Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Romans 5:20
There are 46 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 28, footnote 8 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Mathetes (HTML)
Epistle to Diognetus (HTML)
Chapter IX.—Why the Son was sent so late. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 309 (In-Text, Margin)
As long then as the former time[Romans 5:20] endured, He permitted us to be borne along by unruly impulses, being drawn away by the desire of pleasure and various lusts. This was not that He at all delighted in our sins, but that He simply endured them; nor that He approved the time of working iniquity which then was, but that He sought to form a mind conscious of righteousness, so that being convinced in that time of our unworthiness of attaining life through our own works, it should now, through the kindness of God, be ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 458, footnote 3 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book III (HTML)
Chapter XXIII.—Arguments in opposition to Tatian, showing that it was consonant to divine justice and mercy that the first Adam should first partake in that salvation offered to all by Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3777 (In-Text, Margin)
... have already indicated, this man entangled himself with all the heretics. This dogma, however, has been invented by himself, in order that, by introducing something new, independently of the rest, and by speaking vanity, he might acquire for himself hearers void of faith, affecting to be esteemed a teacher, and endeavouring from time to time to employ sayings of this kind often [made use of] by Paul: “In Adam we all die;” ignorant, however, that “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”[Romans 5:20] Since this, then, has been clearly shown, let all his disciples be put to shame, and let them wrangle about Adam, as if some great gain were to accrue to them if he be not saved; when they profit nothing more [by that], even as the serpent also did ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 458, footnote 11 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)
Book V. Wherein Tertullian proves, with respect to St. Paul's epistles, what he had proved in the preceding book with respect to St. Luke's gospel. Far from being at variance, they were in perfect unison with the writings of the Old Testament, and therefore testified that the Creator was the only God, and that the Lord Jesus was his Christ. As in the preceding books, Tertullian supports his argument with profound reasoning, and many happy illustrations of Holy Scripture. (HTML)
The Epistle to the Romans. St. Paul Cannot Help Using Phrases Which Bespeak the Justice of God, Even When He is Eulogizing the Mercies of the Gospel. Marcion Particularly Hard in Mutilation of This Epistle. Yet Our Author Argues on Common Ground. The Judgment at Last Will Be in Accordance with the Gospel. The Justified by Faith Exhorted to Have Peace with God. The Administration of the Old and the New Dispensations in One and the Same Hand. (HTML)
... with God. With what God? Him whose enemies we have never, in any dispensation, been? Or Him against whom we have rebelled, both in relation to His written law and His law of nature? Now, as peace is only possible towards Him with whom there once was war, we shall be both justified by Him, and to Him also will belong the Christ, in whom we are justified by faith, and through whom alone God’s enemies can ever be reduced to peace. “Moreover,” says he, “the law entered, that the offence might abound.”[Romans 5:20] And wherefore this? “In order,” he says, “that (where sin abounded), grace might much more abound.” Whose grace, if not of that God from whom also came the law? Unless it be, forsooth, that the Creator intercalated His law for the mere purpose of ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 458, footnote 12 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)
Book V. Wherein Tertullian proves, with respect to St. Paul's epistles, what he had proved in the preceding book with respect to St. Luke's gospel. Far from being at variance, they were in perfect unison with the writings of the Old Testament, and therefore testified that the Creator was the only God, and that the Lord Jesus was his Christ. As in the preceding books, Tertullian supports his argument with profound reasoning, and many happy illustrations of Holy Scripture. (HTML)
The Epistle to the Romans. St. Paul Cannot Help Using Phrases Which Bespeak the Justice of God, Even When He is Eulogizing the Mercies of the Gospel. Marcion Particularly Hard in Mutilation of This Epistle. Yet Our Author Argues on Common Ground. The Judgment at Last Will Be in Accordance with the Gospel. The Justified by Faith Exhorted to Have Peace with God. The Administration of the Old and the New Dispensations in One and the Same Hand. (HTML)
... whom we have rebelled, both in relation to His written law and His law of nature? Now, as peace is only possible towards Him with whom there once was war, we shall be both justified by Him, and to Him also will belong the Christ, in whom we are justified by faith, and through whom alone God’s enemies can ever be reduced to peace. “Moreover,” says he, “the law entered, that the offence might abound.” And wherefore this? “In order,” he says, “that (where sin abounded), grace might much more abound.”[Romans 5:20] Whose grace, if not of that God from whom also came the law? Unless it be, forsooth, that the Creator intercalated His law for the mere purpose of producing some employment for the grace of a rival god, an enemy to Himself (I had almost said, a god ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 569, footnote 5 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
