Then what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way! Because first of all, they were entrusted with the revelations of God. For what if some were without faith? Will their lack of faith nullify the faithfulness of God?
May it never be! Yes, let God be found true, but every man a liar. As it is written, “that you might be justified in your words, and might prevail when you come into judgment.”
But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what will we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath? I speak like men do. May it never be! For then how will God judge the world? For if the truth of God through my lie abounded to his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? Why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), “Let’s do evil, that good may come?” Those who say so are justly condemned.
What then? Are we better than they? No, in no way. For we previously warned both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.
As it is written, “There is no one righteous; no, not one.
There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God.
They have all turned away. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not so much as one.”
“Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit.” “The poison of vipers is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood.
Destruction and misery are in their ways.
The way of peace, they haven’t known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God. Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 1. Though Paul has clearly proved that bare circumcision…
1. Though Paul has clearly proved that bare circumcision brought nothing to the Jews, yet since he could not deny but that there was some difference between the Gentiles and the Jews, which by that symbol was sealed to them by the Lord, and since it was inconsistent to make a distinction, of which God was the author, void and of no moment, it remained for him to remove also this objection. It was indeed evident, that it was a foolish glorying in which the Jews on this account indulged; yet still a doubt remained as to the design of circumcision; for the Lord would not have appointed it had not some benefit been intended. He therefore, by way of an objection, asks, what it was that made the Jew superior to the Gentile; and he subjoins a reason for this by another question, What is the benefit of circumcision? For this separated the Jews from the common class of men; it was a partition-wall, as Paul calls ceremonies, which kept parties asunder.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 The first meeting with, or preventing an objection of…
The first meeting with, or preventing an objection of the Jews: what then, have the Jews no more preferment than the Gentiles? yes, that have they, saith the Apostle, on God’s behalf: for he committed the tables of the covenant to them, so that the unbelief of a few, cannot cause the whole nation without exception to be cast away of God, who is true, and who also useth their unworthiness to commend and set forth his goodness.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–23 1 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what…
1 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
Ver. 1. What advantage] Gr. το περισσον, what odds, singular thing, prerogative?
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 What advantage then hath the Jew? An elegant prolepsis…
What advantage then hath the Jew? An elegant prolepsis or anticipation of what might be objected against the apostle’s assertion in the foregoing words. If the Jews (might some object) lie equally exposed to condemnation with the Gentiles, then they have no excellency above them. Or thus, If external things do not commend us to God, (as it is affirmed, Rom 2:28,29), but the Gentiles are brought into the church without them, then the Jews have no prerogative above the Gentiles, though God hath owned them so long for his peculiar people.
What profit is there of circumcision? i.e. what is the use of it, or for what end was it instituted, seeing the uncircumcised are brought in and accepted, as being circumcised notwithstanding, and clean in heart?
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 19, 20, 21 The sense is this: But you of the Jews…
The sense is this: But you of the Jews will object and say, "If outward circumcision avails nothing, but the inward circumcision is all in all; and if the uncircumcised person, keeping the law, is to be reckoned as circumcised, what advantage then hath the Jew above the Gentile, or what profit is there of the circumcision above uncircumcision? He answers it, Rom 3:2 saying, The advantage is much every way; but chiefly because unto them were committed the oracles of God: That is, the holy scriptures contained in the Old Testament, that sacraments and seals of the covenant, the prophecies and promises of the Messiah, and the whole revelation of the word and will of God, were then found with them, and in their hands only.
Hence learn, 1. Great is that people’s privilege and mercy, who enjoy the word of God, the audible word in the holy scriptures, the visible word in the holy sacraments. This enlighteneth the eyes, rejoiceth the heart, quickeneth the soul. This is compared to gold for profit, to honey for sweetness, to milk for nourishing, to food for strengthening.
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Oh how many souls are blessing God eternally for the benefit and blessing of divine revelation!
The Jews had this special favour, to them were committed the Oracles of God; that is, the writings of Moses and the prophets.
But we Christians have a privilege beyond them, the doctrine of Jesus delivered to us by evangelists and apostles; not like the killing letter of the law, but a gospel, bringing life and immortality to light.
Observe, 2. The title which St. Paul gives to the holy scriptures; he calls them the oracles of God. St. Stephen calls them, the lively oracles, Act 7:38 partly because delivered by a lively voice from God, partly because they should be to us as oracles; that is, consulted with upon all occasions, for resolving all doubts, determining all controversies. Had the church of Rome consulted these oracles more, and councils, &c. less, she had kept the doctrine of faith much freer from corruption than she has done.
Observe lastly, That the original word, here rendered oracles, is the same which profane wretches made use of for the dark and doubtful oracles of the devil: Nevertheless, the Holy Ghost doth not disdain, nor decline, to make use of this word, as he also doth several others, though abused to heathenish superstition; which may serve to rectify their mistake, who scruple to make use of words, much more of some things which have been abused to superstition. Verily, there may be superstition in avoiding superstition; and though we cannot be too circumspect in our words and actions, yet we may be too nice and precise in both.
Yet note, That though the same word, logos, signifies God’s oracles and Satan’s, yet these oracles were not delivered in the same manner: Satan delivered his oracles ambiguously and doubtfully, keeping his dark and blind votaries as much as might be in the dark; what he said might bear several constructions, that so, whatever the event or issue prove to be, he, the father of lies, might have the reputation of speaking truth: But God’s oracles are plain and clear, free from ambiguity and darkness; the scriptures are not dark, though some places are difficult, and that proceeds from the sublimity of the matter, not from the intention of the writer.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 19 I. Here the apostle answers several objections, which might…
I. Here the apostle answers several objections, which might be made, to clear his way. No truth so plain and evident but wicked wits and corrupt carnal hearts will have something to say against it; but divine truths must be cleared from cavil.
Object. 1. If Jew and Gentile stand so much upon the same level before God, what advantage then hath the Jew? Hath not God often spoken with a great deal of respect for the Jews, as a non-such people (Deu 33:29), a holy nation, a peculiar treasure, the seed of Abraham his friend: Did not he institute circumcision as a badge of their church-membership, and a seal of their covenant-relation to God? Now does not this levelling doctrine deny them all such prerogatives, and reflect dishonour upon the ordinance of circumcision, as a fruitless insignificant thing.
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Answer. The Jews are, notwithstanding this, a people greatly privileged and honoured, have great means and helps, though these be not infallibly saving (Rom 3:2): Much every way. The door is open to the Gentiles as well as the Jews, but the Jews have a fairer way up to this door, by reason of their church-privileges, which are not to be undervalued, though many that have them perish eternally for not improving them. He reckons up many of the Jews' privileges Rom 9:4, Rom 9:5; here he mentions but one (which is indeed instar omnium - equivalent to all), that unto them were committed the oracles of God, that is, the scriptures of the Old Testament, especially the law of Moses, which is called the lively oracles (Act 7:38), and those types, promises, and prophecies, which relate to Christ and the gospel. The scriptures are the oracles of God: they are a divine revelation, they come from heaven, are of infallible truth, and of eternal consequence as oracles. The Septuagint call the Urim and Thummim the logia - the oracles. The scripture is our breast-plate of judgment. We must have recourse to the law and to the testimony, as to an oracle. The gospel is called the oracles of God, Heb 5:12; Pe1 4:11. Now these oracles were committed to the Jews; the Old Testament was written in their language; Moses and the prophets were of their nation, lived among them, preached and wrote primarily to and for the Jews. They were committed to them as trustees for succeeding ages and churches. The Old Testament was deposited in their hands, to be carefully preserved pure and uncorrupt, and so transmitted down to posterity. The Jews were the Christians' library-keepers, were entrusted with that sacred treasure for their own use and benefit in the first place, and then for the advantage of the world; and, in preserving the letter of the scripture, they were very faithful to their trust, did not lose one iota or tittle, in which we are to acknowledge God's gracious care and providence. The Jews had the means of salvation, but they had not the monopoly of salvation. Now this he mentions with a chiefly, prōton men gar - this was their prime and principal privilege. The enjoyment of God's word and ordinances is the chief happiness of a people, is to be put in the imprimis of their advantages, Deu 4:8; Deu 33:3; Psa 147:20.
Object. 2. Against what he had said of the advantages the Jews had in the lively oracles, some might object the unbelief of many of them. To what purpose were the oracles of God committed to them, when so many of them, notwithstanding these oracles, continued strangers to Christ, and enemies to his gospel? Some did not believe, Rom 3:3.
Answer. It is very true that some, nay most of the present Jews, do not believe in Christ; but shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? The apostle startles at such a thought: God forbid! The infidelity and obstinacy of the Jews could not invalidate and overthrow those prophecies of the Messiah which were contained in the oracles committed to them. Christ will be glorious, though Israel be not gathered, Isa 49:5. God's words shall be accomplished, his purposes performed, and all his ends answered, though there be a generation that by their unbelief go about to make God a liar. Let God be true but every man a liar; let us abide by this principle, that God is true to every word which he has spoken, and will let none of his oracles fall to the ground, though thereby we give the lie to man; better question and overthrow the credit of all the men in the world than doubt of the faithfulness of God. What David said in his haste (Psa 116:11), that all men are liars, Paul here asserts deliberately. Lying is a limb of that old man which we every one of us come into the world clothed with. All men are fickle, and mutable, and given to change, vanity and a lie (Psa 62:9), altogether vanity, Psa 39:5. All men are liars, compared with God. It is very comfortable, when we find every man a liar (no faith in man), that God is faithful. When they speak vanity every one with his neighbour, it is very comfortable to think that the words of the Lord are pure words, Psa 12:2, Psa 12:6. For the further proof of this he quotes Psa 51:4, That thou mightest be justified, the design of which is to show, 1. That God does and will preserve his own honour in the world, notwithstanding the sins of men. 2. That it is our duty, in all our conclusions concerning ourselves and others, to justify God and to assert and maintain his justice, truth, and goodness, however it goes. David lays a load upon himself in his confession, that he might justify God, and acquit him from any injustice. So here, Let the credit or reputation of man shift for itself, the matter is not great whether it sink or swim; let us hold fast this conclusion, how specious soever the premises may be to the contrary, that the Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works. Thus is God justified in his sayings, and cleared when he judges (as it is Psa 51:4), or when he is judged, as it is here rendered. When men presume to quarrel with God and his proceedings, we may be sure the sentence will go on God's side.
Object. 3. Carnal hearts might hence take occasion to encourage themselves in sin. He had said that the universal guilt and corruption of mankind gave occasion to the manifestation of God's righteousness in Jesus Christ. Now it may be suggested, If all our sin be so far from overthrowing God's honour that it commends it, and his ends are secured, so that there is no harm done, is it not unjust for God to punish our sin and unbelief so severely? If the unrighteousness of the Jews gave occasion to the calling in of the Gentiles, and so to God's greater glory, why are the Jews so much censured? If our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Rom 3:5. What inference may be drawn from this? Is God unrighteous, mē adikos ho Theos - Is not God unrighteous (so it may be read, more in the form of an objection), who taketh vengeance? Unbelieving hearts will gladly take any occasion to quarrel with equity of God's proceedings, and to condemn him that is most just, Job 34:17. I speak as a man, that is, I object this as the of carnal hearts; it is suggested like a man, a vain, foolish, proud creature.
Answer. God forbid; far be it from us to imagine such a thing. Suggestions that reflect dishonour upon God and his justice and holiness are rather to be startled at than parleyed with. Get thee behind me, Satan; never entertain such a thought. For then how shall God judge the world? Rom 3:6. The argument is much the same with that of Abraham (Gen 18:25): Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? No doubt, he shall. If he were not infinitely just and righteous, he would be unfit to be the judge of all the earth. Shall even he that hateth right govern? Job 34:17. Compare Job 34:18, Job 34:19. The sin has never the less of malignity and demerit in it though God bring glory to himself out of it. It is only accidentally that sin commends God's righteousness. No thanks to the sinner for that, who intends no such thing. The consideration of God's judging the world should for ever silence all our doubtings of, and reflections upon, his justice and equity. It is not for us to arraign the proceedings of such an absolute Sovereign. The sentence of the supreme court, whence lies no appeal, is not to be called in question.
Object. 4. The former objection is repeated and prosecuted (Rom 3:7, Rom 3:8), for proud hearts will hardly be beaten out of their refuge of lies, but will hold fast the deceit. But his setting off the objection in its own colours is sufficient to answer it: If the truth of God has more abounded through my lie. He supposes the sophisters to follow their objection thus: "If my lie, that is, my sin" (for there is something of a lie in every sin, especially in the sins of professors) "have occasioned the glorifying of God's truth and faithfulness, why should I be judged and condemned as a sinner, and not rather thence take encouragement to go on in my sin, that grace may abound?" an inference which at first sight appears too black to be argued, and fit to be cast out with abhorrence. Daring sinners take occasion to boast in mischief, because the goodness of God endures continually, Psa 52:1. Let us do evil that good may come is oftener in the heart than in the mouth of sinners, so justifying themselves in their wicked ways. Mentioning this wicked thought, he observes, in a parenthesis, that there were those who charged such doctrines as this upon Paul and his fellow-ministers: Some affirm that we say so. It is no new thing for the best of God's people and ministers to be charged with holding and teaching such things as they do most detest and abhor; and it is not to be thought strange, when our Master himself was said to be in league with Beelzebub. Many have been reproached as if they had said that the contrary of which they maintain: it is an old artifice of Satan thus to cast dirt upon Christ's ministers, Fortiter calumniari, aliquid adhaerebit - Lay slander thickly on, for some will be sure to stick. The best men and the best truths are subject to slander. Bishop Sanderson makes a further remark upon this, as we are slanderously reported - blasphēmoumetha. Blasphemy in scripture usually signifies the highest degree of slander, speaking ill of God. The slander of a minister and his regular doctrine is a more than ordinary slander, it is a kind of blasphemy, not for his person's sake, but for his calling's sake and his work's sake, Th1 5:13.
Answer. He says no more by way of confutation but that, whatever they themselves may argue, the damnation of those is just. Some understand it of the slanderers; God will justly condemn those who unjustly condemn his truth. Or, rather, it is to be applied to those who embolden themselves in sin under a pretence of God's getting glory to himself out of it. Those who deliberately do evil that good may come of it will be so far from escaping, under the shelter of that excuse, that it will rather justify their damnation, and render them the more inexcusable; for sinning upon such a surmise, and in such a confidence, argues a great deal both of the wit and of the will in the sin - a wicked will deliberately to choose the evil, and a wicked wit to palliate it with the pretence of good arising from it. Therefore their damnation is just; and, whatever excuses of this kind they may now please themselves with, they will none of them stand good in the great day, but God will be justified in his proceedings, and all flesh, even the proud flesh that now lifts up itself against him, shall be silent before him. Some think Paul herein refers to the approaching ruin of the Jewish church and nation, which their obstinacy and self-justification in their unbelief hastened upon them apace.
II. Paul, having removed these objections, next revives his assertion of the general guilt and corruption of mankind in common, both of Jews and Gentiles, Rom 3:9-18. "Are we better than they, we Jews, to whom were committed the oracles of God? Does this recommend us to God, or will this justify us? No, by no means." Or, "Are we Christians (Jews and Gentiles) so much better antecedently than the unbelieving part as to have merited God's grace? Alas! no: before free grace made the difference, those of us that had been Jews and those that had been Gentiles were all alike corrupted." They are all under sin. Under the guilt of sin: under it as under a sentence; - under it as under a bond, by which they are bound over to eternal ruin and damnation; - under it as under a burden (Psa 38:4) that will sink them to the lowest hell: we are guilty before God, Rom 3:19. Under the government and dominion of sin: under it as under a tyrant and cruel task-master, enslaved to it; - under it as under a yoke; - under the power of it, sold to work wickedness. And this he had proved, proētiasametha. It is a law term: We have charged them with it, and have made good our charge; we have proved the indictment, we have convicted them by the notorious evidence of the fact. This charge and conviction he here further illustrates by several scriptures out of the Old Testament, which describe the corrupt depraved state of all men, till grave restrain or change them; so that herein as in a glass we may all of us behold our natural face. The Rom 3:10, Rom 3:11, and Rom 3:12 verses are taken from Psa 14:1-3, which are repeated as containing a very weighty truth, Psa 53:1-3. The rest that follows here is found in the Septuagint translation of the 14th Psalm, which some think the apostle chooses to follow as better known; but I rather think that Paul took these passages from other places of scripture here referred to, but in later copies of the Septuagint they were all added in Psa 14:1-7 from this discourse of Paul. It is observable that, to prove the general corruption of nature, he quotes some scriptures which speak of the particular corruptions of particular persons, as of Doeg (Psa 140:3), of the Jews (Isa 59:7, Isa 59:8), which shows that the same sins that are committed by one are in the nature of all. The times of David and Isaiah were some of the better times, and yet to their days he refers. What is said Psa 14:1-7 is expressly spoken of all the children of men, and that upon a particular view and inspection made by God himself. The Lord looked down, as upon the old world, Gen 6:5. And this judgment of God was according to truth. He who, when he himself had made all, looked upon every thing that he had made, and behold all was very good, now that man had marred all, looked, and behold all was very bad. Let us take a view of the particulars. Observe,
1. That which is habitual, which is two-fold: -
(1.) An habitual defect of every thing that is good. [1.] There is none righteous, none that has an honest good principle of virtue, or is governed by such a principle, none that retains any thing of that image of God, consisting in righteousness, wherein man was created; no, not one; implying that, if there had been but one, God would have found him out. When all the world was corrupt, God had his eye upon one righteous Noah. Even those who through grace are justified and sanctified were none of them righteous by nature. No righteousness is born with us. The man after God's own heart owns himself conceived in sin. [2.] There is none that understandeth, Rom 3:11. The fault lies in the corruption of the understanding; that is blinded, depraved, perverted. Religion and righteousness have so much reason on their side that if people had but any understanding they would be better and do better. But they do not understand. Sinners are fools. [3.] None that seeketh after God, that is, none that has any regard to God, any desire after him. Those may justly be reckoned to have no understanding that do not seek after God. The carnal mind is so far from seeking after God that really it is enmity against him. [4.] They are together become unprofitable, Rom 3:12. Those that have forsaken God soon grow good for nothing, useless burdens of the earth. Those that are in a state of sin are the most unprofitable creatures under the sun; for it follows, [5.] There is none that doeth good; no, not a just man upon the earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not, Ecc 7:23. Even in those actions of sinners that have some goodness in them there is a fundamental error in the principle and end; so that it may be said, There is none that doeth good. Malum oritur ex quolibet defectu - Every defect is the source of evil.
(2.) An habitual defection to every thing that is evil: They are all gone out of the way. No wonder that those miss the right way who do not seek after God, the highest end. God made man in the way, set him in right, but he hath forsaken it. The corruption of mankind is an apostasy.
2. That which is actual. And what good can be expected from such a degenerate race? He instances,
(1.) In their words (Rom 3:13, Rom 3:14), in three things particularly: - [1.] Cruelty: Their throat is an open sepulchre, ready to swallow up the poor and innocent, waiting an opportunity to do mischief, like the old serpent seeking to devour, whose name is Abaddon and Apollyon, the destroyer. And when they do not openly avow this cruelty, and vent it publicly, yet they are underhand intending mischief: the poison of asps is under their lips (Jam 3:8), the most venomous and incurable poison, with which they blast the good name of their neighbour by reproaches, and aim at his life by false witness. These passages are borrowed from Psa 5:9 and Psa 140:3. [2.] Cheating: With their tongues they have used deceit. Herein they show themselves the devil's children, for he is a liar, and the father of lies. They have used it: it intimates that they make a trade of lying; it is their constant practice, especially belying the ways and people of God. [3.] Cursing: reflecting upon God, and blaspheming his holy name; wishing evil to their brethren: Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. This is mentioned as one of the great sins of the tongue, Jam 3:9. But those that thus love cursing shall have enough of it, Psa 109:17-19. How many, who are called Christians, do by these sin evince that they are still under the reign and dominion of sin, still in the condition that they were born in.
(2.) In their ways (Rom 3:15-17): Their feet are swift to shed blood; that is, they are very industrious to compass any cruel design, ready to lay hold of all such opportunities. Wherever they go, destruction and misery go along with them; these are their companions-destruction and misery to the people of God, to the country and neighbourhood where they live, to the land and nation, and to themselves at last. Besides the destruction and misery that are at the end of their ways (death is the end of these things), destruction and misery are in their ways; their sin is its own punishment: a man needs no more to make him miserable than to be a slave to his sins. - And the way of peace have they not known; that is, they know not how to preserve peace with others, nor how to obtain peace for themselves. They may talk of peace, such a peace as is in the devil's palace, while he keeps it, but they are strangers to all true peace; they know not the things that belong to their peace. These are quoted from Pro 1:16; Isa 59:7, Isa 59:8.
(3.) The root of all this we have: There is no fear of God before their eyes, Rom 3:18. The fear of God is here put for all practical religion, which consists in an awful and serious regard to the word and will of God as our rule, to the honour and glory of God as our end. Wicked people have not this before their eyes; that is, they do not steer by it; they are governed by other rules, aim at other ends. This is quoted from Psa 36:1. Where no fear of God is, no good is to be expected. The fear of God is would lay a restraint upon our spirits, and keep them right, Neh 5:15. When once fear is cast off, prayer is restrained (Job 15:4), and then all goes to wreck and ruin quickly. So that we have here a short account of the general depravity and corruption of mankind; and may say, O Adam! what hast thou done? God made man upright, but thus he hath sought out many inventions.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–23 What advantage then hath the Jew?.... If he is…
What advantage then hath the Jew?.... If he is not properly a Jew, who is born of Jewish parents, and brought up in the customs, rites, and religion of the Jewish nation, but anyone of whatsoever nation, that is born again of water, and of the Spirit; where is the superior excellency of the Jew to the Gentile? A man may as well be born and brought up a Heathen as a Jew; the one has no more advantages than the other by his birth and education: it may be rendered, "what hath the Jew more?" or "what has he superfluous" or "abundant?" the phrase answers to the Hebrew in Ecc 1:3, which is rendered, "what profit hath a man?" and in Ecc 6:8, , "what hath a wise man more", &c. and in Rom 3:11, , "what is a man better?" the first of these passages the Septuagint render by , "what abundance?" and the last by "what more", or "superfluous", or "abundant?" the phrase used by the apostle here:
or what profit is there of circumcision? since that which is outward in the flesh profits not unless the law is kept, otherwise circumcision is no circumcision; and if an uncircumcised Gentile keeps the law, he is a better man than a circumcised Jew; yea, he judges and condemns him; for the only true circumcision is internal, spiritual, and in the heart. To this the apostle answers in the Rom 3:2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 What then, may some say, is the advantage of…
What then, may some say, is the advantage of the Jew, or of the circumcision - That is, those that are circumcised, above the gentiles?
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 The apostle points out the peculiar privileges of the…
CHAPTER III.
The apostle points out the peculiar privileges of the Jews,
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1-8.
But shows that they, also, as well as the Gentiles, had sinned,
and forfeited all right and title to God's especial favour, 9.
The corrupt state of all mankind, 10-18.
All the world is guilty before God, and none can be justified by
the works of the law, 19, 20.
God's MERCY in providing redemption for a lost world, by Jesus
Christ, 21-26.
This excludes boasting on the part both of Jew and Gentile;
provides salvation through faith for both; and does not set
aside, but establishes the law, 27-31.
NOTES ON CHAP. III.
Dr. Taylor observes:- "In the preceding chapter the apostle has carried his argument to the utmost length: what remains is to keep the Jew in temper, to fix his convictions, and to draw the grand conclusion.
"He has shown that the Jews were more wicked than the Gentiles; that their possession of the law, circumcision, and outward profession of relation to God, were no ground of acceptance with him. This was in effect to say that the Jews had forfeited their right to the privileges of God's peculiar people, and that they were as unworthy to be continued in the Church as the Gentiles were to be taken into it; and consequently, in order to their enjoying the privileges of the Church under the Messiah, they stood in need of a fresh display of grace, which if they rejected, God would cast them out of the vineyard. The apostle was sensible that the Jew would understand what he said in this sense; and that it must be very irritating to him to hear that his law, circumcision, and all his external advantages, were utterly insufficient to procure him the favour of God. This at once stripped him of all his peculiar honours and privileges; and the apostle, who had often argued with his countrymen on these points, knew what they would be ready to say on this subject; and, therefore, introduces a dialogue between himself and a Jew, in which he gives him leave to answer and defend himself. In this dialogue the apostle undoubtedly refers to the rejection of the Jews, which he considers at large in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters. After the dialogue is finished, he resumes his argument, and proves, by their own Scriptures, that the Jews were guilty as well as other men; and that no part of mankind could have any right to the blessings of God's kingdom by any works which they had performed, but merely through the propitiatory sacrifice offered by Christ; and that this, far from destroying the law, was just the thing that the law required, and by which its claims were established.
"The sum and force of the apostle's argument is this: All sorts of men, Jews as well as Gentiles, have sinned; therefore, none of them can lay claim to the blessings of his kingdom on the ground of obedience. The Jew, therefore, stands as much in need of God's grace to give him a title to those blessings as the Gentile; and, consequently, the Gentile has as good a title as the Jew. And, when all are in the same circumstances, it is perfectly absurd for any to pretend to engross it to themselves, exclusively of others, who are only as bad as they.
"Thus the apostle solidly proves that we, Gentiles, through faith alone, have a good and firm title to all the blessings of the Gospel covenant-election, adoption, pardon, privileges, ordinances, the Holy Spirit, and the hope of eternal life."
As the nine first verses are a dialogue between the apostle and a Jew, I shall prefix the speakers to their respective questions and answers, to make the whole the more intelligible to the reader.
Verse 1. JEW. What advantage then hath the Jew? Or what profit is there of circumcision?] As if he had said: You lately allowed, (Ro 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?
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 19, 21 Rom 3:1-2. What advantage then hath the Jew? —…
Rom 3:1-2. 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 Rom 3:11. Much every way — Or in every respect. The respects in which the Jews were superior to the Gentiles are enumerated Rom 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 λογια, 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, χρησμοι, 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 λογια ζωντα, living oracles, Act 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, Psa 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 Rom 2:17-23.” — Macknight.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–23 What advantage ... - The design of the first…
What advantage ... - The design of the first part of this chapter is to answer some of the objections which might be offered by a Jew to the statements in the last chapter. The first objection is stated in this verse. A Jew would naturally ask, if the view which the apostle had given were correct, what special benefit could the Jew derive from his religion? The objection would arise particularly from the position advanced Rom 2:25-26, that if a pagan should do the things required by the Law, he would be treated as “if” he had been circumcised. Hence, the question, “what profit is there of circumcision?”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 17, 19, 20 What advantage then? &c. The apostle, not to offend…
What advantage then? &c. The apostle, not to offend the Jews, by insisting too long in reprehending them, turns his discourse to the advantages they have hitherto had above other nations. As first, that the words of God, those divine oracles, revelations, promises in the Scriptures, were credited or intrusted to them. And though some, or many of them have not believed God’s promises, especially concerning their Messias; this hath not hindered God from being faithful to his word, in sending the Messias, and those blessings that were promised with him. For God is always true, or faithful in his promises, and therefore must needs be justified, or found just, when his proceedings are judged, that is, considered and examined. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain On v1 Romans Chapter 3
Romans Chapter 3
Having established the great truth that God required real moral goodness, he considers the position of the Jews. Could they not plead special divine favour? Was there no advantage in Judaism? Surely there was, especially in that they possessed the oracles of God. The ways of God were full of blessing in themselves, although that did not change the immutable truths of His nature. And if many among them had been unbelieving, this did not alter the faithfulness of God; and the fact that the unbelief of many did but the more demonstrate the faithfulness of God, who remained the same whatever they might be, took nothing from the claims of righteousness. Unbelievers should be punished according to what they were; it would but magnify the unfailing faithfulness of God, which never failed, however unavailing it might be for the mass of the nation. Otherwise He could judge no one, not even the world (which the Jew was willing to see judged); for the condition of the world also enhanced and put in evidence the faithfulness of God towards His people. If then the Jew had advantages, was he therefore better? In no wise: all were shut up under sin, whether Jew or Gentile, as God had already declared. [10]
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The apostle now cites the Old Testament to prove this with regard to the Jews, who did not deny it with regard to the Gentiles which he had already also shewn. The law, says he, belongs to you. You boast that it refers to you exclusively. Be it so: hear then what it says of the people, of yourselves. It speaks to you, as you acknowledge. There is not then one righteous man among you on whom God can look down from heaven. He quotes Psa 14:2, Psa 3:1-8; Isa 59:7, Isa 8:1-22, to set forth the judgment pronounced on them by those oracles of which they boasted. Thus every mouth was shut, and all the world guilty before God. Therefore it is that no flesh can be justified before God by the law; for if the world in the midst of darkness wallowed in sin, by means of the law sin was known.
But now, without law, apart from all law, a righteousness that is of God has been manifested, the law and the prophets bearing witness to it.
Hence then we find not only the condition of the Gentiles and of the Jews set forth, together with the great immutable principles of good and evil, whatever might be the dealings of God, but the effect of the law itself, and that which was introduced by Christianity as regarded righteousness, altogether outside the law, although the law and the prophets bore witness to it. In a word, the eternal truth as to sin and as to the responsibility of man, the effect of the law, the connection of the Old Testament with Christianity, the true character of the latter in that which relates to righteousness (namely, that it is a thing entirely new and independent), the righteousness of God Himself-the whole question between man and God, with regard to sin and righteousness, is settled, as to its foundation, in these few words. The manner of its accomplishment is now to be treated of. [11] It is the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ. Man has not accomplished it, man has not procured it. It is of God, it is His righteousness; by believing in Jesus Christ participation in it is obtained. Had it been a human righteousness, it would have been by the law which is the rule of that righteousness-a law given to the Jews only. But being the righteousness of God Himself, it had reference to all; its range embraced not the one more than the other. It was the righteousness of God “unto all.” A Jew was not more in relation with the righteousness of God than a Gentile. It was in fact universal in its aspect and in its applicability. A righteousness of God for man, because no man had any for God, it was applied to all those who believe in Jesus. Wherever there was faith, there it was applied. The believer possessed it. It was towards all, and upon all those who believed in Jesus. For there was no difference: all had sinned, and outside the glory of God,[12] deprived of that glory, were justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Whether a Jew or a Gentile, it was a sinful man: the righteousness was the righteousness of God; the goodness of God was that which bestowed it, redemption in Christ Jesus the divine means of having part in it. [13] Before the accomplishment of this redemption, God, in view of it, had in patience borne with the faithful, and His righteousness in forgiving them was now clearly manifested. But, further, the righteousness itself was manifested: we come to Christ as a propitiatory that God has set forth before men, and we find on it the blood which gives us free access to God in righteousness,-God whose glory is satisfied in the work that Christ Jesus has accomplished, His blood upon the mercy-seat bearing witness thereof. It is no longer “forbearance”-righteousness is manifested, so that God is seen to be righteous and just in justifying him who is of faith in Jesus. Where then is boasting? For the Jews boasted much in reference to the Gentiles-self-righteousness always boasts: it is not a law of works that can shut it out. Man justifying himself by his works would have something to boast in. It is this law of faith, this divine principle on which we are placed, which shuts it out: for it is by the work of another, without works of law, that we through grace have part in divine righteousness, having none of our own.
And is God a limited God [14] -the God of the Jews only? No, He is also the God of the Gentiles. And how? In grace: in that it is one God who justifies the Jews (who seek after righteousness) on the principle of faith, and-since justification is on the principle of faith-the believing Gentiles also by faith. Men are justified by faith; the believing Gentile then is justified. With regard to the Jew, it is the principle which is established (for they were seeking the righteousness). With regard to the Gentile, since faith existed in the case supposed, he was justified, for justification was on that principle.
Is it then that faith overturned the authority of law? By no means. It established completely the authority of law; but it made man participate in divine righteousness, while acknowledging his just and total condemnation by the law when under it-a condemnation which made another righteousness necessary, since according to the law man had none-had none of his own. The law demanded righteousness, but it shewed sin was there. If righteousness which it demanded had not been necessary, when it failed to produce it in man, there was no need of another. Now faith affirmed this need and the validity of man’s condemnation under law, by making the believer participate in this other righteousness, which is that of God. That which the law demanded it did not give; and even, because it demanded it, man failed to produce it. To have given it would have effaced the obligation. God acts in grace, when the obligation of the law is fully maintained in condemnation. He gives righteousness, because it must be had. He does not efface the obligation of the law, according to which man is totally condemned; [15] but, while recognising and affirming the justice of that condemnation, He glorifies Himself in grace by granting a divine righteousness to man, when he had no human righteousness to present before God in connection with the obligations imposed on him by the law. Nothing ever put divine sanction on the law like the death of Christ, who bore its curse, but did not leave us under it. Faith does not then annul law; it fully establishes its authority. It shews man righteously condemned under it, and maintains the authority of the law in that condemnation, for it holds all who are under it to be under the curse. [16] The reader will remark that what is distinctly set forth to the end of this third chapter is the blood of Christ as applying itself to the sins of the old man, hence making forgiving a righteous thing, and the believer clear from sins, because cleared by Christ’s blood. This met all the guilt of the old man.
