Early Church on Romans 8:29-34 & 9:5

Origen: We know that Christ was in the form of God and took on himself the form of a servant also.¹⁷ Which of these two is it that the believer is to be conformed to? . . . In my opinion, new converts are conformed to the image of the servant, and as they progress in the faith, they become conformed to that image which is the image of God. In Scripture, words like foreknew and predestined do not apply equally to both good and evil. For the careful student of the Bible will realize that these words are used only of the good. . . . When God speaks of evil people, he says that he “never knew” them.¹⁸ . . . They are not said to be foreknown, not because there is anything which can escape God’s knowledge, which is present everywhere and nowhere absent, but because everything which is evil is considered to be unworthy of his knowledge or of his foreknowledge. Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans.¹⁹

Diodore: This text does not take away our free will. It uses the word foreknew before predestined. Now it is clear that “foreknowledge” does not by itself impose any particular kind of behavior. What is said here would be clearer if we started from the end and worked backwards. Whom did God glorify? Those whom he justified. Whom did he predestine? Those whom he foreknew, who were called according to his plan, i.e., who demonstrated that they were worthy to be called by his plan and made conformable to Christ. Pauline Commentary from the Greek Church.²⁰

Ambrosiaster: Those whom God foreknew would believe in him he chose to receive the promises. But those who appear to believe yet do not persevere in the faith are not chosen by God, because whoever God chooses will persevere. Christ is rightly called the “firstborn” because he was not made before the rest of creation but begotten, and God has chosen to adopt men as his children following Christ’s example. He is the firstborn in the regeneration of the Spirit, in the resurrection from the dead and in the ascension into heaven. Therefore, the firstborn in all things is said to be our brother, because he chose to be born as a man, but he is also Lord, because he is our God. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.²³

Augustine: Not all who are called are called according to God’s purpose, for the purpose relates to God’s foreknowledge and predestination. God only predestined those whom he knew would believe and follow the call. Paul refers to them as the “elect.” For many do not come, even though they have been called, but no one comes who has not been called.

We should understand our Lord as “only begotten” in one sense and as “firstborn” in another. Christ is called “only begotten” because he has no brothers and is the Son of God by nature, the Word in the beginning by whom all things were made.²⁷ But by his assumption of humanity and by the dispensation of the incarnation, through which even we who are not sons by nature have been called into the adoption of sons, he is said to be the “firstborn” of many brothers.²⁸ For before him there was no resurrection of the dead . . . but now after him comes the resurrection of many saints, whom he does not hesitate to call “brothers” because he shares in their common humanity. Augustine on Romans 55.²⁹…

Pelagius: God’s purpose is his plan to save by faith alone those whom he had known in advance would believe, and those whom he freely called to salvation he will glorify all the more as they work toward it. To predestine is the same as to know in advance. Those whom God foresaw would be conformed in life he intended to be conformed in glory³² so that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.³³ Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans.³⁴

Theodoret of Cyr: God did not simply predestine; he predestined those whom he foreknew. Paul says everything precisely and writes “conformed to the image of his Son” and not just “conformed to his Son.” . . . For our body is not conformed to Christ’s divinity but to his glorified body. It is as a man that Christ is the firstborn; as God he is the only begotten. Nor does Christ as God have brothers. It is as a man that he calls all men his brothers.³⁸ Interpretation of the Letter to the Romans.³⁹

Origen: I understand this, as do most people, to mean that someone who is justified is justified because he has been called, and that someone is called because he has been predestined, and that he is predestined because he has been foreknown. . . . Those who think that God’s foreknowledge is limited to knowing what will happen in the future are obviously wrong, for there can be no divine foreknowledge without predestination— the two things go together. . . .

But how can it be that all who are called should be justified, when we know that many are called but few are chosen?⁴² It seems to me that here we are talking about a different kind of calling. For indeed many are called, but not all are called according to God’s purpose. . . . It is only those who are called according to his purpose who are justified. Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans.⁴³  

Pelagius: Those whom God knew in advance would believe, he called. A call gathers together those who are willing to come, not those who are unwilling. . . . Paul says this because of the enemies of the faith, in order that they may not judge God’s grace to be arbitrary. They are called to believe through preaching and are justified through baptism when they believe, and are glorified with spiritual powers now or in the resurrection to come. Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans.⁴⁹

Cyril of Alexandria: Jesus said: “Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”⁵⁰ He calls everyone to himself, and no one is lacking in the grace of his calling, for when he says everyone he excludes nobody. But those whom he long ago foresaw would come into being he predestined to participate in the future blessings and called them to receive justification by faith in him and not to sin again. Explanation of the Letter to the Romans.⁵¹

Theodoret of Cyr: Those whose intention God foreknew he predestined from the beginning. Those who are predestined, he called, and those who were called, he justified by baptism. Those who were justified, he glorified, calling them children: “To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.”⁵² Let no one say that God’s foreknowledge was the unilateral cause of these things. For it was not foreknowledge which justified people, but God knew what would happen to them, because he is God. Interpretation of the Letter to the Romans.⁵³