On the Resurrection of the Flesh. (HTML)
Christ Plainly Testifies to the Resurrection of the Entire Man. Not in His Soul Only, Without the Body. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7507 (In-Text, Margin)
... how unworthy it were of God to bring only a moiety of man to salvation—and almost less than that; whereas the munificence of princes of this world always claims for itself the merit of a plenary grace! Then must the devil be understood to be stronger for injuring man, ruining him wholly? and must God have the character of comparative weakness, since He does not relieve and help man in his entire state? The apostle, however, suggests that “where sin abounded, there has grace much more abounded.”[Romans 5:20] How, in fact, can he be regarded as saved, who can at the same time be said to be lost—lost, that is, in the flesh, but saved as to his soul? Unless, indeed, their argument now makes it necessary that the soul should be placed in a “lost” ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 580, footnote 14 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
On the Resurrection of the Flesh. (HTML)
St. Paul, All Through, Promises Eternal Life to the Body. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7615 (In-Text, Margin)
... was. Now, if the dominion of death operates only in the dissolution of the flesh, in like manner death’s contrary, life, ought to produce the contrary effect, even the restoration of the flesh; so that, just as death had swallowed it up in its strength, it also, after this mortal was swallowed up of immortality, may hear the challenge pronounced against it: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” For in this way “grace shall there much more abound, where sin once abounded.”[Romans 5:20] In this way also “shall strength be made perfect in weakness,” —saving what is lost, reviving what is dead, healing what is stricken, curing what is faint, redeeming what is lost, freeing what is enslaved, recalling what has strayed, raising what is ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 254, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
The Enchiridion. (HTML)
In Baptism, Which is the Similitude of the Death and Resurrection of Christ, All, Both Infants and Adults, Die to Sin that They May Walk in Newness of Life. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1177 (In-Text, Margin)
... explain to us that baptism in Christ is nothing else than a similitude of the death of Christ, and that the death of Christ on the cross is nothing but a similitude of the pardon of sin: so that just as real as is His death, so real is the remission of our sins; and just as real as is His resurrection, so real is our justification. He says: “What shall we say, then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” For he had said previously, “But where sin, abounded, grace did much more abound.”[Romans 5:20] And therefore he proposes to himself the question, whether it would be right to continue in sin for the sake of the consequent abounding grace. But he answers, “God forbid;” and adds, “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 275, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
The Enchiridion. (HTML)
The Four Stages of the Christian’s Life, and the Four Corresponding Stages of the Church’s History. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1320 (In-Text, Margin)
... striving to live according to the law, is thwarted in his efforts and falls into conscious sin, and so, being overcome of sin, becomes its slave (“for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage”); and thus the effect produced by the knowledge of the commandment is this, that sin worketh in man all manner of concupiscence, and he is involved in the additional guilt of willful transgression, and that is fulfilled which is written: “The, law entered that the offense might abound.”[Romans 5:20] This is man’s second state. But if God has regard to him, and inspires him with faith in God’s help, and the Spirit of God begins to work in him, then the mightier power of love strives against the power of the flesh; and although there is still in ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 382, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On Continence. (HTML)
Section 7 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1825 (In-Text, Margin)
... (“For through the Law is the knowledge of sin,” and, “Lust,” saith he, “I knew not, unless the Law should say, Thou shalt not lust after,” and yet are overcome by their assault, because they live under the Law, whereby what is good is commanded, but not also given: they live not under Grace, which gives through the Holy Spirit what is commanded through the Law: unto these the Law therefore entered, that in them the offense might abound. The prohibition in creased the lust, and made it unconquered:[Romans 5:20] that there might be transgression also, which without the Law was not, although there was sin, “For where there is not Law, neither is there transgression.” Thus the Law, Grace not helping, forbidding sin, became over and above the strength of sin; ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 430, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
Of Holy Virginity. (HTML)
Section 36 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2129 (In-Text, Margin)
... before the Scribes and Pharisees. Let them hear, every kind of such ones, feastings with whom were cast in Thy teeth as a charge, forsooth, as though by whole persons who sought not a physician, whereas Thou camest not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. All these, when they are converted unto Thee, easily grow meek, and are humbled before Thee, mindful of their own most unrighteous life, and of Thy most indulgent mercy, in that, “where sin hath abounded, grace hath abounded more.”[Romans 5:20]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 217, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)
