Romans · Chapter 3

V. 1. What then, may some say, is the advantage of the Jew, or of the circumcision-That is, those that are circumcised, above the Gentiles?

Verse 1. JEW. What advantage then hath the Jew? Or what profit is there of circumcision?] As if he had said: You lately allowed, (Romans 2:25,) that circumcision verily profited; but if circumcision, or our being in covenant with God, raises us no higher in the Divine favour than the Gentiles; if the virtuous among them are as acceptable as any of us; nay, and condemn our nation too, as no longer deserving the Divine regards; pray tell me, wherein lies the superior honour of the Jew; and what benefit can arise to him from his circumcision, and being vested in the privileges of God’s peculiar people?

Verses 1, 2. What advantage then hath the Jew? — The foregoing reasonings being contrary to the prejudices of the Jews, one of that nation is here introduced objecting, If our being the children of Abraham, members of the church of God, and heirs of the promises, will procure us no favour at the judgment, — and if the want of these privileges will not preclude the heathen from salvation; — or, If it be so that God looks only at the heart, and does not regard persons for their external privileges, what is the pre-eminence of a Jew above a Gentile, and, (for there are two questions here asked,) what profit is there of circumcision — And of the other ritual services which are enjoined in the law? To the first of these questions the apostle answers in this chapter, and to the second in chap. 4., beginning at verse 11. Much every way — Or in every respect. The respects in which the Jews were superior to the Gentiles are enumerated Romans 9:4, 5, where see the notes. Chiefly, because unto them were committed the oracles of God — The Scriptures, in which are contained great and important truths, precepts, and promises. This prerogative Paul here singles out, by which, after removing the objection, he convicts them so much the more. “The Greeks used the word logia, oracles, to denote the responses which their deities, or rather their priests, made to those who consulted them, especially if they were delivered in prose: for, as Beza observes, they gave a different name, crhsmoi, to such responses as were uttered in verse. Here oracles denote the whole of the divine revelations; and, among the rest, the law of Moses, which Stephen calls logia zwnta, living oracles, Acts 7:18, because God spake that law in person. All the revelations of God to mankind, from the beginning of the world to his own times, Moses, by the inspiration of God, committed to writing; and what further revelations God was pleased to make to mankind during the subsistence of the Jewish Church, he made by prophets, who recorded them in books; and the whole was intrusted to the Jews, to be kept for their own benefit and for the benefit of the world. Now, this being the chief of all their advantages, as Jews, it alone is mentioned here by the apostle. In like manner, the psalmist has mentioned the word of God as the distinguishing privilege of the Israelites, Psalm 147:19, He hath showed his word unto Jacob, &c. He hath not dealt so with any nation. The benefits which the Jews derived from the oracles of God, the apostle had no occasion to explain here, because they were all introduced in the boasting of the Jew, described Romans 2:17-23.” — Macknight.

Verse 1, 2. What advantage hath the jew? St. Paul was aware of the warm exclamations of his nation against the doctrine of the preseding chapter, that he had superseded the peculiar calling of Abraham, and all the glory it had conferred on the Israelites. The chief advantage was in making them the guardians of the holy scriptures.

To them was committed the eloquence, or the oracles of God. These are called the “lively” oracles. Acts 7:38. In them we have eternal life; yea, the presence of God in his word and ordinances, to comfort and guide his people.

1. Advantage—The question arrays the claim of Christianity against the proud superiority of Judaism. The apostle must conciliate that pride as far as possible, without surrendering a particle of Christianity. He, therefore, in the next verse makes generous concession.

The points here briefly touched in relation to Israel’s advantages, his failure through unbelief, and God’s defence therefor, are more fully treated in chapter 9. And the two passages, being parallel, are each the apostle’s own commentary upon the other.

Ver. 1. Question prompted by the assertion in Romans 2:25 that to those who keep the Law “circumcision profits,” and the assertion in Romans 2:28, 29 that the distinctions which avail are not outward but inward. In

what then does the Jew go beyond the Gentile, and what is the profit of circumcision?

1 The Jew’s prerogative: 3 which they have lost: 9 howbeit the law convinceth them also of sin: 20 therefore no flesh is justified by the law, 28 but all, without difference, by faith only: 31 and yet the law is not abolished. CHAPTER 3. Verse 1. What advantage then hath the Jew? &c. — The apostle frequently uses the interrogatory style, either to give strength to his own conclusions, or to bring forward what he knew would be the objections of others. To the doctrine which he had laid down, that the religious privileges of the Jews did not ensure their future salvation, he introduces the natural objection of those who reasoned like them on these subjects: What advantage then, what superiority in matters of religion and religious hope, hath the Jew? or what profit, benefit, is there in circumcision, by which the Jews are initiated into covenant with God, and become his peculiar people? This advantage he allows to be great in every respect, since the religious privileges with which they were thereby invested were so many instituted means of obtaining grace and salvation; but he sums them all up in their having had the oracles of God committed to them; both as this was the crowning privilege, and to intimate that their religious privileges did not, OF THEMSELVES, place them in a state of salvation, but that they all, like the word of God itself, were addressed to their understanding, and were designed to be the means of religious instruction and direction, which they were to follow out to its practical application. Such was the nature of circumcision itself, and of their sacrifices, festivals, and typical ceremonies.

V. 2. Chiefly in that they were intrusted with the oracles of God-The scriptures, in which are so great and precious promises. Other prerogatives will follow, Romans 9:4-5. St. Paul here singles out this by which, after removing the objection, he will convict them so much the more.

Verse 2. APOSTLE. Much every way] The Jews, in reference to the means and motives of obedience, enjoy many advantages beyond the Gentiles; and, principally, because to them were committed the oracles of God-that revelation of his will to Moses and the prophets, containing a treasure of excellencies, with which no other part of the world has been favoured; though they have most grievously abused these privileges.

Verses 1, 2. What advantage then hath the Jew? — The foregoing reasonings being contrary to the prejudices of the Jews, one of that nation is here introduced objecting, If our being the children of Abraham, members of the church of God, and heirs of the promises, will procure us no favour at the judgment, — and if the want of these privileges will not preclude the heathen from salvation; — or, If it be so that God looks only at the heart, and does not regard persons for their external privileges, what is the pre-eminence of a Jew above a Gentile, and, (for there are two questions here asked,) what profit is there of circumcision — And of the other ritual services which are enjoined in the law? To the first of these questions the apostle answers in this chapter, and to the second in chap. 4., beginning at verse 11. Much every way — Or in every respect. The respects in which the Jews were superior to the Gentiles are enumerated Romans 9:4, 5, where see the notes. Chiefly, because unto them were committed the oracles of God — The Scriptures, in which are contained great and important truths, precepts, and promises. This prerogative Paul here singles out, by which, after removing the objection, he convicts them so much the more. “The Greeks used the word logia, oracles, to denote the responses which their deities, or rather their priests, made to those who consulted them, especially if they were delivered in prose: for, as Beza observes, they gave a different name, crhsmoi, to such responses as were uttered in verse. Here oracles denote the whole of the divine revelations; and, among the rest, the law of Moses, which Stephen calls logia zwnta, living oracles, Acts 7:18, because God spake that law in person. All the revelations of God to mankind, from the beginning of the world to his own times, Moses, by the inspiration of God, committed to writing; and what further revelations God was pleased to make to mankind during the subsistence of the Jewish Church, he made by prophets, who recorded them in books; and the whole was intrusted to the Jews, to be kept for their own benefit and for the benefit of the world. Now, this being the chief of all their advantages, as Jews, it alone is mentioned here by the apostle. In like manner, the psalmist has mentioned the word of God as the distinguishing privilege of the Israelites, Psalm 147:19, He hath showed his word unto Jacob, &c. He hath not dealt so with any nation. The benefits which the Jews derived from the oracles of God, the apostle had no occasion to explain here, because they were all introduced in the boasting of the Jew, described Romans 2:17-23.” — Macknight.

Verse 1, 2. What advantage hath the jew? St. Paul was aware of the warm exclamations of his nation against the doctrine of the preseding chapter, that he had superseded the peculiar calling of Abraham, and all the glory it had conferred on the Israelites. The chief advantage was in making them the guardians of the holy scriptures.

To them was committed the eloquence, or the oracles of God. These are called the “lively” oracles. Acts 7:38. In them we have eternal life; yea, the presence of God in his word and ordinances, to comfort and guide his people.

2. Much every way—A supernatural history, a succession of prophecies, a Messiah. Chiefly—Literally, first; yet so comprehending all that he mentions no second. But he gives a fuller enumeration in Romans 9:4,

5. Oracles of God—There were plenty of heathen oracles, giving dubious responses from false gods, and, perhaps, daemons. To the Jews were given those pure oracles of the true Jehovah which constitute the Old Testament. Our apostle did not belong to that sect of rationalists, ancient or modern, which is anxious to separate the Old Testament from the New, denying the divine authority of the former. He based the New on the foundations of the Old.

(c.) Yet without impeaching God’s faith unbelieving Jews are damned, (Romans 3:3, 4.)

Ver. 2. He gains much, from every point of view. Several proofs come to Paul’s mind. As in Romans 1:8, he mentions the first of them. A more complete catalogue of advantages is given in Romans 9:4. Entrusted-with: literally believed: same word in same sense in 1 Corinthians 9:17; Galatians 2:7; 1 Thessalonians 2:4; 1 Timothy 1:11; Titus 1:3; Luke 16:11; John 2:24: see note under Romans 4:25.

The oracles of God: solemn utterances: so (LXX.) Psalm 107:11; 12:6; Numbers 24:4; etc.; and Hebrews 5:12; 1 Peter 4:11. Same word used by the Greeks for the answers, chiefly prophetic, given by their gods at Delphi or elsewhere to those who sought their counsel. But I have no proof that the phrase is ever used to denote the Old Testament as a whole. It is therefore best to understand by the oracles of God the direct utterances of God to man preserved in the O.T. and forming its most important element. Such are Genesis 12:1-3, 7; 13:14; Ezekiel 2:1-8; 3:1, 3-11; and they are the Holy of Holies of the sanctuary of the Jewish Scriptures, Like the Greek oracles, they were chiefly prophetic. They were entrusted to the Jews (cp. Acts 7:38) for the ultimate good of all men. And possession of them was, in Paul’s day,

the great advantage of the Jew. While the Greeks were vainly discussing the nature of the gods, the Jews read in the sacred books about the Creator of the world, who became the God of Abraham. This was Paul’s first proof of the profit of being a circumcised Jew rather than a heathen. Another significance of the rite is mentioned in Romans 4:11.

Verse 2. Committed the oracles of God, &c. — By the oracles of God, ta logia tou Qeou, St. Paul means the Holy Scriptures, according to the usual division, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms. The heathens used to call the pretended responses of their deities logia; which is the word the apostle here uses, as it is frequently used by the LXX., for those immediate communications from God which are contained in the Jewish Scriptures. It is evident, therefore, that these writings were received by St. Paul and the Jews as of Divine inspiration. They regarded them not as words of men, but oracles of God. The Jews are said to have been intrusted with them, because Judaism was, in fact, a conservative dispensation, by which the light of truth might be kept from extinction during all those ages in which the nations of the earth were running mad with error and idolatry of every kind. These blessed records of the Divine oracles were therefore committed to one people to preserve and partially to diffuse, until the fulness of time, when all nations should, through the Gospel, be put into the possession of them. That advantage, in the meantime, belonged to the Jews, who, by means of these oracles, had the knowledge of God, the promises of Messiah, the doctrine of a future life, and were instructed in the way of salvation.

V. 3. Shall their unbelief disannul the faithfulness of God-Will he not still make good his promises to them that do believe?

Verse 3. JEW. For what] ti gar, What then, if some did not believe, &c. If some of the Jewish nation have abused their privileges, and acted contrary to their obligations, shall their wickedness annul the PROMISE which God made to Abraham, that he would, by an everlasting covenant, be a God to him and to his seed after him? Genesis 17:7. Shall God, therefore, by stripping the Jews of their peculiar honour, as you intimate he will, falsify his promise to the nation, because some of the Jews are bad men?

Verses 3, 4. For what if some — And they a considerable number, of those who once possessed these invaluable treasures; did not believe — Them, or did not duly consider what they speculatively believed, and so rejected the gospel to which they were intended to lead; shall their unbelief make without effect — Shall it disannul; the faith of God — His faithful promises made to Abraham and his seed, especially of sending the Messiah, and of effecting our redemption by him? Shall it destroy his fidelity to his promises, and prevent his fulfilling them to them that do believe? God, having promised to give to Abraham and his seed the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and to be their God, the Jews affirmed that if they were cast off from being his people, and driven out of Canaan for not believing on Jesus, the faithfulness of God in performing his promises would be destroyed. Probably the apostles, in their discourses to the Jews, had, if not expressly affirmed, yet obscurely intimated, that for crucifying Jesus they would be punished in that manner. God forbid — That we should insinuate any thing that can be justly considered as derogatory to God’s faithfulness: yea, let God be true — Let the blessed God be acknowledged true to his covenant and his promises, though every man should be esteemed a liar, and unfit to have any confidence reposed in him; or, though every Jew should disbelieve, and be cast off on that account. To understand this more fully, we must recollect, that the performance of the promises to the natural seed of Abraham, is, in the original covenant, tacitly made to depend on their faith and obedience, Genesis 18:19, and that it is explicitly made to depend on that condition in the renewal of the covenant, Deuteronomy 28:1-14. Besides, on that occasion, God expressly threatened to expel the natural seed from Canaan, and scatter them among the heathen, if they became unbelieving and disobedient, Leviticus 26:33; Deuteronomy 28:64. The rejection, therefore, and expulsion of the Jews from Canaan, for their unbelief, being a fulfilling of the threatenings of the covenant, established the faithfulness of God, instead of destroying it. As it is written, Psalm 51:4, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings — En toiv logoiv sou in thy words; and mightest overcome — Be pronounced holy and just, and clear of all imputation of unrighteousness; when thou art judged — When any presume insolently to arraign the equity of thy conduct, or, when thy proceedings are narrowly examined by right reason. The original expression, however, en tw krinesqai se, it seems, should rather be rendered, when thou judgest, a translation agreeable to the place whence the quotation is made. God’s words referred to, in which David justified God, or acknowledged him to be just, are those threatenings which Nathan, by God’s order, denounced against him, on account of his crimes of adultery and murder, 2 Samuel 12:9-12. And God judged, or punished David, when he executed these threatenings on him and his posterity; and David acknowledged God to be just, or clear, in doing this, by receiving the deserved punishment in humility, resignation, and meekness. And the apostle seems to have quoted David’s confession, that God’s punishing him in the manner threatened by Nathan, was no breach of the promises he had made to him and his posterity, because it showed the Jews that God’s promises, like his threatenings, were all conditional, and that, consistently with his promises to Abraham and to his seed, God might reject the Israelites, and drive them out of Canaan, they having forfeited their right to be accounted the seed of Abraham, the father of the faithful, by their infidelity; and the Gentiles, by imitating his faith, being now received for God’s children.

Ver. 3. What if some did not believe, si non fideles extiterunt quidam, did not continue faithful; for they all believed when passing through the sea, drinking of the rock, and eating the manna. Shall their inconstancy make God inconstant? Shall he revoke his promise to Abraham, and his oath to David? 2 Samuel 7:25. The promise to Abraham stands, though the rebels died; the oath to David is sure, though the sword departed not from his house. Covenants with men are futile, but with Christ they are sure. On this head, Paul, in a masterly style, quotes David’s own words, which are brilliantly expressed by the LXX: “That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and overcome when thou art judged.” Psalm 51:4. God is true; it is men who fluctuate and lie. St. Paul read the sacred text with enlightened regards; he sees Christ, and glory, and truth, in passages which we pass over as words of ordinary import.

3. For—The apostle answers the secret objection which might arise in thought, that Christianity makes the gift of those oracles in reality a failure, and so invalidates the advantage of the Jew. He admits that on the human side there was a failure through unbelief; but that proves no failure on God’s part, and so no depreciation of the advantage. Man’s failures may defeat the gracious dispensations of God, but do not disprove nor diminish their original divine graciousness. Some—Alas! the great majority is to be included in this, the apostle’s gentle some. Did not believe—The past unbelief of the Jewish people is, most delicately, alone specified; but the total rejection by the Jews and of the Jews was included by terrible implication. Unbelief… faith—Man’s faithlessness and God’s faithfulness are here set in contrast. Both faiths were pledged in the Abrahamic covenant; man’s was broker and God’s maintained. Without effect?—And so prove the oracles of God to be a vain gift? The full advantage of the Jew as a beneficence from God stands therefore unimpeached by his wilful forfeiture of it. Be it noted that whether God’s side of the covenant was hereby broken is the question more fully discussed in Romans 9:6-14. And this passage conclusively proves that the exclusion of the rejected side in Romans 9:6-14, was based not on the “Divine Sovereignty,” but on their own unbelief.

Ver. 3. Questions confirming the above proof of the advantage of being a Jew, by calling out and overturning an objection. This objection breaks off the list of advantages Paul was beginning to give.

Had-no-faith: in Christ and the Gospel. For this was all-important in Paul’s day for determining a Jew’s relation to God.

If some: how large a proportion of the nation had no faith in Christ, the readers knew well. But the unbelievers were at most only a part of the nation.

Faith (or faithfulness) of God: not reliance upon God, as in Mark 11:22 (cp. Galatians 2:16, 20); but that stability and constancy of God on which His servants rely in sure confidence that He will fulfil His promises. For the verse following proves that an attribute of God is in question. See note under Romans 4:25.

Make-of-no-effect: to make inoperative and without result: same word in Romans 3:31; 4:14; 6:6; 7:2, 6, and very often with Paul. If God do not fulfil His promises, His own faithfulness will go for nothing. The ancient oracles were designed to prepare a way for, and to lead men to, Christ and the Gospel. But the mass of the nation had rejected Him and disbelieved the good news. And it might be thought that God will refuse to fulfil promises, e.g. Jeremiah 31:31ff and Ezekiel 36:25ff, which to so many had failed of their purpose. If so, the oracles have lost their value, and possession of them is no longer an advantage to the Jew. But Paul’s question reminds us that in the promises the faithfulness of God is pledged, and that to suppose that they will fail is to suppose that man’s want of faith will make God unfaithful. Cp. 2 Timothy 2:13.

Verse 3. For what if some did not believe? &c. — Commentators have here greatly perplexed the apostle’s course of observation, for want of holding this and the following verses close to the context. The apostle had stated, in answer to the objection, that, although the sinning Jews should perish notwithstanding their advantages, yet the advantages were great, and chiefly as to their possessing the oracles of God. Now he goes on to state that, though some did not believe these oracles, had not that genuine faith in their warnings and threatenings, nor, indeed, in their spiritual promises, which is necessary to put men in possession of the saving and renewing influence of the word of Divine truth; yet their unbelief did not affect the faithfulness of God, This use of the term faith is quite in the manner of St. Paul, who, speaking of the ancient Jews, says that “the Gospel,” the good news, “preached to them, did not profit them, not being mixed with FAITH in them that heard it,” Hebrews 4:2; and they therefore perished. It is their practical unbelief, and their want of practical faith, here as well as there, of which he speaks. But he then asks, by way of rendering the negative more emphatic, Shall their unbelief make the faith, the faithfulness, of God without effect? shall it abolish or destroy God’s faithfulness to his own oracles, who promises life only to the penitent, the believing, and the holy, and threatens sure vengeance against persevering and obstinate sinners of any class? That the execution of the threatenings of the oracles of God is here referred to, as the object of the Divine faithfulness of which the text speaks, is manifest from what follows; for of the next verse no consistent sense can be made, if the faithfulness of God be confined to the promises alone, and those especially which relate to the seed of Abraham, which is the view usually taken.

V. 4. Psalm 2:4.

Verse 4. APOSTLE. God forbid] mh genoito, Let it not be, far from it, by no means. Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar, &c. We must ever maintain that God is true, and that if, in any case, his promise appear to fail, it is because the condition on which it was given has not been complied with; which is the sense of what is written, Psalm 51:4: I acknowledge my sin, and condemn myself that the truth of thy promise (2 Samuel 7:15, 16) to establish my house and throne for ever, may be vindicated when thou shalt execute that dreadful threatening, (2 Samuel 12:10,) that the sword shall never depart from my house, which I own I have brought upon myself by my own iniquity. Should any man say that the promise of God had failed toward him, let him examine his heart and his ways, and he will find that he has departed out of that way in which alone God could, consistently with his holiness and truth, fulfil the promise.

Verses 3, 4. For what if some — And they a considerable number, of those who once possessed these invaluable treasures; did not believe — Them, or did not duly consider what they speculatively believed, and so rejected the gospel to which they were intended to lead; shall their unbelief make without effect — Shall it disannul; the faith of God — His faithful promises made to Abraham and his seed, especially of sending the Messiah, and of effecting our redemption by him? Shall it destroy his fidelity to his promises, and prevent his fulfilling them to them that do believe? God, having promised to give to Abraham and his seed the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and to be their God, the Jews affirmed that if they were cast off from being his people, and driven out of Canaan for not believing on Jesus, the faithfulness of God in performing his promises would be destroyed. Probably the apostles, in their discourses to the Jews, had, if not expressly affirmed, yet obscurely intimated, that for crucifying Jesus they would be punished in that manner. God forbid — That we should insinuate any thing that can be justly considered as derogatory to God’s faithfulness: yea, let God be true — Let the blessed God be acknowledged true to his covenant and his promises, though every man should be esteemed a liar, and unfit to have any confidence reposed in him; or, though every Jew should disbelieve, and be cast off on that account. To understand this more fully, we must recollect, that the performance of the promises to the natural seed of Abraham, is, in the original covenant, tacitly made to depend on their faith and obedience, Genesis 18:19, and that it is explicitly made to depend on that condition in the renewal of the covenant, Deuteronomy 28:1-14. Besides, on that occasion, God expressly threatened to expel the natural seed from Canaan, and scatter them among the heathen, if they became unbelieving and disobedient, Leviticus 26:33; Deuteronomy 28:64. The rejection, therefore, and expulsion of the Jews from Canaan, for their unbelief, being a fulfilling of the threatenings of the covenant, established the faithfulness of God, instead of destroying it. As it is written, Psalm 51:4, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings — En toiv logoiv sou in thy words; and mightest overcome — Be pronounced holy and just, and clear of all imputation of unrighteousness; when thou art judged — When any presume insolently to arraign the equity of thy conduct, or, when thy proceedings are narrowly examined by right reason. The original expression, however, en tw krinesqai se, it seems, should rather be rendered, when thou judgest, a translation agreeable to the place whence the quotation is made. God’s words referred to, in which David justified God, or acknowledged him to be just, are those threatenings which Nathan, by God’s order, denounced against him, on account of his crimes of adultery and murder, 2 Samuel 12:9-12. And God judged, or punished David, when he executed these threatenings on him and his posterity; and David acknowledged God to be just, or clear, in doing this, by receiving the deserved punishment in humility, resignation, and meekness. And the apostle seems to have quoted David’s confession, that God’s punishing him in the manner threatened by Nathan, was no breach of the promises he had made to him and his posterity, because it showed the Jews that God’s promises, like his threatenings, were all conditional, and that, consistently with his promises to Abraham and to his seed, God might reject the Israelites, and drive them out of Canaan, they having forfeited their right to be accounted the seed of Abraham, the father of the faithful, by their infidelity; and the Gentiles, by imitating his faith, being now received for God’s children.

4. God forbid—Literally, It may not be so. It is not a permissible thing. The divine name is not used in the apostle’s Greek phrase, but a divine impossibility of the thing is powerfully implied in thought. God be true— The apostle here assumes two things: First, that falsehood in God would be infinitely wrong. But, second, God is surely infinitely right, and therefore falsehood or unfaithfulness must by no manner of means be admitted of God. The apostle’s ground is not that whatever a God is supposed to do (as, for instance, commit falsehood) is right because He does it; but, it is not to be admitted that the true God—the God we have— will commit that wrong. The apostle does not reason that because God is absolute sovereign therefore any thing supposably done by him is made right thereby. His argument is, that God is right and holy because of all possible courses he takes, not those courses which are unholy, but just the one that is holy; and of all possible doings, He ever does and will do not that which is unrighteous, but solely and truly that which is righteous. It is one of the moral perfections of God—nay, the sum of all his moral perfections—that He holds himself infinitely bound to all the obligations of truth, justice, and holiness, far above what man can conceive. Hence the wisdom of our perfect trust in Him, and of our feeling that perfect self-commitment to Him is a perfect self-commitment to all goodness. True… liar—Terms used in regard to fidelity or unfaithfulness to the covenant. By let be the apostle means let it be assumed as primarily true. Written—David had transgressed against the divine covenant in the murder of Uriah. Instead of justifying himself in his unfaithfulness he proclaims himself the sinner, (Psalm 51:7,) and justifies God in inflicting evil upon himself. Thou art judged—The Divine Being (reverently be it spoken) does more than once place himself and his administration before the tribunal of man’s moral sense in order to have its rectitude tested. He allows even Abraham to assume that certain courses would not be right in the Judge of all the earth. (Genesis 18:25.) But as it became David, their sinful type, so it became the apostate Jews, to assume that in the matter of the failure of the Jewish dispensation, when justice made up its verdict, God would be found the faithful and man the traitor. To “reply against God,” therefore, (Romans 9:20,) is not (with the Arminian) to assume that a course cannot be pursued by God because it would be a wrong course; it is (as the Calvinist) to assume the wrong course to be the real one, and either to reproach God with it, or to defend God by maintaining that wrong is right, and thus pervert the very foundations of all rectitude.

(d.) Nor does God’s glory derived from overruling man’s sin excuse the Jewish any more than the Gentile sinner, Romans 3:5-8.

Ver. 4. An emphatic negative answer to the foregoing question, confirmed by a quotation from the Old Testament.

God is true in that His words always correspond with reality. See under Romans 1:18. If he were unfaithful, he would be untrue. For He foresees whatever He will do. When He spoke the promises, He foresaw Israel’s unbelief and His own conduct in reference to it. Consequently, to give promises which He foresaw that He would not fulfil, would be deliberate falsehood. And this we cannot conceive. Rather let us say that God is true, and therefore faithful, in His treatment of a race of which every man is guilty of falsehood. The objection is answered. Every believing Jew can claim fulfilment of the promises old and new, even though the mass of the nation has rejected Him in whom the promises were to be fulfilled. Therefore the unbelief of others does not destroy the benefit of being born in a land where the promises are known.

According as it is written: as in Romans 1:17. What Paul has just deduced from the character of God is in harmony with the ancient Scriptures. Paul quotes, word for word, LXX. Psalm 51:4. Justified: looked upon, declared to be, and treated as, righteous: see note under Romans 3:26.

In Thy words: the matter in which God submits Himself to the judgment of men.

Mayest overcome: as when a man gains his suit in a court of law. Comest into judgment: by submitting his conduct and words to the judgment of men. The Psalmist confesses his own sin, “Against Thee only I have sinned, and that which is evil before Thee I have done;” in order that, in condemning that sin, God’s words may be seen to be just and He may receive at the bar of man’s moral sense a verdict of approval. This implies the justice of God’s condemnation of sinners even in Israel. The exact rendering of the Hebrew is, “In order that Thou mayest be righteous when Thou speakest, be pure when thou judgest.” But the common Greek rendering was sufficiently accurate for Paul’s purpose. For the words righteous and pure denote evidently righteousness and purity in the eyes of men: and the whole passage implies that God seeks, even when pronouncing judgment, the approval of men. If so, He may be said to come into judgment and to be justified.

Paul has now guarded against serious perversion his teaching in Romans 2:28, 29. Some might infer from it that he looked upon the outward distinctions of the Jew as worthless, and denied the divine origin of the covenant which created them. To Jews, this would be a serious objection to his teaching, and a weapon with which they would oppose it: and on the other hand it might lead those who accepted it to underrate the earlier dispensation. Paul guards against this double danger by declaring the great advantage of the Jews, and by quoting as the chief of them their possession of the records of the historic revelations of God to Israel. And he proves that the worth of these records is not lessened by the unbelief of so many of those to whom for the world’s good they were entrusted. For, in the promises, God’s character is involved: and this cannot be set aside by man’s unfaithfulness.

Notice here and throughout the epistle Paul’s carefulness to defend at every point the divine origin of the Old Covenant.

The great lesson of Romans 3:3, 4 is that God’s character is a pledge that, whatever man may do, He will fulfil His promises on the conditions therein expressed. It is easy to apply this to ourselves. As we come to claim the promises of God, we remember that these promises have been by us again and again neglected and doubted and disbelieved; and that at this moment they are set at nought by the mass of mankind. Dare we expect that God will fulfil promises so frequently trampled under foot? Yes: He will fulfil them even to the letter. For our unbelief cannot make Him unfaithful. The inseparable connection of His character and His words is proof that every promise will be fulfilled. And, if so, the promises, however neglected, are of inestimable value to those who possess them. Under them lies, and in them we take hold of, the faithfulness of God. A tradition embodied, both in the Hebrew text and in the LXX., in the superscription to Psa. 51 attributes it to David as an expression of his deep penitence after Nathan’s rebuke ( 2 Samuel 12:7) of his sin with Bathsheba. And we notice that, in spite of this terrible sin, which was severely punished, God fulfilled His covenanted promise to David recorded in 2 Samuel 7:4-17. No better example could be found of the faithfulness of God in spite of the unfaithfulness of man.

Verse 4. God forbid, &c. — This negation contains a strong implied assertion of the contrary. Whatever becomes of the opinions and theories of men, this is a first principle, that THE TRUTH OF GOD must be acknowledged, and that both in his threatenings as well as promises, which was the point the Jews denied. As to the Gentiles, indeed, God’s threatenings against sin might be interpreted strictly; but not as to the Jews, the seed of Abraham, the friend of God. Hence the force of the quotation from Psalm 51:4, where David acknowledges the justice of God with regard to the punishment denounced against him and his posterity by the Prophet Nathan, in consequence of his adultery and murder: “That thou mightest be justified in thy sentence, and be clearly right in every judicial act.” David was indeed a man in special relation to God; yet his sins were visited with severity; and when he confesses those offences in this penitential psalm, and reviews the sentence which his Judge had pronounced against him and his house, he justifies it, and acknowledges that in that, as well as in every other case, such was the essential righteousness of God, that he must be justified in his sayings, or sentences; and should any question them, that he would, by the strong demonstration of the equity of all his proceedings, overcome when judged. It was to these views, and this humble temper of David, that St. Paul wished to bring the Jews, that they might “acknowledge their sin,” and ascribe righteousness to God who had placed them under condemnation as sinners. The apostle and the LXX. translate the Hebrew word which we render “mayest be clear,” by nikhshv, “mayest overcome,” which is the same in sense; for he who is cleared when accused overcomes his accuser, and carries his cause.

V. 5. But, it may be farther objected, if our unrighteousness be subservient to God's glory, is it not unjust in him to punish us for it? I speak as a man-As human weakness would be apt to speak.

Verse 5. JEW. But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God] May we not suppose that our unrighteousness may serve to commend and illustrate the mercy of God in keeping and fulfilling to us the promise which he made to our forefathers? The more wicked we are, the more his faithfulness to his ancient promise is to be admired. And if so, would not God appear unjust in taking vengeance and casting us off? I speak as a man] I feel for the situation both of myself and my countrymen, and it is natural for one to speak as I do.

Verses 5, 6. But — It may be further objected; if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God — Be subservient to God’s glory; or, if our infidelity be so far from making void the faithfulness of God, that it renders it more illustrious, then we ought not to be condemned for it. But Dr. Whitby understands, by the righteousness of God, the righteousness of faith, which indeed is generally the meaning of the phrase in this epistle; and, as in the first chapter the necessity of this faith is shown with respect to the Gentiles, because otherwise they, being unrighteous, could not be justified before God, or escape his wrath revealed against all unrighteousness; and in the second chapter the same is proved respecting the Jews by reason of their unrighteousness, which arguments plainly serve to commend and establish this way of righteousness by faith in Christ, from the necessity of it to the justification both of Jews and Gentiles; he therefore considers the import of the objection to be, “If the unrighteousness both of Jews and Gentiles tend so visibly to illustrate and recommend the wisdom and grace of God, in appointing this way of justification by faith in Christ, is it righteous in God to punish both Jews and Gentiles, as you say he has done and will do, for that unrighteousness that tends so highly to advance the glory of divine grace displayed in the gospel?” What shall we say — What inference shall we draw? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance — Must we grant that God acts unjustly in punishing those practices which so illustrate his mercy, faithfulness, and other perfections? I speak as a man — As a mere natural man, not acquainted with the revealed will of God, or not influenced by his Spirit; or as human weakness would be apt to speak. God forbid — That I should harbour such a thought, or allow such a consequence; for then — If it were unjust in him to punish that unrighteousness which is subservient to his own glory, how should God judge the world — Since all the unrighteousness in the world will then commend the righteousness of God. Add to this, the very idea of God’s judging the world, implies that it shall be done in righteousness. For if any person were to have injustice done him on that occasion, it would not be judgment, but a capricious exercise of power, whereby the Judge would be dishonoured. On this idea is founded the answer which Abraham made to God, respecting the destruction of Sodom, which answer perhaps the apostle had now in his eye, Genesis 18:25; Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

Ver. 5. But if our unrighteousness commend, or as Tyndal reads, make the righteousness of God more excellent, by introducing plenary pardon to sinners, and all the righteousness promised in the new covenant, — is not God unrighteous in being so indulgent to you christians, and so inexorable in condemning us jews, because we do not believe your gospel? God forbid. The rest of the discourse is a reply to this objection, and in fact, a full defence of the doctrines of grace developed in the gospel.

5. Commend the righteousness of God—The Jew now makes a bold turn. He admits himself the sinner and God the righteous. But how excellent a thing has his sin accomplished! It has set God’s rectitude in a clearer light! How righteous, then, is the Jew whose very sins glorify God! What shall we say?—How can we condemn the Jew? The apostle answers this question by retorting another. God does nevertheless take vengeance; does he so unrighteously? There is, then, a fair issue between God and the Jew. Is God unrighteous? Not only does St. Paul over and over raise the question whether there is unrighteousness with God, but the whole book of Romans is an argument to show that God’s course with the Jews is the right one; under the assumption that there are other courses which it would be wrong for God to pursue, and which he does not pursue just because they are wrong. That is, a course is not right because God pursues it, but God pursues it because it is right. The righteousness of God appears in this, that from eternity to eternity he does, with a most divine freedom, choose and determine not for the wrong, but for the right, the holy, and the best. (See our work on “The Will,” page 316.) And the apostle assumes this fundamental rightness in God as a first principle in no way to be contradicted. The predestinarian must not, therefore, grimly argue, “God has a right to do what he pleases with his creatures, even decree their sin and then damn them for it.” God has, indeed, a right to do what he pleases with his creatures, just because he, in fact, pleases to do perfectly right. Were there a God over the universe who pleased to do wrong, such a God would have no right to do as he pleases. But to say that the creature cannot be imagined to receive a treatment which would be unjust even from its Creator reverses all true idea of justice; and in fact by saying that injustice would be justice annihilates the very idea of justice. We are bound to assume, with the apostle, that such a course must not be attributed to God, because it would be infinitely wrong, and God is infinitely right. Speak as a man—In entertaining the question of the divine rectitude, I do for a moment speak of God as men speak of each other. The sentence is an apologetic parenthesis for the apparent irreverence.

Verse 5. Two questions, in which the readers are supposed to join. They introduce, by way of inference from Romans 3:4, an objection. Unrighteousness: including the unbelief of most of the Jews, the falsehood of all men, and David’s sin.

God’s righteousness: that God is righteous, as in Romans 3:25, 26. This meaning, different from that in Romans 3:21, 22; 1:17, is determined by the question,

Is God unrighteous? and by the word justified in Romans 3:4. It is the agreement between God’s treatment of men and the principles underlying the Law. Men behold and declare this agreement, and thus justify God. We often observe that, as in the case of David, man’s sin gives occasion for a manifestation of God’s strict justice. Paul asks, What shall we infer from this? Shall we say, because

our unrighteousness gives-proof-of God’s righteousness, that God is unrighteous when He inflicts His anger, i.e. when he punishes men for their sin? These questions expose a covert attack on the teaching of Rom 2, viz. that to punish sin is unjust, because the punishment reveals the uprightness of God.

As a man: asking a foolish question.

Verses 5, 6. But if our unrighteousness, &c. — Still in order to attain clear views of these passages, which have been by most commentators so greatly obscured, the scope of the discourse must be strictly kept in mind. These words are not, as many suppose, a new objection; but are to be joined with the preceding verse, the argument of which, indeed, they continue. This is indicated by their not being introduced by the particle gar, which marks the other transitions. The apostle having quoted the preceding passage from Psalm li, continues his own observations, but not in the person of the objecting Jews: But if it be so, that the judgments of God are so righteous as not to be called in question, and our unrighteousness thus commends, proves, and demonstrates, sunisthsi, the righteousness, or justice of God, what shall we say? meaning, what can we say? We ought to be silent, and, like David, in the passage quoted, confess the unquestionable rectitude of the decision. We must either acknowledge that, or else we must blasphemously deny it, and affirm that God is unrighteous. Is God then unrighteous who taketh vengeance on the wicked Jews? I speak as a man: I put the case hypothetically in the language of wicked men, prone to throw the blame from themselves, and to challenge the justice of God; but this no Jew can affirm. He cannot say that God is unrighteous in taking vengeance on sinners; because he acknowledges that the Gentiles at least will be condemned; and if wicked Jews were to be screened, though guilty of the same crimes, how then shall God judge the world, the whole world of Jews and Gentiles? that is, how shall he do this righteously and according to his own character of truth, if he show so gross a partiality and respect of persons?