We now enter on another aspect of that which justifies, but still proves sins; not yet, however, putting us in a new place-that of resurrection, in connection with, and consequent on, this.
Footnotes for Romans Chapter 3
10: Note here a very important principle, that there are positive advantages of position, where there is no intrinsic change. Compare chapter 11: 17, and 1Co 10:1-33.
11: Rom 3:21 reverts in fact to Rom 1:17; what comes between is the demonstration of the ground of Rom 1:18, which made the righteousness ofRomans 3:17 imperatively necessary.
12: Remark here how, God being revealed, sin is measured by the glory of God. We are so used to read this that we overlook its force. How strange to say, “and come short of the glory of God!” Man might say, Why, of course we have; but, morally speaking, this has been revealed, and if one cannot stand before it, according to it, we cannot subsist before God at all. Of course it is not of His essential glory-all creatures are short of that, of course-but of that which was fitting for, according to, could stand in, His presence. If we cannot stand there, fitly “walk in the light as God is in the light,” we cannot be with God at all. There is no veil now.
13: To shew how complete is this instruction of Paul’s, I give here a summary of its elements. In itself it is the righteousness of God, without law, the law and the prophets bearing witness to it: as to its application, the righteousness of God by faith in Christ Jesus unto all, and upon all them that believe. Christ is proposed as the propitiatory by faith in His blood, to shew forth this righteousness by the remission of past sins (of the Abrahams, etc.) according to the forbearance of God; but to shew it forth in the present time, in order that He may be just, and justify those who believe in Jesus.
14: See here again how God is brought out in Himself. Compare Mat 15:19-28.
15: The law is the perfect rule of right and wrong for every child of Adam in itself, though only given to the Jews. But it was not arbitrary. It took up all the relationships in which men stood, gave a perfect rule as to them, and the sanction of God’s authority to them, with a penal sanction. But now we have something much higher, not what man ought to be, but God Himself glorified.
16: Hence those who put Christians under law do not maintain its authority; for they hold them exempt from its curse, though they break it.
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On vv1, 21 1What advantage then hath [What, then, is the advantage…
Rom_3:1-20
1What advantage then hath [What, then, is the advantage of] the Jew? or what profit is there [what is the benefit] of circumcision? 2Much every way: chiefly, [First, indeed,]1 because that unto them were committed [they 3—i.e., the Jews—were entrusted with, ἐπιστεύθησαν] the oracles of God. For what [What, then,]2 if some did not believe [were faithless]? shall their unbelief [faithlessness, or, unfaithfulness] make the faith of God without effect4[destroy, or, nullify the faithfulness of God]?3 God forbid: [Let it not be!]4 yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, “That thou mightest [mayest] be justified in thy sayings, and mightest [mayest] overcome when thou art judged”5 [Psa_51:4]. 5But if our unrighteousness commend [doth establish]6 the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance [who is inflicting, or, bringing down, the wrath, ὁ ἐπιφέρων τὴν ὀργήν]?7 (I speak as a man [after the manner of men, χατὰ ἄνθρωπον].) 6God forbid: [Let it not be!] for then how shall God judge the world? 7For [But] if8 the truth [covenant-faithfulness] of God hath more abounded through my lie [was made the more conspicuous by means of my falsehood, unfaithfulness] unto his glory [Rom_5:20]; why yet [still, any longer] am I also judged as 8a sinner? And not rather, (as we be [are] slanderously [blasphemously] reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come?9 whose damnation [condemnation, judgment]10 is just. 9What then? are we better than they?11 No, in no wise [Not at all]: for we have before proved [charged] both Jews and Gentiles, that they are 10[to be] all under sin; As it is written, “There is none righteous, no, not one: 11There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there 13is none that doeth good, no, not one” [Psa_14:1-3].12 “Their throat is an open sepulchre;13 with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps Isaiah 14 under their lips” [Psa_5:9; Psa_140:3].14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”15[Psa_10:7]:15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17And the way of peace have they not known” 18[Isa_59:7-8]:16 “There is no fear of God before their eyes” [Psa_36:1].17 19Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may 20become guilty before God. [,] Therefore [because] by18 the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified [by works of the law no flesh (i.e., no person) shall (can) be declared righteous] in his sight:19 for [. For] by the law is the knowledge of sin [comes a knowledge of sin].
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EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Survey.—1. The use of circumcision. Its two-fold operation, according to the conflicting conduct of the Jews. Its spiritual significance, by which the Gentile can be a Jew, and the Jew a Gentile; Rom_3:25-29. 2. The objective advantage of historical Judaism. The authority of the Word of God, which remains established by virtue of God’s faithfulness to His covenant, though many of the Jews become unfaithful. By this unfaithfulness they must even cause the glory of God’s faithfulness to abound. Nevertheless, the unfaithful are responsible for their guilt, and the application of the sin of unfaithfulness to the glory of God would be a wicked transgression; Rom_3:1 to Rom_8:3. The subjective equality of the Jews with the Gentiles. In a subjective relation, the former have no advantage, since, according to the witnesses of the Old Testament, they are in a severe condemnation. The conclusion: All the world stands guilty before God; Rom_3:9-20.—The whole section contains, briefly, the three points: 1. Circumcision (Judaism) is conditionally either an advantage, or not; 2. as far as the designed mission of Judaism was concerned, it was an advantage; 3. from the conduct of the Jews, as opposed to the righteousness of God, it was no advantage.
First Paragraph (Rom_3:25-29)
Rom_3:25. For circumcision indeed profiteth (or availeth). After the Apostle has portrayed the corruption of the Jews, he comes to the objection of Jewish theology, or also to the argument from the theocratic standpoint: What, then, is the prerogative of circumcision? Does not circumcision, as God’s covenant promise, protect and sustain the Jews? Answer: The advantage of circumcision is (according to the nature of a covenant) conditional. It is actually available (not merely useful); it accomplishes its complete work when the circumcised keep the law. Plainly, circumcision here falls under the idea of a covenant. It is a mark of the covenant of the law, by which God will fulfil His promise to the Jew on condition that the Jew keep the law (see Exo_19:7-8; Deu_26:16). But afterward the circumcision of God is made prominent as God’s institution; it remains in force, though a part of the Jews become faithless to the covenant relation. But this rests upon its inner nature or symbolical significance, as a promise and pledge of the circumcision of the heart; that is, a continual sincerity and heartiness in the fulfilment of the law (Deu_10:16; Deu_30:6; Jer_4:4; Col_2:11; Act_7:51 : “Uncircumcised in heart and ears”). The consequence is, that the one who is circumcised is received into the people of the covenant. But the idea of the people of the covenant gradually becomes more profound, just as that of the covenant and the new birth itself, as the time of their fulfilment in the New Testament approaches. It is from this point of view that the following discussion must also be explained.—It is of use—that is, it accomplishes what it should accomplish according to its original idea.—If thou keep the law. Here the question is plainly not concerning the perfect fulfilment of the law in the Jewish sense (Tholuck); which is opposed by Rom_3:26; Rom_3:15. Nor can the Apostle anticipate here so soon the New Testament standpoint of faith, according to which believers alone, including those from the Gentiles, have the real circumcision. He therefore means the fulfilment of the law according to the measure of sincerity and heartiness by which either Jew or Gentile is prepared to obey the truth of the gospel (Rom_3:7-8).—But if thou art a transgressor. One of the mystical expositions of the Pentateuch, Shamoth Rabbah (from about the 6th century), expresses the same thought in the same figurative drapery: “The heretics and the ungodly in Israel should not say, ‘Because we are circumcised, we do not descend to the Gehenna.’ What does God do? He sends His angels, and brings back their uncircumcision, so that they descend to Gehenna” (Tholuck).20 The expressions transgressor and uncircumcision were especially terrible to the Jews. Uncircumcision was the peculiar characteristic of the impurity of heathendom, as circumcision denoted the consecration and holiness of the Jewish people. But here it is stated, not merely that uncircumcision takes the place of circumcision, but that circumcision actually becomes uncircumcision. That is, the unbelieving Jew becomes virtually a Gentile. [What is here said of Jewish circumcision, is equally applicable to Christian baptism: it is a great blessing to the believer, as a sign and seal of the New Covenant, and a title to all its privileges, but it avails nothing, yea, it is turned into a curse, by the violation of the duties implied in this covenant.—P. S.]
Rom_3:26. Therefore, if the uncircumcision. The Apostle here uses the Jew’s mode of expression. Αχροβυστία, uncircumcision, stands in the first clause of the sentence as an abstract term for the concrete ἀχρόβυστος, uncircumcised; hence the αὐτοῦ [i.e., of such an ἀχρόβυστος] after the second ἀχροβυστία).21—Τὰ διχαιώματατοῦνόμου. The requirements of the law in essential matters, as τὰ τοῦ νόμ., Rom_3:14; as they can be observed by the Gentile also. [The moral requirements, not the ceremonial, among which circumcision was the very first. The E. V. here mistakes διχαίωμα for διχαιοσύνη.—P. S.] Be counted for circumcision. He shall be accepted as a Jew who is obedient to the law (Mat_8:11; 1Co_7:19; Gal_5:6). The clause is supposed by Philippi to apply to the Proselytes of the Gate. But these have ceased to be Gentiles in the full sense of the word. The point here throughout is not concerning the form, but the disposition. Fritzsche refers the future [λογισθήσεται] to the final judgment; but Meyer, and others, regard it as applying to the abstract future: “As often as the question concerns justification.” Assuredly the Apostle has already in mind the definite future, the day when the gospel is preached.
Rom_3:27. And he who is uncircumcised by nature [ἐχ φύσεω ς belongs to ἀχροβυστία, not to τελοῦσα] will judge thee [χρινεῖ, rise up in judgment by his example; comp. Mat_12:41-42, where χαταχρίνω is used]. Analogies to this bold word can be found in the Gospels, Mat_3:9; Mat_8:11; Mat_12:41, and others; and even back in the Old Testament. The sentence is read by many as a question, as the previous verse; while the οὐχί is again supplied in thought before χρινεῖ (Rückert, Tholuck [in the earlier editions, but not in the fifth.—P. S.], Lachmann, and others). On the contrary, as a declaration, it is a definite answer and conclusion to Rom_3:26 (Luther, Erasmus, De Wette, Meyer).—Uncircumcised by nature. The Gentile as he is by virtue of his natural birth, as is the Jew no less. The ἐχφύσεως is erroneously made by Koppe to relate to τὸν νόμ. τελοῦσα; still more artificial is Olshausen’s explanation: “The Gentile world observing the law without higher aid.”—Who with the letter [διὰ γρἀμ ματος]. The διά reminds us of the declaration in Rom_7:11 : “For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me” (Œcumenius, Beza, and others). Yet it should be urged here, as Meyer properly remarks, that such a Jew, in spite of the law, transgresses it. But that he becomes a transgressor (παραβάτης), and not merely a sinner (ἁμαρτωλός), rests upon the fact that he is in possession and knowledge of the law (Rom_5:13-14). The expression γράμμα defines the law in its specific character as written law [not in a disparaging sense, in opposition to πνεῦμα]; circumcision (περιτομή) is the appropriate obligation to the same.
Rom_3:28. For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly. We here have a succession of brief utterances (breviloquentiœ).22 Meyer translates: “For not he who is a Jew externally, is a [genuine] Jew.” This means, in complete expression (according to De Wette and others): “Not the one who is a Jew externally is a Jew, that is, is on that account already a Jew internally, or a true Jew.” Thus, also, the second clause of the verse should be understood: Neither is the circumcision which is external in the flesh, genuine circumcision; the external sign is not the reality: it is the symbolical mask of the reality. Tholuck: “Mar_12:33, as well as other examples, prove that this view was not unknown to the Scribes.” Yet even this, and the expression quoted from the Talmud—‘The Jew consists in the innermost parts of the heart’23—is far from resembling this Pauline antithesis.
Rom_3:29. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly. Explanations: 1. “He who is internally a Jew is a Jew; and the circumcision of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, is circumcision” (De Wette, Tholuck, with Beza, Este, Rückert). Here the absent predicate is in the concluding word. 2. But he who is one inwardly, is a Jew, and circumcision of the heart rests in the spirit, not in the letter (Luther, Erasmus, Fritzsche, Meyer). In the first construction, the ellipses are very strong; in the second, circumcision of the heart creates an anticipation which is at variance with the parallelism. Therefore, 3. But he is a Jew (this is brought over from the preceding verse) who is a Jew inwardly; and circumcision (likewise brought over from the preceding) is circumcision of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter. We must therefore supply Ἰουδαῖος after ἀλλά, and περιτομή after χαί.—A Jew in secret, ἐν χρυπτῷ Ἰουδαῖος. The true theocratic disposition—that is, the direction of legality to heartiness, truth, and reality, and thus to the New Testament. This is not quite equal in degree to ὁ χρυπτὸς τῆς χαρδίας ἄνθρωπος (1Pe_3:4). Circumcision of the heart; see Deu_10:16, &c.; Philo: σύμβολον ἡδονῶν ἐχτομῆς. Circumcision of the heart does not mean “the separation of every thing immoral from the inner life” (Meyer), but the mortification or breaking of the natural selfish principle of life, by faith, as the principle of theocratic consecration and direction. [Even the Old Testament plainly teaches the spiritual import of circumcision, and demands the circumcision of the heart, without which the external ceremony is worthless; Deu_10:16; Deu_30:6; Jer_4:4; Jer 9:29; Eze_44:9; comp. Col_2:11; Php_3:2. The same may be applied to baptism, the sign and seal of regeneration.—P. S.]—In the spirit. Explanations: 1. In the Holy Spirit (Meyer, Fritzsche, Philippi [Hodge]). Incorrect, since the question is not yet concerning the Christian new birth. 2. In the spirit of man (Œcumenius, Erasmus, Beza, Reiche, and others). [Wordsworth: the inner man as opposed to the flesh.—P. S.] 3. The Divine spirit, as Rom_7:6; 2Co_3:6; the spirit which fills the heart of the true Jew (Calvin, De Wette; the true spirit of the Jewish Church coming from God; Tholuck). 4. The new principle of life wrought by God in man (Rückert). 5. When πνεῦμα is placed in antithesis to γράμμα, or the life ἐν πνεύματι to the life ἐν γρἀμματι—that is, the life in an external, slavish, contracted pursuit of the single and outward prescriptions of the law according to the letter—then by spirit we are neither to understand the Spirit of God in itself, nor the spirit of man, but the spirit as life, the spirit-form of the inward life, by which the human spirit, moves in the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God in the human spirit.—Whose praise. Explanations of the οὗ: 1. neuter; cujus rei (Luther, Camerarius, Meyer: “ideal Judaism and ideal circumcision” [Wordsworth]). 2. More fitly: masculine; reference to ̓Ιουδαῖος (Augustine, and others, Tholuck, De Wette [Alford, Hodge]). ἔπαινος, Joh_5:44; Joh_12:43. The expression, according to Rom_13:3 and 1Pe_2:14, is often “a judicial term” (Tholuck). The Apostle here declares not only that the genuine Jewish disposition of pious Jews and Gentiles is far exalted above every praise from below, and enjoys the approbation of God, but also that its honor comes from God, and will therefore be sanctioned by God by a judicial act—which can at last be nothing else but justification by faith. To Judah it was said, as the explanation of his name: “Thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise.” But God Himself will praise this genuine spiritual Judah.
Second Paragraph, Rom_3:1-8
Rom_3:1. What then is the advantage of the Jew [Τί οὖν τὸ περισσὸντοῦ Ἰουδαίου]? After the Apostle has shown that not only the Jews are included in the same corruption with the Gentiles, but that pious Gentiles have even an advantage over ungodly Jews, he comes to the question which would naturally be presented to him—whether, then, Israel has any peculiar prerogative, and, if so, in ,what it consists. He does not ask in the name of a Gentile Christian (Seb. Schmid), or of the Judaist, although he must take from these every occasion for accusation, but from the standpoint of the true theocracy. The advantage in the sense of profit (De Wette).—Or what is the benefit of circumcision (τίς ἡ ὠφέλεια τῆς περιτομῆς)? The second question does not relate merely to circumcision as, a single means of grace (De Wette). It makes the first question more precise, so far as for the Apostle the Jewish economy is different from the Old Testament in general (chap. 4; Galatians 3).
Rom_3:2. Much every way. First of all, namely. [πολύ refers to both περισσόν and ὠφέλεια; Meyer. χατὰ πάντα τρόπον, under every moral and religious aspect, whichever way you look at it; the opposite is χατ̓ οὐδένα τρόπον.—P. S.] All that he could have in mind he shows in Rom_9:4. But from the outset, apart from his train of thought and purpose, he had a further object than to show the advantage that to them the λόγια τοῦ Θεοῦ were committed. We therefore accept, with Theodoret, Calvin, Bengel, and others, that πρῶτον means here prœcipuum, or primarium illud est, first of all. Tholuck and Meyer [Alford, Hodge], on the other hand, suppose that he omitted to enumerate the other points (to which the μέν refers), and quote, as examples, Rom_1:8; 1Co_11:18.—They were intrusted with the oracles of God. According to our rendering of the πρῶτον, τὰ λόγια (significant promulgations, χρησμοί, words of revelation, Act_7:38; Heb_5:12; 1Pe_4:11) can by no means denote the Old Testament word of God in its general aspect (Cocceius: quidquid Deus, habuit dicendum), but this word only in the specific direction in which the most of the Jews were unbelieving in respect to it. What is meant, therefore, is not the law alone and as such (Theodoret, Œcumenius, Beza); for the law, according to Paul, was also a typical gospel (which Tholuck seems to overlook, when he says: The contents of the λόγια divide into the twofold part, ὁ νόμος and at αἱ ἐπαγγελίαι); nor the Messianic prophecies alone (Grotius, Tholuck, Meyer), but properly both (De Wette), as one was the condition of the other, and both constituted a covenant of Jehovah with the people (Calvin, Calov [Hodge], and others). The unity of these elements lay chiefly in the patriarchal promises; and as the people of Israel were made a covenant people, these were committed to them as the oracles of God establishing the covenant, which Israel, as the servant of God, should proclaim to the nations at the proper time. [The Apostle, in calling the Old Testament Scriptures the oracles of God, clearly recognizes them as divinely inspired books. The Jewish Church was the trustee and guardian of these oracles till the coming of Christ. Now, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are committed to the guardianship of the Christian Church.—P. S.] Ἐπιστεύθησαν. They were entrusted with. Πιστεύειν τινι τι in the passive; comp. Winer, § 40, 1 [§ 39, 1, p. 244, 7th ed.; also Gal_2:7; 1Co_9:17.—P. S.] They were federally entrusted by the faithfulness of God (πίστις, Rom_3:3) with God’s promises, or were authenticated in their faith in order that they might exercise it with fidelity to faith.
Rom_3:3. What then? If some were faithless, &c. In these words the Apostle intimates that the Jews, in the main, still have the advantage just mentioned. The statement is therefore neither an objection nor a proof, but it establishes the previous point against doubt. In view of the certain fulfilment of the Divine promise, even the mass of the apostate people is only a poor crowd of individuals, some; though these some may grammatically be many. Meyer, taking ground against Tholuck and Philippi, disputes the contemptuous and ironical character of the expression τινές. The contempt and irony lies, of course, not in the word, but in the idea. Unbelief has scattered and divided Israel. According to De Wette and Fritzsche, the expression has an alleviating character. Since the great mass of the unbelievers was known to the readers, the expression has rather a palpable sharpness. Meyer’s translation: “If many did refuse to believe (Glaube), their unbelief (Unglaube) will not annul the credibility (Glaubhaftigkeit) of God,” expresses the correspondence of the different designations, but it is not satisfactory to the sense. The Apostle forces us, by the πίστις Θεοῦ, to bring into prominence here the moral force of ἀπιστία; and the assertion of Meyer, that ἀπιστεῖν and ἀπιστία mean always, in the New Testament, unbelief, not unfaithfulness, rests upon a false alternative.24 Köllner refers the ὰπιστία to the unfaithfulness of the Jews in the ante-Christian time. De Wette likewise: “They have been unfaithful in keeping the covenant (Theodoret, Œcumenius, Calvin, and others); not, they have been unbelieving toward the promises and the gospel (Tholuck, Olshausen, Meyer).” This view is very strange, since he correctly observes that in the word ἀπιστεῖν there lie two meanings; as πίστις is at the same time fidelity and faith. Meyer’s objection to De Wette is equally strange: “τινές would be altogether unsuited, for the very reason that it would not be true. All were disobedient and unfaithful.” This is against history and the declarations of the Bible (see the discourse of Stephen, Acts 7.). If we distinguish between the ideas, to be a, sinner and to be an apostate, then it follows that, according to the Scriptures, the numerical majority of apostates was always offset by a dynamical majority of persons faithful to the covenant, by whom the covenant was continued on the ground of the πίστις Θεοῦ; and it would have been very strange if Paul, in view of this oft-repeated history, which was first really consummated in his time, should have quite ignored the present. But as ἐπίστευσαν elsewhere (for example, Joh_8:30) means, they became believers, so is ἠπίστησαν here, they have become unbelieving, not, they have been. The π ίστις of God is His fidelity; His fidelity to the covenant certainly involves “credibility.” (2Ti_2:13; πιστὸς ὁ Θεός, 1Co_1:9; 1Co_10:13, &c.)
Rom_3:4. Let it not be, μὴ γένοιτο. [Comp. Textual Note6.] This expression of impassioned repulsion [solemn and intense deprecation], also common to the later Greeks, is, in the mouth of the Hebrew (הָלִילָה, ad profana), at the same time an expression of a religious or moral repugnance or aversion. Therefore the Apostle repels the thought, as if the τινές could annul the πίστις of God, and therefore also nullify the realization of the eternal covenant of grace in the heart of Israel and in a New Testament people of God.—But let it be: God (is) true, but every man false. [Lange: So aber sei’s: Gott ist wahrhaftig, jeder Mensch aber falsch.] Since γένοιτο relates to one sentence, the antithetical γινέσθω must relate to the sentence which offsets it, and must be marked, as announcing a declaration, by a colon. According to Meyer and De Wette, it means logice φανερούσθω, or ἀποδειχνύσθω (Theophylact). [Tholuck prefers ὁμολογείσθω as equivalent.] But then the term would have been unfitly chosen. Koppe explains: Much rather let it be (viehlmehr so sei es). Meyer objects that in this case we should expect τοῦτο or τό as article before the whole sentence, and remarks, that Paul did not design to introduce any sentence from the Old Testament. But Paul can nevertheless make use of a sentence of his own on the future of Israel, and the want of the τό does not outweigh the consideration that the γινέσθω, as the antithesis of μὴ γένοιτο, requires a formal declaration. Moreover, Psa_116:11 (all men are liars) furnished already one half, and the connection the other half of the declaration. This point was to be unfolded in all its amplitude in the history of the New Testament. See 2Ti_2:13. [I prefer to connect γινέσθω) (Paul does not say, ἔστω) with θεός, and to take it in the subjective sense: Let God become, i.e., be seen and acknowledged, even by His enemies, as true, whatever be the consequences. So also the E. V. and the best English commentators. The parallel, 2Ti_2:13, is striking: “If we are unfaithful (ἀπιστοῦμεν), yet He abideth faithful (πιστός): He cannot deny Himself.” Comp. also the phrase: fiat justitia, pereat mundus.—P. S.]—God is true [according to Dr. Lange’s view, which disconnects θεός from γινέσθω]. According to Tholuck, ἀλήθεια here comprehends practical and theoretical truth; in opposition to what he denotes as the usual exposition, that the Apostle expresses the wish that God would reveal Himself continually as true and faithful (according to Cocceius, in the counsels of his plan of salvation). If the question is on the truth of God in reference to the apparent collision between the Old and New Testaments, then the sense must be that even in this powerful antithesis, which to the view of man appears to be an irreconcilable contradiction, God will remain consistent with Himself, and therefore be truthful and faithful (see 2Co_1:20; Rev_3:14; the name Jehovah). All men are liars so far as they are sinners (sin = lie); yet unbelief is emphatically a lie (Joh_8:44), since, with its rejection of the truth, it becomes obedient to falsehood, and is implicated in the grossest self-contradictions (see Rom_2:21-23). Unbelief is not only a characteristic of apostates, but also a tendency and manifold fault of believers; and so far all men are liars through unbelief. Whenever the covenant between God and man is shaken or broken, absolute faithfulness is always found on God’s side; He is a rock (Deu_32:31, &c.), while all the vibrations, as well as all the breaches of faithfulness, are on the side of men. Also, in Psa_116:11, all men are represented as liars, in opposition to the faithfulness of God; and by troubling believers they oppose faith.
As it is written (Psa_51:4).—The application of the passage quoted from the Psalms gives evidence of the most profound insight. The original, according to Hupfeld’s translation, reads thus:
“To Thee alone I have sinned,
And done what is wicked in Thy sight.
In order that Thou mayest be just in Thy sayings,
Pure25 in Thy judging.”
The Septuagint translates, “In order that Thou mayest be acknowledged just (διχαιωθῇς) in Thy words (in Thy sayings), and mayest conquer (νιχήσῃς, instead of תִּזְכֶּה) in Thy χρίνεσθαι (בְּשָׁפְטֶךָ).” Paul quotes from the Septuagint. The sense of the original text is, that David placed himself before the judgment of God and His revelation. Viewed according to the custom of Oriental despots, Nathan had condemned him too harshly; but when he regarded his sin in all its depths as a sin against God, and before His eyes, he perceived the justice of the prophet’s charge, and the holiness of his judicial declaration of the guilt of death. The translation of the Septuagint, “that Thou mayest be justified, declared just” [διχαιω̣θῇς for the Hebrew תִּצְדַּק], is exegetical. [In using the word διχαιοῖν here evidently, like the hiphil of צדק, in a declaratory sense (for God is just and cannot be made just, but only declared or acknowledged as just), Paul furnishes us the key to the proper understanding of his doctrine of justification by faith, see below, Rom_3:28.—P. S.] The change νιχήσῃς, &c., is a periphrasis. “Thou mayest be pure in Thy judgment,” means properly, “Thou wilt be recognized as pure; therefore Thou overcomest, since Thou wilt be justified in Thy judgment.” The Septuagint has amplified the slight antithesis, “in Thy sayings, in Thy judgment,” so that the distinction can be drawn between God’s word and His judgment. The chief point is the canon: If God is to be thoroughly known and recognized as just and holy in His word and in His judgment, then must sin, which stands committed against Him, be known in all its breadth and depth. The defect in our knowledge here is what casts a shade in part upon God’s word and in part upon. His judicial government. Paul’s employment of the quotation from the Psalms corresponds to this canon; much sooner shall all men be liars, than that a shadow be cast on God’s truth or fidelity to His covenant. The νιχᾷν is frequently used in the judicial sense (see Meyer). Beza, Piscat., and recently Tholuck and Philippi [also Meyer and Ewald.], would take χρίνεσθαι in the middle sense, for to litigate. But the Apostle could not expect that his expression would be understood in any other sense than in the Septuagint. [Comp., however, Textual Note7.—P. S.]
[That thou mayest, ὅπως ἄν, לְמַעַן, in Psa_51:6 (Rom_3:4 in the E. V.), to the intent that, in order that (τελιχῶς). This seems to mean that God caused David’s sins to take this aggravated form for the very purpose that He might appear to be entirely just, when He pronounced condemnation of it. But such an interpretation would imply the contradiction that God condemns His own act. Hence most commentators (even Calvin) take לִמַעַן here, and often, like ἵνα and ὅπως in the New Testament, of the effect or consequence (ἐχβατιχῶς) = so that. But למען and ἵνα grammatically always, or nearly always, indicate the design or purpose (see Gesen., Thes., s. v., and Winer, Gramm., p. 426 ff., 7th ed.); and where this seems inapplicable, as here, we must assume a logical rather than a grammatical latitude. Design and effect often coincide. The Bible no doubt teaches the absolute sovereignty of God, yet never in a fatalistic or pantheistic sense so as to exclude the personal freedom and responsibility of man. Hence it represents, for instance, the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, as the judicial act and punishment of God (Exo_4:21; Exo_7:3), and at the same time as Pharaoh’s own act and guilt (Exo_9:34). David certainly could not mean to say that he sinned with the intention of glorifying God—which would have destroyed the sincerity of his repentance, and exposed him to the just condemnation of Paul in Rom_3:8—but that his sin was overruled by God for the greater manifestation of His justice. God never does evil, nor wills any man to do evil, in order that good may come out of it, but He exercises His power, wisdom, and love in overruling all evil for good. It is not the sinner who glorifies God through his sin, but God who glorifies Himself through the sinner. Comp. also the remarks of Hupfeld and Hengstenberg on Psa_51:6.—P. S.]
Rom_3:5. But if our unrighteousness, &c. [A new objection which might be suggested by the ὅπως in Rom_3:4; namely, if man’s sin redounds to the glory of God, and sets His righteousness in a clearer light (as in the case of David), it is a means to a good end, and hence it ought not to be punished. Paul admits the premise, but denies the conclusion, Rom_3:6.—P. S.] Meyer takes here ἀδιχια in a very general and comprehensive sense, without regard to the legal element contained in it, and explains: “an abnormal ethical disposition.”26 By this definition the wicked, the unholy, the bad, can be denoted; but unrighteousness is misconduct in opposition to the law and the right. On συνιστάναι, see the Lexica; also Rom_5:8 ; 2Co_7:11, &c. [also Textual Note8].
What shall we say? Τί ἐροῦμεν. A form which often occurs in Paul (Rom_4:1; Rom_6:1, &c.). It is peculiar to rabbinical dialectics, and is very common in the Talmud (quid est dicendum27). It is a formula of meditation on a difficulty, a problem, in which there is danger of a false conclusion. It was also in use among the classics. [See Tholuck.] The sentence, if our unrighteousness, &c, is true, but the following conclusion is rejected as false. The Apostle certainly assumes that an unbelieving Jew could raise this objection, but he makes it himself. This is evident, first, from the interrogative form; second, from the position of the question in such a manner that a negative answer is expected;28 third, from the addition: humanly speaking, χατὰ ἄνθρωπον λέγω. his expression is common among the rabbis, “as men speak” (see Tholuck); the term ἀνθρωπίνως λαλεῖν [humane loqui] also occurs in the classics [see the examples quoted by Tholuck]. The expression χατὰ ἄνθρ., resting on the antithesis between God and man, denotes, with Paul, now the opposition between the common sinful conduct and opinions of men, and the conduct and opinions in the light of revelation; and now the opposition between common human rights and customs and the theocratic rights (Gal_3:15, and other places). From this addition it does not follow that the question, μὴ ἄδιχος, must be regarded as affirmative (see Meyer, against Philippi). [The phrase χατὰ ἄνθρωπον proves nothing against inspiration. The Apostle here puts himself into the place of other men, using their thoughts and arguments, but expressly rejecting them.—P. S.]
Rom_3:6. For then how shall God judge the world? This does not mean: God would then not be able to judge the world; but, according to the usual explanation: Since it is universally agreed among religious people that God will be the Judge of the world, the conclusion alluded to must be rejected. The argument is therefore a reductio ad absurdum.29 (Rückert: the proof is weak!) Cocceius [Reiche], Olshausen, and others, refer χόσμος (according to rabbinical usage of language) to the Gentile world, and the proof is thus conceived: Even Gentile idolatry must bring to light the glory of the true God; and yet God will judge the Gentile world. Therefore the unbelief of some Jews cannot escape the judgment, even though their unrighteousness corroborates the righteousness of God. But there is no proper foundation for this explanation in the text; and besides, it would only remove a smaller difficulty by a greater one, and in a way that would commend itself only to Jewish prejudice. The New Testament idea of the general judgment is universal. Even the antithesis of χόσμος and βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ cannot be applied here. With the usual explanation (Tholuck, Meyer, and others) it may nevertheless be asked, whether a sentence which has been dismissed with μὴ γένοιτο, stands in further need of a proof. According to our construction, the sentence can also be explanatory, and stand in connection with the following (see below).