Faustus rejects the Old Testament because it leaves no room for Christ. Christ the one Bridegroom suffices for His Bride the Church. Augustin answers as well as he can, and reproves the Manichæans with presumption in claiming to be the Bride of Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 560 (In-Text, Margin)
... between law and grace; and serving God no longer in the oldness of the letter, but in newness of spirit, she is not under the law, but under grace. She is not blinded by a spirit of controversy, but learns meekly from the apostle what is this law which we are not to be under; for "it was given," he says, "on account of transgression, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made." And again: "It entered, that the offence might abound; but where sin abounded, grace has much more abounded."[Romans 5:20] Not that the law is sin, though it cannot give life without grace, but rather increases the guilt; for "where there is no law, there is no transgression." The letter without the spirit, the law without grace, can only condemn. So the apostle ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 241, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)
Faustus is willing to admit that Christ may have said that He came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them; but if He did, it was to pacify the Jews and in a modified sense. Augustin replies, and still further elaborates the Catholic view of prophecy and its fulfillment. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 672 (In-Text, Margin)
... fulfilled, and how He fulfilled it. It is a vain attempt that you make to escape by your three kinds of law and your three kinds of prophets. It is quite plain, and the New Testament leaves no doubt on the matter, what law and what prophets Christ came not to destroy, but to fulfill. The law given by Moses is that which by Jesus Christ became grace and truth. The law given by Moses is that of which Christ says, "He wrote of me." For undoubtedly this is the law which entered that the offence might abound;[Romans 5:20] words which you often ignorantly quote as a reproach to the law. Read what is there said of this law: "The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 19, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
The Law Could Not Take Away Sin. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 248 (In-Text, Margin)
Observe also what follows. Having said, “In which all have sinned,” he at once added, “For until the law, sin was in the world.” This means that sin could not be taken away even by the law, which entered that sin might the more abound,[Romans 5:20] whether it be the law of nature, under which every man when arrived at years of discretion only proceeds to add his own sins to original sin, or that very law which Moses gave to the people. “For if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith in ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 22, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Original Sin Alone is Contracted by Natural Birth. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 271 (In-Text, Margin)
“Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound.”[Romans 5:20] This addition to original sin men now made of their own wilfulness, not through Adam; but even this is done away and remedied by Christ, because “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin hath reigned unto death” —even that sin which men have not derived from Adam, but have added of their own will—“even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life.” There is, however, other righteousness apart from Christ, as there are other sins ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 77, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
The Sting of Death, What? (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 696 (In-Text, Margin)
... bodies of them that rise again. “Where is thy sting?”—that is, the sin wherewithal we are punctured and poisoned, so that thou didst fix thyself in our very bodies, and for so long a time didst hold them in possession. “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.” We all sinned in one, so that we all die in one; we received the law, not by amendment according to its precepts to put an end to sin, but by transgression to increase it. For “the law entered that sin might abound;”[Romans 5:20] and “the Scripture hath concluded all under sin;” but “thanks be to God, who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ,” in order that “where sin abounded, grace might much more abound;” and “that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 77, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
The Sting of Death, What? (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 699 (In-Text, Margin)
... them in possession. “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.” We all sinned in one, so that we all die in one; we received the law, not by amendment according to its precepts to put an end to sin, but by transgression to increase it. For “the law entered that sin might abound;” and “the Scripture hath concluded all under sin;” but “thanks be to God, who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ,” in order that “where sin abounded, grace might much more abound;”[Romans 5:20] and “that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe;” and that we might overcome death by a deathless resurrection, and sin, “the sting” thereof, by a free justification.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 86, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)