V. 6. God forbid-By no means. If it were unjust in God to punish that unrighteousness which is subservient to his own glory, how should God judge the world-Since all the unrighteousness in the world will then commend the righteousness of God.

Verse 6. APOSTLE. God forbid] mh genoito, by no means. God cannot be unjust; were he unjust, he could not be qualified to judge the world, nor inflict that punishment on the unfaithful Jews, to which I refer.

Verses 5, 6. But — It may be further objected; if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God — Be subservient to God’s glory; or, if our infidelity be so far from making void the faithfulness of God, that it renders it more illustrious, then we ought not to be condemned for it. But Dr. Whitby understands, by the righteousness of God, the righteousness of faith, which indeed is generally the meaning of the phrase in this epistle; and, as in the first chapter the necessity of this faith is shown with respect to the Gentiles, because otherwise they, being unrighteous, could not be justified before God, or escape his wrath revealed against all unrighteousness; and in the second chapter the same is proved respecting the Jews by reason of their unrighteousness, which arguments plainly serve to commend and establish this way of righteousness by faith in Christ, from the necessity of it to the justification both of Jews and Gentiles; he therefore considers the import of the objection to be, “If the unrighteousness both of Jews and Gentiles tend so visibly to illustrate and recommend the wisdom and grace of God, in appointing this way of justification by faith in Christ, is it righteous in God to punish both Jews and Gentiles, as you say he has done and will do, for that unrighteousness that tends so highly to advance the glory of divine grace displayed in the gospel?” What shall we say — What inference shall we draw? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance — Must we grant that God acts unjustly in punishing those practices which so illustrate his mercy, faithfulness, and other perfections? I speak as a man — As a mere natural man, not acquainted with the revealed will of God, or not influenced by his Spirit; or as human weakness would be apt to speak. God forbid — That I should harbour such a thought, or allow such a consequence; for then — If it were unjust in him to punish that unrighteousness which is subservient to his own glory, how should God judge the world — Since all the unrighteousness in the world will then commend the righteousness of God. Add to this, the very idea of God’s judging the world, implies that it shall be done in righteousness. For if any person were to have injustice done him on that occasion, it would not be judgment, but a capricious exercise of power, whereby the Judge would be dishonoured. On this idea is founded the answer which Abraham made to God, respecting the destruction of Sodom, which answer perhaps the apostle had now in his eye, Genesis 18:25; Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

6. How… judge the world?—For this plea, by which the Jew makes himself so righteous a sinner, cannot be monopolized by the Jew alone. If his sin is made righteousness by the fact that it brings the righteousness of God into powerful relief by the contrast, then all sin performs the same office, and all sin is then righteous, and God can condemn no sinner in the world.

There are those who argue that sin is for the best good of the universe. They thus make sin a sort of good, a dark-bright thing. They might better say that the permission of free agency and the allowance of the free agent, by whom sin is able to be committed, is for the best good of the system of the world.

The apostle, however, does not entertain the metaphysical question. It is sufficient for him to remind the Jew that as to the excellence and uncondemnability of his sin he stands just on the same footing with the rest of the world. If God judge the world for sin he will judge the Jew.

Ver. 6.-8. An absolute denial, supported by two other questions. The principle underlying the questions of Romans 3:5 would make it impossible for

God to judge the world, and would justify an immoral maxim.

Verses 5, 6. But if our unrighteousness, &c. — Still in order to attain clear views of these passages, which have been by most commentators so greatly obscured, the scope of the discourse must be strictly kept in mind. These words are not, as many suppose, a new objection; but are to be joined with the preceding verse, the argument of which, indeed, they continue. This is indicated by their not being introduced by the particle gar, which marks the other transitions. The apostle having quoted the preceding passage from Psalm li, continues his own observations, but not in the person of the objecting Jews: But if it be so, that the judgments of God are so righteous as not to be called in question, and our unrighteousness thus commends, proves, and demonstrates, sunisthsi, the righteousness, or justice of God, what shall we say? meaning, what can we say? We ought to be silent, and, like David, in the passage quoted, confess the unquestionable rectitude of the decision. We must either acknowledge that, or else we must blasphemously deny it, and affirm that God is unrighteous. Is God then unrighteous who taketh vengeance on the wicked Jews? I speak as a man: I put the case hypothetically in the language of wicked men, prone to throw the blame from themselves, and to challenge the justice of God; but this no Jew can affirm. He cannot say that God is unrighteous in taking vengeance on sinners; because he acknowledges that the Gentiles at least will be condemned; and if wicked Jews were to be screened, though guilty of the same crimes, how then shall God judge the world, the whole world of Jews and Gentiles? that is, how shall he do this righteously and according to his own character of truth, if he show so gross a partiality and respect of persons?

V. 7. But, may the objector reply, if the truth of God hath abounded-Has been more abundantly shown.

Through my lie-If my lie, that is, practice contrary to truth, conduces to the glory of God, by making his truth shine with superior advantage. Why am I still judged as a sinner-Can this be said to be any sin at all? Ought I not to do what would otherwise be evil, that so much "good may come?" To this the apostle does not deign to give a direct answer, but cuts the objector short with a severe reproof.

Verse 7. JEW. For if the truth of God, &c.] But to resume my reasoning (Romans 3:5:) If the faithfulness of God in keeping his promise made to our fathers is, through our unfaithfulness, made far more glorious than it otherwise would have been, why should we then be blamed for that which must redound so much to the honour of God?

Verses 7, 8. For — Or but (the objector may reply) if the truth of God hath more abounded — Has been more abundantly shown; through my lie — If my lie, that is, practice contrary to truth, conduces to the glory of God, by making his truth shine with superior advantage; why am I yet judged as a sinner — And arraigned for that which is attended with such happy consequences? Can my conduct be said to be sinful at all? Ought I not to do what would otherwise be evil, that so much good may come? To this the apostle does not deign to give a direct answer, adding, whose damnation, or condemnation, is just. The condemnation of all, who either speak or act in this manner. Here the apostle teaches expressly the unlawfulness of doing evil, any evil, on the pretence of promoting what is good. Such a pretence, if allowed, would justify the greatest crimes. This, however, the apostle here signifies they were slanderously reported as teaching; probably on a misinterpretation of their doctrine, that the greatness of the sins of which the Gentiles were guilty, rendered God’s goodness in sending Christ to die for them the more illustrious.

7. For—The apostle now states in the first person singular what every man in the world might argue as well as the Jew. Truth… lie—Faithfulness or falseness to the divine covenant, or the divine law of right. All sin is lie. Judged—If clearly illustrating the divine righteousness transforms sin to holiness for the Jew, then it also makes every sinner to be no sinner, and makes it impossible for him to be judged.

Ver. 7. Following Tischendorf, and Westcott’s text, the R.V. reads but if, making Romans 3:7 an additional statement or a new argument. Lachmann and Tregelles read for if, making it expound or confirm the argument underlying Romans 3:6. This latter reading is given in the margins of Westcott and of the Revisers. The documentary evidence seems to me slightly to favour it. Moreover, the argument in Romans 3:6 needs exposition and support: and this it finds in Romans 3:7. This logical connection might easily be overlooked by a copyist; and the words but if might be suggested by the same words in Romans 3:5. Consequently, the slight change from for to but is more easily accounted for than the converse change. For these reasons, I prefer the reading in the Revisers’ margin, and take Romans 3:7 as expounding the argument underlying Romans 3:6.

My lie… I also: Paul appeals to his own case.

The truth of God: as in Romans 3:4.

Abound: work itself out into abundant results: so Romans 5:15; 15:13.

For His glory: so 2 Corinthians 4:15: direction and tendency of this abundant manifestation of God’s truthfulness, viz. to evoke man’s admiration of the moral grandeur of God. Paul declared in Romans 3:4 that God is truthful in His treatment and judgment of a race of liars. Therefore every lie, by bringing upon itself the foretold punishment, will give additional proof of God’s veracity and thus more abundantly reveal His moral greatness. And if so, every man in the world may claim immunity from punishment. Every Jew and Gentile may come before the judgment-seat and say,

Why am I also judged as a sinner? Even Paul himself, if all that his enemies said about him were true, could say this. Admit once this principle, and God cannot judge the world. Notice how the language and tone of this verse differ from the coldness of Western thought and speech. Paul meets a man who claims immunity from punishment because his sin brings glory to God; and at once puts himself by the man’s side and says that he also and everyone else may claim the same immunity.

Verses 7, 8. For if the truth of God, &c. — This is a new and distinct objection. If the Jews could no longer urge against, the arguments of the apostle, that the mere possession of superior privileges would exempt them from the punishment due to their offences, still their zeal to make the true God known, and to promote his glory and worship, might plead for them. The fact could not be denied: whatever might have been the conduct of the earlier Jews, who were given much to idolatry, those who after the captivity were spread through the Greek and Latin cities maintained generally the worship of God, and were zealous to make proselytes from the heathen. This was reckoned an act of great merit; and though they were not solicitous to make the proselytes better men, yet if they brought them to acknowledge and worship the true God, this was their boast. They were indeed so urgent in this respect, that it is referred to by Horace, as proverbial. Our Lord, when he speaks of the Pharisees “compassing sea and land,” that is, using all sorts of means, “to make one proselyte,” intimates that they were not very scrupulous as to the arts they employed; and here the truth of God is said to have abounded expressly through their lie, yeusma, deceit of any kind. This truth of God is truth respecting God, which was proposed to the belief of the Gentile proselytes; and the abounding of this truth cannot easily be referred to any thing but to the gathering of proselytes from their heathen neighbours. That they often, at least, thus promoted the glory of God by deceit and falsehood, they did not affect to deny; but seem to have grounded upon it an argument against St. Paul’s severe doctrine, — the doctrine he had preached previously in many places, and therefore well knew how his countrymen wrestled with it, — that the sins of Jews as well as of others placed them in a state of damnation. How, said they, can that be, since we all acknowledge that, though we often make proselytes by means not perfectly justifiable, yet it is a most meritorious act, and causes the truth of God to abound to his glory? Such sins, therefore, they said, will not be punished; and this would be set up as a refutation of the apostle’s doctrine. If the truth of God is made known, if Gentiles are brought to worship and glorify him, why yet am I judged, condemned by you, as a sinner? To this the apostle subjoins two answers. The first is drawn from a slander thrown by these very Jews and others upon the apostles as Christians, that they did evil that good might come; but if they condemned this in Christians, though the charge was false, how then could they justify it in themselves? The second answer is apostolic and authoritative, but founded upon the whole tenor of both the Jewish and Christian revelations, — that the final condemnation of persons who acted upon this detestable maxim would be JUST, since it is the first duty of every individual to avoid all sin, and the pretence of promoting some good thereby would sanction the greatest crimes.

The sense of this passage is plain, the construction not so obvious. Bloomfield includes oti within the parenthesis, and observes, “The sense then will be, And why, (kai being adjective for kaitoi,) at this rate, may not we, as we are slanderously reported to do, and some say we maintain, do evil that good may come!’

V. 8. Whose condemnation is just-The condemnation of all who either speak or act in this manner. So the apostle absolutely denies the lawfulness of doing evil, any evil, that good may come.

Verse 8. APOSTLE. And not rather, &c.] And why do you not say, seeing you assume this ground, that in all cases we should do wickedly, because God, by freely pardoning, can so glorify his own grace? This is a most impious sentiment, but it follows from your reasoning; it has, indeed, been most injuriously laid to the charge of us apostles, who preach the doctrine of free pardon, through faith, without the merit of works; but this is so manifest a perversion of the truth that a just punishment may be expected to fall on the propagators of such a slander.

Verses 7, 8. For — Or but (the objector may reply) if the truth of God hath more abounded — Has been more abundantly shown; through my lie — If my lie, that is, practice contrary to truth, conduces to the glory of God, by making his truth shine with superior advantage; why am I yet judged as a sinner — And arraigned for that which is attended with such happy consequences? Can my conduct be said to be sinful at all? Ought I not to do what would otherwise be evil, that so much good may come? To this the apostle does not deign to give a direct answer, adding, whose damnation, or condemnation, is just. The condemnation of all, who either speak or act in this manner. Here the apostle teaches expressly the unlawfulness of doing evil, any evil, on the pretence of promoting what is good. Such a pretence, if allowed, would justify the greatest crimes. This, however, the apostle here signifies they were slanderously reported as teaching; probably on a misinterpretation of their doctrine, that the greatness of the sins of which the Gentiles were guilty, rendered God’s goodness in sending Christ to die for them the more illustrious.

Ver. 8. Let us do evil, that good may come. To this slander of the jews he replies at large in chap. 6. On Psalm 14. other replies occur.

8. And not rather—Before the words of this verse the apostle’s mind thinks a clause like this: And both my God forbid, (verse 6,) and my earnest reasoning against this fearful fallacy, are rather the true view—and not rather what would strictly follow) the heinous view that evil must be done to secure a good result. Slanderously reported—In the great discussions raised by the new Christianity, both with Judaism and paganism, there would be colour for this slander. Each might claim that for itself to be destroyed through great strife and commotion, in order that Christianity might be established, was doing evil that good may come. For children to differ from the religion of their parents, or subjects to differ from the religion of the State, in order even to be holy, could be slandered as doing evil in order to good. So the apostle rejects the maxim when charged on the doctrines of Christianity, (Romans 6:1.) For anti-Christians, see note on Acts 28:22. Whose damnation—Later commentators hold that it is the damnation of the holders of this wicked doctrine, and not of the slanderers, which is pronounced just. (e.) And so the Jews are no better than the Gentiles, their own Old Testament being witness—CONCLUSION, ALL, UNDER LAW, CONDEMNED,

Romans 3:9-20.

Ver. 8. Another disproof of the principle underlying the question in Romans 3:5.

Evil-spoken-of: blasphemed, as in Romans 2:24. We: probably Paul and other Christian teachers. Some spoke evil of Paul and his companions by saying that they taught men to

do bad things in order that good results might follow. Without discussing the truth of this charge, Paul makes use of a correct principle underlying it. The actions which it is unjust to punish it must be just to perform. If the end justifies the means, a man cannot be blamed who deliberately does wrong in order to bring about a good result. But this is what Paul’s enemies bring as a charge against him. By so doing, they admit that the principle involved is wrong: and if so, the question in Romans 3:5b must be answered, as Paul has answered it, in the negative. Whose judgment: the sentence pronounced by God on those who assert the principle attributed to Paul, a principle which he agrees with his opponents in condemning.

Verses 7, 8. For if the truth of God, &c. — This is a new and distinct objection. If the Jews could no longer urge against, the arguments of the apostle, that the mere possession of superior privileges would exempt them from the punishment due to their offences, still their zeal to make the true God known, and to promote his glory and worship, might plead for them. The fact could not be denied: whatever might have been the conduct of the earlier Jews, who were given much to idolatry, those who after the captivity were spread through the Greek and Latin cities maintained generally the worship of God, and were zealous to make proselytes from the heathen. This was reckoned an act of great merit; and though they were not solicitous to make the proselytes better men, yet if they brought them to acknowledge and worship the true God, this was their boast. They were indeed so urgent in this respect, that it is referred to by Horace, as proverbial. Our Lord, when he speaks of the Pharisees “compassing sea and land,” that is, using all sorts of means, “to make one proselyte,” intimates that they were not very scrupulous as to the arts they employed; and here the truth of God is said to have abounded expressly through their lie, yeusma, deceit of any kind. This truth of God is truth respecting God, which was proposed to the belief of the Gentile proselytes; and the abounding of this truth cannot easily be referred to any thing but to the gathering of proselytes from their heathen neighbours. That they often, at least, thus promoted the glory of God by deceit and falsehood, they did not affect to deny; but seem to have grounded upon it an argument against St. Paul’s severe doctrine, — the doctrine he had preached previously in many places, and therefore well knew how his countrymen wrestled with it, — that the sins of Jews as well as of others placed them in a state of damnation. How, said they, can that be, since we all acknowledge that, though we often make proselytes by means not perfectly justifiable, yet it is a most meritorious act, and causes the truth of God to abound to his glory? Such sins, therefore, they said, will not be punished; and this would be set up as a refutation of the apostle’s doctrine. If the truth of God is made known, if Gentiles are brought to worship and glorify him, why yet am I judged, condemned by you, as a sinner? To this the apostle subjoins two answers. The first is drawn from a slander thrown by these very Jews and others upon the apostles as Christians, that they did evil that good might come; but if they condemned this in Christians, though the charge was false, how then could they justify it in themselves? The second answer is apostolic and authoritative, but founded upon the whole tenor of both the Jewish and Christian revelations, — that the final condemnation of persons who acted upon this detestable maxim would be JUST, since it is the first duty of every individual to avoid all sin, and the pretence of promoting some good thereby would sanction the greatest crimes.

The sense of this passage is plain, the construction not so obvious. Bloomfield includes oti within the parenthesis, and observes, “The sense then will be, And why, (kai being adjective for kaitoi,) at this rate, may not we, as we are slanderously reported to do, and some say we maintain, do evil that good may come!’

V. 9. What then-Here he resumes what he said, Romans 3:1. Under sin-Under the guilt and power of it: the Jews, by transgressing the written law; the Gentiles, by transgressing the law of nature.

Verse 9. JEW. What then?] After all, have not we Jews a better claim to the privileges of the kingdom of God than the Gentiles have? APOSTLE. No, in no wise] For I have already proved that both Jews and Gentiles are under the guilt of sin; that they are equally unworthy of the blessings of the Messiah’s kingdom; and that they must both, equally, owe their salvation to the mere mercy of God. From this, to the end of the 26th verse, the apostle proceeds to prove his assertion, that both Jews and Gentiles were all under sin; and, that he might enforce the conviction upon the heart of the Jew, he quotes his own Scriptures, which he acknowledged had been given by the inspiration of GOD, and consequently true.

Verses 9-18. What then — Well then, (may a Jew further urge,) since you grant that the Jews have the advantage of the Gentiles in point of privileges, having the oracles of God, the promises which he will never fail to observe, and the principles of righteousness which he will never himself violate in his conduct, are we not in a better condition for obtaining justification by our own obedience to his law? No, in no wise — The apostle answers, that all are equal in that point, both Jews and Gentiles. For we have before proved — Namely, in the two former chapters; both Jews — By the breach of the written law; and Gentiles — By transgressing the law of nature; that they are all — Every one of them, without exception; under sin — Under the guilt and power of it: and so are equally excluded from the possibility of being justified by works. And therefore gospel righteousness, or justification by faith, is no less necessary for the one than for the other. As it is written — Here he proves further, concerning the Jews, that they were unrighteous before God, by testimonies taken from their own prophets concerning their universal corruption, and he rightly cites David and Isaiah, (see the margin,) though they spoke primarily of their own age, and expressed what manner of men God sees when he looks down from heaven, not what they become when renewed by his grace. There is none righteous — That lives exactly according to the rule of God’s law. This is the general proposition, the particulars follow; their dispositions and designs, verses 11, 12; their discourse, verses 13, 14; their actions, verses 16-18. There is none that understandeth — The things of God, till God, by giving them the spirit of wisdom and revelation, open the eyes of their understanding; there is none that seeketh after God — To know, worship, and serve him aright; to obtain his favour, recover his image, and enjoy communion with him; that is, till God, by his grace, incline them to seek after him. They are all gone out of the way — Namely, of truth into error, of righteousness into sin, of happiness into misery. They are together — One and all; become unprofitable — Unfit and unable to bring forth any good fruit, and to profit either themselves or others. There is none that doeth good — From a right principle, to a right end, by a right rule, and in a right spirit; or perfectly, according to the exact meaning of the law which they are under. Their throat is an open sepulchre — Noisome and dangerous as such; or, their speech is offensive, corrupt, and loathsome. Observe the progress of evil discourse; proceeding out of the heart, through the throat, tongue, lips, till the whole mouth is filled therewith. The poison of asps — Infectious, deadly, tale-bearing, evil-speaking, backbiting, slandering, is under (for honey is on) their lips. An asp is a venomous kind of serpent. Whose mouth is full of cursing — Against God; and bitterness — Provoking language against their neighbour: the most shocking profaneness mingles itself with that malignity of heart toward their fellow-creatures which breathes in every word. Their feet are swift — To run toward the places where they have appointed; to shed the blood — Of the innocent. Destruction — To others; and misery — As to themselves; are in their ways — In their desires and designs, their dispositions, words, and actions. And the way of peace — Which can only spring from righteousness; they have not known — By experience, nor regarded. And, to sum up all in one word, the great cause of all this depravity is, that there is no fear of God before their eyes — Much less is the love of God in their hearts: they have no sense of religion, to restrain them from the commission of these enormities.

9. What then?—The Jew now makes his last desperate effort. Are we Jews, then, any better at all than Gentiles? In advantages and benefits received (verses 1 and 2) the answer is yes; but as to character and position the apostle returns an inexorable No, in no wise. Proved—Rather, charged. He now proceeds to the proof of the charge by quoting, either verbally or according to sense, a number of the Old Testament passages, showing that Jews are charged on that conclusive authority with a guilt equal to any that can be ascribed to Gentilism. The quotations are from Psalms and Isaiah. (See references.) The passages describe with dark touches the depravity of unregenerate Judaism. And as the first chapter has described that of unregenerate Gentilism, so both together furnish the biblical picture of what man is, apart from divine grace.

Ver. 9. What then? how do matters stand? so Romans 6:15; 11:7. Are-we-shielding-ourselves? literally holding before ourselves, i.e. as an excuse. This plain grammatical meaning (R.V. marg.) of the word here used gives good sense, and is therefore better than the unintelligible R.V. text, are we in worse case than they? We have seen that the principle called in question in Romans 3:5, viz. that it is unjust of God to punish sins which give proof of His justice, involves two serious moral consequences, viz. that not even a liar could be condemned as a sinner, and that it would be right to do wrong in order that good may come. We must therefore either accept these consequences or deny the principle which involves them. Paul asks, Which alternative do we take? Is it our object to prove that there are no moral distinctions and will be no judgment? Are we, by stating this alternative, holding before ourselves a shield behind which we may escape punishment?

Not at all, or in every way not: absolute rejection of this side of the alternative. This rejection is proved by the foregoing argument in Romans 1:18-2:29:

for we have before-accused etc. Both Jews and Greeks, all: the latter in § 4, and the former in §§ 5-7.

Under sin: so Romans 7:14: looked upon as a crushing weight under which the sinner lies, or a power from whose grasp he cannot escape. Notice here an assertion, even more plain than Romans 2:1, that all men are sinners. This tremendous and universal charge is complete proof that the arguments in Romans 3:5-8 are not an excuse for sin. Romans 3:5-9 reveal Paul’s purpose in choosing for his proof-text Psalm 51:4. It suggests a truth which may be perverted into a last excuse for sin. David’s sin showed forth the sinlessness of God, and thus served a moral purpose: and all sin will eventually do the same. But is it not unjust for God to punish the sin of which He makes use to manifest His own glory and to accomplish His own purposes? Such a question is proof of human folly. Paul meets it with an indignant negative. If this be unjust, to judge the world is unjust and therefore impossible. In this world of liars every man might say, My lie, by bringing on my head the threatened punishment, will show forth the truthfulness of God. If others escape because their sin glorifies God, why may not I also escape? Thus the whole world would find excuse. Again, since all sin will eventually reveal the absolute uprightness of God, a man might deliberately go into sin with this in view. It would be right to do wrong: because all wrong will show forth the righteousness of God. A man might justly do the very things which our enemies bring as a charge against us that we teach men to do. But our opponents, by making this a charge against us, condemn it. In their condemnation, I agree. Hence either God is just when He punishes the sin of which He makes use to accomplish His own purposes, or the teaching with which we are falsely charged is right and the judgment day is a fiction. Which alternative do we accept? Are we weaving a cover for our sin? The arguments in Romans 1:18-2:29 prove that we are not. We have already charged all men with sin, and proved that all sinners are exposed to punishment. The question in Romans 3:5b is answered: a shield which would equally protect all sinners protects none.

Romans 3:1-9 supplements Rom. 2. The man who, in Romans 2:2, claimed to escape the universal sentence has failed to make good his claim: he can hide himself neither (Romans 3:3-11) in the mercy of God, nor (Romans 3:12-24) in his possession of the Law, nor (Romans 3:25-29) in circumcision. Yet he cannot say that the accuser who has cast to the winds his excuses has thereby cast to the winds the reality of the advantages given by God to his fathers and to himself: for the privileges which he has failed to use are many and great. He cannot appeal to the glory which will accrue to God from his condemnation as a reason why the condemnation should not be carried out: for this appeal, if valid, would be valid for the whole world. The prisoner stands without reply before his accuser and before God.

Verse 9. What then? are we better than they? — What, then, shall we conclude that we Jews are better than the Gentiles? No, in no wise, certainly not; and thus the apostle comes back to the great point from which he set out, — for we have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin, all guilty of sin. The word aitiasqi signifies not merely to prove, but to prove forensically, and therefore to convict, to bring in, as it were, that verdict of guilty which leaves the criminal to the sentence of the law. Here, therefore, it may be well to mark the steps of the argument. The point to be proved was, the necessity and excellence of the Gospel, as the power of God unto salvation, or as having a Divine efficiency to save, and this especially, as adapted to the case of the guilty against whom the wrath of God was revealed from heaven, having this grand peculiarity, that it revealed to the faith of men a method of pardoning and saving even the guilty, consistent with the righteous administration of a just and holy God; for thence, he observes, is the righteousness of God by faith revealed by faith, establishing the principle, that the just shall live by faith. But it was necessary to convince men that they needed such a provision of infinite wisdom and mercy, or to press it upon their attention and acceptance would be in vain. He shows, therefore,

1. That all ungodliness and unrighteousness exposed men to the wrath of God, Romans 1:18. Then,

2. That the Gentiles were notoriously guilty of this ungodliness and unrighteousness; which he illustrates by an awful but just enumeration of their mental and sensual vices, and thus shows that not only were they worthy of death, God’s penalty against sin, but that they knew that this was God’s sentence, by the light which remained among them.

3. He charges the Jews with the same sins, both of the heart and life, — a fact which is confirmed by their history and their own writers, as the fact of the immoralities of the Gentiles is confirmed by their history and their own writers. But in this the Jews differed from the Gentiles. The latter, it appears from Romans 1:32, knew the judgment, or righteous appointment, of God, that they that commit such things are worthy of death; but the Jew, without denying this to be the judgment of God, nay, asserting it as to the Gentiles, thought, imagined, wrapped himself up in the delusion, conceit, that he, being a Jew, should “escape the judgment of God;” though he did the same things. Therefore,

4. The apostle applies himself to dissipate this delusion, and with wonderful earnestness repeats and refutes every objection they were in the habit of making to the doctrine of their liability to future punishment for their sins, or anticipating such delusive reasonings as he knew their course of thinking on these subjects would suggest. This refutation of their favourite and fatal error, and which alone was sufficient to prevent them from receiving the Gospel, I have shown runs on from Romans 2:3, to Romans 3:8, where it terminates. I am, indeed, aware of the difficulty of tracing the connection of this part of the discourse, where the subject is greatly varied in its aspect, and the transitions are abrupt. But, by considering that the subject of this whole section of the epistle is the refutation of the error just mentioned, a much more consistent and uniform sense of the different parts is brought out; whereas, it is quite difficult to conceive the connection of the usual interpretations with the general arguments. For instance, if we interpret verse 3 of this chapter, with many whom Macknight has followed in substance, “If some did not believe in Christ, the promised seed, shall their unbelief make the faithfulness of God, in his promises to be a God to Abraham’s seed, without effect?” how can this be made to harmonize in any conceivable manner with that part of the apostle’s reply taken from David’s psalm of penitent confession, “That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged,” or brought into judgment? Again, as to verse 5, if it be put into the mouth of a Jew, which is generally done by interpreters, as a reason why he should not be punished, in what sense could such a Jew, pleading for his impunity, argue that his unrighteousness did, or at least was allowed to, commend the righteousness of God, which manifestly means his punitive justice? This is clearly contradictory. No Jew could reason in this manner, nor the apostle put such an argument into his mouth. Hence some, who have perceived the incongruity, have given to the righteousness of God the forced sense of mercy. The same may be said of the usual interpretations of verse 7. They want either consistency or connection with the scope of the discourse.

V. 10. As it is written-That all men are under sin appears from the vices which have raged in all ages. St. Paul therefore rightly cites David and Isaiah, though they spoke primarily of their own age, and expressed what manner of men God sees, when he looks down from heaven; not what he makes them by his grace.

There is none righteous-This is the general proposition. The particulars follow: their dispositions and designs, Romans 3:11,12; their discourse, Romans 3:13, 14; their actions, Romans 3:16-18. Psalm 14:1, &c.

Verse 10. As it is written] See Psalm 14:1-3; from which this and the two following verses are taken.

There is none righteous] This is true, not only of the Jews, but of the Gentiles; of every soul of man, considered in his natural and practical state, previously to his receiving the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no righteous principle in them, and, consequently, no righteous act can be expected from them; see on Romans 3:12. God himself is represented as looking down from heaven to see if there were any that feared and sought after him; and yet he, who cannot be deceived, could find none! And therefore we may safely conclude there was none to be found.

Verses 9-18. What then — Well then, (may a Jew further urge,) since you grant that the Jews have the advantage of the Gentiles in point of privileges, having the oracles of God, the promises which he will never fail to observe, and the principles of righteousness which he will never himself violate in his conduct, are we not in a better condition for obtaining justification by our own obedience to his law? No, in no wise — The apostle answers, that all are equal in that point, both Jews and Gentiles. For we have before proved — Namely, in the two former chapters; both Jews — By the breach of the written law; and Gentiles — By transgressing the law of nature; that they are all — Every one of them, without exception; under sin — Under the guilt and power of it: and so are equally excluded from the possibility of being justified by works. And therefore gospel righteousness, or justification by faith, is no less necessary for the one than for the other. As it is written — Here he proves further, concerning the Jews, that they were unrighteous before God, by testimonies taken from their own prophets concerning their universal corruption, and he rightly cites David and Isaiah, (see the margin,) though they spoke primarily of their own age, and expressed what manner of men God sees when he looks down from heaven, not what they become when renewed by his grace. There is none righteous — That lives exactly according to the rule of God’s law. This is the general proposition, the particulars follow; their dispositions and designs, verses 11, 12; their discourse, verses 13, 14; their actions, verses 16-18. There is none that understandeth — The things of God, till God, by giving them the spirit of wisdom and revelation, open the eyes of their understanding; there is none that seeketh after God — To know, worship, and serve him aright; to obtain his favour, recover his image, and enjoy communion with him; that is, till God, by his grace, incline them to seek after him. They are all gone out of the way — Namely, of truth into error, of righteousness into sin, of happiness into misery. They are together — One and all; become unprofitable — Unfit and unable to bring forth any good fruit, and to profit either themselves or others. There is none that doeth good — From a right principle, to a right end, by a right rule, and in a right spirit; or perfectly, according to the exact meaning of the law which they are under. Their throat is an open sepulchre — Noisome and dangerous as such; or, their speech is offensive, corrupt, and loathsome. Observe the progress of evil discourse; proceeding out of the heart, through the throat, tongue, lips, till the whole mouth is filled therewith. The poison of asps — Infectious, deadly, tale-bearing, evil-speaking, backbiting, slandering, is under (for honey is on) their lips. An asp is a venomous kind of serpent. Whose mouth is full of cursing — Against God; and bitterness — Provoking language against their neighbour: the most shocking profaneness mingles itself with that malignity of heart toward their fellow-creatures which breathes in every word. Their feet are swift — To run toward the places where they have appointed; to shed the blood — Of the innocent. Destruction — To others; and misery — As to themselves; are in their ways — In their desires and designs, their dispositions, words, and actions. And the way of peace — Which can only spring from righteousness; they have not known — By experience, nor regarded. And, to sum up all in one word, the great cause of all this depravity is, that there is no fear of God before their eyes — Much less is the love of God in their hearts: they have no sense of religion, to restrain them from the commission of these enormities.

Ver. 10. There is none righteous, no, not one. The words that follow in the next eight verses, prove this assertion. What then becomes of the rabbinical boasts of keeping the law? Paul, fighting with Jehovah’s sword, always vanquished his foes.

10. Not one—Not that none are regenerate and so righteous, but that none in nature’s condition are so.

ROMANS

SECTION 9 — THE JEWS ARE CONDEMNED BY

THEIR OWN LAW CH. 3:10-20

According as it is written, “There is not a righteous man, not even one. There is not an understanding one: there is not a man who seeks out God. All have turned away: together they have become useless. There is none that does kindness: there is not even one.” “An opened grave, their throat is: with their tongues they were beguiling.” “Poison of asps is under their lips.” “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” “Quick are their feet to pour out blood… ruin and calamity are in their ways: and a way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

But we know that so many things as the Law says, to those in the Law it speaks, in order that every mouth may be shut, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God. Because from works of law will no flesh be justified in His sight: for through law comes knowledge of sin.

Paul will now prove that the accusation in Romans 3:9, which sums up the result of the argument of DIV. I., is in harmony with the ancient Scriptures:

according as it is written: cp. Romans 3:4; Romans 1:17. This he does by grouping together, without mentioning the human authors, five passages from the Psalms and one from the Book of Isaiah. The first asserts universality of sin in the Psalmist’s day: four others imply that the sin even of circumcised Jews is hateful to God and will receive punishment: and the last confirms the teaching of Romans 1:21 that outward sin arises from inward neglect of God. Paul quotes for the most part word for word from the LXX. The differences between the quotations and the original text do not affect the argument. Examination will show that in each case the ancient writer means all, and more than all, Paul’s argument requires.

Ver. 10.-12. From Psalm 14:1-3, repeated in Psalm 53:1-3. God looks down from heaven to see if there are any who show their intelligence by seeking to know and please Him. Here is the result. His eye cannot detect one righteous man. Not one acts wisely, or makes it the object of life to find out God. All have strayed from the right path: all have together failed to attain their Maker’s purpose. Not even one does good. Evidently the Psalmist’s words include Jews as well as Gentiles. Consequently Paul’s charge in Romans 3:9 is but a repetition of an O.T. declaration about Jews and Gentiles of an earlier day.

Verses 10-19. As it is written, There is none righteous, &c. — As the apostle himself asserts that he resumes the subject from which he had diverged in order to rouse the Jew’s from their false security, and now comes back to the great point that both Jews and Gentiles were equally guilty of sin, and obnoxious to “the wrath of God, revealed from heaven against it,” it is clear that the scriptures he quotes were designed to establish this fundamental doctrine. The question is, how they do so? To which it may be replied that, if the passages are to be understood as confined to the Jewish nation, they would only prove that at different periods the evil characters mentioned were to be found in it; and as vicious persons of the same kind have been found in all ages and in all places, — or those dispositions among men which, if not checked by external circumstances, break out into open wickedness, — it might be infallibly argued from this, that we cannot account for the majority of mankind being wicked, without admitting such a taint of human nature as must necessarily lead all to actual sin, not renewed by the grace of God. But though this would establish a firmer foundation for what follows, the apostle must be understood as speaking more directly. — The passages are quoted from different Psalms, and the last of them from the Prophet Isaiah; but it is clear that they were understood by St. Paul as not only moral descriptions of the Jews of a particular age, or of a particular class, but of these persons as men, wicked and unrenewed, and so equally descriptive of men in general, either as to the tendencies of their nature, or their actual overt acts. The first quotation contained in verses 10-12, is from Psalm 14, where it is expressly said to be a description of “the children of men;” that is, of all men in their unrenewed state, until, indeed, they become the children of God. It is, in fact, the solemn decision of God upon an inspection of a fallen race. “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside,” &c. The 13th verse unites quotations from Psalm 5:9, and Psalm 140:3; in neither of which places are any particular persons spoken of, but wicked men are spoken of generally, as “the foolish,” “the evil man,” “the wicked,” “the violent,” &c. The quotation in verse 14 is taken from Psalm 10:7, and there too it refers to “the wicked” generally; and to wicked, proud, and oppressive men, not confined to one age or place, and to those vices, the roots and seeds of which are in the nature of all. The remainder is taken from Isaiah 59:7, 8, where it seems upon the face of the passage, that from complaining of the wickedness of his people, the prophet is carried out to expatiate upon the wickedness of human nature, or of men in general; at least so he was evidently understood by the apostle, who was, independent of his inspiration, better judge of the Hebrew Scriptures than some who have attempted to correct his reasoning on this particular.