Origen: It seems to me that this must refer to the devil, for apart from Christ, who knew no sin, there is nobody so elect or so great that the devil would not dare to attack. Note that Paul does not talk about those whom God has called but about God’s elect. For unless you are elect and unless you show yourself approved by God in all things, you will have an accuser. For if your case is bad, if your crime restricts you, what can an advocate do for you, even if it is Jesus who intercedes on your behalf? For Jesus is the truth, and the truth cannot lie on your behalf. The advocate can help you only as long as you do not give the accuser grounds for attacking you, so that your previous sins, which were washed away in baptism, will not be imputed to you. But if afterward you sin again and do not wash the sin away by any tears of repentance, you will be giving your accuser grounds to incriminate you, and although Jesus intercedes on our behalf, even he would not call darkness light, or bitterness sweet. Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans.⁶⁸

Paul says that we cannot accuse God, because he justifies us, nor can we condemn Christ, because he loved us to the point of dying for us and rising again to intercede for us with the Father. Christ’s prayers on our behalf are not to be despised, because he sits at God’s right hand, that is to say, in the place of honor, because he is himself God. So let us rejoice in our faith, secure in the knowledge of God the Father and of his Son, Jesus Christ, who will come to judge us. . . . The Son is said to intercede because, although he controls everything and is equal to God the Father, we are not to think that the Father and the Son are one and the same person. The Scriptures speak of the distinction of the persons in such a way as to convey the message that the Son is not inferior and that the Father is so called because he is the Father of the Son and because everything comes from him. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.⁷⁰…

Pelagius: Paul speaks of Jesus according to the form of the man he assumed, who died and rose again. Now he intercedes for us so that we may go to be with him where he is.⁷⁶ The Arians are in the habit of stirring up false accusations on the basis of Christ’s intercession, claiming that the one to whom intercession is made is greater than the one who does the interceding. To this one must answer that God does not forget and so does not need to be constantly reminded of those whom he himself chose. Christ intercedes when, as a true and eternal High Priest, he constantly presents and offers as our guarantee to the Father, the man whom he received.⁷⁷ Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans.⁷⁸

Leo the Great: If the true high priest does not atone for us, using the nature proper to us, and the true blood of the spotless Lamb does not cleanse us, then a true priesthood and true sacrifices do not exist in any other way in God’s church, which is the body of Christ.⁷⁹ Although he is seated at the right hand of the Father, he performs the sacrament of the atonement in the same flesh which he assumed from the Virgin Mary. Letter 80.⁸⁰

Severian: The context shows that there is one person who intercedes and another who receives the plea. Nor is it improper for the Son to ask and for the Father to grant the request, for thus the complementary relationship between the two persons is maintained. . . . This text teaches us that there is a distinction between the Father and the Son which must not be confused. Pauline Commentary from the Greek Church.⁸¹

Origen: It is clear from this passage that Christ is the “God who is over all.” The one who is over all has nothing over him, for Christ does not come after the Father but from the Father. The Holy Spirit is also included in this, as it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord fills the earth, and whoever contains all things knows every sound.”²⁰ So if the Son is God over all and the Spirit is recorded as containing all things, it is clear that the nature and substance of the Trinity are shown to be one and over all things. Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans.²¹

Ambrosiaster: Paul lists so many indications of the nobility and dignity of the Jewish people and of the promises they received in order to deepen his grief for all these things, because by not accepting the Savior they lost the privilege of their fathers and the merit of the promises, and they became worse than the Gentiles, whom they had previously detested when they were without God. For it is a worse evil to lose a dignity than never to have had it.

As there is no mention of the Father’s name in this verse and Paul is talking about Christ, it cannot be disputed that he is called God here. For if Scripture is speaking about God the Father and adds the Son, it often calls the Father God and the Son Lord. If someone does not think that it is said here about Christ that he is God, then let him name the person about whom he thinks it is said, for there is no mention of God the Father in this verse. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.²²

Augustine: The Jews, who held only the first part of this confession, are refuted by the Lord. For when he asked them whose son they said Christ was, they answered “David’s.”²³ This is true according to the flesh. But concerning his divinity . . . they answered nothing. Therefore the Lord said to them: “Why did David, in the Spirit, call him Lord?”²⁴ in order that they might realize that they had only confessed that Christ is the son of David and had not said that Christ is Lord of this same David. The first fact is true according to his assumption of flesh, the other according to the eternity of his divinity. Augustine on Romans 59.²⁵

Pelagius: The patriarchs are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.²⁶ Paul writes here against the Manicheans, Photinus and Arius because Christ is of the Jews according to the flesh, and God, blessed forever. Pelagius’s Commentary on Romans.²⁷