Through the Law Sin Has Abounded. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 732 (In-Text, Margin)
... account of their having received the law, first says that sin and death came on the human race through one man, and that righteousness and eternal life came also through one, expressly mentioning Adam as the former, and Christ as the latter; and then says that “the law, however, entered, that the offence might abound: but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 5:20-21] Then, proposing a question for himself to answer, he adds, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid.” He saw, indeed, that a perverse use might be made by perverse men of what he had said: “The law ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 92, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)
The Law of Works and the Law of Faith. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 796 (In-Text, Margin)
... the greatness of which I have for some time been endeavoring to expose; and to such as are acute in appreciating distinctions, especially to yourself and those like you, I have possibly succeeded in my effort. Since, however, the subject is an important one, it will not be unsuitable, if with a view to its illustration, we linger over the many testimonies which again and again meet our view. Now, the apostle says that that law by which no man is justified, entered in that the offence might abound,[Romans 5:20] and yet in order to save it from the aspersions of the ignorant and the accusations of the impious, he defends this very law in such words as these: “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin but by the law: for I ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 93, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)
The Passage in Corinthians. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 812 (In-Text, Margin)
... glory, much more shall the ministration of righteousness abound in glory. A good deal might be said about these words; but perhaps we shall have a more fitting opportunity at some future time. At present, however, I beg you to observe how he speaks of the letter that killeth, and contrasts therewith the spirit that giveth life. Now this must certainly be “the ministration of death written and engraven in stones,” and “the ministration of condemnation,” since the law entered that sin might abound.[Romans 5:20] But the commandments themselves are so useful and salutary to the doer of them, that no one could have life unless he kept them. Well, then, is it owing to the one precept about the Sabbath-day, which is included in it, that the Decalogue is called ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 175, footnote 11 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness. (HTML)
God’s Promises Conditional. Saints of the Old Testament Were Saved by the Grace of Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1584 (In-Text, Margin)
... the good of the land; but if ye be not willing, and hearken not to me, the sword shall devour you: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken this.” As if the entire law were not full of conditions of this sort; or as if its commandments had been given to proud men for any other reason than that “the law was added because of transgression, until the seed should come to whom the promise was made.” “It entered, therefore, that the offence might abound; but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”[Romans 5:20] In other words, That man might receive commandments, trusting as he did in his own resources, and that, failing in these and becoming a transgressor, he might ask for a deliverer and a saviour; and that the fear of the law might humble him, and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 246, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin. (HTML)
On Original Sin. (HTML)
The Righteous Men Who Lived in the Time of the Law Were for All that Not Under the Law, But Under Grace. The Grace of the New Testament Hidden Under the Old. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1967 (In-Text, Margin)
... give them life, that they were not only prostrated under the propagation and domination of sin, but also convicted by the additional guilt of breaking the law itself: not in order that any one might perish who in the mercy of God understood this even in that early age; but that, destined though he was to punishment, owing to the dominion of death, and manifested, too, as guilty through his own violation of the law, he might seek God’s help, and so where sin abounded, grace might much more abound,[Romans 5:20] even the grace which alone delivers from the body of this death. [XXV.] Yet, notwithstanding this, although not even the law which Moses gave was able to liberate any man from the dominion of death, there were even then, too, at the time of the law, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 381, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
The Fifth Calumny,—That It is Said that Paul and the Rest of the Apostles Were Polluted by Lust. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2560 (In-Text, Margin)
... faith without the works of the law.” And again: “For the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but by the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect. Because the law worketh wrath, for where no law is, there is no transgression.” And in another place: “Moreover, the law entered that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded grace did much more abound.”[Romans 5:20] In still another place: “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under law, but under grace.” And again in another place: “Know ye not, brethren (for I speak to them that know the law), that the law hath dominion over a man so long ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 405, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