In some good MSS., says Bloomfield, all these passages are found together in Psalm 14. This would strengthen the argument, since that Psalm, as we have seen, expressly, not by implication, describes the moral condition of “the children of men;” but whether found together or scattered, this is clear, that St. Paul intended us to consider these passages just like that of our Lord when he speaks of the evils which proceed out of the heart of man. Certainly Christ intended to show what the evils are of which every man is not only capable, but actually guilty; although an overt act of every kind might not take place in each individual. So here. Some of these evils are chargeable upon every one; and there is none of which, under certain circumstances, man’s lapsed nature does not render him capable: St. Paul presents a list of moral offences, some of the mind and heart, others more conspicuous in act; of some of which he tells us, on the authority of the Scriptures, every man is guilty; and so he establishes the conclusion which follows. This conclusion is thus solemnly introduced, Now we know that whatsoever the law says — using the term law in its general sense for the whole Scriptures, through which, in fact, the moral law of the Jews was diffused, it saith, it speaks, to them who are under the law, for their information and instruction. The apostle neither says nor means that it speaks OF or CONCERNING them that are under the law, as though the passages quoted related to the Jews only, which would fall short of the apostle’s design; but the meaning is, that the law in these general declarations as to the sinfulness of all men, taught the Jews, to whom this epistle was specially addressed, and through them teaches all, this great and humbling doctrine, but one most necessary to be known, in order that men may be prepared to receive the Gospel — THAT THE WHOLE WORLD, comprising both Jews and Gentiles, IS GUILTY BEFORE GOD; and this it does in order that every mouth may be stopped, as being consciously guilty, and having no answer or excuse to offer, but might humbly acknowledge that guilt which could neither be denied nor palliated, and from the punishment of which there was but one way of escape. To stop the mouth is to silence or take away all power of defence; and to be guilty, upodikov, is to be liable to legal punishment; and these quotations from their own Scriptures, in which Jews as well as Gentiles are included, seeing that they speak of men universally in their fallen state, tended strongly to produce the effect for which St. Paul adduces them, — to silence entirely any delusive attempt to which the Jews resorted to palliate or excuse their sins, as though they were not reckoned to them as such, and to awaken them to a due sense of their great danger, as equally with the Gentiles exposed to the wrath of God. In the earnestness of St. Paul to produce this conviction, we must not only regard him as a theologian, endeavouring to clear the way for an important argument, but as a minister pitying the blind delusions of his people, and resorting to various modes of conviction to touch their consciences and to arouse them to a just consideration of their state.

V. 11. There is none that understandeth-The things of God.

Verses 9-18. What then — Well then, (may a Jew further urge,) since you grant that the Jews have the advantage of the Gentiles in point of privileges, having the oracles of God, the promises which he will never fail to observe, and the principles of righteousness which he will never himself violate in his conduct, are we not in a better condition for obtaining justification by our own obedience to his law? No, in no wise — The apostle answers, that all are equal in that point, both Jews and Gentiles. For we have before proved — Namely, in the two former chapters; both Jews — By the breach of the written law; and Gentiles — By transgressing the law of nature; that they are all — Every one of them, without exception; under sin — Under the guilt and power of it: and so are equally excluded from the possibility of being justified by works. And therefore gospel righteousness, or justification by faith, is no less necessary for the one than for the other. As it is written — Here he proves further, concerning the Jews, that they were unrighteous before God, by testimonies taken from their own prophets concerning their universal corruption, and he rightly cites David and Isaiah, (see the margin,) though they spoke primarily of their own age, and expressed what manner of men God sees when he looks down from heaven, not what they become when renewed by his grace. There is none righteous — That lives exactly according to the rule of God’s law. This is the general proposition, the particulars follow; their dispositions and designs, verses 11, 12; their discourse, verses 13, 14; their actions, verses 16-18. There is none that understandeth — The things of God, till God, by giving them the spirit of wisdom and revelation, open the eyes of their understanding; there is none that seeketh after God — To know, worship, and serve him aright; to obtain his favour, recover his image, and enjoy communion with him; that is, till God, by his grace, incline them to seek after him. They are all gone out of the way — Namely, of truth into error, of righteousness into sin, of happiness into misery. They are together — One and all; become unprofitable — Unfit and unable to bring forth any good fruit, and to profit either themselves or others. There is none that doeth good — From a right principle, to a right end, by a right rule, and in a right spirit; or perfectly, according to the exact meaning of the law which they are under. Their throat is an open sepulchre — Noisome and dangerous as such; or, their speech is offensive, corrupt, and loathsome. Observe the progress of evil discourse; proceeding out of the heart, through the throat, tongue, lips, till the whole mouth is filled therewith. The poison of asps — Infectious, deadly, tale-bearing, evil-speaking, backbiting, slandering, is under (for honey is on) their lips. An asp is a venomous kind of serpent. Whose mouth is full of cursing — Against God; and bitterness — Provoking language against their neighbour: the most shocking profaneness mingles itself with that malignity of heart toward their fellow-creatures which breathes in every word. Their feet are swift — To run toward the places where they have appointed; to shed the blood — Of the innocent. Destruction — To others; and misery — As to themselves; are in their ways — In their desires and designs, their dispositions, words, and actions. And the way of peace — Which can only spring from righteousness; they have not known — By experience, nor regarded. And, to sum up all in one word, the great cause of all this depravity is, that there is no fear of God before their eyes — Much less is the love of God in their hearts: they have no sense of religion, to restrain them from the commission of these enormities.

Ver. 11. There is none that understandeth. Ignorance and contempt of devotion are the general sources of ruin to the human kind. The flood of divine light is poured out to aid us in the conquest of vice.

11. Understandeth—The Old Testament speaks of wisdom, folly, and understanding not so much from the intellectual as from the moral standpoint. To be wicked is to be a fool; to be righteous was to understand. So truly is the holy book the utterance of the moral sense.

ROMANS

SECTION 9 — THE JEWS ARE CONDEMNED BY

THEIR OWN LAW CH. 3:10-20

According as it is written, “There is not a righteous man, not even one. There is not an understanding one: there is not a man who seeks out God. All have turned away: together they have become useless. There is none that does kindness: there is not even one.” “An opened grave, their throat is: with their tongues they were beguiling.” “Poison of asps is under their lips.” “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” “Quick are their feet to pour out blood… ruin and calamity are in their ways: and a way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

But we know that so many things as the Law says, to those in the Law it speaks, in order that every mouth may be shut, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God. Because from works of law will no flesh be justified in His sight: for through law comes knowledge of sin.

Paul will now prove that the accusation in Romans 3:9, which sums up the result of the argument of DIV. I., is in harmony with the ancient Scriptures:

according as it is written: cp. Romans 3:4; Romans 1:17. This he does by grouping together, without mentioning the human authors, five passages from the Psalms and one from the Book of Isaiah. The first asserts universality of sin in the Psalmist’s day: four others imply that the sin even of circumcised Jews is hateful to God and will receive punishment: and the last confirms the teaching of Romans 1:21 that outward sin arises from inward neglect of God. Paul quotes for the most part word for word from the LXX. The differences between the quotations and the original text do not affect the argument. Examination will show that in each case the ancient writer means all, and more than all, Paul’s argument requires.

Ver. 10.-12. From Psalm 14:1-3, repeated in Psalm 53:1-3. God looks down from heaven to see if there are any who show their intelligence by seeking to know and please Him. Here is the result. His eye cannot detect one righteous man. Not one acts wisely, or makes it the object of life to find out God. All have strayed from the right path: all have together failed to attain their Maker’s purpose. Not even one does good. Evidently the Psalmist’s words include Jews as well as Gentiles. Consequently Paul’s charge in Romans 3:9 is but a repetition of an O.T. declaration about Jews and Gentiles of an earlier day.

Verses 10-19. As it is written, There is none righteous, &c. — As the apostle himself asserts that he resumes the subject from which he had diverged in order to rouse the Jew’s from their false security, and now comes back to the great point that both Jews and Gentiles were equally guilty of sin, and obnoxious to “the wrath of God, revealed from heaven against it,” it is clear that the scriptures he quotes were designed to establish this fundamental doctrine. The question is, how they do so? To which it may be replied that, if the passages are to be understood as confined to the Jewish nation, they would only prove that at different periods the evil characters mentioned were to be found in it; and as vicious persons of the same kind have been found in all ages and in all places, — or those dispositions among men which, if not checked by external circumstances, break out into open wickedness, — it might be infallibly argued from this, that we cannot account for the majority of mankind being wicked, without admitting such a taint of human nature as must necessarily lead all to actual sin, not renewed by the grace of God. But though this would establish a firmer foundation for what follows, the apostle must be understood as speaking more directly. — The passages are quoted from different Psalms, and the last of them from the Prophet Isaiah; but it is clear that they were understood by St. Paul as not only moral descriptions of the Jews of a particular age, or of a particular class, but of these persons as men, wicked and unrenewed, and so equally descriptive of men in general, either as to the tendencies of their nature, or their actual overt acts. The first quotation contained in verses 10-12, is from Psalm 14, where it is expressly said to be a description of “the children of men;” that is, of all men in their unrenewed state, until, indeed, they become the children of God. It is, in fact, the solemn decision of God upon an inspection of a fallen race. “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside,” &c. The 13th verse unites quotations from Psalm 5:9, and Psalm 140:3; in neither of which places are any particular persons spoken of, but wicked men are spoken of generally, as “the foolish,” “the evil man,” “the wicked,” “the violent,” &c. The quotation in verse 14 is taken from Psalm 10:7, and there too it refers to “the wicked” generally; and to wicked, proud, and oppressive men, not confined to one age or place, and to those vices, the roots and seeds of which are in the nature of all. The remainder is taken from Isaiah 59:7, 8, where it seems upon the face of the passage, that from complaining of the wickedness of his people, the prophet is carried out to expatiate upon the wickedness of human nature, or of men in general; at least so he was evidently understood by the apostle, who was, independent of his inspiration, better judge of the Hebrew Scriptures than some who have attempted to correct his reasoning on this particular.

In some good MSS., says Bloomfield, all these passages are found together in Psalm 14. This would strengthen the argument, since that Psalm, as we have seen, expressly, not by implication, describes the moral condition of “the children of men;” but whether found together or scattered, this is clear, that St. Paul intended us to consider these passages just like that of our Lord when he speaks of the evils which proceed out of the heart of man. Certainly Christ intended to show what the evils are of which every man is not only capable, but actually guilty; although an overt act of every kind might not take place in each individual. So here. Some of these evils are chargeable upon every one; and there is none of which, under certain circumstances, man’s lapsed nature does not render him capable: St. Paul presents a list of moral offences, some of the mind and heart, others more conspicuous in act; of some of which he tells us, on the authority of the Scriptures, every man is guilty; and so he establishes the conclusion which follows. This conclusion is thus solemnly introduced, Now we know that whatsoever the law says — using the term law in its general sense for the whole Scriptures, through which, in fact, the moral law of the Jews was diffused, it saith, it speaks, to them who are under the law, for their information and instruction. The apostle neither says nor means that it speaks OF or CONCERNING them that are under the law, as though the passages quoted related to the Jews only, which would fall short of the apostle’s design; but the meaning is, that the law in these general declarations as to the sinfulness of all men, taught the Jews, to whom this epistle was specially addressed, and through them teaches all, this great and humbling doctrine, but one most necessary to be known, in order that men may be prepared to receive the Gospel — THAT THE WHOLE WORLD, comprising both Jews and Gentiles, IS GUILTY BEFORE GOD; and this it does in order that every mouth may be stopped, as being consciously guilty, and having no answer or excuse to offer, but might humbly acknowledge that guilt which could neither be denied nor palliated, and from the punishment of which there was but one way of escape. To stop the mouth is to silence or take away all power of defence; and to be guilty, upodikov, is to be liable to legal punishment; and these quotations from their own Scriptures, in which Jews as well as Gentiles are included, seeing that they speak of men universally in their fallen state, tended strongly to produce the effect for which St. Paul adduces them, — to silence entirely any delusive attempt to which the Jews resorted to palliate or excuse their sins, as though they were not reckoned to them as such, and to awaken them to a due sense of their great danger, as equally with the Gentiles exposed to the wrath of God. In the earnestness of St. Paul to produce this conviction, we must not only regard him as a theologian, endeavouring to clear the way for an important argument, but as a minister pitying the blind delusions of his people, and resorting to various modes of conviction to touch their consciences and to arouse them to a just consideration of their state.

V. 12. They have all turned aside-From the good way. They are become unprofitable-Helpless impotent, unable to profit either themselves or others.

Verse 12. They are all gone out of the way] pantev exeklinan, they have all diverged from the right way, they have either abandoned or corrupted the worship of God: the Jews, in forsaking the law and the prophets, and the Gentiles, in acting contrary to the law which God had written on their hearts. And the departure of both from the truth proves the evil propensity of human nature in general.

They are together become unprofitable] hcreiwqhsan. They are useless, good for nothing; or, as the Hebrew has it, wjlan neelachu, they are putrid: he views the whole mass of mankind as slain and thrown together, to putrefy in heaps. This is what is termed the corruption of human nature; they are infected and infectious. What need of the mercy of God to save from such a state of degeneracy!

There is none that doeth good] In Romans 3:10 it is said, There is none righteous; here, There is none that doeth good: the first may refer to the want of a righteous principle; the second, to the necessary consequence of the absence of such a principle. If there be no righteousness within, there will be no acts of goodness without.

Verses 9-18. What then — Well then, (may a Jew further urge,) since you grant that the Jews have the advantage of the Gentiles in point of privileges, having the oracles of God, the promises which he will never fail to observe, and the principles of righteousness which he will never himself violate in his conduct, are we not in a better condition for obtaining justification by our own obedience to his law? No, in no wise — The apostle answers, that all are equal in that point, both Jews and Gentiles. For we have before proved — Namely, in the two former chapters; both Jews — By the breach of the written law; and Gentiles — By transgressing the law of nature; that they are all — Every one of them, without exception; under sin — Under the guilt and power of it: and so are equally excluded from the possibility of being justified by works. And therefore gospel righteousness, or justification by faith, is no less necessary for the one than for the other. As it is written — Here he proves further, concerning the Jews, that they were unrighteous before God, by testimonies taken from their own prophets concerning their universal corruption, and he rightly cites David and Isaiah, (see the margin,) though they spoke primarily of their own age, and expressed what manner of men God sees when he looks down from heaven, not what they become when renewed by his grace. There is none righteous — That lives exactly according to the rule of God’s law. This is the general proposition, the particulars follow; their dispositions and designs, verses 11, 12; their discourse, verses 13, 14; their actions, verses 16-18. There is none that understandeth — The things of God, till God, by giving them the spirit of wisdom and revelation, open the eyes of their understanding; there is none that seeketh after God — To know, worship, and serve him aright; to obtain his favour, recover his image, and enjoy communion with him; that is, till God, by his grace, incline them to seek after him. They are all gone out of the way — Namely, of truth into error, of righteousness into sin, of happiness into misery. They are together — One and all; become unprofitable — Unfit and unable to bring forth any good fruit, and to profit either themselves or others. There is none that doeth good — From a right principle, to a right end, by a right rule, and in a right spirit; or perfectly, according to the exact meaning of the law which they are under. Their throat is an open sepulchre — Noisome and dangerous as such; or, their speech is offensive, corrupt, and loathsome. Observe the progress of evil discourse; proceeding out of the heart, through the throat, tongue, lips, till the whole mouth is filled therewith. The poison of asps — Infectious, deadly, tale-bearing, evil-speaking, backbiting, slandering, is under (for honey is on) their lips. An asp is a venomous kind of serpent. Whose mouth is full of cursing — Against God; and bitterness — Provoking language against their neighbour: the most shocking profaneness mingles itself with that malignity of heart toward their fellow-creatures which breathes in every word. Their feet are swift — To run toward the places where they have appointed; to shed the blood — Of the innocent. Destruction — To others; and misery — As to themselves; are in their ways — In their desires and designs, their dispositions, words, and actions. And the way of peace — Which can only spring from righteousness; they have not known — By experience, nor regarded. And, to sum up all in one word, the great cause of all this depravity is, that there is no fear of God before their eyes — Much less is the love of God in their hearts: they have no sense of religion, to restrain them from the commission of these enormities.

Ver. 12. They are all gone out of the way. So it was at Babel, as stated in the note on c Romans. 1:23; and by Moses, Genesis 11.; and by Jeremiah 5:1. This general depravity is the harbinger of national ruin.

ROMANS

SECTION 9 — THE JEWS ARE CONDEMNED BY

THEIR OWN LAW CH. 3:10-20

According as it is written, “There is not a righteous man, not even one. There is not an understanding one: there is not a man who seeks out God. All have turned away: together they have become useless. There is none that does kindness: there is not even one.” “An opened grave, their throat is: with their tongues they were beguiling.” “Poison of asps is under their lips.” “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” “Quick are their feet to pour out blood… ruin and calamity are in their ways: and a way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

But we know that so many things as the Law says, to those in the Law it speaks, in order that every mouth may be shut, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God. Because from works of law will no flesh be justified in His sight: for through law comes knowledge of sin.

Paul will now prove that the accusation in Romans 3:9, which sums up the result of the argument of DIV. I., is in harmony with the ancient Scriptures:

according as it is written: cp. Romans 3:4; Romans 1:17. This he does by grouping together, without mentioning the human authors, five passages from the Psalms and one from the Book of Isaiah. The first asserts universality of sin in the Psalmist’s day: four others imply that the sin even of circumcised Jews is hateful to God and will receive punishment: and the last confirms the teaching of Romans 1:21 that outward sin arises from inward neglect of God. Paul quotes for the most part word for word from the LXX. The differences between the quotations and the original text do not affect the argument. Examination will show that in each case the ancient writer means all, and more than all, Paul’s argument requires.

Ver. 10.-12. From Psalm 14:1-3, repeated in Psalm 53:1-3. God looks down from heaven to see if there are any who show their intelligence by seeking to know and please Him. Here is the result. His eye cannot detect one righteous man. Not one acts wisely, or makes it the object of life to find out God. All have strayed from the right path: all have together failed to attain their Maker’s purpose. Not even one does good. Evidently the Psalmist’s words include Jews as well as Gentiles. Consequently Paul’s charge in Romans 3:9 is but a repetition of an O.T. declaration about Jews and Gentiles of an earlier day.

Verses 10-19. As it is written, There is none righteous, &c. — As the apostle himself asserts that he resumes the subject from which he had diverged in order to rouse the Jew’s from their false security, and now comes back to the great point that both Jews and Gentiles were equally guilty of sin, and obnoxious to “the wrath of God, revealed from heaven against it,” it is clear that the scriptures he quotes were designed to establish this fundamental doctrine. The question is, how they do so? To which it may be replied that, if the passages are to be understood as confined to the Jewish nation, they would only prove that at different periods the evil characters mentioned were to be found in it; and as vicious persons of the same kind have been found in all ages and in all places, — or those dispositions among men which, if not checked by external circumstances, break out into open wickedness, — it might be infallibly argued from this, that we cannot account for the majority of mankind being wicked, without admitting such a taint of human nature as must necessarily lead all to actual sin, not renewed by the grace of God. But though this would establish a firmer foundation for what follows, the apostle must be understood as speaking more directly. — The passages are quoted from different Psalms, and the last of them from the Prophet Isaiah; but it is clear that they were understood by St. Paul as not only moral descriptions of the Jews of a particular age, or of a particular class, but of these persons as men, wicked and unrenewed, and so equally descriptive of men in general, either as to the tendencies of their nature, or their actual overt acts. The first quotation contained in verses 10-12, is from Psalm 14, where it is expressly said to be a description of “the children of men;” that is, of all men in their unrenewed state, until, indeed, they become the children of God. It is, in fact, the solemn decision of God upon an inspection of a fallen race. “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside,” &c. The 13th verse unites quotations from Psalm 5:9, and Psalm 140:3; in neither of which places are any particular persons spoken of, but wicked men are spoken of generally, as “the foolish,” “the evil man,” “the wicked,” “the violent,” &c. The quotation in verse 14 is taken from Psalm 10:7, and there too it refers to “the wicked” generally; and to wicked, proud, and oppressive men, not confined to one age or place, and to those vices, the roots and seeds of which are in the nature of all. The remainder is taken from Isaiah 59:7, 8, where it seems upon the face of the passage, that from complaining of the wickedness of his people, the prophet is carried out to expatiate upon the wickedness of human nature, or of men in general; at least so he was evidently understood by the apostle, who was, independent of his inspiration, better judge of the Hebrew Scriptures than some who have attempted to correct his reasoning on this particular.

In some good MSS., says Bloomfield, all these passages are found together in Psalm 14. This would strengthen the argument, since that Psalm, as we have seen, expressly, not by implication, describes the moral condition of “the children of men;” but whether found together or scattered, this is clear, that St. Paul intended us to consider these passages just like that of our Lord when he speaks of the evils which proceed out of the heart of man. Certainly Christ intended to show what the evils are of which every man is not only capable, but actually guilty; although an overt act of every kind might not take place in each individual. So here. Some of these evils are chargeable upon every one; and there is none of which, under certain circumstances, man’s lapsed nature does not render him capable: St. Paul presents a list of moral offences, some of the mind and heart, others more conspicuous in act; of some of which he tells us, on the authority of the Scriptures, every man is guilty; and so he establishes the conclusion which follows. This conclusion is thus solemnly introduced, Now we know that whatsoever the law says — using the term law in its general sense for the whole Scriptures, through which, in fact, the moral law of the Jews was diffused, it saith, it speaks, to them who are under the law, for their information and instruction. The apostle neither says nor means that it speaks OF or CONCERNING them that are under the law, as though the passages quoted related to the Jews only, which would fall short of the apostle’s design; but the meaning is, that the law in these general declarations as to the sinfulness of all men, taught the Jews, to whom this epistle was specially addressed, and through them teaches all, this great and humbling doctrine, but one most necessary to be known, in order that men may be prepared to receive the Gospel — THAT THE WHOLE WORLD, comprising both Jews and Gentiles, IS GUILTY BEFORE GOD; and this it does in order that every mouth may be stopped, as being consciously guilty, and having no answer or excuse to offer, but might humbly acknowledge that guilt which could neither be denied nor palliated, and from the punishment of which there was but one way of escape. To stop the mouth is to silence or take away all power of defence; and to be guilty, upodikov, is to be liable to legal punishment; and these quotations from their own Scriptures, in which Jews as well as Gentiles are included, seeing that they speak of men universally in their fallen state, tended strongly to produce the effect for which St. Paul adduces them, — to silence entirely any delusive attempt to which the Jews resorted to palliate or excuse their sins, as though they were not reckoned to them as such, and to awaken them to a due sense of their great danger, as equally with the Gentiles exposed to the wrath of God. In the earnestness of St. Paul to produce this conviction, we must not only regard him as a theologian, endeavouring to clear the way for an important argument, but as a minister pitying the blind delusions of his people, and resorting to various modes of conviction to touch their consciences and to arouse them to a just consideration of their state.

V. 13. Their throat-Is noisome and dangerous as an open sepulchre. Observe the progress of evil discourse, proceeding out of the heart, through the throat, tongue, lips, till the whole mouth is filled therewith. The poison of asps-Infectious, deadly backbiting, tale-bearing, evil-speaking, is under (for honey is on) their lips. An asp is a venomous kind of serpent. Psalm 5:9; 140:3.

Verse 13. Their throat is an open sepulchre] This and all the following verses to the end of the 18th {Romans 3:13-18} are found in the Septuagint, but not in the Hebrew text; and it is most evident that it was from this version that the apostle quoted, as the verses cannot be found in any other place with so near an approximation to the apostle’s meaning and words. The verses in question, however, are not found in the Alexandrian MS. But they exist in the Vulgate, the Æthiopic, and the Arabic. As the most ancient copies of the Septuagint do not contain these verses, some contend that the apostle has quoted them from different parts of Scripture; and later transcribers of the Septuagint, finding that the 10th, 11th, and 12th, verses were quoted from the xivth Psalm, {Psalm 14:10-12} imagined that the rest were found originally there too, and so incorporated them in their copies, from the apostle’s text.

Their throat is an open sepulchre-By their malicious and wicked words they bury, as it were, the reputation of all men. The whole of this verse appears to belong to their habit of lying, defamation, slandering, &c., by which they wounded, blasted, and poisoned the reputation of others.

Verses 9-18. What then — Well then, (may a Jew further urge,) since you grant that the Jews have the advantage of the Gentiles in point of privileges, having the oracles of God, the promises which he will never fail to observe, and the principles of righteousness which he will never himself violate in his conduct, are we not in a better condition for obtaining justification by our own obedience to his law? No, in no wise — The apostle answers, that all are equal in that point, both Jews and Gentiles. For we have before proved — Namely, in the two former chapters; both Jews — By the breach of the written law; and Gentiles — By transgressing the law of nature; that they are all — Every one of them, without exception; under sin — Under the guilt and power of it: and so are equally excluded from the possibility of being justified by works. And therefore gospel righteousness, or justification by faith, is no less necessary for the one than for the other. As it is written — Here he proves further, concerning the Jews, that they were unrighteous before God, by testimonies taken from their own prophets concerning their universal corruption, and he rightly cites David and Isaiah, (see the margin,) though they spoke primarily of their own age, and expressed what manner of men God sees when he looks down from heaven, not what they become when renewed by his grace. There is none righteous — That lives exactly according to the rule of God’s law. This is the general proposition, the particulars follow; their dispositions and designs, verses 11, 12; their discourse, verses 13, 14; their actions, verses 16-18. There is none that understandeth — The things of God, till God, by giving them the spirit of wisdom and revelation, open the eyes of their understanding; there is none that seeketh after God — To know, worship, and serve him aright; to obtain his favour, recover his image, and enjoy communion with him; that is, till God, by his grace, incline them to seek after him. They are all gone out of the way — Namely, of truth into error, of righteousness into sin, of happiness into misery. They are together — One and all; become unprofitable — Unfit and unable to bring forth any good fruit, and to profit either themselves or others. There is none that doeth good — From a right principle, to a right end, by a right rule, and in a right spirit; or perfectly, according to the exact meaning of the law which they are under. Their throat is an open sepulchre — Noisome and dangerous as such; or, their speech is offensive, corrupt, and loathsome. Observe the progress of evil discourse; proceeding out of the heart, through the throat, tongue, lips, till the whole mouth is filled therewith. The poison of asps — Infectious, deadly, tale-bearing, evil-speaking, backbiting, slandering, is under (for honey is on) their lips. An asp is a venomous kind of serpent. Whose mouth is full of cursing — Against God; and bitterness — Provoking language against their neighbour: the most shocking profaneness mingles itself with that malignity of heart toward their fellow-creatures which breathes in every word. Their feet are swift — To run toward the places where they have appointed; to shed the blood — Of the innocent. Destruction — To others; and misery — As to themselves; are in their ways — In their desires and designs, their dispositions, words, and actions. And the way of peace — Which can only spring from righteousness; they have not known — By experience, nor regarded. And, to sum up all in one word, the great cause of all this depravity is, that there is no fear of God before their eyes — Much less is the love of God in their hearts: they have no sense of religion, to restrain them from the commission of these enormities.

Ver. 13. Their throat is an open sepulchre. “They drink iniquity like water.” Job 15:16. The selfish man swallows down riches unlawfully gained, but God will force him to vomit them up again. Job 20:15. These are the unclean things which enter the heart, and defile the man. The poison of asps is under their lips. We do not exactly know the species of the asp referred to, but Aristotle pronounces the venom incurable. Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, finding her husband Antony dead, and her kingdom reduced to a Roman province, dispatched the man who watched her, with a letter to Augustus, then in Alexandria, praying that her body might rest with Antony. When the messenger was gone, she put on her best robes, and lay down on the royal bed. In a short time the servants found her dead. And as no wound was found on the body, much excitement was occasioned. Presently they found under her arm a small serpent, of the species of the asp, and which she had for sometime concealed in a basket of fruit. This is the reptile whose virulent poison is often used to designate sin. But if the scripture characters had taken those steps in their troubles, what had become of the glory that followed?

13. An open sepulchre—As swallowing the once living; and, like the whited sepulchres of the Saviour’s words, full of dead men’s bones.

Ver. 13.-17. Descriptions of bad men.

An opened grave: so Jeremiah 5:16. So deadly were the arrows of the Chaldeans that the quiver from which they came seemed like a grave opened to receive the dead whom the arrows slew. But more deadly than arrows are the words of the men described in Psalm 5:9. They encourage or provoke to acts of violence and bloodshed: the opening of their mouth involves the opening of a grave to receive those whose death will result from their words. Hence, in the vividness of Eastern imagination,

their throat is called a grave opened to receive the slain. David himself, if not with his lips yet with his pen, dug a grave for Uriah: 2 Samuel 11:14. That the word throat denotes here, as in Psalm 115:7, an organ of speech, is proved by the words tongues and lips following. Beguiling: their tongues being used as instruments of guile. This made their words as dangerous and deadly as

poison of asps, which lies concealed under their lips: word for word from Psalm 140:3. The Psalmist cries for deliverance from bloody and deceitful men. He is afraid of their secret plots. The lips with which the plots are communicated to others, and thus matured, are as deadly to him as the poison of a serpent. He appeals to God against them, and calls for their destruction.

Whose mouth etc.: from Psalm 10:7: a description of proud men who lay snares for the poor and innocent, and expect to escape, saying that God has forgotten their deeds and will not punish. The Psalmist appeals to God as one who beholds mischief and spite, and will requite it. This teaching of the Psalms is confirmed by a quotation from Isaiah 59:7, 8. Here are men whose

feet are quick when their purpose is to shed blood. If you trace their steps, you find that they have left behind them ruin and calamity. War and violence are their only element:

and a way of peace they have not known. Yet these men were Israelites: for the prophet declares (Isaiah 59:2) that their sins have separated them from their God. Therefore, in his view, God is angry with the sins even of those who possess the Law and bear in their bodies the seal of the covenant.

Verses 10-19. As it is written, There is none righteous, &c. — As the apostle himself asserts that he resumes the subject from which he had diverged in order to rouse the Jew’s from their false security, and now comes back to the great point that both Jews and Gentiles were equally guilty of sin, and obnoxious to “the wrath of God, revealed from heaven against it,” it is clear that the scriptures he quotes were designed to establish this fundamental doctrine. The question is, how they do so? To which it may be replied that, if the passages are to be understood as confined to the Jewish nation, they would only prove that at different periods the evil characters mentioned were to be found in it; and as vicious persons of the same kind have been found in all ages and in all places, — or those dispositions among men which, if not checked by external circumstances, break out into open wickedness, — it might be infallibly argued from this, that we cannot account for the majority of mankind being wicked, without admitting such a taint of human nature as must necessarily lead all to actual sin, not renewed by the grace of God. But though this would establish a firmer foundation for what follows, the apostle must be understood as speaking more directly. — The passages are quoted from different Psalms, and the last of them from the Prophet Isaiah; but it is clear that they were understood by St. Paul as not only moral descriptions of the Jews of a particular age, or of a particular class, but of these persons as men, wicked and unrenewed, and so equally descriptive of men in general, either as to the tendencies of their nature, or their actual overt acts. The first quotation contained in verses 10-12, is from Psalm 14, where it is expressly said to be a description of “the children of men;” that is, of all men in their unrenewed state, until, indeed, they become the children of God. It is, in fact, the solemn decision of God upon an inspection of a fallen race. “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside,” &c. The 13th verse unites quotations from Psalm 5:9, and Psalm 140:3; in neither of which places are any particular persons spoken of, but wicked men are spoken of generally, as “the foolish,” “the evil man,” “the wicked,” “the violent,” &c. The quotation in verse 14 is taken from Psalm 10:7, and there too it refers to “the wicked” generally; and to wicked, proud, and oppressive men, not confined to one age or place, and to those vices, the roots and seeds of which are in the nature of all. The remainder is taken from Isaiah 59:7, 8, where it seems upon the face of the passage, that from complaining of the wickedness of his people, the prophet is carried out to expatiate upon the wickedness of human nature, or of men in general; at least so he was evidently understood by the apostle, who was, independent of his inspiration, better judge of the Hebrew Scriptures than some who have attempted to correct his reasoning on this particular.

In some good MSS., says Bloomfield, all these passages are found together in Psalm 14. This would strengthen the argument, since that Psalm, as we have seen, expressly, not by implication, describes the moral condition of “the children of men;” but whether found together or scattered, this is clear, that St. Paul intended us to consider these passages just like that of our Lord when he speaks of the evils which proceed out of the heart of man. Certainly Christ intended to show what the evils are of which every man is not only capable, but actually guilty; although an overt act of every kind might not take place in each individual. So here. Some of these evils are chargeable upon every one; and there is none of which, under certain circumstances, man’s lapsed nature does not render him capable: St. Paul presents a list of moral offences, some of the mind and heart, others more conspicuous in act; of some of which he tells us, on the authority of the Scriptures, every man is guilty; and so he establishes the conclusion which follows. This conclusion is thus solemnly introduced, Now we know that whatsoever the law says — using the term law in its general sense for the whole Scriptures, through which, in fact, the moral law of the Jews was diffused, it saith, it speaks, to them who are under the law, for their information and instruction. The apostle neither says nor means that it speaks OF or CONCERNING them that are under the law, as though the passages quoted related to the Jews only, which would fall short of the apostle’s design; but the meaning is, that the law in these general declarations as to the sinfulness of all men, taught the Jews, to whom this epistle was specially addressed, and through them teaches all, this great and humbling doctrine, but one most necessary to be known, in order that men may be prepared to receive the Gospel — THAT THE WHOLE WORLD, comprising both Jews and Gentiles, IS GUILTY BEFORE GOD; and this it does in order that every mouth may be stopped, as being consciously guilty, and having no answer or excuse to offer, but might humbly acknowledge that guilt which could neither be denied nor palliated, and from the punishment of which there was but one way of escape. To stop the mouth is to silence or take away all power of defence; and to be guilty, upodikov, is to be liable to legal punishment; and these quotations from their own Scriptures, in which Jews as well as Gentiles are included, seeing that they speak of men universally in their fallen state, tended strongly to produce the effect for which St. Paul adduces them, — to silence entirely any delusive attempt to which the Jews resorted to palliate or excuse their sins, as though they were not reckoned to them as such, and to awaken them to a due sense of their great danger, as equally with the Gentiles exposed to the wrath of God. In the earnestness of St. Paul to produce this conviction, we must not only regard him as a theologian, endeavouring to clear the way for an important argument, but as a minister pitying the blind delusions of his people, and resorting to various modes of conviction to touch their consciences and to arouse them to a just consideration of their state.

V. 14. Cursing-Against God.

Bitterness-Against their neighbour. Psalm 10:7.

Verse 14. Whose mouth is full of cursing, &c.] They never speak but in profane oaths, blasphemies, and malice.

Verses 9-18. What then — Well then, (may a Jew further urge,) since you grant that the Jews have the advantage of the Gentiles in point of privileges, having the oracles of God, the promises which he will never fail to observe, and the principles of righteousness which he will never himself violate in his conduct, are we not in a better condition for obtaining justification by our own obedience to his law? No, in no wise — The apostle answers, that all are equal in that point, both Jews and Gentiles. For we have before proved — Namely, in the two former chapters; both Jews — By the breach of the written law; and Gentiles — By transgressing the law of nature; that they are all — Every one of them, without exception; under sin — Under the guilt and power of it: and so are equally excluded from the possibility of being justified by works. And therefore gospel righteousness, or justification by faith, is no less necessary for the one than for the other. As it is written — Here he proves further, concerning the Jews, that they were unrighteous before God, by testimonies taken from their own prophets concerning their universal corruption, and he rightly cites David and Isaiah, (see the margin,) though they spoke primarily of their own age, and expressed what manner of men God sees when he looks down from heaven, not what they become when renewed by his grace. There is none righteous — That lives exactly according to the rule of God’s law. This is the general proposition, the particulars follow; their dispositions and designs, verses 11, 12; their discourse, verses 13, 14; their actions, verses 16-18. There is none that understandeth — The things of God, till God, by giving them the spirit of wisdom and revelation, open the eyes of their understanding; there is none that seeketh after God — To know, worship, and serve him aright; to obtain his favour, recover his image, and enjoy communion with him; that is, till God, by his grace, incline them to seek after him. They are all gone out of the way — Namely, of truth into error, of righteousness into sin, of happiness into misery. They are together — One and all; become unprofitable — Unfit and unable to bring forth any good fruit, and to profit either themselves or others. There is none that doeth good — From a right principle, to a right end, by a right rule, and in a right spirit; or perfectly, according to the exact meaning of the law which they are under. Their throat is an open sepulchre — Noisome and dangerous as such; or, their speech is offensive, corrupt, and loathsome. Observe the progress of evil discourse; proceeding out of the heart, through the throat, tongue, lips, till the whole mouth is filled therewith. The poison of asps — Infectious, deadly, tale-bearing, evil-speaking, backbiting, slandering, is under (for honey is on) their lips. An asp is a venomous kind of serpent. Whose mouth is full of cursing — Against God; and bitterness — Provoking language against their neighbour: the most shocking profaneness mingles itself with that malignity of heart toward their fellow-creatures which breathes in every word. Their feet are swift — To run toward the places where they have appointed; to shed the blood — Of the innocent. Destruction — To others; and misery — As to themselves; are in their ways — In their desires and designs, their dispositions, words, and actions. And the way of peace — Which can only spring from righteousness; they have not known — By experience, nor regarded. And, to sum up all in one word, the great cause of all this depravity is, that there is no fear of God before their eyes — Much less is the love of God in their hearts: they have no sense of religion, to restrain them from the commission of these enormities.

