vv. 6–7 These things in the
interim are declared about the day of wrath on which God will render to everyone according to one’s works: eternal life to
those who with perseverance in good works seek glory and honor and
imperishability. This is what the Apostle is saying, and here is the right
order of the argument that follows. God will give eternal life for perseverance
in good works to those who seek glory, honor, and imperishability. This is the
case not only for Jews, to whom God’s words are entrusted, but also for Greeks.
For God’s judgment is just, and he is God not only of Jews but also of
gentiles. Yet to those who through the mind’s contention and the soul’s
depravity do not believe the truth but follow after iniquity—wrath,
indignation, tribulation, and anguish will be rendered not only to the gentile
but also to the Jew. “For with God there is no respect of persons” (Rom 2:11).
This, to be sure,
considers the literal meaning of the words. But now let us look for their inner
sense. The Apostle says, To those who
with perseverance in good works. For those who produce fruit in
perseverance, there will be glory and
honor. They will receive the glory of imperishability and immortality in
the resurrection, and they will find a blessed happiness in both body and soul.
But this will be the honor that humans possessed before having been “compared
to senseless beasts” and having “become like them” (Ps 48:13/49:12), during
that time when, abounding with the delights of God’s paradise, humans
continually enjoyed the vision and conversation of God. These things will be
rendered in eternal life to those seeking eternal life. Of this the Apostle
says, “This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (Jn 17:3). To those seeking God for God’s own
sake, therefore, he will be their eternal life, honor, and glory. God will be
all in all.
vv. 8–10 But to the
contentious and those disobedient to the truth, and instead trust iniquity,
wrath and indignation, etc. Understand, prudent reader, the things that
are appointed to you, and notice that to those who do well it is said that God
renders glory and honor, and eternal life; however, wrath and indignation,
anguish and tribulation await the condemned. Yet such things are not rendered
by God. For we receive the good things from God, whereas we inflict the evil
upon ourselves.
The text reads: to the contentious. Contention causes
heresies and ignites schisms and scandals. It causes disobedience to the truth
and acceptance of iniquity. From the contentious, therefore, come wrath and
indignation, anguish and tribulation. Wrath is torture of the soul inflicted by
knowledge of sin. Indignation is understood as a sort of swelling of that very
wrath, as if it were a wound and a disturbance spread through the body’s parts.
If, for example, we suppose wrath to be some very bad wound, its swelling and
distention would be called the indignation of the wound. Tribulation results
not in the breadth, of which it is said, “In my tribulation you have made room
for me” (Ps 4:2/4:1). Rather, tribulation makes for a narrowing, which is
contrary to this breadth, that is, contrary to doing good with a glad will
through God’s grace. The Apostle states, To
the Jew first, who knew the Lord’s will and yet did not act worthily. Hence
he “will be struck with many blows” (Lk 12:47). Paul adds, Then to the Greek, who because of ignorance will perhaps “be struck
with a few blows” (Lk 12:48). For it is one thing to know God and another to
know God’s will. A gentile, of course, could know of God from the creation of
the world, but God’s will is known from the Law and the Prophets. (William
of St. Thierry, “Romans 2,” in The Letter
to the Romans, eds. Ian Christopher Levy, Philip D.W. Krey and Thomas Ryan,
[The Bible in Medieval Tradition; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2013], 87–88)
