted from the more agreeable considerations, he turns his discourse to the more fearful.

For having said that the Gospel is the cause of salvation, that it is the cause of life, that it is the power of God, that it produces both salvation and righteousness, he goes on to speak also of those things which are able to strike fear into such as do not give heed.

For since, as commonly happens with mankind, the greater part are drawn toward virtue not so much by the promise of good things as by the fear of things grievous, he draws them from both sides.

For this reason God also not only promised a kingdom, but likewise threatened hell;

and the prophets too discoursed with the Jews in this manner, continually mingling the evil things with the good.

For this reason Paul also thus varies his discourse, yet not without design, but sets down the good things first, and after these the grievous, showing that the former belong to God's antecedent purpose, but the latter to the wickedness of those who are slothful.

So too the prophet first sets down the good things, saying:

'If you are willing and obedient to me, you shall eat the good things of the land;'

'but if you are not willing, and do not obey me, the sword shall devour you.'

So too here Paul advances his discourse.

Christ came, he says, bringing forgiveness, righteousness, life;

and not simply so, but he brings them by way of the cross;

which indeed is the greatest and most wonderful thing, not only that he bestowed such gifts, but that he also suffered such things.

If therefore you treat these gifts with insolence, then you shall await the grievous things.

And observe how he heightens his discourse.

'For the wrath of God,' he says, 'is revealed from heaven.'

From what is this plain? If it is the believer who speaks, we shall cite the pronouncements of Christ;

but if it is the unbeliever and the Greek, Paul silences him from what follows, from the arguments concerning the judgment of God, bringing forward an irrefutable proof drawn from the very things done by such men;

which indeed is the most astonishing thing of all, when he shows that those who gainsay the truth itself are, through the things they do or even say each day, brought into agreement with the doctrines of the truth.

But these matters belong to what follows; for the present let us hold to the things before us.

'For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven.'

And yet even here this often comes to pass, as in famines and pestilences and wars;

for both each one is punished privately, and all in common.

What then is the strange thing at that time? That the punishment shall be both greater and universal and not upon the same terms;

for now the things that happen are for correction, but then they shall be for retribution;

which Paul also made plain when he said, 'We are chastened now, that we may not be condemned with the world.'

And now indeed it seems to many that most things happen not on account of the wrath from above, but through the malice of men;

but then the punishment from God shall be manifest, when the Judge, seated upon the fearful tribunal, shall command some to be dragged to the furnaces, others to the outer darkness, and others to other inexorable and unbearable punishments.

And for what reason did he not say it thus plainly, namely that the Son of God is about to come with countless angels and to demand an account from each, but rather that 'the wrath of God is revealed'? Those who were listening were still of the newly converted;

for this reason he first draws them by means of the things very strongly acknowledged among them.

But apart from what has been said, it seems to me that he is also directing his words against the Greeks;

wherefore also from this point he makes his preamble;

and afterward he introduces also the discourse concerning the judgment of Christ.

'Against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold down the truth in unrighteousness.'

Here he shows that the ways of ungodliness are many, but that of the truth is one;

for error is manifold and multiform and confused, but the truth is one.

And having spoken concerning doctrines, he speaks also concerning conduct, when he said 'the unrighteousness of men.'

For the forms of unrighteousness too are manifold;

and the one has to do with money, as when someone wrongs his neighbor in these matters;

and the other has to do with women, when a man, forsaking his own wife, breaks into another's marriage;

for this too Paul calls covetousness, speaking thus:

That one should not overreach and take advantage of his brother in the matter.

Others again, instead of a wife and of money, do injury to their neighbor's good name;

for indeed, 'A good name is better than great riches.'

But some say that this too was spoken by Paul concerning doctrines;

yet nothing prevents it from being said of both.

But what is the meaning of, 'Who hold the truth in unrighteousness'? Learn it from what follows.

'Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them;'

'for God has shown it unto them.'

They invested wood and stones with glory.

