Romans · Chapter 2

V. 1. Therefore-The apostle now makes a transition from the Gentiles to the Jews, till, at Romans 2:6, he comprises both. Thou art inexcusable-Seeing knowledge without practice only increases guilt.

O man-Having before spoken of the Gentile in the third person, he addresses the Jew in the second person. But he calls him by a common appellation, as not acknowledging him to be a Jew. See verses Romans 2:17 Romans

Verse 1. That judgest] oJ krinwn, the judger; thou assumest the character of a judge, and in that character condemnest others who are less guilty than thyself.

Verse 1. Therefore, &c. — The apostle, having shown that the Gentiles could not entertain the least hope of salvation, according to the tenor of the law of nature, which they violated, proceeds next to consider whether the law of Moses gave the Jews any better hope; an inquiry which he manages with great address. For, well knowing that on reading his description of the manners of the Greeks, the Jews would pronounce them worthy of damnation, he suddenly turns his discourse to the Jews, by telling them that they who passed such a judgment on the Gentiles were equally, yea, more guilty themselves, in that, with the advantage of the greater light of divine revelation, they were guilty of crimes as great as those he had charged on the Gentiles; and that therefore, by condemning the Gentiles, they virtually condemned themselves. Thou art inexcusable, O man — Seeing that knowledge without practice only increases guilt; whosoever thou art, that judgest — That censurest and condemnest; for wherein thou judgest another — Greek, ton eteron, the other — Namely, the heathen, and pronouncest them worthy of condemnation and wrath; thou condemnest thyself — As deserving the same: for thou that judgest doest the same things. According to Josephus, quoted here by Dr. Whitby, the Jews of that age were notoriously guilty of most of the crimes imputed to the Greeks and Romans in the preceding chapter. “There was not,” observes he, “a nation under heaven more wicked than they were. What have you done,” says he, addressing them, “of all the good things required by our lawgiver? What have you not done of all those things which he pronounced accursed? So that,” adds he, “had the Romans delayed to come against these execrable persons, I believe either the earth would have swallowed them up, or a deluge would have swept away their city; or fire from heaven would have consumed it, as it did Sodom, for it brought forth a generation of men far more wicked than they who suffered such things. It was sport to them to force women: and they exercised and required unnatural lusts, and filled the whole city with impurities. They committed all kinds of wickedness, omitting none which ever came into the mind of man; esteeming the worst of evils to be good, and meeting with that reward of their iniquity which was proper, and a judgment worthy of God.” The apostle, Mr. Locke thinks, represents the Jews as inexcusable in judging the Gentiles, especially because the latter, with all the darkness that was on their minds, were not guilty of such a folly as to judge those who were not more faulty than themselves, but lived on friendly terms with them, without censure or separation, thinking as well of their condition as of their own. For he considers the judging, which Paul here speaks of, as referring to that aversion which the Jews generally had to the Gentiles, in consequence of which “the unconverted Jews could not bear with the thoughts of a Messiah that admitted the heathen equally with themselves into his kingdom; nor could the converted Jews be brought to admit them into their communion, as the people of God, now equally with themselves; so that they generally, both one and the other, judged them unworthy the favour of God, and incapable of becoming his people any other way than by circumcision, and an observance of the ritual law; the inexcusableness and absurdity of which the apostle shows in this chapter.”

Verse 1. Therefore thou art inexcusable, oh man, whether Roman or Jew, who judgest another, and doest the same thing thyself, though it may be in some other way. But as the judgment of God is according to truth, for he knows the secrets of the heart, thou canst not escape condemnation. This inference is drawn from the preseding catalogue of crimes.

1. Therefore—Inasmuch as, according to the above previous verse, the most depraved know their guilt. O man—Whether Jew or Gentile, including all of mankind who impenitently claim exemption from condemnation because there lies a worse class below them. Whosoever thou art—Whether heathen philosopher or Jewish rabbi. That judgest— That usest thy knowledge in condemning others rather than in repenting for thyself. Wrongly doest thou assume the judgment seat rather than the criminal box. Doest the same things—In nature if not in degree. The apostle relies upon the response of every man’s conscience for the proof of this charge. Dividing human sins into sins of unlawful love and unlawful hate, every lustful thought indulged is as truly, though not as deeply, damning as self-abuse, and every malicious purpose is of the nature, though not of the degree, of murder.

Ver. 1. For which cause etc.: an unexpected result of § 4, and another link in the chain of moral cause and effect.

Without excuse: recalling Romans 1:20. God manifested Himself in Nature to leave man without excuse for ungodliness: and now Paul asserts that, by giving up the heathen to shame and thus revealing His anger against ungodliness, He has left without excuse all who estimate moral conduct.

Judge: to distinguish right and wrong, to pronounce sentence, but not necessarily an adverse sentence. We cannot avoid setting up ourselves as judges and pronouncing judgment, by our lips or in our hearts, on the actions of others. Consequently, the words

whoever thou art that judgest include all men. From this universal judging, we shall learn in Romans 2:15 that all men have a moral law. In § 4, by referring to idolatry and to the revelation of God in Nature, Paul limited his remarks to the Gentiles. But now he infers, from God’s manifested anger against the Gentiles, that all men are without excuse, thus including the Jews: and, by excluding them in § 4 and including them in § 5, he compels us to think about them. From Romans 2:9, 10 we learn that the distinction of Jew and Gentile was in his mind. In § 4, he gained the verdict of the Jews against the Gentiles; and he now declares that by this verdict both Jews and Gentiles are left without excuse. For wherein etc.: proof of the foregoing words. And this proof rests upon the words following:

for thou dost practise the same things. Paul looks every man in the face and charges him with committing the sins described above. This implies that apart from the Gospel all men are sinning. He does not say expressly that all men commit the unnatural sins described in Romans 1:26, 27: for these are followed by a long list of other sins. But he asserts plainly that all men do what they know that God forbids and may justly punish. We have however proof that the special sins just referred to, which were in Paul’s day so prevalent among the Gentiles, were also prevalent among those who called themselves the people of God. The best of the Jews would be the least likely to absolve themselves from this charge of universal sinfulness: for their efforts to do right would teach them the deep corruption of their own hearts. The general moral debasement of the nation is depicted in dark colours on the pages of Josephus.

If Paul’s accusation be true, it is also true that all who pass sentence on others, by doing so, pass an adverse sentence on themselves. A judge who takes his seat to try a man for forgery, and is himself a forger, by opening the trial condemns himself: for he admits that forgery is a crime, and therefore that he himself deserves punishment. In § 4, Paul compelled the Jews to join in his sentence against the Gentiles. But the conduct which he compelled them to condemn as a mark of God’s anger is, he now tells them, their own conduct. Therefore, every man who has the moral sense to concur in this condemnation leaves himself without excuse.

1 They that sin, though they condemn it in others cannot excuse themselves, 6 and much less escape the judgment of God, 9 whether they be Jews or Gentiles. 14 The Gentiles cannot escape, 17 nor yet the Jews, 25 whom their circumcision shall not profit, if they keep not the law.

CHAPTER 2. Verse 1. Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, &c. — The majority of commentators, ancient and modern, consider these words addressed to the Jews, as distinguished from the Gentiles. Certainly the discourse in the subsequent verses is expressly addressed to them; and the transaction is best fixed here, although the Jews are not mentioned by name. That he now turns to his own countrymen, is also made clear, from his founding his address upon that severity of judgment against the Gentiles, in which we know that they indulged: Thou art inexcusable, O man, that judgest, pronouncest censure and condemnation upon the Gentiles. For not only was the phrase, “sinners of the Gentiles,” continually in the naughty lips of that self-righteous people, but they regarded all the Gentiles as liable to eternal punishment. The judging of which the apostle speaks does not agree so well to the Gentiles; for it implies much more than the reproofs of moralists, the lash of satirists, and the occasional restraints put upon many vices by magistrates. They judged in the sense of condemning, as the context will show; they loudly and openly, among themselves, spoke of them as obnoxious to the wrath of God, both in this and another life. In this view dio, wherefore, must be considered as merely marking, not a conclusion from what precedes, but a transition to another but yet cognate branch of the argument; for it was equally necessary, in laying down the claims of the Gospel to universal acceptance, that the sinfulness and danger of the Jews should also be established. Thou condemnest thyself. — The apostle gives great spirit to the discourse by singling out an individual Jew, and addressing him personally, as the representative of the rest. In the very act of judging or condemning another, ton eteron, the other, the Gentile, thou condemnest thyself, thou declarest thyself also liable to the future wrath of God, for thou doest the same things. — The immoralities of the Jews the apostle does not attempt to prove. This is important to mark, in order to ascertain the connection of what follows. He knew that they could not deny very gross corruption of manners, — not generally to the same extent as the Gentiles; but all the pagan immoralities were more or less known among them, and all the ordinary vices, mental and sensual, of unrenewed nature. He does not deny the existence of virtuous persons either among Jews or Gentiles; but he speaks of the mass as practically sinful, which was a matter of notoriety, and in fact proves every thing; for it needs nothing more being granted than that the majority of men in all ages have been corrupt, to prove that this necessarily implies the fall of human nature itself, and the corruption, in the largest sense, of THE HUMAN HEART. What of real virtue there was among Jews or Gentiles is to be traced to another source, of which we shall just now speak.

Although, however, St. Paul charges the Jews with practical sinfulness as well as the Gentiles, and by not stopping to offer any proof indicates that they neither could nor were disposed to deny the charge, he effected little by establishing that fact to convince them of the necessity and value of the Gospel, considered as a divinely instituted means of salvation, so long as they believed that, notwithstanding their offences, they were on account of their privileges religiously safe. This indeed was the current and generally received doctrine; and it is the key to the meaning of the verses that follow. It was their fatal delusion, as it has been that of professed Christians in later times; and therefore the apostle assails it in the most solemn and powerful manner.

2:17, 28.

Whosoever thou art that judgest-Censurest, condemnest. For in that thou judgest the other-The heathen.

Thou condemnest thyself; for thou doest the same things-In effect; in many instances.

V. 2. For we know-Without thy teaching

That the judgment of God-Not thine, who exceptest thyself from its sentence.

Is according to truth-Is just, making no exception, Romans 2:5,6,11; and reaches the heart as well as the life, Romans 2:16.

Verse 2. We are sure that the judgment of God, &c.] God is impartial, and will punish sin wheresoever he finds it. Transgression in a Jew is not less criminal than iniquity in a Gentile.

Verses 2-4. But we are sure — Greek, oidamen, we know; though men may judge partially and perversely, yet God will judge uprightly; that the judgment of God — The sentence that he will pronounce upon persons, whether Jews or Gentiles, is according to truth — According to the true state of every man’s case; or according to the true character of persons, and the true quality of the actions and dispositions; (verses 5-11;) against them who commit such things — However they may behave toward their fellow-creatures. Dr. Macknight, who understands the expression, according to truth, as signifying, “according to the true meaning of God’s covenant with the fathers of the Jewish nation,” observes, “By this declaration, the apostle reprobates the erroneous opinion confidently maintained by the Jews, who, fancying that by their natural descent from Abraham, they were entitled to the promises made to his seed, firmly believed that no Jew would be damned.” And thinkest thou this, &c. — Canst thou then, by the sentence which thou passest upon others, think to evade that which goeth forth against thyself? Or despisest thou — Dost thou go further still, and, from hoping to escape his wrath, dost thou proceed to abuse his love? The riches — Or the abundance; of his goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering — Exercised for such a length of time toward thee, who not only hast sinned, but dost sin, and wilt sin. The word, katafronew, here rendered despise, also signifies to think against, to think wrong, or misconstrue; and the clause may be fitly translated, Dost thou misconstrue, or form a wrong opinion of, the goodness of God? God’s goodness, of which the Jews formed a wrong opinion, or which they despised, consisted chiefly in his having made them his church and people, in his having frequently, in an extraordinary manner, protected them against or delivered them from their enemies, conferred upon them innumerable blessings, temporal and spiritual, especially the latter, having from time to time raised up among them divinely-inspired prophets, to reveal his will to them, to instruct, warn, caution, and exhort them, and having intrusted with them his holy oracles. From these marks of the divine favour they vainly inferred that God would punish no descendant of Abraham for his sins in a future state. But in this they grievously erred, for the goodness of God, together with his other attributes here mentioned, was not intended to make sinning safe to the Jews, but to lead them to repentance for their sins. Forbearance (Greek, anoch) is that disposition in God by which he forbears to punish sin immediately upon its being committed; long-suffering — Or slowness to anger, signifies his deferring for a long time to punish; and here it seems chiefly to intend his patiently bearing long the ill use which the Jews made of the privileges they enjoyed as his church and people, and of the various blessings he had conferred upon them.

2. We—All intuitively agree in this, whether the extremely depraved, the moderately depraved, or the sanctified. Is according to truth—And, therefore, is not to be turned by evasive pleas.

Ver. 2. The R.V. reads in the text, following the A.V., and we know; putting in the margin, as read by “Many ancient authorities,” for we know: a variation in one word. This latter reading would make Romans 2:2 confirm Romans 2:1, whereas the former would make it an additional assertion. The latter reading is given by Tischendorf; the former by the other editors, (see Introd. iii. 7,) who put the latter in their margin, thus expressing doubt. The external evidence seems to me slightly to favour the reading and we know; and the internal evidence somewhat more so. But the practical difference is slight.

To their own self-condemnation, Paul now adds the sentence of a more tremendous judge.

The judgment of God: in this case evidently a sentence of condemnation. We know etc.: an appeal to their own conscience. Men may call in question the grounds of their belief that God will punish sin: but with a voice which they cannot contradict their own hearts tell them that He does so. In Xenophon’s Anabasis bk. ii. 5. 7, a Greek general reminds a Persian that to break oaths is to incur the anger of the gods, and that from their anger none can escape. Here we have one heathen appealing to another, to a stranger in race and religion, on the ground of a moral truth admitted by all.

According to truth: corresponding with the reality of the case, with man’s actual conduct. All judges aim at this: God attains it.

Upon: as in Romans 1:18.

We now see the justice of the universal inference in Romans 2:1. God made His name known to the Gentiles, in order to take from them all excuse for ungodliness. They treated with contempt His revelation of Himself: and in proof of His anger He gave them up to gross sin. In a more definite manner God made Himself known to the Jews: and their own hearts tell them that they are guilty of the darkest ingratitude and the most shameful sin. Therefore, if the gross sin of the Gentiles is a mark of God’s anger against them for disregarding the revelation in Nature, and if God’s judgment corresponds with man’s real conduct, the gross sin of the Jews is a mark of God’s anger against them for neglecting a more glorious revelation. Possibly even § 4 was designed chiefly for the Jews. It is a darker repetition of Nathan’s parable. After securing their verdict against the character described, Paul turns round in a moment and says, Thou art the man.

Notice in Romans 2:2 a repetition, after complete proof, of the assertion in Romans 1:18.

Verses 2, 3. The judgment of God, &c. — The sentence of God in his law, whether the moral law as it existed from the beginning, or as preserved more exactly among the Jews, and which all acknowledge to connect punishment with sin, is, we know, we all agree, according to truth; that is, the threatenings of God are seriously uttered, as well as his promises; they are not words without meaning, but TRUE declarations of the purposes of the Lawgiver. Those who render “according to justice,” or “are without partiality,” miss the point. The Jews acknowledged the faithfulness and truth of God in his law; and having conceded that, the apostle avails himself of it to bring the convincing question which follows to bear upon their consciences. And thinkest thou this, O man, that condemnest another, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God, — this very judgment or sentence which thou acknowledgest, by contending for the Divine authority of the law to be according to truth; to be declared with perfect sincerity, as by “the God of truth?”

V. 3. That thou shalt escape-Rather than the Gentile.

Verses 2-4. But we are sure — Greek, oidamen, we know; though men may judge partially and perversely, yet God will judge uprightly; that the judgment of God — The sentence that he will pronounce upon persons, whether Jews or Gentiles, is according to truth — According to the true state of every man’s case; or according to the true character of persons, and the true quality of the actions and dispositions; (verses 5-11;) against them who commit such things — However they may behave toward their fellow-creatures. Dr. Macknight, who understands the expression, according to truth, as signifying, “according to the true meaning of God’s covenant with the fathers of the Jewish nation,” observes, “By this declaration, the apostle reprobates the erroneous opinion confidently maintained by the Jews, who, fancying that by their natural descent from Abraham, they were entitled to the promises made to his seed, firmly believed that no Jew would be damned.” And thinkest thou this, &c. — Canst thou then, by the sentence which thou passest upon others, think to evade that which goeth forth against thyself? Or despisest thou — Dost thou go further still, and, from hoping to escape his wrath, dost thou proceed to abuse his love? The riches — Or the abundance; of his goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering — Exercised for such a length of time toward thee, who not only hast sinned, but dost sin, and wilt sin. The word, katafronew, here rendered despise, also signifies to think against, to think wrong, or misconstrue; and the clause may be fitly translated, Dost thou misconstrue, or form a wrong opinion of, the goodness of God? God’s goodness, of which the Jews formed a wrong opinion, or which they despised, consisted chiefly in his having made them his church and people, in his having frequently, in an extraordinary manner, protected them against or delivered them from their enemies, conferred upon them innumerable blessings, temporal and spiritual, especially the latter, having from time to time raised up among them divinely-inspired prophets, to reveal his will to them, to instruct, warn, caution, and exhort them, and having intrusted with them his holy oracles. From these marks of the divine favour they vainly inferred that God would punish no descendant of Abraham for his sins in a future state. But in this they grievously erred, for the goodness of God, together with his other attributes here mentioned, was not intended to make sinning safe to the Jews, but to lead them to repentance for their sins. Forbearance (Greek, anoch) is that disposition in God by which he forbears to punish sin immediately upon its being committed; long-suffering — Or slowness to anger, signifies his deferring for a long time to punish; and here it seems chiefly to intend his patiently bearing long the ill use which the Jews made of the privileges they enjoyed as his church and people, and of the various blessings he had conferred upon them.

3. Judgest… thou—One of the most striking proofs of the reality of a human conscience, and of its real acuteness in breasts apparently most depraved and obtuse, is not its power of self-condemnation, but its keenness in the condemnation of others. The most reckless and unconscientious wretch will be critically and delicately sharp in analyzing and severely condemning the aberration of some good man. Paul, therefore, shows singular skill in turning the analysis of these moral critics to a keen practice upon their own cases. Shalt escape—On account of the moderate amount of thy viciousness. Doubtless a less deep penalty awaits a less deep guilt. But no degree of guilt can escape by self-excuse or self-disregard; the only outlet is by confessed ruin, human repentance, and divine mercy. To that repentance Paul did not press the abandoned dregs of chapter i as being out of hearing and perhaps hopeless; but to that repentance he now presses this class, whose great danger is a denial of their own ruin, and a consequent impenitent persistence in it. They are near enough to listen, they are delicate enough to judge, and the very work to which the apostle rightly applies himself is to reveal to them their danger.

Ver. 3. A pointed question bringing out in its worthlessness and absurdity a secret hope of escape cherished by some who are guilty of the sins which they condemn in others. While valid for all men, Paul’s appeal refers probably to the Jews.

Dost thou reckon this? is this the result of thy reasoning? Paul singles out an objector and speaks to him as though he had the man standing before him. For to him every thought assumes living form and breathes and speaks.

Judgest… and dost: solemn restatement of the man’s inconsistency. He condemns himself by condemning others, and knows that his own self-condemnation is confirmed by God who judges every man according to his actual conduct: and yet he expects in some way to evade the sentence of God. The words according to truth in Romans 2:2 and the judgment of God in Romans 2:3 expose the folly of this expectation. From man’s judgment escape is possible: but who shall escape the sentence of God?

Verses 2, 3. The judgment of God, &c. — The sentence of God in his law, whether the moral law as it existed from the beginning, or as preserved more exactly among the Jews, and which all acknowledge to connect punishment with sin, is, we know, we all agree, according to truth; that is, the threatenings of God are seriously uttered, as well as his promises; they are not words without meaning, but TRUE declarations of the purposes of the Lawgiver. Those who render “according to justice,” or “are without partiality,” miss the point. The Jews acknowledged the faithfulness and truth of God in his law; and having conceded that, the apostle avails himself of it to bring the convincing question which follows to bear upon their consciences. And thinkest thou this, O man, that condemnest another, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God, — this very judgment or sentence which thou acknowledgest, by contending for the Divine authority of the law to be according to truth; to be declared with perfect sincerity, as by “the God of truth?”

V. 4. Or despisest thou-Dost thou go farther still,-from hoping to escape his wrath, to the abuse of his love?.

The riches-The abundance.

Of his goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering-Seeing thou both hast sinned, dost sin, and wilt sin. All these are afterwards comprised in the single word goodness.

Leadeth thee-That is, is designed of God to lead or encourage thee to it.

Verse 4. Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness] Wilt thou render of none effect that marked benevolence of God towards thee which has given so many superior advantages, and that forbearance which has tolerated thy many miscarriages, and that long-suffering which, after repeated provocations, still continues to bear with thee? Not knowing] agnown, not acknowledging that this goodness of God, which has so long manifested itself in forbearance and long-suffering, leadeth thee to repentance-was designed to accomplish this blessed end; which thy want of consideration and acknowledgment has rendered, hitherto, ineffectual. This was a maxim among the Jews themselves; for, in Synopsis Sohar, it is said:-The holy blessed God delays his anger against the wicked, to the end that they may repent and be converted.

Verses 2-4. But we are sure — Greek, oidamen, we know; though men may judge partially and perversely, yet God will judge uprightly; that the judgment of God — The sentence that he will pronounce upon persons, whether Jews or Gentiles, is according to truth — According to the true state of every man’s case; or according to the true character of persons, and the true quality of the actions and dispositions; (verses 5-11;) against them who commit such things — However they may behave toward their fellow-creatures. Dr. Macknight, who understands the expression, according to truth, as signifying, “according to the true meaning of God’s covenant with the fathers of the Jewish nation,” observes, “By this declaration, the apostle reprobates the erroneous opinion confidently maintained by the Jews, who, fancying that by their natural descent from Abraham, they were entitled to the promises made to his seed, firmly believed that no Jew would be damned.” And thinkest thou this, &c. — Canst thou then, by the sentence which thou passest upon others, think to evade that which goeth forth against thyself? Or despisest thou — Dost thou go further still, and, from hoping to escape his wrath, dost thou proceed to abuse his love? The riches — Or the abundance; of his goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering — Exercised for such a length of time toward thee, who not only hast sinned, but dost sin, and wilt sin. The word, katafronew, here rendered despise, also signifies to think against, to think wrong, or misconstrue; and the clause may be fitly translated, Dost thou misconstrue, or form a wrong opinion of, the goodness of God? God’s goodness, of which the Jews formed a wrong opinion, or which they despised, consisted chiefly in his having made them his church and people, in his having frequently, in an extraordinary manner, protected them against or delivered them from their enemies, conferred upon them innumerable blessings, temporal and spiritual, especially the latter, having from time to time raised up among them divinely-inspired prophets, to reveal his will to them, to instruct, warn, caution, and exhort them, and having intrusted with them his holy oracles. From these marks of the divine favour they vainly inferred that God would punish no descendant of Abraham for his sins in a future state. But in this they grievously erred, for the goodness of God, together with his other attributes here mentioned, was not intended to make sinning safe to the Jews, but to lead them to repentance for their sins. Forbearance (Greek, anoch) is that disposition in God by which he forbears to punish sin immediately upon its being committed; long-suffering — Or slowness to anger, signifies his deferring for a long time to punish; and here it seems chiefly to intend his patiently bearing long the ill use which the Jews made of the privileges they enjoyed as his church and people, and of the various blessings he had conferred upon them.

Ver. 4. Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness; presuming that because he does not now punish thee, he never will. Proverbs 29:1. — Not knowing, agnown, not acknowledging, or considering that the goodness of God is designed to lead thee to repentance.

4. Riches of his goodness—These men abase the goodness of God by holding that it will not condemn such goodness as they possess. Paul admits the copious affluence of God’s goodness. But that goodness is amply displayed, and will be fully exhausted, in the exercise of God’s forbearance and long-suffering with their persistent decent sinfulness. Goodness and forbearance and long-suffering—Form a beautiful climax. Leadeth—Not drags, but attracts. (See note on John 6:44.) Leads those who follow with willing steps.

Ver. 4. Another question, bringing out the secret ground of this fallacious hope. God is merciful; and has shown special

kindness to Israel by forbearance and longsuffering of long-continued sin. Therefore, though the man lives in sin, he expects to escape punishment. Paul declares that this hope is to despise His kindness in ignorance of its purpose.

The riches of His kindness: His abundant gentleness towards men: cp. Romans 9:23. Paul frequently heaps word on word, because he feels how poor the best words are to express the great things of God. His forbearance is shown in His holding back for a time His anger against sin: in the duration of His forbearance we see His longsuffering: and in the forbearance and longsuffering we see His abundant kindness. Repentance: a change of purpose, arising from change of circumstances or from dissatisfaction with a former purpose, and prompting a change of action. This original use of the word is seen in 1 Samuel 15:11, where God is said to repent, and in 1 Samuel 15:29, where we read that He cannot repent: cp. Jeremiah 4:28; 18:7-10. In a technical religious sense, viz. to denote a sinner’s purpose to forsake sin and serve God, the word is found, without further specification, in Matthew 3:2, 8, 11; 4:17; Luke 24:47; Acts 17:30; 26:20. See also Acts 20:21. Leading thee towards repentance: God is bringing to bear on this man influences tending towards a change of purpose and a resolve henceforth to do right. But evidently these divine influences are altogether without result. For in spite of them the man’s heart is without repentance: Romans 2:5. In English we should say, “seeks to lead thee to repentance.” But the Greek idiom here used is equally correct and more graphic. For the hand of God is actually upon the man, drawing him towards something better. Paul asserts that God in His kindness exerts influences which, if yielded to, would change his life purpose.

Towards: an aim or tendency: see under Romans 1:1. God delays punishment because His kindness moves Him to use influence to lead the man to a new purpose in life, viz. to serve God. But the sinner, not knowing this, supposes that God’s kindness arises from indulgence towards sin. Now a ruler’s indulgence towards sin is an evil; whereas God’s kindness is infinitely good. This man misunderstands it to be a disposition which he would himself despise in any judge, and shows his contempt of it by refusing to be moved by it. He thus

despises the kindness of God. Yet upon this kindness, which he both misunderstands and resists, he leans for escape from the just judgment of God.

Notice that Paul singles out of the promiscuous mass of his opponents a man who is heaping up for himself future punishment, and tells him without hesitation that God is leading him towards repentance; and charges him with ignorance for not knowing this. From this we infer with certainty that upon all men God is bringing these influences to bear. For, if there were one exception, Paul could not use the language of this verse. Cp. 1 Timothy 2:4; John 12:32. Without these influences, repentance is impossible: John 6:44, 65.

Verse 4. Despisest thou the riches of his goodness? &c. — Here the apostle goes to the root of the error: the Jews drew this false hope of impunity, and complete exception from the threatenings of the law, from the goodness of God to them as a people. We see this delusion opened in the discourse of John the Baptist. He preached repentance for their sins, and enforced it by setting before them “the wrath to come;” and, knowing that they would steel their hearts against his exhortations, and hide their danger from themselves by referring to their peculiar national covenant, he cries out, “And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father,” &c. The doctrine which in that age they endeavoured corruptly to maintain and diffuse was, that no Israelite could be finally lost. Thus they encouraged themselves in sin and hardness of heart. This St. Paul calls despising the riches of his goodness. This is in his favourite but peculiar way of expressing himself. Of a similar use of the term riches, to mark exuberance and abundance in the strongest sense, his epistles afford many examples, and show the manner in which he was impressed with the benevolent character of God, and how well he comprehended the mighty import of its manifestation in his dispensations of grace, whether under the law or the Gospel. The riches of the goodness of God, as to the Jews, to which he refers, comprehends all those religious advantages, as well as other benefits, they had derived from their peculiar relation to him, by virtue of the covenant with Abraham; but with the apostle they were all connected with their true end, their salvation. It was in this that the riches of the goodness of God consisted, that provision had been specially made among them for the obtaining of pardon, the sanctifying influences of grace, and a title to the heavenly inheritance; they had therefore express moral instruction, a system of authorized propitiations, a typical service, and promises of a resurrection unto eternal life. To these eminent proofs of goodness, he adds forbearance, anoch, enduring much disobedience, rebellion, and perverseness, before he issues his threatening, and declares his determination to punish. — Long suffering differs from forbearance in this, that it seems to have respect to the delay of the threatened punishment, so as to show reluctance to execute it, and to give opportunities of repentance. Of this the Jewish history had many affecting examples: and while the apostle wrote, the nation was indeed under sentence, the sentence, passed by our Lord himself; yet had it been singularly delayed, and the space filled with calls to repentance and overtures of reconciliation. To make therefore this goodness of God, as expressing itself in the gift of superior religious advantages, and in long bearing with their offences, so as not to be hasty to deprive them of them, an argument for continuing to sin against God, under the pretence that his very kindness showed that he made them exceptions from his displeasure, was a manifest despising of the goodness of God, which is the import of the word katafronein; for as the whole proceeded from unworthy notions of God’s goodness, as though it could be a weak favouritism, and connive at sin in particular persons and nations, that glorious attribute was in THE EFFECT contemned and despised; it had an unworthy motive assigned to it, which heightened the offences themselves it was resorted to to excuse.

Not knowing that the goodness of God, &. — Not to know, is here, as in many places, not to consider, so as to attain and be suitably impressed with the truth, that the goodness of God leadeth, agei, draws and allures, thee to repentance. Whatever displays of the benevolence of God take place as to sinners have a moral design, which is surely not to encourage them in their rebellion, but to lead them to repentance, by placing before them the gracious character of God, and affecting their hearts by it; for by this their sins are at once shown to be unnatural, and odiously ungrateful, and the hope of clemency is indicated, without which there can be no such repentance as springs from any nobler affection than fear. The judgments of God appeal to the fears; the goodness of God to gratitude, and hope, and self abhorrence; and is intended to soften the heart, and to produce contrition, real sorrow and shame for sin, and strong desires to be delivered from the degradation of its pollution, as well as the terror of its punishment. Such was the use which the Jews ought to have made of the goodness of God; but they abused it, to lull their consciences to sleep, as do Antinomians, under a notion of their being the peculiar favourites of God; and those who attach an unscriptural importance to the sacraments of the Christian Church, as though they placed them in some mystical covenant relation to God, scarcely by any means to be forfeited, although their lives should be spent in the practice of vice, and the habit of their affections be that of a worldly estrangement from God, do the same thing.

V. 5. Treasurest up wrath-Although thou thinkest thou art treasuring up all good things. O what a treasure may a man lay up either way, in this short day of life!

To thyself-Not to him whom thou judgest.

In the day of wrath, and revelation, and righteous judgment of God-Just opposite to "the goodness and forbearance and longsuffering" of God. When God shall be revealed, then shall also be "revealed" the secrets of men's hearts, Romans 2:16. Forbearance and revelation respect God, and are opposed to each other; longsuffering and righteous judgment respect the sinner; goodness and wrath are words of a more general import.

