Oxford University Press, 236 pgs.
Summary: Pelagius’ verse by verse commentary on Romans.
Fundamentally, Pelagius reads the text as if there is no original sin or inherited sin from Adam. The Fall caused no internal change to humanity. Each person is born innocent and sins only as they gain the habit of sin from following the example others. When Paul speaks of a sin nature or the flesh as in Romans 8, Pelagius reads the habit of sin. Neither creation nor humanity has been fundamentally corrupted or changed by the Fall. The “creation groaning” in Romans 8 refers to the angels mourning the humans’ misuse of their will to do ill.
Each decision by a human being must be free in the sense of no prior proclivity to sin. Even the habit of sin can be broken by the free will alone. Pelagius is of two minds as to if all have sinned. He makes statements that allow if not require that some have not sinned or have overcome sin on their own, but he also speaks of the universal need for salvation. Sin creates a debt that must be paid, and Christ has paid that debt. Baptism washes away the debt that occurred through sins prior to baptism, but then the forgiven and baptized sinner must begin to merit his salvation and follow Christ’s example perfectly. Justification or salvation is a process that begins at baptism, but must be maintained by good works.
The systematic portion of his work is the constant presumption of libertarian free will and the lack of original sin. He can be understood to teach salvation without grace if the reader traces his arguments with care, but he will occasionally speak of salvation by faith and grace. Pelagius is an example of a person whose isolated statements are a mixture of orthodoxy, heterodoxy, and heresy, but whose overall system, or any possible system constructed maintaining his basic presumptions and interpretations, is wholly heretical. It is possible that he lacked the cognitive skills necessary to grasp the logical and theological implications of his teaching. It is equally possible that he makes bold orthodox statements to distract and confusion the majority while expecting his discerning readers to understand his heterodox statements as his true position.
The judgment of the godly party of his day was that he was a vehement and dangerous heretic, and I see no reason to revise the opinion of the universal church from this commentary. To be somewhat ironic and anachronistic, he’s certainly Pelagian, though I see some room for hope that he believed better than he understood.
Exemplar Quotes:
- Libertas arbitrii (freedom of decision) for human beings.
Romans 1:21—“For the fact that they had been made in such a way that could recognize God if they wanted” (65).
1:24—“In the Scripture God is said ‘to give over’ when because of freedom of choice he does not restrain transgressors” (66).
6:13—“At the same it should be noted that it is through freedom of choice that a person offers his members for whatever side he wishes” (98).
8:3—“[Jesus] condemned sin, to show that the will was arraigned, not the nature, which God created in such a way that it was able not to sin, if it so wished” (107).
8:34—“He allowed him to be handed over, so that the freedom of choice of those who handed him over might be left intact. . .” (113).
Conclusion: “Humankind, it is true, is also called good, but we have the ability to be good or wise as a result of instruction. . .” (154).
- The libertarian free will means that human beings are capable of not sinning in the sense of doing good independent of God’s grace:
5:11—“Through whom we have now received reconciliation. Thus he means to show that Christ suffered so that we who had forsaken God by following Adam might be reconciled to God through Christ. 12 Therefore, just as through one person sin came into the world, and through sin death. By example or by pattern” (92).
- And in fact some are saved without Christ:
2:4—“Many even rail at him, ‘Why doesn’t he punish right away?, because they do not realize that, if had done so, almost no on would have survived, and the righteous would never have come from the unrighteous” (70).
3:4—“Though everyone is a liar. Here he uses ‘all’ for the greatest part. . .” (77).
- The problem of nature: nature is sufficient for salvation and peace with God.
1:32—“Although they had known the righteousness of God from the fact that they themselves also find evil displeasing, they did not realize that it follows from this that such person will be punished, if not in the present nevertheless in the future; for if they realized this, they would have been especially afraid of doing such things” (69).
2:1—“For by means of natural judgement each person pronounces a sentence which fits the deed, and all know both that uprightness deserves reward and that wickedness meets with punishment” (69).
2:9—“Either: He means those who were by nature righteous in the period before the law. Or: Those who even now do some good” (73).
5:10—“We were enemies, then, in our actions, not by nature; we have been reunited in peace, because by nature we had been united in peace” (91-92).
- The problem of merit:
1:8—“God is God of all by nature, but God of few in merit and will, as in the case of ‘the God of Abraham” (61).
8:11—“If you are so pure that the Holy Spirit deigns to dwell in you, God will not allow the temple of his Spirit to perish” (108).
9:15—“This is correctly understood as follows: I will have mercy on him whom I have foreknown will be able to deserve compassion, so that already than I have had mercy on him” (117).
9:23—“They were worthy of mercy, because they had committed lesser sins and had been severely oppressed” (120).
- Saved by faith, but salvation sustained by works:
3:1—“The apostle has explained that the law is useless once it has been treated with contempt, and that the privilege of physical circumcision is worthless unless it is sustained with works.
3:8—“when sins have been forgiven in baptism, love for God is increased, which covers a multitude of sins and finally keeps them from being counted against one as long as daily good works surpass past misdeeds” (85).
3:26—“[Jesus] alone has been found righteous, and also the one whom he has justified, not by works, but by faith” (83).
5:1—“He has also explained why neither race nor circumcision but faith makes people children of Abraham, who was justified initially by faith alone” (89).
- Substitutionary Atonement:
3:24—“Having been freely justified by his grace. Without the works of the law, through baptism, whereby he has freely forgiven the sins of all, though they are undeserving. Through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. By which he has redeemed us with his blood from death. Through sin we had been sold to death--as Isaiah says: ‘You were sold by your sin’--but Christ, who did not sin, conqoured death (Isa. 50:1). For we were all condemned to death, to which he handed himself over, though it is not his due, so that he might redeem us with his blood” (81-82).
Benefits/Detriments: A helpful introduction to Pelagius’ scheme of salvation. The notes ring true and provide cross references to Scripture, Augustine, Origen, and the like. This volume contains a reconstruction of Pelagius’ Latin text of the Epistle to the Romans.