As, therefore, one who has been entrusted with royal treasure and commanded to expend it for the king's glory, if he should squander it upon robbers and harlots and cheats, and make these men splendid out of the king's own money, is punished as having done the king the greatest wrong;

so too these men, having received the knowledge of God and of His glory, and then having invested idols with it, held the truth in unrighteousness, and, so far as in them lay, did injury to that knowledge by not using it for the ends that befit it.

Has what was said now become clear to you, or must it be said again more plainly? Perhaps it is necessary to say it again.

What then is it that is being said? God implanted in men from the beginning the knowledge of Himself; but this knowledge the Greeks invested upon wood and stones, and so did injury to the truth, so far as in them lay;

for that truth remains unchangeable, keeping its own glory immovable.

And whence is it plain, O Paul, that He implanted in them the knowledge? 'Because,' he says, 'that which may be known of Him is manifest in them.'

But this is an assertion, not a proof;

so establish it for me, and show that the knowledge concerning God was plain to them, and that they willingly passed it by.

Whence then was it plain? Did He send them a voice from on high? By no means;

but He did that which was more able than a voice to draw them: He set the creation in their midst, so that both the wise and the simple, both the Scythian and the barbarian, learning through their sight the beauty of the things seen, might ascend to God.

'For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made;'

which is just what the prophet also said:

'The heavens declare the glory of God.'

For what will the Greeks say in that day? That, 'We knew Thee not'? Did you then not hear the heaven sending forth a voice through the sight of it, while the well-ordered harmony of all things cried out more clearly than any trumpet? Did you not behold the laws of night and day abiding unmoved perpetually? the good order of winter, spring, and the other seasons remaining sure and immovable? the good behavior of the sea amid such turmoil and waves? all things abiding in order, and by their beauty and by their greatness proclaiming the Creator? For all these things, and yet more than these, Paul gathered together and said:

'For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made;'

'even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.'

And yet God did not make these things for this purpose, even though this was the outcome.

For it was not in order to deprive them of excuse that He set so great a teaching in their midst, but in order that they might come to know Him;

but by their ingratitude they deprived themselves of all excuse.

Then, showing how they are deprived of excuse, he says:

'Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful.'

This one is the greatest charge;

and the second after that is their worshipping of idols also, which Jeremiah too denounced when he said:

'This people has committed two evils;'

'they have forsaken Me the fountain of living water, and hewn out for themselves broken cisterns.'

Then, as a sign both of their knowing God and of their not using the knowledge for what was needful, he adduces this very thing—their having known gods:

'Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God.'

And he also sets down the cause on account of which they fell into so great folly.

What then is this cause? They entrusted everything to their own reasonings.

But he did not put it thus, but far more strikingly:

'For they became vain,' he says, 'in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.'

For just as, on a moonless night, if a man should attempt to travel an unfamiliar road or to sail the open sea, he will not only fail to reach his destination, but will also swiftly perish;

so also these men, attempting to walk the road that leads to heaven, yet having taken away from themselves the light, and then, in place of it, having surrendered themselves to the darkness of their own reasonings, and seeking the incorporeal One among bodies and the formless One among forms, suffered a most grievous shipwreck.

And besides what has been said, he sets down yet another cause of their going astray, saying:

"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools."

For, having imagined some great thing concerning themselves, and not

having endured to take this way which God had commanded them, they were sunk beneath the reasonings of their own folly.

Then, showing and depicting the tempest—how grievous it was and bereft of all excuse—he went on, saying:

"And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of creeping things."

The first charge is that they did not find God;

the second, that this was so though they had great and clear resources for doing so;

the third, that while claiming to be wise;

the fourth, that not only did they fail to find Him, but they even brought down that worship to demons, and to stones, and to blocks of wood.

Now he demolishes their conceit also in the Epistle to the Corinthians, yet not in like manner there as here.

For there he strikes them a blow from the cross, saying that "the foolishness of God is wiser than men";

but here, even apart from any comparison, he holds their wisdom up to ridicule on its own account, showing it to be folly and a mere display of arrogance.

