power whom he has chosen with no regard to any merit. The election of grace is a Hebrew idiom
for gratuitous election.
- If through grace, it is no more by works, etc. This amplification is derived from a comparison
between things of an opposite character; for such is the case between God’s grace and the merit of
works, that he who establishes the one overturns the other.
But if no regard to works can be admitted in election, without obscuring the gratuitous goodness
of God, which he designed thereby to be so much commended to us, what answer can be given to
Paul by those infatuated persons, (phrenetici — insane,) who make the cause of election to be that
worthiness in us which God has foreseen? For whether you introduce works future or past, this
declaration of Paul opposes you; for he says, that grace leaves nothing to works. Paul speaks not
here of our reconciliation with God, nor of the means, nor of the proximate causes of our salvation;
but he ascends higher, even to this, — why God, before the foundation of the world, chose only
some and passed by others: and he declares, that God was led to make this difference by nothing
else, but by his own good pleasure; for if any place is given to works, so much, he maintains, is
taken away from grace.
It hence follows, that it is absurd to blend foreknowledge of works with election. For if God
chooses some and rejects others, as he has foreseen them to be worthy or unworthy of salvation,
then the grace of God, the reward of works being established, cannot reign alone, but must be only
in part the cause of our election. For as Paul has reasoned before concerning the justification of
Abraham, that where reward is paid, there grace is not freely bestowed; so now he draws his
argument from the same fountain, — that if works come to the account, when God adopts a certain
number of men unto salvation, reward is a matter of debt, and that therefore it is not a free gift.^343
Now, though he speaks here of election, yet as it is a general reasoning which Paul adopts, it
ought to be applied to the whole of our salvation; so that we may understand, that whenever it is
declared that there are no merits of works, our salvation is ascribed to the grace of God, or rather,
that we may believe that the righteousness of works is annihilated, whenever grace is mentioned.
Romans 11:7-10
- Quid ergo? Quod quaerit Israel, non est
assequutus;^344 electio autem assequuta est, reliqui
vero excaecati fuerunt; - What then? Israel hath not obtained that
which he seeketh for; but the election hath
obtained it, and the rest were blinded
(^343) The last half of this verse is considered spurious by Griesbach, being not found in the greatest number of MSS., nor in the
Vulgate, nor in the Latin Fathers; but it is found in some of the Greek Fathers, Theodoret, Oecumenius, Photius, and in the text,
though not in the comment of Chrysostom, and in Theophylact, with the exception of the last clause, “Otherwise work,” etc.
The Syriac and Arabic versions also contain the whole verse. The argument is complete without the last portion, which is, in
fact, a repetition of the first in another form. But this kind of statement is wholly in unison with the character of the Apostle’s
mode of writing. He often states a thing positively and negatively, or in two different ways. See Romans 4:4,5; Romans 9:1;
Ephesians 2:8,9. Then an omission more probable than an addition. Beza, Pareus, Wolfius, etc., regard it as genuine, and
Doddridge and Macknight have retained it in their versions. Every reason, except the number of MSS., is in favor of its genuineness.
— Ed.
(^344) Literally it is, “what Israel seeks, this he has not obtained.” The pronoun for “this,” Griesbach has displaced, and
introduced in its stead, as the most approved reading. — Ed.