Ver. 13.-17. Descriptions of bad men.

An opened grave: so Jeremiah 5:16. So deadly were the arrows of the Chaldeans that the quiver from which they came seemed like a grave opened to receive the dead whom the arrows slew. But more deadly than arrows are the words of the men described in Psalm 5:9. They encourage or provoke to acts of violence and bloodshed: the opening of their mouth involves the opening of a grave to receive those whose death will result from their words. Hence, in the vividness of Eastern imagination,

their throat is called a grave opened to receive the slain. David himself, if not with his lips yet with his pen, dug a grave for Uriah: 2 Samuel 11:14. That the word throat denotes here, as in Psalm 115:7, an organ of speech, is proved by the words tongues and lips following. Beguiling: their tongues being used as instruments of guile. This made their words as dangerous and deadly as

poison of asps, which lies concealed under their lips: word for word from Psalm 140:3. The Psalmist cries for deliverance from bloody and deceitful men. He is afraid of their secret plots. The lips with which the plots are communicated to others, and thus matured, are as deadly to him as the poison of a serpent. He appeals to God against them, and calls for their destruction.

Whose mouth etc.: from Psalm 10:7: a description of proud men who lay snares for the poor and innocent, and expect to escape, saying that God has forgotten their deeds and will not punish. The Psalmist appeals to God as one who beholds mischief and spite, and will requite it. This teaching of the Psalms is confirmed by a quotation from Isaiah 59:7, 8. Here are men whose

feet are quick when their purpose is to shed blood. If you trace their steps, you find that they have left behind them ruin and calamity. War and violence are their only element:

and a way of peace they have not known. Yet these men were Israelites: for the prophet declares (Isaiah 59:2) that their sins have separated them from their God. Therefore, in his view, God is angry with the sins even of those who possess the Law and bear in their bodies the seal of the covenant.

Verses 10-19. As it is written, There is none righteous, &c. — As the apostle himself asserts that he resumes the subject from which he had diverged in order to rouse the Jew’s from their false security, and now comes back to the great point that both Jews and Gentiles were equally guilty of sin, and obnoxious to “the wrath of God, revealed from heaven against it,” it is clear that the scriptures he quotes were designed to establish this fundamental doctrine. The question is, how they do so? To which it may be replied that, if the passages are to be understood as confined to the Jewish nation, they would only prove that at different periods the evil characters mentioned were to be found in it; and as vicious persons of the same kind have been found in all ages and in all places, — or those dispositions among men which, if not checked by external circumstances, break out into open wickedness, — it might be infallibly argued from this, that we cannot account for the majority of mankind being wicked, without admitting such a taint of human nature as must necessarily lead all to actual sin, not renewed by the grace of God. But though this would establish a firmer foundation for what follows, the apostle must be understood as speaking more directly. — The passages are quoted from different Psalms, and the last of them from the Prophet Isaiah; but it is clear that they were understood by St. Paul as not only moral descriptions of the Jews of a particular age, or of a particular class, but of these persons as men, wicked and unrenewed, and so equally descriptive of men in general, either as to the tendencies of their nature, or their actual overt acts. The first quotation contained in verses 10-12, is from Psalm 14, where it is expressly said to be a description of “the children of men;” that is, of all men in their unrenewed state, until, indeed, they become the children of God. It is, in fact, the solemn decision of God upon an inspection of a fallen race. “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside,” &c. The 13th verse unites quotations from Psalm 5:9, and Psalm 140:3; in neither of which places are any particular persons spoken of, but wicked men are spoken of generally, as “the foolish,” “the evil man,” “the wicked,” “the violent,” &c. The quotation in verse 14 is taken from Psalm 10:7, and there too it refers to “the wicked” generally; and to wicked, proud, and oppressive men, not confined to one age or place, and to those vices, the roots and seeds of which are in the nature of all. The remainder is taken from Isaiah 59:7, 8, where it seems upon the face of the passage, that from complaining of the wickedness of his people, the prophet is carried out to expatiate upon the wickedness of human nature, or of men in general; at least so he was evidently understood by the apostle, who was, independent of his inspiration, better judge of the Hebrew Scriptures than some who have attempted to correct his reasoning on this particular.

In some good MSS., says Bloomfield, all these passages are found together in Psalm 14. This would strengthen the argument, since that Psalm, as we have seen, expressly, not by implication, describes the moral condition of “the children of men;” but whether found together or scattered, this is clear, that St. Paul intended us to consider these passages just like that of our Lord when he speaks of the evils which proceed out of the heart of man. Certainly Christ intended to show what the evils are of which every man is not only capable, but actually guilty; although an overt act of every kind might not take place in each individual. So here. Some of these evils are chargeable upon every one; and there is none of which, under certain circumstances, man’s lapsed nature does not render him capable: St. Paul presents a list of moral offences, some of the mind and heart, others more conspicuous in act; of some of which he tells us, on the authority of the Scriptures, every man is guilty; and so he establishes the conclusion which follows. This conclusion is thus solemnly introduced, Now we know that whatsoever the law says — using the term law in its general sense for the whole Scriptures, through which, in fact, the moral law of the Jews was diffused, it saith, it speaks, to them who are under the law, for their information and instruction. The apostle neither says nor means that it speaks OF or CONCERNING them that are under the law, as though the passages quoted related to the Jews only, which would fall short of the apostle’s design; but the meaning is, that the law in these general declarations as to the sinfulness of all men, taught the Jews, to whom this epistle was specially addressed, and through them teaches all, this great and humbling doctrine, but one most necessary to be known, in order that men may be prepared to receive the Gospel — THAT THE WHOLE WORLD, comprising both Jews and Gentiles, IS GUILTY BEFORE GOD; and this it does in order that every mouth may be stopped, as being consciously guilty, and having no answer or excuse to offer, but might humbly acknowledge that guilt which could neither be denied nor palliated, and from the punishment of which there was but one way of escape. To stop the mouth is to silence or take away all power of defence; and to be guilty, upodikov, is to be liable to legal punishment; and these quotations from their own Scriptures, in which Jews as well as Gentiles are included, seeing that they speak of men universally in their fallen state, tended strongly to produce the effect for which St. Paul adduces them, — to silence entirely any delusive attempt to which the Jews resorted to palliate or excuse their sins, as though they were not reckoned to them as such, and to awaken them to a due sense of their great danger, as equally with the Gentiles exposed to the wrath of God. In the earnestness of St. Paul to produce this conviction, we must not only regard him as a theologian, endeavouring to clear the way for an important argument, but as a minister pitying the blind delusions of his people, and resorting to various modes of conviction to touch their consciences and to arouse them to a just consideration of their state.

V. 15. Isaiah 59:7, 8

Verse 15. Their feet are swift to shed blood] They make use of every means in their power to destroy the reputation and lives of the innocent.

Verses 9-18. What then — Well then, (may a Jew further urge,) since you grant that the Jews have the advantage of the Gentiles in point of privileges, having the oracles of God, the promises which he will never fail to observe, and the principles of righteousness which he will never himself violate in his conduct, are we not in a better condition for obtaining justification by our own obedience to his law? No, in no wise — The apostle answers, that all are equal in that point, both Jews and Gentiles. For we have before proved — Namely, in the two former chapters; both Jews — By the breach of the written law; and Gentiles — By transgressing the law of nature; that they are all — Every one of them, without exception; under sin — Under the guilt and power of it: and so are equally excluded from the possibility of being justified by works. And therefore gospel righteousness, or justification by faith, is no less necessary for the one than for the other. As it is written — Here he proves further, concerning the Jews, that they were unrighteous before God, by testimonies taken from their own prophets concerning their universal corruption, and he rightly cites David and Isaiah, (see the margin,) though they spoke primarily of their own age, and expressed what manner of men God sees when he looks down from heaven, not what they become when renewed by his grace. There is none righteous — That lives exactly according to the rule of God’s law. This is the general proposition, the particulars follow; their dispositions and designs, verses 11, 12; their discourse, verses 13, 14; their actions, verses 16-18. There is none that understandeth — The things of God, till God, by giving them the spirit of wisdom and revelation, open the eyes of their understanding; there is none that seeketh after God — To know, worship, and serve him aright; to obtain his favour, recover his image, and enjoy communion with him; that is, till God, by his grace, incline them to seek after him. They are all gone out of the way — Namely, of truth into error, of righteousness into sin, of happiness into misery. They are together — One and all; become unprofitable — Unfit and unable to bring forth any good fruit, and to profit either themselves or others. There is none that doeth good — From a right principle, to a right end, by a right rule, and in a right spirit; or perfectly, according to the exact meaning of the law which they are under. Their throat is an open sepulchre — Noisome and dangerous as such; or, their speech is offensive, corrupt, and loathsome. Observe the progress of evil discourse; proceeding out of the heart, through the throat, tongue, lips, till the whole mouth is filled therewith. The poison of asps — Infectious, deadly, tale-bearing, evil-speaking, backbiting, slandering, is under (for honey is on) their lips. An asp is a venomous kind of serpent. Whose mouth is full of cursing — Against God; and bitterness — Provoking language against their neighbour: the most shocking profaneness mingles itself with that malignity of heart toward their fellow-creatures which breathes in every word. Their feet are swift — To run toward the places where they have appointed; to shed the blood — Of the innocent. Destruction — To others; and misery — As to themselves; are in their ways — In their desires and designs, their dispositions, words, and actions. And the way of peace — Which can only spring from righteousness; they have not known — By experience, nor regarded. And, to sum up all in one word, the great cause of all this depravity is, that there is no fear of God before their eyes — Much less is the love of God in their hearts: they have no sense of religion, to restrain them from the commission of these enormities.

15. Swift—Like the feet of a hotly pursuing murderer.

Ver. 13.-17. Descriptions of bad men.

An opened grave: so Jeremiah 5:16. So deadly were the arrows of the Chaldeans that the quiver from which they came seemed like a grave opened to receive the dead whom the arrows slew. But more deadly than arrows are the words of the men described in Psalm 5:9. They encourage or provoke to acts of violence and bloodshed: the opening of their mouth involves the opening of a grave to receive those whose death will result from their words. Hence, in the vividness of Eastern imagination,

their throat is called a grave opened to receive the slain. David himself, if not with his lips yet with his pen, dug a grave for Uriah: 2 Samuel 11:14. That the word throat denotes here, as in Psalm 115:7, an organ of speech, is proved by the words tongues and lips following. Beguiling: their tongues being used as instruments of guile. This made their words as dangerous and deadly as

poison of asps, which lies concealed under their lips: word for word from Psalm 140:3. The Psalmist cries for deliverance from bloody and deceitful men. He is afraid of their secret plots. The lips with which the plots are communicated to others, and thus matured, are as deadly to him as the poison of a serpent. He appeals to God against them, and calls for their destruction.

Whose mouth etc.: from Psalm 10:7: a description of proud men who lay snares for the poor and innocent, and expect to escape, saying that God has forgotten their deeds and will not punish. The Psalmist appeals to God as one who beholds mischief and spite, and will requite it. This teaching of the Psalms is confirmed by a quotation from Isaiah 59:7, 8. Here are men whose

feet are quick when their purpose is to shed blood. If you trace their steps, you find that they have left behind them ruin and calamity. War and violence are their only element:

and a way of peace they have not known. Yet these men were Israelites: for the prophet declares (Isaiah 59:2) that their sins have separated them from their God. Therefore, in his view, God is angry with the sins even of those who possess the Law and bear in their bodies the seal of the covenant.

Verses 10-19. As it is written, There is none righteous, &c. — As the apostle himself asserts that he resumes the subject from which he had diverged in order to rouse the Jew’s from their false security, and now comes back to the great point that both Jews and Gentiles were equally guilty of sin, and obnoxious to “the wrath of God, revealed from heaven against it,” it is clear that the scriptures he quotes were designed to establish this fundamental doctrine. The question is, how they do so? To which it may be replied that, if the passages are to be understood as confined to the Jewish nation, they would only prove that at different periods the evil characters mentioned were to be found in it; and as vicious persons of the same kind have been found in all ages and in all places, — or those dispositions among men which, if not checked by external circumstances, break out into open wickedness, — it might be infallibly argued from this, that we cannot account for the majority of mankind being wicked, without admitting such a taint of human nature as must necessarily lead all to actual sin, not renewed by the grace of God. But though this would establish a firmer foundation for what follows, the apostle must be understood as speaking more directly. — The passages are quoted from different Psalms, and the last of them from the Prophet Isaiah; but it is clear that they were understood by St. Paul as not only moral descriptions of the Jews of a particular age, or of a particular class, but of these persons as men, wicked and unrenewed, and so equally descriptive of men in general, either as to the tendencies of their nature, or their actual overt acts. The first quotation contained in verses 10-12, is from Psalm 14, where it is expressly said to be a description of “the children of men;” that is, of all men in their unrenewed state, until, indeed, they become the children of God. It is, in fact, the solemn decision of God upon an inspection of a fallen race. “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside,” &c. The 13th verse unites quotations from Psalm 5:9, and Psalm 140:3; in neither of which places are any particular persons spoken of, but wicked men are spoken of generally, as “the foolish,” “the evil man,” “the wicked,” “the violent,” &c. The quotation in verse 14 is taken from Psalm 10:7, and there too it refers to “the wicked” generally; and to wicked, proud, and oppressive men, not confined to one age or place, and to those vices, the roots and seeds of which are in the nature of all. The remainder is taken from Isaiah 59:7, 8, where it seems upon the face of the passage, that from complaining of the wickedness of his people, the prophet is carried out to expatiate upon the wickedness of human nature, or of men in general; at least so he was evidently understood by the apostle, who was, independent of his inspiration, better judge of the Hebrew Scriptures than some who have attempted to correct his reasoning on this particular.

In some good MSS., says Bloomfield, all these passages are found together in Psalm 14. This would strengthen the argument, since that Psalm, as we have seen, expressly, not by implication, describes the moral condition of “the children of men;” but whether found together or scattered, this is clear, that St. Paul intended us to consider these passages just like that of our Lord when he speaks of the evils which proceed out of the heart of man. Certainly Christ intended to show what the evils are of which every man is not only capable, but actually guilty; although an overt act of every kind might not take place in each individual. So here. Some of these evils are chargeable upon every one; and there is none of which, under certain circumstances, man’s lapsed nature does not render him capable: St. Paul presents a list of moral offences, some of the mind and heart, others more conspicuous in act; of some of which he tells us, on the authority of the Scriptures, every man is guilty; and so he establishes the conclusion which follows. This conclusion is thus solemnly introduced, Now we know that whatsoever the law says — using the term law in its general sense for the whole Scriptures, through which, in fact, the moral law of the Jews was diffused, it saith, it speaks, to them who are under the law, for their information and instruction. The apostle neither says nor means that it speaks OF or CONCERNING them that are under the law, as though the passages quoted related to the Jews only, which would fall short of the apostle’s design; but the meaning is, that the law in these general declarations as to the sinfulness of all men, taught the Jews, to whom this epistle was specially addressed, and through them teaches all, this great and humbling doctrine, but one most necessary to be known, in order that men may be prepared to receive the Gospel — THAT THE WHOLE WORLD, comprising both Jews and Gentiles, IS GUILTY BEFORE GOD; and this it does in order that every mouth may be stopped, as being consciously guilty, and having no answer or excuse to offer, but might humbly acknowledge that guilt which could neither be denied nor palliated, and from the punishment of which there was but one way of escape. To stop the mouth is to silence or take away all power of defence; and to be guilty, upodikov, is to be liable to legal punishment; and these quotations from their own Scriptures, in which Jews as well as Gentiles are included, seeing that they speak of men universally in their fallen state, tended strongly to produce the effect for which St. Paul adduces them, — to silence entirely any delusive attempt to which the Jews resorted to palliate or excuse their sins, as though they were not reckoned to them as such, and to awaken them to a due sense of their great danger, as equally with the Gentiles exposed to the wrath of God. In the earnestness of St. Paul to produce this conviction, we must not only regard him as a theologian, endeavouring to clear the way for an important argument, but as a minister pitying the blind delusions of his people, and resorting to various modes of conviction to touch their consciences and to arouse them to a just consideration of their state.

Verse 16. Destruction and misery are in their ways] DESTRUCTION is their work, and MISERY to themselves and to the objects of their malice is the consequence of their impious and murderous conduct.

Verses 9-18. What then — Well then, (may a Jew further urge,) since you grant that the Jews have the advantage of the Gentiles in point of privileges, having the oracles of God, the promises which he will never fail to observe, and the principles of righteousness which he will never himself violate in his conduct, are we not in a better condition for obtaining justification by our own obedience to his law? No, in no wise — The apostle answers, that all are equal in that point, both Jews and Gentiles. For we have before proved — Namely, in the two former chapters; both Jews — By the breach of the written law; and Gentiles — By transgressing the law of nature; that they are all — Every one of them, without exception; under sin — Under the guilt and power of it: and so are equally excluded from the possibility of being justified by works. And therefore gospel righteousness, or justification by faith, is no less necessary for the one than for the other. As it is written — Here he proves further, concerning the Jews, that they were unrighteous before God, by testimonies taken from their own prophets concerning their universal corruption, and he rightly cites David and Isaiah, (see the margin,) though they spoke primarily of their own age, and expressed what manner of men God sees when he looks down from heaven, not what they become when renewed by his grace. There is none righteous — That lives exactly according to the rule of God’s law. This is the general proposition, the particulars follow; their dispositions and designs, verses 11, 12; their discourse, verses 13, 14; their actions, verses 16-18. There is none that understandeth — The things of God, till God, by giving them the spirit of wisdom and revelation, open the eyes of their understanding; there is none that seeketh after God — To know, worship, and serve him aright; to obtain his favour, recover his image, and enjoy communion with him; that is, till God, by his grace, incline them to seek after him. They are all gone out of the way — Namely, of truth into error, of righteousness into sin, of happiness into misery. They are together — One and all; become unprofitable — Unfit and unable to bring forth any good fruit, and to profit either themselves or others. There is none that doeth good — From a right principle, to a right end, by a right rule, and in a right spirit; or perfectly, according to the exact meaning of the law which they are under. Their throat is an open sepulchre — Noisome and dangerous as such; or, their speech is offensive, corrupt, and loathsome. Observe the progress of evil discourse; proceeding out of the heart, through the throat, tongue, lips, till the whole mouth is filled therewith. The poison of asps — Infectious, deadly, tale-bearing, evil-speaking, backbiting, slandering, is under (for honey is on) their lips. An asp is a venomous kind of serpent. Whose mouth is full of cursing — Against God; and bitterness — Provoking language against their neighbour: the most shocking profaneness mingles itself with that malignity of heart toward their fellow-creatures which breathes in every word. Their feet are swift — To run toward the places where they have appointed; to shed the blood — Of the innocent. Destruction — To others; and misery — As to themselves; are in their ways — In their desires and designs, their dispositions, words, and actions. And the way of peace — Which can only spring from righteousness; they have not known — By experience, nor regarded. And, to sum up all in one word, the great cause of all this depravity is, that there is no fear of God before their eyes — Much less is the love of God in their hearts: they have no sense of religion, to restrain them from the commission of these enormities.

Ver. 13.-17. Descriptions of bad men.

An opened grave: so Jeremiah 5:16. So deadly were the arrows of the Chaldeans that the quiver from which they came seemed like a grave opened to receive the dead whom the arrows slew. But more deadly than arrows are the words of the men described in Psalm 5:9. They encourage or provoke to acts of violence and bloodshed: the opening of their mouth involves the opening of a grave to receive those whose death will result from their words. Hence, in the vividness of Eastern imagination,

their throat is called a grave opened to receive the slain. David himself, if not with his lips yet with his pen, dug a grave for Uriah: 2 Samuel 11:14. That the word throat denotes here, as in Psalm 115:7, an organ of speech, is proved by the words tongues and lips following. Beguiling: their tongues being used as instruments of guile. This made their words as dangerous and deadly as

poison of asps, which lies concealed under their lips: word for word from Psalm 140:3. The Psalmist cries for deliverance from bloody and deceitful men. He is afraid of their secret plots. The lips with which the plots are communicated to others, and thus matured, are as deadly to him as the poison of a serpent. He appeals to God against them, and calls for their destruction.

Whose mouth etc.: from Psalm 10:7: a description of proud men who lay snares for the poor and innocent, and expect to escape, saying that God has forgotten their deeds and will not punish. The Psalmist appeals to God as one who beholds mischief and spite, and will requite it. This teaching of the Psalms is confirmed by a quotation from Isaiah 59:7, 8. Here are men whose

feet are quick when their purpose is to shed blood. If you trace their steps, you find that they have left behind them ruin and calamity. War and violence are their only element:

and a way of peace they have not known. Yet these men were Israelites: for the prophet declares (Isaiah 59:2) that their sins have separated them from their God. Therefore, in his view, God is angry with the sins even of those who possess the Law and bear in their bodies the seal of the covenant.

Verses 10-19. As it is written, There is none righteous, &c. — As the apostle himself asserts that he resumes the subject from which he had diverged in order to rouse the Jew’s from their false security, and now comes back to the great point that both Jews and Gentiles were equally guilty of sin, and obnoxious to “the wrath of God, revealed from heaven against it,” it is clear that the scriptures he quotes were designed to establish this fundamental doctrine. The question is, how they do so? To which it may be replied that, if the passages are to be understood as confined to the Jewish nation, they would only prove that at different periods the evil characters mentioned were to be found in it; and as vicious persons of the same kind have been found in all ages and in all places, — or those dispositions among men which, if not checked by external circumstances, break out into open wickedness, — it might be infallibly argued from this, that we cannot account for the majority of mankind being wicked, without admitting such a taint of human nature as must necessarily lead all to actual sin, not renewed by the grace of God. But though this would establish a firmer foundation for what follows, the apostle must be understood as speaking more directly. — The passages are quoted from different Psalms, and the last of them from the Prophet Isaiah; but it is clear that they were understood by St. Paul as not only moral descriptions of the Jews of a particular age, or of a particular class, but of these persons as men, wicked and unrenewed, and so equally descriptive of men in general, either as to the tendencies of their nature, or their actual overt acts. The first quotation contained in verses 10-12, is from Psalm 14, where it is expressly said to be a description of “the children of men;” that is, of all men in their unrenewed state, until, indeed, they become the children of God. It is, in fact, the solemn decision of God upon an inspection of a fallen race. “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside,” &c. The 13th verse unites quotations from Psalm 5:9, and Psalm 140:3; in neither of which places are any particular persons spoken of, but wicked men are spoken of generally, as “the foolish,” “the evil man,” “the wicked,” “the violent,” &c. The quotation in verse 14 is taken from Psalm 10:7, and there too it refers to “the wicked” generally; and to wicked, proud, and oppressive men, not confined to one age or place, and to those vices, the roots and seeds of which are in the nature of all. The remainder is taken from Isaiah 59:7, 8, where it seems upon the face of the passage, that from complaining of the wickedness of his people, the prophet is carried out to expatiate upon the wickedness of human nature, or of men in general; at least so he was evidently understood by the apostle, who was, independent of his inspiration, better judge of the Hebrew Scriptures than some who have attempted to correct his reasoning on this particular.

In some good MSS., says Bloomfield, all these passages are found together in Psalm 14. This would strengthen the argument, since that Psalm, as we have seen, expressly, not by implication, describes the moral condition of “the children of men;” but whether found together or scattered, this is clear, that St. Paul intended us to consider these passages just like that of our Lord when he speaks of the evils which proceed out of the heart of man. Certainly Christ intended to show what the evils are of which every man is not only capable, but actually guilty; although an overt act of every kind might not take place in each individual. So here. Some of these evils are chargeable upon every one; and there is none of which, under certain circumstances, man’s lapsed nature does not render him capable: St. Paul presents a list of moral offences, some of the mind and heart, others more conspicuous in act; of some of which he tells us, on the authority of the Scriptures, every man is guilty; and so he establishes the conclusion which follows. This conclusion is thus solemnly introduced, Now we know that whatsoever the law says — using the term law in its general sense for the whole Scriptures, through which, in fact, the moral law of the Jews was diffused, it saith, it speaks, to them who are under the law, for their information and instruction. The apostle neither says nor means that it speaks OF or CONCERNING them that are under the law, as though the passages quoted related to the Jews only, which would fall short of the apostle’s design; but the meaning is, that the law in these general declarations as to the sinfulness of all men, taught the Jews, to whom this epistle was specially addressed, and through them teaches all, this great and humbling doctrine, but one most necessary to be known, in order that men may be prepared to receive the Gospel — THAT THE WHOLE WORLD, comprising both Jews and Gentiles, IS GUILTY BEFORE GOD; and this it does in order that every mouth may be stopped, as being consciously guilty, and having no answer or excuse to offer, but might humbly acknowledge that guilt which could neither be denied nor palliated, and from the punishment of which there was but one way of escape. To stop the mouth is to silence or take away all power of defence; and to be guilty, upodikov, is to be liable to legal punishment; and these quotations from their own Scriptures, in which Jews as well as Gentiles are included, seeing that they speak of men universally in their fallen state, tended strongly to produce the effect for which St. Paul adduces them, — to silence entirely any delusive attempt to which the Jews resorted to palliate or excuse their sins, as though they were not reckoned to them as such, and to awaken them to a due sense of their great danger, as equally with the Gentiles exposed to the wrath of God. In the earnestness of St. Paul to produce this conviction, we must not only regard him as a theologian, endeavouring to clear the way for an important argument, but as a minister pitying the blind delusions of his people, and resorting to various modes of conviction to touch their consciences and to arouse them to a just consideration of their state.

V. 17. Of peace-Which can only spring from righteousness.

Verse 17. And the way of peace have they not known] They neither have peace in themselves, nor do they suffer others to live in quiet: they are brooders and fomenters of discord.

Verses 9-18. What then — Well then, (may a Jew further urge,) since you grant that the Jews have the advantage of the Gentiles in point of privileges, having the oracles of God, the promises which he will never fail to observe, and the principles of righteousness which he will never himself violate in his conduct, are we not in a better condition for obtaining justification by our own obedience to his law? No, in no wise — The apostle answers, that all are equal in that point, both Jews and Gentiles. For we have before proved — Namely, in the two former chapters; both Jews — By the breach of the written law; and Gentiles — By transgressing the law of nature; that they are all — Every one of them, without exception; under sin — Under the guilt and power of it: and so are equally excluded from the possibility of being justified by works. And therefore gospel righteousness, or justification by faith, is no less necessary for the one than for the other. As it is written — Here he proves further, concerning the Jews, that they were unrighteous before God, by testimonies taken from their own prophets concerning their universal corruption, and he rightly cites David and Isaiah, (see the margin,) though they spoke primarily of their own age, and expressed what manner of men God sees when he looks down from heaven, not what they become when renewed by his grace. There is none righteous — That lives exactly according to the rule of God’s law. This is the general proposition, the particulars follow; their dispositions and designs, verses 11, 12; their discourse, verses 13, 14; their actions, verses 16-18. There is none that understandeth — The things of God, till God, by giving them the spirit of wisdom and revelation, open the eyes of their understanding; there is none that seeketh after God — To know, worship, and serve him aright; to obtain his favour, recover his image, and enjoy communion with him; that is, till God, by his grace, incline them to seek after him. They are all gone out of the way — Namely, of truth into error, of righteousness into sin, of happiness into misery. They are together — One and all; become unprofitable — Unfit and unable to bring forth any good fruit, and to profit either themselves or others. There is none that doeth good — From a right principle, to a right end, by a right rule, and in a right spirit; or perfectly, according to the exact meaning of the law which they are under. Their throat is an open sepulchre — Noisome and dangerous as such; or, their speech is offensive, corrupt, and loathsome. Observe the progress of evil discourse; proceeding out of the heart, through the throat, tongue, lips, till the whole mouth is filled therewith. The poison of asps — Infectious, deadly, tale-bearing, evil-speaking, backbiting, slandering, is under (for honey is on) their lips. An asp is a venomous kind of serpent. Whose mouth is full of cursing — Against God; and bitterness — Provoking language against their neighbour: the most shocking profaneness mingles itself with that malignity of heart toward their fellow-creatures which breathes in every word. Their feet are swift — To run toward the places where they have appointed; to shed the blood — Of the innocent. Destruction — To others; and misery — As to themselves; are in their ways — In their desires and designs, their dispositions, words, and actions. And the way of peace — Which can only spring from righteousness; they have not known — By experience, nor regarded. And, to sum up all in one word, the great cause of all this depravity is, that there is no fear of God before their eyes — Much less is the love of God in their hearts: they have no sense of religion, to restrain them from the commission of these enormities.

17. Way of peace—Either with God or man. Not known—So completely are their minds occupied with wickedness that righteousness is a thing unthought, unrealized, unknown. This, alas! is often the condition of depraved men. These dark strokes do not indeed describe what all unregenerate persons visibly and practically are. They only declare the depravability, the range of capacity for actual wickedness which the natural man possesses, and the actual wickedness at which multitudes do, and all can, arrive without grace or moral culture.

Ver. 13.-17. Descriptions of bad men.

An opened grave: so Jeremiah 5:16. So deadly were the arrows of the Chaldeans that the quiver from which they came seemed like a grave opened to receive the dead whom the arrows slew. But more deadly than arrows are the words of the men described in Psalm 5:9. They encourage or provoke to acts of violence and bloodshed: the opening of their mouth involves the opening of a grave to receive those whose death will result from their words. Hence, in the vividness of Eastern imagination,

their throat is called a grave opened to receive the slain. David himself, if not with his lips yet with his pen, dug a grave for Uriah: 2 Samuel 11:14. That the word throat denotes here, as in Psalm 115:7, an organ of speech, is proved by the words tongues and lips following. Beguiling: their tongues being used as instruments of guile. This made their words as dangerous and deadly as

poison of asps, which lies concealed under their lips: word for word from Psalm 140:3. The Psalmist cries for deliverance from bloody and deceitful men. He is afraid of their secret plots. The lips with which the plots are communicated to others, and thus matured, are as deadly to him as the poison of a serpent. He appeals to God against them, and calls for their destruction.

Whose mouth etc.: from Psalm 10:7: a description of proud men who lay snares for the poor and innocent, and expect to escape, saying that God has forgotten their deeds and will not punish. The Psalmist appeals to God as one who beholds mischief and spite, and will requite it. This teaching of the Psalms is confirmed by a quotation from Isaiah 59:7, 8. Here are men whose

feet are quick when their purpose is to shed blood. If you trace their steps, you find that they have left behind them ruin and calamity. War and violence are their only element:

and a way of peace they have not known. Yet these men were Israelites: for the prophet declares (Isaiah 59:2) that their sins have separated them from their God. Therefore, in his view, God is angry with the sins even of those who possess the Law and bear in their bodies the seal of the covenant.

Verses 10-19. As it is written, There is none righteous, &c. — As the apostle himself asserts that he resumes the subject from which he had diverged in order to rouse the Jew’s from their false security, and now comes back to the great point that both Jews and Gentiles were equally guilty of sin, and obnoxious to “the wrath of God, revealed from heaven against it,” it is clear that the scriptures he quotes were designed to establish this fundamental doctrine. The question is, how they do so? To which it may be replied that, if the passages are to be understood as confined to the Jewish nation, they would only prove that at different periods the evil characters mentioned were to be found in it; and as vicious persons of the same kind have been found in all ages and in all places, — or those dispositions among men which, if not checked by external circumstances, break out into open wickedness, — it might be infallibly argued from this, that we cannot account for the majority of mankind being wicked, without admitting such a taint of human nature as must necessarily lead all to actual sin, not renewed by the grace of God. But though this would establish a firmer foundation for what follows, the apostle must be understood as speaking more directly. — The passages are quoted from different Psalms, and the last of them from the Prophet Isaiah; but it is clear that they were understood by St. Paul as not only moral descriptions of the Jews of a particular age, or of a particular class, but of these persons as men, wicked and unrenewed, and so equally descriptive of men in general, either as to the tendencies of their nature, or their actual overt acts. The first quotation contained in verses 10-12, is from Psalm 14, where it is expressly said to be a description of “the children of men;” that is, of all men in their unrenewed state, until, indeed, they become the children of God. It is, in fact, the solemn decision of God upon an inspection of a fallen race. “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside,” &c. The 13th verse unites quotations from Psalm 5:9, and Psalm 140:3; in neither of which places are any particular persons spoken of, but wicked men are spoken of generally, as “the foolish,” “the evil man,” “the wicked,” “the violent,” &c. The quotation in verse 14 is taken from Psalm 10:7, and there too it refers to “the wicked” generally; and to wicked, proud, and oppressive men, not confined to one age or place, and to those vices, the roots and seeds of which are in the nature of all. The remainder is taken from Isaiah 59:7, 8, where it seems upon the face of the passage, that from complaining of the wickedness of his people, the prophet is carried out to expatiate upon the wickedness of human nature, or of men in general; at least so he was evidently understood by the apostle, who was, independent of his inspiration, better judge of the Hebrew Scriptures than some who have attempted to correct his reasoning on this particular.

In some good MSS., says Bloomfield, all these passages are found together in Psalm 14. This would strengthen the argument, since that Psalm, as we have seen, expressly, not by implication, describes the moral condition of “the children of men;” but whether found together or scattered, this is clear, that St. Paul intended us to consider these passages just like that of our Lord when he speaks of the evils which proceed out of the heart of man. Certainly Christ intended to show what the evils are of which every man is not only capable, but actually guilty; although an overt act of every kind might not take place in each individual. So here. Some of these evils are chargeable upon every one; and there is none of which, under certain circumstances, man’s lapsed nature does not render him capable: St. Paul presents a list of moral offences, some of the mind and heart, others more conspicuous in act; of some of which he tells us, on the authority of the Scriptures, every man is guilty; and so he establishes the conclusion which follows. This conclusion is thus solemnly introduced, Now we know that whatsoever the law says — using the term law in its general sense for the whole Scriptures, through which, in fact, the moral law of the Jews was diffused, it saith, it speaks, to them who are under the law, for their information and instruction. The apostle neither says nor means that it speaks OF or CONCERNING them that are under the law, as though the passages quoted related to the Jews only, which would fall short of the apostle’s design; but the meaning is, that the law in these general declarations as to the sinfulness of all men, taught the Jews, to whom this epistle was specially addressed, and through them teaches all, this great and humbling doctrine, but one most necessary to be known, in order that men may be prepared to receive the Gospel — THAT THE WHOLE WORLD, comprising both Jews and Gentiles, IS GUILTY BEFORE GOD; and this it does in order that every mouth may be stopped, as being consciously guilty, and having no answer or excuse to offer, but might humbly acknowledge that guilt which could neither be denied nor palliated, and from the punishment of which there was but one way of escape. To stop the mouth is to silence or take away all power of defence; and to be guilty, upodikov, is to be liable to legal punishment; and these quotations from their own Scriptures, in which Jews as well as Gentiles are included, seeing that they speak of men universally in their fallen state, tended strongly to produce the effect for which St. Paul adduces them, — to silence entirely any delusive attempt to which the Jews resorted to palliate or excuse their sins, as though they were not reckoned to them as such, and to awaken them to a due sense of their great danger, as equally with the Gentiles exposed to the wrath of God. In the earnestness of St. Paul to produce this conviction, we must not only regard him as a theologian, endeavouring to clear the way for an important argument, but as a minister pitying the blind delusions of his people, and resorting to various modes of conviction to touch their consciences and to arouse them to a just consideration of their state.

V. 18. The fear of God is not before their eyes-Much less is the love of God in their heart. Psalm 36:1.

Verse 18. There is no fear of God before their eyes.] This completes their bad character; they are downright atheists, at least practically such. They fear not God’s judgments, although his eye is upon them in their evil ways. There is not one article of what is charged against the Jews and Gentiles here that may not be found justified by the histories of both, in the most ample manner. And what was true of them in those primitive times is true of them still. With very little variation, these are the evils in which the vast mass of mankind delight and live. Look especially at men in a state of warfare; look at the nations of Europe, who enjoy most of the light of God; see what has taken place among them from 1792 to 1814; see what destruction of millions, and what misery of hundreds of millions, have been the consequence of Satanic excitement in fallen, ferocious passions! O SIN, what hast thou done! How many myriads of souls hast thou hurried, unprepared, into the eternal world! Who, among men or angels, can estimate the greatness of this calamity! this butchery of souls! What widows, what orphans, are left to deplore their sacrificed husbands and parents, and their own consequent wretchedness! And whence sprang all this? From that, whence come all wars and fightings; the evil desires of men; the lust of dominion; the insatiable thirst for money; and the desire to be sole and independent. This is the sin that ruined our first parents, expelled them from paradise, and which has descended to all their posterity; and proves fully, incontestably proves, that we are their legitimate offspring; the fallen progeny of fallen parents; children in whose ways are destruction and misery; in whose heart there is no faith; and before whose eyes there is nothing of the fear of God.