Then, that you may learn that though they had the knowledge concerning God, they thus betrayed it, he said, "They changed it";

and he who changes a thing changes it as having something else.

For they wished to find something more, and would not tolerate the bounds that had been given them;

for they were lovers of innovation.

And indeed, all the doctrines of the Greeks are of this sort.

For this reason they even stood against one another: Aristotle rose up against Plato, the Stoics snorted with contempt against him, and each became an enemy to the other;

so that one ought not so much to admire them for their wisdom, as to turn away from them and hate them, seeing that for this very reason they became fools.

For had they not entrusted their own affairs to reasonings and syllogisms and sophistries, they would not have suffered what they suffered.

Then, intensifying his accusation of them, he holds up to ridicule the whole of their idolatry.

For most especially, even the mere act of changing was ridiculous;

but to change it into such things as these was beyond all defense.

Consider, then, into what they made the change, and to what they attached the glory:

They ought to have formed a conception concerning Him—such as, that He is God, that He is Lord of all, that He made the things that were not into being, that He exercises providence, that He cares for us;

To whom, then, did they attribute this? Not to men, but to the likeness of an image of corruptible man.

And they did not even stop here, but were carried down even to brute beasts—or rather, even to the images of these.

But consider for me the wisdom of Paul, how he has set down the two extremes—God, the highest of all, and the creeping things, the lowest of all;

or rather, not even the creeping things themselves, but the likenesses of these, that he might clearly show their conspicuous madness.

For the knowledge which they ought to have held concerning Him who incomparably surpasses all things, this they attached to that which is incomparably the meanest of all things.

"And what has this to do with the philosophers?" someone says. It has to do with them most of all—everything that has been said.

For these too have as their teachers the Egyptians who invented these things;

and Plato, who is reputed to be more venerable than the rest, prides himself upon these things, and his teacher was quite carried away over these idols;

for the one who bids a cock be sacrificed to Asclepius—this is he.

There one might see the images of these brute beasts and of the creeping things, and even Apollo and Dionysus served together with these reptiles.

And some of the philosophers even led up into heaven bulls and scorpions and serpents and all the rest of their nonsense;

for everywhere the devil made it his aim to drag men down to the likenesses of creeping things, and to subject them to the most irrational of all creatures—those whom God had willed to lead up above the heavens.

And not from this consideration alone, but from another as well, you will see that their chief spokesman is himself answerable for the things he says.

For when he gathers together the poets, and says that men ought to believe them in what they say concerning God, as those who know accurately, he does nothing else but usher in the whole tangled string of these follies, and asserts that this great heap of laughter ought to be reckoned as true.

Wherefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves.

He shows from this that ungodliness became the cause even of the perversion of the laws.

For just as the commander of a host, should he withdraw and depart when the war presses hard, delivers up his soldiers to the enemy—not by thrusting them forward himself, but by stripping them of his own aid—

so too God let go those who were unwilling to receive the things that came from Him, but were the first to leap away, after He Himself had fulfilled everything that was on His own part.

He set the world before them in their midst, in place of a teaching;

He gave them a mind and understanding able to discern what was fitting.

None of these did the men of that time use unto salvation, but they even turned to the contrary that which they had received.

What then was it right to do? To drag them by necessity and force? But this is not the way to make men virtuous.

It remained, then, to let them go—which is what He did—so that even thus, learning by experience the things they had lusted after, they might flee the shame of them.

For if some man, being a king's son, should dishonor his father and choose to be with robbers and murderers and grave-plunderers, and should prefer their ways to his father's house, the father lets him go, that through the very experience he may learn the excess of his own folly.

But why did he make mention of no other sin—such as murder, covetousness, and the rest of that kind—but of licentiousness? He seems to me to be hinting at his hearers of that time, and at those who were receiving the epistle.

Unto uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves.

Mark how most striking the emphasis is.

