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From: Romans 4:13, 16-18

The Example of Abraham

[13] The promise to Abraham and his descendants, that they should inherit the
world, did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.

[16] That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace
and be guaranteed to all his descendant—not only to the adherents of the law but
also to those who share the faith of Abraham, for he is the father of us all, [17] it
is written, “I have made you the father of many nations—in the presence of the
God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the
things that do not exist. [18] In hope he believed against hope, that he should
become the father of many nations; as he had been told, “So shall your descen-
dants be.”

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Commentary:

13-14. God made this promise to Abraham about his having countless descen-
dants (cf. Gen 15:5-6) centuries before the Mosaic Law was given to the people
of Israel through Moses. Therefore, the promise made to Abraham was not linked
to the Law but rather to the Patriarch’s faith. That is why the heirs of the promise
are those who follow the faith of Abraham.

15. The Old Law, giving man a more exact knowledge of the natural law without
giving him special help (grace) to keep the law, “brings [God’s] wrath”: sin is
committed when one simply breaks the natural law, but it takes on the character
of “transgression” because one is flying in the face of explicit law of God.

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SSource: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Luke 12:8-12

Various Teachings of Jesus (Continuation)

(Jesus said to His disciples,) [8] “And I tell you, every one who acknowledges
Me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God;
[9] but he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.
[10] And every one who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven;
but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. [11] And
when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities,
do not be anxious how or what you are to answer or what you are to say; [12]
for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

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Commentary:

8-9. This follows logically from Christ’s previous teaching: worse than physical
evils, worse even than death, are evils of the soul, that is, sin. Those who out
of fear of temporal suffering deny our Lord and are unfaithful to the demands of
the faith will fall into a greater evil still: they will be denied by Christ Himself on
the Day of Judgment; whereas those who are penalized in this life because of
their faithfulness to Christ will receive the eternal reward of being recognized
by Him and will come to share His glory.

10. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit consists in maliciously attributing to the
devil actions which have God as their origin. A person who does that prevents
God’s pardon from reaching him: that is why he cannot obtain forgiveness (cf.
Matthew 12:31; Mark 3:28-30). Jesus understands and excuses the weakness
of a person who makes a moral mistake, but He is not similarly indulgent to
someone who shuts his eyes and his heart to the wonderful things the Spirit
does; that was the way these Pharisees acted who accused Jesus of casting
out demons in the name of Beelzebul; it is the way unbelieving people act who
refuse to see in Christ’s work a sign of the goodness of God, who reject the
invitation God offers them and who thereby put themselves outside the reach
of salvation (cf. Hebrews 6:4-6; 10:26-31). See the note on Mark 3:28-30.

[The note on Mark 3:28-30 states:

28-30. Jesus has just worked a miracle but the scribes refuse to recognize it
“for they had said ‘He has an unclean spirit’” (verse 30). They do not want to ad-
mit that God is the author of the miracle. In this attitude lies the special gravity
of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit — attributing to the prince of evil, to Satan,
the good works performed by God Himself. Anyone acting in this way will be-
come like the sick person who has so lost confidence in the doctor that he re-
jects him as if an enemy and regards as poison the medicine that can save his
life. That is why our Lord says that he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit
will not forgiven: not because God cannot forgive all sins, but because that per-
son, in his blindness towards God, rejects Jesus Christ, His teaching and His
miracles, and despises the graces of the Holy Spirit as if they were designed to
trap him (cf. “St. Pius V Catechism”, II, 5, 19; St. Thomas Aquinas, “Summa
Theologiae”, II-II, q. 14, a. 3).]

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.