SAINT AURELIUS AUGUSTINE

EXPLAINS THAT

saying of the Apostle: "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, being witnessed by the law and the prophets."

Chapter 9.

Here, perhaps, that human presumption—ignorant of God’s righteousness and wishing to establish its own—might say that the Apostle rightly stated that no one will be justified by the law. For, such a person might argue, the law merely shows what must be done and what must be avoided, so that the will may fulfill what the law has shown; and thus, a person is justified not through the command of the law, but through free will: liberum arbitrium; the capacity of the human mind to choose between different courses of action, which Augustine argues is weakened by sin and requires grace to function rightly..
Romans 3

But, O man, pay attention to what follows: "But now," he says, "apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets."
Romans 10

Does it not sound clearly enough even to the deaf: "The righteousness of God," he says, "has been manifested"?
Romans 4

Those who wish to establish their own righteousness are ignorant of this, and they refuse to be subject to it. "The righteousness of God," he says, "has been manifested." He did not say "the righteousness of man," or "the righteousness of one's own will," but "the righteousness of God" original: "iustitia dei". This is not the righteousness by which God is Himself just, but that with which He clothes a person when He justifies the ungodly Augustine is making a crucial theological distinction: "righteousness of God" here refers to the gift of being made righteous by God, rather than God’s own personal attribute of justice.. This is witnessed by the law and the prophets; indeed, the law and the prophets provide testimony to this. The Law, by the very fact that it justifies no one through its commands and threats, sufficiently indicates that a person is justified by the gift of God through the help of the Spirit. As for the Prophets, the coming of Christ fulfilled what they foretold. For this is why he follows and adds, saying: "Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ,"
Romans 3

that is, through the faith by which one believes in Christ. Just as this is called the "faith of Christ"—not because Christ Himself believes—so that "righteousness of God" is not that by which God is just. Both belong to us, but they are called God's and Christ's because they are given to us by His generosity. Therefore, the righteousness of God "apart from the law" was manifested, yet not without the law. For how...