Verse 5. But after thy hardness] Occasioned by thy long course of iniquity. And impenitent heart-produced by thy hardness, through which thou art callous to the calls and expostulations of conscience. Treasurest up-continuest to increase thy debt to the Divine justice, which will infallibly inflict wrath-punishment in the day of wrath-the judgment day, in which he will render to every man according to his works. The word treasure the Hebrew uses to express any kind of store or collection:-Treasure or plenty of rain. Deuteronomy 28:12: The Lord shall open unto thee his good TREASURE, to give the RAIN unto thy land. Treasure of punishment. Deuteronomy 32:34, 35: Is not this sealed up among my TREASURES? To me belongeth VENGEANCE and RECOMPENSE. Treasures of mines, i.e. abundance of minerals. Deuteronomy 33:19: They shall suck of the ABUNDANCE of the seas, and of TREASURES hid in the sand. So treasures of gold, silver, corn, wine, oil, &c., mean collections or an abundance of such things: the word is used by the Greek writers precisely in the same sense. By wrath we are to understand punishment, as in Romans 1:18; and it is used so by the very best Greek writers. See Kypke.

The treasure of wrath, in this verse, is opposed to the riches of goodness, in the preceding. As surely as thou despisest, or neglectest to improve the RICHES of God’s GOODNESS, so surely thou shalt share in the TREASURES of his WRATH. The punishment shall be proportioned to the mercy thou hast abused.

Verses 5-7. But after thy hardness — Greek, kata thu sklhrothta, according to thy obduracy, or insensibility of mind; and impenitent — Ametanohton, inconsiderate, unreflecting, and unrelenting heart, by reason of that stubbornness and obstinacy in sin which thou hast contracted; treasurest up wrath — Although thou thinkest thou art treasuring up all good things; unto thyself — Not to him whom thou judgest: that is, Thou provokest God more and more to aggravate thy punishment. In our language, a treasure signifies a collection of things useful or precious. But the Hebrews gave that appellation to a heap, or an abundance of any thing, whether good or bad. Hence, Proverbs 10:2, we read of treasures of wickedness. Reader! think what a treasure of good or evil, of felicity or misery, a man may lay up for himself in this short day of life! Against the day of wrath — The day of retribution, when God will fully execute wrath on impenitent sinners. Wrath is here, as often elsewhere, put for punishment, the effect of wrath. The apostle calls the day of retribution the day of wrath, to make the wicked sensible that as men greatly enraged do not suffer their enemies to escape, so God, highly displeased with the wicked, will assuredly punish them in the severest manner at length. Probably the apostle had in view, 1st, The awful vengeance which the divine wrath was about to bring on the Jews in the destruction of their city and temple, the depopulation of their country, and the dissolution of their commonwealth, which, 1 Thessalonians 2:16, he calls, wrath coming upon them to the uttermost. 2d, It appears, however, by what follows, that he spoke principally of the day of final judgment; and revelation of the righteous judgment of God — When God will make manifest to all the world the justice of his proceedings, both toward the righteous and the wicked. Bengelius reads, wrath, and revelation, and righteous judgment: just opposite to the three gracious attributes above mentioned; wrath opposed to goodness; revelation, when God will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, opposed to his present forbearance; and righteous judgment, when he will no longer defer to punish, opposed to his present longsuffering. Who will render to every man — Both good and bad, both Jew and Gentile; according to his deeds — Not according to his external privileges, or his pretences and presumptuous expectations, but according to the real nature and quality of his works. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing — By persevering in a constant course of holiness and righteousness, notwithstanding all the oppositions and difficulties they meet with; (see Matthew 24:13; Revelation 2:10;) seek for glory — That state of splendour and brightness in which the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father, Matthew 13:43. Honour — Approbation, commendation, and praise from God and Christ, and all the heavenly host, mentioned 1 Peter 1:7. And immortality — Afqarsian, incorruptibility, everlasting life, health, and vigour of both body and mind. The words include the consummation and perfection of all those glorious qualifications and enjoyments which are bestowed on the saints in heaven. This the saints seek for; that is, desire and labour after; for, though love to God and Christ is the principal spring of their obedience, yet that love does not exclude the faith which is the evidence of things not seen, or that hope of heavenly glory and felicity which is as an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast; and which, partly at least, influenced Christ himself amidst all his labours and sufferings, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, and despised the shame. Eternal life — Which God will render to such.

Ver. 5. Treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath, when the full indictment shall be read against thee in presence of the great Judge, with whom is no respect of persons, and when the treasures of wrath shall correspond with the riches of goodness which thou hast despised.

5. Hardness—Unsusceptibility to divine impressions, from the fact that the conscience, though alive to others’ sins, is dead as to his own. Treasurest—As God has a riches of goodness, so the sinner may accumulate treasures of wrath. Day of wrath—(See note on verse 16.) Revelation—Literally, an uncovering. While the sinner is accumulating the judgment is covered, but the day will remove the concealment and disclose the reality.

Ver. 5. A plain statement of what the man is actually doing, the man who while continuing in sin cherishes a secret hope of escape. Hardness: moral obstinacy which will not bend to divine influences: Romans 9:18; 11:7; Matthew 19:8; Acts 19:9; Hebrews 3:8.

A heart without-repentance: result and proof of his hardness. According to his character and heart, he acts.

Treasuring: adding day by day to his sins, and therefore to the anger of God, hidden now as in a treasure-house, but in safe keeping, till the day of anger and of revelation (or unveiling, see Romans 1:18) of God’s righteous judgment. Notice here a definite day of judgment, as in Romans 2:16; Acts 17:31; this last an important coincidence. The increasing treasure of wrath, hidden now, will then be visible to all. Contrast Matthew 6:19. This implies gradation in punishment: Otherwise there could be no increase of it.

Verse 5. But after thy hardness and impenitent heart, &c. — This is still in the way of solemn expostulation, under a deep sense of the fatal character of the delusion charged upon them. The state of the heart guilty of this error is described to be hard and impenitent. And it is impossible to conceive of a state of the feelings more obdurate and perverse than exists in those who take occasion habitually to sin from the very goodness of the Being sinned against. Hardness, which is not moved by so many and constant proofs of God’s hatred to sin, and his severity in punishing it, which everywhere surround them; and remained unaffected by that very kindness and condescension of God which they celebrate in their sacred songs, and of which they boast as so abundant toward themselves as a people. It awakened no generous sentiment, no gratitude, no soft remorse. From this obduracy impenitence followed; for, so long as their consciences were lulled to sleep by these delusions, they were incapable of repentance or godly sorrow for sin. Such persons are represented as treasuring up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath, laying up wrath as in a storehouse through a whole life of repeated offences, until the final day of account, which is called the day of wrath, as to them and to all sinful men, because of the full and unmitigated infliction of the punishment due to their offences, which shall then take place; and then, with respect to all, a day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God, when there shall be an illustrious display of the perfect equity and justice of the decisions of the Judge of the whole earth, before angels and men. However severe, therefore, the future and endless punishment of the wicked may now appear to any, we are, on this awful subject, to recollect that we know the case very imperfectly, but that the last day shall be a day of revelation as well as judicial decision, and that the subject of this revelation will be the righteousness of this very judgment, to express which the apostle appears to have formed the expressive compound word dikaiokrisia.

V. 6. Proverbs 24:12

Verse 6. Who will render] Who, in the day of judgment, will reward and punish every man according as his life and conversation have been.

Verses 5-7. But after thy hardness — Greek, kata thu sklhrothta, according to thy obduracy, or insensibility of mind; and impenitent — Ametanohton, inconsiderate, unreflecting, and unrelenting heart, by reason of that stubbornness and obstinacy in sin which thou hast contracted; treasurest up wrath — Although thou thinkest thou art treasuring up all good things; unto thyself — Not to him whom thou judgest: that is, Thou provokest God more and more to aggravate thy punishment. In our language, a treasure signifies a collection of things useful or precious. But the Hebrews gave that appellation to a heap, or an abundance of any thing, whether good or bad. Hence, Proverbs 10:2, we read of treasures of wickedness. Reader! think what a treasure of good or evil, of felicity or misery, a man may lay up for himself in this short day of life! Against the day of wrath — The day of retribution, when God will fully execute wrath on impenitent sinners. Wrath is here, as often elsewhere, put for punishment, the effect of wrath. The apostle calls the day of retribution the day of wrath, to make the wicked sensible that as men greatly enraged do not suffer their enemies to escape, so God, highly displeased with the wicked, will assuredly punish them in the severest manner at length. Probably the apostle had in view, 1st, The awful vengeance which the divine wrath was about to bring on the Jews in the destruction of their city and temple, the depopulation of their country, and the dissolution of their commonwealth, which, 1 Thessalonians 2:16, he calls, wrath coming upon them to the uttermost. 2d, It appears, however, by what follows, that he spoke principally of the day of final judgment; and revelation of the righteous judgment of God — When God will make manifest to all the world the justice of his proceedings, both toward the righteous and the wicked. Bengelius reads, wrath, and revelation, and righteous judgment: just opposite to the three gracious attributes above mentioned; wrath opposed to goodness; revelation, when God will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, opposed to his present forbearance; and righteous judgment, when he will no longer defer to punish, opposed to his present longsuffering. Who will render to every man — Both good and bad, both Jew and Gentile; according to his deeds — Not according to his external privileges, or his pretences and presumptuous expectations, but according to the real nature and quality of his works. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing — By persevering in a constant course of holiness and righteousness, notwithstanding all the oppositions and difficulties they meet with; (see Matthew 24:13; Revelation 2:10;) seek for glory — That state of splendour and brightness in which the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father, Matthew 13:43. Honour — Approbation, commendation, and praise from God and Christ, and all the heavenly host, mentioned 1 Peter 1:7. And immortality — Afqarsian, incorruptibility, everlasting life, health, and vigour of both body and mind. The words include the consummation and perfection of all those glorious qualifications and enjoyments which are bestowed on the saints in heaven. This the saints seek for; that is, desire and labour after; for, though love to God and Christ is the principal spring of their obedience, yet that love does not exclude the faith which is the evidence of things not seen, or that hope of heavenly glory and felicity which is as an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast; and which, partly at least, influenced Christ himself amidst all his labours and sufferings, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, and despised the shame. Eternal life — Which God will render to such.

6. Every man—Of the human race at the one day of judgment. According to his deeds—Rightly considered all true faith is a graciously acceptable work, and all true works are acceptable acts of faith. Works not of faith are dead works and sin, and no works truly at all. In form faith and works are permanently distinct; in essence they are one. Hence the two doctrines that salvation is of faith alone, and yet that we are rewarded according to our works, are not two doctrines only but also one. Those works by which man can never be justified are faithless doings and no true works at all. But how can faith be attributed to the heathen included by Paul in the present passage? We reply that no one can understand Paul’s idea of faith who has not well studied the eleventh chapter of his Epistle to the Hebrews. Of the illustrious ancient heroes of the faith there commemorated, perhaps not one fully understood Christ as the atoning object of saving faith. Yet they had a true faith in that of which Christ is the reality and impersonation. Faith, in its essential temper, is that elevation of soul by which it aspires to the good, the true, and the divine; and the soul who possesses it tends upward to glory, honour, and immortality, while the soul that possesses it not tends downwardly to animalism, scepticism, and eternal death. To that aspiring faith God is a sought necessity, and Christ, when rightly presented is the one supremely lovely; so lovely, indeed, that even when the aspiring but dimly seeing soul catches but a glimpse of Him it feels a divine attraction. (See our work on “The Will,” pp. 349-351.) And so at the present time of scepticism and rebuke, Christ, even to the sceptical, is a strangely fascinating problem, which they cannot banish from their thoughts. (See note Romans 4:24.)

Ver. 6. An assertion supporting the foregoing. It commends itself to the moral sense of all men. And, as a word-for-word quotation of Psalm 62:12 (LXX.) and as giving the sense of innumerable statements in the O.T., it would appeal to the Jew with divine authority. The Psalmist’s enemies, while secretly plotting against him, professed to be his friends. He appeals to God, who, he declares, will recompense each according to his works. The passage refers evidently to Jewish enemies, and therefore implies that God will treat even Jews according to their deeds. The quotation does not expressly refer to the day of judgment. But the incompleteness of retribution on earth, taken in connection with the unfailing truth of these words, implies a recompense beyond the grave. These quoted words, if their truth be admitted, prove that the judgment of the great day will be just, that therefore all who live in sin are day by day increasing the punishment which in that day will fall upon them, and that the delay of punishment arises, not from God’s indifference to sin, but from His desire that men may turn and live.

Verse 6. Who will render to every man, &c. — This necessarily follows from the appointment of a day of general judgment, and from the righteous character of the Judge, both which the Jews admitted; but this admission, like the other above pressed upon them by the apostle, was fatal to their infatuated conclusion. They depended upon their own safety, as Israelites, although they acknowledged they were obnoxious as sinners; but, if God will render to every man according to his deeds; if, in other wards, a man’s works, not his national or Church privileges, are to be taken into account at that day, except as the latter may aggravate the guilt of the offences committed, then could the sinful Jew have no hope. The very principles of that better system of religion of which he boasted subverted his hopes of impunity. This exact process of strict reward he proceeds to describe in language of great force and. beauty.

V. 7. To them that seek for glory-For pure love does not exclude faith, hope, desire, 1 Corinthians 15:58.

Verse 7. To them, &c.] In this manner will God, in the great day, dispense punishments and rewards: 1. He will give eternal life to them who, in all the trials and difficulties of the present state, have persevered in well doing-seeking for and expecting glory, honour, and immortality.

Verses 5-7. But after thy hardness — Greek, kata thu sklhrothta, according to thy obduracy, or insensibility of mind; and impenitent — Ametanohton, inconsiderate, unreflecting, and unrelenting heart, by reason of that stubbornness and obstinacy in sin which thou hast contracted; treasurest up wrath — Although thou thinkest thou art treasuring up all good things; unto thyself — Not to him whom thou judgest: that is, Thou provokest God more and more to aggravate thy punishment. In our language, a treasure signifies a collection of things useful or precious. But the Hebrews gave that appellation to a heap, or an abundance of any thing, whether good or bad. Hence, Proverbs 10:2, we read of treasures of wickedness. Reader! think what a treasure of good or evil, of felicity or misery, a man may lay up for himself in this short day of life! Against the day of wrath — The day of retribution, when God will fully execute wrath on impenitent sinners. Wrath is here, as often elsewhere, put for punishment, the effect of wrath. The apostle calls the day of retribution the day of wrath, to make the wicked sensible that as men greatly enraged do not suffer their enemies to escape, so God, highly displeased with the wicked, will assuredly punish them in the severest manner at length. Probably the apostle had in view, 1st, The awful vengeance which the divine wrath was about to bring on the Jews in the destruction of their city and temple, the depopulation of their country, and the dissolution of their commonwealth, which, 1 Thessalonians 2:16, he calls, wrath coming upon them to the uttermost. 2d, It appears, however, by what follows, that he spoke principally of the day of final judgment; and revelation of the righteous judgment of God — When God will make manifest to all the world the justice of his proceedings, both toward the righteous and the wicked. Bengelius reads, wrath, and revelation, and righteous judgment: just opposite to the three gracious attributes above mentioned; wrath opposed to goodness; revelation, when God will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, opposed to his present forbearance; and righteous judgment, when he will no longer defer to punish, opposed to his present longsuffering. Who will render to every man — Both good and bad, both Jew and Gentile; according to his deeds — Not according to his external privileges, or his pretences and presumptuous expectations, but according to the real nature and quality of his works. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing — By persevering in a constant course of holiness and righteousness, notwithstanding all the oppositions and difficulties they meet with; (see Matthew 24:13; Revelation 2:10;) seek for glory — That state of splendour and brightness in which the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father, Matthew 13:43. Honour — Approbation, commendation, and praise from God and Christ, and all the heavenly host, mentioned 1 Peter 1:7. And immortality — Afqarsian, incorruptibility, everlasting life, health, and vigour of both body and mind. The words include the consummation and perfection of all those glorious qualifications and enjoyments which are bestowed on the saints in heaven. This the saints seek for; that is, desire and labour after; for, though love to God and Christ is the principal spring of their obedience, yet that love does not exclude the faith which is the evidence of things not seen, or that hope of heavenly glory and felicity which is as an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast; and which, partly at least, influenced Christ himself amidst all his labours and sufferings, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, and despised the shame. Eternal life — Which God will render to such.

7. Patient continuance in well doing—When it is said that faith or well doing will save a man, it is not meant that one act of faith or of well doing will save a man for ever. Whether it is added or not the proviso is always implied that there be no apostasy, but a patient continuance in well doing. If there be not this, then all this past righteousness goes for nothing. (Ezekiel 33:13. See our work on “The Will,” pp. 306-8.) Glory and honour and immortality—To incite this “O man” to a holy ambition to rise from his impenitent wickedness, the apostle offers these three divine prizes, of which the earthly correspondent objects are but vain shadows. Glory—The divine splendour in the heavenly abode in which the blessed resident is surrounded. Honour—The plaudit “well done,” and the renown of having well fought the battle of life. Immortality—By the two previous blessings the happy candidate is encompassed, but this third impregnates his very essence and person with endless youth, vigour, and beauty. Eternal life—This noun is the objective of the verb render; the previous three nouns, of the verb seek.

Ver. 7.-10. Development of the great principle just asserted in O.T. language, in reference to its two sides of reward and punishment. In Romans 2:7 we have reward; in Romans 2:8, 9, punishment; and in Romans 2:10 reward again.

Verse 7. Glory: see under Romans 1:23. It denotes here, as in Romans 5:2; 8:18, 21, the splendour with which God will cover His servants, and which will evoke the admiration of all.

Honour: a mark of the value we put upon an object: rendered price in 1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23. Same word in Romans 12:10; 13:7, 1 Corinthians 12:23, 24; 1 Timothy 5:17; 6:1. It denotes here a recognition by God of the faithfulness of His servants.

Incorruptibility: absence of injury or decay of any kind. Same word in 1 Corinthians 15:42, 50, 53, 54; 2 Timothy 1:10; Wisdom 2:23, 6:19, 20: a cognate word in Romans 1:23; 1 Corinthians 9:25; 15:52; 1 Timothy 1:17; 1 Peter 1:4, 23. Those who do right, God will cover (see Romans 2:10) with a splendour which will make them objects of universal admiration, will attest the value He puts upon then, and will abide undimmed for ever. For this reward, they now seek: it is the deliberate aim of their life, and the hope of it (see Romans 5:2) is to them a joy.

Perseverance, or endurance, literally continuance under: a brave holding up under burdens which would cast us down, a pressing forward in face of foes who would drive us back. Same word in Romans 5:3, 4; 8:25; 12:12; 15:4, 5. It is one of the great words descriptive of the Christian life, representing it as a toil and conflict.

According to… good work: along a path of doing good, under difficulties and in face of enemies, they seek glory and honour.

Eternal life: reward awaiting the class of persons here referred to. So Romans 5:21; 6:22, 23; Galatians 6:8; 1 Timothy 1:16; 6:12; Titus 1:2; 3:7; also Acts 13:46, 48 in a speech of Paul; Jude 1:21; Matthew 19:16, 29; 25:46; Mark 10:17, 30; Luke 10:25; 18:18, 30; and with conspicuous frequency John 3:15, 16, 36; 4:14, 36; 5:24, 39; 6:27, 40, 47, 54, 68; 10:28; John 12:25, 50; 17:2, 3; 1 John 1:2; 2:25; 3:15; 5:11, 13, 20. This use of the phrase by various N.T. writers leaves no room to doubt that it, or its Aramaic equivalent, was actually used by Christ. Same words in Daniel 12:2, LXX.; also Enoch chs. xxxvii. 4, xl. 9, lviii. 3: important parallels. These passages prove that Christ adopted an eschatological phrase prevalent among the Jews. His new and distinctive teaching was that eternal life will be the reward of all who put faith in Him.

Life beyond the grave is in the N.T. always a reward of well-doing, never the common lot of all men. This implies that it is a state of blessing: and this is confirmed, here and elsewhere, by the other terms used to describe this future life. The future state of the wicked is not life, but “death” and “destruction:” so Romans 5:12; 6:21; Galatians 6:8; Philippians 3:19.

Eternal or agelasting: duration continuing throughout some lifetime or age which the writer has in view. That the age in view here is absolutely endless, is implied by the word incorruptibility here and in 1 Corinthians 9:25; 15:42-54; 2 Timothy 1:10; 1 Peter 1:4, by the purpose expressed in “may not perish” in John 3:16, etc.; and is made absolutely certain by the endless life and infinite love of our Father in heaven. See under Romans 16:25.

Verse 7. To them who by patient continuance, &c. — Continuance in well doing, and especially patient continuance, as it supposes opposition, difficulties, and sometimes persecution, manfully sustained and overcome, necessarily implies such a habit as arises from a renewed nature. Nor, indeed, are we to confine the well doing to such acts as are visible to men, but to God also, to secret good actions, to the efforts of the soul toward God, and the right government and exercise of the affections, as faith, hope, and love. Those who urge this in proof of justification by works usually take too narrow a view of the case. The doing is well doing, which must be in principle, as well as in overt act; and therefore must either be the result of an innocent, unfallen nature, which man has not; or a renewed nature, which proceeds only from the grace of God’s Holy Spirit. This, therefore, in Jew or Gentile, was necessary to well doing; for God cannot be supposed to reward the semblance of virtue. This renewed and holy habit, therefore, being the result of that gracious constitution under which all men are placed by the economy of redemption, and implying, as it necessarily must, the previous restoration of such persons to the Divine favour through the Mediator, “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” this justification at the last day is placed on its true ground: it can but be declaratory of a previous state of acceptance and approval attained through the joint effect of a constitution of grace and mercy, and man’s availing himself of it, according to the degree of his knowledge of it. But, in fact, it will be seen that the apostle chiefly uses the term justification in the simple sense of the pardon of sin; and justification at the last day, in the sense of the forgiveness of sin, we are forbidden by the tenor of Scripture to admit. Sin must be forgiven here; and man must die in a state of reconciliation with God, or he dies without hope. “If ye die in your sins, where I am ye cannot come.”

Seek for glory, &c. — A grand and noble distinction is here put between the pious and others, in all ages. The former may have been comparatively few, and many instances have been contemned and persecuted among men; but what exaltation does real religion give to the human character! The earthly minded grovel amid the gross and fleeting pleasures and vain distinctions of a perishing life; but the pious seek glory, honour, and immortality, as they pass through the same scenes of life as others; their hearts are on higher objects; they hold communion with glorious hopes; and they seek these high realities of eternity through a course of holy obedience and preparation. Some think the three terms, glory, honour, and immortality, synonymous; but there is doubtless a distinction. The glory has respect to that now inaccessible light and splendour in which God dwells, and which constitutes the locality of the heavenly world; the honour, the favour of God, and the distinctions it may confer upon them; the immortality includes both the resurrection of the body with deathless qualities, and the unfading character of every enjoyment. The glory stands opposed to that distance from God’s presence in which they now are; the honour, to their lowly and often calumniated condition; and the immortality, to death, from which good men are not yet freed. Now, upon all those who seek these things in preference to earthly ones, and in the way of righteous obedience to the Divine will, eternal life, which includes them all, shall in that day be conferred. For it is to be observed that, in the New Testament, the term eternal life does never barely signify perpetuity of being, but of that felicitous existence which springs from admission into the presence of God, and from the fulfilment of all those promises relative to a future life which are made in the New Testament to the redeemed and saved.

V. 8. But to them that are contentious-Like thee, O Jew, who thus fightest against God. The character of a false Jew is disobedience, stubbornness, impatience.

Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish-Alluding to Psalm 78:49: "He cast upon them," the Egyptians. "the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble;" and finely intimating, that the Jews would in the day of vengeance be more severely punished than even the Egyptians were when God made their plagues so wonderful.

Verse 8. But unto them, &c.] 2. He will manifest his indignation, and inflict wrath-punishment, on all who are contentious-who obstinately dispute against the truth, and obey unrighteousness-who act under the influence of the principle of sin, and not under the influence of the Spirit of God.

Verses 8-11. But unto them that are contentious — Like thee, O Jew, who thus fightest against God. The character of the unbelieving Jews was disobedience, stubbornness, and impatience. Mr. Locke thinks the original expression, oi de ex eriqeiav, the contentions, here spoken of, are Jews who refused to obey the gospel. “But as the apostle is speaking of the punishment of the wicked Gentiles, as well as of the wicked Jews, eriqeia, contention, must be a vice common to both. Accordingly, eriqeiai, contentions, are mentioned among the works of the flesh, to which wicked men in general are addicted, Galatians 5:20. And Suidas tells us, that eriqeia, contention, is h dia logou filoneikia, contention by words, by keen disputing. Wherefore the contentious are persons who spread evil principles, and maintain them by keen disputings. This was the vice of many of the heathen, who disputed themselves into a disbelief of the plainest principles of morality, and argued even in support of atheism. Agreeably to this account of the contentious, the apostle represents them here as enemies of the truth, and as friends of unrighteousness.” — Macknight. Who obey not the truth — Both those who did not walk according to the light of nature, chap. 1:18, and those who disobeyed the gospel, are here intended. The former, because, as truth is here opposed to unrighteousness, it must signify not only the truths discovered by revelation, but those likewise respecting religion and morality, which are discoverable by the light of nature, and which, among the heathen, were the only foundations of a virtuous conduct. The truth, as it is in Jesus, or the gospel, however, seems to be especially intended, this being styled, the truth of God, Romans 3:7; 15:8; the word of truth, Ephesians 1:13, and elsewhere; the knowledge of it being the knowledge of the truth, 1 Timothy 2:4; 4:3; the belief of it, the belief of the truth, 2 Thessalonians 2:13; obedience to it, obedience to the truth, Galatians 3:1; 5:7; walking according to it, walking in the truth, 1 John 2:4; the gospel itself being emphatically styled the truth, Ephesians 4:21; and to know it being to know the truth, 1 John 2:21. This being so, they that are here said not to obey the truth seem to be especially, first, the unbelieving Jews, and, secondly, the Gentiles, who spake against the truth, and rejected it. And both these obeyed, and gave themselves up to error and falsehood; the Gentiles by changing the truth of God into a lie, Romans 1:25, and the Jews by adhering to their vain traditions, which made void the commands of God, supposing them to be derived from Moses, when they were indeed only the doctrines of men. But obey unrighteousness — Live in known sin; acting contrary to the clear dictates of reason and conscience. Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish — He seems to allude to Psalm 78:49, He cast upon them, the Egyptians, the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and finely intimating that the Jews would, in the day of vengeance, be more severely punished than even the Egyptians were, when God made their plagues so wonderful. Upon every soul of man that doeth evil — That contradicts the light of his dispensation, or holds in unrighteousness the portion of truth made known to him. Of the Jew first — Here we have the first express mention of the Jews in this chapter. And it is introduced with great propriety. Their having been trained up in the true religion, and their having had Christ and his apostles first sent to them, were circumstances which placed them in the foremost rank of the criminals that obeyed not the truth.

It must be observed, however, that “in this and the following verse, the apostle, by using the most general expression possible, every soul of man, and by twice introducing the distribution of Jew and Greek, which, according to the ideas of the Jews, comprehended all mankind, (see note on chap. 1:16,) has left his reader no room to doubt that he is discoursing of the judgment of all nations, of heathen as well as of Jews and Christians. Therefore, not only what he says of the punishments, but what he observes of the rewards to be distributed at that day, must be understood of the heathen, as well as of those who have enjoyed the benefit of revelation.” We see also, by these two verses, (verses 9, 10,) and Romans 1:16, that the apostle carefully lays it down as a fundamental position that there was now, under the gospel, no other national distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles, save only a priority of right in the Jews to the offer of the gospel, and the allotment of rewards or punishments, according as they obeyed or not. But glory, (just opposite to wrath,) — From the divine approbation; honour, (opposite to indignation,) — By the divine appointment; and peace — Implying a secure and quiet possession of all good, now and for ever, opposed to tribulation and anguish. To every one that worketh good — Sincerely performs his duty to God and man; to the Jew first, &c. — To one as well as another. For there is no respect of persons with God — That is, in passing their final sentence, and in distributing rewards and punishments, he is determined by their real characters, and will reward every one according to his works, not according to their outward condition; such as their country, kindred, sex, dignity, office, wealth, and profession of religion. This declaration concerning God, as Judge, the apostle made to show the Jews their folly in expecting favour at the final judgment, because they had Abraham for their father, and were themselves members of God’s church. And it must appear the more important and seasonable, considering that the Jews thought no Israelite should be deprived of future happiness, whatever his faults had been; unless he were guilty of apostacy, idolatry, and a few other very enormous crimes. But this impartial and equitable proceeding at the final judgment is very consistent with God’s distributing to persons here advantages and opportunities of improvement, according to his own good pleasure.

8. Contentious—Who, instead of consenting to seek, (verse 7,) raise factious cavils against the proposal. Not obey the truth—Refuse to comply with the requirements of the true law of God as the result of their contentiousness. Indignation and wrath—are rendered. These are the dispositions of the Divine mind toward them. (See note on Romans 1:18.) A period should be placed here, and verses 9 and 10 form an independent sentence.

Ver. 8.-9. Another class of conduct and retribution.

Those of a mercenary spirit: men actuated by low and selfish motives; a character always more or less assumed by sin, and in all forms and degrees essentially opposed to the Christian life.

Disobedient to the truth: equivalent to “hold down the truth with unrighteousness” in Romans 1:18. In Nature and in the Law of Moses, God manifested unseen realities. These were designed to rule the life and thought of men. But some men refuse to submit to this divine rule. Yet, as creatures, they are compelled to obey a power stronger than themselves; their only choice being a choice of masters. Refusing to obey the truth, i.e. to live in harmony with reality, they actually

obey unrighteousness: this last word is used here as in Romans 1:18, which this verse recalls. Cp. Romans 6:16.

Now follows the retribution awaiting the persons just described. Anger: as in Romans 1:18, God’s determination to punish. Fury: a passionate outbursting of anger. Both are forbidden in Ephesians 4:31; Colossians 3:8: but anger is permitted in Ephesians 4:26. Human passions are here attributed to God, because only thus can God’s indignation against sin and the tremendous punishment awaiting sinners be set forth. Same word in Revelation 14:10, 19; 15:1, 7; 16:1, and both words together in Revelation 16:19; 19:15. But not elsewhere in N.T. is fury attributed to God.

Affliction: any kind of hardship, e.g. poverty, sickness, persecution, or punishment.

Helplessness: literally, narrowness of space, affording no way of escape; translated twice straitened (A.V. and RV.) in 2 Corinthians 6:12. Romans 8:35 suggests, and 2 Corinthians 4:8 proves, that it is stronger than affliction. The four words are a chain of cause and effect. God is angry, determined to punish sin. His anger bursts forth in divine fury: this falls upon man in the form of affliction; and puts him, with no way of escape, in a position of absolute helplessness. These last words imply conscious suffering: so Matthew 13:42, 50. Upon every soul etc.: further description of those upon whom will fall this awful punishment. It will strike the soul, the seat of life; and will fall upon (as in Romans 2:2; Romans 1:18) every soul of man that works out evil. These last words are a short summary of the conduct described in Romans 2:8.

Jew first and Greek: as in Romans 1:16. In the day of judgment, distinctions are recognised; but they avail not. We may conceive the Jew standing nearer to, and the Greek farther from, the throne; as in Paul’s day they stood (see Ephesians 2:13, 17) nearer to and farther from the sound of the Gospel. To the Jew, the Gospel came first, and on him the retribution will first fall: but the Greek will not escape.

