1 Brethren, the will of my heart, indeed and my prayer to God is for them unto salvation.
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VERS. 1.-- *And supplication.* For the will, that it may be moved to believe true things, suffices not of itself, unless God help it through grace, whence: *No man cometh to me, unless it be given him by my Father*.
2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
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VERS. 2.-- *For I bear them witness that.* He speaks of those who received not Christ, not out of envy, but out of error, to whom Peter says: *I know that through ignorance you did this*. *Not according to knowledge.* For it is foolish to venerate the law, and to persecute the God of the law.
3 For they, not knowing the justice of God and seeking to establish their own, have not submitted themselves to the justice of God.
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VERS. 3.-- *For being ignorant of the justice of God.* Not that whereby God is just, but that which is in man from God. *They are not subject to the justice of God.* This is the justice of God, which is established not in the precept of the law whereby fear is struck in, but in the help of the grace of Christ.
4 For the end of the law is Christ: unto justice to everyone that believeth.
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VERS. 4.-- *The end.* Not consuming, but perfecting: it perfects therefore justice through faith without the works of the law. *Christ.* Justice is from Christ; because if it were through the written or the natural law, and not by the faith of Christ, then Christ would die for nothing. *Unto justice.* Not human, but divine. For there is a human and a divine: of the human there, *Moses;* of the divine there: *But that which is of,* etc. *The Scripture.* In Numbers and in Leviticus it is thus had: *He that shall do these things shall live in them.*
5 For Moses wrote that the justice which is of the law: The man that shall do it shall live by it.
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VERS. 5.-- *He shall live in it.* He has this reward, namely that he be not punished by that death. But it is no great justice to fear, nor has it merit with God.
6 But the justice which is of faith, speaketh thus: Say not in thy heart: Who shall ascend into heaven? That is to bring Christ down;
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VERS. 6.-- *That is, to bring Christ down.* That is, to deny that Christ has ascended.
7 Or who shall descend into the deep? That is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.
8 But what saith the scripture? The word is nigh thee; even in thy mouth and in thy heart. This is the word of faith, which we preach.
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VERS. 8.-- *The word is nigh.* That is, it is useful, or there is nothing unfitting either to say or to believe. Or *nigh,* because it is not far from the nature of minds: and by the manner of speaking, that which is said to us that we may believe. *This is the word.* Of which the Lord says: *For you are clean by reason of the word which I have spoken to you,* etc. *as far as* for in the word itself one thing is the sound that passes, another the power that remains.
9 For if thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him up from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
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VERS. 9.-- *That if thou confess.* Behold the praise of faith and its reward. The praise of faith is, if thou shalt have believed that Jesus is Lord, etc., *as far as* who goes before it in a resurrection suited to itself, that is, in justification.
10 For, with the heart, we believe unto justice: but, with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation.
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VERS. 10.-- *With the heart we believe.* Other things a man can do unwilling, but he cannot believe save willing. *Confession.* To confess is to say what is in the heart, etc., *as far as* because he so believes, so also he ought in the mouth, that he may so preach.
11 For the scripture saith: Whosoever believeth in him shall not be confounded.
12 For there is no distinction of the Jew and the Greek: for the same is Lord over all, rich unto all that call upon him.
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VERS. 12.-- *Who call upon him.* He that prays calls upon; but this assuredly he cannot do, unless he first believe. They therefore who call upon him not only believe, but also pray, so that after anyone's mind has believed it may not cease to ask that which God promised to them that watch with the whole heart, because to believe gives the remission of sins. But to call upon obtains the promises of God.