Verses 9-18. What then — Well then, (may a Jew further urge,) since you grant that the Jews have the advantage of the Gentiles in point of privileges, having the oracles of God, the promises which he will never fail to observe, and the principles of righteousness which he will never himself violate in his conduct, are we not in a better condition for obtaining justification by our own obedience to his law? No, in no wise — The apostle answers, that all are equal in that point, both Jews and Gentiles. For we have before proved — Namely, in the two former chapters; both Jews — By the breach of the written law; and Gentiles — By transgressing the law of nature; that they are all — Every one of them, without exception; under sin — Under the guilt and power of it: and so are equally excluded from the possibility of being justified by works. And therefore gospel righteousness, or justification by faith, is no less necessary for the one than for the other. As it is written — Here he proves further, concerning the Jews, that they were unrighteous before God, by testimonies taken from their own prophets concerning their universal corruption, and he rightly cites David and Isaiah, (see the margin,) though they spoke primarily of their own age, and expressed what manner of men God sees when he looks down from heaven, not what they become when renewed by his grace. There is none righteous — That lives exactly according to the rule of God’s law. This is the general proposition, the particulars follow; their dispositions and designs, verses 11, 12; their discourse, verses 13, 14; their actions, verses 16-18. There is none that understandeth — The things of God, till God, by giving them the spirit of wisdom and revelation, open the eyes of their understanding; there is none that seeketh after God — To know, worship, and serve him aright; to obtain his favour, recover his image, and enjoy communion with him; that is, till God, by his grace, incline them to seek after him. They are all gone out of the way — Namely, of truth into error, of righteousness into sin, of happiness into misery. They are together — One and all; become unprofitable — Unfit and unable to bring forth any good fruit, and to profit either themselves or others. There is none that doeth good — From a right principle, to a right end, by a right rule, and in a right spirit; or perfectly, according to the exact meaning of the law which they are under. Their throat is an open sepulchre — Noisome and dangerous as such; or, their speech is offensive, corrupt, and loathsome. Observe the progress of evil discourse; proceeding out of the heart, through the throat, tongue, lips, till the whole mouth is filled therewith. The poison of asps — Infectious, deadly, tale-bearing, evil-speaking, backbiting, slandering, is under (for honey is on) their lips. An asp is a venomous kind of serpent. Whose mouth is full of cursing — Against God; and bitterness — Provoking language against their neighbour: the most shocking profaneness mingles itself with that malignity of heart toward their fellow-creatures which breathes in every word. Their feet are swift — To run toward the places where they have appointed; to shed the blood — Of the innocent. Destruction — To others; and misery — As to themselves; are in their ways — In their desires and designs, their dispositions, words, and actions. And the way of peace — Which can only spring from righteousness; they have not known — By experience, nor regarded. And, to sum up all in one word, the great cause of all this depravity is, that there is no fear of God before their eyes — Much less is the love of God in their hearts: they have no sense of religion, to restrain them from the commission of these enormities.

Ver. 18. An explanation of the conduct described in the foregoing quotations: from Psalm 36:1. As the writer ponders the transgression of the wicked, he learns its cause, absence of

fear of God. He is not before their eyes as an object inspiring fear: hence their wickedness.

The real force of the above quotations lies not so much in the words quoted as in the entire context, and in the fact that such quotations might be indefinitely multiplied. They are a fair sample of the entire O.T., and prove its complete agreement with the teaching of Rom. 2. For the bad men here described were undoubtedly Jews.

On what principle, and with what precise object, did Paul select these quotations? We cannot conceive that he gives here a universal, or even a comparatively fair, description of the nation. He has rather gathered together into one awful picture the very darkest lines of the many delineations of character contained in the Jewish Scriptures. The men before us are of the worst kind. The opening of their mouths is the opening of a grave: they are deadly as vipers: their language is a curse: the prospect of murder hurries them on with rapid steps: where they have been, destruction and calamity are: and how to walk so as to be at peace, they know not. The delineations form one picture: Romans 3:13, 14 describe their words; Romans 3:15-17, their actions; and Romans 3:18 gives the cause of the whole. Paul has, in my view, put together this mosaic of sin in order to prove that the O.T. teaches that Jewish privileges do not in themselves save even from the lowest depths of sin. He does not say that the objector in Rom. 2 is as bad as these men. But whatever he pleads for himself these men might have pleaded. These bad men, whose names are forgotten but in whose character is plainly written the condemnation of God, arise from oblivion to declare that outward privileges, even though they come from God, and outward connection with the people of God, do not necessarily save.

Verses 10-19. As it is written, There is none righteous, &c. — As the apostle himself asserts that he resumes the subject from which he had diverged in order to rouse the Jew’s from their false security, and now comes back to the great point that both Jews and Gentiles were equally guilty of sin, and obnoxious to “the wrath of God, revealed from heaven against it,” it is clear that the scriptures he quotes were designed to establish this fundamental doctrine. The question is, how they do so? To which it may be replied that, if the passages are to be understood as confined to the Jewish nation, they would only prove that at different periods the evil characters mentioned were to be found in it; and as vicious persons of the same kind have been found in all ages and in all places, — or those dispositions among men which, if not checked by external circumstances, break out into open wickedness, — it might be infallibly argued from this, that we cannot account for the majority of mankind being wicked, without admitting such a taint of human nature as must necessarily lead all to actual sin, not renewed by the grace of God. But though this would establish a firmer foundation for what follows, the apostle must be understood as speaking more directly. — The passages are quoted from different Psalms, and the last of them from the Prophet Isaiah; but it is clear that they were understood by St. Paul as not only moral descriptions of the Jews of a particular age, or of a particular class, but of these persons as men, wicked and unrenewed, and so equally descriptive of men in general, either as to the tendencies of their nature, or their actual overt acts. The first quotation contained in verses 10-12, is from Psalm 14, where it is expressly said to be a description of “the children of men;” that is, of all men in their unrenewed state, until, indeed, they become the children of God. It is, in fact, the solemn decision of God upon an inspection of a fallen race. “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside,” &c. The 13th verse unites quotations from Psalm 5:9, and Psalm 140:3; in neither of which places are any particular persons spoken of, but wicked men are spoken of generally, as “the foolish,” “the evil man,” “the wicked,” “the violent,” &c. The quotation in verse 14 is taken from Psalm 10:7, and there too it refers to “the wicked” generally; and to wicked, proud, and oppressive men, not confined to one age or place, and to those vices, the roots and seeds of which are in the nature of all. The remainder is taken from Isaiah 59:7, 8, where it seems upon the face of the passage, that from complaining of the wickedness of his people, the prophet is carried out to expatiate upon the wickedness of human nature, or of men in general; at least so he was evidently understood by the apostle, who was, independent of his inspiration, better judge of the Hebrew Scriptures than some who have attempted to correct his reasoning on this particular.

In some good MSS., says Bloomfield, all these passages are found together in Psalm 14. This would strengthen the argument, since that Psalm, as we have seen, expressly, not by implication, describes the moral condition of “the children of men;” but whether found together or scattered, this is clear, that St. Paul intended us to consider these passages just like that of our Lord when he speaks of the evils which proceed out of the heart of man. Certainly Christ intended to show what the evils are of which every man is not only capable, but actually guilty; although an overt act of every kind might not take place in each individual. So here. Some of these evils are chargeable upon every one; and there is none of which, under certain circumstances, man’s lapsed nature does not render him capable: St. Paul presents a list of moral offences, some of the mind and heart, others more conspicuous in act; of some of which he tells us, on the authority of the Scriptures, every man is guilty; and so he establishes the conclusion which follows. This conclusion is thus solemnly introduced, Now we know that whatsoever the law says — using the term law in its general sense for the whole Scriptures, through which, in fact, the moral law of the Jews was diffused, it saith, it speaks, to them who are under the law, for their information and instruction. The apostle neither says nor means that it speaks OF or CONCERNING them that are under the law, as though the passages quoted related to the Jews only, which would fall short of the apostle’s design; but the meaning is, that the law in these general declarations as to the sinfulness of all men, taught the Jews, to whom this epistle was specially addressed, and through them teaches all, this great and humbling doctrine, but one most necessary to be known, in order that men may be prepared to receive the Gospel — THAT THE WHOLE WORLD, comprising both Jews and Gentiles, IS GUILTY BEFORE GOD; and this it does in order that every mouth may be stopped, as being consciously guilty, and having no answer or excuse to offer, but might humbly acknowledge that guilt which could neither be denied nor palliated, and from the punishment of which there was but one way of escape. To stop the mouth is to silence or take away all power of defence; and to be guilty, upodikov, is to be liable to legal punishment; and these quotations from their own Scriptures, in which Jews as well as Gentiles are included, seeing that they speak of men universally in their fallen state, tended strongly to produce the effect for which St. Paul adduces them, — to silence entirely any delusive attempt to which the Jews resorted to palliate or excuse their sins, as though they were not reckoned to them as such, and to awaken them to a due sense of their great danger, as equally with the Gentiles exposed to the wrath of God. In the earnestness of St. Paul to produce this conviction, we must not only regard him as a theologian, endeavouring to clear the way for an important argument, but as a minister pitying the blind delusions of his people, and resorting to various modes of conviction to touch their consciences and to arouse them to a just consideration of their state.

V. 19. Whatsoever the law-The Old Testament.

Saith, it saith to them that are under the law-That is, to those who own its authority; to the Jews, and not the Gentiles. St. Paul quoted no scripture against them, but pleaded with them only from the light of nature. Every mouth-Full of bitterness, Romans 3:14, and yet of boasting, Romans 3:27.

May become guilty-May be fully convicted, and apparently liable to most just condemnation. These things were written of old, and were quoted by St. Paul, not to make men criminal, but to prove them so.

Verse 19. What things soever the law saith] That the word law, here, does not mean the pentateuch, is evident from the preceding quotations, not one of which is taken from that work. Either the term law must here mean the Jewish writings in general, or that rule of moral conduct which God had given to both Jews and Gentiles: to the former in their own Scriptures; to the latter in that law written in their hearts by his own Spirit, and acknowledged in their written codes, and in their pleadings in every civil case. Now, according to this great law, this rule of moral conduct, whether given in a written revelation, as to the Jews, or by the secret inspiration of his Spirit, as in certain cases to the Gentiles, every mouth must be stopped, and the whole world, pav o kosmov, both Jews and Gentiles, stand convicted before God: for all mankind have sinned against this law.

Verses 19, 20. Now what things soever the law saith — That is, the Old Testament, for these quotations are not made from any part of the five books of Moses, but from the Psalms and Prophets; it saith to them that are under the law — That is, to those who own its authority, to the Jews, and not to the Gentiles. The apostle quoted no scripture against them, knowing it would have answered no end to do so, as they did not acknowledge the authority of the Scriptures; but he pleaded with them only from the light of nature; that every mouth — Full of cursing and bitterness: verse 14, and yet of boasting, verse 27, may be stopped — And have nothing to plead; and the whole world — Not only the Gentiles, but the Jews also; may become guilty — May be fully convicted as guilty, and evidently liable to most just condemnation. These things were written of old, and were quoted by Paul, not to make men guilty, but to prove them so. Therefore by the deeds of the law — By works of complete obedience to the law of God, whether natural or revealed; there shall no flesh be justified — Or pronounced righteous. That the word law must here be taken in this extent, appears evidently from the conclusion which the apostle here draws, and from the whole tenor of his subsequent argument; which would have had very little weight, if there had been room for any to object: Though we cannot be justified by our obedience to the law of Moses, we may be justified by our obedience to God’s natural law. And nothing can be more evident, than that the premises from which this conclusion is drawn refer to the Gentiles as well as the Jews; and consequently that law has here, and in many subsequent passages, that general sense. “Every one failing,” says Locke, “of an exact conformity of his actions to the immutable rectitude of that eternal rule of right, mentioned Romans 1:32, will be found unrighteous, and so incur the penalty of the law. That this is the meaning of the expression here used, erga nomou, works of law, is evident, because the apostle’s declaration is concerning pasa sarx, all flesh. But we know the heathen world were not under the law of Moses.” For by the law — By that written on man’s heart, as well as by that revealed, is the knowledge of sin — Of our sinfulness and guilt, of our weakness and wretchedness. This strongly implies the broken and disordered state of human nature; in consequence of which, the precepts which God gives us, even the moral precepts, serve only, or at least chiefly, to convict us of guilt, and not to produce an obedience by which we can finally be acquitted and accepted. Whereas, were we not fallen and depraved creatures, by his holy law we should have the knowledge of our being righteous; for when weighed in the balance of it, we should not be found wanting.

Ver. 19. What things soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law. Therefore it is quite erroneous in thee, oh jewish teacher, to apply the above dark portrait wholly to the gentile world. Most of the words occur in other places, with the fullest sanction of revelation. Psalm 40:3. Proverbs 1:16. Therefore the words wanting in the Hebrew text, may have been collected in the Greek text as paraphrases.

19. Under the law—The Jew cannot claim that these passages describe Gentilism alone; their actual application is to the Jews, and the conclusive authority is their own Old Testament. Every mouth may be stopped— Scripture, like a gag, suppresses all contradiction from Jewish lips. All the world—So that the Jew is compelled to take rank with the Gentile on the common footing of universal ruin before God. The Jew is now silenced, but reappears again in the ninth chapter. Yet repressive as is the hand, and often severe as is the tone, of the apostle upon the Jew, how expansive and progressive are his views! So far as God is concerned, to him are attributed a divine impartiality over all our race. So far as the Jew is concerned, he is emancipated from a burdensome ritual, and brought into equal brotherhood with his brother man. So far as Christianity is concerned, it breaks the shell of narrow Judaism, and spreads its wings over all the races of mankind.

Ver. 19. A principle which both readers and opponents know, and which gives divine authority to the foregoing quotations. That quotations from the Psalms and the Book of Isaiah are spoken of as a voice of the Law, implies that these books are an authoritative declaration of God’s will concerning man’s conduct and of the principles on which He governs, and will judge, the world; and prove that in Paul’s view even man’s cry to God for deliverance, e.g. Psa. 140, was also in some real sense God’s voice to man.

To those in the Law: those to whom the sacred books were given, and to whom they were therefore the moral element of life and action. Cp. 1 Corinthians 9:21: “in law of Christ.”

It speaks: consequently the foregoing quotations are God’s voice to Paul s readers.

In order that etc.: purpose for which the words quoted from the Psalms and the Book of Isaiah were written.

Every mouth shut: without excuse for sin. It recalls the excuses in Rom. 2.

All the world: Jews and Gentiles, without exception.

Under judgment: exposed to punishment, because without excuse for their sin. Paul here asserts that God gave the Law, which finds in the O.T. permanent literary embodiment, in order that every man may stand before Him silent and condemned, i.e. in conscious and helpless exposure to punishment. Notice that this purpose of the Law of Moses, of which the teaching of the prophets was a divinely-inspired exposition, is identical with the purpose of God’s manifestation of Himself in Nature, as stated in Romans 1:20: “that they nay be without excuse.” We need not infer that this was the only purpose of these revelations: see Psalm 119:105.

This purpose was far from the thought of the writers of the Psalms. It therefore implies that these last had an Author and purpose greater than the human authors and their immediate purpose. It therefore confirms the proof, afforded by the use of the term the Law to describe the quoted Psalms, that in them spoke One greater than man.

Verses 10-19. As it is written, There is none righteous, &c. — As the apostle himself asserts that he resumes the subject from which he had diverged in order to rouse the Jew’s from their false security, and now comes back to the great point that both Jews and Gentiles were equally guilty of sin, and obnoxious to “the wrath of God, revealed from heaven against it,” it is clear that the scriptures he quotes were designed to establish this fundamental doctrine. The question is, how they do so? To which it may be replied that, if the passages are to be understood as confined to the Jewish nation, they would only prove that at different periods the evil characters mentioned were to be found in it; and as vicious persons of the same kind have been found in all ages and in all places, — or those dispositions among men which, if not checked by external circumstances, break out into open wickedness, — it might be infallibly argued from this, that we cannot account for the majority of mankind being wicked, without admitting such a taint of human nature as must necessarily lead all to actual sin, not renewed by the grace of God. But though this would establish a firmer foundation for what follows, the apostle must be understood as speaking more directly. — The passages are quoted from different Psalms, and the last of them from the Prophet Isaiah; but it is clear that they were understood by St. Paul as not only moral descriptions of the Jews of a particular age, or of a particular class, but of these persons as men, wicked and unrenewed, and so equally descriptive of men in general, either as to the tendencies of their nature, or their actual overt acts. The first quotation contained in verses 10-12, is from Psalm 14, where it is expressly said to be a description of “the children of men;” that is, of all men in their unrenewed state, until, indeed, they become the children of God. It is, in fact, the solemn decision of God upon an inspection of a fallen race. “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside,” &c. The 13th verse unites quotations from Psalm 5:9, and Psalm 140:3; in neither of which places are any particular persons spoken of, but wicked men are spoken of generally, as “the foolish,” “the evil man,” “the wicked,” “the violent,” &c. The quotation in verse 14 is taken from Psalm 10:7, and there too it refers to “the wicked” generally; and to wicked, proud, and oppressive men, not confined to one age or place, and to those vices, the roots and seeds of which are in the nature of all. The remainder is taken from Isaiah 59:7, 8, where it seems upon the face of the passage, that from complaining of the wickedness of his people, the prophet is carried out to expatiate upon the wickedness of human nature, or of men in general; at least so he was evidently understood by the apostle, who was, independent of his inspiration, better judge of the Hebrew Scriptures than some who have attempted to correct his reasoning on this particular.

In some good MSS., says Bloomfield, all these passages are found together in Psalm 14. This would strengthen the argument, since that Psalm, as we have seen, expressly, not by implication, describes the moral condition of “the children of men;” but whether found together or scattered, this is clear, that St. Paul intended us to consider these passages just like that of our Lord when he speaks of the evils which proceed out of the heart of man. Certainly Christ intended to show what the evils are of which every man is not only capable, but actually guilty; although an overt act of every kind might not take place in each individual. So here. Some of these evils are chargeable upon every one; and there is none of which, under certain circumstances, man’s lapsed nature does not render him capable: St. Paul presents a list of moral offences, some of the mind and heart, others more conspicuous in act; of some of which he tells us, on the authority of the Scriptures, every man is guilty; and so he establishes the conclusion which follows. This conclusion is thus solemnly introduced, Now we know that whatsoever the law says — using the term law in its general sense for the whole Scriptures, through which, in fact, the moral law of the Jews was diffused, it saith, it speaks, to them who are under the law, for their information and instruction. The apostle neither says nor means that it speaks OF or CONCERNING them that are under the law, as though the passages quoted related to the Jews only, which would fall short of the apostle’s design; but the meaning is, that the law in these general declarations as to the sinfulness of all men, taught the Jews, to whom this epistle was specially addressed, and through them teaches all, this great and humbling doctrine, but one most necessary to be known, in order that men may be prepared to receive the Gospel — THAT THE WHOLE WORLD, comprising both Jews and Gentiles, IS GUILTY BEFORE GOD; and this it does in order that every mouth may be stopped, as being consciously guilty, and having no answer or excuse to offer, but might humbly acknowledge that guilt which could neither be denied nor palliated, and from the punishment of which there was but one way of escape. To stop the mouth is to silence or take away all power of defence; and to be guilty, upodikov, is to be liable to legal punishment; and these quotations from their own Scriptures, in which Jews as well as Gentiles are included, seeing that they speak of men universally in their fallen state, tended strongly to produce the effect for which St. Paul adduces them, — to silence entirely any delusive attempt to which the Jews resorted to palliate or excuse their sins, as though they were not reckoned to them as such, and to awaken them to a due sense of their great danger, as equally with the Gentiles exposed to the wrath of God. In the earnestness of St. Paul to produce this conviction, we must not only regard him as a theologian, endeavouring to clear the way for an important argument, but as a minister pitying the blind delusions of his people, and resorting to various modes of conviction to touch their consciences and to arouse them to a just consideration of their state.

V. 20. No flesh shall be justified-None shall be forgiven and accepted of God.

By the works of the law-On this ground, that he hath kept the law. St. Paul means chiefly the moral part of it, Romans 3:9, 19; Romans 2:21, 26; &c. which alone is not abolished, Romans 3:31. And it is not without reason, that he so often mentions the works of the law, whether ceremonial or moral; for it was on these only the Jews relied, being wholly ignorant of those that spring from faith.

For by the law is only the knowledge of sin-But no deliverance either from the guilt or power of it.

Verse 20. Therefore, by the deeds of the law] On the score of obedience to this moral law, there shall no flesh, ou pasa sarx, no human being, be justified; none can be accepted in the sight of God. And why? Because by the law is the knowledge of sin: it is that which ascertains what sin is; shows how men have deviated from its righteous demands; and sentences them to death because they have broken it. Thus the law is properly considered as the rule of right; and, unless God had given some such means of discovering what SIN is, the darkened heart of man could never have formed an adequate conception of it. For, as an acknowledged straight edge is the only way in which the straightness or crookedness of a line can be determined, so the moral obliquity of human actions can only be determined by the law of God; that rule of right which proceeds from his own immaculate holiness.

Verses 19, 20. Now what things soever the law saith — That is, the Old Testament, for these quotations are not made from any part of the five books of Moses, but from the Psalms and Prophets; it saith to them that are under the law — That is, to those who own its authority, to the Jews, and not to the Gentiles. The apostle quoted no scripture against them, knowing it would have answered no end to do so, as they did not acknowledge the authority of the Scriptures; but he pleaded with them only from the light of nature; that every mouth — Full of cursing and bitterness: verse 14, and yet of boasting, verse 27, may be stopped — And have nothing to plead; and the whole world — Not only the Gentiles, but the Jews also; may become guilty — May be fully convicted as guilty, and evidently liable to most just condemnation. These things were written of old, and were quoted by Paul, not to make men guilty, but to prove them so. Therefore by the deeds of the law — By works of complete obedience to the law of God, whether natural or revealed; there shall no flesh be justified — Or pronounced righteous. That the word law must here be taken in this extent, appears evidently from the conclusion which the apostle here draws, and from the whole tenor of his subsequent argument; which would have had very little weight, if there had been room for any to object: Though we cannot be justified by our obedience to the law of Moses, we may be justified by our obedience to God’s natural law. And nothing can be more evident, than that the premises from which this conclusion is drawn refer to the Gentiles as well as the Jews; and consequently that law has here, and in many subsequent passages, that general sense. “Every one failing,” says Locke, “of an exact conformity of his actions to the immutable rectitude of that eternal rule of right, mentioned Romans 1:32, will be found unrighteous, and so incur the penalty of the law. That this is the meaning of the expression here used, erga nomou, works of law, is evident, because the apostle’s declaration is concerning pasa sarx, all flesh. But we know the heathen world were not under the law of Moses.” For by the law — By that written on man’s heart, as well as by that revealed, is the knowledge of sin — Of our sinfulness and guilt, of our weakness and wretchedness. This strongly implies the broken and disordered state of human nature; in consequence of which, the precepts which God gives us, even the moral precepts, serve only, or at least chiefly, to convict us of guilt, and not to produce an obedience by which we can finally be acquitted and accepted. Whereas, were we not fallen and depraved creatures, by his holy law we should have the knowledge of our being righteous; for when weighed in the balance of it, we should not be found wanting.

20. Deeds of the law—Deeds fulfilling the law. The law is that universal law which Jews and Gentiles are alike obligated to obey, the law of universal and eternal right. This law was, for the Jew, embraced essentially in the Decalogue; and the so-called Mosaic law was a system of special enactments designed to bring men into harmony with that central law. Justified—Made or declared by divine authority just, or pardoned. None can be justified by the law, for all have broken it. Knowledge of sin—The law, when clearly seen and compared with our own conduct and character, is able only to convict us of sin, not to redeem us from it, or to pardon us for it.

The apostle has now completed his picture of universal human Ruin. Gentile and Jew, the whole world, are condemned by the law and guilty before God. He is ready now to unfold,

II. THE REMEDY. JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH THROUGH THE ATONEMENT BY CHRIST.

1. Comprehensive Statement of Gratuitous Salvation by Faith in Christ’s Atoning Death, 21-31.

This is the CENTRAL PARAGRAPH of the Epistle. In composing it our great apostle summons all his powers to the task of concentrating into one statement his doctrine of salvation “according to my gospel.” The paragraph is the solution of all that has preceded, and the theme of all that follows. It embraces the core and substance of positive and perfect Christianity, against which rationalizing yet irrational unbelief rebels, whether Judaistic, semi-Christian, or infidel, yet forever rebels in vain.

Verse 20 gives complete proof of the assertion in Romans 3:19 that consciousness of guilt is not only an actual result of the Law but the purpose and end for which it was given. God gave to men commands which He knew they would not obey; and threatened punishment in case of disobedience. What was His purpose in so doing? Not directly to produce obedience. For, if so, the Law was a failure: and God’s foreknowledge makes it inconceivable that He would use means which He knew would not succeed. We are therefore, even apart from his apostolic authority, compelled to accept Paul’s assertion that the actual result of the Law was also its designed result. God gave it in order to make us conscious of our lost state, and thus to prepare us for a revelation of righteousness through Christ. In ages to come, we shall look back upon the Law, not as a failure, but as a guardian-slave (Galatians 3:24) who led us to Christ, and as an essential link of the chain which raised us from sin to eternal obedience and blessedness.

Notice how much Romans 3:19, 20 increase the force of the foregoing quotations. In the quoted words the Law speaks, and declares how God will treat those to whom it is given: and God’s purpose in giving the Law was precisely the purpose which, by the arguments of DIV. I., Paul has sought to accomplish.

THE LAW. A law is a setting forth, by an authority claiming to determine and limit the action of men, of what they are to do and not to do. So Proverbs 3:1: “My son, forget not my law, but let thy heart keep my commands.” The state claims this right over its citizens; and therefore its enactments are called laws. And, since without penalties enactments are powerless, the laws of the state announce both what the citizens are to do and not to do and the punishment of disobedience. The laws of an absolute monarch are an announcement of the principles on which he will treat his subjects.

On the ultimate foundation of law in the inborn moral sense of man, see the important quotation on p. 79. {Romans 2:15}

To Israel God was the only King and Lawgiver and Judge. Consequently, in the Bible, unless otherwise stated, the word law denotes always the Law of God.

In Genesis 26:5 God says, “Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My ordinances, and My laws.” At Sinai God gave to Israel, through the agency of Moses, a body of definite prescriptions, to be henceforth their national law, and the basis of God’s future dealings with the nation whom He had joined to Himself by solemn covenant. A rudimentary code of civil law is said to have been written by Moses at Sinai: Exodus 24:4. Statutes of sacrificial worship were added, each called a law: Leviticus 6:9, 14, 25. In the plains of Moab, shortly before his death, Moses restated the Law, wrote it, and publicly gave the book to Israel as the authoritative standard of the will of God, according to which the people were to live and according to which they will be rewarded or punished: Deuteronomy 31:9, 26. Henceforth we read of the Book of the Law: Joshua 1:8; 8:34; 2 Kings 22:8, 11; Nehemiah 8:1. The Book itself, as being the authoritative and only permanent embodiment of God’s will, is called the Law: 1 Kings 2:3; 1 Chronicles 16:40; 2 Chronicles 23:18; 31:3; 35:26; Ezra 3:2. Hence the term the Law became, and is still with the Jews, the common title of the Pentateuch: Romans 3:21; Luke 24:44; Acts 24:14.

The ordinances given in the wilderness are attributed to Moses in 1 Corinthians 9:9; Hebrews 9:19; 10:28; Luke 2:22; 24:44; John 1:17, 45; 7:19, 23; Acts 13:39; 15:5. A narrative in Genesis is quoted in Galatians 4:21 as the Law. In Romans 3:10-18; John 10:34, quotations from the Psalms and one from the Book of Isaiah have the authority of the Law; these books being thus placed on a level with the Pentateuch. Thus extended, the Law denotes in the N.T., unless otherwise defined, the Jewish Scriptures looked upon as a rule of life given by God to man, and as a declaration of the principles of God’s government of the world.

Looking now at the contents of these books, we notice that one spirit animates the whole. Its voice is, Do this and live. This is the essence of law: and this principle assumes authoritative form in the Old Covenant and in the Jewish Scriptures. The written word is the body, this principle is the spirit, of the Law. Hence the apparent variety in the use of the word. Just as the word man refers sometimes to bodily form, at other times to mental and moral character, so the term the Law refers sometimes to the Pentateuch and the other Holy Scriptures, and at other times to the great principle which inspires these ancient writings, viz. that God will treat men according to their deeds. The special reference must in each case be determined by the context. But in all cases the underlying meaning is the same. It is unsafe to rely in a translation upon the presence or absence of the definite article. But in the original the anarthrous term law refers, I believe, almost always to the general principle, Do this and live; and the Law to the historical and literary form in which this principle took shape in the ears and eyes and thoughts of Israel.

We have already met the word law in various connections of thought. We saw in Romans 2:12 that possession of the Law separated mankind into two great theological divisions; that (Romans 2:13) not those who hear, but those who obey, the words written therein will be justified; that (Romans 2:17, 20, 23) in possession of the Book some trusted for salvation, and thought themselves wise because instructed from its pages; and that (Romans 2:24) by transgressing the written word they brought dishonour to God. The contents of the Book were written in the hearts of the Gentiles, who thus became to themselves, in some measure, what the Book was to the Jews: Romans 2:14. By this means Gentiles sometimes accomplish, without having read them, the purpose for which the written commands were given to Israel: Romans 2:27. The great purpose of the Law, wrought out unconsciously by its human agents, was to leave all men without excuse for sin; and, because by nature none are able to obey it, to bring all men under conscious liability to punishment. A threefold purpose is, in this epistle, attributed to the Law; viz. that (Romans 5:20) through it the one sin of Adam might multiply itself into the many sins of his children, that (Romans 3:19) all sinners and therefore all men may be without excuse for sin and may know that God will punish them, and that (Romans 7:13) they may become conscious of the indwelling and irresistible power of sin which prevents them from doing what they know to be right and even wish to perform. In other words, the Law was given to Israel and written in the hearts of all men, in order to bring about in all men actual personal sin, and consciousness of inward bondage and of coming punishment. These are the divinely-chosen and mysterious steps to a glorious goal, viz. actual obedience to the will of God, begun imperfectly on earth and to be fully realised in the life to come. But beyond these first steps the Law cannot lead us.

DIVISION I., embracing Romans 1:18-3:20, is a proof of the assertion in Romans 1:18. The proof and the defence of it against prevalent objection are now complete. By pointing to God’s revelation of Himself in Nature, and to the immoral results of ungodliness, Paul proved in Romans 1:19-32 that God is angry with all ungodliness and sin. And if so, since all are sinners, God is angry with all men: Romans 2:1. In Romans 2:2, Paul repeats, after complete proof, the assertion in Romans 1:18. To expect exemption from this universal principle because of God’s forbearance, is a mark of ignorance: Romans 2:3-11. No reason for such expectation is found either in (Romans 2:12-24) the Law or in (Romans 2:25-29) circumcision. Yet the possession of the Law is to the Jew an advantage which the unbelief of the mass of the nation does not set aside: Romans 3:1-4. Their unbelief will but demonstrate the righteousness of God; yet even this will not save them from punishment: Romans 3:5-8. In Romans 3:9, Paul triumphantly combines the assertion in Romans 1:18 and its universal application in Romans 2:1, 2. In Romans 3:10-20, he shows that what he has proved agrees with the teaching of the ancient Scriptures. DIV. I. was introduced to show that the righteousness revealed in the Gospel by faith proves the Gospel to be a power of God to save all that believe. The proof is now complete. Paul has shown us a world perishing because of God’s anger against sin: therefore, if the good news from God announces God’s favour towards all that believe, it is indeed to them the mighty arm of God stretched out to save.

Notice the clearness and force of Paul’s arguments. They rest in part on great principles which commend themselves to the moral sense of all, and which underlie the teaching of the entire Old Testament; and in part on social facts within the immediate observation of Paul’s readers, and to some extent, even at this distance of time, within our own observation. If we admit the principles and facts, Paul’s arguments compel us to admit his conclusions. Notice also that, just as in Romans 2:6, 13, 24, 29; 3:4 he shows that the principles from which his conclusions are drawn are in harmony with the Old Testament, so in Romans 3:10-18 he shows that his conclusions are in harmony with the same. So conclusive is his reasoning that we have forgotten the apostolic authority of the reasoner. If Div. I. were only a fragment from an unknown author, it would still carry complete conviction.

Observe carefully Paul’s use of the Jewish Scriptures. He nowhere appeals to isolated or difficult texts. Each passage is a representative of many others teaching the same truth. Examination proves that each quotation fairly involves the principle it was adduced to support. We may well take this great teacher as a pattern of Old Testament exposition. In DIV. I., Paul has not carried us above the level of the Old Covenant. He has only gathered into one focus whatever the ancient Scriptures, looked upon as law, said and proved in former days. The name of Christ has occurred only once; and then not as the Saviour, but as the Judge, of the world. DIV. I. bears to the rest of the epistle the relation which the Old Covenant bears to the New. It is therefore a testimony to the permanent moral worth of the Old Testament.

We have heard the Law: it has pronounced our condemnation and made us conscious of our need of salvation. And, since God is angry with all sin, no salvation will supply our need except one which makes us free from the guilt, the power, and the stain of sin.

Verse 20. Therefore by the deeds of the law, &c. — If, taking dioti in the sense of because, we connect these words with the preceding, they serve to heighten the view there given of the miserable condition of Jews and Gentiles, by showing that the law against which they have sinned can make no provision for their impunity, and that this its inexorable character cuts them off, therefore, from all hope. This, indeed, in any way that the connection of the words with the scope of the apostle can be considered, must be the effect of the doctrine so clearly laid down; but dioti may probably be more satisfactorily taken as a particle of transition to another, but still, in the general argument of the apostle, a closely allied subject. For, having established the fact that all men are under condemnation, he now proceeds to speak of their possible justification. He first lays down a general and most important axiom, that none can be justified by the deeds of the law; and, therefore, if justification be attained, it must come through some other institution or appointment of God. This negative view is a most important branch of his subject, although he employs but few words to establish it. By the law he means the law of God in its manifestation, whether to Jews or Gentiles. — This, perhaps, is indicated by the absence of the article, ex ergwn nomou, by works of law; but the sense obliges us to this general interpretation; for, as Bishop Middleton observes, “it is his purpose to show that no man whatever can be justified by the works either of the Jewish law or of any other: pasa sarx, like o kosmov in the preceding verse, cannot but be understood universally; and what follows, for by the law is the knowledge of sin, is plainly a universal proposition.” — He had shown that the Divine law, or will of God, existed among the Gentiles as well as the Jews: that both had sinned against it; and that, as to both alike, by what he calls works of law, they were excluded from justification; that is, from being declared and treated as righteous persons. For since, in the reason of the thing, the law of God declares and treats no man as righteous but him who perfectly and without intermission obeys all its commands, and both Jews and Gentiles were convicted of sin, all hope founded upon innocence was for ever gone. Hence the apostle adds, For by law is the knowledge of sin; it manifests every offence, as a straight rule shows every obliquity, or as a touchstone detects false metal, or as light makes darkness manifest; and the more perfect, therefore, our knowledge of the law is, the more fully must it exclude all hope of a meritorious justification; since the extent, the evil, and the aggravation of our offences are more perfectly set forth by its searching light, the nearer we approach it. And all hope for the future is cut off, as well as for the past, by the same rule. For, although indeed men often fancy that future obedience may avail them, yet, as soon as the true nature of LAW is apprehended, every one will be convinced that his former sins still lie in their penalty against him; that to make an act of obedience a compensation for an act of disobedience, would be so irregular and imperfect a system of law, that no perfect moral government could stand upon it; that in fact, it would be legislating for imperfect and not perfect obedience, and unsettling the obligation of the latter by declaring it unnecessary, and that the universe could be well enough regulated without it. Still farther, all sin is the result of moral pravity, arising from the lapsed and fallen condition of man, so that what he calls his future obedience is itself imperfect, insufficient, and therefore sinful, either from defect or some other vitiating principle. Now that shadowy virtue in which men are apt to trust, God’s pure and perfect law, which requires truth in the inward parts, supreme love to God, and absolutely perfect obedience, detects, and exposes its true character, so that it convicts us still of sin, notwithstanding all our efforts, and, as far as moral law is concerned, leaves every sinner without hope of being justified; that is, of being treated as a righteous man, and exempted from punishment.

Some have thought that St. Paul includes here also in deeds of law, ceremonial observances, and excludes them also from the office of justifying. The whole context shows that he speaks of works of moral law, and not of any religious observances, except as they may be prescribed by moral law, such as the worship of God, and the Sabbath, which were appointed for man in innocence. As to sacrificial and propitiatory ceremonies, he does not and could not notice them distinctly. For before Christ, when acceptable to God, they were acts of faith in the promised Christ, and so supposed that very doctrine of justification by faith of which he is about to speak, but on which he has not yet entered; and when not acts of faith in a promised Redeemer, they lost their character as acts of faith, were regarded as morally meritorious, and therefore stood upon the same false ground as all other acts of imperfect moral obedience, by which men often vainly hoped to merit something at the hands of God.

V. 21. But now the righteousness of God-That is, the manner of becoming righteous which God hath appointed.

Without the law-Without that previous obedience which the law requires; without reference to the law, or dependence on it. Is manifested-In the gospel.