The New Testament is More Ancient Than the Old; But It Was Subsequently Revealed. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2711 (In-Text, Margin)
... he asserts that this testament of the promise of Abraham could not be weakened; and he will have this which was made by Abraham to pertain rather to us, whom he will have to be children of the freewoman, not of the bondwoman, heirs by the promise, not by the law, when he says, “For if the inheritance be by the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.” So that, because the law was made four hundred and thirty years after, it might enter that the offence might abound;[Romans 5:20] since by sin the pride of man presuming on his own righteousness is convinced of transgression, and where sin abounded grace much more abounded by the faith of the now humble man failing in the law and taking refuge in God’s mercy. Therefore, when ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 405, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
The New Testament is More Ancient Than the Old; But It Was Subsequently Revealed. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2712 (In-Text, Margin)
... rather to us, whom he will have to be children of the freewoman, not of the bondwoman, heirs by the promise, not by the law, when he says, “For if the inheritance be by the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.” So that, because the law was made four hundred and thirty years after, it might enter that the offence might abound; since by sin the pride of man presuming on his own righteousness is convinced of transgression, and where sin abounded grace much more abounded[Romans 5:20] by the faith of the now humble man failing in the law and taking refuge in God’s mercy. Therefore, when he had said, “For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no longer of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise,” as if it might be said to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 464, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Grace and Free Will. (HTML)
Abstract. (HTML)
Gratuitous Grace Exemplified in Infants. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3217 (In-Text, Margin)
... unsearchable judgments and untraceable ways, indeed, but are ever prone to censure, being unable to understand, have supposed the apostle to say, and censoriously gloried over him for saying, “Let us do evil, that good may come!” God forbid that the apostle should say so! But men, without understanding, have thought that this was in fact said, when they heard these words of the apostle: “Moreover, the law entered, that the offence might abound; but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”[Romans 5:20] But grace, indeed, effects this purpose—that good works should now be wrought by those who previously did evil; not that they should persevere in evil courses and suppose that they are recompensed with good. Their language, therefore, ought not to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 98, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
The Harmony of the Gospels. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
A Statement in Vindication of the Doctrine of the Apostles as Opposed to Idolatry, in the Words of the Prophecies. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 646 (In-Text, Margin)
... or that His Church has been so little daunted by the threats and furies of men, even at times when she has been covered with the blood of martyrs, like one clad in purple array, that she has prevailed over persecutors at once so numerous, so violent, and so powerful? or that she has not been confounded, like one put to shame, when it was a great crime to be or to become a Christian? or that she is made to forget her confusion for ever, because, where sin had abounded, grace did much more abound?[Romans 5:20] or that she is taught not to remember the shame of her widowhood, because only for a little was she forsaken and subjected to opprobrium, while now she shines forth once more with such eminent glory? or, in fine, is it only a fiction concocted by ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 321, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xii. 32, ‘Whosoever shall speak a word against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come.’ Or, ‘on the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.’ (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2359 (In-Text, Margin)
... Jews, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin.” For this again was not said with any such meaning, as if He intended it to be understood that the Jews would have been without any sin at all, if He had not come and spoken to them. For indeed He found them full of and laden with sins. Wherefore He saith, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden.” Laden! with what, but with the burdens of sins and transgressions of the Law? “For the Law entered that sin might abound.”[Romans 5:20] Since then He saith Himself in another place, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance;” how would “they not have had sin if He had not come”? if it be not that this proposition being expressed neither universally, nor ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 456, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
On the words of the Gospel, Luke xviii. 1,’They ought always to pray, and not to faint,’ etc. And on the two who went up into the temple to pray: and of the little children who were presented unto Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3553 (In-Text, Margin)