Verse 8. But unto them that are contentious. — Contention, eriqeia, being here mentioned in conjunction with not obeying the truth, the sense is manifest. The contentious here are not those who strive with one another, but those who oppose, resist, and fight against the truth of God, as revealed in different dispensations to them. This is also a general description of sinful men. No man can continue in sin without resisting the open voice, or the secret impression of truth. And he that obeys not that, will obey unrighteousness.

Indignation and wrath. — Terrible words, when referred to God the Judge, and probably taken from Psalm 78:49, “He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation.” Qumov and orgh are words nearly of the same import, though the latter is thought, by some writers, to express a more permanent emotion. Taken together the emphasis is heightened, and qumov probably was intended to express the principle of Divine wrath, and orgh, its punitive manifestations. After indignation and wrath, it is necessary to understand shall be rendered, in order to complete the sense.

V. 9. Of the Jew first-Here we have the first express mention of the Jews in this chapter. And it is introduced with great propriety. Their having been trained up in the true religion, and having had Christ and his apostles first sent to them, will place them in the foremost rank of the criminals that obey not the truth.

Verse 9. Tribulation and anguish] Misery of all descriptions, without the possibility of escape, will this righteous Judge inflict upon every impenitent sinner. The Jew first, as possessing greater privileges, and having abused greater mercies; and also on the Gentile, who, though he had not the same advantages, had what God saw was sufficient for his state; and, having sinned against them, shall have punishment proportioned to his demerit.

Verses 8-11. But unto them that are contentious — Like thee, O Jew, who thus fightest against God. The character of the unbelieving Jews was disobedience, stubbornness, and impatience. Mr. Locke thinks the original expression, oi de ex eriqeiav, the contentions, here spoken of, are Jews who refused to obey the gospel. “But as the apostle is speaking of the punishment of the wicked Gentiles, as well as of the wicked Jews, eriqeia, contention, must be a vice common to both. Accordingly, eriqeiai, contentions, are mentioned among the works of the flesh, to which wicked men in general are addicted, Galatians 5:20. And Suidas tells us, that eriqeia, contention, is h dia logou filoneikia, contention by words, by keen disputing. Wherefore the contentious are persons who spread evil principles, and maintain them by keen disputings. This was the vice of many of the heathen, who disputed themselves into a disbelief of the plainest principles of morality, and argued even in support of atheism. Agreeably to this account of the contentious, the apostle represents them here as enemies of the truth, and as friends of unrighteousness.” — Macknight. Who obey not the truth — Both those who did not walk according to the light of nature, chap. 1:18, and those who disobeyed the gospel, are here intended. The former, because, as truth is here opposed to unrighteousness, it must signify not only the truths discovered by revelation, but those likewise respecting religion and morality, which are discoverable by the light of nature, and which, among the heathen, were the only foundations of a virtuous conduct. The truth, as it is in Jesus, or the gospel, however, seems to be especially intended, this being styled, the truth of God, Romans 3:7; 15:8; the word of truth, Ephesians 1:13, and elsewhere; the knowledge of it being the knowledge of the truth, 1 Timothy 2:4; 4:3; the belief of it, the belief of the truth, 2 Thessalonians 2:13; obedience to it, obedience to the truth, Galatians 3:1; 5:7; walking according to it, walking in the truth, 1 John 2:4; the gospel itself being emphatically styled the truth, Ephesians 4:21; and to know it being to know the truth, 1 John 2:21. This being so, they that are here said not to obey the truth seem to be especially, first, the unbelieving Jews, and, secondly, the Gentiles, who spake against the truth, and rejected it. And both these obeyed, and gave themselves up to error and falsehood; the Gentiles by changing the truth of God into a lie, Romans 1:25, and the Jews by adhering to their vain traditions, which made void the commands of God, supposing them to be derived from Moses, when they were indeed only the doctrines of men. But obey unrighteousness — Live in known sin; acting contrary to the clear dictates of reason and conscience. Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish — He seems to allude to Psalm 78:49, He cast upon them, the Egyptians, the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and finely intimating that the Jews would, in the day of vengeance, be more severely punished than even the Egyptians were, when God made their plagues so wonderful. Upon every soul of man that doeth evil — That contradicts the light of his dispensation, or holds in unrighteousness the portion of truth made known to him. Of the Jew first — Here we have the first express mention of the Jews in this chapter. And it is introduced with great propriety. Their having been trained up in the true religion, and their having had Christ and his apostles first sent to them, were circumstances which placed them in the foremost rank of the criminals that obeyed not the truth.

It must be observed, however, that “in this and the following verse, the apostle, by using the most general expression possible, every soul of man, and by twice introducing the distribution of Jew and Greek, which, according to the ideas of the Jews, comprehended all mankind, (see note on chap. 1:16,) has left his reader no room to doubt that he is discoursing of the judgment of all nations, of heathen as well as of Jews and Christians. Therefore, not only what he says of the punishments, but what he observes of the rewards to be distributed at that day, must be understood of the heathen, as well as of those who have enjoyed the benefit of revelation.” We see also, by these two verses, (verses 9, 10,) and Romans 1:16, that the apostle carefully lays it down as a fundamental position that there was now, under the gospel, no other national distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles, save only a priority of right in the Jews to the offer of the gospel, and the allotment of rewards or punishments, according as they obeyed or not. But glory, (just opposite to wrath,) — From the divine approbation; honour, (opposite to indignation,) — By the divine appointment; and peace — Implying a secure and quiet possession of all good, now and for ever, opposed to tribulation and anguish. To every one that worketh good — Sincerely performs his duty to God and man; to the Jew first, &c. — To one as well as another. For there is no respect of persons with God — That is, in passing their final sentence, and in distributing rewards and punishments, he is determined by their real characters, and will reward every one according to his works, not according to their outward condition; such as their country, kindred, sex, dignity, office, wealth, and profession of religion. This declaration concerning God, as Judge, the apostle made to show the Jews their folly in expecting favour at the final judgment, because they had Abraham for their father, and were themselves members of God’s church. And it must appear the more important and seasonable, considering that the Jews thought no Israelite should be deprived of future happiness, whatever his faults had been; unless he were guilty of apostacy, idolatry, and a few other very enormous crimes. But this impartial and equitable proceeding at the final judgment is very consistent with God’s distributing to persons here advantages and opportunities of improvement, according to his own good pleasure.

9. Tribulation and anguish—Nominatives to shall be, understood. As indignation and wrath are tempers in the Divine mind, so tribulation and anguish are the results produced in the persons of the guilty. Jew first— Priority of offer, not superiority of reward or penalty. From this paragraph it is plain that in the system under Christ the Head men are born into a scene of probation. That is, our human system is a system of free agents upon whose will and determination it depends whether they attain eternal bliss or eternal woe.

This presupposes in man a free responsible will, with the full power in the given moral alternatives to decide either way. He decides for right with the full power of deciding for the wrong instead, and is therefore praiseworthy. Or he decides for wrong, while in possession of the power for having instead decided for right, and is therefore responsible and condemnable. If he does not possess this alternative power of choice for either way, but must choose but one sole way, (without any power of choosing otherwise,) then he is an intellectual machine, and is irresponsible; that is, unless he has flung away his power, in which case he is still responsible. Since man is not a free being, and there is no true responsible probation, unless his will is thus free, we may add that he is not free in the following cases:

1. If while God professes to hold him free in a real probation He determines and decrees beforehand which way man shall choose. There is no probation where man’s action is thus previously fixed. That probation may be a fine piece of machinery, like a panorama, or an orrery, or the solar system itself, but it is no free probationary government.

2. If such be, by the nature of things, the force of motives on the human will as to fix with absolute necessity the determinations of a man’s will, just as the springs fix the strokes of a clock-hammer, without adequate power to strike any otherwise, then man is only a spiritual and bodily machine, and is no more responsible than a clock, and there is no true probation.

3. If the will of man by its own intrinsic nature always acts by fixed laws of so called invariable certainty, precisely according to the measure of motive force, man is not a free being. True and free certainty is the will-be, the future of an event apart from any fixed law. A future event that will be is certain, whether it is certain according to a fixed law, or whether it is a free certainty apart from and without such regulative law. If the will of man is under a certainty previously and eternal, fixed by law, it is not free. If that law be that he shall act according to the precise force of motives and no otherwise, then he is not free, and there is no true probation. In these three cases, then—namely, where either man’s actions are previously determined, decreed, or fore-ordained by Omnipotence; or where man’s actions are fixed by the necessitating force of presented motives; or where by its own intrinsic nature man’s will always acts with invariable law in accordance with force of motive—in all these three cases there is no divine government, but only a vast machinery! There is no merit, no demerit. There is no desert of reward or penalty. The judgment day is no just reality. All is fatalism. And since God’s own will is also bound by similar laws, so God is subject to the same universal eternal fatalism! Such is not the system of the New Testament.

Dr. Hodge, indeed, argues: “Surely there is such a thing as being made willing without being forced. There is a middle ground between moral suasion and coercion. God supersedes the necessity of forcing, by making us willing in the day of his power.” Our reply is: In the sinner’s act of acceptance of God’s saving grace, we promptly deny any “make-willing” on the part of God which excludes man’s power of not-willing or refusing. God demands a free acceptance. He does not make a farce of our probation by first requiring our free will-ing, and then imposing upon us a “make-willing.” The free will-ing and the “make-willing” are incompatible. From all this it moreover follows that if man be created, or if he be born into existence, without the power (either by nature or by supernatural provision) to do right and please God, he is not responsible or justly punishable. And if through his whole existence he never had power to will good, Divine Justice can never condemn him for any evil willing. If for the fall of Adam, or any reason whatever, the whole human race is born unable to do good, it cannot, then, be damned for not doing good. To select or elect a part from this incapable whole, and oblige it to do good by power, is to make machines of that part. To leave the rest in incapacity for good, and then reprobate, that is, damn them for their evil, would be an infinite injustice, which it is an awful thing to charge upon a righteous God. (c.) The cause of heathen considered as fulfilling the law, 11-17. The apostle now proceeds to show more fully that the awards of happiness or punishment described in verses 5-10 are as truly available for heathen as for Jew. Blessedness may be attained by either in his own dispensation, whether of the law written on the tables of stone or by the law written on the heart.

Ver. 8.-9. Another class of conduct and retribution.

Those of a mercenary spirit: men actuated by low and selfish motives; a character always more or less assumed by sin, and in all forms and degrees essentially opposed to the Christian life.

Disobedient to the truth: equivalent to “hold down the truth with unrighteousness” in Romans 1:18. In Nature and in the Law of Moses, God manifested unseen realities. These were designed to rule the life and thought of men. But some men refuse to submit to this divine rule. Yet, as creatures, they are compelled to obey a power stronger than themselves; their only choice being a choice of masters. Refusing to obey the truth, i.e. to live in harmony with reality, they actually

obey unrighteousness: this last word is used here as in Romans 1:18, which this verse recalls. Cp. Romans 6:16.

Now follows the retribution awaiting the persons just described. Anger: as in Romans 1:18, God’s determination to punish. Fury: a passionate outbursting of anger. Both are forbidden in Ephesians 4:31; Colossians 3:8: but anger is permitted in Ephesians 4:26. Human passions are here attributed to God, because only thus can God’s indignation against sin and the tremendous punishment awaiting sinners be set forth. Same word in Revelation 14:10, 19; 15:1, 7; 16:1, and both words together in Revelation 16:19; 19:15. But not elsewhere in N.T. is fury attributed to God.

Affliction: any kind of hardship, e.g. poverty, sickness, persecution, or punishment.

Helplessness: literally, narrowness of space, affording no way of escape; translated twice straitened (A.V. and RV.) in 2 Corinthians 6:12. Romans 8:35 suggests, and 2 Corinthians 4:8 proves, that it is stronger than affliction. The four words are a chain of cause and effect. God is angry, determined to punish sin. His anger bursts forth in divine fury: this falls upon man in the form of affliction; and puts him, with no way of escape, in a position of absolute helplessness. These last words imply conscious suffering: so Matthew 13:42, 50. Upon every soul etc.: further description of those upon whom will fall this awful punishment. It will strike the soul, the seat of life; and will fall upon (as in Romans 2:2; Romans 1:18) every soul of man that works out evil. These last words are a short summary of the conduct described in Romans 2:8.

Jew first and Greek: as in Romans 1:16. In the day of judgment, distinctions are recognised; but they avail not. We may conceive the Jew standing nearer to, and the Greek farther from, the throne; as in Paul’s day they stood (see Ephesians 2:13, 17) nearer to and farther from the sound of the Gospel. To the Jew, the Gospel came first, and on him the retribution will first fall: but the Greek will not escape.

Verse 9. Tribulation and anguish, &c. — In this and the following verse, the same doctrine as to the exact distribution of rewards and punishments is repeated, but so as to exclude all possibility of evading the meaning. Tribulation and anguish, or distress, are words which seem to heighten the terribleness of the punishment: the expression, every soul of man, is not idiomatic, but is used emphatically to show that there are no exceptions from the rule, as the wicked Jews vainly hoped in their own case; which is still more explicitly laid down by adding of the Jew first, — so far from being exempt from punishment because he is a Jew, he shall be first condemned and most severely punished, as being first in the order of privilege. On the other hand, as to the pious Jews, who have improved their superior advantage, they shall be first in the rewards of another life. The same rule now holds good as to Christians and Gentiles; for we have taken the place of the Jewish Church.

V. 10. But glory-Just opposite to "wrath," from the divine approbation. Honour-Opposite to "indignation," by the divine appointment; and peace now and for ever, opposed to tribulation and anguish.

Verse 10. But glory, honour, and peace] While the finally impenitent Jew and Gentile shall experience the fullest effects of the righteous indignation of the supreme Judge, even man that worketh good-that lives in a conscientious obedience to the known will of God, whether he be Jew or Gentile, shall have glory, honour, and peace; i.e. eternal blessedness.

Verses 8-11. But unto them that are contentious — Like thee, O Jew, who thus fightest against God. The character of the unbelieving Jews was disobedience, stubbornness, and impatience. Mr. Locke thinks the original expression, oi de ex eriqeiav, the contentions, here spoken of, are Jews who refused to obey the gospel. “But as the apostle is speaking of the punishment of the wicked Gentiles, as well as of the wicked Jews, eriqeia, contention, must be a vice common to both. Accordingly, eriqeiai, contentions, are mentioned among the works of the flesh, to which wicked men in general are addicted, Galatians 5:20. And Suidas tells us, that eriqeia, contention, is h dia logou filoneikia, contention by words, by keen disputing. Wherefore the contentious are persons who spread evil principles, and maintain them by keen disputings. This was the vice of many of the heathen, who disputed themselves into a disbelief of the plainest principles of morality, and argued even in support of atheism. Agreeably to this account of the contentious, the apostle represents them here as enemies of the truth, and as friends of unrighteousness.” — Macknight. Who obey not the truth — Both those who did not walk according to the light of nature, chap. 1:18, and those who disobeyed the gospel, are here intended. The former, because, as truth is here opposed to unrighteousness, it must signify not only the truths discovered by revelation, but those likewise respecting religion and morality, which are discoverable by the light of nature, and which, among the heathen, were the only foundations of a virtuous conduct. The truth, as it is in Jesus, or the gospel, however, seems to be especially intended, this being styled, the truth of God, Romans 3:7; 15:8; the word of truth, Ephesians 1:13, and elsewhere; the knowledge of it being the knowledge of the truth, 1 Timothy 2:4; 4:3; the belief of it, the belief of the truth, 2 Thessalonians 2:13; obedience to it, obedience to the truth, Galatians 3:1; 5:7; walking according to it, walking in the truth, 1 John 2:4; the gospel itself being emphatically styled the truth, Ephesians 4:21; and to know it being to know the truth, 1 John 2:21. This being so, they that are here said not to obey the truth seem to be especially, first, the unbelieving Jews, and, secondly, the Gentiles, who spake against the truth, and rejected it. And both these obeyed, and gave themselves up to error and falsehood; the Gentiles by changing the truth of God into a lie, Romans 1:25, and the Jews by adhering to their vain traditions, which made void the commands of God, supposing them to be derived from Moses, when they were indeed only the doctrines of men. But obey unrighteousness — Live in known sin; acting contrary to the clear dictates of reason and conscience. Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish — He seems to allude to Psalm 78:49, He cast upon them, the Egyptians, the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and finely intimating that the Jews would, in the day of vengeance, be more severely punished than even the Egyptians were, when God made their plagues so wonderful. Upon every soul of man that doeth evil — That contradicts the light of his dispensation, or holds in unrighteousness the portion of truth made known to him. Of the Jew first — Here we have the first express mention of the Jews in this chapter. And it is introduced with great propriety. Their having been trained up in the true religion, and their having had Christ and his apostles first sent to them, were circumstances which placed them in the foremost rank of the criminals that obeyed not the truth.

It must be observed, however, that “in this and the following verse, the apostle, by using the most general expression possible, every soul of man, and by twice introducing the distribution of Jew and Greek, which, according to the ideas of the Jews, comprehended all mankind, (see note on chap. 1:16,) has left his reader no room to doubt that he is discoursing of the judgment of all nations, of heathen as well as of Jews and Christians. Therefore, not only what he says of the punishments, but what he observes of the rewards to be distributed at that day, must be understood of the heathen, as well as of those who have enjoyed the benefit of revelation.” We see also, by these two verses, (verses 9, 10,) and Romans 1:16, that the apostle carefully lays it down as a fundamental position that there was now, under the gospel, no other national distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles, save only a priority of right in the Jews to the offer of the gospel, and the allotment of rewards or punishments, according as they obeyed or not. But glory, (just opposite to wrath,) — From the divine approbation; honour, (opposite to indignation,) — By the divine appointment; and peace — Implying a secure and quiet possession of all good, now and for ever, opposed to tribulation and anguish. To every one that worketh good — Sincerely performs his duty to God and man; to the Jew first, &c. — To one as well as another. For there is no respect of persons with God — That is, in passing their final sentence, and in distributing rewards and punishments, he is determined by their real characters, and will reward every one according to his works, not according to their outward condition; such as their country, kindred, sex, dignity, office, wealth, and profession of religion. This declaration concerning God, as Judge, the apostle made to show the Jews their folly in expecting favour at the final judgment, because they had Abraham for their father, and were themselves members of God’s church. And it must appear the more important and seasonable, considering that the Jews thought no Israelite should be deprived of future happiness, whatever his faults had been; unless he were guilty of apostacy, idolatry, and a few other very enormous crimes. But this impartial and equitable proceeding at the final judgment is very consistent with God’s distributing to persons here advantages and opportunities of improvement, according to his own good pleasure.

Ver. 10. Restatement of the reward awaiting the righteous, in contrast to the fate of the lost, just described; and therefore parallel to Romans 2:7. The

glory and honour for which they seek will be given to them; and peace, as in Romans 1:7. It is an exact opposite of affliction and helplessness, the one resulting from the favour, the other from the anger, of God. The repetition of Jew first and Greek shows how prominent in Paul’s thought was this distinction. To assert, while recognising it, the impartial judgment of God, is the chief purpose of this chapter.

V. 11. For there is no respect of persons with God-He will reward every one according to his works. But this is well consistent with his distributing advantages and opportunities of improvement, according to his own good pleasure.

Verse 11. For there is no respect of persons with God.] The righteous Judge will not act according to any principle of partiality; the character and conduct, alone of the persons shall weigh with him. He will take no wicked man to glory, let his nation or advantages be what they may; and he will send no righteous man to perdition, though brought up in the very bosom of Gentilism. And as he will judge in that day according to character and conduct, so his judgment will proceed on the ground of the graces, privileges, and blessings which they had received, improved or abused. And as there is no respect of persons with God in judgment, so there can be none in the previous administration of his saving blessings. He that will be condemned for his unrighteousness, will be condemned on the ground that he had sufficient grace afforded him for the salvation of his soul; and his condemnation will rest on the simple principle, that he abused the grace which was sufficient to save him, by acting in opposition to its dictates and influence. No man, in that great day, shall be brought to heaven through any partiality of the Judge; and no man sent to hell because God did not afford him sufficient grace, or because he had made a decree which rendered even his use of it ineffectual to his salvation. In reference to the great design of God, in the salvation of man, it shall be said,-in time, at the day of judgment, and throughout eternity,—THERE IS NO RESPECT OF PERSONS WITH GOD.

Verses 8-11. But unto them that are contentious — Like thee, O Jew, who thus fightest against God. The character of the unbelieving Jews was disobedience, stubbornness, and impatience. Mr. Locke thinks the original expression, oi de ex eriqeiav, the contentions, here spoken of, are Jews who refused to obey the gospel. “But as the apostle is speaking of the punishment of the wicked Gentiles, as well as of the wicked Jews, eriqeia, contention, must be a vice common to both. Accordingly, eriqeiai, contentions, are mentioned among the works of the flesh, to which wicked men in general are addicted, Galatians 5:20. And Suidas tells us, that eriqeia, contention, is h dia logou filoneikia, contention by words, by keen disputing. Wherefore the contentious are persons who spread evil principles, and maintain them by keen disputings. This was the vice of many of the heathen, who disputed themselves into a disbelief of the plainest principles of morality, and argued even in support of atheism. Agreeably to this account of the contentious, the apostle represents them here as enemies of the truth, and as friends of unrighteousness.” — Macknight. Who obey not the truth — Both those who did not walk according to the light of nature, chap. 1:18, and those who disobeyed the gospel, are here intended. The former, because, as truth is here opposed to unrighteousness, it must signify not only the truths discovered by revelation, but those likewise respecting religion and morality, which are discoverable by the light of nature, and which, among the heathen, were the only foundations of a virtuous conduct. The truth, as it is in Jesus, or the gospel, however, seems to be especially intended, this being styled, the truth of God, Romans 3:7; 15:8; the word of truth, Ephesians 1:13, and elsewhere; the knowledge of it being the knowledge of the truth, 1 Timothy 2:4; 4:3; the belief of it, the belief of the truth, 2 Thessalonians 2:13; obedience to it, obedience to the truth, Galatians 3:1; 5:7; walking according to it, walking in the truth, 1 John 2:4; the gospel itself being emphatically styled the truth, Ephesians 4:21; and to know it being to know the truth, 1 John 2:21. This being so, they that are here said not to obey the truth seem to be especially, first, the unbelieving Jews, and, secondly, the Gentiles, who spake against the truth, and rejected it. And both these obeyed, and gave themselves up to error and falsehood; the Gentiles by changing the truth of God into a lie, Romans 1:25, and the Jews by adhering to their vain traditions, which made void the commands of God, supposing them to be derived from Moses, when they were indeed only the doctrines of men. But obey unrighteousness — Live in known sin; acting contrary to the clear dictates of reason and conscience. Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish — He seems to allude to Psalm 78:49, He cast upon them, the Egyptians, the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and finely intimating that the Jews would, in the day of vengeance, be more severely punished than even the Egyptians were, when God made their plagues so wonderful. Upon every soul of man that doeth evil — That contradicts the light of his dispensation, or holds in unrighteousness the portion of truth made known to him. Of the Jew first — Here we have the first express mention of the Jews in this chapter. And it is introduced with great propriety. Their having been trained up in the true religion, and their having had Christ and his apostles first sent to them, were circumstances which placed them in the foremost rank of the criminals that obeyed not the truth.

It must be observed, however, that “in this and the following verse, the apostle, by using the most general expression possible, every soul of man, and by twice introducing the distribution of Jew and Greek, which, according to the ideas of the Jews, comprehended all mankind, (see note on chap. 1:16,) has left his reader no room to doubt that he is discoursing of the judgment of all nations, of heathen as well as of Jews and Christians. Therefore, not only what he says of the punishments, but what he observes of the rewards to be distributed at that day, must be understood of the heathen, as well as of those who have enjoyed the benefit of revelation.” We see also, by these two verses, (verses 9, 10,) and Romans 1:16, that the apostle carefully lays it down as a fundamental position that there was now, under the gospel, no other national distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles, save only a priority of right in the Jews to the offer of the gospel, and the allotment of rewards or punishments, according as they obeyed or not. But glory, (just opposite to wrath,) — From the divine approbation; honour, (opposite to indignation,) — By the divine appointment; and peace — Implying a secure and quiet possession of all good, now and for ever, opposed to tribulation and anguish. To every one that worketh good — Sincerely performs his duty to God and man; to the Jew first, &c. — To one as well as another. For there is no respect of persons with God — That is, in passing their final sentence, and in distributing rewards and punishments, he is determined by their real characters, and will reward every one according to his works, not according to their outward condition; such as their country, kindred, sex, dignity, office, wealth, and profession of religion. This declaration concerning God, as Judge, the apostle made to show the Jews their folly in expecting favour at the final judgment, because they had Abraham for their father, and were themselves members of God’s church. And it must appear the more important and seasonable, considering that the Jews thought no Israelite should be deprived of future happiness, whatever his faults had been; unless he were guilty of apostacy, idolatry, and a few other very enormous crimes. But this impartial and equitable proceeding at the final judgment is very consistent with God’s distributing to persons here advantages and opportunities of improvement, according to his own good pleasure.

Ver. 11. There is no respect of persons with God, as stated on Acts 10:34. But here the inference is founded on a fair view of providence in the government of the world, that very high visitations do attend lawless and disobedient men, while glory, honour, and peace await on virtuous characters; and without respect to colour or to nation. This was a heavy stroke at Hebrew pride, and a full declaration that every man who sincerely serves God according to the light he has, shall be saved through the great love and mercy of God in Christ Jesus the Lord. See on ver. 25.

11. Respect of persons—When a judge on the bench decides not according to the strict merits of the case, but with an eye to the rank or other quality of one of the parties, he shows respect not to justice but to the person. Under God as judge there is no such injustice. The strict demerit of sin and merit of holiness guide the decision.

Ver. 11. A great principle underlying the O.T. declaration in Romans 2:6, asserted here in order to confirm the statement in Romans 2:9, 10 that God will punish and reward both Jew and Greek.

Respect-of-persons: literally, face-reception: to look at a man’s face and exterior, instead of at his heart and life; to take into consideration his gold ring or fine clothing, and treat him accordingly. Same word in Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 3:25; James 2:1: cp. James 2:9; Acts 10:34; also Luke 20:21; Galatians 2:6. The statement that God does not look at mere externals commends itself to the moral sense of every man. It is clearly implied in the O.T. declaration of Romans 2:6; and it implies that the sentence of the great day will not be determined by the accident of birth. Yet some such accident is the only ground of trust of the man addressed in Romans 2:3. The remainder of Rom. 2, is an exposition of this great principle in its bearing on the distinction of Jew and Gentile.

REVIEW. In Romans 2:1, 2, Paul reasserts, as valid for all men, the assertion in Romans 1:18. That it admits of no exception whatever, he proves in Romans 2:3-11 by words taken from the O.T., and by expounding the principles which underlie them. He also correctly infers from these words that all who continue in sin are daily increasing the punishment which awaits them; and that, if they expect to escape because of God’s kindness, they thereby show their ignorance of the purpose of that kindness and their contempt for it.

In § 5, Paul has taught us that, apart from the Gospel, all men not only have committed but are committing sin; that God is bringing to bear on all men influences tending towards repentance; and that the judgment of the great day will be, both in its broad distinction of reward and punishment, and in the measure of punishment, according to works. This implies that the glad tidings of salvation announced in Romans 1:16 are not inconsistent with, and do not set aside, a final retribution according to works.

Verse 11. For there is no respect of persons with God. — The proswpolhyia, respect of persons, refers to judicial proceedings: and to one being favoured in preference to another, not because of the merit of his cause, but through the weakness or corruptness of the judge, — his weakness in being subject to blinding prejudices and partial affections, or his corrupt regard to the power or favour of the great. The doctrine of the Jews, that, though wicked, they should be exempt from punishment in another life, merely because they were the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, ascribed this, a weak prejudice and a blinding partial affection, to God, to the detriment of his righteous and equal character as “Judge of the whole earth.” The great principle of the JUDICIAL IMPARTIALITY of God, the apostle here asserts, both as the conclusion of what he had already said, and as a principle which he proposed still farther to illustrate.

V. 12. For as many as have sinned-He speaks as of the time past, for all time will be past at the day of judgment.

Without the law-Without having any written law.

Shall also perish without the law-Without regard had to any outward law; being condemned by the law written in their hearts. The word also shows the agreement of the manner of sinning, with the manner of suffering.

Perish-He could not so properly say,

Shall be judged without the law.

Verse 12. For as many as have sinned without law, &c.] They, viz. the Gentiles, who shall be found to have transgressed against the mere light of nature, or rather, that true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world, John 1:9, shall not come under the same rule with those, the Jews, who have in addition to this enjoyed an extraordinary revelation; but they shall be dealt with according to the inferior dispensation, under which they lived: while those, the Jews, who have sinned against the law-the positive Divine revelation granted to them, shall be judged by that law, and punished proportionably to the abuse of such an extraordinary advantage.

Verse 12. For as many as have sinned — And have not repented and brought forth fruit worthy of repentance; as many as have lived and died in the commission of known sin: he speaks as of the time past, for all time will be past at the day of judgment; without law — Without having had any written law, any express and outward revelation from God; shall also perish — Be condenmed and punished; without law — Without regard had to any written law, or supernatural revelation, being proved guilty by the law written in their hearts. The expression, shall perish, shows the agreement of the manner of suffering with the manner of sinning. He could not so properly say, shall be judged without law. Some understand it of the annihilation of the heathen; but both reason and Scripture assure us they shall be punished for their sins, though in a less degree than those who disobey the greater light of revelation. Since none of mankind ever lived without the law of nature, it is evident the expressions, anomwv, without law, in this clause, and en nomw, in, or under law, in the following clause, cannot be understood of that law. Neither can they be understood of the law of Moses, seeing it is affirmed in the latter clause, that as many as have sinned in or under the law, shall be judged by the law. For the Jews are not to be judged by the law of Moses. See note on verse 13. In this context, therefore, nomov, law, signifies divine revelation in general. Thus, the oracles of God, with which the Jews were intrusted, Romans 3:2, have the name of o nomov, the law, often given to them in Scripture; as Psalm 19:7; John 10:34; 12:34; 15:25; Romans 3:19; in all which passages, and many others, the law signifies the whole of the divine revelations, taken complexly, as they stand recorded in the Jewish Scriptures. But when these Scriptures are distinguished into parts, as Luke 24:44, where the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the Psalms are mentioned; the law, in that division, denotes the five books of Moses only, as it does likewise, Romans 3:21, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. In this restricted sense, the word nomov, generally, though not always, has the article prefixed, the law. And as many as have sinned in, or under, the law — That is, revelation, whether the patriarchal, the Jewish, or the Christian, shall be judged by the law — By the revelation wherewith they were favoured. Though the word kriqhsontai sometimes signifies, shall be condemned, in this passage it is rightly translated, shall be judged, because the apostle’s intention is to show, that all who have enjoyed the benefit of an external revelation shall be more severely punished, if wicked, than the Gentiles, who have not had that advantage: an idea which is better conveyed by the expression, shall be judged, than it would have been by shall be condemned. For judgment implies an accurate consideration of all circumstances, whether of aggravation or of alleviation, and the passing such a sentence as appears to the judge equitable, upon due consideration of the whole case. And the meaning here is, that their guilt being aggravated by the advantages which they enjoyed, they shall be punished in proportion to it. See Macknight.

12. For—Paul shows this strict impartiality of God in dealing with Gentile as with Jew. In the present verse he declares that unrepented sin, whether without or with the written law, equally incurs perdition.