For they had no need, he says, of others to do them insult; but whatsoever their enemies might have inflicted upon them, this they wrought upon themselves.

Then, taking up the cause again, he says:

Who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.

Those things which were exceedingly ridiculous he sets down specifically, item by item; but those which seem to be more venerable than the rest, he states in general terms.

And through all these he shows that to serve the creature is a Greek (heathen) practice.

And see how he made the argument plain.

For he did not say simply, They served the creature, but, Rather than the Creator;

everywhere by this heightening the charge, and by the comparison depriving them of all excuse.

Who is blessed forever.

But He was in no way harmed by this, he says;

for He Himself is blessed forever.

Here he shows that it was not to avenge Himself that He let them go, seeing that He Himself suffered nothing.

For even if these men committed insult, yet He was not insulted, nor was anything of His glory maimed, but He abides blessed continually.

For if a man who often practices true wisdom would suffer nothing at the hands of those who insult him, much more would God, the imperishable and unchangeable nature, the glory that is unalterable and immovable.

For indeed men in this very respect become like unto God, when they suffer nothing at the hands of those who wish to injure them, neither are insulted by those who insult them, nor smitten by those who smite them, nor laughed to scorn by others who deride them.

And how is it possible for this to come about? he says. It is possible, and altogether possible, when you are not pained at the things that happen.

And how is it possible not to be pained? he says. Nay rather, how is it possible to be pained? For tell me, if your own little child should insult you, would you count the insult as an insult? And would you be pained? By no means;

but if you should be pained, would you not then become ridiculous? So let us be disposed toward our neighbors as well, and we shall suffer nothing unpleasant—for those who insult us are more senseless than children.

And let us not seek not to be insulted, but when insulted, let us bear it nobly;

for this is the sure and steadfast honor.

Why so? Because you are lord of this, but of that another is lord.

Do you not see the adamant striking back when it is struck? But that, one says, is what its nature has.

But it is possible for you too, by your own choice, to become such as that which happens to it by nature.

What then? Did you not see the children in the furnace unburned, and Daniel in the den suffering nothing dreadful? It is possible for this to happen even now;

for lions stand beside us also—wrath and desire—having grievous teeth, tearing apart whoever falls among them.

Become, therefore, like Daniel, and do not permit these passions to fix their teeth in your soul.

But he, you say, had grace itself as his whole helper working together with him.

Yes, but that was because the things of his own free choice went before this grace.

So that if we too are willing to make ourselves such as he was,

and to prepare ourselves accordingly, grace is present even now;

and though the wild beasts be hungry, they will not touch your side.

For if, seeing a servant's body, they were put to shame, then, beholding the members of Christ (for this is what we the faithful are), how shall they not be quieted? And if they are not quieted, it is because of the guilt of those who are cast in.

For indeed many furnish these lions with abundant provision, keeping harlots, breaking up marriages, taking vengeance on their enemies;

wherefore, before ever they reach the ground, they are torn to pieces.

But this did not happen in Daniel's case; nor will it happen in ours, if we so will it, but something even greater than what took place then will come to pass.

For there the lions did us no wrong; but as for us, if we are watchful, even those who wrong us will actually be of profit to us.

Thus it was that Paul became illustrious through those who insulted and plotted against him; thus Job through those many blows; thus Jeremiah from the miry pit; thus Noah from the flood; thus Abel from the treachery against him; thus Moses from the murderous Jews; thus Elisha; thus every one of those great men wove for themselves their splendid crowns not out of ease and luxury, but out of afflictions and trials.

Wherefore also Christ, knowing this to be the ground of good repute, said to His disciples:

In the world ye shall have tribulation;

but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

Have not many been overthrown by dire things? Yet it was not by reason of the nature of the trials, but by reason of their own slothfulness;

but He who makes, together with the trial, also the way of escape, that we may be able to bear it, may He Himself stand by us all, and stretch forth His hand, that, being gloriously proclaimed victors, we may attain the eternal crowns, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom, to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, honour, and might, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.