Being attested by the Law itself, and by the Prophets-By all the promises in the Old Testament.

Verse 21. But now the righteousness of God] God’s method of saving sinners is now shown, by the Gospel, to be through his own mere mercy, by Christ Jesus; without the law-without any right or claim which might result from obedience to the law; and is evidently that which was intended by God from the beginning; for it is witnessed by the law and the prophets-the rites and ceremonies of the one, and the preachings and predictions of the others, all bearing testimony to the great design of God, and to the absolute necessity there was for the sacrifice and salvation which God has provided.

Verses 21-24. But now the righteousness of God — That is, the manner of becoming righteous which God hath appointed; without the law — Without that perfect and previous obedience which the law requires; without reference to, or dependance on, the law, ceremonial or moral, revealed or natural; is manifested — In the gospel, being attested by the law and the prophets. The example of Abraham’s justification by faith, recorded Genesis 15:6, and the passage which the apostle quotes, Romans 4:7, from Psalm 32:1, 2, as well as that from Habakkuk, quoted Romans 1:17, are clear testimonies, from the law and the prophets, that there is a righteousness without the law, which God accepts; and that the method of justification revealed in the gospel was the method in which men were justified under the law, and before the law: in short, it is the method of justifying sinners, established from the very beginning of the world. Even the righteousness of God — That which God hath appointed to be, by faith of Jesus Christ — By such a firm, hearty, lively belief of Christ’s being what the gospel declares him to be, a divinely-commissioned and infallible Teacher, a prevalent Mediator between God and man; an all-sufficient Saviour, and a righteous Governor; such a belief as produces a sincere confidence in him, a true subjection to him, a conscientious obedience to his laws, and imitation of his example. Unto all — Which way of justification is provided for, and sincerely and freely offered unto all, and is bestowed upon all them that believe — Whether Jews or Gentiles; for there is no difference — Either as to men’s need of justification and salvation, or the manner of attaining it. For all have sinned — In Adam and in their own persons; by a sinful nature, sinful tempers, and sinful actions; and come short of the glory of God — The supreme end of man; short of his image and nature, and communion with him, and the enjoyment of him in heaven. Or, they have failed of rendering him that glory that was so justly his due, and thereby have not only made themselves unworthy the participation of glory and happiness with him, but stand exposed to his severe and dreadful displeasure. The word userountai, here rendered come short, is properly applied to those, whose strength failing them in the race, are left behind. The word, therefore, is very suitable to mankind, who, being weakened by sin, have lost eternal life, the reward which they pursued by their obedience. Being justified — Pardoned and accepted, or accounted righteous; freely, dwrean, of free gift, and not through any merit of their own; by his grace — His unmerited favour, his undeserved goodness, and not through their own righteousness or works, in whole or in part. Freely by his grace — One of these expressions might have served to convey the apostle’s meaning: but he doubles his assertion in order to give us the fullest conviction of the truth, and to impress us with a sense of its peculiar importance. It is not possible to find words that should more absolutely exclude all consideration of our own works and obedience, or more emphatically ascribe the whole of our justification to free, unmerited goodness. Through the redemption which is in, or by, Christ Jesus — Procured for them by his death, the price paid for their redemption. The word apolutrwsiv, here and elsewhere rendered redemption, denotes that kind of redemption of a captive from death, which is procured by paying a price for his life. See note on 1 Timothy 2:6. The redemption purchased for us by Christ is deliverance from the guilt and power of sin, and the wrath of God consequent thereon, and from the power of our spiritual enemies, the devil, the world, and the flesh. See Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; Titus 2:14; Galatians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:18, 19.

21. But—The small yet great hinging word on which the mighty argument turns—the transition point of the scheme and of the epistle. Now—Under the new regimen of grace; after the old regimen of wrath depicted in the previous part of the epistle. The apostle springs into this blessed now with a joyous abruptness. He will range through it, leading us through rich and varied scenes of grace and glory. Righteousness of God—Not merely that righteousness with which God is invested, but that righteousness with which, through Christ, he invests us. The latter is the radiant reflection from the former. It would much simplify the expression of Paul’s theology if all the branchings from the one root, dikaiov, right, righteous, or just, could be translated into English by similar branchings from one root. We should then have just, justify, (or just-make,) justification, (or just-making.) justice, (or just-being.) Or we should have right, (or righteous,) righteousness, (or rightness or right-being,) and rectification, (or righting, or right-making, or righteous-making.) This righteousness of God is God’s rectification or justification of man before the law, making him rectus in curia, or right in God’s court, or before his tribunal, being the opposite of condemnation by God’s law. Yet does it not include, though ever accompanied by, sanctification. For as justification is acquittal from past offences, so sanctification is the inward power, more or less, by grace conferred, to avoid commission of sin for the future. By the former the man comes right; by the latter man stays right. (See note on Matthew 18:3.) Without the law—Righteousness, though required of man by the law, can never be acquired through the law. The law being once broken can only condemn; it can never justify. Justification, then, can be attained only by some method without the law.

Is manifested—In the advent of Christ and the opening of the new revelation. Law and the prophets—Note on Matthew 5:17. To the Old Testament Church, looking forward to the New, the law and the prophets were promise and encouragement; to the New Testament Church, looking back, they are testimony and support. The law testified to Christ and his atonement both by its demand for satisfaction for sin and by its whole piacular ritual; the prophets, by fortelling the person and history of the Messiah.

ROMANS

DIVISION II.

JUSTIFICATION AND ITS RESULTS

CHS. 3:21-5

SECTION 10. — JUSTIFICATION THROUGH

FAITH AND THROUGH CHRIST CH. 3:21-26

But now, apart from law, a righteousness of God has been manifested, witness being borne to it by the Law and the Prophets, a righteousness of God through belief of Jesus Christ, for all that believe. For there is no difference: for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith, in His blood, for demonstration of His righteousness, because of the passing over of the beforecommitted sins in the forbearance of God, for the demonstration of His righteousness in the present season, in order that He may be Himself righteous and a justifier of him that has faith of Jesus.

Ver. 21. But now etc.: sudden and joyful transition from the condemnation of the Law to the light of the Gospel.

Apart from law: independent of, and in some sense contradicting, the great principle underlying the Jewish Scriptures, viz. that the favour of God is conditioned by obedience to His commands. It is practically the same as “apart from works of law” in Romans 3:28.

Righteousness of God: as in Romans 1:17.

Manifested: set conspicuously before the eyes of men, as in Romans 1:19. Compare and contrast Romans 1:17. The righteousness of God has-been-manifested (perfect tense) once for all by the appearance of Christ and by His announcement of salvation: day by day “it is revealed by faith” (present tense), i.e. brought into the consciousness of each one, as each one believes.

Witness-being-borne-to-it: day by day, as the ancient Scriptures are read. This testimony was mentioned in Romans 1:2: and a specimen was given in Romans 1:17. Much more of it will be given in Rom. 4, 9, 10. The Law: the Pentateuch only.

The Prophets: the other chief division of the Jewish Scriptures: cp. Matthew 5:17; 7:12; 11:13; 22:40. A fuller description is given in Luke 24:44: “the Law of Moses and the Prophets and Psalms.” The phrase here is not only a common division of the O.T. but describes two conspicuous elements which run through the whole: for very much of the Law is expressly or symbolically prophetic, and the Prophets announce or rather reiterate God’s will about man’s conduct. The word law refers to the principle of law, which is the great feature of the Pentateuch: the term the Law refers to the book in which it assumes written form.

Verse 21. But now the righteousness of God without the law. — Here the apostle, having not only proved all men sinners, but cut off all hope of justification by the law, breaks forth into a full enumeration of that glorious subject, for which he had been preparing the way, and to which he had referred in the introduction of the epistle, — the justification even of the guilty, by God, the righteous Governor of the world, and that in a manner consistent with his own most righteous and holy character. This is the subject on which he expatiates as far as verse 26 inclusive. The whole passage requires the deepest attention. By the righteousness of God, cannot be understood, as in verse 5, the punitive justice of God; because this righteousness is said to be without law, which punitive justice never is, but essentially connected with it. Nor does it here mean the righteousness which God possesses, that is, his rectitude and holiness; for that is not manifested without the law, but has its most illustrious exhibition in it. Nor does righteousness here mean mercy, as some would have it; for in this sense the word never occurs in the New Testament. The import is the same as that of the same phrase in chap. 10:3, where the apostle, speaking of the Jews, opposes “the righteousness of God” to that “righteousness of their own,” which they were endeavouring to establish; plainly meaning by the latter, their own method of seeking justification in opposition to that which God had appointed. The righteousness of God, in this verse, then, signifies God’s method of constituting men righteous, though in fact they are criminal, and obnoxious to punishment. This is said to be manifested without the law, or, literally, without LAW. For there is but one class of beings whom pure law can declare and treat as righteous, and these are the absolutely sinless; whereas, under the method here said to be manifested, not the SINLESS, but the SINFUL, are declared and treated as righteous persons. This procedure must therefore be WITHOUT LAW, whose sole office it is to justify the innocent and condemn the guilty. It necessarily proceeds from an entirely distinct institution and appointment. But though now manifested, that is, clearly and perfectly brought from under the veil of types, and the symbolical language of prophecy, this method of affording hope to the human race, this grand branch of the Divine administration, was not a novelty, but had all along been witnessed by the law and the prophets. The law and the prophets comprehend the whole Old Testament; for from the beginning, sinful men had been taught to hope for salvation through the great Redeemer promised to our first parents, and to seek it by faith; while the grand example of Abraham’s gratuitous justification by faith in the promised Christ, of which circumcision was the standing TESTIMONY, and the types of the ceremonial law, and the promises contained in the writings of the prophets, all gave witness to the fact, that a method of justifying guilty men, quite independent of moral law, had been introduced by Divine appointment, and acted upon in God’s administration from the beginning.

V. 22. To all-The Jews.

And upon all-The Gentiles that believe: for there is no difference-Either as to the need of justification, or the manner of it.

Verse 22. Even the righteousness of God] That method of saving sinners which is not of works, but by faith in Christ Jesus; and it is not restrained to any particular people, as the law and its privileges were, but is unto all mankind in its intention and offer, and becomes effectual to them that believe; for God hath now made no difference between the Jews and the Gentiles.

Verses 21-24. But now the righteousness of God — That is, the manner of becoming righteous which God hath appointed; without the law — Without that perfect and previous obedience which the law requires; without reference to, or dependance on, the law, ceremonial or moral, revealed or natural; is manifested — In the gospel, being attested by the law and the prophets. The example of Abraham’s justification by faith, recorded Genesis 15:6, and the passage which the apostle quotes, Romans 4:7, from Psalm 32:1, 2, as well as that from Habakkuk, quoted Romans 1:17, are clear testimonies, from the law and the prophets, that there is a righteousness without the law, which God accepts; and that the method of justification revealed in the gospel was the method in which men were justified under the law, and before the law: in short, it is the method of justifying sinners, established from the very beginning of the world. Even the righteousness of God — That which God hath appointed to be, by faith of Jesus Christ — By such a firm, hearty, lively belief of Christ’s being what the gospel declares him to be, a divinely-commissioned and infallible Teacher, a prevalent Mediator between God and man; an all-sufficient Saviour, and a righteous Governor; such a belief as produces a sincere confidence in him, a true subjection to him, a conscientious obedience to his laws, and imitation of his example. Unto all — Which way of justification is provided for, and sincerely and freely offered unto all, and is bestowed upon all them that believe — Whether Jews or Gentiles; for there is no difference — Either as to men’s need of justification and salvation, or the manner of attaining it. For all have sinned — In Adam and in their own persons; by a sinful nature, sinful tempers, and sinful actions; and come short of the glory of God — The supreme end of man; short of his image and nature, and communion with him, and the enjoyment of him in heaven. Or, they have failed of rendering him that glory that was so justly his due, and thereby have not only made themselves unworthy the participation of glory and happiness with him, but stand exposed to his severe and dreadful displeasure. The word userountai, here rendered come short, is properly applied to those, whose strength failing them in the race, are left behind. The word, therefore, is very suitable to mankind, who, being weakened by sin, have lost eternal life, the reward which they pursued by their obedience. Being justified — Pardoned and accepted, or accounted righteous; freely, dwrean, of free gift, and not through any merit of their own; by his grace — His unmerited favour, his undeserved goodness, and not through their own righteousness or works, in whole or in part. Freely by his grace — One of these expressions might have served to convey the apostle’s meaning: but he doubles his assertion in order to give us the fullest conviction of the truth, and to impress us with a sense of its peculiar importance. It is not possible to find words that should more absolutely exclude all consideration of our own works and obedience, or more emphatically ascribe the whole of our justification to free, unmerited goodness. Through the redemption which is in, or by, Christ Jesus — Procured for them by his death, the price paid for their redemption. The word apolutrwsiv, here and elsewhere rendered redemption, denotes that kind of redemption of a captive from death, which is procured by paying a price for his life. See note on 1 Timothy 2:6. The redemption purchased for us by Christ is deliverance from the guilt and power of sin, and the wrath of God consequent thereon, and from the power of our spiritual enemies, the devil, the world, and the flesh. See Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; Titus 2:14; Galatians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:18, 19.

22. Even the righteousness of God—Even God’s justification or right-making of man. The righteousness of God here is the righteousness or right-making God purposes for man. (Note Romans 1:17.) Faith of Jesus Christ—The faith of which Christ is the object, or the faith which Christ requires.

This faith is not simply the belief of the intellect, embracing the historical facts of Christ’s character and death. It is the faith or fidelity of the whole man. It is the act of the assenting intellect, the consenting heart, and the accepting will, by which man’s soul deposits itself into the hands of the Redeemer, by his mighty arm to be carried through every danger into everlasting safety. (See note on Romans 10:10; 1:17; 2:6; and on Romans 5:24.) It is self-surrender to Christ. And as Christ is the very incarnation of goodness, holiness, and God, so does the soul pledge itself and give itself over to all goodness, holiness, and God for time and eternity. So does the blessed soul become harmonized and incorporated into the holy universe of God. He becomes part of the glorified Cosmos. This righteousness or justification is unto all in its offer, and upon all in its accepted bestowment. No difference—None in the impartial universality of the offer; none in the ample power of the acceptance.

Verse 22b.- 23. A short recapitulation of DIV. I., proving the universal need of salvation implied in the universal assertion all that believe; just as DIV. I., introduced in Romans 1:18, justifies similar words in Romans 1:16.

For there is no difference: summary of Rom 2. Same words in same connection in Romans 10:12. They are here supported by a reassertion of the teaching in Romans 2:1; 3:9, 19:

for all have sinned. The Greek aorist includes all sins in all ages up to the moment of writing. It must therefore be translated by the English perfect. For our preterite pushes the event into the past, and thus gives to it a definiteness, as separated from the present, which the Greek “indefinite” tense has not.

Glory: admiration evoked by an object in the mind of a beholder, or that quality in the object which evokes admiration: see under Romans 1:21. In Romans 1:23; 6:4; 9:23

the glory of God denotes the manifested grandeur of God evoking His creatures admiration; and in Romans 3:7; 4:20; 11:36; 15:7 the admiration thus evoked. So the glory of Jehovah in Exodus 16:10; 24:16, 17, and frequently in the O.T.; cp. Luke 2:9. But this meaning does not give good sense here and in Romans 5:2. In Romans 2:7, 10, the word glory, i.e. a splendour evoking admiration, describes the reward of the righteous: so Romans 8:18, 21; 1 Corinthians 2:7; 15:43; Colossians 1:27; 3:4. They will share the splendour of Christ: Romans 8:17; 2 Thessalonians 2:14. This must be the meaning in Romans 5:2: “hope of the glory of God;” and it gives good sense here. For this future splendour, although concealed from view, is a present possession of the servants of Christ. Their afflictions are working out for them “an eternal weight of glory,” and already they can say “we have a house eternal in the heavens:” 2 Corinthians 4:17; 5:1. Thus understood, the glory of God here and in Romans 5:2 is the splendour which God gives, just as “righteousness of God” in Romans 3:21, 22; 1:17; 10:3 is a righteousness which God gives. In both cases, the divine gift is related to a divine attribute; but must be carefully distinguished from it.

Fall-short-of: fall behind others, or fail to reach some goal set before them. Believers are already (Romans 8:17) sharers of Christ’s heritage of glory: but of this heritage they who have not by faith obtained a righteousness of God are destitute. In this sense, through their sin, they fall short of the glory of God. The middle voice scarcely implies that they are conscious of their failure: it implies only that it reacts in some way upon themselves.

Verses 22, 23. Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ, &c. — The righteousness of God being said to be by faith to all that believe, farther proves that the phrase means something done or appointed by God, which passes over to man, and thus confirms the exposition of it above given, the method by which men are justified, or are accepted as righteous, as revealed in the Gospel. This justification is, by faith, dia pistewv; dia marking the INSTRUMENTAL cause, FAITH; and the object of this faith is Christ Jesus, the meritorious or procuring cause of this grace and salvation; for there seems no reason for making a distinction between faith of Jesus Christ, and faith in Jesus Christ. In Philippians 3:9, the apostle also uses the genitive, where he could mean nothing else but faith of which Christ was the object: “the righteousness which is through the faith OF Christ,” through believing in him. What follows, unto all and upon all, eiv pantav kai epi pantav, them that believe, has somewhat perplexed interpreters; some drawing various distinctions from the prepositions; others cancelling the latter clause, but without authority; others regarding it as a repetition of the same thought for the sake of emphasis. The meaning seems to be, that this justification by faith IS OFFERED TO, and comes ACTUALLY into the experience and enjoyment of, all them that believe. For there is no difference, no distinction between Jew or Greek, as all are capable of believing, so all may equally attain the righteousness which is by faith; and as all have sinned, they are involved in a common condemnation, are equally cut off from the hope of justification by law, and are all therefore equally the subjects of that gracious constitution, by which the forgiveness of sins is bestowed through faith in the appointed Redeemer.

And come short of the glory of God. — This has been interpreted of failing of the praise and approbation of God; and, by others, of failing of the glory and blessedness of heaven. But a more probable sense is, that by sin all men have failed to glorify God their Maker, Preserver, and Governor, to which they were bound by the most indisputable obligations, and the most powerful motives.

V. 23. For all have sinned-In Adam, and in their own persons; by a sinful nature, sinful tempers, and sinful actions.

And are fallen short of the glory of God-The supreme end of man; short of his image on earth, and the enjoyment of him in heaven.

Verse 23. For all have sinned:] And consequently are equally helpless and guilty; and, as God is no respecter of persons, all human creatures being equally his offspring, and there being no reason why one should be preferred before another, therefore his endless mercy has embraced ALL. And come short of the glory of God] kai usterountai thv doxhv tou qeou, These words have been variously translated. Failed of attaining the glory of God: Have not been able to bring glory to God: Stand in need of the glory, that is, the mercy of God. The simple meaning seems to be this: that all have sinned, and none can enjoy God’s glory but they that are holy; consequently both Jews and Gentiles have failed in their endeavours to attain it, as, by the works of any law, no human being can be justified.

Verses 21-24. But now the righteousness of God — That is, the manner of becoming righteous which God hath appointed; without the law — Without that perfect and previous obedience which the law requires; without reference to, or dependance on, the law, ceremonial or moral, revealed or natural; is manifested — In the gospel, being attested by the law and the prophets. The example of Abraham’s justification by faith, recorded Genesis 15:6, and the passage which the apostle quotes, Romans 4:7, from Psalm 32:1, 2, as well as that from Habakkuk, quoted Romans 1:17, are clear testimonies, from the law and the prophets, that there is a righteousness without the law, which God accepts; and that the method of justification revealed in the gospel was the method in which men were justified under the law, and before the law: in short, it is the method of justifying sinners, established from the very beginning of the world. Even the righteousness of God — That which God hath appointed to be, by faith of Jesus Christ — By such a firm, hearty, lively belief of Christ’s being what the gospel declares him to be, a divinely-commissioned and infallible Teacher, a prevalent Mediator between God and man; an all-sufficient Saviour, and a righteous Governor; such a belief as produces a sincere confidence in him, a true subjection to him, a conscientious obedience to his laws, and imitation of his example. Unto all — Which way of justification is provided for, and sincerely and freely offered unto all, and is bestowed upon all them that believe — Whether Jews or Gentiles; for there is no difference — Either as to men’s need of justification and salvation, or the manner of attaining it. For all have sinned — In Adam and in their own persons; by a sinful nature, sinful tempers, and sinful actions; and come short of the glory of God — The supreme end of man; short of his image and nature, and communion with him, and the enjoyment of him in heaven. Or, they have failed of rendering him that glory that was so justly his due, and thereby have not only made themselves unworthy the participation of glory and happiness with him, but stand exposed to his severe and dreadful displeasure. The word userountai, here rendered come short, is properly applied to those, whose strength failing them in the race, are left behind. The word, therefore, is very suitable to mankind, who, being weakened by sin, have lost eternal life, the reward which they pursued by their obedience. Being justified — Pardoned and accepted, or accounted righteous; freely, dwrean, of free gift, and not through any merit of their own; by his grace — His unmerited favour, his undeserved goodness, and not through their own righteousness or works, in whole or in part. Freely by his grace — One of these expressions might have served to convey the apostle’s meaning: but he doubles his assertion in order to give us the fullest conviction of the truth, and to impress us with a sense of its peculiar importance. It is not possible to find words that should more absolutely exclude all consideration of our own works and obedience, or more emphatically ascribe the whole of our justification to free, unmerited goodness. Through the redemption which is in, or by, Christ Jesus — Procured for them by his death, the price paid for their redemption. The word apolutrwsiv, here and elsewhere rendered redemption, denotes that kind of redemption of a captive from death, which is procured by paying a price for his life. See note on 1 Timothy 2:6. The redemption purchased for us by Christ is deliverance from the guilt and power of sin, and the wrath of God consequent thereon, and from the power of our spiritual enemies, the devil, the world, and the flesh. See Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; Titus 2:14; Galatians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:18, 19.

23. All have sinned—The all is all mankind, past, present, and future; the have sinned is, in the Greek, an instance of the apostle’s aoristic tenses, in which past, present, and future are comprehended. (See notes on Romans 4:12; 8:29; 9:22.) The tense is equivalent to a perpetual present, “an eternal now,” and so the phrase is tantamount to all men sin. It thus accords in sense with come short, which in the Greek is actually in the grammatical present. And the fact that both verbs express a perpetual fact explains, decisively, we think, the following phrase, about which commentators so much differ—the glory. The phrase come short is borrowed from a racer’s failure to attain the goal. The goal is the heavenly glorification. All men sin, and, apart from Christ, fail of the blessed goal, the final glory of God.

Verse 22b.- 23. A short recapitulation of DIV. I., proving the universal need of salvation implied in the universal assertion all that believe; just as DIV. I., introduced in Romans 1:18, justifies similar words in Romans 1:16.

For there is no difference: summary of Rom 2. Same words in same connection in Romans 10:12. They are here supported by a reassertion of the teaching in Romans 2:1; 3:9, 19:

for all have sinned. The Greek aorist includes all sins in all ages up to the moment of writing. It must therefore be translated by the English perfect. For our preterite pushes the event into the past, and thus gives to it a definiteness, as separated from the present, which the Greek “indefinite” tense has not.

Glory: admiration evoked by an object in the mind of a beholder, or that quality in the object which evokes admiration: see under Romans 1:21. In Romans 1:23; 6:4; 9:23

the glory of God denotes the manifested grandeur of God evoking His creatures admiration; and in Romans 3:7; 4:20; 11:36; 15:7 the admiration thus evoked. So the glory of Jehovah in Exodus 16:10; 24:16, 17, and frequently in the O.T.; cp. Luke 2:9. But this meaning does not give good sense here and in Romans 5:2. In Romans 2:7, 10, the word glory, i.e. a splendour evoking admiration, describes the reward of the righteous: so Romans 8:18, 21; 1 Corinthians 2:7; 15:43; Colossians 1:27; 3:4. They will share the splendour of Christ: Romans 8:17; 2 Thessalonians 2:14. This must be the meaning in Romans 5:2: “hope of the glory of God;” and it gives good sense here. For this future splendour, although concealed from view, is a present possession of the servants of Christ. Their afflictions are working out for them “an eternal weight of glory,” and already they can say “we have a house eternal in the heavens:” 2 Corinthians 4:17; 5:1. Thus understood, the glory of God here and in Romans 5:2 is the splendour which God gives, just as “righteousness of God” in Romans 3:21, 22; 1:17; 10:3 is a righteousness which God gives. In both cases, the divine gift is related to a divine attribute; but must be carefully distinguished from it.

Fall-short-of: fall behind others, or fail to reach some goal set before them. Believers are already (Romans 8:17) sharers of Christ’s heritage of glory: but of this heritage they who have not by faith obtained a righteousness of God are destitute. In this sense, through their sin, they fall short of the glory of God. The middle voice scarcely implies that they are conscious of their failure: it implies only that it reacts in some way upon themselves.

Verses 22, 23. Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ, &c. — The righteousness of God being said to be by faith to all that believe, farther proves that the phrase means something done or appointed by God, which passes over to man, and thus confirms the exposition of it above given, the method by which men are justified, or are accepted as righteous, as revealed in the Gospel. This justification is, by faith, dia pistewv; dia marking the INSTRUMENTAL cause, FAITH; and the object of this faith is Christ Jesus, the meritorious or procuring cause of this grace and salvation; for there seems no reason for making a distinction between faith of Jesus Christ, and faith in Jesus Christ. In Philippians 3:9, the apostle also uses the genitive, where he could mean nothing else but faith of which Christ was the object: “the righteousness which is through the faith OF Christ,” through believing in him. What follows, unto all and upon all, eiv pantav kai epi pantav, them that believe, has somewhat perplexed interpreters; some drawing various distinctions from the prepositions; others cancelling the latter clause, but without authority; others regarding it as a repetition of the same thought for the sake of emphasis. The meaning seems to be, that this justification by faith IS OFFERED TO, and comes ACTUALLY into the experience and enjoyment of, all them that believe. For there is no difference, no distinction between Jew or Greek, as all are capable of believing, so all may equally attain the righteousness which is by faith; and as all have sinned, they are involved in a common condemnation, are equally cut off from the hope of justification by law, and are all therefore equally the subjects of that gracious constitution, by which the forgiveness of sins is bestowed through faith in the appointed Redeemer.

And come short of the glory of God. — This has been interpreted of failing of the praise and approbation of God; and, by others, of failing of the glory and blessedness of heaven. But a more probable sense is, that by sin all men have failed to glorify God their Maker, Preserver, and Governor, to which they were bound by the most indisputable obligations, and the most powerful motives.

V. 24. And are justified-Pardoned and accepted.

Freely-Without any merit of their own.

By his grace-Not their own righteousness or works.

Through the redemption-The price Christ has paid.

Freely by his grace-One of these expressions might have served to convey the apostle's meaning; but he doubles his assertion, in order to give us the fullest conviction of the truth, and to impress us with a sense of its peculiar importance. It is not possible to find words that should more absolutely exclude all consideration of our own works and obedience, or more emphatically ascribe the whole of our justification to free, unmerited goodness.

Verse 24. Being justified freely by his grace] So far from being able to attain the glory of God by their obedience, they are all guilty: and, to be saved, must be freely pardoned by God’s grace; which is shown to them who believe, through the redemption, apolutrwsewv, the ransom price, which is in the sacrifice of Christ Jesus. The original is compounded of apo, from, and lutrow, I redeem, and properly means the price laid down for the redemption of a captive. Comprehendit hæc Christi apolutrwsiv, quicquid is docuit, fecit et passus est, eo consilio, ut homines malis liberati, præcipue peccato, malorum fonte immunes, veram felicitatem adipiscerentur.-Rosenmuller. This redemption of Christ comprehends whatsoever he taught, did, or suffered, in order to free men from evil; especially to free them from sin, the source of evils; that they might attain true felicity. And that it here means the liberation purchased by the blood-shedding of Christ, is evident from Ephesians 1:7: We have REDEMPTION, apolutrwsin dia tou aimatov autou, THROUGH HIS BLOOD, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. See also Colossians 1:14, where the same words are found. Lutra according to Suidas, is misqov, h ta parecomena uper eleuqeriav, epi tw lutrwsasqai barbarwn douleiav, A reward; or the price given to be redeemed from the slavery of the barbarians. Schleusner, under the word apolutrwsiv, says, Negari quidem non potest, hanc vocem proprie notare redemptionem ejus, qui captivus detinetur, sive bello, sive alio captus sit modo, quæ fit per pretti solutionem; quo sensu verbum apolutrow legitur haud raro in Scripp. Græcis. No man certainly can deny that this word properly means the redemption of a captive, (whether he may have been taken in war or in any other way,) which is procured by the payment of a price. That the word also means any deliverance, even where no price is paid down, nobody will dispute; but that it means redemption by a price laid down, and the redemption of the soul by the price of the death of Christ, the above scriptures sufficiently prove.

Verses 21-24. But now the righteousness of God — That is, the manner of becoming righteous which God hath appointed; without the law — Without that perfect and previous obedience which the law requires; without reference to, or dependance on, the law, ceremonial or moral, revealed or natural; is manifested — In the gospel, being attested by the law and the prophets. The example of Abraham’s justification by faith, recorded Genesis 15:6, and the passage which the apostle quotes, Romans 4:7, from Psalm 32:1, 2, as well as that from Habakkuk, quoted Romans 1:17, are clear testimonies, from the law and the prophets, that there is a righteousness without the law, which God accepts; and that the method of justification revealed in the gospel was the method in which men were justified under the law, and before the law: in short, it is the method of justifying sinners, established from the very beginning of the world. Even the righteousness of God — That which God hath appointed to be, by faith of Jesus Christ — By such a firm, hearty, lively belief of Christ’s being what the gospel declares him to be, a divinely-commissioned and infallible Teacher, a prevalent Mediator between God and man; an all-sufficient Saviour, and a righteous Governor; such a belief as produces a sincere confidence in him, a true subjection to him, a conscientious obedience to his laws, and imitation of his example. Unto all — Which way of justification is provided for, and sincerely and freely offered unto all, and is bestowed upon all them that believe — Whether Jews or Gentiles; for there is no difference — Either as to men’s need of justification and salvation, or the manner of attaining it. For all have sinned — In Adam and in their own persons; by a sinful nature, sinful tempers, and sinful actions; and come short of the glory of God — The supreme end of man; short of his image and nature, and communion with him, and the enjoyment of him in heaven. Or, they have failed of rendering him that glory that was so justly his due, and thereby have not only made themselves unworthy the participation of glory and happiness with him, but stand exposed to his severe and dreadful displeasure. The word userountai, here rendered come short, is properly applied to those, whose strength failing them in the race, are left behind. The word, therefore, is very suitable to mankind, who, being weakened by sin, have lost eternal life, the reward which they pursued by their obedience. Being justified — Pardoned and accepted, or accounted righteous; freely, dwrean, of free gift, and not through any merit of their own; by his grace — His unmerited favour, his undeserved goodness, and not through their own righteousness or works, in whole or in part. Freely by his grace — One of these expressions might have served to convey the apostle’s meaning: but he doubles his assertion in order to give us the fullest conviction of the truth, and to impress us with a sense of its peculiar importance. It is not possible to find words that should more absolutely exclude all consideration of our own works and obedience, or more emphatically ascribe the whole of our justification to free, unmerited goodness. Through the redemption which is in, or by, Christ Jesus — Procured for them by his death, the price paid for their redemption. The word apolutrwsiv, here and elsewhere rendered redemption, denotes that kind of redemption of a captive from death, which is procured by paying a price for his life. See note on 1 Timothy 2:6. The redemption purchased for us by Christ is deliverance from the guilt and power of sin, and the wrath of God consequent thereon, and from the power of our spiritual enemies, the devil, the world, and the flesh. See Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; Titus 2:14; Galatians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:18, 19.

24. Being justified—If at all justified. Freely—Gratuitously. For though the justification is conditioned upon faith, yet the faith is no compensation to God for it. Faith being the self-surrender above described has indeed a sort of merit. It has the merit of being a right and not a wrong thing, as unfaith is. It is a compliance with the divine command. It is intrinsically an excellent thing or act, the very best thing indeed possible in the case. It has the merit, too, of suitableness or congruity, being the soul’s putting itself into the proper position of accepting and receiving the blessed gift. The very fact that God selects faith as a condition, implies its excellence and fitness as a condition; otherwise God might just as well make blasphemy or murder a condition of salvation. Yet this implies not that there is in this faith any compensation to God, any merit adequate to the gift of eternal life, any thing that (apart from God’s promises) places him under obligation to confer wages or reward. A millionaire may bestow a fortune on a beggar simply on the condition of his coming, kneeling down, and stretching forth his hand to take it. There would thereby be no merit on the beggar’s part. There might be great demerit in his refusing, and turning his back and calling his benefactor a liar; but there would be no merit in his performing the condition and obtaining the grace. So the receptive faith by which the sinner yields to God’s mercy, though it be a condition, may have no merit. From all this the reader may clearly see what a blunder it is to suppose that non-merited salvation must imply that the salvation is forced, or fixed, or fastened upon us without power of resistance on our part. Grace is grace without being irresistible, and without being divinely “secured not to be resisted.” The placing any value on man’s service, and therefor conferring pardon, happiness, and heaven, is of God’s free, spontaneous, unbought bounty. Redemption—The word signifies a ransoming, being derived from the word lutron, a ransom. (Note Matthew 20:28.) Dr. Hodge’s note on this word is very admirable: “The word translated redemption has two senses in the New Testament. 1. It means properly ‘a deliverance effected by the payment of a ransom.’ This is its primary etymological meaning. 2. It means deliverance simply, without any reference to the means of its accomplishment, whether by power or wisdom—Luke 21:28: ‘The day of redemption (that is, of deliverance) draweth nigh;’ Hebrews 11:25, (and perhaps Romans 8:23; compare Isaiah 50:2:) ‘Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem?’ etc. When applied to the work of Christ, as effecting our deliverance from the punishment of sin, it is always taken in its proper sense, deliverance effected by the payment of a ransom. This is evident, (1,) Because in no case where it is thus used is anything said of the precepts, doctrines, or power of Christ as the means by which the deliverance is effected, but uniformly his sufferings are mentioned as the ground of deliverance: ‘In whom we have redemption in his blood;’ Ephesians 1:7; ‘By the means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions,’ Hebrews 9:15; Colossians 1:14. (2.) In this passage the nature of this redemption is explained by the following verse; it is not by truth, nor the exhibition of excellence, but through Christ ‘as a propitiatory sacrifice, through faith in his blood.’ (3.) Equivalent expressions fix the meaning of the term without doubt; 1 Tim 2:6: ‘Who gave himself a ransom for all;’ Matthew 20:28: ‘The Son of man came to give his life as a ransom for many;’ 1 Peter 1:18: ‘Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ;’ etc., etc. Accordingly, Christ is presented as a Redeemer, not in the character of a teacher or witness, but of a priest, a sacrifice, a propitiation,” etc., etc.

Ver. 24.-28. A participial clause, grammatically subordinate to Romans 3:23, followed by other subordinate clauses, but really introducing a new and all-important doctrine, viz. justification through the death of Christ. By introducing this great doctrine in this subordinate form, Paul intimates its logical connection with the doctrine of universal sin and failure. The prominence of this last doctrine throughout this epistle reveals its large place in the thought of Paul.

Verse 24. Justified: a judge’s decision in a man’s favour, as in Romans 2:13. But in this last passage the word refers to the day of judgment; whereas here the present tense being-justified refers to a judgment now going on. Same word in same present tense in Romans 3:26, 28; Romans 4:5. That it is introduced without further explanation, implies that its meaning is involved in what Paul has already said. If, as we learnt under Romans 3:21, 22, God accepts as righteous all who believe the Gospel, then is the Gospel a formal announcement of justification for all who believe it. They have no need to wait till the day of judgment to know their destiny: the judge has already pronounced their acquittal. In the Gospel, they read their own justification. It is (Romans 1:17) revealed by faith. Thus day by day men are being justified as one and another put faith in Christ. Paul could not say “having been justified:” for this is not true of all who have sinned. Moreover, he does not speak of justification in the past tense till Romans 5:1. He refers to it now only generally as a process going on. Cp. 2 Corinthians 5:19: “reconciling the world to Himself.”

Freely: as a gift: so Revelation 21:6; 22:17.

By His grace: source of the gift, in the undeserved favour of God, i.e. the love of God contemplating its objects with a purpose of blessing: see under Romans 1:5.

Redemption, or ransoming-off: a setting free on payment, or by payment, of a price, combining the ideas of liberation and price. Same word in Romans 8:23; 1 Corinthians 1:30; Ephesians 1:7, 14; 4:30; Colossians 1:14; Hebrews 9:15; 11:35; simpler cognates in Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45; Luke 24:21; Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 1:18; Luke 1:68; 2:38; Hebrews 9:12; Acts 7:35. These cognates are common in classic Greek for liberation of captives by payment of a ransom; and in the LXX. for the liberation by price or substitute of those, e.g. the firstborn, on whom the Mosaic Law had a claim. Cp. Exodus 13:13; Numbers 18:15; Leviticus 27:27-33; Numbers 3:46-51. Like most others denoting a combination of ideas, these words are sometimes used when only one of the ideas is present, viz. liberation: so Exodus 6:6; 15:13, etc. This last idea is evidently present here. For, “to justify the ungodly” (see Romans 4:5) involves liberation from the ruin which is the due penalty of sin: see Romans 4:5; 6:22, 23. Whether, and in what sense, this liberation involves payment of a price, we must learn from the further teaching of Paul.