ROMANS

SECTION 6 — THE GIVING OF THE LAW IS NO

PROOF THAT GOD WILL HAVE RESPECT OF

PERSONS CH. 2:12-24

For so many as have sinned without law will also perish without law: and so many as have sinned in law will be judged by means of law. For not the hearers of law are righteous before God; but the doers of law will be justified (for whenever Gentiles, the men who have no law, do by nature the things of the Law, these not having law are to themselves a law; men who show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing joint-witness thereto, and their reasonings one with another when accusing or even excusing) in the day when God will judge the hidden things of men, according to my Gospel, through Christ Jesus.

Moreover, if thou bearest the name of Jew, and dost rest upon law, and dost exult in God, and knowest the will of God, and approvest the things that excel, being instructed out of the Law; and art persuaded that thyself art a guide of blind men, a light of those in darkness, an instructor of foolish ones, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and the truth in the Law-the man then that teachest another, dost thou not teach thyself? The man who as herald forbiddest to steal, dost thou steal? The man that biddest not to commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? The man that abhorrest the idols, dost thou rob temples? Thou who dost exult in law, through transgression of the Law thou dishonourest God. “For the name of God, because of you, is blasphemed among the Gentiles,” according as it is written.

This section introduces a new element, THE LAW; and confirms the great principle asserted in Romans 2:11 by proving that the gift of the Law to Israel only was no deviation from it. Paul asserts in Romans 2:12 that the presence or absence of the Law will save no one: he proves this in Romans 2:13 by appealing to a principle which underlies all law; by showing in Romans 2:14, 15 that this principle applies even to the Gentiles; and by showing in Romans 2:17-24 that to deny its application to the Jews involves the greatest absurdity. In this way the hope struck down in § 5 is traced to its source, viz. God’s special kindness to Israel shown in the gift of the Law; and there mercilessly dispelled.

Ver. 12. Proof of Romans 2:11, even in view of the distinction of Jew and Gentile.

Law: a prescription of conduct by an authority claiming to determine what men are to do or not to do: see note under Romans 3:20. Without-law: cognate word twice in 1 Corinthians 9:21: Gentiles, who in Romans 2:14 are twice said to “have no law.” They sinned; but their sin had nothing to do with the historical and external law given to Israel at Sinai. Yet they

will perish or be destroyed: see note below: but their ruin will be without law, i.e. on principles independent of the Law of Moses, of which they never heard.

Sinned in law: cp. Romans 3:19: their sins were committed in a moral environment created by the Law given at Sinai. And this moral environment will be the standard or instrument by

means of which they will be judged. The similar form of the two clauses portrays the similar treatment and fate of two classes of sinners. It thus confirms Romans 2:11.

Verse 12. For as many as have sinned without law. — Sinning anomwv, without law being here opposed to sinning en nomw, in or under the law: by law, must be understood revealed law, or the law as contained in the Jewish Scriptures. That the Gentiles were not without all knowledge of the law or will of God, he afterward shows; so that he could not here mean to say that they were absolutely without all law, but without that revealed law by which, he immediately adds, the Jews would be judged. Their perishing without law also confirms this. The great scriptural principle is, that “where there is no law there is no transgression:” and if no transgression, no punishment for transgression. But the Gentiles are said to SIN; therefore there existed among them a law; and a LAW made known, or knowable, or it could be no law to them; for a law not knowable is equivalent to a law not in existence; and they are said to PERISH in consequence of their sin, so that they were under a law having force and efficacy. It follows, therefore, that by the law in this verse, the apostle means the law as it was made known to the Jews.

It has been remarked that, if the sense in which St. Paul uses the term LAW, in this epistle, were always explicitly marked, it would conduce much to the better understanding of his meaning. This is doubtless just; but we appear to have no other means of determining that but attending carefully to the argument. It has been attempted to clear this matter by the help of the insertion or omission of the Greek article; and indeed this variation, which is sometimes seen in the same sentence, can scarcely have been without design; but no rule has hitherto been suggested which can be carried with satisfaction through all the passages which occur; and we are left to the conclusion that the use of the Greek article by the writers of the New Testament is still involved in great obscurity. The opinion that the word law, when used by St. Paul without the article, signifies the moral law, and when used with it includes the whole law, moral and ceremonial, will by no means abide the test of the different passages; and were we to allow that the apostle has any respect in his argument to the ceremonial law, the exceptions would break down the rule. But it appears in the sequel that it is the moral law only from which the apostle argues, that law by which, as he says, “is the knowledge of sin,” on the punishment or forgiveness of which he mainly discourses.

It is more plausible to refer law, without the article, to any kind of intimation of the Divine will, whether by tradition or otherwise; and with the article, to the Jewish law, in whole or part. But this rule cannot be carried strictly through, though it holds good in part; and all that appears clear is, that the apostle often, but not uniformly, uses the article emphatically, and thus makes a distinction which otherwise would employ several words, between moral law in general, and that revelation of it with which the Jews were favoured. To the import of the leading term LAW, as it occurs in this epistle, our attention will be again more fully required.

V. 13. For not the hearers of the law are, even now, just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified-Finally acquitted and rewarded a most sure and important truth, which respects the Gentiles also, though principally the Jews. St. Paul speaks of the former, Romans 2:14, &c.; of the latter, Romans 2:17, &c. Here is therefore no parenthesis; for the sixteenth verse also depends on the fifteenth, not on the twelfth. Romans 2:16, 15, 12.

Verse 13. For not the hearers of the law, &c.] It does not follow, because one people are favoured with a Divine revelation, that therefore they shall be saved; while the others who have not had that revelation, shall finally perish: this is not God’s procedure; where he has given a law-a Divine revelation, he requires obedience to that law; and only those who have been doers of that law-who have lived according to the light and privileges granted in that revelation, shall be justified-shall be finally acknowledged to be such as are fit for the kingdom of God.

Verse 13. For not the hearers of the law — Those who are only hearers; are — Even now; just — dikaioi, righteous, that is, accounted and dealt with as righteous persons; before God — Here the apostle condemns the folly of the Jews, who thought themselves sure of eternal life, because God had favoured them with a revelation of his will: as Dr. Whitby has shown by many important quotations, in a note on this verse. But the doers of the law — Whether natural or revealed, that is, they who walk according to the light of the dispensation they are under, “who steadily and universally, in the tenor of their lives, act agreeably to its precepts; they, and they only, shall be justified [acquitted and rewarded] — In the day of final audit and account; whether their knowledge of it were more or less express.” So Doddridge. A most sure and important truth this, which respects the Gentiles also, though principally the Jews. The apostle speaks of the former, verse 14, &c.; of the latter, verse 17, &c. It must be observed, however, that the apostle does not speak of a perfect, unsinning obedience, either to the law of nature, or to any revealed law, whether patriarchal, Jewish, or Christian; but of that obedience of faith, productive of holiness, or that sincere obedience to the dispensation men are under, which, on the ground of the covenant of grace, established for all mankind immediately after the fall, God is pleased graciously to accept instead of that unsinning obedience, which to man, in his fallen state, is impossible. This obedience of faith, with regard to the heathen, implies their believing that God is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him; and on the ground of this faith, coming to him in prayer for his favour and blessing, and with praise for his benefits, and diligently seeking an acquaintance with him, and with his will concerning them. And with respect to Jews and Christians, it implies a true and lively faith in, and sincere obedience to, the truths, precepts, and promises of the dispensation they are under. The reader must observe, therefore, that merited justification, whether of Jews or heathen, spoken of Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16; or, justification according to the tenor of the law, by performing all the deeds or works enjoined thereby, without the least failure, is not here intended; but a gratuitous justification, founded, not on the accused person’s innocence, or righteousness, but proceeding merely from the mercy of his Judge, who is pleased, out of pure favour, to accept of his faith, producing sincere love and obedience, in the place of perfect righteousness, and to reward it as if it were that righteousness, and all for the sake of Christ.

Ver. 13. This and the two following verses seem to be a parenthesis. But the doers of the law shall be justified. Great peace have they that love thy law, and nothing shall offend them. The jew under the ancient law was saved by faith, and not by works; yet works at the bar show the fruits of faith. Who then is he that condemneth?

13. Hearers of the law—No possessing, or hearing, or learning the law avails to the Jew without obedience to it.

Ver. 13. A great principle underlying all law and frequently asserted in the Law of Moses. It supports the foregoing words.

Hearers: in an age when books were scarce and when the Law was known chiefly through public reading of it. Cp. James 1:22; Acts 15:21. Righteous before God: enjoying His approval as judge: see under Romans 1:17.

Will be justified: will receive a favourable sentence from the judge: see note under § 9. That the future tense refers to the day of judgment, we shall learn in Romans 2:16: so Matthew 12:37, an important parallel and a meeting-point of two very different types of N.T. teaching. Not those who have listened to a law, but those who have done what it bids, will be accepted by the judge. This is the very essence of all law: for law is a declaration of what men are to do. And it was proclaimed often in the Law of Moses and by the prophets. Cp. Romans 10:5; Galatians 3:10. Moreover, if this principle be admitted, if the rewards of law are given only to those who have obeyed it, and if its punishments are inflicted on those who have broken it, then, evidently, they who have sinned will be judged by means of the law in which they have sinned. Thus the Law itself proclaims the condemnation of those who continue in sin, and the folly of those who while living in sin hope to escape because of the special favour shown to Israel in the gift of the Law. Consequently, the gift of the Law to Israel is no presumption whatever that in their case God will deviate from His principle of judging all men without respect of persons.

Verse 13. For not the hearers of the law, &c. — Our translators place this, as well as the two following verses, in a parenthesis; but this tends to obscure the meaning. For that this verse stands in immediate connection with the preceding, is evident from its containing the reason why those who have “sinned under the” Jewish “law,” shall be “judged” or condemned by it, in opposition to the delusive notion which he is controverting, that the mere possession of superior external privileges by any, lays a ground of exemption from punishment, although their offences may in strictness deserve it. Such persons he denominates hearers of the law, that is, hearers only; those who have enjoyed the express revelation of the moral law or will of God, and yet have not obeyed. And as those words are to be connected with the preceding verse, so the 16th verse follows them, leaving the 14th and 15th in a parenthesis. The whole passage will therefore read, For not the hearers of the law are just, are esteemed just persons, before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my Gospel. To be justified here signifies not to be forgiven, which is an act of grace done on earth, but stands in opposition to being condemned. Nor is it a declaration of innocence; for the whole evangelical system rests upon the actual guilt and danger of all who shall finally be saved, and the provision made for their pardon in the present life. — Our justification at the last day can, therefore, only be considered as declaratory of what from its nature was before a secret between the justified and their God, and a public acceptance of them and dealing with them as righteous.

V. 14. For when the Gentiles-That is, any of them. St. Paul, having refuted the perverse judgment of the Jews concerning the heathens, proceeds to show the just judgment of God against them. He now speaks directly of the heathens, in order to convince the heathens. Yet the concession he makes to these serves more strongly to convince the Jews. Do by nature-That is, without an outward rule; though this also, strictly speaking, is by preventing grace.

The things contained in the law-The ten commandments being only the substance of the law of nature.

These, not having the written law, are a law unto themselves-That is, what the law is to the Jews, they are, by the grace of God, to themselves; namely, a rule of life.

Verse 14. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, &c.] Nor does it follow that the Gentiles who have not had a Divine revelation, shall either perish, because they had it not; or their unrighteous conduct pass unpunished, because not having this revelation might be considered as an excuse for their sins.

Do by nature the things contained in the law] Do, without this Divine revelation, through that light which God imparts to every man, the things contained in the law-act according to justice, mercy, temperance and truth, the practice of which the revealed law so powerfully enjoins; these are a law unto themselves-they are not accountable to any other law, and are not to be judged by any dispensation different from that under which they live. Rabbi Tanchum brings in the Supreme Being as saying: When I decreed any thing against the Gentiles, to whom I have not given laws and statutes, and they know what I have decreed; immediately they repent; but the Israelites do not so. Tanchum, fol. 43. 2.

Verses 14, 15. For when the Gentiles — That is, any of them who have not the law — Not a written revelation of the divine will; do by nature — That is, by the light of nature, without an outward rule, or by the untaught dictates of their own minds, influenced, however, by the preventing grace of God, which hath appeared to all men, Titus 2:11; or, the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world: the things contained in the law — The moral duties required by the precepts of the law, the ten commandments being only the substance of the law of nature. These, not having the written law, are a law unto themselves — That is, what the law was to the Jews, they are by the light and grace of God to themselves, namely, a rule of life. All the ancient Greek commentators, as Whitby has shown, interpreted this passage not of the Gentiles who had been converted to Christianity, but of those Gentiles who had not been favoured with a revealed law, and therefore were neither proselytes to Judaism nor Christianity. Who show — To themselves and others, and, in a sense, to God himself, the work of the law — In its most important moral precepts, in the substance, though not in the letter of them; written in their hearts — By the same divine hand which wrote the commandments on the tables of stone; their conscience also bearing witness — For or against them, or testifying how far they have complied with their light or law. There is not one of all its faculties which the soul has less in its power than this. And their thoughts — Or their reasonings or reflections upon their own conduct; the meanwhile — Or, as the expression, metaxu allhlwn, is translated in the margin, between themselves, or by turns, according as they do well or ill; accusing — Checking and condemning them when they have acted contrary to their light; or else excusing — Approving and justifying them when they have conformed to it. Hence the apostle meant it to be inferred, that it was not the having, or knowing the law, (verse 13,) nor the condemning others for the transgression of it, could avail a man, but the doing of it, or walking according to it. We may observe further on this verse, that, as the law in this context signifies divine revelation, the work of the law must be men’s duty, which revelation discovers by its precepts, which is also in part discovered by men’s natural reason and conscience, influenced by the light and grace of God; on which account it is said to be written on their hearts. Thus, in the compass of two verses, the apostle hath explained what the light of nature is, and demonstrated that there is such a light existing. It is a revelation from God written originally on the heart or mind of man; consequently is a revelation common to all nations; and, so far as it goes, it agrees with the things written in the external revelation which God hath made to some nations. We are compelled, however, when we come to consider matters of fact, to acknowledge that this light of nature has been dreadfully obscured and corrupted, even in the most learned and civilized heathen nations upon earth, as the apostle has proved at large in the latter part of the preceding chapter. And long before the ages referred to by him, All flesh had corrupted its way, Genesis 6:5, 11; darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people, Isaiah 60:2; there was none that understood, (Romans 3:11;) and all were alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that was in them, Ephesians 4:18, &c.

Ver. 14. The gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law. The apostle had already shown in the preseding chapter that the gentiles were strangers to righteousness, and under a judicial blindness. This was consequent upon their “not liking” to retain God in their knowledge; and was preseded and accompanied by those demonstrations of his eternal power and godhead which left them without excuse. This was the general state of the gentile world. Nevertheless, God left not himself without witness among them. The excellency which they attained in civil jurisprudence, and the equity of many of their laws, show that they were not left without a moral sense of right and wrong. The dictates of natural conscience, that is, of such conscience as man has without a revelation, and without a written law, ceremonial or moral, show the work of the law written in their hearts; and which enabled them, on many occasions, to act according to justice, mercy, and truth. So I understand the word fusei, by nature. Strictly speaking, the gentiles could not by nature do the things contained in the law; but they were never left in such an absolute state of nature, as to be without some adventitious advantages, derived either from traditional revelation, or from observing the works of creation and providence. They had always a conscience which sat in judgment on all their actions, accusing or else excusing one another. Individuals of the gentiles did actually follow this light, and many became proselytes of the jewish religion. The prayers and the alms of the devout centurion went up for a memorial before God. Acts 10:4. St. Paul is here laying the foundation of an argument which was to convict the unbelieving jews, and to justify the believing gentiles on the principle of faith alone, and without subjection to the ceremonial law. Hence others are of opinion that he alludes not to the gentile world in general, but to the believing gentiles. So PARKHURST. When eqnh, gentiles (not Ta eqnh, THE gentiles) who have not the law, given by Moses, do, fusei, from a natural disposition or inclination, (bonâ indole sive naturâ per Spiritum Sanctum infusâ) the things of the law, that is, the great duties of religion; these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law written in their hearts. This passage probably relates, not to the unconverted, but to the converted gentiles.

(1) Because the being a law unto themselves, and having the law written on their hearts, is the description given by the prophet Jeremiah, and by St. Paul, of the christian state. Jeremiah 31:31. Hebrews 8:6-13. 10:16. 2 Corinthians 3:3.

(2) Because the verbs poih — eisi — endeiknuntai are in the present tense, and relate to the present, not the past condition of the gentiles; of which the apostle had given such a very different and dreadful description: Romans 1:24.

(3) Because the gentiles who have not the law, and yet do the things of the law, evidently denote the same sort of persons as those who are called, ver. 26, the “uncircumcision which keepeth the righteousness of the law;” and of whom the apostle asks, “shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?”

14. By nature—By natural conscience. Yet even in heathen dispensations nature is not alone and unaided. Paul’s own doctrine is, that the glorious headship of Christ is as wide as the inglorious headship of Adam. Through a universal though unknown Saviour is dispensed a universal Spirit, a universal drawing of the Father. Do… things… in the law—The apostle does not affirm but assume the fact that the law is sometimes truly fulfilled by the Gentiles. A law unto themselves—They are their own regulators. That law may not perfectly coincide with the written law nor with the absolute law; but it is a law to them, and available in their behalf. Nor under a heathen dispensation any more than under a Jewish, must an obedience be absolute in order to be accepted. As we have shown above, there may be a virtual Christian faith and acceptance where there is no known Christ—a faith that secures pardon for shortcomings in keeping the law. Aristotle is quoted by Wetstein as saying (Nic. 4:14) that the enlightened man will “so carry himself as being a law unto himself.” Another Greek writer says: “So will I be a law to the multitude, not the majority to me.” Philo says of Moses that he was “a living and rational law.” (Notes on Luke 12:47, 48, 57.)

Ver. 14.-15. These verses confirm the universal principle asserted in Romans 2:13 by showing that it applies not only to Jews but to Gentiles. All

Gentiles belong to the definite category of the men who have no law. They have no external prescription of conduct like the Law of Sinai. By-nature: by the outworking of forces born in us, as distinguished from results of education and later events, i.e. of influences which since our birth have moulded our conduct and character: same word in Ephesians 2:3; Galatians 2:15; 4:8. By nature the bee builds cells and lays up honey: and this proves that in the bee certain principles of architecture have been implanted by a higher power.

The things of the Law: actions bidden in the Law of Moses; so Romans 2:15, the work of the Law. For instance, the Law says, “Honour thy father and thy mother.” The Greeks, who never heard the Law, sometimes did this: so Xenophon, Memoirs bk. iv. 4. 20, quoted in my Through Christ to God p. 28. Their conduct,

whenever they do the things of the Law, which cannot be a result of a law they never heard, must therefore spring from moral forces born in them. This obedience is only fragmentary, and therefore cannot justify: for the Law demands perfect obedience. So Galatians 3:10. But it is sufficient for Paul’s argument.

Not having law: emphatic repetition of the point of the argument. The Gentiles have no law external to themselves; yet they sometimes do the things bidden in the Law: they are therefore a law to themselves, i.e. there is within them, as part of themselves, something which is to them what the Books of Moses are to the Jews. This proof appears whenever Gentiles do the things of the Law.

Verses 14, 15. For when the Gentiles, &c. — The true parenthesis includes only these verses; for that the connection breaks off from the preceding verse, is clear from this, that the Gentiles could in no sense be said to be hearers of the law, the persons of whom the apostle had just spoken. The important passage thus parenthetically introduced, appears to have been designed to answer a tacit objection of this kind: — It may be true that not the mere hearers but only the doers of the law will be accepted of God at last; but how then shall Gentiles be saved at the last day, since they are not even hearers of the law? This question the apostle answers: To do by nature fusei, the things of the law, is to do what the revealed law prescribes, without the advantage of that express revelation of it which the Jews had: for amid all the various illustrations of the phrase, “by nature,” which critics have collected from classical and Hellenistic Greek writers, one has been generally overlooked, contained in this very epistle, Romans 11:24, “For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree,” &c., where a cultivated and an uncultivated tree are made by the apostle the emblems of the pagan Gentiles and the Jews. That natural state of the Gentiles of which he speaks in the text stands equally opposed to the Church state of the Jews, as in the passage just cited, and signifies the condition of all those nations to whom God had not made express and successive revelations of his will, and taken as his people under the cultivation of an appointed ministry and regular ordinances. The things contained in the law. — More simply the things of the law, the things enjoined by the law, the worship, fear, and love of God; justice, charity, truth, and mercy; if not with so clear a knowledge of their distinctions, or so perfectly, as good men under the law, yet substantially and with entire sincerity.

These not having a law, &c. — Not having a WRITTEN law, (for so the argument obliges us to understand the apostle,) are not indeed without law, but are a law to themselves; that is, the law as written on their hearts is their law; and as they bear it about with them, and possess no external visible record of it, like the Jews in their tables of stone and sacred books, they are said to be a law to themselves.

Which show the work of the law written on their hearts. — The work is not that which is written on the heart; for that is said to be showed; it is therefore a visible thing, and consists in acts of noticeable conformity to the same moral rules as the Jews directly received from God. But that which is written on their hearts is the law; of the fact of the existence of which so written, the work spoken of is one of the proofs. In this phrase, the law written on the heart, and the law written on tables of stone and in the Jewish Scriptures, are not indeed contrasted, but distinguished; for the law is the same law, though under different modes of manifestation. Of the existence of this law delineated upon the hearts of the Gentiles, two proofs are adduced:

1. The existence of conscience among them. This cannot be denied; the power of it is often adverted to by their writers, and expressed with great force; but conscience necessarily supposes both a knowledge of the fact to which it is to bear witness, and of the rule by which its moral quality is to be determined, and of the authority of that rule as Divine, or there could be no painful apprehension of punishment. The second proof is, that not only did conscience give its condemning or approving witness in the bosom of each individual, but that in their reasonings and disputes they either accused or excused, condemned or acquitted, each other with reference to different acts or courses of action. This also could not be denied; for moral approbation or moral censure was continually called forth in their intercourse with each other; and amid all the perversions of men’s minds, on moral subjects, in the Gentile world, yet do we see certain crimes condemned there, as well as among the Jews; and certain virtues recognized and applauded. “The words metaxu allhlwn,” says Bloomfield, “should not be rendered meanwhile,” &c., nor with Macknight, “between one another; but, with the Vulgate, inter se invicem.” But this is the same thing as the conscience bearing witness; the argument would indeed be the same, though somewhat less cogent; but it seems preferable to take metaxu allhlwn twn logismwn in the sense of their reasonings or debates with one another, either on the subject of good or evil, or as estimating each other’s character, or dealing out their censures or their praises. The whole proved that they had moral knowledge; consequently that they were morally responsible, and capable of rewards or punishments at the last day; which is what the apostle intended to show in illustration of the rectitude of the proceedings of the general judgment.

From this passage of St. Paul respecting the Gentiles, many erroneous conclusions have been drawn. Here it has been pretended we see the foundation of natural religion, and the sufficiency of unassisted reason to discover the existence of God, and to arrive at the knowledge of his will; “therefore there is a law of nature which is a true guide.” This and many other things of the same kind have been said, without adverting to the fact, that the moral law of God is older than its revelation to the Jews, and more extensive than the boundaries of one people; that Noah, THE PREACHER OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, and an INSPIRED man, was the teacher of this law to his sons; that it descended to all the families which sprung from him, that is, to all the families of the earth; that indirectly, though not directly, the revelations to the Jews glanced their beams upon all the surrounding nations, the greatest and most populous states of antiquity; and that consequently none of the people of whom St. Paul more particularly speaks had ever been left to their own reason to discover God, or the leading rules of moral law. He speaks not indeed of a law devised and invented by the hearts of the Gentiles; but a law, the same in substance as that revealed to the Jews, written upon their hearts, delineated and infixed there by some external impression. Such was the TRADITION of their fathers; which, though gradually perverted, was handed down, and made, in fact, such an appeal to the sense and perception of right, which every man has by his very mental constitution, as to become, and in many respects to remain, an AUTHORITATIVE rule of CONSCIENCE. For that the heathens connected it with a superior authority to that of man, is evident from Cicero, “By what law? By what right? By that which Jupiter himself has established, that every thing salutary to the public should have the character of lawful and just. For the law is nothing else but that right reason which we have derived from a Divine counsel and will, commanding things honest and praiseworthy, and prohibiting the contrary.” Still this law, in its best manifestations, was capable of being corrupted by the will, and was actually so. The unbiassed convictions of man must be in favour of what is right and fit, even as intellectual perceptions; and these are with difficulty fully subdued; but a corrupt will and affections more or less prevail in all sinning men, and the light within them becomes darkness. This awfully took place in the heathen world. Still God left not himself without witness. Still it may be asked how this doctrine of the possible salvation of the Gentiles, in a course of “well doing,” comports with his main design to show that both Jews and Gentiles were under wrath, and needed that Gospel which he gloried to preach as the power of God unto salvation? Let it be remarked, in answer, that although he states the possibility, his general representation of the actual condition of the Gentiles shows that, in point of fact, he thought the number of pious Gentiles to be exceeding few. He admits, of course, that the Jew might be saved, but dwells upon the corrupt state of his own nation everywhere as a proof how much they needed the Gospel; both required the administration of the remedy in its most efficient form, in order to save those who would not be saved without it, although the possibility of salvation remained to both. — Besides, St. Paul did not attribute the salvation of a pious Gentile, any more than of a pious Jew, to a constitution of moral government at all different from that of the Gospel; so that it could be said, as some have dreamed, here is one man saved by the law of nature, another by the law of Moses, a third by the Gospel. When we speak now of sin and punishment, we refer to the moral law as contained in the Gospel; and so when we speak of good works and holiness, their root; for that moral law is the rule of both. But it does not follow from this that we separate that law from that gracious constitution of free and unmerited mercy in Christ under which we are all by the kindness of God our Saviour placed. We may, indeed, make the separation of the preceptive part from the evangelical part, as did the Jews, as to their own law; but in the kind of moral government under which man has been placed, ever since he was placed in the hands of a Mediator, they have been united. — With the law of Moses there was, therefore, in all ages, an evangelical grace united; and so with the law written on the heart. It was taught and handed down by the patriarchs in connection with the doctrine of typical sacrifices, and the means of propitiation for sin, and obtaining the favour and help of God; while, independent of the degree of distinct knowledge which the Gentiles might have, they were the subjects of Christ’s redemption, and were never treated on the ground of rigid law. This doctrine of the participation of all men in the benefits of the obedience of Christ, as all had participated in the effects of the disobedience of Adam, he expressly dwells upon in chapter 5. By whatever means, therefore, any Gentiles had been rescued, from vice, and brought to do the things enjoined by the law, they all emanated from, and were rendered efficient by, that scheme of redemption which had been laid from the beginning as the basis of God’s moral government of a fallen world. Had Jews and Gentiles preserved even that clear knowledge of this which they all originally possessed, they would have been bound to receive the Gospel in its perfected form; for that had been, in type and promise, the only ground of their hope from the beginning, and now presented to them the great substance. How much more was it necessary to their salvation now that their original light, both as to law and grace, had become so deeply darkened; and a special interposition of revelation and supernatural influence upon the hearts, sunk into the very death of sin, was necessary to save the world.

V. 15. Who show-To themselves, to other men, and, in a sense, to God himself.

The work of the law-The substance, though not the letter, of it. Written on their hearts-By the same hand which wrote the commandments on the tables of stone.

Their conscience-There is none of all its faculties which the soul has less in its power than this.

Bearing witness-In a trial there are the plaintiff, the defendant, and the witnesses. Conscience and sin itself are witnesses against the heathens. Their thoughts sometimes excuse, sometimes condemn, them. Among themselves-Alternately, like plaintiff and defendant. Accusing or even defending them-The very manner of speaking shows that they have far more room to accuse than to defend.

Verses 14, 15. For when the Gentiles — That is, any of them who have not the law — Not a written revelation of the divine will; do by nature — That is, by the light of nature, without an outward rule, or by the untaught dictates of their own minds, influenced, however, by the preventing grace of God, which hath appeared to all men, Titus 2:11; or, the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world: the things contained in the law — The moral duties required by the precepts of the law, the ten commandments being only the substance of the law of nature. These, not having the written law, are a law unto themselves — That is, what the law was to the Jews, they are by the light and grace of God to themselves, namely, a rule of life. All the ancient Greek commentators, as Whitby has shown, interpreted this passage not of the Gentiles who had been converted to Christianity, but of those Gentiles who had not been favoured with a revealed law, and therefore were neither proselytes to Judaism nor Christianity. Who show — To themselves and others, and, in a sense, to God himself, the work of the law — In its most important moral precepts, in the substance, though not in the letter of them; written in their hearts — By the same divine hand which wrote the commandments on the tables of stone; their conscience also bearing witness — For or against them, or testifying how far they have complied with their light or law. There is not one of all its faculties which the soul has less in its power than this. And their thoughts — Or their reasonings or reflections upon their own conduct; the meanwhile — Or, as the expression, metaxu allhlwn, is translated in the margin, between themselves, or by turns, according as they do well or ill; accusing — Checking and condemning them when they have acted contrary to their light; or else excusing — Approving and justifying them when they have conformed to it. Hence the apostle meant it to be inferred, that it was not the having, or knowing the law, (verse 13,) nor the condemning others for the transgression of it, could avail a man, but the doing of it, or walking according to it. We may observe further on this verse, that, as the law in this context signifies divine revelation, the work of the law must be men’s duty, which revelation discovers by its precepts, which is also in part discovered by men’s natural reason and conscience, influenced by the light and grace of God; on which account it is said to be written on their hearts. Thus, in the compass of two verses, the apostle hath explained what the light of nature is, and demonstrated that there is such a light existing. It is a revelation from God written originally on the heart or mind of man; consequently is a revelation common to all nations; and, so far as it goes, it agrees with the things written in the external revelation which God hath made to some nations. We are compelled, however, when we come to consider matters of fact, to acknowledge that this light of nature has been dreadfully obscured and corrupted, even in the most learned and civilized heathen nations upon earth, as the apostle has proved at large in the latter part of the preceding chapter. And long before the ages referred to by him, All flesh had corrupted its way, Genesis 6:5, 11; darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people, Isaiah 60:2; there was none that understood, (Romans 3:11;) and all were alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that was in them, Ephesians 4:18, &c.

Ver. 15. The law written in their hearts. If they are injured in character, or defrauded in property, they are all learned in the law, and philosophers in the moral code. If they steal, if they commit fornication, how cautious are they of concealment. If death approach, how dreadful are their fears. All these are dictates of conscience, emanations of the law written in the heart. See on Genesis 42:21. John 8:8.

15. Work of the law… hearts—The work of the law may mean either the practice which the law enjoins, or the operation of the law itself. The former makes the clearer sense. The work of the law is the deed or duty marked out by the law. The written law or decalogue is mostly prohibitory; the unwritten law of the heart is positive, enjoining a course and a work. The heart is, as it were, a tablet; and as the non-work was written on the tablet of stone, so the positive work is written on the tablet of the heart. In the human consciousness a just philosophy finds a standard of right and wrong, a moral sense, which affirms the right and disaffirms its opposite. Their conscience also—Three elements are found here in man’s moral nature: First, a law written on the heart, that is, the natural sense, idea, standard, or rule of right and wrong. Second, the conscience, bearing witness; that is, the moral consciousness testifying whether our volitions or actions, or even our emotions and mental states, agree or disagree with this standard or rule. Third, the accusations, excusations, or commendations, moral judgment, pronouncing the subject condemnable or otherwise. These three elements are at the present day usually comprehended under the complex term conscience.