Rom_3:7-8. But if the truth of God, &c. The objection of Rom_3:7 appears only to repeat that of Rom_3:5; therefore it is difficult to connect it with what precedes. The difficulty is solved as follows: (1) Calvin, Beza, Grotius [Bengel, Rückert], Philippi, and others think that the objection of Rom_3:5 is only continued and established in Rom_3:7; and the words χατὰ ἄνθρωπον λέγω to χόσμος (Rom_3:6) should be read, according to Philippi, parenthetically, as a preliminary outburst of apostolic indignation. By this means, the dialectics assume the shape of an involved controversy, in which the Apostle prematurely interrupts the opponent. Tholuck believes that he can produce similar examples in proof of this (Rom_7:25, and Gal_3:3-4). (2) Meyer: “The ἐπεὶ πῶς χρινεῖ ὁ θεὸς τὸν χόσμον (Rom_3:6) is now confirmed thus: The fact already considered (Rom_3:4 f.), that God’s truth is glorified by the lie of man, removes every ground for supposing that an unrighteous God (sic!), who is to judge the world, will judge man as a sinner,” &c. Apart from the quaint construction of the thought, the true statement in Rom_3:5 would be treated as untrue. [De Wette, Alford, Hodge, though differing somewhat in detail, likewise regard Rom_3:7-8 as the amplification and confirmation of the answer given in Rom_3:6 to the objection stated in Rom_3:5. If this objection be valid, then not only may every sinner claim exemption, but it would follow that it is right to do evil that good may come. This is certainly a more easy and natural connection than the one under (1), and best explains the γάρ. But if we read εἰ δέ, we must regard Rom_3:7 as introducing a new objection, as in a dialogue between the Apostle and an interlocutor—an objection which is indignantly resented by Paul as a blasphemous slander. But see the remarks under the next heads.—P. S.] (3) Even if we find here, according to Thodoret, the language of a Jew in dispute with the Apostle, the sentence does not appear to be the continuation of the thought of Rom_3:5. Then the Jew has first drawn the conclusion from Rom_3:5. that God is unjust if He punish sins by which He is glorified. Here he would deduce the conclusion, from Rom_3:4, that the man, who by his ψεῦσμαι contributes to the glory of God, is neither a sinner, nor punishable; rather, that he may do evil that good may come. Thus two cases, which would constitute a parallel to Rom_2:3-4—the first case denoting fanaticism, the other, antinomianism. But there are considerations presented by the text itself against this view. First, the γάρ at the beginning of Rom_3:7; which, for this reason, has been removed by many Codd. (B. D., &c., the Vulgate, &c.) as an impediment to the proper understanding of the passage. Then the aorist, ἐπερίσσευσεν, which Meyer thinks should be understood from the standpoint of the general judgment (Tholuck regards it as present, with Luther). Further, Meyer must interpolate a τί before the μή in Rom_3:8 (τί μή, quidni?). Also, if Paul be not permitted to speak in the name of the unbelieving Jew and interrupt himself, an ἡμεῖς must stand before βλασφημούμεθα. We are therefore of the opinion that the hypothesis of the interlocution of the obstinate Jew is not correct. (4) Our explanation is contained already in the translation. [See Textual Notes10and 11.] The Apostle says first, God does not declare wrath on all who have glorified his faithfulness by their unfaithfulness. Granted that His covenant faithfulness has by means of my unfaithfulness, shown itself more powerful and conspicuous to His glory (Rom_5:8), that is, that I have finally become a believer—how? am I also still judged as a sinner? Answer: No. And therefore we would by no means continue in unbelief, as those τινές in Rom_3:3, in order, by wicked conduct, to accomplish a good purpose, God’s glory—which is the principle laid by some to our charge. Men who act thus (and the τινές do act thus) are justly condemned. Here the ἀλήθεια of God is the agent, and ψεῦσμα is the object. In Rom_3:5 there was the reverse, the ἀδιχία of man being the agent, and God’s righteousness the object. In Rom_3:7 the question is concerning the predominance or conquest (see Rom_5:20) on the side of the ἀλήθεια for the honor of God; in Rom_3:5, the question is merely concerning the bringing of the truth to light. The solution of the difficulty lies in the ἐπερίσσευσεν.—On the different explanations of χἀγώ, see Tholuck. I as well as others [De Wette, Alford]; even I, a Jew [Bengel]; even I, a Gentile [Coccej., Olshausen]; even I, Paul [Fritzsche]; even I, who have added to the glorification of God [De Wette, Tholuck].
Rom_3:8. [As we are blasphemously (not, slanderously) reported. The blasphemy refers not only to Paul, but in the last instance to God, whose holy and righteous character is outraged by the impious maxim, to do evil that good may come.]—In reference to the ὅτι, we must observe that, in consequence of attraction, the ποιήσωμεν is united with λέγειν.—The χαθὼς βλασφημούμεθα leads us to conclude that the Jews charged the Apostle, or the Christians in general, with the alleged principle: The end sanctifies the means (Tholuck, Calvin). Usual acceptation: the doctrine of superabounding mercy (Rom_5:20) is meant (see Tholuck). Meyer: “The labors of the Apostle among the Gentiles could occasion such slanders on the part of the Jews.” According to the view of the Jews, the Christians converted the Gentile world to Monotheism, by betraying and corrupting the covenant of the Jews.—Whose condemnation is just. The ὧν does not refer directly to the slanderers as such, since this is an accessory notion, but to the principle, let us do evil that good may come, and to the fact lying at its root, the hardness of the Jews in unfaithfulness, as they more clearly showed the covenant faithfulness of God. But, indirectly, the charge of those slanderers is also answered at the same time. Rom_3:7 favors our explanation. [ὧν refers to the subject in ποιήσωμεν, to those who speak and act according to this pernicious and blasphemous maxim.—P. S.]
Third Paragraph, Rom_3:9-20
The transition of the covenant of law to the covenant of grace is already indicated in the preceding paragraph. This is brought to pass in part by the constant unfaithfulness of individuals, and in part by the transitory unfaithfulness of others. In every case Israel’s sin is manifested in this covenant.
Rom_3:9. What then? It must not be read, with Œcumenius [Koppe, Hofmann, Th. Schott], τί οἶν, προεχόμεθα [omitting the interrogation sign after οὖν]; against which is the οὐ. The introduction of the result refers to the foregoing section under the point of view that Israel certainly has advantages on the objective side, but none on the subjective. This is now extended further. Προεχόμεθα. Explanations: 1. The middle voice here has the signification of the active: Have we [the Jews] the preference? do we excel? have we an advantage? (Theophylact, Œcumenius, the old commentators in general.) Also De Wette, who says: This is the only suitable sense.30 Therefore the reading προχατέχομεν. Meyer urges against this view: (a.) The usage of language;31 (b) the previous admission of Israel’s advantage [Rom_3:2, πολὺ χατὰ πάντα τρόπον, which seems to conflict with οὐπάντως, Rom_3:9.—P. S.]. 2. The middle voice in the signification of: to hold before, to hold for one’s protection. Hemsterhuys, Venema, &c. (Fritzsche, figuratively: Do we need a pretext?) Meyer: Have we a protection? That is, have we something with which to defend or screen ourselves? Against this, Tholuck raises the objection that the verb, in this case, should have an accusative. [Have we any thing for a pretext? Answer: Nothing (instead of: Not at all, not in the least).—P. S.] 3. The passive construction (Œcumenius II, Wetstein, Storr). [Œcumenius takes the word as the question of a Gentile: Are we surpassed by the Jews? Wetstein, as the question of a Jew: Are we surpassed by the Gentiles? Reiche and Olshausen: Are we preferred by God? This last form of the passive rendering agrees, as to sense, with the active rendering sub No. 1. But the Apostle is not speaking here of God’s favor, but of man’s sin, and shows that the Jews, though highly favored by God, are yet subjectively no better, and even more guilty, than the Gentiles.—P. S.] 4. The middle form was most easily applicable to the intransitive, to be prominent, to excel; therefore we translate, “Are we ahead, or, better?” Tholuck properly calls to mind that so many of the Greek fathers have taken no exception to the middle form. It is quite against the context when Olshausen [?] and Reiche read the word as a question of the Gentiles (shall we be preferred?).—Οὐ πάντως, Not in the least. Grotius, and others [Wetstein, Köllner], literally: not altogether, not in all respects [as in 1Co_5:10, where πάντες limits the prohibition.—P. S.] This is contrary to the context. [For the Apostle proves the absolute equality of guilt before the law. οὐ, πάντως is here = πάντες οὐ, 1Co_16:12; πάντως strengthens the negation, no, in no wise; not at all; ούδαμῶς (Theophylact); nequaquam (Vulgate); durchaus nicht; nein, ganz und gar, i.e., nein, in keiner Weise, keineswegs. This sense was probably indicated by the emphatic pronunciation of πάντως, and a stop after οὐ. In 1Co_5:10, on the contrary, the πἀντως, non omnino, limits the prohibition contained in οὐ. Comp. Winer, p. 516, and Meyer in loc.—P. S.]—For we have before charged, προῃτιασάμεθα. Namely, in the previous part of the Epistle [i. 18 ff., with reference to the Gentiles; Rom_2:1 ff., with reference to the Jews.—P. S.]. The προαιτιᾶσθαι [from αἰτία, motive, reason, and in a forensic sense, charge, ground of accusation] is a compound word without example.32—Under sin [ὑφ̓ ἁμαρτίαν εἶναι]. Not merely, are sinners (Fritzsche). Meyer: are governed by sin. He denies, against Hofmann, that the question here is concerning the punishableness or guilt of sin [which is to be inferred afterwards from the fact of ὑφ̓ ἁμαρτία εἶναι]. But this is implied in αἰτιᾶσθαι. The αἰτία is the ground of the charge.
Rom_3:10-19. As it is written. [γέγραπται occurs nineteen times in this Epistle.—P. S.] Paul had previously proved the guilt of the Jews from their living experience, with only a general allusion to the Scriptures; he now confirms his declaration in the strongest way by Scripture proofs. Under the presupposition of exact knowledge of the Old Testament, rabbinical writers also connect various testimonies without specifying the place where they may be found. At the head there stands Psa_14:1-3, from Rom_3:10 to Rom_3:12, where we have a description of universal sinfulness as well of the Jews as of the Gentiles. There then follows a combination from Psa_5:9; Psa_140:3 and Psa_10:7, in Rom_3:13-14, as a description of sins of the tongue. Then Isa_59:7-8, quoted in Rom_3:16-17, as a delineation of sins of commission. Finally, Psa_36:1, in Rom_3:18, as a characterization of the want of the fear of God lying at the root of all.33 The quotations are free recollections and applications from the Septuagint [yet with several deviations]. Finally, in Rom_3:19, there follows the explanation that these charges were throughout just as applicable to the Jews as to the Gentiles, and indeed chiefly to the Jews. [The passages quoted describe the moral corruption of the times of David and the prophets, but indirectly of all times since human nature is essentially the same always and everywhere. In Psalms 14 the general application is most obvious, and hence it is quoted first.—P. S.]
Rom_3:10. There is none righteous. [Paul uses δίχαις for עשֵׁה־טוֹב, LXX.: ποιῶν χρηστότητα, doer of good.] Refers the ποιῶν χρηστότητα of the Septuagint to the law. The want of righteousness is the inscription of the whole; not as Paul’s word (Köllner, &c.), but as free quotation from Psalms 14.
Rom_3:11. There is none that understandeth. While ὁ συνιῶν34 represents the receptivity of the religious understanding, ἐχζητῶν 35 denotes the desire and effort of the spirit. See the original text, where the negation is characterized as God’s fruitless request. [See Textual Note14.]
Rom_3:12. They are all gone out of the way (נֶאֱלִח; סוּד).—The ἐως ἑνός, down to one incl. [A Hebraism, נַּמ־אֶחָד, for οὐδὲ εἷς, not so much as one. Comp. the Latin ad unum omnes, which likewise includes all.—P. S.]
Rom_3:13. An open sepulchre. Estius [Bengel, Tholuck, Hodge]: breathing out the noxious odor of corruption. Meyer prefers the meaning: As rapacious and insatiable as a grave which awaits the corpse; in this sense, the quiver of the Chaldeans is called “an open sepulchre,” Jer_5:16—i.e., destructive (also Calvin, and others). But thus Rom_3:15 would be anticipated.—They have used deceit. The imperfect ἐδολιοῦσαν36 denotes continuous action; they have become deceivers for the future; that this is their settled character.—The poison of asps. Behind the cunning of falsehood there is deadly malice.
Rom_3:14. Full of cursing. The gross, passionate form of ungodly speech, alternating with doubletongued, false language. The bitterness or animosity of their hateful selfishness is the standing ground of their cursing. [Paul here condenses the translation of the Septuagint, omitting the “deceit,” as he had already mentioned it in Rom_3:13.—P. S.]
Rom_3:15-17. Their feet are swift. The symbol of their excited course of conduct. [On the slightest provocation they commit murder. Paul here again condenses the sense of Isa_59:7.] Their many different ways, full of destruction [σύντριμμα, literally, concussion, bruising together, then calamity, destruction] and misery [ταλαιπωρία], (destruction the cause, misery the result) are, as the ways of war of all against all, contrasted with the one way of peace [όδὸνεἰρήνης]. By this we must undoubtedly understand not merely a way in which they should enjoy peace (Meyer), but an objective way of peace in which they should become the children of peace. [The way that leads to peace, in opposition to the ways which lead to ruin and misery.] Οὐχ ἔγνωσαν, Grotius: Hebrœis nescire aliquis dicitur, quod non curat (Jer_4:22).
[Rom_3:18. This quotation from Psa_36:1 goes back to the fountain of the various sins enumerated. The fear of God, or piety, is the beginning of wisdom and the mother of virtue; the want of that fear, or impiety, is the beginning of folly and the mother of vice.—P. S.]
Rom_3:19. Now we know. The Jews, indeed, would not readily admit this, but were inclined to refer such declarations exclusively to the Gentiles. [But the passages above quoted from the Psalms and the Prophets, speak not of heathen as heathen, but of fallen men as such, and therefore are applicable to Jews as well.—P. S.]—The law. This is the Old Testament, especially in its legal relation [as a norm or rule to which they should conform their faith and conduct; Joh_10:34, where our Lord quotes a Psalm as in “the law,” and other passages].—Who are under the law. That is, the Jews; also particularly from the legal standpoint. Calov and others have understood, by the law, the law as distinguished from the gospel; and the expression, “those who are under the law,” as meaning all men. But this is application, not explanation.—That every mouth may be stopped. On the question whether ἵνα may be understood ἐχβατιχῶς [so that, instead of in order that], see Tholuck and Meyer. Here it evidently designates the one purpose of the law, to produce the knowledge of sin, but other purposes are not excluded. The φράσσειν τὸ στόμα (Psa_107:42) means, in a religious relation, that it represents men as ἀναπολογήτους at the tribunal of Divine justice; so that they “cannot answer God one of a thousand.”—The whole world. [Not to be restricted, with Grotius: maxima pars hominum, but all men, Jews as well as Gentiles.] Paul has already declared this of the heathen portion in Rom_1:20; Rom_1:32.—[Should become (γένηται), in their own conviction, guilty, subject to justice. ὑπ̄όδιχος = χατάχριτος, ἔνοχος δίχῃ, ὑποχίμενος τιμωρίαυς, i.e., not only guilty, but convicted of guilt, and therefore obnoxious to punishment (straffällig).—Before God, to whom satisfaction for sin is due.—P. S.]
Rom_3:20.37 Because (Desshalb weil). Since διότι can be propterea quod (because) as well as propterea (therefore), Tholuck [with Beza and Morus] prefers propterea, the conclusive form. But the Apostle here goes farther out, and comes to that universal condemnatory judgment of the law. [See Textual Note 20.]
By works of the law. Explanations of νόμος:
1. The ritual law (Theodoret, Pelagius, Cornelius a Lapide, Semler, Ammon, and others).38 On the contrary, Augustine39 and Thomas Aquinas already referred to the concluding sentence of the verse: “by the law comes knowledge of sin.” Paul, moreover, understands the word law throughout in its totality, although he does not ignore its several parts and differences. [The decalogue is merely the quintessence of the whole law. The antithesis is not: the ceremonial law and the moral law, but: works of the law and works of faith.—P. S.]
2. The Mosaic law alone [but as a whole, both moral and ritual] is meant (Meyer). [So also Philippi: the whole revealed law as an undivided unity, yet with special regard to the moral law.—P. S.] But against this is, that Paul speaks here, and in the previous verse, of the guilt of all men before the law.
3. De Wette accepts it as merely the moral law, and not also the ritual law. The works of the law, as they were performed by the Jews, and would also have been performed by the Gentiles, if they had been placed under the law (Rückert).
4. The law in a deeper and more general sense, as it was written not only on the Decalogue, but also in the heart of the Gentiles, and embracing moral deeds of both Gentiles and Jews (Tholuck [also Storr, Flatt, Stuart]). Certainly it is plain from the context, that the Jewish νόμος here represents a universal legislation. [The Apostle includes the Gentiles as well as the Jews under the sentence of condemnation, because they do not come up to their own standard of virtue, as required by their inner law of conscience; Rom_2:15.—P. S.]
But what are works of the law [ἔργα νόμου]? Explanations:
1. Works produced by the law, without the impulse of the Holy Spirit [νόμου as genetivus auctoris or causœ]. So especially Roman Catholic expositors, as Bellarmine [Augustine, Thomas Aquinas]; and also some Protestants, as Usteri, Neander, Philippi [Olshausen, Hofmann, even Luther; see Tholuck, p. 137]. Philippi: “Not the works which the law commands—for he who does these is really righteous (Rom_2:13)—but those which the law effects (or which the man who is under the law is able by its aid to bring forth).” The deeds of the law are ἔργα νεχρά (Heb_6:1); the νόμος cannot ζωοποιῆσαι [Gal_3:21], although it is complete in its method and destination. On Luther’s distinction between doing the works of the law and fulfilling the law itself, see Tholuck.
2. The deeds required or prescribed by the law. Protestant expositors, e.g., Gerhard, who includes also the bona opera ratione objecti. [So also Melanchthon, Calvin, Beza, Rückert, Fritzsche, De Wette, Meyer, Hodge. In this view, the ἔργα νόμου include all good works, those after regeneration as well as those before. Even Abraham, the friend of God, was not justified by his works, but by faith. The law of the Old Testament is holy, just, and good, and demands perfect conformity to the will of God, which is true holiness. But even our best works, done under the gospel and under the influence of Divine grace, are imperfect, and can therefore be no ground of justification. Hence the most holy men of all ages and churches never depend on their own works, but on the work and merits of Christ, for final acceptance with God.—P. S.]
3. Tholuck combines the two explanations [p. 140]: “The Apostle includes both meanings, so that, in some passages, the meaning of the deeds required by the law, and, in others, that of the deeds produced by the law, appears more prominent.” But, from the very nature of the case, the deeds required by the law, and those produced by the law, correspond to each other on the legal standpoint. The unity of both are the works of the legal standpoint, as it may be found also among the heathen (e.g., Creon in the Antigone of Sophocles). The law is, for those subjected to it, an analytical letter, which is related to the external work; but, on the contrary, for those who seek God, it is a synthetical symbol, which is related to the disposition of the heart. The former meaning applies certainly to every man, but only to introduce him to the understanding of its second signification. Those who know it only in the former meaning, always seek justification ἐχ νόμου and ἐξ ἔργον, until they are ἐξ ἐριθείας (Rom_2:8), and only become acquainted with an apparent righteousness of a partisan character. So, on the other hand, the ἀφθαρσίαν ςητοῦντες, in all their efforts to fulfil the law, are more and more convinced of the impossibility of a righteousness by works. The requirement of the law, therefore, as well as its operation, continually impels—in the moral, still more in the religious sphere—by means of the knowledge of sin, far beyond the legal standpoint to faith itself. Therefore the remark frequently made; “not as if complete obedience to the law would be insufficient for justification” (Meyer), is apt to mislead.[40] De Wette properly remarks: “It lies in the nature of man, and of the law, that this is not fulfilled, and consequently that righteousness cannot be obtained” (see Jam_2:10). Where the Old Testament Scriptures speak of righteous persons, those are meant who, in their observance of the legal letter, are theoeratically and ecclesiastically irreproachable, but yet do not therein find their comfort (see Luk_1:6).
No flesh. No human being. [With an allusion to our weakness and frailty, as we say: No mortal. The parallel passage in Ps. 183:2 has, instead: no man living.—P. S.] Not even the believer. It never occurs to him that he might perfect his justification by faith through dead works. [The phrase οὐπᾶσα σάρξ is a strong Hebraism, לֹא כָל־בָּשָׂר
[Shall (can) be justified, διχαιωθήσεται. The future refers not to the day of judgment (Reiche), for justification takes place already in this life; nor to the indefinite, abstract future (Meyer, Philippi: whenever justification shall take place), but to the moral possibility, or impossibility rather (can ever be justified); comp. χρινεῖ, Rom_3:6.—P. S.]
[On the meaning of διχαιόω, to justify, comp. the Exeg. Notes on Rom_1:17; Rom_2:13; Rom_3:24. It is perfectly plain that here, and in the parallel passage, Gal_2:16, it can only mean, to declare or judicially pronounce just, not, to make just. This appears (1) from Psa_143:2, here referred to (“Enter not into judgment with thy servant; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified;”) (2). from the aim of the passage, which is to confirm by διότι the preceding sentence: “that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God” (Rom_3:19); and (3) from the addition ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ, which represents God as Judge, coram Deo judice.—Dr. Wieseler, in his exposition of the parallel passage, Gal_2:16 (Commentar, &c., pp. 176–204), enters into an elaborate discussion of the meaning of διχαιόω, of which we will give the substance in English, anticipating in part our own remarks on Rom_3:24 :
“The verb διχαιοῦν has, in the Greek, two fundamental significations:
“(1) τὸ δίχαιον ποιεῖ ν τινα (cf. χαχοῦντινα, to do any one χαχόν, harm); that is, to do any one justice. It is used in this sense especially of a judge, and signifies, to determine justice generally; or more specially, according to the result of the judging, on the one hand, to condemn and punish, as with peculiar frequency in the profane writers; or also either to declare guiltless of the charge, or to acknowledge, in the case of any one, the claims of right, which he has; only that the favorable or unfavorable judgment, in this fundamental signification, is always conceived as his δίχαιον, as deserved by him.
“(2) δίχαιον ποιεῖν τι, or τινά, to make a thing or person righteous; that is, either to account and declare righteous, or to transfer into the right condition; for the verbs in όω express also a bringing out into effect that from which the verb is derived; comp. δουλόω, τυφλόω = δοῦλον and τυφλόν ποιεῖν. So does διχαιοῦν accordingly signify, to account any thing right and equitable, to approve, wish, require; equivalent to ἀξιοῦν.
“The biblical usus loquendi of διχαιοῦν attaches itself to the Hebrew הִעְדִּיק (or צִדֵּק), of which it is commonly the translation in the LXX. This, now, for the most part signifies to declare righteous (judicially, or in common life); but, to make righteous, or, to lead to righteousness, only in Dan_12:3; Isa_53:11.
“Even so διχαιοῦν, in the Septuagint, frequently signifies, to declare righteous judicially; Psa_82:3; Exo_23:7; Deu_25:1; 1Ki_8:32; and in common life also, to acknowledge as righteous, or, to represent as righteous; Eze_16:51-52; and is interchanged in this sense with ἀποφαίνειν δίχαιον; Job_32:2; Job_27:5. On the other hand, it is used with extreme infrequency in the sense, to make righteous, to transfer into the condition of righteousness; Psa_73:13; Isa_53:11; Sir_18:22.
“Thus far our examination has afforded the result, that διχαιοῦν can, it is true, signify also, to make righteous, as well in profane Greek (in this, according to the second fundamental signification), as in the LXX., but that this signification has, in the use of the language, receded decidedly into the background in comparison with the forensic and judicial.
“To still less advantage does the signification, to make righteous, appear in the New Testament use. Leaving out of view the passages in question, where a διχαιοῦσθαι ἐξ ἔργων νόμου, or διὰ πίστεως, is spoken of, there does not occur a single passage in which the signification to make righteous is found. (Besides the passages mentioned above, the verb occurs Mat_11:19; Luk_7:29; Luk_7:35; Luk_10:29; Rom_3:4; 1Ti_3:16; Rev_22:11.41) This fact cannot but be most unfavorable to the assumption of the signification, to make righteous, in the remaining passages.—P. S.]
For by the law (comes) a knowledge of sin. Tholuck would supply only (no more than) a knowledge; but ἐπίγνωσις is exact, living, increasing knowledge. The antithesis laid down by Chrysostom—that the law, far from being able to take away sin, only first brings it to knowledge—needs still the supplementary thought, that it is just this knowledge which is the preliminary condition for the removal of sin. [The law, being the revelation of the holy and perfect will of God, exhibits, by contrast, our own sinfulness, and awakens the desire after salvation. This sentence of Paul, together with his declaration that the law is a παιδαγωγός to lead to Christ (Gal_3:24-25); contains the whole philosophy of the law, as a moral educator, and is the best and deepest thing that can be said of it. Ewald justly remarks of our passage: “Mit diesen Worten trifft Paulas den tiefsten Kern der Sache;” i.e., with these words Paul hits the nail on the head, and penetrates to the inmost marrow of the thing. γάρ is well explained by Calvin: “A contrario ratiocinatur quando ex eadem scatebra non prodeunt vita et mors.”—P. S.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Rom_2:25-29. The elder theology has properly regarded circumcision as a federal sacrament of the Old Testament, and as the preliminary analogue or type of New Testament baptism; just as the Passover feast was an Old Testament type of the Lord’s Supper. And thus far did the περιτομή represent the whole of Judaism, which is proved by the fact that Paul used this term to designate the Jews (see also Gal_5:3). But it is easy to go astray on the biblical meaning of circumcision, as on the law of the Sabbath, if we do not bear in mind that we have to deal with institutions which comprehend many points of view. Thus, the Sabbatic law is first a religious and moral command of God among the Ten Commandments (Exo_20:8 ff.). But it is likewise a religious and liturgical, or Levitical command on worship (according to Lev_23:3). In the latter sense, it is abrogated as a mere Old Testament form, as far as Christians are concerned; or, rather, it has been supplanted by the divine-human creation of a new day “of the great congregation”—the Lord’s Day. But the religious and ethical command of the Sabbath in the Decalogue has become a religious and ethical principle, which, in its educating and legal form, has connected itself with Sunday. In the same way is circumcision a synthesis. The foundation of it was a very old, sporadic, oriental custom (Epistle of Barnabas, chap. 942). It was made to Abraham, according to Rom_4:11, a symbolical seal of his faith; which is certainly the sacrament of the covenant of promise. But then Moses also made it, in a more definite sense, an obligation of the law (Exo_4:25; Jos_5:2 ff.). The law was the explication of circumcision, and circumcision was the concentration of the law. While, therefore, the law was annulled in regard to Christians by faith, circumcision was also annulled; or, rather, the New Testament symbol took its place, and the fulfilment of the Abrahamic promise—the new birth of faith—was connected with it. Tholuck thinks (p. 114) it is a contradiction, that, according to the elder theology,43 faith in the Messiah was the condition of the Divine promise in circumcision; while, according to Paul, the fulfilment of the law was this condition. But Paul certainly knew of no other fulfilment of the law than that in the Messianic faith, which became, finally, faith in the Messiah. On p. 117, Tholuck himself refers to the inward character of the requirements of Judaism.
2. The great importance which the Apostle attaches to what is within—to the sentiment of the heart—is plain from his bold antitheses. Notwithstanding, his uncircumcision, the Gentile, by virtue of his state of mind, can become a Jew, and vice versâ.
3. The witnesses adduced by the Apostle on the universality of corruption in Israel, neither preclude the antithesis in Rom_2:7-8, nor the degrees on both sides.
4. On Rom_3:3. The covenant of God is always perfect according to its stage of development. If it generally fails to become apparent, the fault always turns out to be man’s. The covenant of God is surely no contrat social—no agreement between equal parties. It is the free institution of God’s grace. But this institution is that of a true covenant, of a personal and ethical mutual relation; and whenever the hierarchy, or a Romanizing view of the ministry obliterate the ethical obligation on the part of man in order to make the sacraments magical operations, their course leads to the desecration and weakening of the covenant acts.
5. Rom_3:4. For our construction of the passage in Psa_51:4 f., see the Exeg. Notes on Rom_3:4. For another view, see Philippi, p. 81, with reference to Hengstenberg, Psalms, vol. iii., p. 19. [Both take לְמִעִן, ὅπως, in the usual strict sense (τελιχῶς, not ἐχβατιχῶς), as does also Gesenius, Thes., p. Rom 1052: “eum in finem peccavi, ut illustretur justitia tua;” and they make the old distinction between the matter of sin, which is man’s work, and the form of sin, which is in the hands of God.—P. S.] Hupfeld also refers the passage to the holy interest of God’s government in human offences, but at the same time has definitely distinguished the relative divine and human parts. Without contending against the thought per se, we would refer the ὅ πως not to sin itself, but to the perception and knowledge of sin. Hence we infer the proposition: All want of a proper knowledge of sin on the part of man obscures the word of God, and leads to the misconception of His judgments (as in the talk about fanatical ideas of revelation, gloomy destiny, &c.).
6. On the truth of God, see the Exeg. Notes on Rom_3:4.
7. On Rom_3:20. By the law is the knowledge of sin (see Gal_3:24). This purpose of the law excludes neither its usus primus nor the usus tertius.44 But the three usus mark the developing progress of the law from without inwardly, as well in a historical as in a psychological view. The first stage [usus politicus] has also its promise. The Jew who lived according to the law is justified in the tribunal of his priesthood, and has also his earthly blessing (“that it may go well with thee,” &c.). But the subtilty of the law—not to speak of its first and last commandment—and its symbolical transparency and spiritualization, impel him, if he be upright, further to the pædagogical standpoint, which looks to Christ. And with this, he receives the whole power for the tertius usus [in regulating his life of faith].
8. While the elder theology separated the three parts of the law (morals, worship, polity) too far from each other, at present the idea of the law as a unit is often so strongly emphasized as to lose sight of the fact that, both in the Old Testament as well as in the New, cognizance is taken of the difference of the parts (see Mat_19:17; Rom_7:7). The view to the unity of the law, however, prevails in the Mosaic and legal understanding of the Old Testament revelation, as represented by the letters of the two tables.
9. The incapacity of the law to make man righteous lies chiefly in this: First, it is a demand on the work of the incapable man, who is flesh (no flesh shall be justified); but it is not a Divine promise and work for establishing a new relation. Then it meets man as a foreign will, another law; by which means his false autonomy is inclined to resistance, because he is alien to himself and to the concurring law within his inward nature. Finally, it meets him in analytical form and separateness. Man only becomes susceptible of Divine influences: 1. As they are founded in the grace and gift of God; 2. in the spontaneous action of voluntary love; 3. in synthetical concentration.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
(From Rom_2:25 to Rom_3:20)
Either, or. As this applied to the Jew according to his position in the Old Testament, so does it apply to the Christian according to his position in the New (Rom_3:25).—It is not the external possession of a saving means that produces blessings, but faithfulness in its application (Rom_3:25-29).—How the fact, that the Jew becomes a Gentile, and the Gentile a Jew, can be repeated in our time in various contrasts (Rom_3:25-27).—The Jew, proud of the letter and of circumcision, below the condemnatory sentence pronounced on the illegal and uncircumcised Gentile—a warning for evangelical Christians (Rom_3:27).—Inner life in religion; already the principal thing in Judaism, and much more in Christianity (Rom_3:28-29).—He who is inwardly pious, receives praise, not of men, but of God.—God’s pleasure or praise of inward faithfulness in piety. Herewith it must be seen: 1. How this praise can be acquired; 2. In what does it consist? (Rom_3:29).—The praise of men and the praise of God (Rom_3:29).
What advantage have the Jews? This question, and its answer, exhibit to us the infinitely great blessing of Christianity (Rom_3:1-4).—How Paul never ignores the historical significance of his people, but triumphantly defends it against every charge (comp. Rom_9:4-5).—The historical feeling of the Apostle Paul (Rom_3:1-4).
On Rom_3:2. God has shown His word to Jacob, his statutes and judgments unto Israel (Psa_147:19). Why has God spoken to Israel? 1. Because He chose this people, out of voluntary compassion, for His inheritance; 2. Because by this people, specially appointed by Him for the purpose, He designed to prepare salvation for all the nations of the earth.—Do not complain too much at the unbelief of the world! For, 1. The unbelievers always remain in the minority; in real significance, let their number be ever so great; 2. Not only does their unbelief not make the faith (faithfulness) of God without effect; but 3. Rather contributes thereto, by radiantly showing God’s truthfulness, in contrast with all human falsehood (Rom_3:3-4).
On Rom_3:5-8. Why is it impossible that God should have desired our (unrighteousness for His glory? 1. Because God could not then judge the world; 2. Because we would be condemned as sinners by an unjust method.—How far does our unrighteousness prove the righteousness of God?—God cannot be the author of sin! This was acknowledged, 1. By Abraham, the father of all the faithful (Gen_18:25); 2. By Paul, the Apostle of all the faithful.—Through God’s providence, good continually comes out of evil; but we should never say, Let us do evil, that good may come!—He who says, Let us do evil, &c., 1. Blasphemes God; and therefore, 2. Receives righteous condemnation.—The principle of the Jesuits, that the end sanctifies the means, is nothing else than a hypocritical cloaking of the plain words: “Let us do evil, that good may come.”
On Rom_3:9-18. The sinfulness of all, both Jews and Greeks: 1. Proved by Paul himself in his description of their moral depravity; 2. Corroborated by the proofs of Holy Scripture from the Psalms, Proverbs of Solomon, and the Prophet Isaiah.—As Paul appeals to the Old Testament, so should we, in order to authenticate truths, appeal to the whole Bible, though first and continually to the New Testament.—Every doctrine must be scriptural.—Paul a master in the application of Scripture: 1. So far as he grasps the fulness of the scriptural expression; but, 2. He does not thoughtlessly arrange quotations from the Scriptures; but, 3. He skilfully connects kindred passages into a beautiful whole.
On Rom_3:18-20. The severe preaching of the law: 1. To whom is it directed? 2. What does it accomplish?—How far does the law produce knowledge of sin?