Through the redemption etc.: channel through which the justification goes forth from God; just as “faith” is the channel (Romans 3:22, 28, 30) through which it reaches the sinner.

In Christ Jesus: His personality being the element or environment in which the liberation takes place. This important phrase, peculiar to Paul, except that in a slightly different form it is very common in the Gospel and First Epistle of John, (see also 1 Peter 3:16; Jude 1:1,) meets us again in Romans 6:11, 23; 8:1, 39. It is a conspicuous and important feature of the teaching of Paul. See under Romans 6:11.

Verse 24. Being justified freely by his grace, &c. — That adorable display of Divine wisdom and love by which those who are guilty are justified, is now more fully opened.

1. They are JUSTIFIED, that is, pardoned; for this appears from the next verse, where the same act is called the remission of sins: yet not simply pardoned: for the terms to justify, and justification, when applied to a guilty person, import not the being made morally just, which is indeed a separate though concomitant act of the grace of God, but just or righteous with reference to law and the Lawgiver, that is, placed in the condition of persons who have not broken the law, both with reference to exemption from punishment, and the favour and kindness of God, the Governor and Judge.

2. They are justified FREELY, dwrean, kata being understood. This is opposed to MERITORIOUSLY or DESERVEDLY; it is of FREE GIFT, not of RIGHT; and hence it is added, by his grace, not his justice, to which the appeal for justification might have been made with confidence, had we been innocent, or could we ourselves have done any thing which would have legally cancelled our transgressions. — Those who deny the doctrine of atonement argue, that to be justified freely is to be freely forgiven from God’s natural goodness and mercy, without regard “to any other consideration whatever;” and yet in this very verse another and leading consideration is brought in, — “through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.” But, beside this, it is plain from the context, that the freeness of our justification denotes the manner in which the blessing is BESTOWED, not the means by which it was PROCURED. Nor do the means by which our justification was effected, in any respect, alter its nature as a gift, or in the least diminish its freedom. We are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ; but this redemption was not procured by us. It was the result of the pure love of God, who, compassionating our misery, himself provided the means of our deliverance, by sending his only begotten Son into the world, who voluntarily submitted to die upon the cross, that he might reconcile us to God. — Thus was the whole an entire act of mercy on the part of God and our Saviour, begun and completed for our benefit, but without our intervention; and therefore, in respect to us, the pardon of sin must be accounted a gift, though it comes to us through redemption.

Through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. — Redemption has sometimes been restrained to the liberation of captives, by paying a ransom, lutron, or redemption price; but Grotius has fully shown that it is used both by sacred and profane writers to signify not merely the liberation of captives, but deliverance from exile, death, or any other evil; and that the ransom, lutron, signifies every thing which satisfies another, so as to affect this deliverance. In the Gospel, that from which we are redeemed is sin, and all the evils and miseries consequent upon it: this redemption is effected by Christ, — through the redemption that is in or BY Jesus Christ: the redemption price was his LIFE. “The Son of man came to give his life a ransom, lutron, for many,” Matthew 20:28. In whom we have redemption, thn apolutrwsin, through his BLOOD,” Ephesians 1:7. That deliverance of man from sin, misery, and all other penal evils following his transgression, which constitutes our redemption by Christ, is not therefore a gratuitous deliverance, granted without a consideration, as an act of God’s supposed prerogative to dispense with his own laws; but the ransom, the redemption price, was exacted and paid, one thing was given for another, “the precious blood of Christ,” for condemned, captive men.

Mr. Locke greatly trifles on this passage. He urges that redemption is sometimes used in Scripture where no price is paid as a ransom. Figuratively and loosely it may, but never where our redemption by Christ is spoken of; and however many instances could be brought from the Old Testament of the use of the word, without reference to a ransom, they are all irrelevant to the argument; for in our redemption the lutron, the ransom, is repeatedly, expressly, and emphatically mentioned, and that price is said to be “the blood of Christ.” He urges too, and in this foolish objection he has been followed by many, that if redemption necessarily supposes a price paid, it must be paid to those who hold us captive, sin or Satan; forgetting that to be subject to sin and Satan, is, by God’s righteous decision, made a part of man’s punishment. The satisfaction is, therefore, to be made to God, under whose law we are doomed to these and other miseries, and not to the instruments by whom the penalties of that law are carried into effect.

V. 25. Whom God hath set forth-Before angels and men.

A propitiation-To appease an offended God. But if, as some teach, God never was offended, there was no need of this propitiation. And, if so, Christ died in vain.

To declare his righteousness-To demonstrate not only his clemency, but his justice; even that vindictive justice whose essential character and principal office is, to punish sin.

By the remission of past sins-All the sins antecedent to their believing.

Verse 25. Whom God hath set forth] Appointed and published to be a propitiation, ilasthrion, the mercy-seat, or place of atonement; because the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled on and before that, in order to obtain remission of sin, punishment, &c. The mercy-seat was the lid or cover of the ark of the covenant, where God was manifest in the symbol of his presence, between the cherubim; therefore the atonement that was made in this place was properly made to God himself. See Clarke’s note on “Luke 18:13”.

Through faith in his blood] This shows what we are to understand both by the apolutrwsiv, redemption, and the ilasthrion, propitiation; viz. that they refer to the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, as the atonement made, and the price paid down, for the redemption of the souls of men. To declare his righteousness] eiv endeixiv, for the manifestation of his righteousness; his mercy in saving sinners, by sending Jesus Christ to make an atonement for them; thereby declaring his readiness to remit all past transgressions committed both by Jews and Gentiles, during the time in which his merciful forbearance was exercised towards the world; and this applies to all who hear the Gospel now: to them is freely offered remission of all past sins.

Verses 25, 26. Whom God hath set forth — Before angels and men: hath in his infinite mercy exhibited to us in the gospel, to be a propitiation — Greek, ilasthrion, a propitiatory, or mercy-seat, where mercy may be found by the penitent, in a way consistent with divine justice. The reader will observe, the cover of the ark, in the tabernacle and temple of the Israelites, was called the mercy-seat, or propitiatory, and is termed by the LXX., Exodus 25:17, ilasthrion epiqema, a propitiatory cover, “because it was the throne on which the glory of the Lord was wont to be displayed, and received the atonements made by the high-priest on the day of expiation, and from which God dispensed pardon to the people. In allusion to this ancient worship, the apostle represents Christ as a propitiatory, or mercy-seat, set forth by God for receiving the worship of men, and dispensing pardon to them. Or, if a propitiatory is, by a common metonymy, put for a propitiatory sacrifice, the apostle’s meaning will be, that, by the appointment of God, Christ died as a sacrifice for sin, and that God pardons sin through the merit of that sacrifice. Hence Christ is called ilasmov, a propitiation, 1 John 2:2; 4:10. By teaching this doctrine, the apostle removed the great objection of Jews and heathen against the gospel, that it had neither a priest nor a sacrifice.” — Macknight. Through faith in his blood — Through believing that Christ’s blood was shed to expiate our sins, and trusting therein for pardon and acceptance with God, and all other benefits which he has thereby procured for us: to declare, eiv endeixin, for a demonstration of his, God’s, own righteousness: both his justice and mercy, especially the former, that thereby it might appear he could pardon sin, without any impeachment of his righteousness, in that he did not pardon it without full satisfaction made to the law by the sufferings of Christ, who was wounded for our transgressions, and on whom was laid that chastisement of sin which was necessary to procure our peace, and render our acceptance with God consistent with the divine perfections, and the equity of his government. For the remission of sins that are past — All the sins antecedent to their believing. Or the expression, dia thn paresin twn progegonotwn amarthmatwn, may be properly rendered, on account of the passing by, or not instantly and adequately punishing, sins which were before committed, that is, before the coming of Christ: the sins of which both Jews and Gentiles had been guilty before the gospel was promulgated, and on account of which both deserved destruction, and were unworthy of the blessings of God’s covenant. Now God’s righteousness or justice might have appeared doubtful, on account of his having so long, in his great forbearance, thus passed by the sins of men, unless in the mean time he had made a sufficient display of his hatred to sin. But such a display being made in the death of Christ, his justice is thereby fully proved. Doddridge thus paraphrases the passage: “The remission extends not only to the present but former age, and to all the offences which are long since past, according to the forbearance of God, who has forborne to execute judgment upon sinners for their repeated provocations, in reference to that atonement which he knew should in due tinge be made.” To declare, prov endeixin, for a demonstration of his righteousness (see the former verse) at this time — en tw nun kairw, at this period of his showing mercy to sinners. As if he had said, When he most highly magnified his mercy in finding out this way of reconciliation, he did also most eminently declare his justice, in requiring such satisfaction for the transgression of his law: that he might be just — Might evidence himself to be strictly and inviolably righteous in the administration of his government, even while he is the merciful justifier of the sinner that believeth in Jesus — Who so believes in Jesus, as to embrace this way of justification, renouncing all merit in himself, and relying entirely on the sacrifice and intercession of Christ, for reconciliation with God, and all the blessings of the new covenant. The attribute of justice must be preserved inviolate; and inviolate it is preserved, if there was a real infliction of punishment on Christ. On this plan all the attributes harmonize; every attribute is glorified, and not one superseded, nor so much as clouded. By just, indeed, in this verse, Taylor would understand merciful, and Locke, faithful to his promises; but “either of these,” as Doddridge observes, “makes but a very cold sense, when compared with that here given. It is no way wonderful that God should be merciful, or faithful to his promises, though the justifier of believing sinners; but that he should be just in such an act, might have seemed incredible, had we not received such an account of the atonement.” This subject is set in a clear and striking light by a late writer: “The two great ends of public justice are the glory of God, and in connection with it, the general good of his creatures. It is essentially necessary to the attainment of these ends, that the authority of the government of God should be supported, in all its extent, as inviolably sacred; — that one jot or tittle should in no wise pass from the law; — that no sin, of any kind, or in any degree, should appear as venial; — that if any sinner is pardoned, it should be in such a way, as, while it displays the divine mercy, shall at the same time testify the divine abhorrence of his sins. All this is gloriously effected in the gospel, by means of atonement; — by the substitution of a voluntary surety, even of him whose name is Immanuel, to bear the curse of the law, in the room of the guilty. In his substitution we see displayed, in a manner unutterably affecting and awful, the holy purity of the divine nature; for no testimony can be conceived more impressive, of infinite abhorrence of sin, than the sufferings and death of the Son of God. Here too we behold the immutable justice of the divine government, inflicting the righteous penalty of a violated law. It is to be considered as a fixed principle of the divine government, that sin must be punished; that if the sinner is pardoned, it must be in a way that marks and publishes the evil of his offence. This is effected by substitution; and, as far as we can judge, could not be effected in any other way. In inflicting the sentence against transgression on the voluntary and all-sufficient Surety, Jehovah, while he clears the sinner, does not clear his sins; — although clothed with the thunders of vindictive justice against transgression, he wears, to the transgressor, the smile of reconciliation and peace; — he dispenses the blessings of mercy from the throne of his holiness; and, while exercising grace to the guilty, he appears in the character — equally lovely and venerable — of

— the sinner’s friend,

And sin’s eternal foe!

“In this way, then, all the ends of public justice are fully answered. The law retains its complete unmitigated perfection; is ‘magnified and made honourable:’ the dignity and authority of the divine government are maintained, and even elevated: all the perfections of Deity are gloriously illustrated and exhibited in sublime harmony. While the riches of mercy are displayed, for the encouragement of sinners to return to God, the solemn lesson is at the same time taught, by a most convincing example, that rebellion cannot be persisted in with impunity; and motives are thus addressed to the fear of evil, as well as to the desire of good. Such a view of the Divine Being is presented in the cross as is precisely calculated to inspire and to maintain (to maintain, too, with a power which will increase in influence the more closely and seriously the view is contemplated) the two great principles of a holy life — the LOVE, and the FEAR OF GOD; — filial attachment, freedom, and confidence, combined with humble reverence and holy dread.” See Mr. Ralph Wardlaw’s Discourses on the Principal Points of the Socinian Controversy, pp. 211-213.

Ver. 25. Propitiation. Ilasthrion signifies mercy-seat. Ilasmov, propitiation. The whole Hebrew ritual prohibited an approach to God without the shedding of blood. The question is, how the Hebrew christians would understand this phrase. Their current language would be, “We have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.” Hebrews 10:19. It was by the sprinkling of blood, that is, his own blood, by which he sanctifies his people. Hebrews 12:24. 13:12. The forgiveness of sins is twice connected with redemption in his blood. Ephesians 1:7. Colossians 1:14.

25. Set forth—Exhibited to the world. Propitiation—The Greek word is generally considered to be an adjective signifying propitiatory; that is, appeasing, removing wrath. The noun supposed to be understood is either cover, or sacrifice. In the holy of holies of the temple was the ark of the covenant, overshadowed by the cherubim. Once a year, on the great day of atonement, the high priest entered and sprinkled the blood of the victim upon the cover of the ark as a propitiation of the divine wrath for the sins of the people. The lid of the ark was thence called the propitiatory-cover, or mercyseat; and sometimes in the Greek of the Septuagint the propritiatory, the very Greek word here used. Hence many commentators understand Jesus here to be called, by a very strong figure, the mercyseat. Yet a less harsh view is that which supplies the word sacrifice, and thus makes Jesus the divine propitiatory victim. Alford, indeed, affirms the word to be not an adjective but a noun, literally signifying a propitiatory or appeasing sacrifice. That view of the atonement which assumes that it was only a method of removing our enmity to God, not God’s wrath against us, besides its absurdity of assuming against abundant Scripture testimonies, that God has no wrath or opposition against sin, finds an answerable refutation in this word. His blood—The visible symbol of death. Faith in his blood or death is reliance upon the sufficiency of his death for the pardon of our sin, and upon its efficiency for our salvation. Declare— Make clear. Righteousness—Rectoral or governmental justice. Pure, absolute justice, as revealed to us by our intuitive sense, could never be done by the substitution of a sufferer in the place of the criminal. The same sense of absolute justice that requires that there should be a sufferer at all, requires that the sufferer should be no other than the guilty actor of the crime. If Damon died in Pythias’ stead, the justice thereby satisfied was not absolute intuitive justice, but rectoral justice, the justice that requires that law and government shall be sustained. Remission—Not so much forgiveness as withholding of penalty. Sins that are past—Sins committed before the death of Christ. That atoning death reflected back its efficacy upon previous ages and generations. That is, God, in view of that foreknown atonement, withheld penalty until the sacrifice, and then fully pardoned it. Forbearance—God forebore for ages in view of the propitiation.

Ver. 25. Whom God set forth etc.: further explanation of the redemption in Christ.

Propitiation: cognates in 1 John 2:2; 4:10; Hebrews 2:17; Luke 18:13; also (LXX.) Leviticus 4:20, 26, 31, 35; 16:30, 32-34; Numbers 16:46, 47. These passages make the meaning of the word quite clear. Propitiation was a means of forgiveness. To propitiate, was to shelter the sinner from the punishment due to his sin. In each case the propitiation was provided and commanded by God. The O.T. use of the word recalls the sacrificial ritual of the Law of Moses: and the words in His blood place the blood shed on the cross of Christ in relation to that which was so conspicuous in the Mosaic ritual. In Homer’s Iliad bk. i. 147, 386, 444, 472 and elsewhere in classic Greek, the word is used in the sense of deprecating the anger and regaining the favour of an offended deity, the name of the god being put in the accusative: similarly Genesis 32:20; Proverbs 16:14. But this construction and conception are not found, in reference to God, throughout the Bible. In the passage before us, as in 1 John 4:10, God Himself provides the propitiation. In Hebrews 9:5; Exodus 25:17-22, the exact word used in Romans 3:25 denotes the mercy-seat, the place of propitiation. But to any comparison of Christ with the mercy-seat we have no reference throughout the New Testament. Moreover, the death of Christ is here mentioned as a demonstration, not of the mercy, but of the righteousness, of God. To call Him a mercy-seat, would add nothing to the meaning of this great statement of doctrine; whereas, to call Him a propitiation, connects His death with the ancient sacrifices; as in 1 Corinthians 5:7; Ephesians 5:2; 1 Peter 1:19; Hebrews 9:26. It is therefore better to take the word to mean a propitiatory sacrifice, a means of atonement. In the ancient ritual, the blood of the sacrifice procured for the offerer forgiveness. God set-forth Christ conspicuously before the eyes of men to be a sacrifice by which they might escape from the punishment due to their sins. The word propitiation derives its force from the proof in DIV. I. that all men are exposed to punishment.

Through faith: means by which the propitiation becomes effective for each one. As each one believes, he goes from under the anger of God. God set forth Christ in His own blood: presented Him to the eyes of men covered with His own blood. This indicates wherein lay the propitiatory efficacy of this sacrifice. The above connection of thought is better than faith in His blood: for the phrase faith in (Ephesians 1:15; 1 Timothy 3:13; 2 Timothy 1:13; 3:15) is not common with Paul: and we nowhere else find such an idea as faith in the blood of Christ. But the practical difference is not great: for justifying faith takes account of the death of Christ as the means of our pardon.

Since the validity of the propitiation in Christ was in His blood, i.e. in His violent death, His blood and life were the ransom price of our justification: so Ephesians 1:7; Matthew 20:28; 1 Peter 1:18, 19; Revelation 5:9. For in all human language every costly means used to obtain a result not otherwise possible is correctly called the price paid for it. Thus the word propitiation sheds light on the foregoing word redemption.

For demonstration of etc.: purpose for which God set forth Christ as a propitiation.

His righteousness: as in Romans 3:5: the divine attribute by which God impartially administers His own laws and will judge the world. This meaning, differing from that of the same phrase in Romans 3:21, 22, is required by the words Himself righteous in Romans 3:26. Such administrative righteousness, we commonly call justice: but in Greek the words are the same.

Because of the passing over etc.: conduct of God in the past prompting Him now to give proof of His justice. Passing over: not forgiveness, but apparent tolerance of sin shown in delay to inflict punishment. The before-committed sins: during the long ages of the past history of Israel.

In the forbearance of God: as in Romans 2:4: His holding back the due punishment of their sins: cp. Acts 17:30; 14:16. God gave proof (Romans 1:24-27) of His anger against sin by now and then inflicting punishment on the Gentiles and on Israel. But He did not inflict the full penalty: else the whole race would have perished. He did not forgive, but to a large extent He passed over, the sins of men. Now, for a king to overlook crime, to forbear to punish, or even to delay punishment, is unjust. And God’s character was lowered in the eyes of some by His forbearance, which they misinterpreted to be an indication that they will escape punishment. God gave Christ to die in order to demonstrate His justice in view of a tolerance of past sins which seemed to obscure it.

Verse 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation. — The word rendered propitiation in other passages of the New Testament is ilasmov: here the adjective ilasthrion, is employed, probably with quma or iereion, understood; and so it means an expiatory sacrifice. In the LXX. and the Epistle to the Hebrews it is used for the mercy seat or covering of the ark; and if the allusion were to that, it would follow that, as this mercy seat was sprinkled with the blood of the appointed victims, and became the medium of gracious intercourse between God and the Israelites, represented by their high priest, so our Lord may be called the propitiation, as being the person in and through whom, upon the offering of his blood, God holds gracious intercourse with penitent men. The former sense is, however, to be preferred, — whom God hath set forth to be a propitiatory sacrifice. To propitiate is to appease, to turn away the wrath of an offended person. In this case the wrath to be turned away is the wrath of God. Not that he is implacable, the unfounded objection which many bring against the doctrine of the atonement. There is not only no implacability in God, but a most tender affection toward the sinning race, which is proved by the gift of his Son. This is the most eminent proof of his love, that for our sakes “he spared not his own Son.” Thus he is the fountain and first moving cause of that scheme of recovery and salvation which the death of Christ wrought into efficiency. The question is not, whether God is love, but whether he is nothing but love; whether he is not holy and just; whether we, his creatures, are or are not under law; whether this law has any penalty; and whether God, in his rectoral character, is bound to execute and uphold that law. These points are settled by what the apostle has already said, or his argument amounts to nothing: we are under law, and under guilt, — these are his decisions: the justice of God he also declares to be punitive, and we are therefore under that “wrath of God which is revealed from heaven against ALL ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” Thus God is angry with us, and so a propitiation becomes necessary to turn away that anger from us. This propitiation is the BLOOD, the LIFE, of Christ, sacrificially offered. Socinus interpreted propitiation to mean no more than the destruction of sin; which is unsupported by a single Greek authority. The modern Socinians depart from their master, and allow that it means the pacifying of an offended party, but contend that God is pacified by repentance. So that at last they allow rectoral wrath in God, but still overlook, not merely the meaning, but the very words of the text, where not our repentance, but Christ, in his character of Redeemer, or RANSOM- PAYER, is said to be the propitiation set forth. The SETTING FORTH of this propitiation is also all important circumstance introduced. The most satisfactory sense of proeqeto, which has been rendered both foreordained and substituted, is that of our own translation; which, in fact, includes the others: for as God himself is said to have set forth, publicly exhibited and proposed this propitiation, he himself before appointed or ordained it; the paternal mercy gave the Son, and he was the Lamb which from the beginning “God provided for a burnt-offering,” and provided as a substitute for guilty men. Through all the promises and types of the law there was a setting forth, in some degree, of this propitiation, yet not a clear revelation, nor could be until the true sacrifice was offered. Then it was fully exhibited and proposed both by the publication of the Gospel and the Divine institution of the Lord’s Supper; in which all his disciples “show forth his death” in its sacrificial nature, and as the propitiation for the sins of the world, and will continue to do so “until he come” as the righteous Judge of all. Every thing relative to the sacrifice of Christ bears the most public character, and is in accordance with its peculiar and universal exhibition. — He was offered up before the world; the doctrine of his cross forms the great subject of the evangelical ministry; it is that which is commanded to be preached, published, and proclaimed to every creature; while the institution of the Church, which is not a secret society, but “a city set on a hill,” holds up to the faith and trust of men, from age to age, that grand atonement by which alone the guilty are reconciled to God. Through faith in his blood. — This important clause expresses the means by which the propitiation becomes available to each individual. By its virtue all mankind are placed under a gracious and merciful administration, and provision is made for their salvation independent of any efforts of their own; but, in order that actual personal reconciliation with an offended God may take place, there must be personal faith in his blood. Faith is presented to us under two leading views: the first is that of assent or persuasion, the second that of confidence or reliance. The former may exist without the latter; and, though the basis, is certainly not that faith which is made the condition and instrument of our salvation. One is mere intellectual assent; the other is a work of the heart, a motion of the soul toward God, to lay hold upon his covenant engagements, and to rest in them. The faith by which the elders “obtained a good report” was of this character: it united assent to the truth of God’s revelations with a noble confidence in his promises. “Our fathers TRUSTED in thee, and were not confounded.” So here the phrase used, faith in his blood, indicates the nature of the faith itself; for it surely cannot mean that every man who believes historically that the blood of Christ was actually shed, nor that every man who believes that his blood was the general atonement for sin will be saved; for then, indeed, heaven would be peopled with the unsanctified and unholy, since many admit these truths with the fulness of conviction, who still live in the practice of sin; but the meaning is, TRUST in his blood, the reliance of a sinner consciously sinful and penitent, one, as the apostle had said, “whose mouth is stopped,” who denies nothing, palliates nothing, but sinks in silent shame, as guilty before God; that is, he feels, confesses, that he is guilty, and relies upon the propitiation which God hath set forth. Both Jews and Gentiles TRUSTED in something, however delusive, to avert from them the Divine displeasure, or to secure the favour of superior powers. These things were to be wholly renounced, and the full and exclusive trust of a contrite heart be reposed in that true and only propitiation which was manifestly set forth by God, and which demanded, by the strength of its demonstrations reliance of the most absolute kind.

END OF THE EXPOSITION.

V. 26. For a demonstration of his righteousness-Both of his justice and mercy.

That he might be just-Showing his justice on his own Son. And yet the merciful justifier of every one that believeth in Jesus. That he might be just-Might evidence himself to be strictly and inviolably righteous in the administration of his government, even while he is the merciful justifier of the sinner that believeth in Jesus. The attribute of justice must be preserved inviolate; and inviolate it is preserved, if there was a real infliction of punishment on our Saviour. On this plan all the attributes harmonize; every attribute is glorified, and not one superseded no, nor so much as clouded.

Verse 26. To declare, I say, at this time] To manifest now, by the dispensation of the Gospel, his righteousness, his infinite mercy; and to manifest it in such a way, that he might still appear to be the just God, and yet the justifier, the pardoner, of him who believeth in Jesus. Here we learn that God designed to give the most evident displays both of his justice and mercy. Of his justice, in requiring a sacrifice, and absolutely refusing to give salvation to a lost world in any other way; and of his mercy, in providing THE sacrifice which his justice required. Thus, because Jesus was an atonement, a ransom price, for the sin of the world, therefore God can, consistently with his justice, pardon every soul that believeth in Jesus. This is the full discovery of God’s righteousness, of his wonderful method of magnifying his law and making it honourable; of showing the infinite purity of his justice, and of saving a lost world. Hitherto, from the ninth verse, {Romans 3:9} the apostle had gone on without interruption, proving that Jew and Gentile were in a state of guilt and condemnation, and that they could be saved only by the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. The Jew, finding his boasted privileges all at stake, interrupts him, and asks:-

Verse

Verses 25, 26. Whom God hath set forth — Before angels and men: hath in his infinite mercy exhibited to us in the gospel, to be a propitiation — Greek, ilasthrion, a propitiatory, or mercy-seat, where mercy may be found by the penitent, in a way consistent with divine justice. The reader will observe, the cover of the ark, in the tabernacle and temple of the Israelites, was called the mercy-seat, or propitiatory, and is termed by the LXX., Exodus 25:17, ilasthrion epiqema, a propitiatory cover, “because it was the throne on which the glory of the Lord was wont to be displayed, and received the atonements made by the high-priest on the day of expiation, and from which God dispensed pardon to the people. In allusion to this ancient worship, the apostle represents Christ as a propitiatory, or mercy-seat, set forth by God for receiving the worship of men, and dispensing pardon to them. Or, if a propitiatory is, by a common metonymy, put for a propitiatory sacrifice, the apostle’s meaning will be, that, by the appointment of God, Christ died as a sacrifice for sin, and that God pardons sin through the merit of that sacrifice. Hence Christ is called ilasmov, a propitiation, 1 John 2:2; 4:10. By teaching this doctrine, the apostle removed the great objection of Jews and heathen against the gospel, that it had neither a priest nor a sacrifice.” — Macknight. Through faith in his blood — Through believing that Christ’s blood was shed to expiate our sins, and trusting therein for pardon and acceptance with God, and all other benefits which he has thereby procured for us: to declare, eiv endeixin, for a demonstration of his, God’s, own righteousness: both his justice and mercy, especially the former, that thereby it might appear he could pardon sin, without any impeachment of his righteousness, in that he did not pardon it without full satisfaction made to the law by the sufferings of Christ, who was wounded for our transgressions, and on whom was laid that chastisement of sin which was necessary to procure our peace, and render our acceptance with God consistent with the divine perfections, and the equity of his government. For the remission of sins that are past — All the sins antecedent to their believing. Or the expression, dia thn paresin twn progegonotwn amarthmatwn, may be properly rendered, on account of the passing by, or not instantly and adequately punishing, sins which were before committed, that is, before the coming of Christ: the sins of which both Jews and Gentiles had been guilty before the gospel was promulgated, and on account of which both deserved destruction, and were unworthy of the blessings of God’s covenant. Now God’s righteousness or justice might have appeared doubtful, on account of his having so long, in his great forbearance, thus passed by the sins of men, unless in the mean time he had made a sufficient display of his hatred to sin. But such a display being made in the death of Christ, his justice is thereby fully proved. Doddridge thus paraphrases the passage: “The remission extends not only to the present but former age, and to all the offences which are long since past, according to the forbearance of God, who has forborne to execute judgment upon sinners for their repeated provocations, in reference to that atonement which he knew should in due tinge be made.” To declare, prov endeixin, for a demonstration of his righteousness (see the former verse) at this time — en tw nun kairw, at this period of his showing mercy to sinners. As if he had said, When he most highly magnified his mercy in finding out this way of reconciliation, he did also most eminently declare his justice, in requiring such satisfaction for the transgression of his law: that he might be just — Might evidence himself to be strictly and inviolably righteous in the administration of his government, even while he is the merciful justifier of the sinner that believeth in Jesus — Who so believes in Jesus, as to embrace this way of justification, renouncing all merit in himself, and relying entirely on the sacrifice and intercession of Christ, for reconciliation with God, and all the blessings of the new covenant. The attribute of justice must be preserved inviolate; and inviolate it is preserved, if there was a real infliction of punishment on Christ. On this plan all the attributes harmonize; every attribute is glorified, and not one superseded, nor so much as clouded. By just, indeed, in this verse, Taylor would understand merciful, and Locke, faithful to his promises; but “either of these,” as Doddridge observes, “makes but a very cold sense, when compared with that here given. It is no way wonderful that God should be merciful, or faithful to his promises, though the justifier of believing sinners; but that he should be just in such an act, might have seemed incredible, had we not received such an account of the atonement.” This subject is set in a clear and striking light by a late writer: “The two great ends of public justice are the glory of God, and in connection with it, the general good of his creatures. It is essentially necessary to the attainment of these ends, that the authority of the government of God should be supported, in all its extent, as inviolably sacred; — that one jot or tittle should in no wise pass from the law; — that no sin, of any kind, or in any degree, should appear as venial; — that if any sinner is pardoned, it should be in such a way, as, while it displays the divine mercy, shall at the same time testify the divine abhorrence of his sins. All this is gloriously effected in the gospel, by means of atonement; — by the substitution of a voluntary surety, even of him whose name is Immanuel, to bear the curse of the law, in the room of the guilty. In his substitution we see displayed, in a manner unutterably affecting and awful, the holy purity of the divine nature; for no testimony can be conceived more impressive, of infinite abhorrence of sin, than the sufferings and death of the Son of God. Here too we behold the immutable justice of the divine government, inflicting the righteous penalty of a violated law. It is to be considered as a fixed principle of the divine government, that sin must be punished; that if the sinner is pardoned, it must be in a way that marks and publishes the evil of his offence. This is effected by substitution; and, as far as we can judge, could not be effected in any other way. In inflicting the sentence against transgression on the voluntary and all-sufficient Surety, Jehovah, while he clears the sinner, does not clear his sins; — although clothed with the thunders of vindictive justice against transgression, he wears, to the transgressor, the smile of reconciliation and peace; — he dispenses the blessings of mercy from the throne of his holiness; and, while exercising grace to the guilty, he appears in the character — equally lovely and venerable — of

— the sinner’s friend,

And sin’s eternal foe!

“In this way, then, all the ends of public justice are fully answered. The law retains its complete unmitigated perfection; is ‘magnified and made honourable:’ the dignity and authority of the divine government are maintained, and even elevated: all the perfections of Deity are gloriously illustrated and exhibited in sublime harmony. While the riches of mercy are displayed, for the encouragement of sinners to return to God, the solemn lesson is at the same time taught, by a most convincing example, that rebellion cannot be persisted in with impunity; and motives are thus addressed to the fear of evil, as well as to the desire of good. Such a view of the Divine Being is presented in the cross as is precisely calculated to inspire and to maintain (to maintain, too, with a power which will increase in influence the more closely and seriously the view is contemplated) the two great principles of a holy life — the LOVE, and the FEAR OF GOD; — filial attachment, freedom, and confidence, combined with humble reverence and holy dread.” See Mr. Ralph Wardlaw’s Discourses on the Principal Points of the Socinian Controversy, pp. 211-213.

26. At this time—In antithesis with the past time of forbearance. Just— Affording no pretext for doubting his condemnation of sin. There is a chime of words between just and justifier.

Strictly, St. Paul’s picture of the atonement is now complete. Yet, supplementarily, he next calls attention to three points in the picture, namely, its exclusion of boast, (27, 28,) its impartial universality, (29, 30,) and its true grounding in the Old Testament, (31.) All these three he will illustrate more fully in the future. It is upon the Jew specially that he strongly presses these points.

Ver. 26. For the demonstration of His righteousness: conspicuous and emphatic repetition of the same words in Romans 3:25. In the present season: the days of Christ, who, as we read in Romans 5:6, “in due season died for ungodly ones,” in contrast to God’s forbearance in earlier ages.

In order that He etc.: further and final purpose of this demonstration of God’s justice, and of His gift of Christ to die. This purpose implies that, apart from the demonstration of God’s justice in the death of Christ, God could not

be at the same time Himself just and a justifier of those who put faith in Jesus. For certainly He would not have given His Son to die in order to reach an end which might have been reached at less cost. In other words, Paul here asserts that God gave Christ to die in order to harmonize with His own attribute of justice the justification of believers announced in the Gospel.

Faith of Jesus: belief of the words of Jesus, as in Romans 3:22. Him that has faith: literally him whose position and character are derived from a faith of which Jesus is the personal Object: same phrase in Romans 3:30; Romans 1:17; 4:16; 9:30, 32; 10:6, etc. These words keep before us Doctrine I, asserted in Romans 3:22.

Romans 3:26 is Paul’s last and highest word about the death of Christ; and it is the fullest teaching in the New Testament, explaining all its other teaching on the same solemn subject. If the death of Christ was needful in order to demonstrate the justice of God in view of the justification of sinners announced in the Gospel and in view of His own past forbearance of sin, then Justice itself demanded this demonstration. For a ruler is bound not only to administer impartially his own laws but to make his impartiality manifest to all; because whatever obscures his justice defeats the ends of justice, and whatever manifests it aids those ends. Now, if God gave Christ to die in order to harmonize with His own justice the justification of believers, then was Christ’s death absolutely necessary for man’s salvation: for God could not possibly be unjust. Consequently, by the death of Christ was removed an absolute barrier to man’s salvation having its foundation in the eternal nature of God.

The above teaching explains the word redemption in Romans 3:24: for if, as we have just seen, man’s salvation was impossible apart from some such demonstration of God’s justice as is found in Christ’s death, then was this last the price paid for our salvation. We need not ask, To whom paid? For the phrase is one of the most common and expressive of human metaphors. There was no bargaining with Satan, or between the Persons of the Godhead, but there was an infinite price paid. The word propitiation in Romans 3:25 is also explained: for through the death of Christ believers are saved from the penalty of their sins which otherwise would have fallen on their own heads, just as in Egypt the firstborn was saved from death by the death of the Paschal lamb.

In Romans 3:24-26, Paul asserts, without proof, the SECOND FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINE of this epistle, viz. that God gave Christ to die in order to harmonize with His own justice, and thus make possible, the justification of believers. The same doctrine He reasserts in Romans 4:25, and draws from it important inferences in Romans 5:6-10; 6:3-10; 7:4; 8:32-34; 14:9, 15: it is equally prominent in other epistles from his pen. The complete confidence with which he asserts and assumes it, without proof, leaves no room to doubt that this remarkable doctrine was actually taught and held by the apostle Paul and by the Christians among whom he moved.

That our life comes through Christ’s death, is taught clearly in Hebrews 9:12-28; 10:1-19; 1 Peter 1:18; 2:24; 3:18; 1 John 2:2; 4:10; Revelation 1:5; 5:6-9; 7:14. Similar teaching is attributed to Christ in each of the Four Gospels: Matthew 20:28; 26:28; Mark 10:45; 14:24; Luke 22:20; John 6:51; 10:11; 12:24. That these numerous and various documents agree in teaching this remarkable doctrine, proves clearly that it was universally held by the first generation of the disciples of Jesus; and that it was actually taught by Him. For only thus can the agreement be accounted for.

This proof is greatly strengthened by the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. Wherever there are Christians, they celebrate His death by the most solemn act of their worship. The universality of this custom proves clearly that it dates from the origin of Christianity. Now, if the servants of Christ live because He died, we wonder not that they commemorate His death by a feast: and we wonder not that in the most solemn crisis of His life He commanded them to keep this commemorative feast, thus giving it a unique position as the one recurrent rite of His Church, and thus indicating His purpose to make it a channel of special blessing. But, of this rite, and of the importance attached to it by Christians everywhere, I can conceive no other explanation. It is thus an abiding witness to the doctrine before us. A similar though less definite witness is borne by the animal sacrifices so conspicuous in the Mosaic ritual and in the worship of the ancient world. In almost every nation men believed that in some cases the guilty could be saved only by the blood of an innocent victim. Whence this strange belief? If the teaching of Romans 3:24-26 be true, we can conceive that He who wrote His law in the hearts of all in some way taught men to offer animal sacrifices, in order that, by their evident insufficiency, they might proclaim the need of a nobler Victim.

On the whole subject, see Diss. vii. of my Galatians, on “The Cross of Christ;” and Part iii. of my Through Christ to God, on “The Death of Christ.”