By the English translation the thoughts are made to accuse or excuse one another; that is, thoughts to accuse thoughts. And this makes the better sense. The moral thought does accuse the wicked thought, feeling, or volition. But commentators generally understand it of thoughts accusing the men themselves.

The existence and power of this conscience is often beautifully and forcibly attested by later classic writers. The Greek historian Polybius says: “No witness is so fearful, no accuser is so terrible, as the conscience dwelling in every individual soul.” The Roman poet Juvenal says: “Do you expect those to escape whom the mind, conscious of direful crime, holds confounded? By night and by day they carry the witness within their own breasts.”

Ver. 15. Further exposition and confirmation of the argument in Romans 2:14.

The work of the Law: the conduct prescribed in the Law of Moses, looked upon as a code of morals.

Hearts: as in Romans 1:21. Their occasional obedience proves that the God of Nature, who wrote His Law on the tables of stone given to Israel at Sinai, has engraved it on the walls of that inner chamber from which comes all human action. Many disobey this law written within. But, as Socrates argues in Xenophon’s Memoirs referred to above, this does not disprove the authority of the law. Thus the Gentiles carry within them, written in their hearts, a standard of conduct which God has given to be the rule of their life.

Bearing-joint-witness: confirming what another witness has said: same word in Romans 8:16; 9:1.

Conscience, or consciousness: same word in Romans 9:1; 13:5; 2 Corinthians 1:12: the inborn faculty by which a man contemplates, and pronounces sentence upon, himself, his thoughts, emotions, purposes, words, and actions. It is the inward eye which reads the law written in the heart and compares with it the conduct of himself and others. Practically it is the law written within looked upon as a faculty of judgment: it is the inborn Moral Sense of man. This inward knowledge and inborn faculty of judgment, whose voice no one can contradict, confirms the evidence given by the occasional right action of the Gentiles, and proves that God has given to them a standard of right and wrong by which they will be judged. And their reasonings etc.: a second confirmation of the same. Every day the heathen reasons in his mind whether something done by his neighbour is right or wrong. The result is that he accuses his neighbour, or excuses him from the accusations of others. These reasonings imply a standard with which the conduct of men around is compared. And in all nations, as is proved by the literature of the ancient world, this standard is in its main outlines the same: and in the main it corresponds with the moral teaching of the Law of Moses. Thus the reasonings which find utterance in the blame or praise with which even the heathen speak one of another bear witness that God has given to them a law which is a part of themselves, and is to them what the book was to Israel.

Accusing: put first because in a world of sinners man’s verdict on his fellows is more frequently condemnatory than approving. But even their excusing of others implies a moral standard written within. Of this we have now three proofs, the occasional right conduct of the heathen, their inward estimate of their own actions, and their spoken estimate of the actions of men around them.

It is easy to feel the force of the above reasoning. The ancient writers of Greece and Rome prove clearly that the Gentiles among whom Paul moved sometimes did noble actions in harmony with the moral teaching of the Pentateuch; and that, speaking generally, the heart of the people, expressed in its approval and condemnation of men around, was in harmony with the same. This proves that, although they had no outward law, the Gentiles had an inner law which was a part of themselves, which guided their judgment, and was designed to guide their conduct. The force of this argument is not lessened by the fact that on some points this law was imperfect. The letters written within were partly defaced. But enough remained to prove their divine origin, and to be a standard by which the heathen will be judged.

This argument would not fall to the ground even if the Gentiles had been unconscious of the divine origin of this unwritten, yet deeply-written, law. For all admitted its existence, whether or not they knew whence it came. That it came from God, we infer from its agreement with the Law of Sinai: and that it came from God many ancient writers acknowledge. SOCRATES, in Xenophon’s Memoirs bk. iv. 4. 19-21, referred to above, speaks of the unwritten laws held in every country, and quotes as samples honour to parents and the prohibition of incest. He says that since these laws are universally held and are evidently not a result of human legislation they must have been made by the gods. Still more explicit is CICERO in his Laws bk. ii. 4: “This then, as it appears to me, has been the decision of the wisest philosophers, that law was neither a thing contrived by the genius of man nor established by any decree of the people, but a certain eternal principle which governs the entire universe, wisely commanding what is right and forbidding what is wrong. Therefore they called that primal and supreme law the mind of God enjoining or forbidding each separate thing in accordance with reason. On which account it is that this law, which the gods have bestowed on the human race, is so justly praised. For it is the reason and mind of a wise Being equally able to urge us to good and to deter us from evil… For even he (Tarquin) had the light of reason deduced from the nature of things, which incites to good actions and dissuades from evil ones; and which does not begin for the first time to be a law when it is drawn up in writing, but from the first moment that it exists: and its existence is coeval with the divine mind. Therefore the true and supreme law, whose commands and prohibitions are equally authoritative, is the right reason of the Sovereign Jupiter.”

The above testimonies receive important confirmation from the supreme authority, recognised by many who reject the authority of the Bible, of the inborn moral sense. This last is by no means infallible; but until better instructed it is the law we are bound to obey. A man may make mistake in obeying Conscience: he never does right to disobey it. The peremptory authority of the moral sense, dominating all other considerations, reveals its divine source.

From this law written within, all external law receives its authority; and by it must all external law be judged. To it appeals not only the moral law given to Israel but the supreme revelation given in Christ. And the homage paid by the moral sense of man to the character and teaching of Christ is the strongest testimony to His divine mission. It is a voice of God in man bearing witness to the Voice of God speaking to us from the lips of the Incarnate Son.

This inborn voice of God is doubtless the chief agent through which “God is leading” men “towards repentance.”

The voice of conscience is a clear monition of a universal and impartial judgment to come. For its absolute authority assures us that it is able to vindicate its commands by adequate retribution. Such retribution we do not see in the present life; and are therefore compelled to expect it beyond the grave.

Paul has now confirmed the universal principle stated in Romans 2:13 by showing how it will apply to Gentiles as well as Jews: and, by pointing to a law which all have broken, he has confirmed the statement in Romans 2:12. The difference created by the partial gift of the Mosaic Law is not so great as at first sight appears. To all men, in different ways, God has given the one law. That He gave it to the Jews in more emphatic form, does not afford the slightest presumption that He will deviate in their favour from the great principle which underlies all law.

Verses 14, 15. For when the Gentiles, &c. — The true parenthesis includes only these verses; for that the connection breaks off from the preceding verse, is clear from this, that the Gentiles could in no sense be said to be hearers of the law, the persons of whom the apostle had just spoken. The important passage thus parenthetically introduced, appears to have been designed to answer a tacit objection of this kind: — It may be true that not the mere hearers but only the doers of the law will be accepted of God at last; but how then shall Gentiles be saved at the last day, since they are not even hearers of the law? This question the apostle answers: To do by nature fusei, the things of the law, is to do what the revealed law prescribes, without the advantage of that express revelation of it which the Jews had: for amid all the various illustrations of the phrase, “by nature,” which critics have collected from classical and Hellenistic Greek writers, one has been generally overlooked, contained in this very epistle, Romans 11:24, “For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree,” &c., where a cultivated and an uncultivated tree are made by the apostle the emblems of the pagan Gentiles and the Jews. That natural state of the Gentiles of which he speaks in the text stands equally opposed to the Church state of the Jews, as in the passage just cited, and signifies the condition of all those nations to whom God had not made express and successive revelations of his will, and taken as his people under the cultivation of an appointed ministry and regular ordinances. The things contained in the law. — More simply the things of the law, the things enjoined by the law, the worship, fear, and love of God; justice, charity, truth, and mercy; if not with so clear a knowledge of their distinctions, or so perfectly, as good men under the law, yet substantially and with entire sincerity.

These not having a law, &c. — Not having a WRITTEN law, (for so the argument obliges us to understand the apostle,) are not indeed without law, but are a law to themselves; that is, the law as written on their hearts is their law; and as they bear it about with them, and possess no external visible record of it, like the Jews in their tables of stone and sacred books, they are said to be a law to themselves.

Which show the work of the law written on their hearts. — The work is not that which is written on the heart; for that is said to be showed; it is therefore a visible thing, and consists in acts of noticeable conformity to the same moral rules as the Jews directly received from God. But that which is written on their hearts is the law; of the fact of the existence of which so written, the work spoken of is one of the proofs. In this phrase, the law written on the heart, and the law written on tables of stone and in the Jewish Scriptures, are not indeed contrasted, but distinguished; for the law is the same law, though under different modes of manifestation. Of the existence of this law delineated upon the hearts of the Gentiles, two proofs are adduced:

1. The existence of conscience among them. This cannot be denied; the power of it is often adverted to by their writers, and expressed with great force; but conscience necessarily supposes both a knowledge of the fact to which it is to bear witness, and of the rule by which its moral quality is to be determined, and of the authority of that rule as Divine, or there could be no painful apprehension of punishment. The second proof is, that not only did conscience give its condemning or approving witness in the bosom of each individual, but that in their reasonings and disputes they either accused or excused, condemned or acquitted, each other with reference to different acts or courses of action. This also could not be denied; for moral approbation or moral censure was continually called forth in their intercourse with each other; and amid all the perversions of men’s minds, on moral subjects, in the Gentile world, yet do we see certain crimes condemned there, as well as among the Jews; and certain virtues recognized and applauded. “The words metaxu allhlwn,” says Bloomfield, “should not be rendered meanwhile,” &c., nor with Macknight, “between one another; but, with the Vulgate, inter se invicem.” But this is the same thing as the conscience bearing witness; the argument would indeed be the same, though somewhat less cogent; but it seems preferable to take metaxu allhlwn twn logismwn in the sense of their reasonings or debates with one another, either on the subject of good or evil, or as estimating each other’s character, or dealing out their censures or their praises. The whole proved that they had moral knowledge; consequently that they were morally responsible, and capable of rewards or punishments at the last day; which is what the apostle intended to show in illustration of the rectitude of the proceedings of the general judgment.

From this passage of St. Paul respecting the Gentiles, many erroneous conclusions have been drawn. Here it has been pretended we see the foundation of natural religion, and the sufficiency of unassisted reason to discover the existence of God, and to arrive at the knowledge of his will; “therefore there is a law of nature which is a true guide.” This and many other things of the same kind have been said, without adverting to the fact, that the moral law of God is older than its revelation to the Jews, and more extensive than the boundaries of one people; that Noah, THE PREACHER OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, and an INSPIRED man, was the teacher of this law to his sons; that it descended to all the families which sprung from him, that is, to all the families of the earth; that indirectly, though not directly, the revelations to the Jews glanced their beams upon all the surrounding nations, the greatest and most populous states of antiquity; and that consequently none of the people of whom St. Paul more particularly speaks had ever been left to their own reason to discover God, or the leading rules of moral law. He speaks not indeed of a law devised and invented by the hearts of the Gentiles; but a law, the same in substance as that revealed to the Jews, written upon their hearts, delineated and infixed there by some external impression. Such was the TRADITION of their fathers; which, though gradually perverted, was handed down, and made, in fact, such an appeal to the sense and perception of right, which every man has by his very mental constitution, as to become, and in many respects to remain, an AUTHORITATIVE rule of CONSCIENCE. For that the heathens connected it with a superior authority to that of man, is evident from Cicero, “By what law? By what right? By that which Jupiter himself has established, that every thing salutary to the public should have the character of lawful and just. For the law is nothing else but that right reason which we have derived from a Divine counsel and will, commanding things honest and praiseworthy, and prohibiting the contrary.” Still this law, in its best manifestations, was capable of being corrupted by the will, and was actually so. The unbiassed convictions of man must be in favour of what is right and fit, even as intellectual perceptions; and these are with difficulty fully subdued; but a corrupt will and affections more or less prevail in all sinning men, and the light within them becomes darkness. This awfully took place in the heathen world. Still God left not himself without witness. Still it may be asked how this doctrine of the possible salvation of the Gentiles, in a course of “well doing,” comports with his main design to show that both Jews and Gentiles were under wrath, and needed that Gospel which he gloried to preach as the power of God unto salvation? Let it be remarked, in answer, that although he states the possibility, his general representation of the actual condition of the Gentiles shows that, in point of fact, he thought the number of pious Gentiles to be exceeding few. He admits, of course, that the Jew might be saved, but dwells upon the corrupt state of his own nation everywhere as a proof how much they needed the Gospel; both required the administration of the remedy in its most efficient form, in order to save those who would not be saved without it, although the possibility of salvation remained to both. — Besides, St. Paul did not attribute the salvation of a pious Gentile, any more than of a pious Jew, to a constitution of moral government at all different from that of the Gospel; so that it could be said, as some have dreamed, here is one man saved by the law of nature, another by the law of Moses, a third by the Gospel. When we speak now of sin and punishment, we refer to the moral law as contained in the Gospel; and so when we speak of good works and holiness, their root; for that moral law is the rule of both. But it does not follow from this that we separate that law from that gracious constitution of free and unmerited mercy in Christ under which we are all by the kindness of God our Saviour placed. We may, indeed, make the separation of the preceptive part from the evangelical part, as did the Jews, as to their own law; but in the kind of moral government under which man has been placed, ever since he was placed in the hands of a Mediator, they have been united. — With the law of Moses there was, therefore, in all ages, an evangelical grace united; and so with the law written on the heart. It was taught and handed down by the patriarchs in connection with the doctrine of typical sacrifices, and the means of propitiation for sin, and obtaining the favour and help of God; while, independent of the degree of distinct knowledge which the Gentiles might have, they were the subjects of Christ’s redemption, and were never treated on the ground of rigid law. This doctrine of the participation of all men in the benefits of the obedience of Christ, as all had participated in the effects of the disobedience of Adam, he expressly dwells upon in chapter 5. By whatever means, therefore, any Gentiles had been rescued, from vice, and brought to do the things enjoined by the law, they all emanated from, and were rendered efficient by, that scheme of redemption which had been laid from the beginning as the basis of God’s moral government of a fallen world. Had Jews and Gentiles preserved even that clear knowledge of this which they all originally possessed, they would have been bound to receive the Gospel in its perfected form; for that had been, in type and promise, the only ground of their hope from the beginning, and now presented to them the great substance. How much more was it necessary to their salvation now that their original light, both as to law and grace, had become so deeply darkened; and a special interposition of revelation and supernatural influence upon the hearts, sunk into the very death of sin, was necessary to save the world.

V. 16. In the day-That is, who show this in the day. Everything will then be shown to be what it really is. In that day will appear the law written in their hearts as it often does in the present life.

When God shall judge the secrets of men-On secret circumstances depends the real quality of actions, frequently unknown to the actors themselves, Romans 2:29. Men generally form their judgments, even of themselves merely from what is apparent.

According to my gospel-According to the tenor of that gospel which is committed to my care. Hence it appears that the gospel also is a law.

Verse 16. In the day when God shall judge] And all this shall be farther exemplified and proved in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ; which judgment shall be according to my

Gospel-according to what I am now laying down before you, relative to the impartiality of God, and his righteous procedure in judging men, not according to their opinions or prejudices, not according to revelations which they never possessed, but according to the various advantages or disadvantages of their political, religious, or domestic situation in life. Much stress has been laid on the word, fusei, by nature, in Romans 2:14, as if the apostle designed to intimate that nature, independently of the influence of Divine grace, possessed such principles as were sufficient to guide a man to glory. But certainly the term cannot be so understood here. I rather think that the sense given to it in Suicer’s Thesaurus, vol ii. col. 1475, reipsa, revera, CERTAINLY, TRULY, is its sense here: for when the Gentiles, which have not the law, fusei poih, TRULY, or in effect, DO the things contained in the law, &c. This seems to be its sense in Galatians 4:8: When ye knew not God, ye did service to them which fusei, CERTAINLY are no gods; i.e. are false gods. Suicer quotes Cyril of Alexandria, (sub Anathematismo iii. in Actis Ephesinis, p. 212,) speaking of the union of the two natures in Christ; he calls this union fusikhn, natural; that is, says he, alhqh, true, or real. He adds, that the word should be thus understood in Ephesians 2:3: We were by nature, fusei, children of wrath; and says, fusei anti tou alhqwv, fusei is here used for alhqwv, TRULY; We were TRULY, INCONTESTABLY, the children of wrath, even as others. That is, like the rest of mankind, we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God, and, consequently are exposed to punishment. Some think that this text refers to the natural corruption of man; but, although it is true that man comes into the world corrupt, and that all men, since the fall, are very far gone from original righteousness, yet it is not clear that the text in Ephesians 2:3, speaks of any other thing than the effects of this degeneracy.

I prefer this sense, in the passage in question, to that which says the light of nature, or natural instinct, is here meant; for I know of no light in nature that is not kindled there by the grace of God. But I have no objection to this sense: “When the Gentiles, which have not the law, do, by the influence of God upon their hearts, the things contained in the law, they are a law unto themselves; that light and influence serving instead of a Divine revelation.” That the Gentiles did really do the things contained in the law, in reference to what is termed natural justice, and made the wisest distinctions relative to the great principles of the doctrine of civil RIGHTS and WRONGS, every man conversant with their writings will admit. And in reference to this the word fusei may be legitimately understood thus-they incontestably did the things contained in the law, &c.

The passage in Romans 2:15, Their thoughts-accusing or excusing one another, certainly does not refer to any expostulations or operations of conscience; for this is referred to in the preceding clause. The words accusing, kathgorountwn, and excusing, apologoumenwn, answering or defending one another, metazu allhlwn, among themselves, are all forensic or law terms, and refer to the mode of conducting suits of law in courts of justice, where one is plaintiff, who produces his accusation; another is defendant, who rebuts the charge and defends himself; and then the business is argued before the judges. This process shows that they have a law of their own, and that to this law it belongs to adjust differences-to right those who have suffered wrong, and to punish the guilty. As to the phrase written in their hearts, it is here opposed to the Jewish laws, which were written on tables of stone. The Jews drew the maxims by which their conduct was regulated from a Divine revelation: the GENTILES theirs from what God, in the course of his providence and gracious influence, had shown them to be right, useful, and necessary. And with them this law was well known and affectionately regarded; for this is one meaning of the phrase, written in the heart. It was from this true light, enlightening the Gentiles, that they had so many wise and wholesome laws; laws which had been among them from time immemorial, and of which they did not know the origin. Thus Sophocles, in the noble speech which he puts in the mouth of Antigone:-

Ou gar ti nun ge kucqev, allJ pote

Zh tauta, koudeiv oiden ex otou fanh,

“Not now, nor yesterday, but evermore

These laws have lived: nor know we whence they came.”

Antig. ver. 463-4.

These are the laws, nomina, which the Spirit of God wrote originally on their hearts; and which, in different forms, they had committed to writing.

Verse 16. In the day, &c. — This relates to verse 12, the intermediate verses, from the 13th, being a parenthesis; when God shall judge the secrets of men — Not only their outward actions, good and evil, which are manifest to all men, but their most secret and hidden ones, with their internal desires and designs, their intentions, purposes, schemes, contrivances, with the various workings of their passions, imaginations, and thoughts; for he will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil, Ecclesiastes 12:14; will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart, 1 Corinthians 4:5. On secret circumstances depends the real quality of actions, frequently unknown to the actors themselves, verse 29. Men generally form their judgments, even of themselves, merely from what is apparent. By Jesus Christ — To whom the Father hath committed all judgment; according to my gospel — According to the tenor of that gospel which is committed to my trust, and is preached by me: or as I testify in my preaching the gospel, Acts 17:31; 2 Timothy 2:8. For it is not the apostle’s intention to signify that all men shall be judged by the gospel, but only that the gospel teaches such a judgment.

16. In the day—The parenthesis including verses 13-15, and so connecting this verse with verse 12, makes the sense clear. But it is the whole doctrine of retribution (6-15) which is to be consummated in that day. Secrets of men—All the hidden thoughts, words, and deeds which constitute their moral history and character. Wickedness can be concealed in the breast, or in the darkness; but the dread day of Christ will uncover it.

2. Condition of the Jewish Race, Romans 2:17-3:20. The case of the Jew (17-24) with the written law is essentially parallel with that of the Gentile with the unwritten law, 12-15. Yet the apostle treats with a more careful deference. By a series of interrogations, more delicate yet more forcible than affirmations, he exhibits the wide discrepancies between their boasting of the law and their persistent breaking it. Gradually and carefully he approaches the conclusion that the case of the Jew is no better at best than that of the Gentile.

(a.) The Jew, under the law, breaking the law, Romans 2:17-29. With great skill the apostle prefaces his attack by calling over the roll of the Jew’s titles to honour, 17-20; but he exalts him only to plunge him down more deeply, 21-24.

Ver. 16. Not connected with Romans 2:15: for the accusations and excuses were those made in Paul’s own day. We must therefore take Romans 2:14-15 as a parenthesis. Paul declared in Romans 2:13 that only “the doers of law will be justified.” But, instead of saying at what bar and when, he stops to prove that even the Gentiles have a law, and therefore come under the application of this great principle; and then in Romans 2:16 takes up the thought thus broken off. In the day when God will judge: recalling Romans 2:5, “in the day of anger and revelation of God’s righteous judgment.”

The hidden things of men: cp. 1 Corinthians 4:5, “till the Lord come, who also will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts.” God will publicly pass sentence on the secrets which the man himself, in the solitude of his own conscience, has already condemned.

My Gospel: so Romans 16:25: the good news of salvation as Paul understands and proclaims it. He reminds his readers that the Gospel he everywhere preaches implies that God will judge the secrets of men at the great day. The doctrine of retribution beyond the grave must ever accompany, as a safeguard, the announcement of present salvation. Through Christ Jesus: see note under Romans 1:5, and compare John 5:27; 1 Corinthians 4:5.

V. 17. But if thou art called a Jew-This highest point of Jewish glorying, after a farther description of it interposed, Romans 2:17-20, and refuted, Romans 2:21-24, is itself refuted, Romans 2:25, &c. The description consists of twice five articles; of which the former five, Romans 2:17,18, show what he boasts of in himself; the other five, Romans 2:19,20, what he glories in with respect to others. The first particular of the former five answers to the first of the latter; the second, to the second, and so on.

And restest in the law-Dependest on it, though it can only condemn thee. And gloriest in God-As thy God; and that, too, to the exclusion of others.

Verse 17. Behold, thou art called a Jew] What the apostle had said in the preceding verses being sufficient to enforce conviction on the conscience of the Jew, he now throws off the cover, and openly argues with him in the most plain and nervous manner; asserting that his superior knowledge, privileges, and profession, served only to aggravate his condemnation. And that, in fact, he who, under all his greater advantages, transgressed the law of God, stood condemned by the honest Gentile, who, to the best of his knowledge obeyed it. Dr. Taylor.

And restest in the law] Thou trustest in it for thy endless salvation. The word epanapauh, implies the strongest confidence of safety and security. Thou reposest thy whole trust and confidence in this law. And makest thy boast of God] That thou knowest his nature and attributes, which are not known to the Gentiles. The word, kaucasai, implies the idea of exulting in any thing, as being a proper object of hope and dependence: and, when referred to GOD, it points out that HE is the sure cause of hope, dependence, joy, and happiness; and that it is the highest honour to be called to know his name, and be employed in his service. As if the apostle had said: You rejoice in God as the object of your hope and dependence; you praise and magnify him; you account it your greatest honour that HE is your God, and that you worship him.

Verses 17-20. Behold — Here he applies the matter he had discussed in the preceding verses more closely to the Jews, and proves, that, notwithstanding all their pretences and privileges, they were transgressors of the law, and so could not be justified by works, any more than the Gentiles. And here therefore he refutes the highest point of Jewish glorying, after a further description of it, interposed verses 17-20, and refuted verses 21-24. The description consists of twice five articles; of which the former five, verses 17, 18, show what he boasts of in himself; the other five, (verses 19, 20,) what he glories in with respect to others. The first particular of the former five answers to the first of the latter; the second to the second, and so on. Thou art called a Jew — A professor of the true religion, and a worshipper of the true God. Dr. Macknight is of opinion that in this and the following verses, the apostle intended to address chiefly the men of rank and learning among the Jews; a supposition to which he thinks it is no objection that probably there were no doctors of the law, nor Jewish scribes and priests at Rome, when this letter was written; because, “as the apostle was reasoning against the whole body of the nation, his argument required that he should address the teachers of every denomination, to whom the things written in this and the following verses best agree. Besides, as he had addressed the heathen legislators, philosophers, and priests, in the first chapter, for the purpose of showing them the bad use they had made of the knowledge they derived from the works of creation, it was natural for him in this to address the Jewish scribes, priests, and doctors, to show them how little they had profited by the knowledge which they had derived from revelation. Of the Jewish common people the apostle speaks, Romans 3:20, &c., where he proves that they also were extremely vicious.” And restest in the law — Dependest on it alone, and on the having of it, for justification and salvation, though it can only condemn thee. And makest thy boast of God — As thy God; as belonging only to you Jews, and being yours in a peculiar manner; the founder of your commonwealth; your lawgiver, protector, and Saviour. And knowest his will — By special revelation, and more fully than the Gentiles. And approvest the things that are more excellent — Hast attained to a considerable degree of understanding in the law, so as to place a proper value upon things according to their worth, and to distinguish between things lawful and unlawful. The original words, dokimazeiv ta diaferonta, may be rendered, and triest, or, approvest on trial, the things that differ. Being instructed, &c. — Or, as Beza interprets kathcoumenov ek ton nomou, Being educated, or instructed from thy childhood, out of the law, 2 Timothy 3:15. And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind — Vainly presumest that thou hast knowledge enough to teach others. The Jewish doctors, in contempt of the Gentiles, were wont to speak of them as blind — in darkness — ignorant — babes — and boasted of themselves as guides, to whose direction the Gentiles, in matters of religion, ought implicitly to submit. This boasting of the Jews the apostle introduced here, to show that their sins were greatly aggravated by the revelation of which they boasted. Who hast the form of knowledge — A system, body, or model of that knowledge, which is scattered up and down in the law, and of the truths which are there delivered. For the original word, morfwsiv, seems to bear this meaning: and the apostle may be considered as comparing the law to a looking-glass, which exhibits exact images of things, as the Apostle James likewise does, James 1:25. This implies that they not only considered themselves as having a sketch, or the outlines, of the truth contained in the law, but the most accurate knowledge of it. And this they counted sufficient to save them, though they lived in a loose and ungodly manner.

Ver. 17. Thou art called a jew, a priest, a levite, a teacher, whose lives were often very immoral, though they judged and condemned the christians. From their moral character he was bold to repress their pride and insolence by three questions: Dost thou steal? Dost thou commit adultery? Dost thou commit sacrilege? Where then is your boasted circumcision?

17. Behold—This is a spirited and direct address, as is the first appeal to the moralized Gentile in verse 1. But the best authorities decide that the true reading is, “But if than art called a Jew.” The consequent corresponding to this if is nowhere affirmatively stated, but is conveyed in the necessary reply of the questions following. Restest in—Reposest or reliest upon. Boast of God—The very word Jew had assumed a religious signification, implying a believer in the one Supreme God, a monotheist in noble distinction from the polytheists. To his own view it was a divine appellation.

Verses 17, 18. Jew: a name of which he is proud: cp. Galatians 2:15; Revelation 3:9.

Rest upon law: he feels secure because he possesses a standard of right and wrong, an authoritative declaration that those who obey will be rewarded and those who disobey punished. Paul evidently speaks now to the man addressed in Romans 2:3, 4. But there the word Jew was kept back because others might cherish the fallacious hope there expressed; and because this hope, in Jew or Greek, was dispelled by the one universal principle that God has no respect of persons. In Romans 2:17-24, Paul’s reasoning applies to Jews only.

Exult: so Romans 3:27; 5:2, 11; 11:18; a rising or gladness of spirit which has always in view the object external or internal which has called it forth, and which is always ready to express itself in words. We exult in God, when our hearts rise within us at the thought of His greatness, His power, His love to us. This man, while living in sin and therefore under condemnation of God, is lifted up by the thought that Jehovah is God of the Jews.

And knowest the will of God: another ground of confidence. It enables him to distinguish and

approve the things that excel: for he is day by day instructed out of the Law. This vain confidence in a mere knowledge of the Law finds utterance in John 7:49.

Notice the gradation in Romans 2:17, 18. The man addressed remembers that he is a Jew, and that to his nation the tables of stone were given. This gives him, even while living in sin, an assurance of safety. From the Law, his thoughts rise to its great Author. That the Maker of the world is the God of the Jews, fills him with exultation. Through the Law he has looked into the mind, and knows the will, of God: amid the mistaken judgments of others, he has an infallible standard by which he can determine and approve that which is really good.

Verses 17-20. Behold, thou art called a Jew, &c. — In the following verses the apostle pursues the same argument, which is not merely to prove that the Jews were sinners as well as the Gentiles, but that they, as well as “the sinners of the Gentiles,” were liable to punishment, and that in a future life, contrary to their own received doctrine, “that every Israelite has a portion in the life to come.” Nay, still as his course of observation in the subsequent part of this chapter shows, their religious distinction as God’s peculiar people, so far from exempting them from punishment, only served to heighten their guilt, and aggravate their condemnation. Restest in the law, &c. — Thou leanest upon and trustest in the law, that is, in the great privilege of having had express revelations of the will of God from himself. And makest thy boast of God, as thy God, the glorious object of thy worship, and as, in a special sense, “the Lord God of Israel.” And knowest his will, that having been explicitly stated by revelation on all moral duties, as well as matters of faith and worship; and approvest the things that are more excellent, triest the things that differ in their moral qualities, in order to the discovery and approval of what is excellent; being, instructed for this purpose out of the law, or by the law, as the great and infallible rule and standard; a high privilege which the wisest among the Gentiles had not, who leaned to their own wisdom. And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind. Here, and in what follows, the apostle has been supposed to glance at the titles assumed by the Jewish doctors. This title, guides of the blind, our Lord turns against them with great severity by calling them “blind guides.” A light of them which are in darkness: so they complimented each other, one as “the lamp of light,” another as “the holy lamp,” a third as “the lamp of Israel.” An instructer of the foolish, the very title, says Rosenmuller, which Maimonides gives to one of his treatises, נבכים מירה, a teacher of babes, another title for a public instructer. But though these were titles of their doctors, St. Paul is not speaking of them in particular, but of the Jews in general; and with reference to his ability to teach a Gentile, every Jew, though but in the ordinary degree instructed in the law, might be called, without exaggeration, a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, &c. — This office, too, some of them well fulfilled; for many Greeks in the cities where the Jews were settled had been brought to the knowledge of the true God, and are mentioned several times in the Acts of the Apostles as proselytes. Which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law; the delineation, morfwsiv, in the mind or judgment of what is contained in the law. This does not mean, as some have understood, a shadowy unsubstantial appearance of Divine truth; but a real and accurate scheme of it in the mind, which was no doubt true as to those moral subjects to which St. Paul principally refers. He grants indeed all this, in order to fix in their minds a deeper sense of the enormity of their offences.

Verse 18. Knowest his will] Hast been favoured with a revelation of his own will, immediately from himself.

The things that are more excellent] ta disferonta, The things that differ-that revelation which God has given of himself makes the nicest distinctions between right and wrong; between vice and virtue; showing how you should walk so as to please God, and, consequently, acquire the most excellent portion that human spirits can have on this side heaven: for all these blessings ye acknowledge to receive from your law, being instructed, kathcoumenov, being catechized, from your infancy, in the knowledge of Divine things.