Luther: Spirit is what God supernaturally effects in man; letter is all the deeds of nature without spirit (Rom_2:29).—“God is a sure support; but he who trusts in man will want” (Rom_3:4).—David says (Psa_51:4): “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned,” &c. These words would seem to mean that man must sin in order that God might be just, as Paul would also seem here to say. Yet this is not the case; but we shall acknowledge the sin of which God accuses us, that He might thereby be confessed truthful and just in His law.
Starke: A true Christian must not despise the means of grace: as, attending church, making confession, and partaking of the Lord’s Supper; nor should he speak derisively of them because they are misused by most persons as a false hope (Rom_2:25).—He who will be comforted by the consideration that he has been baptized in the name of Christ, must examine himself whether he has also been newly, born, and walks after the new man: where this is not the case, holy baptism is of just as little use to him, as circumcision was to the unbelieving Jew; 1Pe_3:21 (Rom_2:29).—In worldly courts, injustice often rules; but God will judge the world in the justest manner (Rom_3:6).—When our misery is properly uncovered, compassion is near; and when we are truly compassionate ourselves, compassion is not far from us (Rom_3:12).—The way to grace is open when we stand dumb before God (Rom_3:19).—There is only one way to salvation, by which men, before, at the time of, and after Moses, can be saved (Rom_3:20).—Lange: Oh, how many Christians are put to shame at this day by honorable heathen! And how the latter will rise up against the former on the judgment-day! (Rom_2:26).—Hedinger: The new creature must be all in all. If this be not the case, there is no godly sorrow, no faith, no Christ, no hope of salvation (Rom_2:25).—There is only one way to salvation, yet God is at perfect liberty to say in what people He will build His Church, and what measure of grace and gifts He will give (Rom_8:2).—Here stands the pillar of the evangelical Church, the test and corner-stone of the pure, saving gospel (Rom_3:20).—Quesnel: A strong proof of original sin, because no one who comes into the world is righteous, or without sin (Rom_3:10).—Let love be in the heart, then will loveliness be also in the mouth (Rom_3:14).—Cramer: Learn to distinguish well between true and false Jews, true and false Christians; the external profession does not constitute a true Jew or Christian (Rom_2:28).—It is not all gold that glitters, and not all show is wisdom. Although the natural reason can devise many conclusive speeches and subtleties, these must not be regarded as wisdom in divine things (Rom_3:5).—Nova Bibl. Tüb.: The dead members of the Church depend upon its external advantages, take their comfort in them, and make their boast of them, without remembering that they can derive no good from them without penitence and faith (Rom_3:1).—Though we be unfaithful, God remaineth faithful. Oh, let us therefore, rely upon His faithfulness and promise, and take comfort in the fact that we always have a ready entrance to the faithfulness of our God (Rom_3:3).—Osiander: If God is truthful, but men false, why do some men believe folly sooner than the word of God? But to God alone belongs the praise of righteousness and truth (Rom_3:4).—Those who boast of their righteousness before God, know neither God’s will nor themselves (Rom_3:19).
Gerlach: The usefulness of the covenant of grace extends on all sides and encompasses all the relations of life (Rom_3:2).—God’s wisdom, omnipotence, justice, and love, are glorified either in the punishment or conversion of the sinner; the more wicked the sinner, the greater the glory. But this glory consists precisely in the death of the sinner, since he either dies to sin, having once lived to it; or, with all other sinners, suffers eternal death in perdition (Rom_3:4).—Description of men of malignant feeling, who strive to injure others by their language. Throat, tongue, and lips—three instruments of speech, which utter the words from within (Rom_3:13).—The more complete and deep the command, the stronger is its declaration of condemnation, and the less can it awaken in us faith and hope for salvation (Rom_3:20).
Lisco: The Christian is aided by the sacraments only when he lives in faith (Rom_2:25).—On what the moral worth of man before God depends (Rom_3:25-26).—Israel’s advantages (Rom_3:1-4).—He who adopts the principle: “Let us sin, that good may come,” will receive righteous condemnation; for God desires to be glorified only by our obedience; all disobedience is dishonoring His majesty, but terminates also with the sinner’s destruction, and likewise extends to the justification or glorification of the holy and righteous God (Rom_3:8).
Heubner: External ecclesiasticism and confession has value only when it leads to religion of the heart and life; otherwise, it is only the same as heathenism (Rom_2:25).[45]—The great difference between outward and inward Christianity. True Christianity is internal (Rom_2:28).—The true worshipper of God is inward, is concealed from the world, and is known only to God (Rom_2:29).—The worth and merit of the pious person is exalted above all opinion of the world: 1. Because true piety by no means passes in the world for the highest good, but only that which is profitable, and shines; 2. Because men cannot discern this inner, pure condition of heart, neither can they credit it to others; 3. Because the world cannot reward this piety (Rom_2:29).—God’s word is committed to us; use it aright, support it, propagate it. In many places it has disappeared through the fault of men (in Asia and Africa), Rom_3:2.—God’s honor cannot be touched. Nothing can be charged against God; it would be blasphemy to charge Him with blame of any kind (Rom_3:4).—God’s righteousness becomes the more apparent in proportion to the manifestation of man’s unrighteousness (Rom_3:5).—Every feeling of hatred is the root for a willingness to shed blood (Rom_3:15).—Every man is guilty before God, and subject to His punishment; but he should also know and confess it (Rom_3:19).—The law requires obedience to all its commands (Rom_3:20).
Spener: When people are wickedly taught to sin, so that God may be lauded because of the forgiveness of sins, it is the same slander which the same old slanderous devil charged at that time against the apostles, and which is still cast against the doctrine of the grace of God (Rom_3:8).
Besser: Circumcision of the heart is real circumcision (Rom_2:29).—The evangelical theme of joy in the Epistle to the Romans is, that God, in grace, is just in His words to sinners whom He has justified by faith in Jesus (Rom_3:4).
Lange, on Rom_3:16-24. The fearful picture of warning in the fall of the Jews.—How this picture was again presented in the Church before the Reformation, and now appears in many forms.
Rom_3:25-29. Comparison of this passage with Mat_23:21-28,—The great vindication here for the believer—that God, in His word, confides in him in a certain measure.—God, in His faithfulness to His covenant, a rock.—How unbelief is against God, and yet must serve God’s purpose.—Rom_3:1-8. To have an advantage, and yet not to have one.—The testimonies of Scripture on the sinful depravity of man.
Rom_3:8-19. How vain is the effort to be justified by the law: 1. Because “by the deeds of the law,” &c.; 2. “For by the law,” &c.
[Burkitt: (condensed) Rom_2:25. The heathen have abused but one talent, the light of nature; but we, thousands; even as many thousands as we have slighted the tenders of offered grace. What a fearful aggravation it puts upon our sin and misery! We must certainly be accountable to God at the great day, not only for all the light we have had, but for all we might have had in the gospel day; and especially for the light we have sinned under and rebelled against.—Rom_3:1. Great is that people’s privilege and mercy who enjoy the word of God—the audible word in the Holy Scriptures, the visible word in the holy sacraments. It enlighteneth the eyes, rejoiceth the heart, quickeneth the soul. It is compared to gold for profit, to honey for sweetness, to milk for nourishing, to food for strengthening!—Rom_3:3-7 : God is never intentionally, but is sometimes accidentally glorified by man’s sins. There never was such a crime as crucifying Christ, but nothing by which God has reaped greater glory.—Rom_3:10. The unrighteousness of man: 1. There is none originally righteous; 2. None efficiently righteous; 3. none meritoriously righteous; 4. None perfectly righteous.—Matthew Henry: The Jews had the means of salvation, but they had not the monopoly of it.—On the righteousness of God, observe: 1. It is manifested; 2. It is without the law; 3. It is witnessed by the law and the prophets; 4. It is by the faith of Jesus Christ; 5. It is to all, and upon all them that believe.—Doddridge: We pity the Gentiles, and justly so; but let us take heed lest those appearances of virtue which are to be found among some of them do not condemn us, who, with the letter of the law and the gospel, and with the solemn tokens of a covenant relation to God, transgress His precepts, and violate out engagements to Him; so turning the means of goodness and happiness into the occasion of more aggravated guilt and misery.—Clarke: The law is properly considered 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.
[Hodge: When true religion declines, the disposition to lay undue stress on external rites is increased. The Jews, when they lost their spirituality, supposed that circumcision had power to save (Rom_2:25).—Paul does not deny, but asserts the value of circumcision. So, likewise, the Christian sacraments, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, are of the utmost importance, and to neglect or reject them is a great sin (Rom_2:25; Rom_3:1).—It is a mark of genuine piety to be disposed always to justify God, and to condemn ourselves. On the other hand, a disposition to self-justification and the examination of our sins, however secret, is an indication of the want of a proper sense of our own unworthiness and of the Divine excellence (Rom_3:4-5).—There is no better evidence against the truth of any doctrine, than that its tendency is immoral (Rom_3:8).—Speculative and moral truths, which are self-evident to the mind, should be regarded as authoritative, and as fixed points in all reasonings (Rom_3:8).—Barnes: If all men were willing to sacrifice their opinions when they appeared to impinge on the veracity of God; if they started back with instinctive shuddering at the very supposition of such a want of fidelity in Him; how soon would it put an end to the boastings of error, to the pride of philosophy, to lofty dictation in religion! No man with this feeling could be a Universalist for a moment; and none could be an infidel.
[On Rom_2:29, see Wesley’s sermon The Circumcision of the Heart ; on Rom_3:1-2, Payson’s sermon on The Oracles of God ; Melville’s on The Advantages resulting from the Possession of the Scriptures ; and Canon Wordsworth’s Hulsean Lecture on What is the Foundation of the Canon of the New Testament? On Rom_3:4, see Dwight’s sermon on God to be Believed rather than Man ; and C. J. Vaughan’s on The One Necessity. On Rom_3:9-19, see Chalmers’ sermon on The Importance of Civil Government to Society.—J. F. H.]
Footnotes:
[1]Rom_3:2.—[Πρῶτον μὲν γάρ. N. A. D.3K. L., Tischendorf, Meyer, Alford, Lange, insert γάρ, namely, after μέν; B. D.*G., Vulg., Syr., Lachmann, omit it. πρῶτον, first, in the first place, is not followed by secondly, &c.; comp. πρῶτον μέν, Rom_1:8. To avoid the anacoluthon, Calvin translates: præcipue; Beza: primarium illud est. So also the E. V. and Dr. Lange.—P. S.]
[2]Rom_3:3.—[Τί γάρ; a phrase used to start an objection for the purpose of answering it, or to vindicate a previous assertion; comp. Php_1:18.—P. S.]
[3]Rom_3:3.—[ὴπίστησαν—ἀπιστία—πίστιν, should be rendered so as to retain the paronomasia. Lange: Denn wie? Wenn etliche die Glavbenstreue brechen, sollte ihr Treubruch die Treue Gottes aufheben?—?P. S.]
[4]Rom_3:4.—[Or, Far be it, far from it, by no means; Vulg., absit; German: es werde nicht, or (Luther, Lange), das sei ferne! The phrase, μὴγένοιτο, is an expression of strong denial or pious horror, corresponding to the Hebrew הָלִילָה (Gen_44:17; Jos_22:29; 1Sa_20:2), and occurs fourteen times in Paul’s Epistles—ten times in Romans (Rom_3:4; Rom_3:6; Rom_3:31; Rom_6:2; Rom_6:15; Rom_7:7; Rom_7:13; Rom_9:14; Rom_11:1; Rom_11:11), three times in Galatians (Rom_2:17; Rom_3:21; Rom_6:14), and once in 1Co_6:15; but elsewhere in the N. T. only Luk_20:16. It is also used by Polybius, Arian, and the later Greek writers. The God forbid of the Authorized Version (like the German Gott behütegott bewahre) is almost profane, though very expressive, and in keeping with old English usage; for we find it in all the earlier E. Vv., including that of Wiclif, and also that of Rheims. Wordsworth’s rendering: “Heaven forbid that this should be so,” is hardly an improvement. Remember the third commandment, as explained by Christ, Mat_5:31.—P. S.]
[5] Rom_3:4.—[Or, in Thy judging, when Thou judgest, as the E. V. has it in Psa_51:4. The active rendering of ἐν τῷ κρίνεσθαι (middle, in the sense of litigare) corresponds to the Hebrew בְּשָׁפְטֶךָ, Psa_51:4 (comp. LXX.; Job_13:19; Isa_43:26; Jer_2:35; Mat_5:40; 1Co_6:1; 1Co_6:6), and is defended in this passage by Beza, Bengel, Tholuck, Meyer, and Ewald; while Vulg., Luther, Lange, Hodge, &c., prefer the passive rendering: when Thou art judged. See Exeg. Notes. The quotation is from the penitential Psalm of David, composed after his double crime of adultery and murder, and reads in Hebrew thus:
לְךָ לְבַדְּךָ חָטָאתִי
יְהָרַע בְּעֵינֶיךָ עָשִׂיתִי
לְמַעַן תִּצְדַּק בְּדָבְרֶךָ
תִּזְכֶּה בְשָׁפְטֶךָ
Literally:
“To Thee, Thee only, I have sinned,
And done the evil in Thine eyes,
In order that Thou mayest be just in Thy speaking,
And pure in Thy judging.”
Paul follows the translation of the Septuagint, which renders תִּצְדַּק by δικαιωθῆς (that Thou mayest be justified—i.e., be accounted, declared just), substitutes νικήσης (that Thou mayest conquer, prevail judicially in Thy cause) for תּזְכֶּה (be clear, pure), and takes the active בְּשָׁפְטֶךָ in the passive, or more probably in the middle sense, ἐν τῷ κρίνεσθαι σε. The sentiment is not materially altered. The apostles, in their citations, frequently depart from the letter of the Hebrew, being careful only to give the mind of the Holy Spirit.—P. S.]
[6]Rom_3:5.—[Συνίστημι, to make stand with, to place together (constituo, colloco); and thence of persons, to introduce, to commend by letter (Rom_16:1; 2Co_3:1); trop., to set forth, to make conspicuous, to prove; so here, and Rom_5:8, συνίστησι τὴν ... ἀγάπην; 2Co_6:4, συνιστῶντες ἑαυτοὺς ὡς θεοῦ διάκονοι; Gal_2:18, παραβάτην συνίστημι, and often in Polybius, Philo, and Josephus.—P. S.]
[7]Rom_3:5.—[Cod. Sin.1adds αὐτοῦ after ὀργήν, His wrath. The other authorities omit it. The article before ὀργήν points to the well-known wrath on the day of judgment, and in the moral government of the world.—P. S.]
[8]Rom_3:7.—[The usual reading is, εἰ γάρ; but Cod. Sin. reads, εἰ δέ. Lange, in his translation, reads, wenn nämlich; but in the Exeg. Notes: wenn aber. See his explanation of the difficult passage.—P. S.]
[9]Rom_3:8.—[Dr. Lange makes a period after come, and translates: And so let us by no means—as we are blasphemously charged, and as some pretend that we say—do evil, that good may come! The condemnation of such is just. See the Exeg. Notes. But nearly all the commentators regard ver 8 as a continuation of the question commenced in Rom_3:7, and assume an irregularity of construction. Ποιήσωμεν, then, instead of being connected with καὶ (τί)μή at the beginning of Rom_3:8, is connected by ὅτι with the preceding λέγειν. “And why do we not rather say, as we are blasphemously reported (βλασφημούμεθα), and as some give out that we do say, ‘Let us do the evil things (τὰ κακὰ), that the good ones (τὰ ἀγαθά) may come?’—whose judgment is just.”—P. S.]
[10]Rom_3:8.—[Conybeare and Howson: Of such men the doom is just. Κρίμα occurs twenty-eight times in the N. T. and is generally correctly rendered: judgment, in the E. V. The word damnation, in old English, was used in the sense of condemnation, censure, but is now equivalent to: condemnation to everlasting punishment, or state of everlasting punishment. Hence the E. V. here conveys a false meaning to the popular reader, as also in Rom_13:2 (“shall receive to themselves judgment,” i.e., here temporal punishment by the magistrate) and 1Co_11:29 (“eateth and drinketh judgment to himself”).—P. S.]
[11]Rom_3:9.—προκατέχομεν περισσόν is a gloss [D.*G., Syr. On the different interpretations of προεχόμεθα, comp. the Exeg. Notes. προέχω, in the active voice, means: to hold before, or intransitively, to surpass, to excel; in the middle voice: to hold before one’s self—either literally, i.e., a shield, or figuratively, in the sense, to use as a pretext; in the passive voice: to be surpassed.—P. S.]
[12] Rom_3:10-12.—[Literal version of Psa_14:1-3 from the Hebrew:
“A fool hath said in his heart,
‘There is no God.’
They are corrupt,
They have done abominable things,
There is not a doer of good.
Jehovah from the heavens
Hath looked on the children of men,
To see if there is a wise one, seeking God.
The whole have turned aside,
Together they have become worthless:
There is not a doer of good, not even one.”—P. S.]
[13] Rom_3:13.—[Psa_5:9, according to the Hebrew:
“There is no stability in their mouth;
Their heart is full of mischief;
An open grave is their throat;
Their tongues they make smooth.”—P. S.]
[14] Rom_3:13.—[Psa_140:3 in Hebrew:
“They have sharpened their tongues as a serpent;
Poison of an adder is under their lips.”—P. S.]
[15] Rom_3:14.—[Psa_10:7 :
“His mouth is foil of oaths,
And deceit, and fraud.”—P. S.]
[16] Rom_3:15-17.—[From Isa_59:7-8, which reads literally:
“Their feet run to do evil,
And they haste to shed innocent blood;
Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
Wasting and destruction are in their highways;
A way of peace they have not known.
And there is no judgment in their paths.
Their paths they have made perverse for themselves;
No treader in it hath known peace.”—P. S.]
[17] Rom_3:18.—[Psa_36:1 :
“The transgression of the wicked
Is affirming within my heart:
‘Fear of God is not before his eyes.’ ”—P. S.]
[18]Rom_3:20.—[Διότι may mean, (1) δι ̓ ὅτι, propter quod, quam ob rem, quare, wesshalb, wesswegen, on account of which thing, wherefore (relative), or, in the beginning of a period, desshalb, therefore— indicating a conclusion from preceding premises. This is the prevailing, though not exclusive meaning, among the Greek classics; while in the N. T. διό is always used in this sense. (2) διὰ τοῦτο ὅτι, propterea quod, desshalb weil, on this account that, or simply ὅτι, quia, nam, because, for—assigning a reason for a preceding assertion. Both views suit the connection, but the latter is more consistent with the uniform use of this particle in the N. T., and is adopted by the majority of modern commentators, also by Meyer, Lange, Alford, Wordsworth, Hodge. Hence a comma only should be put after θεῷ. Διότι occurs twenty-two times in the N. T. The authorized E. V. translates it eight times for, thirteen times because, and only once therefore—viz., in our passage, following Beza (propterea). See the passages in Schmid-Bruder’s Concordantiæ, and in The Englishman’s Greek Concordance, and the Textual Note on Rom_1:19.—P. S.]
[19]Rom_3:20.—[ἐξ ἕργων νόμου οὐ δικαιωθήσεται πᾶσα σὰρξ ἐπιον αὐτοῦ, probably in allusion to Psa_143:2, LXX.: ὅτι οὐ δικαιωθήσεται ἐνώπιόν σου πᾶς ζῶν. The negation belongs not to πᾶσα, but to the verb, according to a Hebraizing syntactic connection. “All flesh shall not be justified” = “nobody shall be justified.” Comp. Mat_24:22 : οὐκ ᾶν ἐσώθη πᾶσα σάρξ.—P. S.]
[20][Rabbi Berechias, in Shemoth Rabb., fol. 138, col. 13: “Ne hæretici et apostatœ et impii ex Israelitis dicant: quando quidem circumcisi sumus, in infernum non descendimus. Quid agit Deus S. B.? Mittit angelum et præputia eorum attrahit, ita ut ipsis in infernum descendant.” Attrahere, or adducere præpitium, means as much as to obliterate the circumcision, or to become uncircumcised. It was done by apostate Jews at the time of the Maccabees, under the persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes; 1Ma_1:15; Josephus, Antiq. xii. 6, § 2. It was a common Jewish opinion, that circumcision, as such saves from hell. Rabbi Menachem (Comm. on the B. of Moses, fol. 43, Colossians 3): “Our Rabbins have said, that no circumcised man will see hell.” Medrasch Tillin (f. 7, 100:2): “God swore to Abraham, that no one who was circumcised should be sent to hell.” See these, and similar passages, in Schöttgen and Eisenmenger (Entdeckles Judenthum ii. p. 339 f.)—P. S.]
[21][The reverse is the case, Joh_8:44 : ψεύστης ἐστὶ καὶ ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ, where the abstract noun ψεύδους must be supplied from the concrete ψεύστης. Comp. Winer, Gramm., pp. 131, 132, 6th ed.—P. S.]
[22][In Rom_3:28 the subject is incomplete, and must be supplied from the predicate thus: οὐ γάρ ὁ ἐν τῷ φανερῷ [Ἰονδαῖος] Ἰονδαῖος [ἐν τῷ κπυπτῷ, or, ἀληθινός] ἐστιν, οὑδὲ ἡ ἐν τῷ φανερῷ, ἐν σαρκὶ [περιτομὴ] περιτομὴ [ἀληθινή ἐστιν]. In Rom_3:29 the predicate is wanting, and must be inferred from Rom_3:28 thus: ἀλλὰ ὁ ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ Ἰουδαῖος [Ἰουδαῖός ἐστιν], καὶ περιτομὴ καρδίας, ἐν πνεύματι, οὐ γράμματι [περιτομή ἐστιν]. This is the arrangement of Beza, E. V., De Wette, Tholuck, Alford. Dr. Lange (see Exeg. Notes on Rom_3:29) differs from this only in form, by supplying Ἰουδαῖος as predicate after ἀλλά. But Fritzsche and Meyer make Rom_3:29 strictly parallel with Rom_3:28, and take ̓ Ιουδαῖος as predicate thus: ἀλλὰ ὁ ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ [ἐστι] Ἰουδαῖος, but he who [is a Jew] inwardly is a Jew [in the true, ideal sense of the word]. This would seem the best arrangement, if it were not for the following: καὶ περιτομὴ καρδίας, &c., which Meyer renders: and the circumcision of the heart [is, consists in] the spirit, not in the letter. But a strict parallelism would here require: καὶ ἡ ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ [sc. ἐστι] περιτομὴ. Ewald agrees with this structure of Meyer in the first clause, but would make καρδίας the predicate in the second clause: circumcision [is that] of the heart. This is forced, and would require the article before περιτομή. The sense is not materially affected by the difference of construction. In this passage the authorized E. V., upon the whole, can scarcely be improved.—P. S.]
[23][Tholuck quotes from the Talmud (Niddo, F. 20, 2) the axiom: יְהוּדי בְּחֶדְרִי לֵב, Judæus in penetralibus cordis.—P. S.]
[24][Hodge: That ἀπιστεῖν may have the sense to be unfaithful, is plain from 2Ti_2:13, and from the sense of ἀπιστία, in Heb_3:12; Heb_3:19, and of ἄπιστος, in Luk_12:46; Rev_21:8. To understand the passage as referring to want of faith in Christ, seems inconsistent with the whole context.—P. S.]
[25][צדק indicates the righteousness, זכה (properly, to be pure), the holiness of God.—P. S.]
[26][Comp. Hodge: “ἀδικία is not to be taken in the restricted sense of injustice, nor as equivalent to δικαιοσύνη, in the preceding verse, but in the comprehensive sense of unrighteousness, wickedness. It is the opposite of δικαιοσύνη, rectitude, righteousness, which includes all moral excellence.”—P. S.]
[27][.מָאי אֵיכָה לְפימַר]
[28][Μὴ ἄδικος ὁ θεός; in negative interrogations μή (μήτι, doch nicht?) is used when a negative, οὐ (nonne) when a positive answer is expected. See Winer, p. 476; Hartung, Partik. 2:88; and Meyer in loc.; against Rückert and Philippi. Paul does not ask: Is not God unjust? but, Is God unjust? expecting a negative reply; and he apologizes even for putting the question in this form.—P. S.]
[29][Calvin: “Sumit argumentum ab ipsius Dei officio quo probet id esse impossibile; judicabit Deus hunc mundum, ergo injustus esse non potest.” So, substantially, Grotius, Tholuck, De Wette, Rückert, Köllner, Meyer, Hodge. It seems that the Apostle here assumes the very thing he is to prove. But he reasons from acknowledged premises: God is universally conceived as the Judge of all mankind; this necessarily implies that He is Just. The opposite is inconsistent with the idea of God as Judge, and with the nature of the judgment.—P. S.]
[30][So also the Vulgate (præcellinius), Luther, Calvin, Beza, E. V., Grotius, Bengel, Tholuck, Rückert (2d ed.), Reiche, Philippi, Baur, Bloomfield, Alford, Wordsworth, Hodge, who says, with De Wette, that this is the only interpretation which suits here.—P. S.]
[31][Sometimes, however, the middle and the active form of the same verb are used without a perceptible difference; as in Luk_15:6, συγκαλεῖ τοὺς φίλους; Rom_3:9, συγκαλεῖται τὰς φίλας (according to Lachmann; while Tischendorf reads the active); Jam_4:2 f., αἰτεῖτε and αἰτεῖσθε; Act_16:16, παρεῖχε; Act_19:24, παρείχετο, præstabat. Comp. Winer, Gramm., p. 240 f., 7th ed. There is, it is true, no example of the active use of προέχομαι. But the middle voice may have been preferred here to the active, because the Apostle speaks of a superiority which the Jews claimed for themselves’ for their benefit; comp. σεαυτὸν παπεχόμενος τύπον, Tit_2:7. This, then, comes to the interpretation of Lange, sub No. 4. The reading of Cod. Boerner: προκατέχομεν περισσόν, gives the same sense.—P. S.]
[32][The Greek classics use προκατηγορεῖν instead; Meyer.—P. S.]
[33][Meyer: 1. Sinful condition (Rom_3:10-12); 2. sinful manifestations, in word (13, 14), and in deed (15–17); 3. the source of sin (18).—P. S.]
[34][συνίων, according to the accentuation of Lachmann; or συνιών, as Alford accentuates. It is the usual form in the Septuagint for συνιείς (comp. Rom_3:11; Mat_13:23, var.), and is derived from the obsolete root συνιέω for συνίημι. See Winer, p. 77 (§ 14, 3). It answers to the Hebrew מַשְׂכִּיל, a word often used to express the right understanding of religious truth.—P. S.]
[35][Stronger than the simple verb; comp. 1Pe_1:10; very frequent in the LXX.; Meyer.—P. S.]
[36][An Alexandrian and Hellenistic form for ἐδολίουν; see Sturz, Dial. Alex., p. 61, and Winer, p. 74, where similar examples are quoted: as εὶ́χοσαν for εὶ́χον, ἐδίδοσαν, for εἳχον, παρελάβοσαν, ἐφάγοσαν, εἵδοσαν, &c.—P. S.]
[37][On this important verse, Dr. Hodge (pp. 125–133) is very full and clear; while Alford and Wordsworth pass it over very slightly.—P. S.]
[38][Several Roman Catholic and Rationalistic commentators meet from opposite extremes on Pelagian ground, and resolve the meaning of this passage simply into this: that men are not justified by any external rites or ceremonial works, such as circumcision and sacrifices, but only by moral acts of the heart and will. But the prevailing Romish doctrine is, that works of the law are works done before regeneration, which have only the merit of congruity; while the works done after regeneration, and therefore under the impulse of Divine grace, have the merit of condignity, and are the ground of acceptance with God.—P. S.]
[39][De spiritu et litera ad Marcellinum, cap. Romans 8 : “Nec audiunt quod legunt: ‘quia non justificabitur ex lege omnis caro coram Deo’ (Rom_3:20). Potest enim fieri coram hominibus, non autem coram illo qui cordis ipsius et intimæ voluntatis inspector est. ? Ac ne quisquam putaret hic apostolum ex lege dixisse neminem justificari, quæ in sacramentis veteribus multa continet figurata præcepta, unde etiam ipsa est circumcisio carnis ? continuo subjunxit quam legem dixerit, et ait: ‘Per legem enim cognitio peccati’ (Rom_3:20).” Augustine agrees with the Reformers in the doctrine of total depravity and salvation by free grace without works, but agrees with the Roman Catholic view of the meaning of justification, as being a continuous process essentially identical with sanctification.—P. S.]
[40][Meyer says this in view of the principle: οἱ ποιηταὶ νόμου δικαιωθήσονται (Rom_2:13), but he immediately adds that no human being can fully comply with the law: that the law only makes us more conscious of our moral imperfections.—P. S.]
[41][If δικαιώθητι ἕτι should be the true reading, against which, see, however, Lachmann and Tischendorf.—P. S.]
[42][Pseudo-Barnabas says, l. c.: “Thou (addressing the Jew) wilt say, ‘Yea, verily the people are circumcised for a seal.’ But so also is every Syrian and Arab, and all the priests of idols: are these, then, also within the bond of this covenant (or, according to the reading of Cod. Sin.: their covenant)? Yea, the Egyptians also practise circumcision.”—P. S.]
[43][Tholuck means “the old Lutheran conception of circumcision,” and refers to Gerhard (Loc. Theol., vol. ix., pp. 12, 30), who teaches that circumcision was a sacrament of grace, in which the verbale elementum of Divine promise was connected with the material element.—P. S.]
[44][The old Protestant divines speak of a threefold use of the law: 1. Usus politicus, or civilis (in the state, which can only be governed by laws); 2. usus elenchticus, or pædagogicus (leading to a knowledge of sin and misery); 3. usus didacticus, or normativus (regulating the life of the believer). Comp. the Formula Concordiæ p. 594 sq. Similar to this is the German sentence, that the law is Zügel, Spiegel, and Riegel, a restraint, a mirror, and a rule.—P. S.]
[45][Comp. Archbishop Tillotson, Sermon on 2Ti_2:19 (quoted by James Ford on Romans): “Baptism verily profiteth, if we obey the gospel; but if we walk contrary to the precepts of it, our baptism is no baptism, and our Christianity is heathenism.” We would say: worse than no baptism, worse than heathenism. For in proportion to the blessing intended, is the curse incurred by abuse. The case of an apostate Christian is far more hopeless than the case of an unconverted heathen. The one has Christianity behind him, the other before him; the one has deliberately cast it off, the other may thankfully embrace it.—P. S.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 Much every way; chiefly, because--rather, "first, that."
Much every way; chiefly, because--rather, "first, that."
unto them were committed the oracles of God--This remarkable expression, denoting "divine communications" in general, is transferred to the Scriptures to express their oracular, divine, authoritative character.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 (b.) Admission of the Jews’ advantage, chiefly in the…
(b.) Admission of the Jews’ advantage, chiefly in the divine oracles, Rom_3:1-2.
The Jew is highly dissatisfied at being in the two preceding chapters placed by the apostle upon a level of guilt and condemnation with the Gentiles. He demands what advantage the apostle allows the Jew, (Rom_3:1.) Nay, as Jewish unbelief really sets God’s faithfulness in a clearer light, that unbelief itself was rather a merit than a sin, (Rom_3:5.) And in final astonishment he demands if the Jew is in no respect better than the Gentile, (Rom_3:9.)
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The apostle, accustomed to hear such objections in his various argumentation with the Jews in their synagogues, very concisely states (not in the Jew’s words, but his own) and refutes them here.
The advantage of the Jew is, comprehensively, the possession of God’s revelation, (Rom_3:2;) an advantage which the defection of a part of the race could not neutralize, (Rom_3:3.) He admits that God’s faithfulness is illustrated by Jewish apostasy, but denies that such fact lessens their just penalty from God, since such a concession would subvert God’s very judgment throne over the world, (Rom_3:6,) and lead to justifying our sins by the good that might illegitimately result from them, (Rom_3:8.) And, finally, to the despairing query of the Jew whether the advantage of the Jew did not embrace the being morally better, he gives a prompt and decisive no, and sustains his fearful negative with a running summary of passages of condemnation from their own Scriptures, (9-20.)
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.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 Ch. Rom_3:1-2. The advantage of the Jew: Revelation
Ch. Rom_3:1-2. The advantage of the Jew: Revelation
1. What advantage] Lit. what excess, i. e. of privilege.
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St Paul here corrects, though only in passing, the possible inference from the previous passage that circumcision was valueless in all respects, and that the Jew as such had nothing special to thank God for. It is remarkable that his chief reply to such a thought lies in the fact that the Old Covenant secured the immense practical benefit of Revelation. (Cp. Psa_103:7.) This correction is aside from the main argument of this part of the Epistle, in which St Paul aims to prove the equality of Jew and Gentile not in respect of privilege but in respect of reality of guilt, and of need of a Divine justification. Yet even here the main argument is not forgotten: the gift of Scripture brings the responsibility of the Jew into the fullest light. His “advantage” is his accusation.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 (1-8) Continuing the subject, but with a long digression…
III.