... together, together be we found in Christ. Uneven is the desert, but common is the grace. They have no evil but what they have drawn from the source: they have no evil but what they have derived from the first original. Let not them keep them off from salvation, who to what they have so derived have added much more evil. The elder in age is the elder in iniquity too. But the grace of God effaces what thou hast derived, effaces too what thou hast added. For, “where sin abounded, grace hath superabounded.”[Romans 5:20]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 476, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
Again in John v. 2, etc., on the five porches, where lay a great multitude of impotent folk, and of the pool of Siloa. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3687 (In-Text, Margin)
... been sick in their own houses with greater privacy, if those five porches had not existed, were in those porches set forth to the eyes of all men, but were not by the porches cured. The Law therefore was useful to discover sins, because that man being made more abundantly guilty by the transgression of the Law, might, having tamed his pride, implore the help of Him That pitieth. Attend to the Apostle; “The Law entered that sin might abound; but where sin abounded, grace hath much more abounded.”[Romans 5:20] What is, “The Law entered that sin might abound”? As in another place he saith, “For where there is no law, there is no transgression.” Man may be called a sinner before the Law, a transgressor he cannot. But when he hath sinned, after that he hath ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 277, footnote 11 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter XI. 1–54. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 999 (In-Text, Margin)
23. “Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto Him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been [dead] four days. Jesus saith unto her, Have I not said unto thee, that, if thou believest, thou shalt see the glory of God?” What does He mean by this, “thou shalt see the glory of God”? That He can raise to life even one who is putrid and hath been four days [dead]. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; and, “Where sin abounded, grace also did superabound.”[Romans 5:20]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 243, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LIX (HTML)
Part 2 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2271 (In-Text, Margin)
... perfect? “He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.” How doth He avenge, to the end that He may condemn? When He shall have set ungodly men on the left hand, and shall have said to them, “Go ye into fire everlasting, that hath been prepared for the devil and his angels.” This is the anger of consuming, not that of consummation. But “there shall be declared consummations in the anger of consummation;” it shall be preached by the Apostles, that “where sin hath abounded, grace shall much more abound,”[Romans 5:20] and the weakness of man hath belonged to the healing of humility. Those men thinking of this, and finding out and confessing their iniquities, “shall not be.” “Shall not be” what? In their pride.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 277, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXVI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2621 (In-Text, Margin)
... lived, and have kept the commandments of the fathers? Nothing will it avail? The same to them as to us.” Let them not strive, let them not dispute. “Let not them that are bitter be exalted in their own selves.” O flesh miserable and wasting, art thou not sinful? Why crieth out thy tongue? Let the conscience be listened to. “For all men have sinned, and need the glory of God.” Know thyself, human weakness. Thou didst receive the Law, in order that a transgressor also of the Law thou mightest be:[Romans 5:20] for thou hast not kept and fulfilled that which thou didst receive. There hath come to thee because of the Law, not the justification which the Law enjoineth, but the transgression which thou hast done. If therefore there hath abounded sin, why ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 288, footnote 15 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2724 (In-Text, Margin)
... through grace. For also the very word the Apostle hath used, where he saith, “For that which was impossible of the Law, wherein it was made weak through the flesh:” willing to intimate that through the Spirit it is fulfilled: nevertheless, itself he hath said is made weak, because by weak men it cannot be fulfilled. But the inheritance, that is, the people, without any doubt is understood to have been made weak by the giving to them of the Law. For “the Law came in, that transgression might abound.”[Romans 5:20] But that which followeth, “But Thou hast made it perfect,” to the Law is thus referred, forasmuch as it is made perfect, that is, is fulfilled after that which the Lord saith in the Gospel, “I have not come to annul the Law, but to fulfil.” … There ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 295, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2827 (In-Text, Margin)
... beside the purpose: and so then He turneth, or else to deliver them is so turned, that His foot is stained in blood. Which to the Lord Himself the Prophet speaketh: “That Thy foot may be stained in blood” (ver. 23): that is, in order that they themselves who are turned to Thee, or to deliver whom Thou art turned, though in the deep of the sea by the burden of iniquity they may have been sunk, may make so great proficiency by Thy Grace (for where there hath abounded sin, there hath superabounded grace[Romans 5:20]), that they may become Thy foot among Thy members, to preach Thy Gospel, and for Thy name’s sake drawing out a long martyrdom, even unto blood they may contend. For thus, as I judge, more meetly is perceived His foot stained in blood.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 403, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXXIV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3899 (In-Text, Margin)