Verses 17-20. Behold — Here he applies the matter he had discussed in the preceding verses more closely to the Jews, and proves, that, notwithstanding all their pretences and privileges, they were transgressors of the law, and so could not be justified by works, any more than the Gentiles. And here therefore he refutes the highest point of Jewish glorying, after a further description of it, interposed verses 17-20, and refuted verses 21-24. The description consists of twice five articles; of which the former five, verses 17, 18, show what he boasts of in himself; the other five, (verses 19, 20,) what he glories in with respect to others. The first particular of the former five answers to the first of the latter; the second to the second, and so on. Thou art called a Jew — A professor of the true religion, and a worshipper of the true God. Dr. Macknight is of opinion that in this and the following verses, the apostle intended to address chiefly the men of rank and learning among the Jews; a supposition to which he thinks it is no objection that probably there were no doctors of the law, nor Jewish scribes and priests at Rome, when this letter was written; because, “as the apostle was reasoning against the whole body of the nation, his argument required that he should address the teachers of every denomination, to whom the things written in this and the following verses best agree. Besides, as he had addressed the heathen legislators, philosophers, and priests, in the first chapter, for the purpose of showing them the bad use they had made of the knowledge they derived from the works of creation, it was natural for him in this to address the Jewish scribes, priests, and doctors, to show them how little they had profited by the knowledge which they had derived from revelation. Of the Jewish common people the apostle speaks, Romans 3:20, &c., where he proves that they also were extremely vicious.” And restest in the law — Dependest on it alone, and on the having of it, for justification and salvation, though it can only condemn thee. And makest thy boast of God — As thy God; as belonging only to you Jews, and being yours in a peculiar manner; the founder of your commonwealth; your lawgiver, protector, and Saviour. And knowest his will — By special revelation, and more fully than the Gentiles. And approvest the things that are more excellent — Hast attained to a considerable degree of understanding in the law, so as to place a proper value upon things according to their worth, and to distinguish between things lawful and unlawful. The original words, dokimazeiv ta diaferonta, may be rendered, and triest, or, approvest on trial, the things that differ. Being instructed, &c. — Or, as Beza interprets kathcoumenov ek ton nomou, Being educated, or instructed from thy childhood, out of the law, 2 Timothy 3:15. And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind — Vainly presumest that thou hast knowledge enough to teach others. The Jewish doctors, in contempt of the Gentiles, were wont to speak of them as blind — in darkness — ignorant — babes — and boasted of themselves as guides, to whose direction the Gentiles, in matters of religion, ought implicitly to submit. This boasting of the Jews the apostle introduced here, to show that their sins were greatly aggravated by the revelation of which they boasted. Who hast the form of knowledge — A system, body, or model of that knowledge, which is scattered up and down in the law, and of the truths which are there delivered. For the original word, morfwsiv, seems to bear this meaning: and the apostle may be considered as comparing the law to a looking-glass, which exhibits exact images of things, as the Apostle James likewise does, James 1:25. This implies that they not only considered themselves as having a sketch, or the outlines, of the truth contained in the law, but the most accurate knowledge of it. And this they counted sufficient to save them, though they lived in a loose and ungodly manner.

18. Approvest… more excellent—That is, after due testing thou decidest the true superiority.

Verses 17, 18. Jew: a name of which he is proud: cp. Galatians 2:15; Revelation 3:9.

Rest upon law: he feels secure because he possesses a standard of right and wrong, an authoritative declaration that those who obey will be rewarded and those who disobey punished. Paul evidently speaks now to the man addressed in Romans 2:3, 4. But there the word Jew was kept back because others might cherish the fallacious hope there expressed; and because this hope, in Jew or Greek, was dispelled by the one universal principle that God has no respect of persons. In Romans 2:17-24, Paul’s reasoning applies to Jews only.

Exult: so Romans 3:27; 5:2, 11; 11:18; a rising or gladness of spirit which has always in view the object external or internal which has called it forth, and which is always ready to express itself in words. We exult in God, when our hearts rise within us at the thought of His greatness, His power, His love to us. This man, while living in sin and therefore under condemnation of God, is lifted up by the thought that Jehovah is God of the Jews.

And knowest the will of God: another ground of confidence. It enables him to distinguish and

approve the things that excel: for he is day by day instructed out of the Law. This vain confidence in a mere knowledge of the Law finds utterance in John 7:49.

Notice the gradation in Romans 2:17, 18. The man addressed remembers that he is a Jew, and that to his nation the tables of stone were given. This gives him, even while living in sin, an assurance of safety. From the Law, his thoughts rise to its great Author. That the Maker of the world is the God of the Jews, fills him with exultation. Through the Law he has looked into the mind, and knows the will, of God: amid the mistaken judgments of others, he has an infallible standard by which he can determine and approve that which is really good.

Verses 17-20. Behold, thou art called a Jew, &c. — In the following verses the apostle pursues the same argument, which is not merely to prove that the Jews were sinners as well as the Gentiles, but that they, as well as “the sinners of the Gentiles,” were liable to punishment, and that in a future life, contrary to their own received doctrine, “that every Israelite has a portion in the life to come.” Nay, still as his course of observation in the subsequent part of this chapter shows, their religious distinction as God’s peculiar people, so far from exempting them from punishment, only served to heighten their guilt, and aggravate their condemnation. Restest in the law, &c. — Thou leanest upon and trustest in the law, that is, in the great privilege of having had express revelations of the will of God from himself. And makest thy boast of God, as thy God, the glorious object of thy worship, and as, in a special sense, “the Lord God of Israel.” And knowest his will, that having been explicitly stated by revelation on all moral duties, as well as matters of faith and worship; and approvest the things that are more excellent, triest the things that differ in their moral qualities, in order to the discovery and approval of what is excellent; being, instructed for this purpose out of the law, or by the law, as the great and infallible rule and standard; a high privilege which the wisest among the Gentiles had not, who leaned to their own wisdom. And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind. Here, and in what follows, the apostle has been supposed to glance at the titles assumed by the Jewish doctors. This title, guides of the blind, our Lord turns against them with great severity by calling them “blind guides.” A light of them which are in darkness: so they complimented each other, one as “the lamp of light,” another as “the holy lamp,” a third as “the lamp of Israel.” An instructer of the foolish, the very title, says Rosenmuller, which Maimonides gives to one of his treatises, נבכים מירה, a teacher of babes, another title for a public instructer. But though these were titles of their doctors, St. Paul is not speaking of them in particular, but of the Jews in general; and with reference to his ability to teach a Gentile, every Jew, though but in the ordinary degree instructed in the law, might be called, without exaggeration, a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, &c. — This office, too, some of them well fulfilled; for many Greeks in the cities where the Jews were settled had been brought to the knowledge of the true God, and are mentioned several times in the Acts of the Apostles as proselytes. Which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law; the delineation, morfwsiv, in the mind or judgment of what is contained in the law. This does not mean, as some have understood, a shadowy unsubstantial appearance of Divine truth; but a real and accurate scheme of it in the mind, which was no doubt true as to those moral subjects to which St. Paul principally refers. He grants indeed all this, in order to fix in their minds a deeper sense of the enormity of their offences.

V. 19. Blind, in darkness, ignorant, babes-These were the titles which the Jews generally gave the Gentiles.

Verse 19. And art confident, &c.] In consequence of all these religious advantages, ye believe that ye are able to teach others, and to be guides and lights to the bewildered, darkened Gentiles, who may become proselytes to your religion.

Verses 17-20. Behold — Here he applies the matter he had discussed in the preceding verses more closely to the Jews, and proves, that, notwithstanding all their pretences and privileges, they were transgressors of the law, and so could not be justified by works, any more than the Gentiles. And here therefore he refutes the highest point of Jewish glorying, after a further description of it, interposed verses 17-20, and refuted verses 21-24. The description consists of twice five articles; of which the former five, verses 17, 18, show what he boasts of in himself; the other five, (verses 19, 20,) what he glories in with respect to others. The first particular of the former five answers to the first of the latter; the second to the second, and so on. Thou art called a Jew — A professor of the true religion, and a worshipper of the true God. Dr. Macknight is of opinion that in this and the following verses, the apostle intended to address chiefly the men of rank and learning among the Jews; a supposition to which he thinks it is no objection that probably there were no doctors of the law, nor Jewish scribes and priests at Rome, when this letter was written; because, “as the apostle was reasoning against the whole body of the nation, his argument required that he should address the teachers of every denomination, to whom the things written in this and the following verses best agree. Besides, as he had addressed the heathen legislators, philosophers, and priests, in the first chapter, for the purpose of showing them the bad use they had made of the knowledge they derived from the works of creation, it was natural for him in this to address the Jewish scribes, priests, and doctors, to show them how little they had profited by the knowledge which they had derived from revelation. Of the Jewish common people the apostle speaks, Romans 3:20, &c., where he proves that they also were extremely vicious.” And restest in the law — Dependest on it alone, and on the having of it, for justification and salvation, though it can only condemn thee. And makest thy boast of God — As thy God; as belonging only to you Jews, and being yours in a peculiar manner; the founder of your commonwealth; your lawgiver, protector, and Saviour. And knowest his will — By special revelation, and more fully than the Gentiles. And approvest the things that are more excellent — Hast attained to a considerable degree of understanding in the law, so as to place a proper value upon things according to their worth, and to distinguish between things lawful and unlawful. The original words, dokimazeiv ta diaferonta, may be rendered, and triest, or, approvest on trial, the things that differ. Being instructed, &c. — Or, as Beza interprets kathcoumenov ek ton nomou, Being educated, or instructed from thy childhood, out of the law, 2 Timothy 3:15. And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind — Vainly presumest that thou hast knowledge enough to teach others. The Jewish doctors, in contempt of the Gentiles, were wont to speak of them as blind — in darkness — ignorant — babes — and boasted of themselves as guides, to whose direction the Gentiles, in matters of religion, ought implicitly to submit. This boasting of the Jews the apostle introduced here, to show that their sins were greatly aggravated by the revelation of which they boasted. Who hast the form of knowledge — A system, body, or model of that knowledge, which is scattered up and down in the law, and of the truths which are there delivered. For the original word, morfwsiv, seems to bear this meaning: and the apostle may be considered as comparing the law to a looking-glass, which exhibits exact images of things, as the Apostle James likewise does, James 1:25. This implies that they not only considered themselves as having a sketch, or the outlines, of the truth contained in the law, but the most accurate knowledge of it. And this they counted sufficient to save them, though they lived in a loose and ungodly manner.

19. Guide—As a Jew. Of the blind—Of the blind pagans to a seeing of the true God. A light—As the Messiah was to be a light to the Gentiles.

Ver. 19.-20. A second flight of steps in the self-exaltation of the Jew. Having attained the position described in Romans 2:18, he confidently aspires to something higher. While he can see all things clearly in the light of the Law, others are in darkness: and he is fully

persuaded that he is a guide of those who wish to walk in the path of morality but have not eyes to see the way. He can give to blind men not only guidance but sight: for he is a

light of those in darkness. He will undertake the whole moral training of those who have not the wisdom which he has learnt from the Law: for he is an

instructor of foolish ones. They are babes; and he offers to be their teacher: for in the Law, which he has, knowledge and the truth present themselves in definite form to the mind of man.

Instructor: one who undertakes whatever belongs to moral training, thus differing from a mere teacher.

Form: the sum-total of that by which the inward nature of an object presents itself to our senses, and thus makes itself known to us, that by which we distinguish one object from another. Whatever we can see, feel, or hear is the form of a material object: whatever we can conceive is the form of a mental object. Same word in 2 Timothy 3:5: cognate word in Philippians 2:6, 7; Mark 16:12. The revealed will of God is knowledge when grasped by the mind of man; and the knowledge, as that best worth knowing. It is truth, because it corresponds with reality: it is the truth, because it sets forth the one great reality. The knowledge and the truth represent the contents of the Law in their relation to the mind of man and to objective reality. This man claims to be a teacher, because by his acquaintance with the sacred books his mind grasps the most worthy object-matter of intellectual effort, and a correct delineation of the eternal realities. The same eternal reality, and the same true matter of human knowledge, has in a still higher degree assumed form, and presented itself to the mind, in the Gospel of Christ.

Observe the beauty and symmetry of Romans 2:17-20. They fall into two divisions, each ending with a participial clause explaining the clauses before it. In the former, we have a learner; in the latter, a would-be teacher. The second division takes a loftier flight; and is therefore introduced by a word expressing confidence.

Verses 17-20. Behold, thou art called a Jew, &c. — In the following verses the apostle pursues the same argument, which is not merely to prove that the Jews were sinners as well as the Gentiles, but that they, as well as “the sinners of the Gentiles,” were liable to punishment, and that in a future life, contrary to their own received doctrine, “that every Israelite has a portion in the life to come.” Nay, still as his course of observation in the subsequent part of this chapter shows, their religious distinction as God’s peculiar people, so far from exempting them from punishment, only served to heighten their guilt, and aggravate their condemnation. Restest in the law, &c. — Thou leanest upon and trustest in the law, that is, in the great privilege of having had express revelations of the will of God from himself. And makest thy boast of God, as thy God, the glorious object of thy worship, and as, in a special sense, “the Lord God of Israel.” And knowest his will, that having been explicitly stated by revelation on all moral duties, as well as matters of faith and worship; and approvest the things that are more excellent, triest the things that differ in their moral qualities, in order to the discovery and approval of what is excellent; being, instructed for this purpose out of the law, or by the law, as the great and infallible rule and standard; a high privilege which the wisest among the Gentiles had not, who leaned to their own wisdom. And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind. Here, and in what follows, the apostle has been supposed to glance at the titles assumed by the Jewish doctors. This title, guides of the blind, our Lord turns against them with great severity by calling them “blind guides.” A light of them which are in darkness: so they complimented each other, one as “the lamp of light,” another as “the holy lamp,” a third as “the lamp of Israel.” An instructer of the foolish, the very title, says Rosenmuller, which Maimonides gives to one of his treatises, נבכים מירה, a teacher of babes, another title for a public instructer. But though these were titles of their doctors, St. Paul is not speaking of them in particular, but of the Jews in general; and with reference to his ability to teach a Gentile, every Jew, though but in the ordinary degree instructed in the law, might be called, without exaggeration, a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, &c. — This office, too, some of them well fulfilled; for many Greeks in the cities where the Jews were settled had been brought to the knowledge of the true God, and are mentioned several times in the Acts of the Apostles as proselytes. Which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law; the delineation, morfwsiv, in the mind or judgment of what is contained in the law. This does not mean, as some have understood, a shadowy unsubstantial appearance of Divine truth; but a real and accurate scheme of it in the mind, which was no doubt true as to those moral subjects to which St. Paul principally refers. He grants indeed all this, in order to fix in their minds a deeper sense of the enormity of their offences.

V. 20. Having the form of knowledge and truth-That is, the most accurate knowledge of the truth.

Verse 20. An instructer of the foolish, &c.] Ye believe the Gentiles to be babes and fools when compared with yourselves; that ye alone possess the only true knowledge; that ye are the only favourites of Heaven; and that all nations must look up to you as possessing the only form of knowledge, morfwsin thv gnwsewv, the grand scheme and draught of all true science, of every thing that is worthy to be learned: the system of eternal truth, derived from the law. If, therefore, ye act not as becomes those who have such eminent advantages, it must be to your endless disgrace and infamy.

Verses 17-20. Behold — Here he applies the matter he had discussed in the preceding verses more closely to the Jews, and proves, that, notwithstanding all their pretences and privileges, they were transgressors of the law, and so could not be justified by works, any more than the Gentiles. And here therefore he refutes the highest point of Jewish glorying, after a further description of it, interposed verses 17-20, and refuted verses 21-24. The description consists of twice five articles; of which the former five, verses 17, 18, show what he boasts of in himself; the other five, (verses 19, 20,) what he glories in with respect to others. The first particular of the former five answers to the first of the latter; the second to the second, and so on. Thou art called a Jew — A professor of the true religion, and a worshipper of the true God. Dr. Macknight is of opinion that in this and the following verses, the apostle intended to address chiefly the men of rank and learning among the Jews; a supposition to which he thinks it is no objection that probably there were no doctors of the law, nor Jewish scribes and priests at Rome, when this letter was written; because, “as the apostle was reasoning against the whole body of the nation, his argument required that he should address the teachers of every denomination, to whom the things written in this and the following verses best agree. Besides, as he had addressed the heathen legislators, philosophers, and priests, in the first chapter, for the purpose of showing them the bad use they had made of the knowledge they derived from the works of creation, it was natural for him in this to address the Jewish scribes, priests, and doctors, to show them how little they had profited by the knowledge which they had derived from revelation. Of the Jewish common people the apostle speaks, Romans 3:20, &c., where he proves that they also were extremely vicious.” And restest in the law — Dependest on it alone, and on the having of it, for justification and salvation, though it can only condemn thee. And makest thy boast of God — As thy God; as belonging only to you Jews, and being yours in a peculiar manner; the founder of your commonwealth; your lawgiver, protector, and Saviour. And knowest his will — By special revelation, and more fully than the Gentiles. And approvest the things that are more excellent — Hast attained to a considerable degree of understanding in the law, so as to place a proper value upon things according to their worth, and to distinguish between things lawful and unlawful. The original words, dokimazeiv ta diaferonta, may be rendered, and triest, or, approvest on trial, the things that differ. Being instructed, &c. — Or, as Beza interprets kathcoumenov ek ton nomou, Being educated, or instructed from thy childhood, out of the law, 2 Timothy 3:15. And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind — Vainly presumest that thou hast knowledge enough to teach others. The Jewish doctors, in contempt of the Gentiles, were wont to speak of them as blind — in darkness — ignorant — babes — and boasted of themselves as guides, to whose direction the Gentiles, in matters of religion, ought implicitly to submit. This boasting of the Jews the apostle introduced here, to show that their sins were greatly aggravated by the revelation of which they boasted. Who hast the form of knowledge — A system, body, or model of that knowledge, which is scattered up and down in the law, and of the truths which are there delivered. For the original word, morfwsiv, seems to bear this meaning: and the apostle may be considered as comparing the law to a looking-glass, which exhibits exact images of things, as the Apostle James likewise does, James 1:25. This implies that they not only considered themselves as having a sketch, or the outlines, of the truth contained in the law, but the most accurate knowledge of it. And this they counted sufficient to save them, though they lived in a loose and ungodly manner.

20. Babes—The neophytes and fresh novices in divine truth. The form— An outline figure or form. Sometimes it is opposed to the reality; but here it means the true form of doctrine in opposition to the false.

Ver. 19.-20. A second flight of steps in the self-exaltation of the Jew. Having attained the position described in Romans 2:18, he confidently aspires to something higher. While he can see all things clearly in the light of the Law, others are in darkness: and he is fully

persuaded that he is a guide of those who wish to walk in the path of morality but have not eyes to see the way. He can give to blind men not only guidance but sight: for he is a

light of those in darkness. He will undertake the whole moral training of those who have not the wisdom which he has learnt from the Law: for he is an

instructor of foolish ones. They are babes; and he offers to be their teacher: for in the Law, which he has, knowledge and the truth present themselves in definite form to the mind of man.

Instructor: one who undertakes whatever belongs to moral training, thus differing from a mere teacher.

Form: the sum-total of that by which the inward nature of an object presents itself to our senses, and thus makes itself known to us, that by which we distinguish one object from another. Whatever we can see, feel, or hear is the form of a material object: whatever we can conceive is the form of a mental object. Same word in 2 Timothy 3:5: cognate word in Philippians 2:6, 7; Mark 16:12. The revealed will of God is knowledge when grasped by the mind of man; and the knowledge, as that best worth knowing. It is truth, because it corresponds with reality: it is the truth, because it sets forth the one great reality. The knowledge and the truth represent the contents of the Law in their relation to the mind of man and to objective reality. This man claims to be a teacher, because by his acquaintance with the sacred books his mind grasps the most worthy object-matter of intellectual effort, and a correct delineation of the eternal realities. The same eternal reality, and the same true matter of human knowledge, has in a still higher degree assumed form, and presented itself to the mind, in the Gospel of Christ.

Observe the beauty and symmetry of Romans 2:17-20. They fall into two divisions, each ending with a participial clause explaining the clauses before it. In the former, we have a learner; in the latter, a would-be teacher. The second division takes a loftier flight; and is therefore introduced by a word expressing confidence.

Verses 17-20. Behold, thou art called a Jew, &c. — In the following verses the apostle pursues the same argument, which is not merely to prove that the Jews were sinners as well as the Gentiles, but that they, as well as “the sinners of the Gentiles,” were liable to punishment, and that in a future life, contrary to their own received doctrine, “that every Israelite has a portion in the life to come.” Nay, still as his course of observation in the subsequent part of this chapter shows, their religious distinction as God’s peculiar people, so far from exempting them from punishment, only served to heighten their guilt, and aggravate their condemnation. Restest in the law, &c. — Thou leanest upon and trustest in the law, that is, in the great privilege of having had express revelations of the will of God from himself. And makest thy boast of God, as thy God, the glorious object of thy worship, and as, in a special sense, “the Lord God of Israel.” And knowest his will, that having been explicitly stated by revelation on all moral duties, as well as matters of faith and worship; and approvest the things that are more excellent, triest the things that differ in their moral qualities, in order to the discovery and approval of what is excellent; being, instructed for this purpose out of the law, or by the law, as the great and infallible rule and standard; a high privilege which the wisest among the Gentiles had not, who leaned to their own wisdom. And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind. Here, and in what follows, the apostle has been supposed to glance at the titles assumed by the Jewish doctors. This title, guides of the blind, our Lord turns against them with great severity by calling them “blind guides.” A light of them which are in darkness: so they complimented each other, one as “the lamp of light,” another as “the holy lamp,” a third as “the lamp of Israel.” An instructer of the foolish, the very title, says Rosenmuller, which Maimonides gives to one of his treatises, נבכים מירה, a teacher of babes, another title for a public instructer. But though these were titles of their doctors, St. Paul is not speaking of them in particular, but of the Jews in general; and with reference to his ability to teach a Gentile, every Jew, though but in the ordinary degree instructed in the law, might be called, without exaggeration, a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, &c. — This office, too, some of them well fulfilled; for many Greeks in the cities where the Jews were settled had been brought to the knowledge of the true God, and are mentioned several times in the Acts of the Apostles as proselytes. Which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law; the delineation, morfwsiv, in the mind or judgment of what is contained in the law. This does not mean, as some have understood, a shadowy unsubstantial appearance of Divine truth; but a real and accurate scheme of it in the mind, which was no doubt true as to those moral subjects to which St. Paul principally refers. He grants indeed all this, in order to fix in their minds a deeper sense of the enormity of their offences.

V. 21. Thou dost not teach thyself-He does not teach himself who does not practise what he teaches.

Dost thou steal, commit adultery, commit sacrilege-Sin grievously against thy neighbour, thyself, God. St. Paul had shown the Gentiles, first their sins against God, then against themselves, then against their neighbours. He now inverts the order: for sins against God are the most glaring in an heathen, but not in a Jew.

Thou that abhorrest idols-Which all the Jews did, from the time of the Babylonish captivity.

Thou committest sacrilege-Doest what is worse, robbing Him "who is God over all" of the glory which is due to him. None of these charges were rashly advanced against the Jews of that age; for, as their own historian relates, some even of the priests lived by rapine, and others in gross uncleanness. And as for sacrilegiously robbing God and his altar, it had been complained of ever since Malachi; so that the instances are given with great propriety and judgment.

Verse 21. Thou therefore] Dr. Taylor has paraphrased this and the three following verses thus: “What signify your pretensions to knowledge, and the office of teaching others, if you have no regard to your own doctrine? What are you the better for preaching against theft, if you are a thief yourself? Or for declaring adultery unlawful, if you live in the practice of it? Or for representing idolatry abominable, if you are guilty of sacrilege? What honours or singular favours do you deserve, if, while you glory in the law and your religious privileges, you dishonour God, and discredit his religion, by transgressing his law, and living in open contradiction to your profession? And this is more than supposition; notorious instances might be produced of the forementioned crimes, whereby the Jews of the present age have brought a reproach upon religion among the Gentiles; as well as those Jews of former times, of whom the Prophet Ezekiel speaks, Ezekiel 36:23: And I will sanctify my great name, which was PROFANED among the HEATHEN, which ye have PROFANED in the midst of them.”

That the Jewish priesthood was exceedingly corrupt in the time of the apostle, and that they were so long before, is fully evident from the sacred writings and from Josephus. The high-priesthood was a matter of commerce, and was bought and sold like other commodities. Of this Josephus gives many instances. The rapine of Eli’s sons descended to several generations. Dr. Whitby well observes that of all these things mentioned by the apostle the Jewish doctors were notoriously guilty; and of most of them they were accused by our Lord. 1. They said and did not; and laid heavy burdens upon others, which they would not touch with their own fingers, Matthew 23:3, 4. 2. They made the house of God a den of thieves, Matthew 21:13; John 2:16. 3. They were guilty of adultery by unjust divorces, Matthew 19:9. 4. Their polygamy was scandalous: even their rabbins, when they came to any place, would exclaim, Who will be my wife for a day? As to idolatry, they were perfectly saved from it ever since the Babylonish captivity but to this succeeded sacrilege, as is most evident in the profanation of the temple, by their commerce transacted even within its courts; and their teaching the people that even their aged parents might be left to starve, provided the children made a present to the temple of that which should have gone for their support. According to Josephus, Bell. Jud. l. vi. c. 26, They were guilty of theft, treachery, adultery, sacrilege, rapine, and murder. And he adds, that new ways of wickedness were invented by them; and that of all their abominations the temple was the receptacle. In his Antiquities of the Jews, lib. xx. c. 8, he says: The servants of the high priests took away, by violence, the tithes of the priests, so that many of them perished for want of food. Even their own writers acknowledge that there were great irregularities and abominations among the rabbins.

So Bereshith rabba, sect. 55, fol. 54: “Rabbi Abun proposed a parable concerning a master who taught his disciples not to pervert justice, and yet did it himself; not to show respect of persons, and yet did it himself; not to receive bribes, and yet received them himself; not to take usury, and yet took it himself. The disciple replied:-Rabbi, thou teachest me not to take usury, and yet thou takest it thyself! Can that be lawful to thee which is forbidden to me?”

Verses 21-24. Thou therefore which teachest another — And valuest thyself upon thy ability to do it, trusting therein for acceptance with God; teachest thou not thyself? — He does not teach himself, who does not practise what he teaches. This, and what follows, is mentioned, to show that the knowledge, which the scribes and doctors pretended to derive from the law, had had no manner of influence on their spirit and conduct; so that their boasting in the law, and their claim to be the teachers of the Gentiles, were very little to be regarded by the Gentiles. Dost thou steal — commit adultery — commit sacrilege — Sin grievously against thy neighbour, thyself, God. St. Paul had shown the Gentiles, first, their sins against God, then against themselves, then against their neighbours. He now inverts the order, for sins against God are the most glaring in a heathen; but not in a Jew. Thou that abhorrest idols — Which all the Jews did, from the time of the Babylonish captivity: thou committest sacrilege — Dost what is still worse, robbing him, who is God over all, of the glory which is due to him. None of these charges were rashly advanced against the Jews of that age. For (as their own historian relates) some even of the priests lived by rapine, and others in gross uncleanness. And as for sacrilegiously robbing God and his altar, it had been complained of ever since Malachi. So that the instances are given with great propriety and judgment. Thou that makest thy boast of the law — As so excellent, and thinkest it such an honour to be acquainted with it, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God? — Dost thou act as if thou wert studying the declaration of his will, only to show him in a more presumptuous and contumacious manner, that thou dost not regard it? For the name of God is blasphemed — Spoken evil of, as if it countenanced and encouraged such wickedness as that in which you live, and his holy religion is brought into contempt thereby; as it is written, in your own Scriptures, concerning your fathers, whose evil deeds you so generally imitate. See the margin. We find Josephus frequently accusing the Jews of what is here laid to their charge by the apostle, saying, “What wickedness do you conceal, or hide, which is not known to your enemies? You triumph in your wickedness, strive daily who shall be most vile, making a show of your wickedness as if it were virtue.” “And thinkest thou this, O man, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God, who punishes the Gentiles, when thou art as guilty as they of acting against thy conscience, and doing that for which thine own mouth condemns thee, or, which is as bad as that which thou condemnest in them, and which also causes them to blaspheme that holy name by which thou art called! Surely after these things, so scandalously done, it will be of no advantage to thee that thou art called a Jew, or hast received the sign of circumcision.” — Whitby.

21. Steal—Thefts, robberies, and murders were the order of the day at the time of Paul’s writing.

Verses 21.-22. The man that teachest another: a short summary of the sentence begun in Romans 2:17; completed now by the question dost thou not teach thyself? “If thou hast this knowledge and art a teacher of others, is it true that thou leavest thyself untaught?” Preachest: proclaimest as a herald, a state officer of importance and honour. He made announcements in the name of the Government, in peace or war, to enemies, allies, or subjects: so Daniel 3:4. The Jews looked upon themselves as heralds of God. The man before us does that which, as herald, he forbids others to do. He acts as Nebuchadnezzar’s herald would have done had he refused himself to bow to the image of gold. Abhorrest the idols. In order to separate Israel as completely as possible from idolatry, God commanded them (e.g. Deuteronomy 7:25f) to look upon everything belonging in any way to idols as utterly hateful and disgusting. They were not to bring into their houses anything pertaining to false gods; else the curse of the idol would rest upon them. This divine detestation of idols, the man before us shares. Yet he

robs-temples: a recognised crime (Acts 19:37) in the days of Paul, and looked upon as specially atrocious. It was prompted by the treasures often deposited in temples. Josephus says that Moses specially forbad to rob temples: Antiq. bk. iv. 8. 10. Here is a man to whom an idol is an object of abhorrence, to whom the touch of everything belonging to it is pollution. Yet he violently breaks into the very sanctuary of a false god and with his own hands brings into his own house the gold and silver which, because consecrated to an idol, God has pronounced accursed. Paul cannot possibly refer to the plunder, direct or indirect, of the temple at Jerusalem. For this was not inconsistent with abhorrence of idols: whereas the previous questions, of which this is the climax, show that Paul has in his mind a case of gross inconsistency.

The prohibition of the three sins here mentioned is a pattern of the teaching which this man, like many Jews of that day, thrusts upon others but refuses himself to practise. All these sins belong to the secret things of men, in Romans 2:16 for the man who commits them may still have an outward appearance of morality. Notice a gradation of guilt. This man takes the property of another, invades the sanctity of his home, and hides in his own house things specially accursed by God.

Verse 21. Teachest thou not thyself? — That is, practically, so as to render thy superior knowledge available to thy superior sanctity. Dost thou steal? — Commit fraud in any way; and it is probable that the apostle principally refers to frauds practised in dealing, for which the Jews were then, and are still notorious. This character they obtained from their becoming a commercial people, and it was in this character chiefly that they were planted in the Greek cities after the Macedonian conquest. They were not worse in this respect than the Gentiles; but they ought to have been much better.