(1-8) Continuing the subject, but with a long digression in Rom_3:3 et seq. The Apostle asks, What is the real value of these apparent advantages? He is about to answer the question fully, as he does later in Rom_9:4-5; but after stating the first point, he goes off upon a difficulty raised by this, and does not return to complete what he had begun. This, again, is characteristic of his ardent and keenly speculative mind. Problems such as those which he discusses evidently have a fascination for him, and lead him, here as elsewhere, at once to leave the immediate subject before him, and to enter eagerly into the discussion of them. A more lethargic or timid brain would be under no such temptation.
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One real and solid advantage on the part of the Jew was that he was made the direct recipient of the divine revelation. This privilege of his is not annulled by the defection of a part of the people. It rests not upon the precarious fidelity of men, but upon the infallible promise of God. Yet is not the ultimate triumph of that promise any excuse for those who have set it at nought. They will be punished just the same, and rightly. Otherwise there could be no judgment at all. The casuistical objection that sin loses its guilt if it redounds to God’s glory, or, in other words, that the end justifies the means, carries with it its own condemnation.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 19, 21, 22, 23 Vers. 1-8. (2) Certain objections with regard to the…
Vers. 1-8. (2) Certain objections with regard to the Jews suggested and met. In this passage, before proceeding with his argument, the apostle meets certain objections that might be made to what has been so far said. Some difficulty in determining his exact meaning arises from the concise and pregnant form in which the objections are put and answered, and from fresh ones arising out of the answers, which have also to be met. The objections are from the Jewish standpoint, though not put into the mouth of an objecting Jew, but rather suggested as likely ones by St. Paul himself. To the original readers of the Epistle, who were familiar with the tone of Jewish thought, the sequence of the ideas would probably be more obvious than to us. Reserving special consideration of successive clauses for our exposition of each verse, we may, in the first place, exhibit thus the general drift.
Objection 1 (ver. 1). If being a Jew, if circumcision itself, gives one no advantage over the Gentile, what was the use of the old covenant at all? It is thus shown to have been illusory; and God"s own truth and faithfulness are impugned, if he is supposed to have given, as conveying advantages, what really conveyed none. (This last thought, though not expressed, must be supposed to be implied in the objection, since it is replied to in the answer)
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Answer (vers. 2-4).
(1) It was not illusory; it did convey great advantages in the way of privilege and opportunity; this advantage first, not to mention other. that "the oracles of God" were entrusted to the Jew. And
(2) if some (more or fewer, it matters not) have failed to realize these advantages, it has been their fault, not God"s. It is man"s unfaithfulness, not his, that has been the cause of the failure. Nay, though, according to the hasty saying of the psalmist, all men were false, God"s truth remains; nay, further, as is expressed in another psalm (Psalm 51), man"s very unfaithfulness is found to commend his faithfulness the more, and redound to his greater glory.
Objection 2 (ver. 5). Based on the last assertion. But if man"s unfaithfulness has this result, how can God, consistently with his justice, be wrath with us and punish us for it? Surely the Jew (whose case we are now considering) may claim exemption from "the wrath" of God spoken of above, his unfaithfulness being allowed to have served only to establish God"s truth and to enhance his glory.
Answer (ver. 6-8). I have suggested this objection as though the matter could be regarded from a mere human point of view, as though it were one between man and man; for it is true that a man cannot justly take vengeance on another who has not really harmed him. But such a view is inapplicable to God in his dealings with man; it does not touch our doctrine of his righteous wrath against sin as such. I can only meet it with a mh genoito . For
(1) it would preclude God from judging the world at all, as we all believe he will do. Any heathen sinner might put in the same plea, saying, Why am I too (kagw) judged as a sinner? Nay,
(2) since it involves the principle of sin being evil, not in itself, but only with regard to its consequences, it would, if carried out, justify the odious view (which we Christians are by some falsely accused of holding) that we may do evil that good may come.
Vers. 1, 2. What advantage then hath the Jew! or what is the profit of circumcision! Much (polu , a neuter adjective, agreeing with to perisson) every way (not by all means; the meaning is that in all respects the position of the Jew is an advantageous one): first (rather than chiefly, as in the Authorized Version. One point of advantage is specified, which might have been followed by a secondly and a thirdly, etc. But the writer stops here, the mention of this first being sufficient for his purpose. Others are enumerated, so as to elucidate the purport of kata panta trupon , in Rom_9:4, Rom_9:5) for that they (the Jews) were entrusted with the oracles of God. The word logia (always used in the plural in the New Testament) occurs also in Act_7:38 Heb_5:12 1Pe_4:11. Of these passages the most apposite is Act_7:38, where the Divine communications to Moses on Mount Sinai are spoken of as logia zwnta . (cf. Num_24:4, Num_24:16, where Balaam speaks of himself as akouwn logia Yeou) Some (as Meyer), in view of the supposed, reference in the following verse to the Jews rejection of the gospel, take the word logia here to mean especially the revealed promises of the Redeemer. But neither the word itself nor its use elsewhere suggests any such limited meaning; nor does the context really require it. It may denote generally the Divine revelations of the Old Testament, which, for the eventual benefit of mankind, had been entrusted exclusively to the Jews.
Vers. 1, 2. Prerogative.
The differences in men"s circumstances and advantages are great, and are altogether inexplicable by human wisdom. We may not, probably we cannot, in all things "justify the ways of God to men." There is much in the inequality of the human lot that is perplexing to the reflective and sensitive mind, which we cannot reconcile with our belief in God"s perfect justice, and his omnipotent and universal rule. This, however, is an insufficient reason for doubting the conviction of our moral nature, for questioning the declarations of Scripture, that the Judge of all the earth doeth right.
I IT IS POSSIBLE TO OVERESTIMATE THE ADVANTAGE OF PECULIAR PRIVILEGES. This was the case with many of the Jews, who relied upon ancestral, hereditary advantages, and who even believed that, as children of Abraham, they were certain of Divine favour and of eternal life. Just as many in human society lay stress absurdly great upon their family, the status they enjoy in consequence of hereditary title or wealth, so is it in religious life. Not a few, like the Jews, rely far too much upon the Church with which they are connected, the ministry by which they are served, the sacraments to which they are admitted, the opportunities of knowledge, fellowship, and service with which they are favoured, it is too often forgotten that these privileges are only means to an end, and that the right and reasonable use of the means is necessary in order to the desired end.
II IT IS POSSIBLE TO DISPARAGE ADVANTAGES WHICH, IT IS DISCOVERED, HAVE BEEN OVERVALUED. It is a tendency of human nature to fly from one extreme to the other. St. Paul supposes some reader, convinced by what he has said of the possibility of gaining no benefit by advantages enjoyed, to turn completely round and to ask what advantages accrue to those who enjoy what seem to be remarkable privileges. "What advantage, then, hath the Jew? or what is the profit of circumcision?" And it is still, no doubt, often the case that men, convinced that it is vain to rely upon their religious privileges, question whether they are in any better position for possessing such privileges. Social advantages are so evidently serviceable, that men suppose the same must be the case with religious advantages; and when they find that the possession of these last is compatible with censure and condemnation, they are apt to turn round, and to say, "Better to be without privileges which may lead to nothing!" Yet this is an unreasonable way of regarding such matters. For
III IT IS POSSIBLE SO TO USE RELIGIOUS ADVANTAGES AS TO MAKE THEM THE MEANS TO SPIRITUAL GOOD. The apostle points out that the Jew occupied a position peculiarly favourable. "First of all, because they were entrusted with the oracles of God." This was evidently a sacred prerogative, and there were many of the favoured nation who made so good a use of their opportunities that they became, not only intelligently acquainted with Divine truth, but penetrated by the Divine Spirit, and consecrated to the Divine service. Similarly, although the possession of the Scriptures and the privileges of the Christian Church will be occasion of condemnation to those hearers of the gospel who are negligent, unbelieving, and impenitent; on the other hand, these will be means of grace, and they actually are such, to all who use such opportunities of knowledge, fellowship, and improvement in a right spirit and method. There is obvious justice in this arrangement; the greater the privilege, the greater the responsibility. "To whom much is given, of him much will be required." Those who are "entrusted with the oracles of God" may well be summoned seriously to consider what is becoming on the part of those so favoured, and diligently to use opportunities so precious, privileges and prerogatives so momentous and so unparalleled.
HOMILIES BY C.H. IRWIN Vers. 1-8. The difficulties of Divine revelation, Jewish unbelief, and Divine justice.
The apostle, in the two preceding chapters, has now shown that both Jews and Gentiles stand on the same platform as regards their need of a Saviour. Both are alike sinners in God"s sight. The Gentile, who has not the Law, if he does by nature the things contained in the Law, will be justified before God. "Shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?". (Rom_2:14, Rom_2:26) The Jew"s circumcision will profit him if it be a religion that affects the heart and the spirit. (Rom_2:29) St. Paul, so quick to see the bearings of every statement, notices at once that a difficulty naturally arises here, and he is prompt to meet it. "What advantage, then, hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
I THE DIVINE REVELATION A GREAT PRIVILEGE. Notwithstanding all that had been said about the sins and shortcomings of the Jews, the Jews were still a privileged people. Nothing could ever destroy the fact that they were the chosen people of God, the people chosen to be the channel of God"s revelation to the world by the patriarchs and lawgivers and prophets, chosen also to be the channel through which the Divine Word become flesh and tabernacled among men whom as concerning the flesh Christ came." The chief privilege which Paul mentions here was that "unto them were committed the oracles of God" (ver. 2). It is an advantage to have a Divine revelation entrusted to us. The possession and knowledge of God"s Word is a privilege not to be despised or lightly esteemed. There are degrees of nearness to the kingdom of God. While the gospel is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth," while there are such events as sudden conversions, yet there are some who are in a more favourable condition for receiving the gospel than others. St. Paul, though he was suddenly converted, bad a long and thorough training previously in the Word of God. The scribe who came to Christ, and whom the Saviour pronounced to be "not far from the kingdom of God," was one who had a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures, and who had been living a life of obedience to the Law of God. Such men were certainly more likely to be influenced by the personal power of Christ than those who had no previous knowledge of Divine truth. God works by miracles; but his ordinary method is to work by means. In these days of sensational evangelism it is well that we should not undervalue the importance of a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. Paul wrote to Timothy, "From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." They who are well instructed in the Holy Scriptures are, as a rule, more likely to become true and permanent Christians than those who, under the influence of sudden excitement or emotion, without any previous religious knowledge, profess their readiness to follow the banner of Jesus. There are exceptions, but this would seem to be the rule. And those who are so highly privileged incur a serious and solemn responsibility. If unto us are committed the oracles of God, if we have the Bible in our hands and its truths treasured up in our minds, terrible indeed will be our guilt if we disobey its precepts, reject its invitations, and neglect its warnings. "To whom much is given, of them shall much be required.
II DIVINE FAITHFULNESS NOT AFFECTED BY HUMAN UNBELIEF. "For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God of none effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged" (vers. 3, 4). The promises of God will be fulfilled, even though there are some who do not believe on them. The Law of God will assert its claims, even though there are some who repudiate them. It will not save men from the punishment of their sin that they did not believe God"s Word when it says, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." God"s faithfulness is not affected by the unbelief of his own people. Some persons argue against the Bible because of the unbelief of those who profess to regard it as their guide. They argue against Christianity because of the inconsistencies of its professors. The argument is false. Christianity is to be judged by its own teachings and spirit, and not by the imperfect way in which even its professors have received and practised them. Christianity is the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, combined with the influence of his death upon the cross. No inconsistency of professing followers can ever mar the beauty and sinlessness of that perfect Example. No unbelief can ever do away with the inherent power that is in the cross of Jesus to save sinners. The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but to them that are saved it is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
III DIVINE JUSTICE IS NOT AFFECTED BY THE CONSEQUENCES OF HUMAN SIN. "But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man.) God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?" (vers. 5, 6).
1. God judges not consequences, but character. He looks at the heart and at the motives. The Jews" unbelief was overruled by God for his own wise and gracious purposes. He brought good out of evil. But that did not make their unbelief the less guilty. In the eyes of the law, the guilt of a fraudulent person is not always estimated by the consequences of his acts. A man may forge his employer"s signature to cheques; but the employer may receive such information as will enable him to stop the cheques in time, and prevent the loss which would otherwise have resulted. But the forger"s guilt is not diminished because the consequences of his acts have been overruled. The law is not considered unfair or unrighteous if it punishes him, though his employer may not have suffered one penny of pecuniary loss. And even though the criminal"s conduct served in some way to bring out more clearly the integrity or kindness of his employer, yet even this would not be regarded as any mitigating circumstance in his guilt. So it is right that I should still be judged as a sinner, even though the truth of God hath abounded through my lie unto his glory (ver. 7).
2. Man is not justified in using sinful means to gain a good end. From the fact that God overrules sinful actions for his own glory and the good of humanity, it might appear to be a natural inference that it matters not what the morality of the action itself is so long as its object or result is good. "Let us do evil, that good may come" (ver. 8). Stated in this broad way, the immorality of the principle is apparent. And yet it is a principle which is too commonly acted upon. If you oppose some method of raising money for religious or charitable purposes, you will be constantly told, "Oh! it is for a good purpose." That is, simply, it does not matter how you get the money so as you get it. It does not matter what the means are so long as the end is good. Now, it is time that the Christian Church and Christian teachers should set themselves resolutely against such demoralizing ideas. How can the Christian Church rebuke the dishonest practices too common in the commercial world, money-making by unfair or questionable methods, so long as its own hands are not clean, so long as almost any method of making money is considered justifiable if it is in connection with a Church bazaar? The end does not justify the means. Let us not do evil, that good may come. C.H.I.
HOMILIES BY T.F. LOCKYER Vers. 1-8. Religious advantages, their use and abuse.
If the Gentile and the Jew shall alike come under judgment according to their works, of what profit was the election of the Jew, and his endowment with spiritual privileges? This leads to the question of religious advantages, their use and abuse.
I USE. The very name, "religious advantage," which springs so readily to the lips, attests the profit of being a people called of God. This profit is manifold, and in the forefront stands the fact that they have the living utterances of God amongst them.
1. For themselves. Who shall estimate the strength and sanctity accruing to individual, domestic, and national life from the contact of that living will?
(1) Indirect advantage to vitalize morals, law, and the manifold civilization of a people. So the indirect advantages of Christianity.
(2) Direct advantages the infinite felicity of union with God.
2. For others. "Intrusted." To grasp at our own good not the chiefest felicity of life. And the Jew was God"s chosen messenger to the nations. Oh, the honour! A nation of preachers, re-uttering the words of that living voice! But how sadly they had misconceived their calling!
II ABUSE. Instead of heralding God"s will among the nations, they learned to hate all who were not of themselves; and, instead of embracing God"s will for themselves, they relied on mere knowledge, and lived in sin. Then were God"s words made void? was there no gospel for them? and, because of their unfaithfulness, were the Gentiles to be unsaved?
1. God"s truth in spite of man"s falseness. They resisted his will, but the will remained firm and strong; they neglected his promises, hut the promises remained faithful; they rejected his Christ, but he was nevertheless the Christ of the Jews and of all the world. Over against their unholy conduct the holiness of God shone spotless and supreme.
2. God"s truth through man"s falseness. If man will not yield to God, God will make even man"s disobedience ministrant to his own purposes. So they rejected the Christ; and his death was the world"s life. They would not live by him; and "by their fail salvation came unto the Gentiles." Perhaps sooner than would otherwise have been; perhaps more effectually. So were they, all unknowing, drawing the chariot of his kingdom; so, even now, is the "wrath of man" made to "praise" him.
3. God"s truth in condemnation of man"s falseness. Might they not say, "If God"s holiness shines the more brightly in contrast with my unholiness, if God"s purposes are more effectually worked out by reason of my perverseness and sin, shall I not therefore be approved rather than condemned? Nay, shall I not even make my lie to abound that his truth may abound? Such are the jesuitries of every age; such is the utter untruth of the heart of man. But man is a witness against himself; and therefore the apostle almost disdains reply. "Man! if the overruling of evil for good were ground of acquittal, then would all be acquitted; if evil were thereby justified, it might be therefore deliberately wrought! Let the conscience of each speak out against such utter immorality; let the acknowledged fact of a final judgment teach the futility of such a plea. The condemnation of the condemned is just!" So does he shear away their vain pleas, and the case for their arraignment is complete. It only remains that, for Jew and Gentile, the express testimony of God"s Word be adduced, as supplementary of the moral considerations of Ro 1 and Ro 2, and all the world will be shown guilty before God.
Our Christian privileges, are they used or abused by us? Oh, let us take to heart those words, "Not every one that saith to me," etc.. T.F.L. (Mat_7:21-23)
HOMILIES BY S.R. ALDRIDGE Vers. 1, 2. A sacred trust.
Questions break the even flow of a course of argumentation, and, by diversifying the stream, quicken the sluggish interest of the spectators. The catechetical method is characteristic of the Apostle Paul in his most vehement moods.
I EXPLAIN THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE QUERY IN THE TEXT. It might seem strange for any to question the unexampled privileges enjoyed by the Jews, but the apostle has been laying the axe to the root of some barren trees of Jewish pretensions. He ruthlessly exposed the pleas of those who tried to shelter their non-compliance with God"s statutes behind the fact that they belonged to an elect race, as if to be an Israelite were in itself a guarantee of salvation. He showed that only the doers of the Law are justified by the Law; that the initial rite of circumcision could only profit if it were followed up by inward consecration and outward obedience. The apostle affirmed that even the heathen world had its law of conduct, according to which it would be judged. Every man who worked evil would be visited with retribution and anguish," on the Jew first, and also on the Greek. The rabbis would not be absolved on the ground of their status and functions; let them instruct themselves, and abstain from every violation of the Law. These were plain statements; there was no mincing of the matter, and to many readers, accustomed with self-gratulation to pride themselves on their descent from Abraham, these remarks would prove highly offensive. And further they would be led to inquire, with complaining indignation, "Well, then, what has been the good to us of our Jewish religion? If our condition of national priority is not to ensure the ultimate favour of God, where is our boasted advantage over the Gentile, who may equally obtain the rewards of the judgment-day?" The objector asks not only what his ordinary profit has been, but what has been the surplus, the excess of privilege, above other nations. Observe how easily the hearer of the gospel may adopt the same line of questioning. Indeed, this is assigned by many as a reason for not preaching the gospel to the heathen, inasmuch as they shall be judged according to the degree of light they possess, and greater light may increase their condemnation.
II THE EMPHATIC REPLY. The Jew had reason for devout gratitude in every respect, answers the apostle; and primarily, that to him it had been given to receive direct, unmistakable communications from Heaven. The Jewish nation were permitted to hear voices from the shrine, and the record of these Divine instructions was committed to their care as a valuable treasure. There was the Law from Mount Sinai a political, priestly, ethical, sanitary code; there were prophecy and history, and the strains of men who swept the harp of religious feeling with divinely guided fingers. Consider the high honour implied in such custodianship. The isolation of the land of Palestine bespoke a Divine library, whose contents were to be guarded against contaminating, destructive touch. It is by their possession of the Scriptures that the Jews have won their place in the estimation of the world. Not by their deeds or character, but by their writings. Nor is it that they have displayed a special genius for literature; there is the mark of the inspiration of God. The prophets were conscious that this was and would be the glory of the nation, "Out of Zion shall go forth the Law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem." Neither Greece, nor Rome, nor Babylon has embalmed like Israel the story of its rise, its progress, and its fall. Today the Jews are silent witnesses to the truth of Scripture an unwilling comment on the threats and predictions of their own Bible. This librarianship was a real help towards righteousness and the obtaining of the blessing of God. Men will dare anything for the attainment of mere empty honour, titles of distinction, or posthumous fame. But it was surely no slight advantage to have in these oracles such a revelation of the nature of God. The existence of one God was plainly taught. And from the conception of him as almighty there was an advance to the conception of an ever-living, holy, all-pervading Spirit. Then he was revealed as sympathizing with the woes of his creatures, and the "Angel of his face" was predicted as making his soul an offering for the sin of man. It was no small advantage to have the searching requirements of morality so vividly enforced, and attested with such august sanctions. The sincere reader could say, "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet," etc. They were "lively oracles," as contrasted with the dim, uncertain, impotent instructions of the unillumined world. They imparted hope, intimated the mercy of God, and the possibility of pardon through sacrifice. They taught a future life, so that Martha could say to our Lord, "I know that my brother shall rise again." The very fact that these oracles were committed to writing was no little aid towards their intelligibleness and influence. Heathendom questioned in its childhood, and still doubted in its old age. Spiritual truth may be said to have been unknown except to Israel. Into what lofty regions of spiritual vision could the psalmists and prophets soar, on wings of knowledge and faith nourished by the writings they possessed!
III AN APPEAL TO MODERN READERS. Analogous reasoning may be applied to our condition. The cheap multiplication of copies of the Scriptures, and the many seasons and media of exposition available, vastly augment our advantages. Besides, we have the light which the New Testament throws upon the attributes and fulfilled purposes of God. Our function, like that of Israel, is twofold to learn and to teach.
1. Let us utilize the written Word for our own behoof. Picture the folly of a sailor not consulting his chart, or the traveller failing to guide his steps by his manual. Too many a sexton cares for the material fabric, and overlooks the doctrines and worship to which the temple is subservient. Without disparaging other literature, how dark were the world of letters if this sun were blotted out! The following verse (ver. 3) speaks of the chief hindrance to profiting by the oracles, viz. a want of faith. Faith is the practical employment of gospel truth; not the comprehending of all its connections and relationships, or the sounding of its fathomless depths with our tiny plummet, but the utilization of its plain declarations and directions. The road to the cross no wayfarer can mistake.
2. We too have the Bible as a sacred charge for the benefit of our fellows. Israel was to serve all generations and all races of mankind, and the Church of Christ exists for no exclusive selfish ends, but for the enlightenment of every home and land. The very position of Great Britain in the carrying-trade of the globe marks our glory and responsibility. To have a deposit entrusted to our care involves vigilance lest it suffer damage. A mutilated library condemns its guardians, and closed doors mean the flight of the glory of the Lord from the sanctuary. S.R.A.
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR Vers. 1-8. Jewish privileges and Divine judgment.
From a consideration of the attitude of the Jewish world to God, the apostle proceeds in this section to state the privileges enjoyed by Jews, and to point out the corresponding danger of commensurate condemnation in case the privileges were neglected or abused. The Jew might be inclined to say, "If circumcision be not a seal of special privilege, if I am not to be accepted because of my circumcision and descent: what possible advantage is there in being a Jew?" Now, to this Paul answers that the Jew has many advantages, but in the mean time he will only emphasize one he is the custodian of the Divine revelation. It is round this fact that the thought of the present section circulates. Let us try to grasp the truths as the apostle suggests them.
I THE REVELATION CONFIDED TO THE CARE OF THE JEWS. (Ver. 2) Into the large subject of the Old Testament revelation we cannot, of course, enter. But it may be noted that the revelation is in foundation historical; it gives the history of a peculiar people; it brings out the meaning of their history how they had been under a Divine discipline and education from the days of Abraham down to the days of Christ. Not only so, but the revelation turned the minds of its possessors towards the future, speaking of a suffering as well as glorified Messiah, who was coming to set up his kingdom. The revelation was thus a fountain of hope for all who possessed it. Besides, it was a means of self-examination, for it analyzed the motives and exposed the depravity of the human heart. To say that there was no literature possessed by other nations to be compared for a moment with the Hebrew literature is to state the case tamely. The nation possessing such "holy oracles" ought to have been the holiest, most humble, and most hopeful of all the nations. God was clearly calling them as a people into an exceeding great and glorious inheritance. A pure and inspiring literature is a chief national possession. Beside this, all other advantages are trifling. And so the circumcised Jew might well rejoice in being the custodian of the most splendid national literature existing in the world.
II SOME, WHILE PRESERVING THE BOOK, DID NOT BELIEVE THE MESSAGE THAT IT BROUGHT. (Ver. 3) It is admitted on all hands that the Old Testament was preserved by the Jews with scrupulous care. Texts and even letters were counted, and nothing was left to be desired so far as custody is concerned. But many, alas! of the custodians did not appreciate the message which the book brought them. It did not undermine their pride; its utterances about the deceitfulness of the human heart were referred to other people. Its statements also about the sufferings of Messiah were largely ignored, so that when Messiah came as a Man of sorrows they rejected him, and continued to look for another Messiah, who would pose in triumphant majesty at the head of an emancipated nation. Accordingly, they did not believe either in the book or in the Messiah it promised. They thought, indeed, that they had eternal life in the book, but they refused to come to the Person the book pointed out, and who alone had eternal life to bestow. (cf. Joh_5:39, Joh_5:40) They thus gave the lie to revelation, and took up arms against God and his Son. Yet such unbelief did not invalidate the Divine revelation or interfere with God"s faithfulness. The book contained threatenings as well as promises; it has its Ebal as well as its Gerizim. If, therefore, souls insist on disbelieving God"s promises and threatenings, he can still abide faithful, and does not need to deny himself. He can execute judgment on the unbelievers, and so secure his glory in their despite.
III THE EXPEDIENCY DOCTRINE OF DOING EVIL THAT GOOD MAY COME MERITS THE STRONGEST REPROBATION. (Vers. 48) Unbelief does not, as we have seen, invalidate God"s faithfulness. God preserves his glory in man"s despite. In these circumstances, the objection is easily raised that unbelief, and indeed unrighteousness in all its forms, contribute to God"s glory; his righteousness is seen to the more advantage through this foil. The sinner is consequently contributing to the Divine glory, and so should not suffer for thus co-operating. In the light of God"s providential plan, every evil-doer is contributing to the display of the Divine righteousness. Now, this doctrine of expedient evil, with its resultant good, has been the continual resort of the unscrupulous. But it is worthy of the very strongest reprobation. For, in the first place, it overlooks the fact that evil-doers are not voluntary contributors to the Divine glory. Evil-doing is really the running counter to God"s will in all things. If evil-doers are contributors to God"s glory, it is in spite of themselves. They deserve no consideration, therefore, on this account. And, in the second place, while God overrules their evil-doing for his glory, he is in no sense the Author of sin, and so in no sense does evil that good may come. For, in granting freedom to his creatures, God was granting the one condition of the existence of virtue, and has no responsibility when his creatures diverted it into the channel of waywardness and sin. The evil is the act of his creatures entirely; with them the responsibility rests; all that God does is to transmute the evil into good by his wondrous wisdom, justice, and love. Consequently the doing of evil can only be under the pretence of good resulting from it. Evil-doers wax worse and worse; they may pretend to seek good, but their spirit gives the lie to their profession, and warrants their condemnation. It is diabolical doctrine, and its damnation is just.
IV GOD"S RIGHTS AS JUDGE CANNOT BE DISREGARDED. (Vers. 5, 6) A general judgment is expected by all impartial minds. It is seen by all not blinded by good fortune that good and evil are not distributed in this life according to desert. We are in a dispensation where much is reserved, and a judgment to come can alone afford the opportunity of putting things right. Suppose, then, that the right to punish evil-doers is denied on this ground of their contributing to God"s glory; it is plain that the whole idea of judgment, either present or to come, must fall to pieces. In these circumstances we should have no judge to appeal to, and no hope of even checking triumphant wrong. Faith in the Divine administration would be lost, and society would really relapse into barbarism. Hence God"s rights as Judge must be respected, and evil-doers prepare themselves for wrath, if they refuse to be reconciled to him. This guarantee of God"s rights as Judge is one of the marks of the Old Testament revelation. There we see, sooner or later, judgment overtaking evil-doing. Even when the evil-doer is, like David, an Oriental despot, God"s judgments search him out; so that the one hope of the sinner is to betake himself to penitence, and if he can, as in the fifty-first psalm, acknowledge his sin and justify God, as he condemns and visits with displeasure the sin, (Psa_51:4 Rom_3:4) then the pardon and the peace and the joy of believing may be his. But the Judge must be recognized and his rights respected, else the individual and society itself must remain unsaved. R.M.E.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 8, 9, 19, 21, 22, 23 What advantage then hath the Jew?
Rom_3:1-2
What advantage then hath the Jew?
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…chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
Moral advantage
I. There is much advantage to those favoured with clearer light and higher privilege, in every respect. They have the advantage--
1. Of feeling that God cares for them. The heathen had, some of them, lost the knowledge of God altogether, and others were only dimly conscious of His goodness.
2. Of a superior temporal condition. They are delivered from the miseries inflicted by cruel superstitions, are able to cheek the progress of debasing immoralities, and to promote freedom, comfort, peace, and brotherhood.
3. Of better opportunity of performing what their better position demands. The man who possessed five talents had the advantage over his fellow. He had a better command of the market, and could stand a greater shock of adverse circumstances. They would help each other to grow; for five united are more than five times as strong as one, and more than two-and-a-half times as strong as two. An Israelite or a Christian may walk uprightly in his noonday light more easily than a heathen may walk at all in his dim twilight.
4. Of attaining, if faithful, an absolutely higher reward. As two statesmen of equal desert, and equally in favour, take higher and lower positions on account of their different capacities, so those who receive equally the Kings commendation, Well done, good and faithful servant, shall yet differ, as one star differeth from another, in glory.
II. The greatest advantage is to have the oracles of God.
1. The knowledge they impart is a blessing. As day is more blessed than night; as freedom for thought is better than the fetters of ignorance, so the possession of these oracles is unspeakably better than deprivation of them.
2. It is a blessing to have assured Divine communication. As the spirit of a plebeian is lifted by a word or a look from his king; as the heart of an absent child is gladdened by the outside of his fathers letter, so is man blessed by the fact that God has spoken to him.
3. It is an advantage to be thus taken into peculiar covenant relationship to God. Every precept of these oracles is a condition of some blessedness which God pledges Himself to bestow; and every promise contains Gods oath of faithfulness to all to whom these oracles come. It is a high advantage to know that we are Gods and God is ours, as we grasp in faith and obedience His sacred Word. Over our higher privileges it becomes us to rejoice with trembling. With all thy responsibilities, thy greater required service, and thy heavier doom if faithless, still Happy art thou, O Israel, satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the Lord. (W. Griffiths.)
Moral advantage
1. Man has unspeakable advantage in the possession of the oracles of God.
2. May lose it through unbelief.
3. Cannot thereby invalidate Gods faithfulness.
4. Must ultimately confess and justify it. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
The surplus of privilege
The following supposed cases may serve to explain the force of the question raised, and replied to in the text: If the scholarships at Oxford or Cambridge are given away irrespective of the seminaries from which the candidates come, what relative advantage has a youth educated at one of our public schools over and above another who is sell-taught, and with few helps? Much every way; for he has had the best text books, skilled masters, and the like. Or, again, suppose a philanthropist should undertake the reformation of the waifs and strays of society in his own neighbourhood, and for this purpose were to select certain youths whom he received into an institution where they were fed, clothed, and specially trained. Now if, after a while, the person in question should throw open the doors of this establishment, would not there still be a surplus of privilege belonging to those whom he had first admitted?--would not the care and instruction which they had already enjoyed raise them above their fellows, and fit them for being the most qualified instruments in the carrying out of their benefactors liberal-minded and large-hearted designs? (C. Nell, M. A.)
The advantages of Christians over heathens
I. What they are.
1. A guide for faith.
2. A warrant for hope.
3. A rule for conduct.
II. The improvement we should make of them.
1. Study.
2. Obey.
3. Diffuse. (C. Simeon, M. A.)
The advantage of possessing the Holy Scriptures
I. The appellation here given to the Holy Scriptures--the oracles of God.
1. There seems to be an allusion to the heathen oracles. These were, indeed, merely pretended communications from gods that had no existence; or, perhaps, in some instances real communications from demons, and the answers which were given were generally expressed in such unintelligible, or equivocal phrases as might easily be wrested to prove the truth of the oracles whatever the truth might be (Act_16:16).
2. But the apostles, when they term the Scriptures oracles (Act_7:38; Heb_5:12; 1Pe_4:11), signify that they are real revelations from the true God. These were communicated--viva voce, as when God spake to Moses face to face--in visions, as when a prophet in an ecstacy had supernatural revelations (Gen_15:1; Gen_46:2; Eze_11:24; Dan_8:2)--in dreams, as those of Jacob (Gen_28:12) and Joseph (Gen_37:5-6)--by Urim and Thummim, which was a way of knowing the will of God by the ephod or breastplate of the high priest. After the building of the temple, Gods will was generally made known by prophets Divinely inspired, and who were made acquainted with it in different ways (1Ch_9:20-21).
3. The apostles, giving the Scriptures this appellation, show that they considered them as containing Gods mind and will (2Ti_3:16; 1Pe_1:10-13; 1Pe_1:23; 1Pe_1:25; 2Pe_1:19-21). And these apostles, being themselves inspired (Joh_14:17; Joh_14:26; Joh_15:26; Joh_16:13) could not be mistaken. Christ Himself has borne a clear testimony to the truth and importance of the Scriptures of the Old Testament (Joh_5:39; Joh_10:35; Luk_16:29; Luk_16:31).
4. Other proofs of their inspiration are--the majesty of their style; the evident truth and authority of their doctrines; the harmony of all their parts; their power on the minds of myriads; the accomplishment of their prophecies; the miracles performed by their authors. If these things can be affirmed of the writing of the Old Testament, how much more of the New, which consist of the discourses of Gods Incarnate Truth (Heb_1:1), and of His Divinely commissioned servants (Eph_4:7-13).