... lying.…But when sin was made manifest by the law given, sin was but increased, for it is both sin, and against the Law; “Sin,” saith he, “taking occasion by the command, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence.” What does he mean by “taking occasion by the law”? Having received the command, men tried as by their own strength to obey it; conquered by lust, they became guilty of transgression of this very command also. But what saith the Apostle? “Where sin abounded, grace hath much more abounded;”[Romans 5:20] that is, the disease increased, the medicine became of more avail. Accordingly, my brethren, did those five porches of Solomon, in the middle of which the pool lay, heal the sick at all? The sick, says the Evangelist, lay in the five porches. In the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 545, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4992 (In-Text, Margin)
3. “Confession and glorious deeds are His work” (ver. 3). What is a more glorious deed than to justify the ungodly? But perhaps the work of man preventeth that glorious work of God, so that when he hath confessed his sins, he deserveth to be justified.…This is the glorious work of the Lord: for he loveth most, to whom most is forgiven. This is the glorious work of the Lord: for “where sin abounded, there did grace much more abound.”[Romans 5:20] But perhaps a man would deserve justification from works. “Not,” saith he, “of works, lest any man boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” For a man worketh not righteousness save he be justified: but by “believing on Him that justifieth the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 564, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXIX (HTML)
Daleth. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5159 (In-Text, Margin)
29. “Take Thou from me the way of iniquity” (ver. 29). And since the law of works hath entered in, that sin might abound;[Romans 5:20] he addeth, “And pity me according to Thy law.” By what law, save by the law of faith? Hear the Apostle: “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works. Nay: but by the law of faith.” This is the law of faith, whereby we believe and pray that it may be granted us through grace; that we may effect that which we cannot fulfil through ourselves; that we may not, ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to stablish ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 580, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXIX (HTML)
Samech. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5304 (In-Text, Margin)
... then meaneth, “I have held all the ungodly of the earth as transgressors”? “As transgressors;” or rather “transgressing,” for the Greek saith, παραβαίνοντας, not παραβ€τας.… “The law entered that sin might abound.” But since all sins are remitted through grace, not only those which are committed without the law, but those also which are committed in the law; he addeth, “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”[Romans 5:20] …But, indeed, when the Apostle said, “As many as have sinned without law, shall perish without law,” he was speaking of that law which God gave to His people Israel through Moses His servant.…For some even Catholic expositors, from a want of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 62, footnote 4 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
Paula and Eustochium to Marcella. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 967 (In-Text, Margin)
... house is left unto you desolate.” The veil of the temple has been rent; an army has encompassed Jerusalem, it has been stained by the blood of the Lord. Now, therefore, its guardian angels have forsaken it and the grace of Christ has been withdrawn. Josephus, himself a Jewish writer, asserts that at the Lord’s crucifixion there broke from the temple voices of heavenly powers, saying: “Let us depart hence.” These and other considerations show that where grace abounded there did sin much more abound.[Romans 5:20] Again, when the apostles received the command: “Go ye and teach all nations,” and when they said themselves: “It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you, but seeing ye put it from you…lo we turn to the Gentiles,” then ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 141, footnote 15 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Oceanus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2013 (In-Text, Margin)
1. I never supposed, son Oceanus, that the clemency of the Emperor would be assailed by criminals, or that persons just released from prison would after their own experience of its filth and fetters complain of relaxations allowed to others. In the gospel he who envies another’s salvation is thus addressed: “Friend, is thine eye evil because I am good?” “God hath concluded them all in sin that he might have mercy upon all.” “When sin abounded grace did much more abound.”[Romans 5:20] The first born of Egypt are slain and not even a beast belonging to Israel is left behind in Egypt. The heresy of the Cainites rises before me and the once slain viper lifts up its shattered head, destroying not partially as most often hitherto but altogether ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 163, footnote 3 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Oceanus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2387 (In-Text, Margin)