Paul has now, after proving that all men are or have been under condemnation, asserted two great doctrines, viz. (1) that God receives into His favour all who believe the good news announced by Christ, and (2) that this salvation comes through the death of Christ, whom God gave to die in order to harmonize with His own justice the justification of those who put faith in Christ. Of these doctrines, the first is implied in, and the second is the only explanation of, teaching which can be traced by abundant and decisive documentary evidence to the lips of Christ. We may therefore, apart from the apostolic authority of Paul, accept each of these doctrines with perfect confidence as a sure basis for further theological research.

REVIEW of § 10. Through the Gospel announced by Christ, God has, apart from obedience to law and from natural distinctions, manifested a righteousness which is His own gift to all believers. Such was needed: for all have sinned, and are thus destitute of the heritage of glory which belongs to the sons of God. This Gospel implies justification by God’s free favour: and this is itself a proof of the moral failure of our race, a proof strengthened by the assertion of Paul that it was made possible only through the death of Christ. This last was therefore the ransom-price of our salvation. The payment was made, and the liberation takes place, in Him who was born at Bethlehem to be our King. Because no other means would avail, God set Him forth before the eyes of men, covered with His own blood, to be a propitiatory sacrifice sheltering from the punishment due to their sins those who believe. God did this in order thus to afford proof of His own righteousness, a proof made needful by His past forbearance and by His present purpose to proclaim pardon for those who believe the words of Jesus. To delay punishment, and still more to pardon the guilty, by mere prerogative, is unjust and therefore impossible to God. But that which by itself would have been unworthy of a righteous ruler, God has harmonized with His own absolute justice by the demonstration of it given in the death of Christ.

JUSTIFICATION. The word rendered in N.T. justify denotes to make righteous, but always in a forensic or subjective sense. In non-biblical Greek, it denotes to claim as a right, to judge right, or to treat with justice, sometimes in the sense of condemning and punishing. In the LXX. it is a technical term for a judge’s sentence in a man’s favour, in Deuteronomy 25:1; Isaiah 5:23; and of God the Judge of the world, in Exodus 23:7; 1 Kings 8:32; 2 Chronicles 6:23; Isaiah 50:8. In Job 33:32, it denotes approval by a friend: and in 2 Samuel 15:4; Psalm 82:3 it is a judges’ righteous sentence, thus approaching from another side the classic use of the word. The only passage in the LXX. in which the word can possibly denote objective conformity to the Law is Isaiah 53:11; and its use elsewhere suggests that even here it means simply to procure for guilty men the acquittal of the great Judge.

In complete agreement with this use of the word in the LXX., is its use in the New Testament. From her works and her children has gone forth a declaration that Wisdom is in the right: Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:35. We read in Luke 10:29; 16:15 of men who justified themselves, in the sight of others and perhaps of themselves. Even the publicans, in Luke 7:29, “justified God.” i.e. declared Him, by receiving Baptism, to be in the right in His severe words to them through the lips of John; in the sense in which the word is used in the quotation in Romans 3:4. In Matthew 12:37, as in Romans 2:13, the word denotes a favourable sentence of God at the great assize; and refers in James 2:24, 25 to God’s approbation of Abraham expressed in Genesis 22:16, and to His approbation of Rahab’s faith as shown in her rescue amid the destruction of Jericho. Christ’s words about the publican in Luke 18:14 foreshadowed Paul’s use of the word: for he “went down to his house justified.” Throughout the Bible the word justify denotes, never impartation of inward righteousness, but always a reckoning or declaring or treating as righteous.

This constant use of the word, in close harmony with its somewhat different use in classic Greek, determines its meaning in Romans 3:20, 24, 26, 28, 30; 4:5; 5:1, 9 and in Galatians 2:16, 17; 3:8, 24: and this determines the meaning of the equivalent word righteousness in Romans 1:17; 3:21, 22; 9:30; 10:3, 4, 6. All these passages refer, not to actual conformity to the moral law, but to God’s forgiving reception into His favour of those who put faith in Christ. And this is confirmed by the phrase “faith reckoned for righteousness” used in Romans 4:3, 5, 9, 24 as an equivalent to “justified through faith.” For the word reckoned is evidently forensic.

To the above meaning of the word it cannot be objected that a forensic righteousness without actual conformity to the moral law is worthless. For, as we shall see, justification through faith is followed by adoption into the family of God, and by the gift of the Spirit of Adoption to be the animating principle of a new life of devotion to God. But this all-important teaching is clothed in other phraseology. It is not suggested by the word now before us. See further in Diss. vi. of my Galatians.

Since we appear before God charged with sin, to us justification is acquittal. And, since we are actually guilty, it is practically pardon. But it is not looked upon as such: for, whereas pardon is a setting aside of law, justification is a carrying out of the new Law of Faith.

In the N.T., no writer except Paul uses the phrase “justified through faith.” Notice therefore an all-important coincidence in Acts 13:38, 39, in a recorded address of Paul.

V. 27. Where is the boasting then of the Jew against the Gentile? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay-This would have left room for boasting.

But by the law of faith-Since this requires all, without distinction, to apply as guilty and helpless sinners, to the free mercy of God in Christ. The law of faith is that divine constitution which makes faith, not works, the condition of acceptance.

27. JEW. Where is boasting, then?] hJ kauchsiv, This glorying of ours. Have we nothing in which we can trust for our acceptance with God? No merit of our own? Nothing accruing to us from our circumcision and being in covenant with God.

APOSTLE, It is excluded] exekleisqh, It is shut out; the door of heaven is shut against every thing of this kind.

JEW. By what law?] By what rule, doctrine, or reason is it shut out? by the law of works? The rule of obedience, which God gave to us, and by which obedience we are accepted by him?

APOSTLE. Nay] Not by the law of works; glorying is not cut off or shut out by that; it stands in full force as the rule of life; but you have sinned and need pardon. The law of works grants no pardon, it requires obedience, and threatens the disobedient with death. But all glorying in the expectation of salvation, through your own obedience, is excluded by the law, the doctrine of faith: faith alone, in the mercy of God, through the propitiation made by the blood of Jesus, (Romans 3:25,) is that by which you can be justified, pardoned, and taken into the Divine favour.

Verse 27. Where is boasting then? — The boasting of the Gentiles in their philosophy, or of the Jews in the rites of the law of Moses, as sufficient for their salvation. Or the boasting of the Jews against the Gentiles, or that of any one in his own righteousness, or on account of any peculiar privileges he may enjoy. It is excluded — This way of justification by free grace, through faith, leaves no room to any one for boasting of what he is, or has, or does, or can do. By what law? Of works? — By that of Moses, or any other law, promising life only to perfect obedience, and threatening all disobedience with inevitable death? Nay; this, if the fulfilling of it had been practicable, and a man could have been justified thereby, would have left him room for boasting, even that he had procured his justification by his own virtue and goodness. But by the law of faith — “The law of faith here, as opposed to the law of works, is that gracious covenant which God made with mankind immediately after the fall. It is fitly termed a law, because it is the law, or rule, by which sinners are to be justified in every age; and the law of faith, because the requisition of faith, as the means of our justification, is as much a law to men under the new covenant, as the requisition of works for the same purpose was a law under the first covenant.” This law of faith is properly said to exclude boasting, since it requires all persons, without distinction, to acknowledge themselves sinners, deserving condemnation and wrath; and, as guilty, depraved, weak, and indigent, to make an humble application to the free mercy and grace of God in Christ, for pardon, holiness, and every other blessing which is necessary to their final happiness.

27. Boasting—The Jew need no longer be solicitous about his advantage, (verse 1,) nor his being better, (verse 9.) The law of salvation by faith is a complete leveller of men in comparison with each other, and of men as claiming to earn or merit justification from God. Of works?—By WORKS is meant not merely the ritual performances of the Mosaic law, (though these are included,) but every action of body or mind by which we assume to justly earn salvation, or claim to compensate or PAY God for kindnesses done by him to us. That grace or salvation cannot be bestowed by God for works in such a sense is plain, for,

1. God does not need us, and can do entirely without us. He can drop us any moment into non-existence without any real loss to himself. Nay, the angel who has lived trillions of years in perfect obedience to God has no claim for another moment of existence.

2. Far less can any works of man be any equivalent for the eternal weight of glory prepared for the elect of God. Be it that our works are excellent, how high must the excellence be in order to be an equivalent for endless blessedness? If wherever we find the word works in the epistle we read it adequate compensation, we shall at once see the conclusiveness of the apostle’s reasoning. (See note on Romans 4:4.)

3. And especially that our works of the law are no purchase of God’s favour is clear; for since all find themselves transgressors, so on the ground of pure law, as the apostle conclusively maintains, can no flesh be justified. (See notes on Romans 14:2, and 10:4.) The only way for man as a sinner is to fall back from the platform of law upon the platform of grace and mercy.

4. Grace in salvation does not, as predestinarians do vainly think, imply that faith is omnipotently or sovereignly planted in a man, (see note on verse 24;) but in the fact that the conditions of salvation are not compensative works, but faith. And faith being a complete self-surrender to God, by him to be ruled and saved, does of itself confess that all salvation comes by grace, and not by works, wages, pay, or compensation to God. Thus faith is the non-meritorious condition of salvation.

5. And yet, after all, under the gospel system works are meritorious! We are required to work; to work out our salvation. We are rewarded according to our works. (See note on Romans 2:6.) And St. James tells us most truly that we are justified by works. For, after the soul has by faith submitted itself to God, God does accept it and its imperfect works, which then, indeed, are acts of faith. Even in the unregenerate state, right doings are intrinsically excellent. (Note on Matthew 5:7.) They are better than wrong doings. And in the man of faith God accepts them as done to and for him; conferring on them a higher excellency than belongs to them—even a rewardable merit.

6. The battle of the apostle against works in this epistle is part of his great battle against circumcision as a means of salvation, against the claim of the power of the Jewish Ritual to save without Christ, and against the proud pretences of heathen moralism. It is, indeed, the great battle of the gospel against all Antichristianity. When Christianity itself becomes overloaded with a pile of rituals and performances, prescribed as works for salvation, the whole is overthrown by appealing to the doctrine of justification by simple heart-deep faith without the works of the law. To this Luther appealed against the ritualism of the Church of Rome; to this Wesley appealed against the formalism of the Church of England.

ROMANS

SECTION 11 — ALL BOASTING IS NOW SHUT

OUT CH. 3:27-30

Where then is the exultation? It has been shut out. Through what kind of law? Of works? No, but through a law of faith. For we reckon that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law. Or, of Jews only is He the God? Lot also of Gentiles? Yes, also of Gentiles; if, at least, there is one God who will justify circumcision by faith and uncircumcision through their faith.

Ver. 27. Where then etc.: question suggested by § 10, and bringing out a logical consequence of it.

The exultation: the well-known exultation of Romans 2:17, 23. That Paul refers specially to Jewish boasting, is evident from Romans 3:29,

30. But all human boasting is shut out by § 10: for its teaching rests on the truth that no man, by his own effort, can save himself. Paul looks round and cries, Where now is your exultation? It has vanished from view: it has been shut out. By what means? By means of a law, i.e. a divine proclamation of the way in which God will rule and judge His people? What kind of law? one which re-echoes the voice of Moses, Do this and live?

No. God has shut out all boasting by promulgating a law which says, Believe and live. The Gospel is correctly called a law: for it is an authoritative declaration of God’s will concerning us, and of the principles on which He will govern us. It is a

law of faith: for it requires faith, and is thus distinguished from the Mosaic Law which required works. Important coincidences in John 6:29; 1 John 3:23. The word law reminds us that the voice of Christ is equal in authority to the voice from Sinai.

V. 28. We conclude then that a man is justified by faith-And even by this, not as it is a work, but as it receives Christ; and, consequently, has something essentially different from all our works whatsoever.

Verse 28. Therefore we conclude, &c.] Seeing these things cannot be denied, viz., that all have sinned: that all are guilty, that all are helpless: that none can deliver his own soul, and that God, in his endless mercy, has opened a new and living way to the holiest by the blood of Jesus, Hebrews 10:19, 20, &c: therefore we, apostles and Christian teachers, conclude, logizomeqa, prove by fair, rational consequence, that a man-any man, is justified-has his sins blotted out, and is received into the Divine favour, by faith in Christ’s blood, without the deeds of the law, which never could afford, either to Jew or Gentile, a ground for justification, because both have sinned against the law which God has given them, and, consequently, forfeited all right and title to the blessings which the obedient might claim.

Verse 28. Therefore we conclude — As if he had said, Since it appears, by what has been said, that all are sinners, involved in guilt and condemnation, and so cannot be justified by the law, whether natural or revealed, and that God has appointed another way of justification, we draw this conclusion; that a man is justified — Is accounted righteous, accepted and dealt with as such; by faith — By believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the mercy and grace of God, and the truths and promises of the gospel through him. See Acts 16:31; Galatians 2:16; Romans 4:24. Without the deeds of the law — Without perfect obedience to any law, as the meritorious cause of his justification. Every one, however, who is justified in this way, must show his faith by his works, James 2:14-26, and make the moral law the constant rule of his temper and conduct. It may be proper to observe here, 1st, That the faith by which men, under the new covenant, are justified, “hath for its object persons, rather than propositions. So Christ himself hath told us; Ye believe in God, believe also in me. So Moses also; Abraham believed in the Lord, and it was counted to him for righteousness: and Paul; Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. In the mean time, this faith in God and in Christ necessarily leads those who possess it, to believe every thing made known to them by God and by Christ, and to do every thing which they have enjoined: so that it terminates in the sincere belief of the doctrines of religion, and in the constant practice of its duties, as far as they are made known to the believer.” 2d, “When the apostle tells us, that by faith man is justified without the works of the law, or rather, works of law, his plain meaning is, that men are justified gratuitously by faith, and not meritoriously by perfect obedience to any law whatever.” See note on chap. 2:13. For at the same time he teaches us that men are justified freely through God’s grace; consequently he excludes faith equally with works, from any meritorious efficiency in the matter.

Ver. 28. Restatement of Doctrine I, taught in Romans 3:21, 22; so put as to be evidently a proof of the answer just given. The reading here is uncertain. The documentary evidence is about equally divided. All the Critical Editors prefer for, though Tregelles and Westcott express doubt, by putting therefore in their margin. The Revisers prefer therefore, putting for in the margin, as read by “many ancient authorities.” This is therefore a case in which internal evidence may be allowed to decide. The reading for would make Romans 3:28, a proof of Romans 3:27; the reading therefore would make it an inference. Now this restatement of Paul’s great doctrine cannot be an inference from a consequence of that doctrine, viz. that by it all boasting has been shut out: but it comes in appropriately as a restatement of the source from which the consequence flows. I therefore prefer the Editors’ reading,

For we reckon etc. The point of the proof here given lies in the sharp contrast of

faith and works of law, which echoes a similar contrast in Romans 3:21, 22. The Gospel proclaims righteousness for all who believe it, without reference to previous obedience to law. Now the Gospel is an authoritative declaration of the will of God, and has therefore the force of law. By promulgating this new law, God has shut out all boasting on the ground of good works: for the new law implies that works cannot save.

V. 29. Surely of the Gentiles also-As both nature and the scriptures show.

Verse 29. Is he the God of the Jews only?] Do not begin to suppose that because you cannot be justified by the works of the law and God has in his mercy found out a new method of saving you, that therefore this mercy shall apply to the Jews exclusively. Is not God the maker, preserver, and redeemer, also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, as much as of the Jews; for all have equally sinned and there is no reason, if God be disposed to show mercy at all, that he should prefer the one to the other; since they are all equally guilty, sinful, and necessitous.

Verses 29-31. Is he the God of the Jews only? — He argues from the absurdity of such a supposition. Can it be imagined that a God of infinite love and mercy should limit and confine his favours to the little perverse people of the Jews, leaving all the rest of mankind in an eternally desperate condition? That would by no means agree with the idea we have of the divine goodness, for his tender mercies are over all his works. He is the God of the Gentiles also — And therefore hath established a way of justification, equally open to the Gentiles as to the Jews. Seeing it is one God — The same eternal and unchangeable Jehovah, that will justify the circumcision — The Jews, by faith; and the uncircumcision — The Gentiles, through the same faith — As if he had said, The way of justification is the same to both, whatever difference men may make in their expressions about it. He shows mercy to both, and by the very same means. Macknight thinks the expression, dia pistewv, through faith, in the latter clause, is an ellipsis, for through the law of faith, mentioned verse 27, (where see the note,) and signifies the method of salvation by faith, established in the new covenant, called a law for the reasons there given. “By this law of faith the Gentiles are to be justified. For though they have not the doctrines of revelation, as the objects of their faith, they may believe the doctrines of natural religion, (Hebrews 11:5,) and live agreeably to them: in which case their faith will be counted to them for righteousness, equally as the faith of those who enjoy revelation.” The same learned writer supposes, that in the expression, seeing there is one God, the apostle alludes to Zechariah 14:8, where the prophet foretels the progress of the gospel, under the image of living waters going out from Jerusalem, and then adds, verse 9, And the Lord shall be king over all the earth, and in that day there shall be one Lord, and his name one; to show, that under the gospel dispensation, all nations shall be regarded by God as his people, that he will be acknowledged and worshipped by all nations, and that in the affair of their justification and salvation, he will observe one rule. Do we then — While we maintain this method of justification and salvation, make void the law — Set it aside, or render it useless, as katargoumen properly signifies; through faith — By teaching that justification is by faith, and that it is free for the Gentiles, as well as the Jews, in that way? God forbid — That we should ever insinuate such a design, or entertain such a thought; yea, we establish the law — On a firmer foundation than ever, and place it in a juster and more beautiful point of light: for we show that its honour is displayed in the atonement, as well as in the obedience of Christ; and we make it of everlasting use, for attesting the truth, and illustrating the necessity of the gospel, as well as for directing the lives of men, when they profess to have received it. In other words, we establish the authority, the purity, and the end of it; by defending that which the law attests, by pointing out Christ the end of it, and by showing how the moral part of it may be fulfilled in its purity. For through the influence of a faith that worketh by love, being enabled to love God, his children, and all mankind in sincerity and truth, we are brought to serve him without slavish fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, and to walk in his ordinances and moral commandments blameless. So that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us, while we walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit; love to God and man, productive of such fruits, being accounted by God the fulfilling of the law, Romans 13:8- 10; Galatians 5:14; James 2:8. Thus also that more ancient and universal law, which God has written on men’s hearts, and which we have termed the law of nature, is established in the strongest manner in and by the gospel. For every one that makes the moral law of Moses the rule of his conduct, will also observe the precepts of this, as included therein.

Ver. 29-31. Is he the God of the jews only? If that opinion be true, then he is partial in his administration, and has abandoned his care over the gentiles. Then he is regardless of his covenant and promise to Abraham, that in his Seed, the Messiah, all the families, the nations, of the earth should be blessed. Conformably to that covenant, He who saves the jew by the faith of Abraham, justifies the gentile through the same faith. Say not then that we make void the law through faith, but rather that we perfect the law, which is spiritual, by loving God with an undivided heart.

Ver. 29. Another ground of Jewish boasting. Do you exult in God as though He had nothing to do with any except Jews? Is He not the God also of Gentiles? Yes, also of Gentiles: Paul’s answer, re-echoing his question.

V. 30. Seeing it is one God who-Shows mercy to both, and by the very same means.

Verse 30. Seeing it is one God] epiper eiv o qeov. This has been rendered, Seeing God is one. It however makes little difference in the sense: the apostle’s meaning most evidently is, it is one and the same God who made both Jews and Gentiles, who shall justify-pardon, the circumcision-the believing Jews, by faith; and the uncircumcision-the believing Gentiles, by the same faith; as there is but one Saviour and one atonement provided for the whole.

It is fanciful to suppose that the apostle has one meaning when he says, ek pistewv, BY faith, and a different meaning when he says, dia thv pistewv, THROUGH faith. Both the prepositions are to be understood in precisely the same sense; only the addition of the article thv, in the last case, extends and more pointedly ascertains the meaning. It is one and the same God who shall justify the believing Jews by faith; and the believing Gentiles dia thv pistewv, by THAT SAME faith.

Verses 29-31. Is he the God of the Jews only? — He argues from the absurdity of such a supposition. Can it be imagined that a God of infinite love and mercy should limit and confine his favours to the little perverse people of the Jews, leaving all the rest of mankind in an eternally desperate condition? That would by no means agree with the idea we have of the divine goodness, for his tender mercies are over all his works. He is the God of the Gentiles also — And therefore hath established a way of justification, equally open to the Gentiles as to the Jews. Seeing it is one God — The same eternal and unchangeable Jehovah, that will justify the circumcision — The Jews, by faith; and the uncircumcision — The Gentiles, through the same faith — As if he had said, The way of justification is the same to both, whatever difference men may make in their expressions about it. He shows mercy to both, and by the very same means. Macknight thinks the expression, dia pistewv, through faith, in the latter clause, is an ellipsis, for through the law of faith, mentioned verse 27, (where see the note,) and signifies the method of salvation by faith, established in the new covenant, called a law for the reasons there given. “By this law of faith the Gentiles are to be justified. For though they have not the doctrines of revelation, as the objects of their faith, they may believe the doctrines of natural religion, (Hebrews 11:5,) and live agreeably to them: in which case their faith will be counted to them for righteousness, equally as the faith of those who enjoy revelation.” The same learned writer supposes, that in the expression, seeing there is one God, the apostle alludes to Zechariah 14:8, where the prophet foretels the progress of the gospel, under the image of living waters going out from Jerusalem, and then adds, verse 9, And the Lord shall be king over all the earth, and in that day there shall be one Lord, and his name one; to show, that under the gospel dispensation, all nations shall be regarded by God as his people, that he will be acknowledged and worshipped by all nations, and that in the affair of their justification and salvation, he will observe one rule. Do we then — While we maintain this method of justification and salvation, make void the law — Set it aside, or render it useless, as katargoumen properly signifies; through faith — By teaching that justification is by faith, and that it is free for the Gentiles, as well as the Jews, in that way? God forbid — That we should ever insinuate such a design, or entertain such a thought; yea, we establish the law — On a firmer foundation than ever, and place it in a juster and more beautiful point of light: for we show that its honour is displayed in the atonement, as well as in the obedience of Christ; and we make it of everlasting use, for attesting the truth, and illustrating the necessity of the gospel, as well as for directing the lives of men, when they profess to have received it. In other words, we establish the authority, the purity, and the end of it; by defending that which the law attests, by pointing out Christ the end of it, and by showing how the moral part of it may be fulfilled in its purity. For through the influence of a faith that worketh by love, being enabled to love God, his children, and all mankind in sincerity and truth, we are brought to serve him without slavish fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, and to walk in his ordinances and moral commandments blameless. So that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us, while we walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit; love to God and man, productive of such fruits, being accounted by God the fulfilling of the law, Romans 13:8- 10; Galatians 5:14; James 2:8. Thus also that more ancient and universal law, which God has written on men’s hearts, and which we have termed the law of nature, is established in the strongest manner in and by the gospel. For every one that makes the moral law of Moses the rule of his conduct, will also observe the precepts of this, as included therein.

Ver. 29-31. Is he the God of the jews only? If that opinion be true, then he is partial in his administration, and has abandoned his care over the gentiles. Then he is regardless of his covenant and promise to Abraham, that in his Seed, the Messiah, all the families, the nations, of the earth should be blessed. Conformably to that covenant, He who saves the jew by the faith of Abraham, justifies the gentile through the same faith. Say not then that we make void the law through faith, but rather that we perfect the law, which is spiritual, by loving God with an undivided heart.

30. One God—And he not a local or national god, but a universal God. The circumcision—The Jew. By faith… through faith—God justifies the Jew from a faith contained in and deduced from true Judaism; he justifies the Gentile through the instrumentality of a faith now first presented and imparted.

Ver. 30. A second restatement of Doctrine I, in a form suited to overturn this second objection, strengthened by a great truth in which the Jews gloried, viz. the oneness of God.

Circumcision: as in Romans 2:26. It was a visible mark of the covenant on which rested the vain belief of the Jews that God was their God only.

By faith (Romans 1:17) and through faith (Romans 3:22) are practically the same.

Their faith: that which the Gentiles evidently have. If there be one God, and if He will justify all on the same terms, then is He the God of both Jews and Gentiles. Notice here an important argument. The oneness of God is a proof that He is the God of all men: for a national god must be one among many. Thus a doctrine to which the Jews clung tenaciously supports the teaching of Paul and overthrows the exclusiveness of the Jews.

We here meet again the two objections dealt with in §§ 6 and 7. those based on the Law and on circumcision. Each is overturned by a restatement of Paul’s great doctrine of Justification through faith, in forms suited to the objections they are designed to rebut.

In Romans 2:13, Paul overturned the first objection by pointing to a principle which underlies all law. He now shows that the Gospel, which has authority equal to that of the ancient law, likewise overturns it. And He shows that the Gospel, read in the light of a truth which the Jews were ever ready to assert, overturns also the second objection.

That Paul mentions, as the first result of the Gospel, a matter so small as exclusion of Jewish boasting, may surprise us. But this boasting was probably the chief hindrance to the spread of the Gospel among the Jews. It lingered even among Jewish Christians: so Galatians 3:2; 4:21; 5:4. Paul wishes to show at once that it is utterly inconsistent with the Gospel. Moreover, that the Gospel shuts out all Jewish boasting, was to many a serious objection to it. So serious is this objection that Paul is compelled to meet it before he goes on to develop the spiritual results of the Gospel. By the reasoning of Romans 3:27-30, he suggests the objection: in Romans 3:31, he states it: and in Rom 4 he will entirely overturn it. Thus this section opens a way for the next.

V. 31. We establish the law-Both the authority, purity, and the end of it; by defending that which the law attests; by pointing out Christ, the end of it; and by showing how it may be fulfilled in its purity.

Verse 31. Do we then make void the law through faith?] 1. By law here we may understand the whole of the Mosaic law, in its rites and ceremonies; of which Jesus Christ was the subject and the end. All that law had respect to him; and the doctrine of faith in Christ Jesus, which the Christian religion proclaimed, established the very claims and demands of that law, by showing that all was accomplished in the passion and death of Christ, for, without shedding of blood, the law would allow of no remission; and Jesus was that Lamb of God which was slain from the foundation of the world, in whose blood we have redemption, even the remission of sins. 2. We may understand, also, the moral law, that which relates to the regulation of the manners or conduct of men. This law also was established by the doctrine of salvation by faith; because this faith works by love, and love is the principle of obedience: and whosoever receives salvation through faith in Christ, receives power to live in holy obedience to every moral precept; for such are God’s workmanship, created anew in Christ Jesus, unto good works; in which they find it their duty and their interest incessantly to live.

1. IN the notes on the preceding chapter, I have, in general, followed the plan of Dr. Taylor, and especially in regard to its dialogue form, but I have often differed much from that very learned and judicious man, in the application of many words and doctrines. He cannot allow that the death of Christ should be considered as a price paid down for the salvation of men and, I confess, I cannot understand the apostle in any other way. Nor can I see the weight of many of his observations, nor the force of his conclusions, on any other ground than this, that the passion and death of Christ were an atonement made to Divine justice in the behalf of man; and that it is through the merit of that great sacrifice that God forgives sin. Nor can I see any reason why such great stress should be laid on faith, but as that lays hold on and takes up the sacrifice of Christ as a ransom price for the redemption of the soul from the thraldom and misery of sin and Satan.

2. This chapter contains a fine and striking synopsis of the whole Christian system. The wretched state of man is awfully exhibited, from the 10th to the 18th verse; {Romans 3:10-18} and the plan of salvation, in the 24th, 25th, and 26th verses. {Romans 3:24-26} A pious writer calls these the Catechism of Christian Righteousness. The following points in this catechism are worthy of high consideration-viz. How is God glorified in us, and we in him?-By his GRACE. What does his grace work in us?-True holiness. Upon what motive?-Because it is pleasing to him. By whom does he give us salvation?-By Jesus Christ. How has Christ obtained this for us?-By redeeming us. What price did he give?-His BLOOD. What does his blood effect?-It reconciles us to God. How is it applied?-By FAITH. Who has given this victim of reconciliation?- -God the Father. Why did he choose these means?-To confound the false righteousness of the Gentiles; to abolish the FIGURATIVE righteousness of the Jews; and to establish his own. What does this grace of God perform?-It pardons sin and purifies the heart. For whom is this designed?-For all mankind, both Jews and Gentiles. To whom are these blessings actually communicated?-To all who repent, turn from their sin, and believe on the Lord Jesus. Why did not God make known this grand method of salvation sooner? 1. To make it the more valued: 2. To show his fidelity in the performance of his promises: and, 3. To make known the virtue and efficacy of the blood of Christ, which sanctifies the present, extends its influence to the past, and continues the availing sacrifice and way of salvation to all future ages.

3. On considering this glorious scheme of salvation, there is great danger, lest, while we stand amazed at what was done FOR us, we neglect what must be done IN us. Guilt in the conscience and sin in the heart ruin the man. Pardon in the conscience and Christ in the heart save the soul. Christ has done much to save us, and the way of salvation is made plain; but, unless he justify our conscience from dead works, and purify our hearts from all sin, his passion and death will profit us nothing. While we boast in Christ Jesus, let us see that our rejoicing, kauchsiv, our boasting, be this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have our conversation in the world, 2 Corinthians 1:12.

4. We must beware of Antinomianism; that is, of supposing that, because Christ has been obedient unto death, there is no necessity for our obedience to his righteous commandments. If this were so, the grace of Christ would tend to the destruction of the law, and not to its establishment. He only is saved from his sins who has the law of God written in his heart; and he alone has the law written in his heart who lives an innocent, holy, and useful life. Wherever Christ lives he works: and his work of righteousness will appear to his servants, and its effect will be quietness and assurance for ever. The life of God in the soul of man is the principle which saves and preserves eternally.

ROMANS

Verses 29-31. Is he the God of the Jews only? — He argues from the absurdity of such a supposition. Can it be imagined that a God of infinite love and mercy should limit and confine his favours to the little perverse people of the Jews, leaving all the rest of mankind in an eternally desperate condition? That would by no means agree with the idea we have of the divine goodness, for his tender mercies are over all his works. He is the God of the Gentiles also — And therefore hath established a way of justification, equally open to the Gentiles as to the Jews. Seeing it is one God — The same eternal and unchangeable Jehovah, that will justify the circumcision — The Jews, by faith; and the uncircumcision — The Gentiles, through the same faith — As if he had said, The way of justification is the same to both, whatever difference men may make in their expressions about it. He shows mercy to both, and by the very same means. Macknight thinks the expression, dia pistewv, through faith, in the latter clause, is an ellipsis, for through the law of faith, mentioned verse 27, (where see the note,) and signifies the method of salvation by faith, established in the new covenant, called a law for the reasons there given. “By this law of faith the Gentiles are to be justified. For though they have not the doctrines of revelation, as the objects of their faith, they may believe the doctrines of natural religion, (Hebrews 11:5,) and live agreeably to them: in which case their faith will be counted to them for righteousness, equally as the faith of those who enjoy revelation.” The same learned writer supposes, that in the expression, seeing there is one God, the apostle alludes to Zechariah 14:8, where the prophet foretels the progress of the gospel, under the image of living waters going out from Jerusalem, and then adds, verse 9, And the Lord shall be king over all the earth, and in that day there shall be one Lord, and his name one; to show, that under the gospel dispensation, all nations shall be regarded by God as his people, that he will be acknowledged and worshipped by all nations, and that in the affair of their justification and salvation, he will observe one rule. Do we then — While we maintain this method of justification and salvation, make void the law — Set it aside, or render it useless, as katargoumen properly signifies; through faith — By teaching that justification is by faith, and that it is free for the Gentiles, as well as the Jews, in that way? God forbid — That we should ever insinuate such a design, or entertain such a thought; yea, we establish the law — On a firmer foundation than ever, and place it in a juster and more beautiful point of light: for we show that its honour is displayed in the atonement, as well as in the obedience of Christ; and we make it of everlasting use, for attesting the truth, and illustrating the necessity of the gospel, as well as for directing the lives of men, when they profess to have received it. In other words, we establish the authority, the purity, and the end of it; by defending that which the law attests, by pointing out Christ the end of it, and by showing how the moral part of it may be fulfilled in its purity. For through the influence of a faith that worketh by love, being enabled to love God, his children, and all mankind in sincerity and truth, we are brought to serve him without slavish fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, and to walk in his ordinances and moral commandments blameless. So that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us, while we walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit; love to God and man, productive of such fruits, being accounted by God the fulfilling of the law, Romans 13:8- 10; Galatians 5:14; James 2:8. Thus also that more ancient and universal law, which God has written on men’s hearts, and which we have termed the law of nature, is established in the strongest manner in and by the gospel. For every one that makes the moral law of Moses the rule of his conduct, will also observe the precepts of this, as included therein.

Ver. 29-31. Is he the God of the jews only? If that opinion be true, then he is partial in his administration, and has abandoned his care over the gentiles. Then he is regardless of his covenant and promise to Abraham, that in his Seed, the Messiah, all the families, the nations, of the earth should be blessed. Conformably to that covenant, He who saves the jew by the faith of Abraham, justifies the gentile through the same faith. Say not then that we make void the law through faith, but rather that we perfect the law, which is spiritual, by loving God with an undivided heart.

31. Make void the law?—From the fact that the apostle next proceeds to ground the doctrine of faith in the Old Testament, Alford and others by main force make the word law here to mean, as it means not anywhere else, the Old Testament history. But Paul is here asserting, what he fully maintains in chap. 7, that the doctrine of faith neither abrogates nor dishonours the eternal law. On the contrary, it assumes the absoluteness of that law, which so discloses sin as to make the atonement necessary. It establishes that law as the perfect standard to which the scheme of redemption aspires to raise fallen man.

The apostle has now with complete explicitness stated the Remedy for the Ruin. He will next find that remedy to have been propounded in the Old Testament.

ROMANS

SECTION 12 — JUSTIFICATION THROUGH FAITH

RECEIVES SUPPORT FROM THE CASE OF

ABRAHAM CHS. 3:31-4:17

Do we then make law of no effect through faith? Be it not so. Nay, we establish law. What then shall we say that Abraham has found, our forefather according to flesh? For if by (or from) works Abraham was justified, he has a ground of exultation; but not in reference to God. For what says the Scripture? “But Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness.”

But to him that does work, the reward is not reckoned according to grace but according to debt: but to him that does no work, but believes on Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness. According as also David describes the blessedness of the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works, “Blessed are they whose lawlessnesses have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered over. A blessed man is he to whom the Lord will not reckon sin.”

This pronouncing-blessed then, is it upon the circumcision, or also upon the uncircumcision? For we say that to Abraham was reckoned his faith for righteousness. How then was it reckoned? While in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received a sign, that of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had in his uncircumcision; that he may be father of all that believe in uncircumcision, that to them also the righteousness may be reckoned; and father of the circumcision, to them not of circumcision only, but also to them who walk in the steps of the faith in uncircumcision of our father Abraham.

For not through law was the promise to Abraham or to his seed that he should be heir of the world, but through a righteousness of faith. For if they of law are heirs, faith has been made vain, and the promise has been made of no effect. For the Law works out anger: but where no law is, neither is there transgression. Because of this, it is by faith, in order that it may be according to grace, in order that the promise may be sure to all the seed, not to that of the Law only but also to that of the faith of Abraham, who is father of us all-according as it is written, “Because a father of many nations I have made thee”-before God whom he believed, who makes alive the dead ones, and calls the things which are not as though they were.

Ver. 31. A question suggested by the inference in Romans 3:29, 30 that justification through faith shuts out all boasting that God is in a special sense the God of the Jews. This assumption was based on the fact that to them only He gave the Law. Paul asks, Do we, by preaching a doctrine which ignores the distinction of Jew and Gentile, set aside the Law, which created that distinction?

Law: in its usual sense, viz. the Old Testament, viewed in its general character as a declaration of God’s will and as a standard of right and wrong. There is nothing here, as there was in Romans 3:21, to limit the word to the Pentateuch.

Of-no-effect: as in Romans 3:3; cp. Matthew 15:6. It might seem that Paul, who preaches

faith without reference to circumcision or previous obedience to law, denied the authority of the Old Testament. For there the favour of God depends on obedience to precepts, and circumcision is commanded as a sign of God’s special covenant with Abraham’s children. Now, to the Jews, the Old Testament was the authoritative standard of right and wrong. Does not the doctrine of justification through faith discredit, not only Jewish boasting, but those sacred books which were to the Jews the ground of moral obligation? If so, two bad results will follow. Paul’s teaching will weaken, in those who receive it, the authority of the Scriptures, and thus weaken the moral obligations therein embodied; and the Gospel will be rejected by others whose conscience tells them that the voice of Sinai, which still speaks from the pages of the Old Testament, is the voice of God. Cp. Acts 6:13.

We establish law: by preaching faith as the condition of justification, we give additional proof of the divine authority of the sacred books. So serious and so plausible is the above objection that we cannot conceive Paul, who is so careful to prove everything, meeting it by a mere assertion, viz. that contained in this verse. A full proof of this assertion, we shall find in his exposition, in Rom. 4, of the faith of Abraham. Even the narratives of the O.T. are included in the Law: for they announce the principles of God’s government. For another example of a narrative in Genesis quoted as law, see Galatians 4:21.