II. The advantages those have above others, who are favoured with them.
1. There are many truths of vast importance which may be known from Gods works (Rom_1:19-20); nevertheless, matter of fact has proved that even as to the most obvious and primary truths, all flesh have corrupted their way. If the existence of a Deity has been generally acknowledged, yet His unity and spirituality has not, but the most civilised nations have multiplied their gods without end (Rom_1:21-24; hence Isa_40:19-20; Isa_41:6-7; Isa_44:12-20). As to the accountableness of man, fatalism on the one hand, and self-sufficiency on the other, prevailed even among the Greeks and Romans; as to the distinction between vice and virtue, we refer to the apostle (Rom_1:26-32). And as to a future state of happiness or misery, they were in general without hope.
2. But if these and such like truths could have been discovered by the light of nature, they are taught in Scripture much more clearly and fully; with more authority and certainty; and in a way more adapted to the condition of mankind, who in general have neither capacity nor time for deep and difficult research. Many other truths of equal importance, which are not known at all by the light of nature, are clearly revealed in the Scriptures.
3. The oracles of God may well be called by St. Stephen lively. Gods word is a hammer and fire, quick and powerful (Heb_4:12), spirit and life (Joh_6:63). They partake of the spiritual, living, and powerful nature of Him, from whom they proceed. The God who gave them is still at hand to give the right understanding and feeling of them (Luk_24:45; 2Pe_1:20), and still works by and with them. Hence men, from age to age, have been pricked, cut to the heart (Act_2:37; Act_5:33), begotten (Jam_1:18), born again (1Pe_1:23), set free (Joh_8:32), made clean (Joh_15:3), sanctified (Joh_17:17; Eph_5:26), built up and made perfect by them (Eph_4:12; 2Ti_3:15).
4. But here arises a grand objection; the Jews, though favoured with the oracles of God, were as wicked as the Gentiles (chap. 2); professing Christians are as wicked as the heathen. This is by no means the case. A very favourable change in the manners of men in general has been wrought where the Scriptures have been received; and myriads, both Jews and Christians, have thereby been made truly pious persons in all ages; and with respect to the rest, if some did not believe, shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? (verse 3).
III. Our obligation to improve this advantage for ourselves and to communicate it to others.
1. The oracles of God can only profit those who believe them (Heb_3:11; Heb_4:2). They must also be considered and laid to heart, otherwise they cannot profit an intelligent and free being, for they do not work upon our minds mechanically. We must bring to their consideration a teachable and serious mind; must receive them with reverence, gratitude, and affection; practise the religion they describe; and, in order to all this, pray to Him that gave them, that He may impart to us the Spirit by whose influences alone we can either understand or comply with them.
2. With respect to others--the oracles of God are equally necessary and designed for all men (Psa_22:27; Isa_2:2; Mic_4:1; Isa_11:9; Isa_60:8; Isa_06:9; Luk_24:47; Mar_16:15; Rom_1:5; Rev_14:6-7). All professing Christians are under an obligation to aid their circulation, that their endeavours may be consistent with their prayers, for they pray that His kingdom may come. (Joseph Benson.)
The advantages and disadvantages of having the Divine oracles compared: a plea for missions
I. To whom much is given much will be required; the question, then, is whether it is better, that it shall be given or withheld.
1. The Jew, who sinned against the light of his revelation, will have a severer retribution than the Gentile who only sinned against the light of his own conscience; and the nations of Christendom who have rejected the gospel will incur a darker doom than the native of China, whose remoteness, while it shelters him from the light of the New Testament in this world, shelters him from the pain of its fulfilled denunciations in another. And with these considerations a shade of uncertainty appears to pass over the question--whether the Christianisation of a people ought at all to be meddled with.
2. But without an authoritative solution of this question from God, we are really not in circumstances to determine it. We have not all the materials of the question before us. We know not how to state what the addition is which knowledge confers upon the sufferings of disobedience; or how far an accepted gospel exalts the condition of him who was before a stranger to it. It is all a matter of revelation on which side the difference lies; and he who is satisfied to be wise up to that which is written will quietly repose upon the deliverance of Scripture on this subject. Go and preach the gospel to every creature under heaven, and go unto all the world, and teach all nations. These parting words of our Saviour may not be enough to quell the anxieties of the speculative Christian, but they are quite enough to decide the conduct of the practical Christian.
3. But the verses before us advance one step farther, and enter on the question of profit and loss attendant on the possession of the oracles of God; and to decide, on the part of the former, that the advantage was much every way. And it is not for those individuals alone who reaped the benefit that the apostle makes the calculation. He makes an abatement for the unbelief of all the others; and, balancing the difference, he lands us in a computation of clear gain to the whole people. And it bears importantly on this question; for surely we may well venture to circulate these oracles when told of the most stiff-necked and rebellious people on earth, that, with all their abuse of them, they conferred a positive advantage on their nation. And yet what a fearful deduction from this advantage must have been made by their wickedness. It were hard to tell the amount of aggravation upon all their sin, in that it was sin against the light of the oracles of God; but the apostle tells us that, let the amount be what it may, it was more than countervailed by the positive good done through these oracles.
II. A few remarks both on the speculative and on the practical part of this question.
1. The Bible, when brought into a new country, may be instrumental in saving those who submit to its doctrine; and, in so doing, it saves them from an absolute condition of misery in which they were previously involved. If along with this advantage to those who receive it, it aggravates the condition of those who reject it, it does not change into wretchedness that which before was enjoyment; and the whole amount of the evil that has been rendered is only to be computed by the difference in degree between the suffering that is laid upon sin with, and sin without the knowledge of the Saviour. We do not know how great the difference is, but we gather that it was better for the Jews, in spite of all the deeper responsibility and guilt which their possession of the Old Testament laid upon the disobedient, yet that a net accession of gain was thus rendered to the whole--then may we infer that any enterprise by which the Bible is more extensively circulated, or taught, is of positive benefit to every neighbourhood.
2. Though in Jewish history they were the few to whom the oracles of God were a blessing, and the many to whom they were an additional condemnation--yet, on the whole, the good so predominated over the evil, that it on the whole was for the better and not for the worse that they possessed these oracles. But the argument gathers in strength as we look onward to futurity, as we dwell upon the fact of the universal prevalence of the gospel of Christ. Even in this day of small things, the direct blessing which follows in the train of a circulated Bible and a proclaimed gospel overbalances the incidental evil; and when we think of the latter-day glory which it ushers in, who should shrink from the work of hastening it forward, because of a spectre conjured up from the abyss of human ignorance? Even did the evil now predominate over the good, still is a missionary enterprise like a magnanimous daring for a great moral and spiritual achievement, which will at length reward the perseverance of its devoted labourers. There are collateral evils attendant on the progress of Christianity. At one time it brings a sword instead of peace, and at another it stirs up a variance in families, and at all times does it deepen the guilt of those who resist the overtures which it makes to them. But these are only the perils of a voyage that is richly laden with the moral wealth of many future generations. These are but the hazards of a battle which terminates in the proudest and most productive of all victories--and, if the liberty of a great empire be an adequate return for the loss of the lives of its defenders, then is the glorious liberty of the children of God, which will at length be extended over the face of a still enslaved and alienated world, more than an adequate return for the spiritual loss that is sustained by those who, instead of fighting for the cause, have resisted and reviled it.
III. Conclude with a few practical remarks.
1. It is with argument such as this that we would meet the anti-missionary spirit, Not long ago Christianising enterprise was traduced as a kind of invasion on the safety and innocence of paganism, and it was affirmed that, though idolatry is blind, yet it were better not to awaken its worshippers, than to drag them forth by instruction to the hazards and the exposures of a more fearful responsibility. But why should we be restrained now from the work by a calculation, which did not restrain the missionaries of two thousand years ago?
2. If man is to be kept in ignorance because every addition of light brings along with it an addition of responsibility--then ought the species to be arrested at home as well as abroad in its progress towards a more exalted state of humanity; and such evils as may attend the transition to moral and religious knowledge, should deter us from every attempt to rescue our own countrymen from any given amount of darkness by which they may now be encompassed.
3. However safe it is to commit the oracles of God into the hands of others, yet, considering ourselves in the light of those to whom these oracles are committed, it is a matter of urgent concern whether, to us personally, the gain or the loss will predominate. It resolves itself, with every separate individual, into the question of his secured heaven, or his more aggravated hell--whether he be of the some who turn the message of God into an instrument of conversion; or of the many who, by neglect and unconcern, render it the instrument of their sorer condemnation. (T. Chalmers, D. D.)
The oracles of God
I. Their leading characters.
1. Absolute truth and wisdom. The word oracles signifies a Divine speech or answer. Words professing to be from God ought to have strong evidence; and how mighty and commanding is the evidence--attested by miracle, ratified by the fulfilment of prophecy, continuing when they have for ages reproved the world, giving life and salvation to this hour. If, then, they are from God, the question of their wisdom and truth is settled. And here is the advantage of possessing these oracles. There is not a question relating either to duty or salvation to which there is not here an answer. Are you an inquirer? There is the oracle. Consult it; for it shall speak, and shall not lie.
2. Infinite importance. On those questions which are merely curious the oracle is silent, but on no subject which it behoves us to know, e.g., the character of God; the laws by which we are governed; the true state of man; rescue and redemption; the practical application and attainment of this mercy.
3. Life. Hence they are called lively or living oracles, or as our Lord says, The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. No other book has this peculiarity. Show me one which all the wicked fear; which cuts deep into the conscience, and rouses salutary fears; which comforts and supports; and whilst its blessed truths quiver on the lips of the dying, disarms death of its sting. Show me a man who, when he discourses, awakens souls from deadly sleep; who to a trembling spirit says, Believe, and live, and he actually believes and lives; whose counsel effectually guides, quickens, and comforts; and you show me one who speaks only as the oracles of God. Among all who have been celebrated for oratory, who ever professed to produce effects like these? Nothing explains this but the life which the Spirit imparts. With the oracles of God the Author is present. You cannot avoid this power. It will make the Word either a savour of life unto life, or a savour of death unto death.
4. They make all other oracles vocal.
(1) Nature has its solemn voice, but it is not heard where the gospel is not. In heathendom the very heavens are turned into idols, and God is excluded from the thoughts of men. But whenever the living oracles come, then every star, and mountain, and river, proclaims its glorious Maker: day unto day uttereth speech.
(2) The general providence of God in the government of nations is intended to display the wisdom, power, goodness, justice, and truth of God; and terminate in the conversion of all nations to the faith of Christ. Yet all this is unknown to those who are destitute of the Divine oracles. To them it appears that one event happens to all. Every occurrence is either attributed to chance, to blind fate, or to the caprice of deities without Wisdom, and without mercy. The living oracle gives a voice to all this. Instructed by it we mark the design of God, who worketh all in all. We see all things tending to one end, the glory of the Lord shall be revealed; and all flesh shall see it together.
(3) There is also a particular providence which appoints us our station in life, our blessings and our sorrows. Many lessons this providence is intended to teach us. The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. But till the living oracle speaks, all is silence; and we derive no lessons of true wisdom from the events of life. When we acquaint ourselves with God in His Word, then everything ministers to our instruction in righteousness.
5. Variety. Here we have history, proverbs, poetry, examples, doctrine, prophecy, parable, allegory, and metaphor.
6. Fulness of truth. Great as are the revelations, nothing is exhausted. As in Christ the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily, to be eternally manifested; so in His Word there is a fulness of truth. And hence the Bible is always new.
(1) In regard to morals, we have principles, as well as acts, applicable forever.
(2) Who can exhaust the doctrine of Holy Scripture? Doctrines especially relating to God, and Christ, and the depth of all-redeeming love.
(3) The effects of the whole scheme will be developing forever. In a very important sense the Bible will be the oracles of God to the Church above.
II. These oracles are committed or entrusted To You.
1. To be read and understood, consequently there is great guilt in treating them with indifference and neglect.
2. To interpret honestly. They are the oracles of God; and it is a sin of no ordinary magnitude to pervert their meaning.
3. To make them known to others. It is a great sin to restrain the Scriptures.
III. Their advantage.
1. Instruction.
2. Direction.
3. Salvation. (Richard Watson.)
The oracles of God
I. The oracles of God.
1. The meaning of the term.
(1) Among heathen the word was first used to denote the answers supposed to be given by their gods, and was afterwards applied to the shrines where such answers were given. Whether these answers were forged by the priests, or were the results of diabolical agency, it is not necessary to inquire. Suffice it that though proverbially obscure, they are regarded with veneration and confidence. No enterprise of importance was undertaken without consulting them; splendid embassies, with magnificent presents, were sent from far distant states, with a view to obtain a propitious answer; and contending nations often submitted to them the decision of their respective claims. With these facts the Gentile converts were acquainted; in these opinions they had participated. The word, therefore, could scarcely fail to excite in them some of the ideas and emotions with which it had been so long and intimately associated. No title, then, could be better adapted to inspire them with veneration for the Scriptures.
(2) Nor would it appear less sacred, or important to the Jew, associated as it was with the Urim and Thummim, and with those responses which Jehovah gave from the inner sanctuary. In our version this place is frequently styled The Oracle; and the answers which God there gave to the inquiries of His worshippers were full, explicit, and definite; forming a perfect contrast to the oracles of paganism. By employing this language, he did in effect say to the Gentile converts, All that you once supposed the oracles of your countrymen to be, the Scriptures really are. With at least equal force did his language say to the Jews, The Scriptures are no less the Word of God than were the answers which He formerly gave to your fathers from the mercy seat.
2. This title is given to the Scriptures with perfect truth and propriety. They do not, indeed, resemble in all respects the heathen oracles. They were never designed to gratify a vain curiosity; much less to subserve the purposes of ambition or avarice, and this is, probably, one reason why many persons never consult them. But whatever a mans situation may be, this oracle, if consulted in the manner in which God has prescribed, will satisfactorily answer every question which it is proper for him to ask; for it contains all the information which our Creator sees it best that His human creatures should, at present, possess.
II. Their surpassing value.
1. In possessing the Scriptures we possess every real advantage that would result from the establishment of an oracle among us; and more. For wherever the oracle might be placed, it would unavoidably be at a distance from a large proportion of those who wished for its advice. But in the Scriptures we possess an oracle, which may be brought home to every family and every individual at all times.
2. But in consequence of having been familiar with them from our childhood, we are far from being sensible how deeply we are indebted to them. We must place ourselves in the situation of a serious inquirer after truth, who has pursued his inquiries as far as unassisted intellect can go; and that he now finds himself bewildered in a maze of conflicting theories into which the researches of men unenlightened by revelation inevitably plunge them. To such a man what would the Scripture be worth? He asks, Who made the universe? A mild, but majestic voice replies from the oracle, In the beginning, God created the heavens, and the earth. Startled, the inquirer eagerly exclaims, Who is God--what is His nature? God, replies the voice, is a spirit, wise, almighty, holy, just, merciful and gracious, long suffering, etc. The inquirers mind labours, faints, while vainly attempting to grasp the Being, now, for the first time disclosed. But a new and more powerful motive now stimulates his inquiries, and he asks, Does any relation subsist between this God and myself? He is thy Maker, Father, Preserver, Sovereign, Judge; in Him thou dost live, and move, and exist; and at death thy spirit will return to God who gave it. How, resumes the inquirer, will He then receive me? He will reward thee according to thy works. What works? Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, etc. Every transgression of this law is a sin; and the soul that sinneth shall die. Have I sinned? the inquirer tremblingly asks. All, replies the oracle, have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. A new sensation of conscious guilt now oppresses the inquirer, and with increased anxiety he asks, Is there any way in which the pardon of sin may be obtained? The blood of Jesus Christ, replies the oracle, cleanseth from all sin. He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy. But to whom shall I confess them? where find the God whom I have offended? He is a God at hand, returns the voice; I, who speak to thee, am He. God be merciful to me a sinner, exclaims the inquirer, not daring to lift his eyes towards the oracle: What, Lord, wilt Thou have me to do? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, answers the voice, and thou shalt be saved. Lord, who is Jesus Christ? that I may believe on Him? He is My Beloved Son, whom I have set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood; hear thou Him, for there is salvation in no other. Such are, probably, some of the questions which would be asked by the supposed inquirer; and such are, in substance, the answers which he would receive from the oracles of God. Who can compute the value of these answers.
III. Their inexhaustibleness. But why should those consult them who are already acquainted with the answers which they will return?
1. Has the man who asks this drawn from the Scriptures all the information which they contain? It may reasonably be doubted whether anyone would have discovered that the declaration of Jehovah, I am the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, furnishes a conclusive proof of the after existence of the human soul. And how many times might we have read the declaration, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec, before we should have suspected that it involves all those important consequences deduced from it in the Epistle to the Hebrews? And many other passages remain to reward the researches of future inquirers.
2. Many of the oracles contain an infinity of meaning which no mind can ever exhaust. What finite mind will fully comprehend all that is contained in the titles given to Jehovah and Christ, or in the words, eternity, heaven; hell? Now he who most frequently consults the oracles will penetrate most deeply into their unfathomable abyss of meaning. He may, indeed, receive the same answers to his inquiries; but these answers will convey to his mind clearer and more enlarged conceptions of the truths which they reveal. His views will resemble those of an astronomer, who is, from time to time, furnished with telescopes of greater power; or what at first seemed only an indistinct shadow, will become a vivid picture, and the picture will, at length, stand out in bold relief. The lisping child and the astronomer use the word sun to denote the same object. The child, however, means by this word, nothing more than a round, luminous body, of a few inches in diameter. But it would require a volume to contain all the conceptions of which this word stands for the sign in the mind of the astronomer.
IV. Their vitalising power. It may, perhaps, be objected that, as the Scriptures do not speak in an audible voice, their answers can never possess that life which attends the responses of a living oracle, such as was formerly established among the Jews. On the contrary, they are well termed lively or living oracles--alive and powerful. The words, says Christ, that I speak unto you, are spirit, and they are life. The living God lives in them, and employs their instrumentality in imparting life. Take away His accompanying influences, and the living oracles become a dead letter. But he who consults them aright does not find them a dead letter; he finds that the living, life-giving Spirit, by whom they were and are inspired, carries home their words to him with an energy which no tongue can express.
V. The manner in which they are to be consulted. Thousands, of course, derive no benefit, and receive no satisfactory answers, for they do not consult them, as an oracle of God ever ought to be consulted.
1. They do not consult them with becoming reverence. They peruse them with little more reverence than the works of a human author, as they would consult a dictionary or an almanac.
2. Nor is sincerity less necessary than reverence--a real desire to know our duty, with a full determination to believe and obey the answers we shall receive. If we consult the oracles of God with a view to gratify our sinful inclinations, or to justify our questionable pursuits, practices, or favourite prejudices, the oracle will be dumb. The same remark is applicable to everyone who consults the Scriptures, while he neglects known duties, or disobeys known commands. We may see these remarks exemplified in Saul. He had been guilty of known disobedience; and therefore, when he inquired of the Lord, the Lord answer him not.
3. There are others whose want of success is owing to their unbelief. As no food can nourish those who do not partake of it; as no medicines can prove salutary to those who refuse to make use of them; so no oracles can be serviceable to those by whom they are not believed with a cordial, practical, operative faith. The Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation only through faith in Christ Jesus.
4. Many persons derive no benefit from the oracles of God, because they attempt to consult them without prayer. Consulting an oracle is an act which, in its very nature, implies an acknowledgment of ignorance, and a petition for guidance, for instruction. He, then, who reads the Scriptures without prayer, does not really consult them. (E. Payson, D. D.)
The oracles of God: accessible to all
A priest observing to William Tyndale, We are better without Gods laws than the Popes, I defy the Pope and all his laws, he replied; and added, If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause the boy which driveth the plough to know more of Scripture than you do. (Quarterly Review.)
The oracles of God: accessible to all
A Roman Catholic priest in Ireland recently discovered a peasant reading the Bible, and reproved him for daring to peruse a book forbidden to the laity. The peasant proceeded to justify himself by a reference to the contents of the book, and the holy doctrines which it taught. The priest replied, that the doctrines could only be understood by the learned, and that ignorant men would wrest them to their own destruction. But, said the peasant, I am authorised, your reverence, to read the Bible; I have a search warrant. What do you mean, sir? said the priest, in anger. Why, replied the peasant, Jesus Christ says, Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me. The argument was unanswerable.
The oracles of God: how to consult
How am I to know the Word of God? By studying it with the help of the Holy Ghost. As an American bishop said, Not with the blue light of Presbyterianism, nor the red light of Methodism, nor the violet light of Episcopacy, but with the clear light of Calvary. We must study it on our knees, in a teachable spirit. If we know our Bible Satan will not have much power over us, and we will have the world under our feet. (D. L. Moody.)
The oracles of God: may be consulted with perfect confidence
If a man in the night, by the light of a lamp, is trying to make out his chart, and there is storm in the heavens and storm upon the sea, and someone knocks that lamp out of his hand, what is done? The storm is above and the storm is below, and the chart lies dark, so that he cannot find it out--that is all. If it were daylight he could see the chart well enough; but there being no light, and the lamp on which he depended for light being knocked out of his hand, he cannot avail himself of that which is before him. And the same is true concerning much of the Bible. It is an interpreter. It is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. And those truths which have their exposition in the Bible, and which are a revelation of the structure of the world and of the Divine nature and government, do not depend for their truth upon the Bible itself. They are only interpreted and made plain by it. (H. W. Beecher.)
The oracles of God: never consulted in vain
How marvellous is the adaptation of Scripture for the race for whom it was revealed! In its pages every conceivable condition of human experience is reflected as in a mirror. In its words every struggle of the heart can find appropriate and forceful expression. It is absolutely inexhaustible in its resources for the conveyance of the deepest feelings of the soul. It puts music into the speech of the tuneless one, and rounds the periods of the unlettered into an eloquence which no orator can rival. It has martial odes to brace the warriors courage, and gainful proverbs to teach the merchant wisdom; all mental moods can represent themselves in its amplitude of words. It can translate the doubt of the perplexed; it can articulate the cry of the contrite; it fills the tongue of the joyous with carols of thankful gladness; and it gives sorrow words, lest grief, that does not speak, should whisper to the heart, and bid it break. Happy we, who, in all the varieties of our religious life, have this copious manual Divinely provided to our hand. (W. M. Punshon.)
The oracles of God: suppose they should be taken away
I thought I was at home, and that, on taking up my Bible one morning, I found, to my surprise, what seemed to be the old familiar book was a total blank; not a character was inscribed in or upon it. On going into the street I found everyone complaining in similar perplexity of the same loss; and before night it became evident that a great and wonderful miracle had been wrought in the world; the Hand which had written its awful menace on the walls of Belshazzars palace had reversed the miracle, and expunged from our Bibles every syllable they contained--thus reclaiming the most precious gift Heaven had bestowed and ungrateful man had abused. I was curious to watch the effects of this calamity on the varied characters of mankind. There was, however, universally an interest in the Bible, now it was lost, such as had never attached to it while it was possessed. Some to whom the sacred book had been a blank for twenty years, and who never would have known of their loss but for the lamentations of their neighbours, were not the less vehement in their expressions of sorrow. The calamity not only stirred the feelings of men, but it immediately stimulated their ingenuity to repair their loss. It was very early suggested that the whole Bible had again and again been quoted piecemeal in one book or another; that it had impressed its image on human literature, and had been reflected on its surface as the stars on a stream. But, alas! on inspection it was found that every text, every phrase which had been quoted, whether in books of theology, poetry, or fiction, had been remorselessly obliterated. It was with trembling hand that some made the attempt to transcribe the erased texts from memory. They feared that the writing would surely fade away; but, to their unspeakable joy, they found the impression durable; and people at length came to the conclusion that God left them at liberty, if they could, to reconstruct the Bible for themselves, out of their collective remembrances of its contents. Some obscure individuals who had studied nothing else but the Bible, but who had well studied that, came to be the objects of reverence among Christians and booksellers; but he who could fill up a chasm by the restoration of words which were only partially remembered was regarded as a public benefactor. At length a great movement was projected amongst the divines of all denominations to collate the results of these partial recoveries of the sacred text. But here it was curious to see the variety of different readings of the same passages insisted on by conflicting theologians. No doubt the worthy men were generally unconscious of the influence of prejudice; yet somehow the memory was seldom so clear in relation to texts which told against as in relation to those which told for their several theories. It was curious, too, to see by what odd associations of contrast, or sometimes of resemblance, obscure texts were recovered. A miser contributed a maxim of prudence which he recollected principally from having systematically abused. All the ethical maxims were soon collected; for though, as usual, no one recollected his own peculiar duties or infirmities, everyone kindly remembered those of his neighbours. As for Solomons times for everything. few could recall the whole, but everybody remembered some. Undertakers said there was a time to mourn, and comedians said there was a time to laugh; young ladies innumerable remembered there was a time to love, and people of all kinds that there was a time to hate; everybody knew that there was a time to speak, but a worthy Quaker added that there was also a time to keep silence. But the most amusing thing of all was to see the variety of speculations which were entertained concerning the object and design of this strange event. Many gravely questioned whether it could be right to attempt the reconstruction of a book of which God Himself had so manifestly deprived the world; and some, who were secretly glad to be relieved of so troublesome a monitor, were particularly pious on this head, and exclaimed bitterly against this rash attempt to counteract the decrees of Heaven. Some even maintained that the visitation was not in judgment but in mercy; that God in compassion, and not in indignation, had taken away a book which men had regarded with an extravagant admiration and idolatry; and that, if a rebuke at all was intended, it was a rebuke to a rampant Bibliolatry. This last reason, which assigned as the cause of Gods resumption of His own gift an extravagant admiration and reverence of it on the part of mankind--it being so notorious that even the best of those who professed belief in its Divine origin and authority had so grievously neglected it--struck me as so ludicrous that I broke into a fit of laughter, which awoke me. The morning sun was streaming in at the window and shining upon the open Bible which lay on the table; and it was with joy that my eyes rested upon those words, which I read with grateful tears--The gifts of God are without repentance. (H. Rogers.)
The Bible
I. Its possession is an immense advantage to any people. What distinguishes it from all other books, and gives it transcendent worth, is that it contains the oracles of God.
1. They are infinitely valuable in themselves. They are infallible truth. The oracles of the heathen world were gross deceptions, that of Apollo at Delphi was a notorious imposture. They give--
(1) A true revelation of God to man.
(2) A true revelation of man to himself. Who can estimate the transcendent worth of such revelations?
2. They are infinitely valuable in their influence.
(1) Intellectually. They quicken reason and set the wheels of thought ageing.
(2) Socially. They unseal the fountains of social sympathy, and bless the people with philanthropic societies and institutions.
(3) Politically. They break down tyrannies, promote wholesome laws, and foster fair dealing, peace, and liberty.
(4) Spiritually. Their great work is to generate, develope, and perfect the highest spiritual life.
II. There are those who lack true faith in it. What if some did not believe? Though the Jews, as a people, had the oracles, there were multitudes amongst them who were destitute of faith. Their conduct during their pilgrimage, their whole history in Canaan, and the rejection of the true Messiah, all proved they had little or no faith in the oracles they possessed. How few, today, who possess the Bible have any true faith in the Divine oracles. To such the Bible--
1. Is of no real spiritual advantage. It can convey no real benefit to the soul, only so far as its truths are believed and realised. Unless it is believed it has no more power to help the soul, the man, than the genial sunbeam or the fertilising shower to help the tree that is rotten at its roots.
2. It ultimately becomes a curse. It heightens responsibility and augments guilt. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not known sin.
III. The lack of faith is it neither affects its reality nor lessens its importance (verse 3). Mans lack of faith will neither affect nor nullify the faithfulness of God. Facts are independent of denials or affirmations. What if some say there is no God? Their denial does not destroy the fact, He still exists. What if some say there is no hell; hell still burns on. Though all Europe denied that the earth moved, it still pursued its course circling round the sun. But though our states of mind, whether credulous or incredulous, in no way affect those facts, they vitally affect our own character and destiny. What if we do not believe? It matters nothing to the universe or to God, but it matters much, nay everything to us. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The Bible given for guidance
Here is a man going over a mountain. Night falls and he is lost. He sees a light in a cabin window. He hastens up to it. The mountaineer comes out and says, I will furnish you with a lantern. The man does not say, I dont like the handle, and I dont like the shape of this lantern; it is octangular; it ought to be round; if you cant give me a better one, I wont take any. Oh, no. He starts on with it. He wants to get home. That lantern shines on the path all the way through the mountain. Now, what is the Bible? Have we any right to say we do not like this or that in it, when God intended it for a lamp for our feet and a lantern for our path to guide us through our wilderness march, and bring us at last to our Fathers house on high? (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The use of the Bible
The Rev. E.T. Taylor, commonly known as Father Taylor, addressing a number of sailors, said, I say, shipmates, now look me full in the face. What should we say of the man aboard ship who was always talking about his compass, and never using it? What should you think of the man who, when the storm is gathering, night at hand, moon and stars shut, on a lee shore, breakers ahead, then first begins to remember his compass, and says, Oh, what a nice compass I have got on board, if before that time he has never looked at it? Where is it that you keep your compass? Do you stow it away in the hold? Do you clap it into the forepeak? By this time Jacks face, that unerring index of the soul, showed visibly that the reductio ad absurdum had begun to tell. Then came, by a natural logic, as correct as that of the school, the improvement. Now, then, brethren, listen to me. Believe not what the scoffer and the infidel say. The Bible, the Bible is the compass of life. Keep it always at hand. Steadily, steadily fix your eye on it. Study your bearing by it. Make yourself acquainted with all its points. It will serve you in calm and in storm, in the brightness of noonday, and amid the blackness of night; it will carry you over every sea, in every clime, and navigate you, at last, into the harbour of eternal rest.
The Bible a national advantage
Father Hyacinths, an eloquent and fearless priest in Paris, while recently preaching a charity sermon in Lyons, in behalf of the asylum for the poor, having asked his audience, which was composed of the principal Roman Catholic families, if they knew why Prussia triumphed on the field of battle in the war with Austria, said, It is because the nation is more enlightened, more religious, and because every Prussian soldier has the Bible in his knapsack. I will add, that what produces the power and superiority of Protestant peoples is, that they possess and read the Bible at their own firesides. I have been twice in England, and have learned that the Bible is the strength of that nation.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 21 Chapter 8
Chapter 8
JEWISH CLAIMS: NO HOPE IN HUMAN MERIT
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Rom_3:1-20
As the Apostle dictates, there rises before his mind a figure often seen by his eyes, the Rabbinic disputant. Keen, subtle, unscrupulous, at once eagerly in earnest yet ready to use any argument for victory, how often that adversary had crossed his path, in Syria, in Asia Minor, in Macedonia, in Achaia! He is present now to his consciousness, within the quiet house of Gaius; and his questions come thick and fast, following on this urgent appeal to his, alas! almost impenetrable conscience.
"What then is the advantage of the Jew? Or what is the profit of circumcision? If some did not believe, what of that? Will their faithlessness cancel Gods good faith?" "But if our unrighteousness sets off Gods righteousness, would God be unjust, bringing His wrath to bear?"
We group the questions together thus, to make it the clearer that we do enter here, at this opening of the third chapter, upon a brief controversial dialogue; perhaps the almost verbatim record of many a dialogue actually spoken. The Jew, pressed hard with moral proofs of his responsibility, must often have turned thus upon his pursuer, or rather have tried thus to escape from him in the subtleties of a false appeal to the faithfulness of God.
And first he meets the Apostles stern assertion that circumcision without spiritual reality will not save. He asks, where then is the advantage of Jewish descent? What is the profit, the good, of circumcision? It is a mode of reply not unknown in discussions on Christian ordinances; "What then is the good of belonging to a historic Church at all? What do you give the divine Sacraments to do?" The Apostle answers his questioner at once; Much, in every way; first, because they were entrusted with the Oracles of God. "First," as if there were more to say in detail. Something, at least, of what is here left unsaid is said later, Rom_9:4-5, where he recounts the long roll of Israels spiritual and historical splendours; "the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the law giving, and the worship, and the promises, and the Fathers, and the Christ." Was it nothing to be bound up with things like these, in a bond made at once of blood relationship, holy memories, and magnificent hopes? Was it nothing to be exhorted to righteousness, fidelity, and love by finding the individual life thus surrounded? But here he places "first" of even these wonderful treasures this, that Israel was "entrusted with the Oracles of God," the Utterances of God, His unique Message to man "through His prophets, in the Holy Scriptures." Yes, here was something which gave to the Jew an "advantage" without which the others would either have had no existence, or no significance. He was the trustee of Revelation. In his care was lodged the Book by which man was to live and die; through which he was to know immeasurably more about God and about himself than he could learn from all other informants put together. He, his people, his Church, were the "witness and keeper of Holy Writ." And, therefore, to be born of Israel and ritually entered into the covenant of Israel, was to be born into the light of revelation, and committed to the care of the witnesses and keepers of the light.
To insist upon this immense privilege is altogether to St. Pauls purpose here. For it is a privilege which evidently carries an awful responsibility with it. What would be the guilt of the soul, and of the Community, to whom those Oracles were-not given as property, but entrusted-and who did not do the things they said?