... widows and married women who have kept their garments always white and who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. Happy indeed is she in her encomium who throughout her life has been stained by no defilement. But let envy depart and censoriousness be silent. If the father of the house is good why should our eye be evil? The soul which fell among thieves has been carried home upon the shoulders of Christ. In our father’s house are many mansions. Where sin hath abounded, grace hath much more abounded.[Romans 5:20] To whom more is forgiven the same loveth more.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 187, footnote 4 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Pammachius and Marcella. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2648 (In-Text, Margin)
... enrich you with the wares of the east and send the treasures of Alexandria to Rome: as it is written, “God shall come from the south and the Holy One from Mount Paran, even a thick shadow.” (Hence in the Song of Songs the joyous cry of the bride: “I sat down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my taste.”) Now truly is Isaiah’s prophecy fulfilled: “In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the land of Egypt.” “Where sin hath abounded, grace doth much more abound.”[Romans 5:20] They who fostered the infant Christ now with glowing faith defend Him in His manhood; and they who once saved Him from the hands of Herod are ready to save Him again from this blasphemer and heretic. Demetrius expelled Origen from the city of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 90, footnote 19 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the words, Crucified and Buried. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1617 (In-Text, Margin)
... heaven. And I say not unto thee, This day shalt thou depart, but, This day shalt thou be with Me. Be of good courage: thou shalt not be cast out. Fear not the flaming sword; it shrinks from its Lord. O mighty and ineffable grace! The faithful Abraham had not yet entered, but the robber enters! Moses and the Prophets had not yet entered, and the robber enters though a breaker of the law. Paul also wondered at this before thee, saying, Where sin abounded, there grace did much more abound[Romans 5:20]. They who had borne the heat of the day had not yet entered; and he of the eleventh hour entered. Let none murmur against the goodman of the house, for he says, Friend, I do thee no wrong; is it not lawful for Me to do what I will with ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 346, footnote 3 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
On the Theophany, or Birthday of Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3856 (In-Text, Margin)
... Man, that we might go forth, or rather (for this is the more proper expression) that we might go back to God—that putting off the old man, we might put on the New; and that as we died in Adam, so we might live in Christ, being born with Christ and crucified with Him and buried with Him and rising with Him. For I must undergo the beautiful conversion, and as the painful succeeded the more blissful, so must the more blissful come out of the painful. For where sin abounded Grace did much more abound;[Romans 5:20] and if a taste condemned us, how much more doth the Passion of Christ justify us? Therefore let us keep the Feast, not after the manner of a heathen festival, but after a godly sort; not after the way of the world, but in a fashion above the world; ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 145, footnote 9 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Chapter XI. The objection has been made, that the words of St. John, “The Spirit is God,” are to be referred to God the Father; since Christ afterwards declares that God is to be worshipped in Spirit and in truth. The answer is, first, that by the word Spirit is sometimes meant spiritual grace; next, it is shown that, if they insist that the Person of the Holy Spirit is signified by the words “in Spirit,” and therefore deny that adoration is due to Him, the argument tells equally against the Son; and since numberless passages prove that He is to be worshipped, we understand from this that the same rule is to be laid down as regards the Spirit. Why are we commanded to fall down before His footstool? Because by this signified Lord's (HTML)
74. But they are refuted by the acts of the pious, and by the course of the Scriptures. For Mary worshipped Christ, and therefore is appointed to be the messenger of the Resurrection to the apostles, loosening the hereditary bond, and the huge offence of womankind. For this the Lord wrought mystically, “that where sin had exceedingly abounded, grace might more exceedingly abound.”[Romans 5:20] And rightly is a woman appointed [as messenger] to men; that she who first had brought the message of sin to man should first bring the message of the grace of the Lord.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 92, footnote 9 (Image)
Leo the Great, Gregory the Great
The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)
Letters. (HTML)
To the Monks of Palestine. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 528 (In-Text, Margin)
... might effect a renewal of the old: and the bond of death fastened on us by one man’s wrong-doing might be loosened by the death of the one Man who alone owed nothing to death. For the pouring out of the blood of the righteous on behalf of the unrighteous was so powerful in its effect, so rich a ransom that, if the whole body of us prisoners only believed in their Redeemer, not one would be held in the tyrant’s bonds: since as the Apostle says, “where sin abounded, grace also did much more abound[Romans 5:20].” And since we, who were born under the imputation of sin, have received the power of a new birth unto righteousness, the gift of liberty has become stronger than the debt of slavery.