Verses 21-24. Thou therefore which teachest another — And valuest thyself upon thy ability to do it, trusting therein for acceptance with God; teachest thou not thyself? — He does not teach himself, who does not practise what he teaches. This, and what follows, is mentioned, to show that the knowledge, which the scribes and doctors pretended to derive from the law, had had no manner of influence on their spirit and conduct; so that their boasting in the law, and their claim to be the teachers of the Gentiles, were very little to be regarded by the Gentiles. Dost thou steal — commit adultery — commit sacrilege — Sin grievously against thy neighbour, thyself, God. St. Paul had shown the Gentiles, first, their sins against God, then against themselves, then against their neighbours. He now inverts the order, for sins against God are the most glaring in a heathen; but not in a Jew. Thou that abhorrest idols — Which all the Jews did, from the time of the Babylonish captivity: thou committest sacrilege — Dost what is still worse, robbing him, who is God over all, of the glory which is due to him. None of these charges were rashly advanced against the Jews of that age. For (as their own historian relates) some even of the priests lived by rapine, and others in gross uncleanness. And as for sacrilegiously robbing God and his altar, it had been complained of ever since Malachi. So that the instances are given with great propriety and judgment. Thou that makest thy boast of the law — As so excellent, and thinkest it such an honour to be acquainted with it, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God? — Dost thou act as if thou wert studying the declaration of his will, only to show him in a more presumptuous and contumacious manner, that thou dost not regard it? For the name of God is blasphemed — Spoken evil of, as if it countenanced and encouraged such wickedness as that in which you live, and his holy religion is brought into contempt thereby; as it is written, in your own Scriptures, concerning your fathers, whose evil deeds you so generally imitate. See the margin. We find Josephus frequently accusing the Jews of what is here laid to their charge by the apostle, saying, “What wickedness do you conceal, or hide, which is not known to your enemies? You triumph in your wickedness, strive daily who shall be most vile, making a show of your wickedness as if it were virtue.” “And thinkest thou this, O man, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God, who punishes the Gentiles, when thou art as guilty as they of acting against thy conscience, and doing that for which thine own mouth condemns thee, or, which is as bad as that which thou condemnest in them, and which also causes them to blaspheme that holy name by which thou art called! Surely after these things, so scandalously done, it will be of no advantage to thee that thou art called a Jew, or hast received the sign of circumcision.” — Whitby.

22. Commit adultery—The most celebrated rabbies, such as R. Akiba, Meir, Eleasar, and others, are accused in the Talmud of adultery. Commit sacrilege—Literally, pillage temples. But as the Jews had but one temple, and their reverence for that was most profound, some difficulty has been felt how to make the charge good. Yet as the temple was frequently enriched with the most splendid gifts of wealthy devotees, such a crime might have been many times committed without being recorded in history. Grotius in fact mentions the notable embezzlement of a large sum of money belonging to the temple by four Jews just before Paul’s writing this epistle.

Verses 21.-22. The man that teachest another: a short summary of the sentence begun in Romans 2:17; completed now by the question dost thou not teach thyself? “If thou hast this knowledge and art a teacher of others, is it true that thou leavest thyself untaught?” Preachest: proclaimest as a herald, a state officer of importance and honour. He made announcements in the name of the Government, in peace or war, to enemies, allies, or subjects: so Daniel 3:4. The Jews looked upon themselves as heralds of God. The man before us does that which, as herald, he forbids others to do. He acts as Nebuchadnezzar’s herald would have done had he refused himself to bow to the image of gold. Abhorrest the idols. In order to separate Israel as completely as possible from idolatry, God commanded them (e.g. Deuteronomy 7:25f) to look upon everything belonging in any way to idols as utterly hateful and disgusting. They were not to bring into their houses anything pertaining to false gods; else the curse of the idol would rest upon them. This divine detestation of idols, the man before us shares. Yet he

robs-temples: a recognised crime (Acts 19:37) in the days of Paul, and looked upon as specially atrocious. It was prompted by the treasures often deposited in temples. Josephus says that Moses specially forbad to rob temples: Antiq. bk. iv. 8. 10. Here is a man to whom an idol is an object of abhorrence, to whom the touch of everything belonging to it is pollution. Yet he violently breaks into the very sanctuary of a false god and with his own hands brings into his own house the gold and silver which, because consecrated to an idol, God has pronounced accursed. Paul cannot possibly refer to the plunder, direct or indirect, of the temple at Jerusalem. For this was not inconsistent with abhorrence of idols: whereas the previous questions, of which this is the climax, show that Paul has in his mind a case of gross inconsistency.

The prohibition of the three sins here mentioned is a pattern of the teaching which this man, like many Jews of that day, thrusts upon others but refuses himself to practise. All these sins belong to the secret things of men, in Romans 2:16 for the man who commits them may still have an outward appearance of morality. Notice a gradation of guilt. This man takes the property of another, invades the sanctity of his home, and hides in his own house things specially accursed by God.

Verse 22. Adultery. — This sin so prevailed among them that the application of the legal ordeal to the suspected woman had long been laid aside, and to what extent it prevailed among the scribes and Pharisees of Judea, may be gathered from the history of the woman taken in adultery, John 8:9.

Sacrilege. — By withholding their offerings and dues, at least in part, through covetousness and irreligion, and thus robbing the temple. With this species of robbery the Jews were charged in the time of the Prophet Malachi, which he terms “robbing God.”

Verses 21-24. Thou therefore which teachest another — And valuest thyself upon thy ability to do it, trusting therein for acceptance with God; teachest thou not thyself? — He does not teach himself, who does not practise what he teaches. This, and what follows, is mentioned, to show that the knowledge, which the scribes and doctors pretended to derive from the law, had had no manner of influence on their spirit and conduct; so that their boasting in the law, and their claim to be the teachers of the Gentiles, were very little to be regarded by the Gentiles. Dost thou steal — commit adultery — commit sacrilege — Sin grievously against thy neighbour, thyself, God. St. Paul had shown the Gentiles, first, their sins against God, then against themselves, then against their neighbours. He now inverts the order, for sins against God are the most glaring in a heathen; but not in a Jew. Thou that abhorrest idols — Which all the Jews did, from the time of the Babylonish captivity: thou committest sacrilege — Dost what is still worse, robbing him, who is God over all, of the glory which is due to him. None of these charges were rashly advanced against the Jews of that age. For (as their own historian relates) some even of the priests lived by rapine, and others in gross uncleanness. And as for sacrilegiously robbing God and his altar, it had been complained of ever since Malachi. So that the instances are given with great propriety and judgment. Thou that makest thy boast of the law — As so excellent, and thinkest it such an honour to be acquainted with it, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God? — Dost thou act as if thou wert studying the declaration of his will, only to show him in a more presumptuous and contumacious manner, that thou dost not regard it? For the name of God is blasphemed — Spoken evil of, as if it countenanced and encouraged such wickedness as that in which you live, and his holy religion is brought into contempt thereby; as it is written, in your own Scriptures, concerning your fathers, whose evil deeds you so generally imitate. See the margin. We find Josephus frequently accusing the Jews of what is here laid to their charge by the apostle, saying, “What wickedness do you conceal, or hide, which is not known to your enemies? You triumph in your wickedness, strive daily who shall be most vile, making a show of your wickedness as if it were virtue.” “And thinkest thou this, O man, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God, who punishes the Gentiles, when thou art as guilty as they of acting against thy conscience, and doing that for which thine own mouth condemns thee, or, which is as bad as that which thou condemnest in them, and which also causes them to blaspheme that holy name by which thou art called! Surely after these things, so scandalously done, it will be of no advantage to thee that thou art called a Jew, or hast received the sign of circumcision.” — Whitby.

23. Dishonourest thou God—This verse embraces the sum total of all the previous questions as well as of all similar ones that they justly suggest. The entire charge is, that the Jew dishonours God, by breaking the law entrusted to him by God; whereas it was his true mission by a beautiful obedience to spread the glory of God abroad through the earth.

Ver. 23. Solemn assertion, following indignant questions, as Romans 2:5 follows Romans 2:3, 4. Paul tells the man the practical result of the conduct just described.

Exult in law: combining “rest in law and exult in God” in Romans 2:17. He exults in the thought that to his nation God has given an authoritative standard of right and wrong; yet he tramples that standard under foot, and by so doing leads us to think slightly of the God who gave it.

Transgression: as in Romans 4:15; 5:14.

Verse 23. Dishonourest thou God? — Among the Gentiles, who would naturally be led to consider the just praises which the Jews bestowed upon their law and religion as a vain boast, seeing they were not made better than others by it. Similar dishonours have often been done to our Divine religion and its Author among heathen nations, by the cruelty, injustice, rapacity, and immoralities of persons bearing the Christian name.

V. 24. Isaiah 52:5

Verse 24. For the name of God is blasphemed, &.] In Debarim rabba, sect. 2, fol. 251, it is said:-“The rulers destroy the influence of their own words among the people; and this is done when a rabbin, sitting and teaching in the academy, says, Do not take usury, and himself takes it; do not commit rapine, and himself commits it; do not steal, and himself steals.” That they were exceedingly lax in their morals, the following fact proves:- “Rabbi Ilai said, If a man see that his evil propensities are likely to prevail against him, let him go to some place where he is not known, and let him put on black clothes, and cover his head with a black veil; and then let him do whatsoever he pleases, lest the name of God should be publicly profaned.” Mœd katon, fol. 17. 1. In Sohar Levit. fol. 31, col. 122, it is said:-“On three accounts the Jews are obliged to remain in captivity-1. Because they openly reproach the Shechinah-2. Because they profane themselves before the Shechinah-3. Because they turn away their faces from the Shechinah.”

But it would be endless to collect from their history the proofs of the charges brought here against them by the apostle. See Whitby, Schoettgen, and others.

Verses 21-24. Thou therefore which teachest another — And valuest thyself upon thy ability to do it, trusting therein for acceptance with God; teachest thou not thyself? — He does not teach himself, who does not practise what he teaches. This, and what follows, is mentioned, to show that the knowledge, which the scribes and doctors pretended to derive from the law, had had no manner of influence on their spirit and conduct; so that their boasting in the law, and their claim to be the teachers of the Gentiles, were very little to be regarded by the Gentiles. Dost thou steal — commit adultery — commit sacrilege — Sin grievously against thy neighbour, thyself, God. St. Paul had shown the Gentiles, first, their sins against God, then against themselves, then against their neighbours. He now inverts the order, for sins against God are the most glaring in a heathen; but not in a Jew. Thou that abhorrest idols — Which all the Jews did, from the time of the Babylonish captivity: thou committest sacrilege — Dost what is still worse, robbing him, who is God over all, of the glory which is due to him. None of these charges were rashly advanced against the Jews of that age. For (as their own historian relates) some even of the priests lived by rapine, and others in gross uncleanness. And as for sacrilegiously robbing God and his altar, it had been complained of ever since Malachi. So that the instances are given with great propriety and judgment. Thou that makest thy boast of the law — As so excellent, and thinkest it such an honour to be acquainted with it, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God? — Dost thou act as if thou wert studying the declaration of his will, only to show him in a more presumptuous and contumacious manner, that thou dost not regard it? For the name of God is blasphemed — Spoken evil of, as if it countenanced and encouraged such wickedness as that in which you live, and his holy religion is brought into contempt thereby; as it is written, in your own Scriptures, concerning your fathers, whose evil deeds you so generally imitate. See the margin. We find Josephus frequently accusing the Jews of what is here laid to their charge by the apostle, saying, “What wickedness do you conceal, or hide, which is not known to your enemies? You triumph in your wickedness, strive daily who shall be most vile, making a show of your wickedness as if it were virtue.” “And thinkest thou this, O man, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God, who punishes the Gentiles, when thou art as guilty as they of acting against thy conscience, and doing that for which thine own mouth condemns thee, or, which is as bad as that which thou condemnest in them, and which also causes them to blaspheme that holy name by which thou art called! Surely after these things, so scandalously done, it will be of no advantage to thee that thou art called a Jew, or hast received the sign of circumcision.” — Whitby.

24. God is blasphemed—So that the people who were selected as God’s peculiar people to spread the honour of his name had reversed their mission and spread its dishonour. As it is written—Unwelcome charges the apostle in self-defence clothes in Scripture language, language which, though not intended for the present case, is capable of such application. His mind seems to have blended the thought of Ezekiel 36:22, with the phraseology of Isaiah 52:5.

In approaching his offensive conclusion Paul takes great care not to disparage the divine ritual, nor lower the divine mission of Israel. But he avails himself of the very superiority of the ritual and the mission to show the failure of the race.

Ver. 24. Proof of the foregoing. Blaspheme: to speak so as to injure, whether against God, as here, or against men, as in Romans 3:8; 14:16; Matthew 27:39: an English form of the Greek word here used. Even the heathen saw the absurd contradiction of this man’s words and works. Yet from his bold profession they suppose him to enjoy the favour of the God of the Jews: and they spoke with contempt of a deity who, as they thought, smiled on such a worshipper.

Because of his profession and conduct, the name of God was blasphemed among the Gentiles.

According as it is written: same words in Romans 1:17, followed by a quotation. Here they follow a quotation nearly word for word from Isaiah 3:5, LXX. In each case they call attention, as in Romans 3:4, 10; 4:17 etc., to a harmony of Paul’s teaching with the Old Testament. The words because of you and among the Gentiles are not in the Hebrew, and were doubtless not in the original prophecy: but they are clearly implied there. Through the captivity (Isaiah 52:2) of His people, the name of God was constantly reviled. His power seemed to have been broken. Men said that the gods of Babylon had triumphed over Him who divided the Red Sea. These words were evidently spoken among the Gentiles and because of what had happened to the Jews. Hence the added words correctly reproduce the prophet’s meaning: and Paul does not hesitate to quote the current translation, though in an unimportant detail it was not verbally correct. The prophet’s words teach the great principle that the character and honour of God are at stake in His people. Men judge Him by what they see in them. If we admit this principle-as we are compelled to do both by the prophet’s words and by daily observation-we cannot be surprised that the Gentiles speak with contempt of Him whose worshippers teach others morality and themselves live in sin. Here as in Romans 1:17 Paul appeals to the Scriptures not so much for a proof as to point out a harmony; a harmony greater than at first sight appears. In each case, God surrendered to their enemies (cp. Romans 1:24) those who, while professing to be His servants, actually turned away from Him: and, in each case, the degradation brought dishonour to Him whose name the degraded ones bore.

Review of Romans 2:17-24. In the light of the day which will reveal all secrets, Paul turns suddenly round upon a man who calls himself a Jew. In that name he glories. He rests secure because he belongs to the nation to whom the Law was given. He remembers that his fathers were chosen by God to be His own peculiar people; and the thought fills him with exultation. By study of the Law he knows the will of God, and is thus able to form a correct judgment on moral conduct and to approve the right. His possession of the Law and his knowledge of its contents give him confidence. Others are blind: he will be their guide. Himself full of light, he will fill them with light, and will lead in the right path men who have no wisdom to find it for themselves, and teach those who compared with himself are babes. All this he can do because he has the Law, in which the eternal realities, the highest object of human knowledge, are presented in intelligible form. But Paul asks with astonishment, Is it true that you who teach others are yourself untaught? He explains the meaning of this question. You proclaim as herald of the king the law against theft: do you break as well as proclaim that law? You speak against adultery: is it true that in secret you are guilty of it? You profess abhorrence of idols: to you the touch of them and of all that belongs to them is defilement. Is it true that you, regardless alike of the true God and the false gods, enter the inmost chamber of idolatry and steal from the temple and hide in your own house the treasures sacred to the heathen and accursed by God? The man is silent: the absurdity of his position is evident to all. With solemn earnestness Paul paints a still darker picture, the direct result of this gross inconsistency. By trampling under foot the Law given to guide your own conduct, you bring contempt on Him who gave it. By choosing your nation to be His people, God made you the guardians of His name and honour. That glorious and fearful Name, which to know and to honour is life eternal, you have moved the heathen to mention with derision. They have seen and ridiculed the contrast of the words and works of their own teachers: see Lucian, Works lxix. 19. They see the same contrast in you. From your bold profession they suppose that you possess the favour of the God of Israel: and they treat with contempt a deity who, as they think, smiles on you. By your deep depravity, as your fathers by their far-off bondage, you have led the Gentiles to blaspheme.

Notice the double absurdity of the man’s position. His own conduct proves the worthlessness to himself of the teaching in which he boasts. If it is good for anything, it is to make men honest and chaste and separate from idols. This man trusts for salvation to that which his own conduct proves to be, so far as he is concerned, worthless. Again, his possession of the Law brings actual dishonour to God: and this is its only practical result. Men around think less of God because this man lives among them, and calls himself a disciple of God. It were more for His glory, and therefore for the good of those who know this man, if he were a professed heathen. Now we know that God is specially jealous for His own honour. Yet this man expects to escape the impartial judgment of God because of his possession of the Law, of which the only result is dishonour to God. That he knows the Law, is his greatest condemnation.

The above argument strikes with equal force against all conduct, of Jews or Christians, which is inconsistent with profession, and which thus brings dishonour to God.

The great principle that God’s judgment will be without respect of persons, stated at the end of § 5 as the foundation of its argument, has now been defended from an objection based on the fact that God has Himself made a distinction between man and man by giving the Mosaic Law to Israel only; and has been confirmed by proof that it applies equally to the two great divisions into which the giving of the Law has divided mankind. We found in Romans 2:12 a sort of summary of the section; and in Romans 2:13 a great principle underlying the very idea of law, a reassertion of the principle asserted in Romans 2:11. In Romans 2:14, 15 we saw that the principle of Romans 2:13 can be applied to Gentiles. And in the light of the great day (Romans 2:16) we saw in Romans 2:17-24 how absurd it is to deny its application to the Jews: for everyone who does so takes up the ridiculous position there described. Thus the hope which found expression in Romans 2:3, 4 has been traced to, and dried up at, its chief source.

DESTRUCTION. The words perish, destroyed, lost, represent, and collectively reproduce the sense of, one Greek word denoting utter ruin, i.e. the end of the normal and beneficial state of that which is lost, the utter failure of the maker’s or owner’s purpose regarding it. In this sense of ruin material or moral, the word is very frequent in the Greek drama. It is contrasted in 1 Corinthians 1:18 with “saved,” and in Luke 15:4, 6, 8, 9, 32 with “found.” But it does not imply or suggest that the ruined object has ceased, or will ever cease, to exist; although it by no means excludes this idea. Certainly the lost coin in Luke 15:8, 9 still existed uninjured: for it was afterwards found. But, by separation from its owner, it became to her practically non-existent; her purposes about it were utterly frustrated. The broken wine-skins in Matthew 9:17 perished when they were so damaged as to be useless. But, though torn, they still existed. A very common use of the word is to denote natural death, looked upon as utter ruin of human life on earth. But this by no means implies their annihilation: for most of the Greeks looked upon the dead as still conscious; and Christ says in Luke 11:51 that “Zachariah perished between the altar and the house,” just as we speak of good men as lost at sea.

With these associations of thought, the word is used in Romans 2:12; 9:22; 14:15 and throughout the N.T. to describe the future punishment of sin. As so used, it denotes loss of the “eternal life” promised (e.g. Romans 2:7; 6:23) to the righteous, the normal and blessed state of the children of God and the realisation of their original destiny, a life beginning in embryo now and to be fully developed at the great day. The loss of this glorious life is the utter ruin of the lost ones, the complete failure of the purpose of their being, and the loss of whatever gives worth to existence. All this, and no more, the word implies. It does not imply or suggest whether the ruined object continues to exist as a ruin, or has ceased to exist. Nor does the word itself exclude the possibility that the lost may be afterwards found.

In Romans 2:12, the word will-perish asserts that the punishment described in Romans 2:8, 9 involves utter ruin; as does the word “death” in Romans 6:16, 21, 23, and “the second death” in Revelation 2:11; 20:4. But these terms do not define exactly the ultimate fate of the lost.

The meaning of the word destruction and its bearing on the Eternal Punishment of Sin are discussed fully in my volume on The Last Things.

Verse 24. Blasphemed. — Lightly and irreverently spoken of. As it is written. — The apostle probably refers to Ezekiel 36:23: “And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them.”

V. 25. Circumcision indeed profiteth-He does not say, justifies. How far it profited is shown in the third and fourth chapters.

Thy circumcision is become uncircumcision-is so already in effect. Thou wilt have no more benefit by it than if thou hadst never received it. The very same observation holds with regard to baptism.

Verse 25. For circumcision verily profiteth] It is a blessing to belong to the Church of God and wear the sign of the covenant, provided the terms of the covenant are complied with.

But if thou be a breaker of the law] If thou do not observe the conditions of the covenant, the outward sign is both without meaning and without effect. This was a maxim of the rabbins themselves; for they allowed that an apostate or ungodly Israelite must go to hell, notwithstanding his circumcision.

Verses 25-27. For circumcision verily profiteth — He does not say justifieth. How far it profited is shown in the third and fourth chapters: if thou keep the law — Here, as in many other passages, the apostle speaks to the thoughts of the Jewish readers. They fancied that circumcision, by showing that they were descended from Abraham, and were members of God’s covenant, would ensure their salvation, though they were ever so wicked. But the apostle tells them their circumcision would avail them only if they practised the law; that is, performed the things required in the covenant with Abraham; (see verse 12;) in which case, as the seal of that covenant, it would give them assurance of salvation. But, if they did not perform the precepts of that covenant, their circumcision would be of no use to them. If thou be a breaker of the law — Living in known sin, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision — Is so already in effect. Thou wilt have no more benefit by it than if thou hadst never received it. The very same observation holds with regard to baptism. Therefore, &c. — As if he had said, Since the stress of all lies upon keeping the law, therefore, if the uncircumcision — That is, a person uncircumcised; keep the righteousness of the law — Walk agreeably to it; shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision — In the sight of God? He shall be accounted a Jew spiritually, (verse 29,) and accepted of God, rather than you carnal Jews, who continue to live in sin, and boast of your circumcision. The expression, ta dikaiwmata tou nomou, rendered, the righteousness of the law, is in the plural number, and rendered by Locke, the rectitude of the law; considering Paul as using it “for all those precepts of the law which contain in them any part of the natural and eternal rule of rectitude, which is made known to men by the light of reason: a rule of their actions, which all mankind, uncircumcised as well as circumcised, had, and is that which (Romans 1:32) Paul calls dikaiwma tou qeou, [rendered there, the judgment of God,] because it came from God, and was made by him the moral rule to all mankind, being laid within the discovery of their reason. And this rule of morality Paul says the Gentile world did acknowledge.” Doddridge renders the expression, the righteous determinations of the law; and Macknight, the precepts of the law; referring to the above-quoted expression, Romans 1:32, which he considers as signifying the law of God written on men’s hearts; or, as he here terms it: the law of faith, “the precepts of which,” he says, “the Gentiles may both know and keep. For the light of natural reason dictates its two great precepts, namely, that men should believe in God, and obey him from love. Further, the precepts of this law are very properly expressed by words which literally signify righteousness of the law, because they who keep them are accounted righteous in the sight of God; that is, are treated by God as righteous persons for the sake of Christ.” And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature — Those who are, literally speaking, uncircumcised. “The words, by nature, are added by the apostle to show that he is speaking of persons without revelation, and not of the converted Gentiles, nor of those who should hereafter be converted:” if it fulfil the law, That is, as to the substance of it, namely, the law of faith above mentioned. “For though the Gentiles were ignorant of the covenant that was made at the fall, and of its promises, they might both know and perform its requisitions, verses 6, 7. Accordingly, many of the Gentiles believed in the true God, and obeyed him from a principle of faith and love.” Judge thee — Condemn thee by his example, and make thy condemnation appear to be just, in that thou hast more helps and advantages, and yet performest less duty: who by the letter and circumcision — By trusting so much to thy having the law in writing, and to thy being circumcised, as if these things were sufficient to save thee: or by trusting to the outward privilege of circumcision, which thou partakest of according to the letter of the law, but wantest the internal and spiritual part thereof. Dost transgress the law — Takest liberty thereupon to indulge thyself securely in sin, as if these things would preserve thee from punishment. The judgment which the Gentiles, who fulfil the law, are here said to pass on the wicked Jews, is the same with that which the Jews are said, verse 1, to pass on the wicked Gentiles; namely, that they are worthy of death. But they passed this judgment on the Jews with much more reason than the Jews passed it on them; because, while they condemned the Gentiles, they expected to be saved themselves, though guilty of the very same crimes, abusing far greater privileges, and breaking through much stronger obligations.

Ver. 25. Circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law, as holy men kept it under the old testament. This he said to the jews, who denied at the same time their obedience to the moral code. But to the Galatians he said, if you are circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. Thus Paul rebuked the boasting pride of the jews. Circumcision, though it availed for salvation to the true children of Abraham, yet to those violators of the law, it was a subject of shame and condemnation. They were men uncircumcised in heart and ear.

25. For—What the connexion indicated by the for is not immediately clear; but it doubtless refers to an intermediate thought which the apostle knows from experience to be in the mind of the Jew. In bar to the charges of 21-24, you Jews cannot plead your circumcision, for—Made

uncircumcision—The popular creed was, None circumcised are damned. Yet the more spiritual doctors, indignant at the thought that the outrages of many of their race should be supposable cancelled by the mere rite, taught a better doctrine. Thus one writer makes the Almighty say to the Jews, “It is the proselytes who are the circumcised, you are uncircumcised.” Again, R. Beuchias said, “Let not heretics, apostates, and the impious of Israel say, ‘Since we are circumcised we shall not go down to hell.’ For God will send his angel and restore their foreskins, so that they may go down to hell uncircumcised.”

ROMANS

SECTION 6 — CIRCUMCISION WILL NOT SAVE

FROM GOD’S IMPARTIAL JUDGMENT CH.

2:25-29

For circumcision profits, if thou practise law; but if thou be a transgressor of law, thy circumcision is become uncircumcision. If then the uncircumcision keep the decrees of the Law, shall not his uncircumcision be reckoned for circumcision? And the

uncircumcision from nature, accomplishing the Law, shall judge thee who with letter and circumcision art a transgressor of law. For not he that is so in that which is manifest as a Jew; nor is that which is manifest, in flesh, circumcision. But he that is so in secret is a Jew; and circumcision of the heart is in Spirit, not letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God.

Circumcision, which meets us for the first time at the beginning of § 7, is as conspicuous a feature of it as was the Law in § 6. The mention of circumcision uncovers another secret ground on which the objector of Romans 2:3, 4 builds a hope of exceptional kindness on the day of judgment. In § 6 he hoped to escape then because God had specially favoured his nation by the gift to them only of the Mosaic Law. But the Law, to which the impenitent man ran for refuge, gave him up to the impartial justice of a dishonoured God. Only one ground of hope remains. He bears in his body the sign and seal of the Covenant of God: by the express command of God he was circumcised. But, just as in § 6 Paul showed that the Law, so now he will show that Circumcision, will not save an impenitent sinner from God’s impartial judgment.

Ver. 25. This verse confirms the condemnation implied in Romans 2:23, 24, by proving that circumcision will not save a man from it; and thus still further supports the truth of God’s impartial judgment, the great matter of this chapter.

Circumcision profits: it is better to be a circumcised Jew than an uncircumcised heathen. But the abiding advantage is only for those Jews who practise what the Law bids. What the advantage is, Paul will, in Romans 3:1, inquire. The inquiry is needless here, because, whatever the benefits be, this man is shut out from them by the condition on which only they can be obtained. Circumcision was the sign of a covenant in which blessing was conditioned by obedience to the Law. Therefore, as a visible pledge that God will bestow the promised blessings, it was a benefit; but only for those who practise law.

But if… transgressor of law: a complementary truth implied in this limitation, viz. that they who break this law are practically uncircumcised. Circumcision was originally a token of God’s covenant with Abraham: Genesis 17:11. The blessings therein promised were a numerous posterity, a special relation to God as His people, the land of Canaan, and that from them should go forth a blessing to all mankind. As first given in Genesis 15:18, the covenant was not limited by any condition whatever. It assumed the form, not of a law, but of a promise; an absolute promise independent of man’s conduct. See Romans 4:13. Afterwards, circumcision was added as a condition of a personal share in the promised blessings: Genesis 17:10-14. Later still God made another covenant at Sinai, which He confirmed and enlarged in the plains of Moab: Exodus 24:7; Deuteronomy 29:1. This covenant promised the favour of God and abundant temporal blessing on condition of obedience to the Law, and threatened His fearful displeasure in case of disobedience: Leviticus 26:, Deuteronomy 23:. Circumcision was enjoined (Leviticus 12:3) in the Law, and was thus a condition of blessing. It was therefore to the Jews of Paul’s day a visible pledge that from Abraham’s seed should go forth a blessing for the whole world, and that God would fulfil the covenant which promised personal blessings to those who obey the Law. Consequently, circumcision and the Law always stood together: John 7:23; Acts 15:1. To undergo circumcision was to accept the Old Covenant as the basis of man’s dealings with God: Acts 15:5; Galatians 5:3; 6:13. Consequently, to a transgressor of law

circumcision was practically void: it had become uncircumcision. See further under Galatians 5:2.

Verse 25. If thou keep the law. — Not otherwise; which is said in opposition to the delusive opinion of the Jews, who regarded their circumcision as a pledge of salvation. Grotius, Schoettgen, Macknight, and others have shown how rooted was the conviction among the Jews that salvation was secured to them by their circumcision. Can we wonder at that, when thousands among ourselves have a similar opinion as to baptism? Under this word the apostle includes the covenant relation of which circumcision was a sign, with all its religious advantages, which, if improved so as to lead to holiness of heart and life, would indeed profit them by becoming a means of grace; but if not, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision, thou hast no better a hope of heaven than the wicked Gentile.

V. 26. If the uncircumcision-That is, a person uncircumcised. Keep the law-Walk agreeably to it.

Shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision-In the sight of God?

Verse 26. Therefore if the uncircumcision, &c.] If the Gentile be found to act according to the spirit and design of the law, his acting thus uprightly, according to the light which God has afforded him, will be reckoned to him as if he were circumcised and walked agreeably to the law.

Verses 25-27. For circumcision verily profiteth — He does not say justifieth. How far it profited is shown in the third and fourth chapters: if thou keep the law — Here, as in many other passages, the apostle speaks to the thoughts of the Jewish readers. They fancied that circumcision, by showing that they were descended from Abraham, and were members of God’s covenant, would ensure their salvation, though they were ever so wicked. But the apostle tells them their circumcision would avail them only if they practised the law; that is, performed the things required in the covenant with Abraham; (see verse 12;) in which case, as the seal of that covenant, it would give them assurance of salvation. But, if they did not perform the precepts of that covenant, their circumcision would be of no use to them. If thou be a breaker of the law — Living in known sin, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision — Is so already in effect. Thou wilt have no more benefit by it than if thou hadst never received it. The very same observation holds with regard to baptism. Therefore, &c. — As if he had said, Since the stress of all lies upon keeping the law, therefore, if the uncircumcision — That is, a person uncircumcised; keep the righteousness of the law — Walk agreeably to it; shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision — In the sight of God? He shall be accounted a Jew spiritually, (verse 29,) and accepted of God, rather than you carnal Jews, who continue to live in sin, and boast of your circumcision. The expression, ta dikaiwmata tou nomou, rendered, the righteousness of the law, is in the plural number, and rendered by Locke, the rectitude of the law; considering Paul as using it “for all those precepts of the law which contain in them any part of the natural and eternal rule of rectitude, which is made known to men by the light of reason: a rule of their actions, which all mankind, uncircumcised as well as circumcised, had, and is that which (Romans 1:32) Paul calls dikaiwma tou qeou, [rendered there, the judgment of God,] because it came from God, and was made by him the moral rule to all mankind, being laid within the discovery of their reason. And this rule of morality Paul says the Gentile world did acknowledge.” Doddridge renders the expression, the righteous determinations of the law; and Macknight, the precepts of the law; referring to the above-quoted expression, Romans 1:32, which he considers as signifying the law of God written on men’s hearts; or, as he here terms it: the law of faith, “the precepts of which,” he says, “the Gentiles may both know and keep. For the light of natural reason dictates its two great precepts, namely, that men should believe in God, and obey him from love. Further, the precepts of this law are very properly expressed by words which literally signify righteousness of the law, because they who keep them are accounted righteous in the sight of God; that is, are treated by God as righteous persons for the sake of Christ.” And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature — Those who are, literally speaking, uncircumcised. “The words, by nature, are added by the apostle to show that he is speaking of persons without revelation, and not of the converted Gentiles, nor of those who should hereafter be converted:” if it fulfil the law, That is, as to the substance of it, namely, the law of faith above mentioned. “For though the Gentiles were ignorant of the covenant that was made at the fall, and of its promises, they might both know and perform its requisitions, verses 6, 7. Accordingly, many of the Gentiles believed in the true God, and obeyed him from a principle of faith and love.” Judge thee — Condemn thee by his example, and make thy condemnation appear to be just, in that thou hast more helps and advantages, and yet performest less duty: who by the letter and circumcision — By trusting so much to thy having the law in writing, and to thy being circumcised, as if these things were sufficient to save thee: or by trusting to the outward privilege of circumcision, which thou partakest of according to the letter of the law, but wantest the internal and spiritual part thereof. Dost transgress the law — Takest liberty thereupon to indulge thyself securely in sin, as if these things would preserve thee from punishment. The judgment which the Gentiles, who fulfil the law, are here said to pass on the wicked Jews, is the same with that which the Jews are said, verse 1, to pass on the wicked Gentiles; namely, that they are worthy of death. But they passed this judgment on the Jews with much more reason than the Jews passed it on them; because, while they condemned the Gentiles, they expected to be saved themselves, though guilty of the very same crimes, abusing far greater privileges, and breaking through much stronger obligations.