Again the message passes on to the Israel of the Christian Church. "What advantage hath the Christian? What profit is there of Baptism?" "Much, in every way; first, because to the Church is entrusted the light of revelation." To be born in it, to be baptised in it, is to be born into the sunshine of revelation, and laid on the heart and care of the Community which witnesses to the genuineness of its Oracles and sees to their preservation and their spread. Great is the talent. Great is the accountability.
But the Rabbinist goes on. For if some did not believe, what of that? Will their faithlessness cancel Gods good faith? These Oracles of God promise interminable glories to Israel, to Israel as a community, a body. Shall not that promise hold good for the whole mass, though some (bold euphemism for the faithless multitudes!) have rejected the Promiser? Will not the unbelieving Jew, after all, find his way to life eternal for his companys sake, for his part and lot in the covenant community? "Will Gods faith," His good faith, His plighted word, be reduced to empty sounds by the bad Israelites sin? Away with the thought, the Apostle answers. Anything is more possible than that God should lie. Nay, let God prove true, and every man prove liar; as it stands written, {Psa_51:4} "That Thou mightest be justified in Thy words, and mightest overcome when Thou impleadest." He quotes the Psalmist in that deep utterance of self-accusation, where he takes part against himself, and finds himself guilty "without one plea," and, in the loyalty of the regenerate and now awakened soul, is jealous to vindicate the justice of his condemning God. The whole Scripture contains no more impassioned, yet no more profound and deliberate, utterance of the eternal truth that God is always in the right or He would be no God at all; that it is better, and more reasonable, to doubt anything than to doubt His righteousness, whatever cloud surrounds it, and whatever lightning bursts the cloud.
But again the caviller, intent not on Gods glory, but on his own position, takes up the word. But if our unrighteousness exhibits, sets off, Gods righteousness, if our sin gives occasion to grace to abound, if our guilt lets the generosity of Gods Way of Acceptance stand out the more wonderful by contrast-what shall we say? Would God be unjust, bringing His (την) wrath to bear on us, when our pardon would illustrate His free grace? Would He be unjust? Would He not be unjust?
We struggle, in our paraphrase, to bring out the bearing, as it seems to us, of a passage of almost equal grammatical difficulty and argumentative subtlety. The Apostle seems to be "in a strait" between the wish to represent the cavillers thought, and the dread of one really irreverent word. He throws the mans last question into a form which, grammatically, expects a "no" when the drift of the thought would lead us up to a shocking "yes." And then at once he passes to his answer. "I speak as man," man-wise; as if this question of balanced rights and wrongs were one between man and man, not between man and eternal God. Such talk, even for arguments sake, is impossible for the regenerate soul except under urgent protest. Away with the thought that He would not be righteous, in His punishment of any given sin. "Since how shall God judge the world?" How, on such conditions, shall we repose on the ultimate fact that He is the universal Judge? If He could not, righteously, punish a deliberate sin because pardon, under certain conditions, illustrates His glory, then He could not punish any sin at all. But He is the Judge; He does bring wrath to bear!
Now he takes up the caviller on his own ground, and goes all lengths upon it, and then flies with abhorrence from it. For if Gods truth, in the matter of my lie, has abounded, has come more amply out, to His glory, why am I too called to judgment as a sinner? And why not say, as the slander against us goes, and as some assert that we do say, "Let us do the ill that the good may come"? So they assert of us. But their doom is just, -the doom of those who would utter such a maxim, finding shelter for a lie under the throne of God.
No doubt he speaks from a bitter and frequent experience when he takes this particular case, and with a solemn irony claims exemption for himself from the liars, sentence of death. It is plain that the charge of untruth was, for some reason or another, often thrown at St. Paul; we see this in the marked urgency with which, from time to time, he asserts his truthfulness; "The things which I say, behold, before God I lie not"; {Gal_1:20} "I speak the truth in Christ and lie not". {Rom_9:1} Perhaps the manifold sympathies of his heart gave innocent occasion sometimes for the charge. The man who could be "all things to all men," {1Co_9:22} taking with a genuine insight their point of view, and saying things which showed that he took it, would be very likely to be set down by narrower minds as untruthful. And the very boldness of his teaching might give further occasion, equally innocent; as he asserted at different times, with equal emphasis, opposite sides of truth. But these somewhat subtle excuses for false witness against this great master of holy sincerity would not be necessary where genuine malice was at work. No man is so truthful that he cannot be charged with falsehood; and no charge is so likely to injure even where it only feigns to strike. And of course the mighty paradox of Justification lent itself easily to the distortions, as well as to the contradictions, of sinners. "Let us do evil that good may come" no doubt represented the report which prejudice and bigotry would regularly carry away and spread after every discourse, and every argument, about free Forgiveness. It is so still: "If this is true, we may live as we like; if this is true, then the worst sinner makes the best saint." Things like this have been current sayings since Luther, since Whitefield, and till now. Later in the Epistle we shall see the unwilling evidence which such distortions bear to the nature of the maligned doctrine; but here the allusion is too passing to bring this out.
"Whose doom is just." What a witness is this to the inalienable truthfulness of the Gospel! This brief stern utterance absolutely repudiates all apology for means by end; all seeking of even the good of men by the way of saying the thing that is not. Deep and strong, almost from the first, has been the temptation to the Christian man to think otherwise, until we find whole systems of casuistry developed whose aim seems to be to go as near the edge of untruthfulness as possible, if not beyond it, in religion. But the New Testament sweeps the entire idea of the pious fraud away, with this short thunder peal, "Their doom is just." It will hear of no unholiness that leaves out truthfulness; no word, no deed, no habit, that even with the purest purpose belies the God of reality and veracity.
If we read aright Act_24:20-21, with Act_23:6, we see St. Paul himself once, under urgent pressure of circumstances, betrayed into an equivocation, and then, publicly and soon, expressing his regret of conscience. "I am a Pharisee, and a Pharisees son; about the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question." True, true in fact, but not the whole truth, not the unreserved account of his attitude towards the Pharisee. Therefore, a week later, he confesses, does he not? that in this one thing there was "evil in him, while he stood before the council." Happy the Christian, happy indeed the Christian public man, immersed in management and discussion, whose memory is as clear about truth telling, and whose conscience is as sensitive!
What then? are we superior? Say not so at all. Thus now he proceeds, taking the word finally from his supposed antagonist. Who are the "we," and with whom are "we" compared? The drift of the argument admits of two replies to this question. "We" may be "we Jews"; as if Paul placed himself in instinctive sympathy, by the side of the compatriot whose cavils he has just combated, and gathered up here into a final assertion all he has said before of the (at least) equal guilt of the Jew beside the Greek. Or "we" may be "we Christians," taken for the moment as men apart from Christ; it may be a repudiation of the thought that he has been speaking from a pedestal, or from a tribunal. As if he said, "Do not think that I, or my friends in Christ, would say to the world, Jewish or Gentile, that we are holier than you. No; we speak not from the bench, but from the bar. Apart from Him who is our peace and life, we are in the same condemnation. It is exactly because we are in it that we turn and say to you, Do not ye fear God?" On the whole, this latter reference seems the truer to the thought and spirit of the whole context.
For we have already charged Jews and Greeks, all of them, with being under sin; with being brought under sin, as the Greek bids us more exactly render, giving us the thought that the race has fallen from a good estate into an evil; self-involved in an awful super-incumbent ruin. As it stands written, that there is not even one man righteous; there is not a man who understands, not a man who seeks his (τὸν) God. All have left the road; they have turned worthless together. There is not a man who does what is good, there is not. even so many as one. A grave set open is their throat, exhaling the stench of polluted words; with their tongues they have deceived; asps venom is under their lips; (men) whose mouth is brimming with curse and bitterness. Swift are their feet to shed blood; ruin and misery for their victims are in their ways; and the way of peace they never knew. There is no such thing as fear of God before their eyes.
Here is a tesselation of Old Testament oracles. The fragments, hard and dark, come from divers quarries; from the Psalms, {Psa_5:9; Psa_10:7; Psa_14:1-3; Psa_36:1; Psa_140:3} from the Proverbs, {Pro_1:16} from Isaiah. {Isa_59:7} All in the first instance depict and denounce classes ofsins and sinners in Israelite society; and we may wonder at first sight how their evidence convicts all men everywhere, and in all time, of condemnable and fatal sin. But we need not only, in submission, own that somehow it must be so, for "it stands written" here; we may see, in part, now it is so. These special charges against certain sorts of human lives stand in the same Book which levels the general charge against "the human heart," {Jer_17:9} that it is "deceitful above all things, hopelessly diseased," and incapable of knowing all its own corruption. The crudest surface phenomena of sin are thus never isolated from the dire underlying epidemic of the race of man. The actual evil of men shows the potential evil of man. The tiger strokes of open wickedness show the tiger nature, which is always present, even when its possessor least suspects it. Circumstances infinitely vary, and among them those internal circumstances which we call special tastes and dispositions. But everywhere amidst them all is the human heart, made upright in its creation, self-wrecked into moral wrongness when it turned itself from God. That it is turned from Him, not to Him, appears when its direction is tested by the collision between His claim and its will And in this aversion from the Holy One, who claims the whole heart, there lies at least the potency of "all unrighteousness."
Long after this, as his glorious rest drew near, St. Paul wrote again of the human heart, to "his true son" Titus. {Tit_3:3} He reminds him of the wonder of that saving grace which he so fully unfolds in this Epistle; how, "not according to our works," the "God who loveth man" had saved Titus, and saved Paul. And what had he saved them from? From a state in which they were "disobedient, deceived, the slaves of divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another." What, the loyal and laborious Titus, the chaste, the upright, the unutterably earnest Paul? Is not the picture greatly, lamentably exaggerated, a burst of religious rhetoric? Adolphe Monod tells us that he once thought it must be so; he felt himself quite unable to submit to the awful witness. But years moved, and he saw deeper into himself, seeing deeper into the holiness of God; and the truthfulness of that passage grew upon him. Not that its difficulties all vanished, but its truthfulness shone out, "and sure I am," he said from his death bed, "that when this veil of flesh shall fall I shall recognise in that passage the truest portrait ever painted of my own natural heart."
Robert Browning, in a poem of terrible moral interest and power, confesses that, amidst a thousand doubts and difficulties, his mind was anchored to faith in Christianity by the fact of its doctrine of Sin:
"I still, to suppose it true, for my part See reasons and reasons; this, to begin; Tis the faith that launched point-blank her dart At the head of a lie; taught Original Sin, The Corruption of Mans Heart."
Now we know that whatever things the Law says, it speaks them to those in the Law, those within its range, its dominion; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may. prove guilty with regard to God. "The Law"; that is to say, here, the Old Testament Revelation. This not only contains the Mosaic and Prophetic moral code, but has it for one grand pervading object, in all its parts, to prepare man for Christ by exposing him to himself, in his shame and need. It shows him in a thousand ways that "he cannot serve the Lord," {Jos_24:19} on purpose that in that same Lord he may take refuge from both his guilt and his impotency. And this it does for "those in the Law"; that is to say here, primarily, for the Race, the Church, whom it surrounded with its light of holy fire, and whom in this passage the Apostle has in his first thoughts. Yet they, surely, are not alone upon his mind. We have seen already how "the Law" is, after all, only the more full and direct enunciation of "law"; so that the Gentile as well as the Jew has to do with the light, and with the responsibility, of a knowledge of the will of God. While the chain of stern quotations we have just handled lies heaviest on Israel, it yet binds the world. It "shuts every mouth." It drags man in guilty before God.
"That every mouth may be stopped." Oh, solemn silence, when at last it comes! The harsh or muffled voices of self-defence, of self-assertion are hushed at length. The man, like one of old, when he saw his righteous self in the light of God, "lays his hand on his mouth". {Job_11:4} He leaves speech to God, and learns at last to listen. What shall he hear? An external repudiation? An objurgation, and then a final and exterminating anathema? No, something far other, and better, and more wonderful. But there must first be silence on mans part, if it is to be heard. "Hear-and your souls shall live."
So the great argument pauses, gathered up into an utterance which at once concentrates what has gone before, and prepares us for a glorious sequel. Shut thy mouth, O man, and listen now:
Because by means of works of law there shall be justified no flesh in His presence; for by means of law comes moral knowledge of sin.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 1–4. What advantage then hath the Jew? In the…
1–4. What advantage then hath the Jew? In the second chapter Paul has shown that the Jews as well as the Gentiles are included under sin, and that the possession of the law and the rite of circumcision were of no avail unless the law was kept faithfully. In this chapter the Jew is supposed to object to this conclusion; his objections are presented, and answered. The first is, “What advantage is it then to the Jew to have the law and the rite of circumcision at all, if all, both Jew and Gentile, will be judged on the same principles in the judgment day?” The second verse gives the answer.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 9, 21 Rom_3:1. What advantage then hath the Jew?—Pre-eminence. Passage brings…
CRITICAL NOTES
Rom_3:1. What advantage then hath the Jew?—Pre-eminence. Passage brings out the idea of surplus (Wordsworth).
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Rom_3:3.—πίστιν τοῦ Θεοῦ—the faith of God—may perhaps be best explained by the assertion, God is faithful.
Rom_3:4. God forbid: yea, let God be true, etc.—More proper is it that men should impute unfaithfulness to themselves than to God. God forbid—i.e., far be it. An idiomatic exclamation. The sense in which David used the Hebrew word “tsadak,” and in which his LXX. translators used δικαιῶν and δικαιοῦσθαι, is the sense in which Paul uses them. And mightest overcome.—Mayest prevail judicially in thy cause.
Rom_3:5. If our unrighteousness commend.—Sets off to advantage, makes conspicuous. I speak more humano, in such a manner as is intelligible to men.
Rom_3:7.—The truth of God, not objectively, but subjectively. Why should I suffer punishment on account of that which contributes to the glory of God?
Rom_3:8.—Whose judgment is in harmony with right.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Rom_3:1-8
The surplus to the Jew.—The poor Jew has been persecuted, harassed, stripped, and robbed; and yet for the most part he has come forth with a respectable material advantage. The material surplus has been to the Jew. The money-lenders of the nations have been and are still the Jews. They value this surplus. In this respect they are like Christians. The latter profess to despise the former, but there is perhaps more envy than contempt in the feeling. The material surplus is valued more highly than the moral. The bond which we hold for money due is too oft more precious than the bond of God’s oracles, which tells of our indebtedness to the divine Being. Here we have:—
I. A great blessing conferred.—The blessing of being God’s chosen people, and this affirmed and declared to mankind by the seal of circumcision. The natural Israel a type of the spiritual Israel. How thankful we ought to be for God’s distinguishing favours to the Anglo-Saxon race! The most prosperous race on the face of the earth, because God-enlightened. Let us cherish our privileges. True religion our best and only safeguard. Our Victorias may be submerged; our nearly four hundred gallant men may find a watery grave. He that sails in the ark of Christianity sails in an ark that is secure in all deluges and cannot be overturned by any colliding force. The chief blessing which St. Paul alludes to is that unto the Jew were entrusted the oracles of God. Wonderful that a country which has no literary greatness should have produced the noblest literary volume of all time! No; Palestine did not produce the Old Testament. It came from “the better country—that is, the heavenly.” The oracles are not of man, but of God. The bards that sing in these oracles were not taught in the schools of Greece; they learnt the lore of heaven—they speak, but their utterances are in their moral aspect the speakings of God. These oracles are a greater treasure to the Jew than all his material wealth. What honour we render the Jew to-day arises from the fact, not that he is a great money power, but that he has been a great custodian and dispenser of immortal truth. And as we read the New Testament, let us not forget our indebtedness to the Jew. As we study our grand but very difficult epistle, we remember that St. Paul was a Jew. Let us try to realise the fact that unto us have been entrusted the oracles of God. Do we value the truth? Do we put out to usury by scattering the word of God?—for we enrich ourselves by striving to enrich others.
II. A great blessing not diminished by rejection.—What if some did not believe. The oracles of God are no less true because hypercritics point out discrepancies. The sun is no less a sun because spots are shown on its surface; the eyes are no less useful for seeing because the modern optician pronounces them very imperfect organs of vision. What if some do not believe? I devoutly thank God for my eyesight; I prefer it vastly to the aids of modern opticians. I read gladly the oracles, for I find in them a power to heal, to bless, and to guide which no other oracles afford. I sail in the ark Christ Jesus amid all deluges. The sceptics strive to upset this ark as the Victoria was upset in the Mediterranean, but they have not yet built any water-tight moral vessel.
III. This rejection is the result and proof of unrighteousness.—The rejecter of the Bible contends for his moral rectitude, and says that will not allow him to accept what is contrary to reason and to history. He may think himself right; but perhaps he does not know himself as well as he thinks he does. Our metaphysicians examine mind in general, and leave their own mental and moral natures unexplored. A moral twist may turn the intellectual powers in a wrong direction. A rivet may let a bridge fall and destroy many lives. A moral rivet loosely made and set may cause damage. We want, not more intellectual light, but less moral darkness.
IV. The unrighteousness of the rejecter sets forth the eternal rectitude.—Out of chaos comes beautiful order, out of seeming evil good, in the wonderful working of divine proceedings. The rejecters of the oracles have led to the discovery of fresh confirmations of their authenticity. The rejecters have been unwittingly builders. So the unrighteousness of man sets forth the righteousness of God. It shines forth all the more brilliantly by the contrast. The rectitude of God is not capable of swerving from the right line. Jesuitical men may say, Let us do evil that good may come. The righteous God says, Forsake evil, and thereby good will come. If at any time the proceedings of God appear to diverge from the straight line of moral rectitude, let us be sure that the fancied divergence is only in appearance. Whatever befalls let this be our noble creed, that God must be true, though this assertion makes all men liars. The rectitude of God is not disproved by strokes of vengeance. A man revenges himself because he is stirred by passion, by envy, by hatred. A God takes vengeance because it is required in the interests of a moral government. The modern God is the amicable guest who winks at the sins of the host. Paul’s God is a moral governor as well as an all-father. The rectitude of God constitutes the basis of final judgment. All must come right, for God is right. But all cannot come right to the man who is all wrong, and continues in hardness and impenitence to walk in the wrong. All will come right, and on this we calmly rest our souls. We are not troubled, for all must come right, since God is righteous. All will be well, for God is righteous. Whatever condemnation takes place in the future will be just, for a righteous God is an arbiter of all destinies. Our moralists have their ethical systems, and yet how little they know about what is wrong and what is right! God’s rectitude is the eternal standard of true ethics, and that will be vindicated in the final account. The truth of God will abound, even through human falsehoods, to His glory. The truth of God’s rectitude, and, blessed thought! the truth of God’s love and mercy, will abound to His eternal glory. Let us embrace the mercy, and the rectitude need not cause alarm, if we embrace the mercy as revealed in the crucified One.
Rom_3:1-2. The oracles of God.—Our religious privileges are not to be thought of trifling importance because they do not produce their full effect. They cannot be a substitute for personal holiness; but man’s ingratitude does not cancel his obligations, nor does the abuse of privileges destroy their value. Much, O ye Jews, as ye have abused the divine goodness, it has flowed to you in a special manner; and if you ask what advantage you have had, I reply, Much every way, because unto you were committed the oracles of God.
I. The leading characters of the oracles of God.—
1. Absolute truth and wisdom. Being from God, the question of their wisdom and truth is settled. We cannot admit that there is a Being of infinite perfection without admitting His perfect wisdom and holiness.
2. The subjects of these oracles are of infinite importance. The oracle always speaks on those questions which are vital to our peace and safety, and on those which are curious rather than useful the oracle is silent. Yet knowledge is not prohibited—only delayed: “What thou knowest not now thou shalt know hereafter.” It is sufficient for us now to know how we may be delivered from sin, and from its penalty, eternal death, and how we may daily walk so as to please Him.
3. We have an interesting character given us of the oracles when they are called “lively” oracles. It is this which constitutes the peculiarity of the word of God. It is a word with which the Spirit of God wonderfully works, and which He renders living. No other book has this peculiarity. Show me one which the wicked fear, which lays a secret dread upon the boldest, which cuts deep into the conscience, which comforts and supports, which deprives death of its sting—show me such a one, and you show me the Bible. Nothing explains this but the life which the Spirit imparts. With the oracles of God the author is present, whether you read or hear. You cannot avoid this power. It will make the word either “a savour of life unto life, or a savour of death unto death.”
4. The oracles of God not only speak, but make all His other oracles vocal. God has three other oracles—nature, general providence, and personal providence. Nature has its solemn voice: “There is not a speech nor language where their voice is not heard.” This is connected with the spread of the gospel. The voice of nature is not heard where the gospel is not. In heathen countries the heavens are turned into idols, and God is excluded from the thoughts of men. But when the living oracles come, then star and mountain and river proclaim their glorious Maker, and the voice of the oracle falls distinct upon every ear. There is the general providence of God exercised in the government of nations. All its arrangements display the wisdom, power, and truth of God. Yet it is all unknown to those destitute of the divine oracles. The personal providence of God confers upon us all our blessings, appoints us our station in life, and assigns to us our sorrows. Many lessons this providence teaches us. But till the living oracle speaks all is silence, and we derive no lessons of true wisdom from the events of life.
5. The oracles of God present a peculiar character in their form; and in this we perceive an instance of the condescension of the almighty God, who intended thus to attract and fix our attention on what to us is vitally interesting.
6. The last character is the fulness of truth conveyed in the oracles of God. Who can exhaust the doctrines of Holy Scripture—doctrines specially relating to God and Christ, and the depth of all redeeming love? The Bible will be the oracles of God to the Church above. Every part of that holy book will be written upon the memory of each glorified human heart, and be always receiving illustration to the glory of its great Author.
II. These oracles are committed or entrusted to you.—
1. They are entrusted to be read or understood;
2. To interpret honestly;
3. To make them known to others;
4. To apply to practical purposes.—R. Watson.
Rom_3:4. “Let God be true.”—But cannot God be true and man be true also? Does the veracity of the one infer the falsehood of the other? Not absolutely, but in particular instances. There may be, and there often is, an opposition between their testimony; and when this is the case we are not to hesitate a moment by whose claims we shall be decided. If the whole world were on one side and He on the other, let God be true, but every man a liar. And, comparatively, the credibility of the one must always be nothing to that of the other. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. And this will appear undeniable from four admissions:—
I. The first regards the ignorance of man and the wisdom of God.—Man is fallible. He not only may err, but he is likely to err. He may be deceived by outward appearances, by the reports of others, by his own reasonings; for his powers are limited. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. How much of it is mere opinion and conjecture! With what follies have the greatest minds been charged! But God knows all things, and cannot be mistaken.
II. The second regards the mutability of man and the unchangeableness of God.—Creatures, from their very being, are mutable. Many of the angels kept not their first estate. Adam fell from his original condition. Who needs to be told that man never continues in one stay? New views engender new feelings, and these new pursuits. What pleases to-day may offend to-morrow. But God changes not. What He thinks now He always thought, for with Him there is “no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
III. The third regards the weakness of man and the all-sufficiency of God.—Man may threaten in fury, but be unable to execute—he may promise sincerely, but cannot fulfil. In this respect he is not always to be judged of by his conduct. But God is almighty. He who made and upholds all things by the word of His power speaks everything in the Scriptures.
IV. The fourth regards the depravity of man and the rectitude of God.—Man goes astray. He often knowingly deceives. Even men who are influenced by religious principles may be overcome of evil, and occasion our saying, “Lord, what is man?” How far from truth was the sentiment of Jonah: “I do well to be angry, even unto death”! How lamentable was the falsehood of Abraham! How dreadful was the perjury of Peter! But God is holiness itself. He is incapable of a wrong bias—He cannot be tempted to deceive. The use to which this fact should be applied is to reduce our confidence in man and increase our confidence in God. And yet the reverse of this is our practice. We yield where we should be cautious, and we hesitate where it is impossible for us to err. We turn from the Rock of Ages, and lean on the broken reed. What is the consequence? “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.” Let us cease, then, from man. Not that we are to become universally suspicious and suppose that there is no sincerity in the world. It was David’s error to say in his haste, “All men are liars.” And when the Scripture says, “There is no faithfulness in them; men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie,” it must be taken with a qualification. Yet instances of inflexible integrity are not abundant. And we should not implicitly rely upon any one, especially in divine things. Let us respect great and good men, but not be enslaved by them; let us suffer no man to have dominion over our conscience, always searching the Scriptures to see whether these things are so in the word of truth; for God is entitled to our absolute confidence. “God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?” Let us trust Him as He deserves. Let us always place a ready and an unshaken reliance on His word. “Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar.”—W. Jay.
Rom_3:5. God’s justice not to be ignored.—Sinful men, in their eagerness to exculpate themselves, are given to think and say such a horrid thing as this: If a sinner’s sin cause God’s justice and truth to shine forth more clearly, God has no right to punish the man for that very action by which God Himself, so to speak, has profited. If the Eternal reap good out of my evil, then I deserve no longer blame, at His hands at all events, but rather thanks. This is the perverted logic of evil which is expressed twice over in these words of our text: If our unrighteousness commend (or, set forth in greater clearness) God’s righteousness, what shall we say? That God in inflicting vengeance upon us does an unjust thing? For example: If through a lie of mine the truth of God is made to appear more admirable, to His greater glory, why am I to be still judged as a sinner for it? Every pious heart must sympathise with the indignant rejection by the apostle of so hateful an inference as this. But the arguments by which he rebuts it are very instructive. They are two: neither of them speculative, nor professing to explain the deep mysteries of this tremendous subject—I mean of the relation of God to that sin which He permits and punishes; but both of them simply exposing the practical results which would follow from such a position. It would prove fatal, he argues, both to religion and to morality. In the first place, if God could not justly punish any sin which He is able to overrule for good, then there could be no judgment of the world at all. Obviously it would always be open to a transgressor to plead in bar of judgment that God’s justice was to be somehow made more conspicuous by that very sin; and if this made it unjust in God to punish, how is God to judge the world? Now the final judgment of God is of all religious truths the most fundamental and the most certain. Any doctrine accordingly which should thus paralyse the hand of the final Judge of men or drive Him from His judgment seat is by that very fact shown to be absurd and incredible. Secondly, this blasphemous inference is as fatal to morals as it is to faith. It cuts through the distinction betwixt good and evil. If an act is no longer to be called bad or to be punished out of which some good comes, then you may do any evil you like for the sake of a good result. Of course this is on the face of it to confound moral right and wrong, and by withdrawing all practical restraint on immorality to open a perfect flood-gate of evil. Any doctrine which sanctions such a conclusion is by that very fact, not absurd only, but atrocious. Yet this immoral maxim had actually been imputed to St. Paul by certain of his contemporaries. As he comes in sight of it he cannot restrain his impatient indignation at such a calumny, but breaks through the construction of his sentence to tell us that some actually charged him with teaching and (what was even worse) with practising the vile principle, Let us do evil that good may come. Who they were that said so, or what pretext for saying it they found in his teaching, we can only guess. But there is no question that the evangelical doctrine of a sinner’s gratuitous justification on the ground of Christ’s righteousness (which St. Paul is here preparing to prove) has often been assailed on this very charge—that it not only confers immunity upon sinners, but actually holds out to a man an inducement to continue in sin that thereby grace may abound at last to the greater glory of God. Such a charge rests indeed upon a misconception of the gospel, as appears further on in this epistle (Rom_6:1 ff.). It is flatly oppugnant to that consuming zeal for righteousness which blazes through every portion of this epistle, and especially through the section we have been examining. Whatever Paul taught, every reader feels that he was not a man to teach anything to weaken in the slightest the paramount claims of virtue, or the guilt and hatefulness of sin, or the majesty of God’s judgment, or the wholesome dread of men for a reckoning to come. On the contrary, his whole argument rests on a basis of natural justice. It assumes that God’s final judgment according to human actions is the surest of all things; that it must be impartial; that no religious privilege can lessen responsibility, but must increase it; that you cannot sophisticate sin into anything else than sin; and that God is always just in punishing every soul of man that doeth evil. You feel, therefore, that Paul is speaking out of the very heart of his faith, as well as out of the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, when he flings back with all his strength this hateful calumny, protests against the gospel, any more than the Hebrew law, being made a minister to sin, and declares that every man who ventures to do evil that good may come shall meet with a condemnation which shall be just. On the whole, then, the lesson of this section is to warn us against the insidious temptation, so near to the human heart, to break down the edge of God’s justice against sin, in the hope that somehow He will prove as placable in the last judgment as He is kind and patient now, or to fancy that, because He makes His own use of sin, He will not avenge it on the sinner very strictly—especially in the case of people who belong to the true religion. All this is most perilous. We who live in Christendom are the privileged class nowadays, as Jews were once. Our superiority over the heathen is enormous “in every way”; but it confers on us no immunity to sin. It makes our evil deeds not less evil, but more so, that we do them under cover of the Christian name. In our own righteousness, therefore, we dare as little meet God at last with any hope to escape His wrath as an unbaptised infidel dare. Practically we are shut up under sin—guilty before God, with no apology to plead in bar of judgment. Hope—if we have any hope—lies neither in our knowledge of the Bible, nor in our membership in the Church, nor in any fact about ourselves at all, but only in the grace of God through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Gratuitous justification through the righteousness of our Surety—to that we are shut up by the apostle’s logic. May God shut us all up to it by what is better than logic, the constraint of His convicting and regenerating Spirit!—Oswald Dykes, D.D.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Rom_3:1-8
Importance of the third chapter of this epistle.—The third chapter of the Epistle to the Romans has, from a very early period of the Christian era, been a special study to Paul’s students. It has been regarded—and with great justice—as of very peculiar significance in relation to some of the most important doctrines of theology. As regards more particularly the vital doctrine of justification by faith, it is perhaps the principal locus classicus that is to be found in the Bible. At that part of the chapter in which we find the culminating point of the apostle’s exhibition of this great and favourite theme, Luther, in a marginal note attached to his German translation, arrests the attention of the reader, saying, “Take heed to what is here said. It is the central and most important passage of the epistle, and indeed of the entire Scripture.” Calvin coincided with Luther in opinion. “There is probably,” he remarks, “no passage in the whole Bible of greater significance as regards the justifying righteousness of God.” Corresponding opinions are expressed by multitudes of other theologians and critics whose judgments are entitled to consideration. It is hence the case that, if there be, in an exposition of the third chapter of the Epistle to the Romans anything approximating to a thorough investigation of the broader aspects as well as of the minuter elements of the apostle’s teaching, there will be the realisation of theological results of no inconsiderable magnitude and moment. The mind will most probably acquire a very definite conception of that “article of a standing or a falling Church,” justification by faith without works. Such other articles, too, as are inseparably connected with that doctrine—the articles which refer to man’s need of a gratuitous method of justification, and to God’s provision of propitiation as the ground or “meritorious cause” of gracious justification, will probably be apprehended, and to a certain extent even comprehended. In this third chapter of Romans the apostle portrays in a most elaborate manner man’s need of gratuitous justification. He likewise exhibits in some most weighty and far-reaching observations the necessity of propitiation, and its relation to justification. He says something, too, of very great significance regarding redemption and the pretermission, as well as the remission, of sins.—Morrison.
Paul confutes gainsayers.—To understand the full scope and design of this passage, we are to observe that of all the apostles of the Lord St. Paul asserts everywhere in the most copious manner the extensive mercy and compassion of God in entering into a covenant of grace with sinners, and fulfilling faithfully the promises of the gospel, notwithstanding the wickedness and infidelity of mankind, who were corrupted at the heart, and in their daily practice betrayed their impiety and want of faith; and yet so far was the sinner from vacating the evangelical promises, and making them of none effect, that his very sins contributed to God’s glory, and made His truth and grace still more illustrious; “for where sin abounded grace did much more abound.” From this doctrine of the apostle, not only the sophisters and impostors took occasion to defame and undermine the authority of St. Paul, but the hypocrites and libertines of the age made use of it to countenance and give them a security in their vices. And no wonder; for if the preaching of the apostle were true, that the sins of men redounded to the glory of God, the divine justice could not reasonably exert itself in the punishment of sinners; there could be no encouragement for virtue or religion—nay, men were obliged to sin more abundantly, that God might receive the more abundant glory; and it would be their duty on all occasions to do evil that good might come. Other aspersions that were thrown upon the apostle by his enemies he confutes by proper arguments. But this he thought unworthy of an answer; the only expostulates with indignation, and resents it as the vilest slander and as a degree of blasphemy.—Bishop Sanderson.
God educes good from evil.—David does not excuse his sin on the ground that in its pardon God’s mercy will be glorified, although he says that this will be the result; but he grieves over his sins, and declares that God will judge the world, and that the wicked shall be punished. God may and does exercise His wisdom and power and love in educing the greatest good from the worst evil; but this is the effect of His own incommunicable attributes, and not of man’s sins, which are not ordinabilia ad bonam finem. God never does evil in order to elicit good from it, nor does He permit any man to do evil in order that good may come. The intention with which a thing is done is indeed of very great importance; but whatever is sinful is not to be done on the plea of good intention.—St. Augustine.