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
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VERS. 14.-- *How then shall they call upon,* etc. It being proved that this is taken of both peoples, he shows through what, namely through the mission made to both, which he who shall not have received is inexcusable. Invocation saves, therefore one must believe: because, *how,* etc. *Or how shall they believe,* etc. As if he should say: They will not believe, unless they hear. For neither did anyone of old believe who did not in some manner hear, either inwardly or outwardly. But he says that to believe is of hearing, to hear of preaching, to preach of the mission of God; so that the whole comes down from the fount of grace. But preaching truly is of a mission, because God, who knows how to use evil unto good, sent even false men that announce good things. Sometimes also he sends the evil to the evil in wrath, that is, he permits evil men to preach to evil men for the punishment of the same, that by turns through themselves, as is just, they may perish. What the Apostle says: *How shall they believe him whom they have not heard?* he said of the Gentiles, etc., *as far as* that preachers of Christ are to be sent.
15 And how shall they preach unless they be sent, as it is written: How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, of them that bring glad tidings of good things?
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VERS. 15.-- *But how shall they preach unless they be sent?* Behold, it appears that preachers were sent to the Gentiles also. *How beautiful.* Because they enlighten the world, wherein it appears that they were sent by God, otherwise they could not do this. *Peace.* Reconciliation between people and people, the wall of the legal rite among the Jews, and of idolatry among the Gentiles, being broken down. And between God, justifying the ungodly through faith, and men believing in him. *Of them that bring glad tidings of good things.* Peace upon peace, because the kingdom of God also is peace.
16 But all do not obey the gospel. For Isaias saith: Lord, who hath believed our report?
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VERS. 16.-- *For Isaias saith,* etc. God, being foreknowing, foretold the unbelief of the Jews, but he did not make it; nor would he have foreknown their evils, unless they were to have them. So also he blinds, which is by forsaking, not however by doing, and the will deserved this. If it be said that the Jews cannot believe because Isaias foretold it, I say that they cannot, because they will not. What God foreknew, he foretold; but he did not make it. They cannot, while they are proud, while they are such as to attribute all things to their own strength, and to deny that divine help is necessary to them for working well.
17 Faith then cometh by hearing; and hearing by the word of Christ.
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VERS. 17.-- *Faith is of,* etc. Although God teaches within, yet the herald announces without. *Through the word.* That is, through the grace of Christ, who sends us teachers of the evangelical word. For unless something be said, it can neither be heard nor believed.
18 But I say: Have they not heard? Yes, verily: Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth: and their words unto the ends of the whole world.
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VERS. 18.-- *And indeed.* Or *equidem,* that is, assuredly, and so they are inexcusable, as David shows in the Psalms, saying: *Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth.* This was not fulfilled in the time of the Apostles, etc., *as far as* so also that: *You shall be witnesses to me unto the uttermost part of the earth*.
19 But I say: Hath not Israel known? First, Moses saith: I will provoke you to jealousy by that which is not a nation: by a foolish nation I will anger you.
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VERS. 19.-- *But I say: Hath not Israel.* He proved that all had heard, and so that the Jews had heard. But because they might both have heard and not have known, he affirms that they also knew. *Hath known.* Israel is said to have known the doctrine of the Gospel and the coming of Christ, because he could not gainsay it by reason or by authority; but he did not truly know it, so that it should sit well in their mind. *Unto emulation.* There is envy in the Jews, while the Gentiles call their God their own, and say that the promises and their law and the prophets pertain to themselves. *Into a nation that is not.* The Gentiles were not formerly called a holy nation, because they were without law; or now they are not a nation, because they do not live after the manner of the Gentiles. *Into a foolish nation.* "Into," that is, against a foolish nation, that is, against the Gentiles who had not known the true God.
20 But Isaias is bold, and saith: I was found by them that did not seek me. I appeared openly to them that asked not after me.
21 But to Israel he saith: All the day long have I spread my hands to a people that believeth not and contradicteth me.
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VERS. 21.-- *All the day.* All the time in which I dwelt with them, and enlightened the world, I amply showed my works and affections to the Jews; or in a part of the whole day, on the cross I spread out my hands, etc. *I spread out my hands.* As if he should say: I showed to the Jews things more ample. For indeed he denied them no benefit; for he raised up their dead, he cured their diverse infirmities. But he is said to spread out his hands who bountifully bestows benefits upon them that ask.