26. Therefore—At this verse the apostle has succeeded in placing the pious Gentile on a level with the pious Jew. In the next verse he is made the superior of the defective Jew.

Ver. 26. An inference from Romans 2:25, of the fairness of which Paul asks his readers to judge.

Uncircumcision: an abstract term used for a concrete embodiment of its idea, as in all languages and ages: so Romans 3:30. Paul dismisses for a moment all thought about the man except that he is uncircumcised. Keep: view with jealous care, as when one guards a treasure: Galatians 6:13; 1 Timothy 5:21; 6:20; 2 Timothy 1:14. To disobey

the decrees of the Law, is to cast them away as worthless. Reckoned: in the calculation of the great Judge. In Romans 2:3, Paul questioned the man as to his own reckoning about himself: he now compels him to answer a question about God’s reckoning. “Since the blessings of which circumcision is a pledge are given only on condition of obedience to the Law, will not the heathen who fulfils this condition obtain the blessings? will he not on the great day stand, in the Judge’s reckoning, in the position of a circumcised man?” This question implies that outward ordinances are of value, not in themselves, but only as means to moral ends; and that the end is sometimes otherwise gained.

Verse 26. Therefore if the uncircumcision, &c. — By the uncircumcision the apostle means the uncircumcised Gentiles. The righteousness, dikaiwmata, of the law is its precepts. The counting or reckoning of uncircumcision for circumcision is treating the pious Gentile, though less favoured as to religious privileges, as one of the peculiar and favoured people of God, and giving him the advantages of a covenant of grace not so formally and visibly made with him.

V. 27. Yea, the uncircumcision that is by nature-Those who are, literally speaking, uncircumcised.

Fulfilling the law-As to the substance of it. Shall judge thee-Shall condemn thee in that day. Who by the letter and circumcision-Who having the bare, literal, external circumcision, transgressest the law.

Verse 27. And shall not uncircumcision, which is by nature] And shall not the Gentile, who is ek fusewv, according to the custom of his country-who is, by birth, not obliged to be circumcised. If it fulfil the law] If such a person act according to the spirit and design of the law; judge krinei condemn thee, who, whilst thou dost enjoy the letter, the written law, and bearest in thy body the proof of the circumcision which it requires, dost transgress that law?

Verses 25-27. For circumcision verily profiteth — He does not say justifieth. How far it profited is shown in the third and fourth chapters: if thou keep the law — Here, as in many other passages, the apostle speaks to the thoughts of the Jewish readers. They fancied that circumcision, by showing that they were descended from Abraham, and were members of God’s covenant, would ensure their salvation, though they were ever so wicked. But the apostle tells them their circumcision would avail them only if they practised the law; that is, performed the things required in the covenant with Abraham; (see verse 12;) in which case, as the seal of that covenant, it would give them assurance of salvation. But, if they did not perform the precepts of that covenant, their circumcision would be of no use to them. If thou be a breaker of the law — Living in known sin, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision — Is so already in effect. Thou wilt have no more benefit by it than if thou hadst never received it. The very same observation holds with regard to baptism. Therefore, &c. — As if he had said, Since the stress of all lies upon keeping the law, therefore, if the uncircumcision — That is, a person uncircumcised; keep the righteousness of the law — Walk agreeably to it; shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision — In the sight of God? He shall be accounted a Jew spiritually, (verse 29,) and accepted of God, rather than you carnal Jews, who continue to live in sin, and boast of your circumcision. The expression, ta dikaiwmata tou nomou, rendered, the righteousness of the law, is in the plural number, and rendered by Locke, the rectitude of the law; considering Paul as using it “for all those precepts of the law which contain in them any part of the natural and eternal rule of rectitude, which is made known to men by the light of reason: a rule of their actions, which all mankind, uncircumcised as well as circumcised, had, and is that which (Romans 1:32) Paul calls dikaiwma tou qeou, [rendered there, the judgment of God,] because it came from God, and was made by him the moral rule to all mankind, being laid within the discovery of their reason. And this rule of morality Paul says the Gentile world did acknowledge.” Doddridge renders the expression, the righteous determinations of the law; and Macknight, the precepts of the law; referring to the above-quoted expression, Romans 1:32, which he considers as signifying the law of God written on men’s hearts; or, as he here terms it: the law of faith, “the precepts of which,” he says, “the Gentiles may both know and keep. For the light of natural reason dictates its two great precepts, namely, that men should believe in God, and obey him from love. Further, the precepts of this law are very properly expressed by words which literally signify righteousness of the law, because they who keep them are accounted righteous in the sight of God; that is, are treated by God as righteous persons for the sake of Christ.” And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature — Those who are, literally speaking, uncircumcised. “The words, by nature, are added by the apostle to show that he is speaking of persons without revelation, and not of the converted Gentiles, nor of those who should hereafter be converted:” if it fulfil the law, That is, as to the substance of it, namely, the law of faith above mentioned. “For though the Gentiles were ignorant of the covenant that was made at the fall, and of its promises, they might both know and perform its requisitions, verses 6, 7. Accordingly, many of the Gentiles believed in the true God, and obeyed him from a principle of faith and love.” Judge thee — Condemn thee by his example, and make thy condemnation appear to be just, in that thou hast more helps and advantages, and yet performest less duty: who by the letter and circumcision — By trusting so much to thy having the law in writing, and to thy being circumcised, as if these things were sufficient to save thee: or by trusting to the outward privilege of circumcision, which thou partakest of according to the letter of the law, but wantest the internal and spiritual part thereof. Dost transgress the law — Takest liberty thereupon to indulge thyself securely in sin, as if these things would preserve thee from punishment. The judgment which the Gentiles, who fulfil the law, are here said to pass on the wicked Jews, is the same with that which the Jews are said, verse 1, to pass on the wicked Gentiles; namely, that they are worthy of death. But they passed this judgment on the Jews with much more reason than the Jews passed it on them; because, while they condemned the Gentiles, they expected to be saved themselves, though guilty of the very same crimes, abusing far greater privileges, and breaking through much stronger obligations.

27. By the letter and circumcision—By here has the force of in possession of. The letter is the law. Possessing the law and circumcision the Jew is still a transgressor.

Ver. 27. A solemn affirmation, following, as in Romans 2:5, 23, an unanswered question.

Uncircumcision from nature: absence of circumcision, resulting from the circumstances in which the man was born. See under Romans 2:14. Accomplishing the Law: attaining the end for which it was given, realising in action what the Law sets forth in words. Compare the word keep in Romans 2:26. Because the Gentile observes with jealous care the decrees of the Law, God will treat him in the judgment as circumcised: and because in him the purpose of the Law has been achieved, his presence in the judgment will pronounce sentence on thousands of Jews in whom that purpose has been utterly defeated.

Shall judge: proclaim punishment awaiting him.

Thee who etc.: vivid description of the unfaithful Jew. He has the letter of the Law before his eyes: in his body he bears the sign of the covenant: but he is none the less a transgressor of law. By his side in the judgment stands a man like Cornelius, in whom the moral purposes of the Law have been to some extent attained. In the impenitent Jew, these purposes have been altogether thwarted. The presence of the Gentile proclaims, in a way not to be misunderstood, the punishment awaiting the Jew. This verse does but re-echo the words of one Greater than Paul: Matthew 12:41, 42.

The indicative future shall-judge and the cases put conditionally in Romans 2:26, 14 imply plainly the possibility of the case here supposed. Same teaching in Acts 10:35; and a good example in Romans 2:2, 22. From Romans 3:9, 23 we infer that this obedience, tried by the absolute standard of the moral law, was imperfect, and therefore (Romans 2:20) could not justify. But it was sufficient to condemn utterly the immoral Jew. Romans 2:26, 27 also imply that in the great day the persons in question will enter eternal life: for the only distinction then (see Romans 2:7, 8) will be life or destruction. We therefore infer that some heathens will be saved through their obedience, though imperfect, to the law written in their hearts. This does not contradict Romans 3:20. For their obedience, because imperfect, gives them no claim to salvation. Like those who put faith in Christ, they will be saved by the undeserved favour of God, who will reckon-not their faith: for they never heard the Gospel, but-their imperfect obedience-for righteousness. This opens a door of hope for many in Christian lands whose religious advantages have been so few that they have never heard the Gospel in its purity and power. And it warns us not hastily to pronounce on the destiny of some upright men who have not the assurance of salvation enjoyed by many of the servants of Christ.

Verse 27. Uncircumcision which is by nature. — Here the apostle first intimates what he afterward more expressly states, that there is a spiritual circumcision which those naturally uncircumcised may partake of, and which if not experienced by the Jew his corporal circumcision would avail him nothing. This naturally uncircumcised but spiritually circumcised Gentile, says the apostle, shall condemn thee, who by the letter and circumcision, that is, who, with (the advantages of) the letter of the law, and the covenant rite of circumcision, dost transgress the law. Dia has this sense, Romans 14:20. Macknight renders rather freely, “judge thee a transgressor of law, though a Jew by literal circumcision;” but close upon the sense.

V. 28. For he is not a Jew-In the most important sense, that is, one of God's beloved people.

Who is one in outward show only; neither is that the true, acceptable circumcision, which is apparent in the flesh.

Verse 28. For he is not a Jew] A genuine member of the Church of God, who has only an outward profession.

Neither is that circumcision] Circumcision is a rite which represents a spiritual thing, viz. the change and purification of the heart, as may be seen, Jeremiah 4:4, 6, 10; 9:26; Ezekiel 44:7, 9.

Verses 28, 29. For he is not a Jew — In the most important sense, that is, one of God’s beloved people; or a true child of Abraham, to whom the promise belongs, and one that God will own for a true member of his church; who is one outwardly — Only; or one of Abraham’s posterity, according to the flesh, and enjoys the outward privileges belonging to that relation. Neither is that circumcision — The chief and true circumcision, acceptable to God; which is outward in the flesh — Consists only in the outward ordinance, and the mark imprinted on the flesh. But he is a Jew — One of Abraham’s spiritual seed; who is one inwardly — Who inwardly possesses the disposition of Abraham, and imitates him in his faith and obedience. In this sense, the pious Gentiles, though uncircumcised, and members of no visible church, were really Jews, or children of Abraham, entitled to the blessings of the covenant which God made with him. It is of such as these that Christ speaks, in his epistle to the church at Smyrna, Revelation 2:9; I know the blasphemy of them who say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. And circumcision is that of the heart — The circumcision which renders men the sons of Abraham, and the people of God, is of the heart, made by cutting off or mortifying its lusts. That this is the true circumcision, or the thing meant by that rite, is evident from the command of Moses to the Jews, Deuteronomy 10:16, Circumcise the foreskin of your hearts, and be no more stiff-necked; and from the promise made to the same people, Deuteronomy 30:6, The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart, to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. In the spirit — Seated in the inmost soul, renewed by the Spirit of God. Or the expression may mean, according to the spiritual sense of the law; and not in the letter — Not in an external ceremony, performed only according to the letter of it. Whose praise is not of men — Who look only on the outward appearance, and will probably be so far from esteeming, that they will despise and hate such; but of God — Who sees in secret, and approves of what is internally holy and spiritual. It is justly observed by Macknight here, that the apostle, by distinguishing between the spirit and the letter of the law of Moses, intimates that the rites enjoined in that law were typical, and had a spiritual or moral meaning, as Moses also expressly declared to the Jews, Leviticus 26:41, and in the passages of Deuteronomy above quoted. Jeremiah, likewise, Jeremiah 4:4, represents circumcision as emblematical; consequently all the other rites of the law were so likewise.

28. Not a Jew… outwardly—A universal condemnation upon those, Christian or Jew, who make an idolatry of ritualism.

Verses 28, 29 state, in language recalling frequent and explicit O.T. teaching, a great principle which commends itself to the moral sense of all, and which supports both the statement in Romans 2:25 and the inferences drawn from it in Romans 2:26, 27. If the real distinctions are within, uncircumcision will not necessarily deprive a man of the blessings of the covenant and circumcision will not save from condemnation one whose sins are the more inexcusable because committed in spite of a written law and by a circumcised man. To prove this, is the chief purpose of Rom. 2, of which Romans 2:28, 29 sum up the result. God will judge men (Romans 2:6) according to their works: and a man’s works flow from his inmost self. He is (Romans 2:11) no respecter of persons: and to respect persons is to treat a man, not according to his inward reality, but according to his appearance and circumstances. Any other theory lands us (Romans 2:21-24) in manifest absurdity. Thus is dispelled all hope of escape from the impartial judgment of God, whether based upon superior knowledge derived from the Law or upon outward and visible union with the people of God. CHAPTER II. treats of one subject, which naturally divides itself into the three sections I have adopted. Paul began by deducing in Romans 2:1, 2 from Romans 1:18-32 a universal truth. That this truth admits of no exceptions, he proves in Romans 2:3-11; and shows in Romans 2:12-24 that a knowledge of the Law, and in Romans 2:25-29 that circumcision, give a man no right to make himself an exception. The earnestness and reality of Paul’s tone prove that the opinions he combats were actually held and widely spread. Of this we have confirmation in the summary given in Mt. 3 of the teaching of John the Baptist. He saw men who while living in sin trusted for salvation to their relation to Abraham, and meets them with arguments similar to those of this chapter. The ancient literature of the Jews reveals the same errors, opposed indeed by the better teachers, but widely current. So Thorath Adam f. 100, ch. 2, “All Israel shall have a portion in the age to come:” Shemoth Rabba f. 138. 13, “Let not heretics and apostates and impious ones of Israel say, Because we are circumcised, we do not descend into hell. What does the Holy and Blessed God? He sends an angel and makes them uncircumcised, that they may descend into hell.” We have further and melancholy confirmation of the same in the applicability of the reasoning of this chapter to many Christians, not only in the dark ages, but in our own day and in the most enlightened Churches. Many who do what they know to be wrong rely for salvation, perhaps unconsciously, on their knowledge of the way of salvation-of which knowledge the only result is a readiness to teach or to condemn others less instructed or less orthodox than themselves-or on their outward connection with the people of God or their attention to religious ordinances. By teaching that God looks at the heart and judges all men according to their works, Paul pronounces sentence on all such. This may be seen by reading Christian instead of Jew in this chapter. The substitution only increases the force of the argument. The difference between the words and works of some who bear the name of Christ brings serious dishonour to His name, the name of Him who died to save them, and hinders the work He died to accomplish. God who of old required circumcision of the heart requires to-day that men worship Him in spirit and truth. These deadly errors among ourselves give to this chapter an abiding and infinite worth.

It also teaches the absolute necessity of repentance. Since God is angry with all sin, none except they who turn from sin can enjoy His favour. Consequently none can intelligently seek His favour except those who sincerely endeavour to avoid all sin, and none can intelligently believe that they possess it except those who actually conquer sin. Not only does Paul thus prove man’s need of repentance, but by proclaiming God’s anger against all sin he does all that words can do to lead men to it. This chapter is a safeguard against a common perversion of the fundamental doctrine of this epistle, Justification through Faith. And Paul sets up the safeguard before he develops the doctrine to be guarded. DIV. I., of which Rom. 2 is so important a part, was introduced in Romans 1:18 as logically necessary for the completeness of Paul’s argument. We see now its moral and spiritual necessity. Through failure of some teachers to give prominence to the truths of this chapter, the doctrine of Justification through Faith has been frequently and seriously perverted. The teaching of Romans 2: holds a place in relation to the rest of the epistle analogous to that of the Epistle of James in relation to the Epistles of Paul; of the 1st Gospel in relation to the rest of the N.T.; and especially of the teaching of John the Baptist in relation to the teaching of Christ. The resemblance is seen in modes of thought and even in phrases and words. It is therefore of great value as a means of harmonizing these very different, and at first sight apparently contradictory, portions of the New Testament. Notice carefully in Romans 1:19, 20, 24; 3:12-15, 26, 27 Paul’s account of the religious position of the Gentiles. God has manifested Himself to them in the created universe, and has written His law upon their hearts in the inborn moral sense. He has punished them for their forgetfulness and contempt of Him, as shown in their idolatry, by giving them up to gross sin: and in the great day He will judge them according to their obedience or disobedience to the law written within. In that day, some who never heard of Moses will be accepted because, in their careful efforts to do right, the moral purpose of the Law of Moses was in some measure attained.

The chapter from the study of which we now rise receives its entire practical value from the chapters which follow. It is a voice crying in a wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Like the greatest of the prophets, it points to that which is greater than itself. We may sum up the whole and its bearing on Rom. 1 in the words of the Master, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”

Verse 28. Not a Jew, which is one outwardly. — He is not a true son of Abraham, a member of that spiritual Church of which the visible Church of the Jews was but the sensible form, who has nothing but natural birth and fleshly circumcision to plead. — The true circumcision is of the heart, the cutting off and putting away all its corrupt affections by the sanctification of grace; in the spirit, which does not mean the spirit or soul of man, which is expressed by the heart in the preceding clause, but in the spiritual sense of the law, and not in the letter, its literal sense merely. That circumcision had a spiritual intention in its very institution is evident from its being “a seal of the righteousness which is by faith:” it was a visible declaration of the doctrine of the justification of man by faith; and obedience to the rite was a profession of faith in the doctrine. That it implied a moral obligation, also, appears from Deuteronomy 10:16: “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked;” and the highest promises of grace and personal salvation are expressed by reference to it: “And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.” Like Christian baptism, it was “an outward sign of an inward and spiritual grace;” and he who did not allow the latter would in vain plead the former as the ground of his exemption from the curses of a violated law.

Thus the apostle establishes that great point so necessary to convince the Jews of the value and necessity of Christianity — that they were not only sinners like the Gentiles, but liable, like them, to the wrath of God, notwithstanding their religious distinctions and privileges. But as every thing depended upon convincing them of this, since, if the Jews were safe in consequence of being Abraham’s seed, Christianity could be of no importance to them, in the next chapter he answers an objection, and confirms the whole from their own Scriptures.

V. 29. But he is a Jew-That is, one of God's people. Who is one inwardly-In the secret recesses of his soul. And the acceptable circumcision is that of the heart-Referring to Deuteronomy 30:6; the putting away all inward impurity. This is seated in the spirit, the inmost soul, renewed by the Spirit of God. And not in the letter-Not in the external ceremony. Whose praise is not from men, but from God-The only searcher of the heart.

Verse 29. But he is a Jew] A true member of the Church of God. Which is one inwardly] Who has his heart purified, according to what God has uniformly prescribed by his prophets; see above: for circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, en pneumati by the Spirit of God, who is the author of all spiritual affections and holy purposes: or, every thing here is to be understood spiritually, and not literally; for without holiness none can please God, and without holiness none can see him.

Whose praise is not of men] It has, with great probability, been conjectured that the apostle may here refer to the signification of the name Jew, or Judah, hdwhy Yehudah, PRAISE, from hdy Yadah, he PRAISED. Such a one is a true Israelite, who walks in a conformity to the spirit of his religion: his countrymen may praise him because he is a steady professor of the Jewish faith; but GOD praises him, because he has entered into the spirit and design of the covenant made with Abraham, and has got the end of his faith, the salvation of his soul. Sentiments like these, on the same subject, may be found in the ancient Jewish writers. Rabbi Lipman gives the opinion of their most ancient and pure writers in these words:-“A certain Christian mocked us, saying, ‘Women, who cannot be circumcised, cannot be reckoned among Jews.’ Such persons are ignorant that faith does not consist in circumcision, but in the heart. He who has not genuine faith is not a partaker of the Jewish circumcision; but he who has genuine faith is a Jew, although not circumcised.” NIZZACHON, Num. 21, p. 19. It is a curious maxim of the Talmudists, That the Jews sit in the inmost recesses of the heart. NIDDA, fol. 20, 2. This is exactly the sentiment of St. Paul: Circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit. In short, common sense, as well as their law and their prophets, taught every considerate man among them that God could be pleased with their rites and external performances no farther than they led to holiness of heart and righteousness of life.

1. WHAT the apostle says, in the preceding chapter, concerning the Gentiles doing by nature the things contained in the law, if properly considered, would lead certain persons from forming erroneous judgments concerning the Divine dispensations. We are not to suppose that God is not to be found where his written word does not appear; nor that the salvation of the nations yet unblessed with the light of the Gospel is impossible. God has never confined himself to any one particular way of communicating his salvation, any more than he has confined his saving grace to one people. His word is an indescribable blessing; but that word becomes effectual to salvation when accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit. It was that Spirit which gave the word originally; and that same Spirit can speak without this word. It is through his influence alone that the Gentiles do the things contained in his own law; and it is not to be wondered at that the work is the same, both in the law and in the heart, when it has proceeded from the same Spirit.

2. God therefore will judge all nations according to the use and abuse they have made of this word, whether it was written in the heart, or written on tables of stone.

3. As he is no respecter of persons, all nations are equally dear to him; and he has granted and will grant to them such discoveries of himself as have been and will be sufficient for their salvation.

4. His WORD is an infinite blessing; and he has given it to one people that they may be the means of conveying it to another. Europe, and especially Christian Europe, has got the BIBLE; and God requires Europe to send the Bible throughout the earth. If this be not done, through their neglect, the Gentile nations will not be destroyed by a merciful God; yet the Europeans will have a most solemn and awful account to render to their Judge, that they have hidden the heavenly light under their own bushel. BRITAIN is shaking herself from the dust, and, by means of the BRITISH and FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY, is sending the holy Scriptures to every kingdom, and nation, and people, and tongue. The Gentiles are now learning from the written law more fully and savingly what the Spirit of God had before written on their hearts; and it seems as if the kingdom of God were now about to come with all-conquering power.

ROMANS

Verses 28, 29. For he is not a Jew — In the most important sense, that is, one of God’s beloved people; or a true child of Abraham, to whom the promise belongs, and one that God will own for a true member of his church; who is one outwardly — Only; or one of Abraham’s posterity, according to the flesh, and enjoys the outward privileges belonging to that relation. Neither is that circumcision — The chief and true circumcision, acceptable to God; which is outward in the flesh — Consists only in the outward ordinance, and the mark imprinted on the flesh. But he is a Jew — One of Abraham’s spiritual seed; who is one inwardly — Who inwardly possesses the disposition of Abraham, and imitates him in his faith and obedience. In this sense, the pious Gentiles, though uncircumcised, and members of no visible church, were really Jews, or children of Abraham, entitled to the blessings of the covenant which God made with him. It is of such as these that Christ speaks, in his epistle to the church at Smyrna, Revelation 2:9; I know the blasphemy of them who say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. And circumcision is that of the heart — The circumcision which renders men the sons of Abraham, and the people of God, is of the heart, made by cutting off or mortifying its lusts. That this is the true circumcision, or the thing meant by that rite, is evident from the command of Moses to the Jews, Deuteronomy 10:16, Circumcise the foreskin of your hearts, and be no more stiff-necked; and from the promise made to the same people, Deuteronomy 30:6, The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart, to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. In the spirit — Seated in the inmost soul, renewed by the Spirit of God. Or the expression may mean, according to the spiritual sense of the law; and not in the letter — Not in an external ceremony, performed only according to the letter of it. Whose praise is not of men — Who look only on the outward appearance, and will probably be so far from esteeming, that they will despise and hate such; but of God — Who sees in secret, and approves of what is internally holy and spiritual. It is justly observed by Macknight here, that the apostle, by distinguishing between the spirit and the letter of the law of Moses, intimates that the rites enjoined in that law were typical, and had a spiritual or moral meaning, as Moses also expressly declared to the Jews, Leviticus 26:41, and in the passages of Deuteronomy above quoted. Jeremiah, likewise, Jeremiah 4:4, represents circumcision as emblematical; consequently all the other rites of the law were so likewise.

Ver. 29. Circumcision is that of the heart, as Moses had taught. Deuteronomy 30:6. Such is the new covenant, as stated by Jeremiah: chap. 31. Thus every battle of the apostle, with the doctors of the legal school, was a victory. How pleasant, how delightful would those words be to the saints of Rome, then exposed to the bitter contentions of the jews. Local circumstances enhanced the value of the holy scriptures.

29. Of the heart—Circumcision is a symbol of purification. It shadows the cutting and severing all sensuality from the spiritual man. Hence even the Old Testament speaks of a circumcision of the heart, Deuteronomy 10:16; Jeremiah 4:4. Purification, indicated in the Old Testament under the severe rite of cutting off, is signified in the New by the gentle rite of baptism.

A Jewish writer soon after the Christian era says: “The Christian taunts us, saying, ‘Your women not being circumcised, are Gentiles.’ But they are ignorant that faith lies not in circumcision, but in the heart. Whoever rightly believes not, circumcision cannot make a Jew; whoso rightly believes, uncircumcision does not prevent from being Jew.” Perhaps this Rabbi had read St. Paul to advantage. One of the tracts of the Talmud says, “The Jew sits in the interior of the heart.” Not of men—Who set great estimate on material matters. Of God—Who is himself Spirit, and looks for purity in the finite spirit.

Verses 28, 29 state, in language recalling frequent and explicit O.T. teaching, a great principle which commends itself to the moral sense of all, and which supports both the statement in Romans 2:25 and the inferences drawn from it in Romans 2:26, 27. If the real distinctions are within, uncircumcision will not necessarily deprive a man of the blessings of the covenant and circumcision will not save from condemnation one whose sins are the more inexcusable because committed in spite of a written law and by a circumcised man. To prove this, is the chief purpose of Rom. 2, of which Romans 2:28, 29 sum up the result. God will judge men (Romans 2:6) according to their works: and a man’s works flow from his inmost self. He is (Romans 2:11) no respecter of persons: and to respect persons is to treat a man, not according to his inward reality, but according to his appearance and circumstances. Any other theory lands us (Romans 2:21-24) in manifest absurdity. Thus is dispelled all hope of escape from the impartial judgment of God, whether based upon superior knowledge derived from the Law or upon outward and visible union with the people of God. CHAPTER II. treats of one subject, which naturally divides itself into the three sections I have adopted. Paul began by deducing in Romans 2:1, 2 from Romans 1:18-32 a universal truth. That this truth admits of no exceptions, he proves in Romans 2:3-11; and shows in Romans 2:12-24 that a knowledge of the Law, and in Romans 2:25-29 that circumcision, give a man no right to make himself an exception. The earnestness and reality of Paul’s tone prove that the opinions he combats were actually held and widely spread. Of this we have confirmation in the summary given in Mt. 3 of the teaching of John the Baptist. He saw men who while living in sin trusted for salvation to their relation to Abraham, and meets them with arguments similar to those of this chapter. The ancient literature of the Jews reveals the same errors, opposed indeed by the better teachers, but widely current. So Thorath Adam f. 100, ch. 2, “All Israel shall have a portion in the age to come:” Shemoth Rabba f. 138. 13, “Let not heretics and apostates and impious ones of Israel say, Because we are circumcised, we do not descend into hell. What does the Holy and Blessed God? He sends an angel and makes them uncircumcised, that they may descend into hell.” We have further and melancholy confirmation of the same in the applicability of the reasoning of this chapter to many Christians, not only in the dark ages, but in our own day and in the most enlightened Churches. Many who do what they know to be wrong rely for salvation, perhaps unconsciously, on their knowledge of the way of salvation-of which knowledge the only result is a readiness to teach or to condemn others less instructed or less orthodox than themselves-or on their outward connection with the people of God or their attention to religious ordinances. By teaching that God looks at the heart and judges all men according to their works, Paul pronounces sentence on all such. This may be seen by reading Christian instead of Jew in this chapter. The substitution only increases the force of the argument. The difference between the words and works of some who bear the name of Christ brings serious dishonour to His name, the name of Him who died to save them, and hinders the work He died to accomplish. God who of old required circumcision of the heart requires to-day that men worship Him in spirit and truth. These deadly errors among ourselves give to this chapter an abiding and infinite worth.

It also teaches the absolute necessity of repentance. Since God is angry with all sin, none except they who turn from sin can enjoy His favour. Consequently none can intelligently seek His favour except those who sincerely endeavour to avoid all sin, and none can intelligently believe that they possess it except those who actually conquer sin. Not only does Paul thus prove man’s need of repentance, but by proclaiming God’s anger against all sin he does all that words can do to lead men to it. This chapter is a safeguard against a common perversion of the fundamental doctrine of this epistle, Justification through Faith. And Paul sets up the safeguard before he develops the doctrine to be guarded. DIV. I., of which Rom. 2 is so important a part, was introduced in Romans 1:18 as logically necessary for the completeness of Paul’s argument. We see now its moral and spiritual necessity. Through failure of some teachers to give prominence to the truths of this chapter, the doctrine of Justification through Faith has been frequently and seriously perverted. The teaching of Romans 2: holds a place in relation to the rest of the epistle analogous to that of the Epistle of James in relation to the Epistles of Paul; of the 1st Gospel in relation to the rest of the N.T.; and especially of the teaching of John the Baptist in relation to the teaching of Christ. The resemblance is seen in modes of thought and even in phrases and words. It is therefore of great value as a means of harmonizing these very different, and at first sight apparently contradictory, portions of the New Testament. Notice carefully in Romans 1:19, 20, 24; 3:12-15, 26, 27 Paul’s account of the religious position of the Gentiles. God has manifested Himself to them in the created universe, and has written His law upon their hearts in the inborn moral sense. He has punished them for their forgetfulness and contempt of Him, as shown in their idolatry, by giving them up to gross sin: and in the great day He will judge them according to their obedience or disobedience to the law written within. In that day, some who never heard of Moses will be accepted because, in their careful efforts to do right, the moral purpose of the Law of Moses was in some measure attained.

The chapter from the study of which we now rise receives its entire practical value from the chapters which follow. It is a voice crying in a wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Like the greatest of the prophets, it points to that which is greater than itself. We may sum up the whole and its bearing on Rom. 1 in the words of the Master, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”