God not an infinite Jesuit.—In some of the more dogmatic commentaries, as in Willet’s, for example, and in that of Pareus, the theological bearing of the jesuitical principle condemned by the apostle is discussed. Willet asks “whether God do not evil that good may come thereof in reprobating—viz., unconditionally—the vessels of wrath, to show His power.” Such is his question. It is pertinent. But he certainly fails to clear, in the light of his peculiar theology, the character of God. He says that the action referred to is not evil:
1. “Because it is God’s will, which is always just and holy.”
2. Because “that which tendeth to God’s glory cannot be evil.”
3. Because “that which is lawfully done cannot be evil.” “God,” he adds, “in rejecting some doth that which He may do by lawful right to dispose of His own as it pleaseth Him, as no man can reprove the potter in making some vessels of honour, some of dishonour, of the same piece of clay.”
4. “But,” continues he, “seeing in the end God’s rejecting and reprobating some—viz., such as by their sins deserved eternal death—appeareth to be most just, it must needs also be good; for that which is just is good.” In the last of these reasons the critic reverses his own theory of unconditional reprobation; and in the former three he only echoingly reiterates the idea that the jesuitical principle may be to God, though not to man, a legitimate and right glorious rule of conduct. Pareus, a short time before Willet, had trodden exactly the same round of apologetic thought; and thus, so far as we can judge, Feurborn is correct when he contends that the great theologian of Heidelberg has violated the apostle’s axiom. His whole reasoning seems simply to amount to this—that God is an infinite Jesuit.—Morrison.
All things will manifest God’s glory.—If the objections were well founded, it would entirely divest God of the character of judge of the world. The reason of this is manifest, for there is no sin that any man can commit which does not exalt some perfection of God in the way of contrast. If, then, it be concluded that because unrighteousness in man illustrates the righteousness of God, God is unrighteous when He taketh vengeance, it must be further said that there is no sin that God can justly punish; whence it follows that God cannot any longer be the judge of the world. The objection, then, is such that, were it admitted, all the religion in the world would at once be annihilated. For the sin of the world, for which men will be punished, will no doubt be made to manifest God’s glory. Such is the force of the apostle’s reply.—Haldane.
For the holiness of the divinity has blazed forth, as it were, into brighter conspicuousness on the dark ground of human guilt and human turpitude.—Chalmers.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv1–23 1. “Then what is the advantage of the Jew,…
1. “Then what is the advantage of the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?” This question is very pertinently asked in view of the preceding deliverances, confirmatory of the non-essentiality of carnal ordinances, church rites, and visible membership to salvation, which is purely and unequivocally the work of God alone wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit responsive to the free will of every soul who receives Him.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Rom 3:1-2
Rom 3:1-2
Preciousness of the Bible.
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I. Think of the wonderful providence which has watched over the Bible from the beginning. There is no miracle comparable to that which has preserved to us the Scriptures amid all the convulsions of society, after so many centuries of persecution, neglect, superstition, and ignorance—that we should still possess the writings of Moses in their freshness, what a miracle of providence is that!
II. The Old Testament presupposes the New. Neither would be intelligible without the other. And both alike have the same mysterious texture—call it typical, mystical, spiritual, or what you will—whereby the common events of men’s lives and the ordinary course of human history are found to be expressive of heavenly truths—to be instinct with divinest teaching woven into the very midst of the sacred narrative; from the Alpha to the Omega of it are found the mysteries of redemption, the secret purposes and practices of God. And why is all this but because God Himself is in it, because His Spirit hath inspired it in every part? The Scripture is the very shrine of the Eternal—the Holy of Holies, in which the Shekinah of Glory dwelleth, and where God’s voice is heard speaking to man. It is called the Word of God, less because it is His utterance than because it is Divine as well as human—shares the nature of Him whose name in heaven is even now the Word of God. And need I dwell on the grand mystery of all, the awful circumstance that the gospel not only discourses to us of the Eternal Son come in the flesh, but actually exhibits Him to us? In what relation, then, to the ancient oracles of God is our Saviour Christ found to stand as the constant witness to their infallible truth, their paramount value, their Divine origin? They are for ever on His lips. What wonder if, in reply to the question as to what was the Jews’ advantage, the Apostle answered, "Much every way," chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
J. W. Burgon, Ninety-one Short Sermons, No. 3.
References: Rom 3:1, Rom 3:2.—G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines, p. 203; R. W. Church, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxviii., p. 113; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. x., p. 193. Rom 3:4.—H. W. Beecher, Sermons, 3rd series, p. 168. Rom 3:6.—B. Jowett, Church Sermons, vol. ii., p. 273; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines, p. 312. Rom 3:9.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 93.
Rom 3:9-20
Every Mouth Stopped.
I. Perhaps some readers are aware of a feeling of disappointment at reaching this result. Not that they doubt the native depravity of mankind, or the certainty that all men, left to themselves, will go very far astray from righteousness. But it may be said, ail men were not left to themselves. God interposed with a holy and awful law. He took one race under His own moral education. He taught them carefully the way of duty, and did what was possible to fence them in it and cut off all temptation to wander out of it. Surely the average moral standard was greatly raised within that sheltered Hebrew commonwealth, and many individual Hebrews succeeded in leading very virtuous and devout lives "in all the ordinances of the law blameless"! Does it not sound hard to say that not one of them was good enough to justify his life in the sight of God? Is this not like confessing that the whole Mosaic system of religious training and moral legislation was a failure.
II. To put us in a right attitude for judging of this whole matter, it is of the first consequence to see what the purpose of God was in giving His law at all. You cannot judge whether the Mosaic law was a failure or not until you know what it was intended to accomplish. Now, the express teaching of St. Paul is that God did not expect the Jews to attain such a righteousness as would justify them at the last by their own attempts to keep the Mosaic law. A law is not intended to give life: it is only intended to regulate life. The law was not meant to lead to righteousness, because it could not give spiritual life. The law was meant to fill a far humbler office: it brought us a better knowledge of our sin. Each addition to revealed law widens men’s knowledge of what is sinful, and pushes forward the frontier of the forbidden a little nearer to that ideal line which God’s own nature prescribes: "Through the law cometh the knowledge of sin."
J. Oswald Dykes, The Gospel according to St. Paul, p. 66.
Reference: Rom 3:10.—J. H. Thom, Laws of Life, p. 1.
Rom 3:20
I. That wrath of God against sin, to which conscience testifies, is itself merely His love, the opposition of His love to that which exalts itself against it. The fire of His love lights and cheers and warms all that abides in His love; but is a consuming fire against all that is out of and contrary to His love. And he who knows not God’s wrath against sin knows not God’s love. He who regards not Christ as the Judge and Avenger does not thoroughly know Him as the Saviour. Man will never be won back to God—rather, man will never be brought up to that highest perfection in which even his fall is an element, without a revelation from God which is not liable, as conscience is, to be corrupted by our tendency to sin. And how shall such a revelation be given—such an incorruptible revelation? We must have it, or we drop lower and lower into perdition the longer the world lasts. God made to man what has scoffingly been called a "book-revelation," a written record of His will and His acts which might not drift away with the vain imaginations and insecure traditions of men, but might remain, guarded by His providence, through the ages of the world. By the commandments and the other moral parts of the law a fixed and unalterable testimony was borne against sin.
II. But whereunto served this law? It could give us no strength, could implant no new principle in our nature, could effect for us no reconciliation with God. The more definite and precise the law was the more effective would it be for this one end, and this only—to multiply transgressions; that by it might be brought out into light the utter incapacity of man to please God or to rescue himself from the awful consequences of sin. The sense of sin is the first step towards recovery. Sad as it is, low as it sometimes sinks a man in loss of hope, it is the first probing of the wound by the Great Physician of the soul. "When the Spirit is come," says our Lord, "He shall convict the world of sin."
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. iv., p. 84.
References: Rom 3:21.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 253. Rom 3:21-24.—W. M. Metcalfe, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 321.
Rom 3:21-26
Paul’s Evangel.
The history of God’s relations with human sin breaks into two—before Christ, and after Christ. The death of Christ, which marks the point of division, is at the same time the key to explain both.
I. Antecedently to the death of Christ the sins of men were passed over in the forbearance of God. By offering His Son for the expiation of sin, God has cut off from men the temptation to misconstrue His earlier toleration of sins, His forbearance to punish them, or His willingness to forgive them. Then, in the antecedent ages, He did pretermit sin in His forbearance; but it was only because He had purposed in His heart one day to offer for it a satisfaction such as this.
II. The same public satisfaction for sin, made by God in the face of the world, which is adequate to explain His former indulgence to past sin, is adequate to justify Him in forgiving sin now. (1) The propitiation instituted by God in His Son’s sacrificial death having been made amply adequate to vindicate Divine justice, without any further exaction of penalty from sinners, Christ’s death becomes our redemption. (2) Let God justify whom He will on the ground of this redemption by the expiating blood of His Son, such a justifying of the guilty must be entirely a gratuitous act on His part, undeserved, unbought by themselves, a boon of pure and sovereign grace. (3) A way of being justified which is entirely gratuitous, hanging not on man’s desert but on God’s grace, must be impartial and catholic. It is offered on such easy terms, because on no harder terms could helpless and condemned men receive it. Only it lies in the very nature of the case that whosoever refuses to repose his hope of acceptance with God upon the revealed basis of Christ’s atonement, shuts himself out and never can be justified at all, since even God Himself knows or can compass no other method for acquitting a guilty man.
J. Oswald Dykes, The Gospel according to St. Paul, p. 77.
References: Rom 3:21-26.—E. H. Gifford, The Glory of God in Man, p. 30; Homiletic Magazine, vol. vii., p. 15.
Rom 3:22
Paul here, in his grand way, triumphs and rises above all these small differences between man and man, more pure or less pure, Jew or Gentile, wise or foolish, and avers that in regard of the deepest and most important things "there is no difference." And so his gospel is a gospel for the world, because it deals with all men on the same level.
I. There is no difference between men in the fact of sin. The gospel does not assert that there is no difference in the degrees of sin. At the same time, do not let us forget that if you take the two extremes, and suppose it possible that there is a best man in all the world and a worst man in all the world, the difference between these two is not perhaps so great as at first sight it looks. For we have to remember that motives make actions, and that you cannot judge of these by considering those, that "as a man thinketh in his heart," and not as a man does with his hands, so is he. "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."
II. There is no difference in the fact of God’s love to us. God does not love men because of what they are, therefore He does not cease to love them because of what they are. His love to the sons of men is not drawn out by their goodness, their morality, their obedience; but it wells up from the depths of His own heart. A man can as soon pass out of the atmosphere in which he breathes as he can pass out of the love of God. "there is no difference" in the fact that all men, unthankful and evil as they are, are grasped and held in the love of God.
III. There is no difference in the purpose and power of Christ’s Cross for us all. "He died for all." The area over which the purpose and power of Christ’s death extends is precisely conterminous with the area over which the power of sin extends. The power of Christ’s sacrifice makes possible the forgiveness of all the sins of all the world, past, present, and to come. The worth of that sacrifice, which was made by the willing surrender of the Incarnate Son of God to the death of the Cross, is sufficient for the ransom price for all the sins of all men.
IV. There is no difference in the way which we must take for salvation. The only thing that unites men to Jesus Christ is faith. You must trust Him, you must trust the power of His sacrifice, you must trust the might of His living love. Let there be no difference in our faith, or there will be a difference, deep as the difference between them that believe and them that believe not, which will darken and widen into the difference between them that are saved and them that perish.
A. Maclaren, Christian Commonwealth, May 21st, 1885.
References: Rom 3:22.—E. H. Gifford, The Glory of God, p. 1; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines, p. 373. Rom 3:22-26.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 83. Rom 3:23.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 98; J. Natt, Posthumous Sermons, p. 63; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines, p. 23; Church of England Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 229; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iv., p. 84; Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 184; vol. xxxi., p. 147. Rom 3:23.—J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 9th series, p. 160. Rom 3:24.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii., No. 126. Rom 3:24, Rom 3:25.—Ibid., vol. vii., No. 373. Rom 3:24-28.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 282. Rom 3:26.—Ibid., vol. i., p. 165; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v., No. 255; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 269. Rom 3:27.—Ibid., Sermons, vol. viii., No. 429.
Rom 3:28
I. What was the point which lay at the root of St. Paul’s whole argument? It was this: whether obedience to the ordinances of the Jewish law could be deemed necessary to salvation, whether it should be required of Gentile converts, whether there were anything in it which was to be held in conjunction with faith in Christ, or whether it were all done away by Christ, and declared by His Cross and Passion to be incapable of making a sinner righteous before God. This question has now for us faded in the dimness of distance; rejoicing as we do in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, we can perhaps hardly understand that such a question should be argued, much less that it should form the grand point of discussion in any age of the Church. Yet so it was in apostolic times. A very little consideration shows us why it was so, and why it was necessary for the due establishment of the Church that the question should be set at rest at once and for ever. To do this was one of the great tasks entrusted to St. Paul; himself a Jew, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law a Pharisee, he nevertheless, by the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit, saw with a keenness of view, which seems to have been vouchsafed to no other apostle, the error and danger of allowing any word of the law, be it what it might, to be regarded as in any way co-operating with the Lord Jesus Christ for the justification of man. It is in connection with such a view of the subject that St. Paul uses the words of the text.
II. Doubtless we must all strive with our hearts and souls to keep God’s law; but the real question is, in what light we are to regard all works of righteousness, all obedience to God’s law, all efforts to do good, all submission of our will to His, with reference to the pardon of our sins and our entrance into eternal life? And the answer is, that we do wrong if we allow ourselves to consider for a moment how much obedience, how much doing of good, how complete an abnegation of self, will entitle us to God’s favour. No amount will do this. It is only when a man realises his position as redeemed freely by the blood of Jesus Christ, as adopted into God’s family for no merit of his own, that he can serve God with perfect freedom, and consider all that he can do as nothing in comparison with what has been done by God’s grace for him, and return love for love, and cry out in the spirit of adoption, "Abba, Father."
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 5th series, p. 320.
References: Rom 3:28.—G. Salmon, Sermons in Trinity College, Dublin, pp. 206, 224; S. Leathes, Preacher’s Lantern, vol. iv., p. 415; S. Martin, Sermons, p. 57.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v21 Section 1. (Rom 3:21-31.)
Section 1. (Rom 3:21-31.)
A propitiation, for grace in righteousness towards an.
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The righteousness of God we have seen to be the power for salvation in the gospel. It is just that of which the convicted sinner is most afraid. He can believe that God is good; he can believe in His love to man; but that is not here the question. While careless himself, he could believe or hope that God would be found equally careless as to sin; but now the question of righteousness cannot so easily be settled; and God must be righteous in all He does. It is indeed the wonder of divine grace that it should reign through righteousness -that righteousness itself should provide and secure blessing for the lost and hopeless. And this is what we are now called to consider, -a righteousness which not only makes possible the security of all who flee for refuge to it, but absolutely ensures it. The procuring cause of this is a propitiation which displays fully God’s righteousness as to sin, so that there can be no more question of it when He receives the sinner, but the opposite: "He is faithful and just to forgive him his sins" (1Jn 1:9).
1. Law then is confessedly unable to produce any righteousness on man’s part which can be accepted of God, or enable him to stand before God. It has done its work in convicting of sin; and that in such sort that it is proved that man’s way of works can never avail for him: he can bring nothing that is not soiled by the hands that bring it. Thus his mouth is stopped: he cannot perform, nor therefore promise; he is helpless and hopeless; the account as to man is closed; he is simply in the hands of God, to do with him as He will.
If there is to be gospel, therefore, that is, "good news" for man, "apart from law" it must be. The law may witness to it, as it did, in its many types and shadows, in sacrifices which, as of bulls and goats, could never take away sin, but which thus by their own inefficacy pointed away from themselves to what they represented. The prophets amplified and made clearer these types of the law; and the hope of a Saviour to come grew through the ages of suspense.
But the time of expectation merely is over: "righteousness of God is now manifest through faith of Jesus Christ towards all, and over all them that believe." In the salvation of Israel yet to come, the Lord speaks through Isaiah of His righteousness as to be revealed (Isa 41:10; Isa 46:13; Isa 51:5-6; Isa 51:8; Isa 56:1). For a Jew, therefore, these thoughts could not be strange to bring together; and we must not fail to connect with such passages those which declared their righteousness to be of the Lord (Isa 45:24; Isa 54:17). These are not at all equivalent things, though they are things that would fit well together, to enable truly convicted souls to think peacefully of a day when God would act in righteousness and for the salvation of His people. But the salvation of Israel in the day to come is nevertheless very different from the gospel salvation with which we have here to do. Righteousness will be then displayed in judgment upon the foes of His earthly people; in the salvation here, though it act in judgment, yet only contrast is seen in this "strange work" indeed to which the Cross is witness. Here is a judgment upon sin which is the salvation of sinners! The apostle has already spoken of righteousness of God revealed in good news to man; here also, as there, it is through faith or upon that principle, that such a thing can be. It is thus towards all men, and therefore where faith is found, it is over all such as have it: that is, it becomes for such like the roof that shelters from the storm, or like the shield that turns off every arrow of the enemy.
That this is the true force of the statement will be clear, I think, if we take into consideration what it is connected with, as the apostle goes on to explain himself in what immediately follows. "Being justified," he says, "freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Thus it is of justification that he is speaking, as plainly through all this part of Romans. This justification is by blood, or what is equivalent, "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;" and here is that in which God’s righteousness in justifying is declared. But justification is acquittal: it is from sin -from any charge of it -and it is divine righteousness that acts in justifying, righteousness is just that attribute of God which is concerned in it: thus it is like a broad, effectual shield stretched over the believer, and for all like a house that with its open door invites men to take shelter from the coming storm of judgment.
We must not make any confusion between this and the righteousness which is ours in Christ. The righteousness of God is not the robe that is put upon us, nor is that the theme in this first division of the epistle. In its nature also, the righteousness of God cannot be imputed to us; righteousness is imputed, as the apostle afterwards says, but that is another thing. "Over," therefore, rather than "upon," seems the proper rendering in this passage, which also seems preferable because it better implies the activity of God’s righteousness in justification. It is this that is directly and specifically concerned in a question of this nature. We hear it often put as if God’s being just and justifying meant His being just, though justifying; but that comes short of its proper force. For, as already said, in acquitting it is righteousness alone that has the case in hand. In forgiving love may act; but in justifying, righteousness. And this is what makes the question of such intense importance for the convicted soul, and sets it so perfectly at rest when the divine sentence is pronounced.
As to men in general, there is one need, and one gospel: "All have sinned," says the apostle; and then he brings forward once more the verdict of the law, which Israel so well knew: "all come short of the glory of God." That was what the veil hanging ever before the holiest, where God in very mercy to man must hide His glory from those who could not stand before Him, proved for those very people among whom He was pleased to dwell. Love came as near as it could come, and be love. And even to Moses, the mediator of the covenant, it had been said, "Thou canst not see My Face." Such was man at his best under the measurement of law, which, chosen by man in his self-confidence, darkened the glorious Face that longed to shine upon him. But now, when the full object of law has been attained, and its tale of man has been told out, the grace to which after all the law was meant to minister is free to show itself; condemned by law, we are "justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Redemption, a "ransoming from," owns and meets the requirements of righteousness, delivering us from the condition of convicted men. The price is not yet stated, but being accepted and paid, righteousness has no further demands upon us, but is henceforth on our side: it now demands our discharge from every accusation, and in Christ Jesus is this redemption found.
Notice that it is already the risen Christ who is before us, as the order of the names distinctly indicates. Jesus was, as we know, the name given to Him at His birth, and is therefore His personal name as man; while Christ is His name of office upon which, His work of atonement being accomplished, He has now fully entered. Thus the precedence of either shows which is the predominant thought, whether Person or office. We are never said to be in Jesus, or in Jesus Christ; always in Christ, or in Christ Jesus. Here redemption is found for us in the Christ, who is Jesus, -in Him who has accomplished His work, and is in possession of the fruits of it.
Him has God set forth a propitiatory, through faith, by His blood; this, as the Revised Version has it, is no doubt preferable to the common one, which reads, "through faith in His blood." The word "propitiatory" is that used in the Septuagint for the "mercy-seat," as it is also in the epistle to the Hebrews (9: 5), the only place in which it is found again in the New Testament. The mercy seat was the place in Israel in which atonement, or propitiation was "set forth" as the formal basis upon which God dwelt in relation with a sinful people. It was the throne of God, where He dwelt between the cherubim, and was made a "mercy-seat" by the blood sprinkled upon it. Thus "a propitiatory by His blood" is right; faith being that by which it is available to us, who now have such a throne of grace, the antitype of that ancient one, really accessible, as for Israel that ancient one was not. We have boldness to enter into the holy places, (where the mercy-seat stood), and Christ gone in to God is He through whom "grace reigns through righteousness." The rent veil is here implied as the characteristic of Christianity, though the theme in Romans is not worship, as in Hebrews, but that acceptance with God which is fundamental to it. The gospel of the glory (Paul’s gospel) is thus in fact here.
The typical blood upon the mercy-seat had to be renewed year by year; for the past year it manifested God’s righteousness in having gone on with the people as He had done; while it displayed for the future the basis upon which He could still go on. This aspect of the day of atonement is surely that to which the apostle now refers, though the survey now is as much more extensive as the blood of this one offering goes beyond all merely anticipatory ones. The propitiatory now set forth declares God’s righteousness "in regard to the passing by of sins done aforetime, through the forbearance of God;" as well as His righteousness in the present time, "that He may be just, and justifying him who is of the faith of Jesus." That is, faith which has Jesus as its object.
The Cross stands thus among the ages with its light shining over the generations past, and more brightly in the present time. It is strange that the apostle’s words should have been taken, with the help of the misleading "I say," preserved in the Revised Version, to define the gospel justification as simply from past sins, leaving the future unassured to take care for itself. It is true, indeed, that one cannot speak of sins put away before they have been committed, and that the question of the future is not taken up as yet. But "the sins done aforetime" are not the sins of a man’s past life, but those of bygone ages, when yet the gospel was not, as now, declared, and sins for which the legal sacrifices had no provision could only be met by what was truly uncovenanted mercy. At the best also, there was and could be no inherent value in the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. But how many questions did all this imply! How different from a sentence of justification, the hope of mercy! But now every question is answered, every shadow gone: Christ’s sacrifice has proclaimed God’s righteous judgment upon sin as nothing else could do; and enabled Him at the same time to justify him who is of the faith of Jesus.
2. Truth has wrought with grace: God could not justify man upon any ground which would give him opportunity for boasting. His principle of faith gives God, not man, the glory. That pride which is the devil’s own sin, and into which he has led mankind to imitate him, is broken down, not fostered, by a blessing so gained. A law, or principle, of works, if it had been possible in the nature of things for him to have been justified by it, could only have wrought disaster for him morally. Merit is not possible to a creature, from whom obedience is his constant due. "When ye have done all," says the Lord, "say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which it was our duty to do." No ladder of works, if it were long enough to reach to heaven, could give the spirit of worship which is in heaven, and which alone could make it heaven at all. Faith has a moral quality which makes it worthy to be God’s principle: it glorifies Him and blesses man, while the ruin of his self-confidence prepares him for it. It suits also a God to whom all His creatures are alike a care. A faith which can grow out of one’s own nothingness, the babe characteristic, needing not the wisdom of the wise, nor power of any kind, but according to which are chosen the foolish things, and the weak, and the base, and the despised, manifests One before whose greatness, and to whose love, the lowest is as the highest. In the adoption of such a principle none that do not banish themselves are banished from Him: for the highest can come down to the lowest level, when it would be impossible for the lowest to rise up to the highest. Man naturally thinks that God should be found most on the mountain tops; but the sun warms most the lower plains upon which men build their cities and live their daily lives. How would the most expert climbers of the peaks enjoy having these things reversed? Nay, the highest peaks send down their tribute of enrichment to the plains, and nature is in harmony with her glorious Maker.
So says the apostle here: "We reckon therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law." The very exclusiveness of the law, which was the boast of the Jew, was thus the witness that it was not after all the way of blessing. Could God have thus forgotten the Gentile? "Is He the God of Jews only? is He not also of the Gentiles?" What can one answer? what but with the apostle: "Yea, of the Gentiles also; since it is one God who will justify the circumcision by faith" -upon that principle; and then, and thus, if he be found possessor of it, the "uncircumcision through" that "faith" which he possesses. God is drawing near to men would it be a greater and better thing to say, to the Jew? One might better plead for him the exclusive right to sun and rain, or to those blessings which the more necessary they are, the more widely they are found diffused.
But then, says the objector, you are making the law to be of no effect through this advocacy of faith. As if the sowing of the field showed the plow to have been vainly used! "Far be the thought," says the apostle: "nay, but we establish law." For the real purpose for which God gave it, the law still abides, and its use is clearly manifested.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv19, 22, 23 Rom 3:19 - Rom 3:26.
Romans
WORLD-WIDE SIN AND WORLD-WIDE REDEMPTION
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Rom 3:19 - Rom 3:26.
Let us note in general terms the large truths which this passage contains. We may mass these under four heads:
I. Paul’s view of the purpose of the law.
He has been quoting a mosaic of Old Testament passages from the Psalms and Isaiah. He regards these as part of ‘the law,’ which term, therefore, in his view, here includes the whole previous revelation, considered as making known God’s will as to man’s conduct. Every word of God, whether promise, or doctrine, or specific command, has in it some element bearing on conduct. God reveals nothing only in order that we may know, but all that, knowing, we may do and be what is pleasing in His sight. All His words are law.
But Paul sets forth another view of its purpose here; namely, to drive home to men’s consciences the conviction of sin. That is not the only purpose, for God reveals duty primarily in order that men may do it, and His law is meant to be obeyed. But, failing obedience, this second purpose comes into action, and His law is a swift witness against sin. The more clearly we know our duty, the more poignant will be our consciousness of failure. The light which shines to show the path of right, shines to show our deviations from it. And that conviction of sin, which it was the very purpose of all the previous Revelation to produce, is a merciful gift; for, as the Apostle implies, it is the prerequisite to the faith which saves.
As a matter of fact, there was a far profounder and more inward conviction of sin among the Jews than in any heathen nation. Contrast the wailings of many a psalm with the tone in Greek or Roman literature. No doubt there is a law written on men’s hearts which evokes a lower measure of the same consciousness of sin. There are prayers among the Assyrian and Babylonian tablets which might almost stand beside the Fifty-first Psalm; but, on the whole, the deep sense of sin was the product of the revealed law. The best use of our consciousness of what we ought to be, is when it rouses conscience to feel the discordance with it of what we are, and so drives us to Christ. Law, whether in the Old Testament, or as written in our hearts by their very make, is the slave whose task is to bring us to Christ, who will give us power to keep God’s commandments.
Another purpose of the law is stated in Rom 3:21, as being to bear witness, in conjunction with the prophets, to a future more perfect revelation of God’s righteousness. Much of the law was symbolic and prophetic. The ideal it set forth could not always remain unfulfilled. The whole attitude of that system was one of forward-looking expectancy. There is much danger lest, in modern investigations as to the authorship, date, and genesis of the Old Testament revelation, its central characteristic should be lost sight of; namely, its pointing onwards to a more perfect revelation which should supersede it.
II. Paul’s view of universal sinfulness.
He states that twice in this passage {Rom 3:20 - Rom 3:24}, and it underlies his view of the purpose of law. In Rom 3:20 he asserts that ‘by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified,’ and in Rom 3:23 he advances from that negative statement to the positive assertion that all have sinned. The impossibility of justification by the works of the law may be shown from two considerations: one, that, as a matter of fact, no flesh has ever done them all with absolute completeness and purity; and, second, that, even if they had ever been so done, they would not have availed to secure acquittal at a tribunal where motive counts for more than deed. The former is the main point with Paul.
In Rom 3:23 the same fact of universal experience is contemplated as both positive sin and negative falling short of the ‘glory’ {which here seems to mean, as in Joh 5:44, Joh 12:43, approbation from God}. ‘There is no distinction,’ but all varieties of condition, character, attainment, are alike in this, that the fatal taint is upon them all. ‘We have, all of us, one human heart.’ We are alike in physical necessities, in primal instincts, and, most tragically of all, in the common experience of sinfulness.
Paul does not mean to bring all varieties of character down to one dead level, but he does mean to assert that none is free from the taint. A man need only be honest in self-examination to endorse the statement, so far as he himself is concerned. The Gospel would be better understood if the fact of universal sinfulness were more deeply felt. Its superiority to all schemes for making everybody happy by rearrangements of property, or increase of culture, would be seen through; and the only cure for human misery would be discerned to be what cures universal sinfulness.
III. So we have next Paul’s view of the remedy for man’s sin.
That is stated in general terms in Rom 3:21 - Rom 3:22. Into a world of sinful men comes streaming the light of a ‘righteousness of God.’ That expression is here used to mean a moral state of conformity with God’s will, imparted by God. The great, joyful message, which Paul felt himself sent to proclaim, is that the true way to reach the state of conformity which law requires, and which the unsophisticated, universal conscience acknowledges not to have been reached, is the way of faith.
The message is so familiar to us that we may easily fail to realise its essential greatness and wonderfulness when first proclaimed. That God should give righteousness, that it should be ‘of God,’ not only as coming from Him, but as, in some real way, being kindred with His own perfection; that it should be brought to men by Jesus Christ, as ancient legends told that a beneficent Titan brought from heaven, in a hollow cane, the gift of fire; and that it should become ours by the simple process of trusting in Jesus Christ, are truths which custom has largely robbed of their wonderfulness. Let us meditate more on them till they regain, by our own experience of their power, some of the celestial light which belongs to them.
Observe that in Rom 3:22 the universality of the redemption which is in Christ is deduced from the universality of sin. The remedy must reach as far as the disease. If there is no difference in regard to sin, there can be none in regard to the sweep of redemption. The doleful universality of the covering spread over all nations, has corresponding to it the blessed universality of the light which is sent forth to flood them all. Sin’s empire cannot stretch farther than Christ’s kingdom.
IV. Paul’s view of what makes the Gospel the remedy.
In Rom 3:21 - Rom 3:22 it was stated generally that Christ was the channel, and faith the condition, of righteousness. The personal object of faith was declared, but not the special thing in Christ which was to be trusted in. That is fully set forth in Rom 3:24. We cannot attempt to discuss the great words in these verses, each of which would want a volume. But we may note that ‘justified’ here means to be accounted or declared righteous, as a judicial act; and that justification is traced in its ultimate source to God’s ‘grace,’-His own loving disposition-which bends to unworthy and lowly creatures, and is regarded as having for the medium of its bestowal the ‘redemption’ that is in Christ Jesus. That is the channel through which grace comes from God.
‘Redemption’ implies captivity, liberation, and a price paid. The metaphor of slaves set free by ransom is exchanged in Rom 3:25 for a sacrificial reference. A propitiatory sacrifice averts punishment from the offerer. The death of the victim procures the life of the worshipper. So, a propitiatory or atoning sacrifice is offered by Christ’s blood, or death. That sacrifice is the ransom-price through which our captivity is ended, and our liberty assured. As His redemption is the channel ‘through’ which God’s grace comes to men, so faith is the condition ‘through’ which {Rom 3:25} we make that grace ours.
Note, then, that Paul does not merely point to Jesus Christ as Saviour, but to His death as the saving power. We are to have faith in Jesus Christ {Rom 3:22}. But that is not a complete statement. It must be faith in His propitiation, if it is to bring us into living contact with His redemption. A gospel which says much of Christ, but little of His Cross, or which dilates on the beauty of His life, but stammers when it begins to speak of the sacrifice in His death, is not Paul’s Gospel, and it will have little power to deal with the universal sickness of sin.
The last verses of the passage set forth another purpose attained by Christ’s sacrifice; namely, the vindication of God’s righteousness in forbearing to inflict punishment on sins committed before the advent of Jesus. That Cross rayed out its power in all directions-to the heights of the heavens; to the depths of Hades {Col 1:20}; to the ages that were to come, and to those that were past. The suspension of punishment through all generations, from the beginning till that day when the Cross was reared on Calvary, was due to that Cross having been present to the divine mind from the beginning. ‘The judge is condemned when the guilty is acquitted,’ or left unpunished. There would be a blot on God’s government, not because it was so severe, but because it was so forbearing, unless His justice was vindicated, and the fatal consequences of sin shown in the sacrifice of Christ. God could not have shown Himself just, in view either of age-long forbearance, or of now justifying the sinner, unless the Cross had shown that He was not immorally indulgent toward sin.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The New Way of Acceptance with God
The New Way of Acceptance with God
In Romans 1, 2 St. Paul has shown that both Gentile and Jew have sinned wilfully, and are under God's condemnation. He now digresses to Jewish objections against the gospel, which he had, no doubt, heard urged in synagogues (Rom_3:1-8). Returning to the main subject, he clinches his indictment of the Jew out of the Scriptures, and concludes that all the world is 'under the judgment of God' (Rom_3:9-20).
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Having thus shown that man is sinful and lost, he now proceeds to set forth the gospel. God has provided a way by which acceptance, springing from God's love, and secured by the redemptive work of Christ, is granted to all who have faith in Christ (Rom_3:21-26). Thus acceptance depends upon faith, not upon human merit (Rom_3:27-28), and is open to all (Rom_3:29-30). At the same time, faith leads to true obedience (Rom_3:31).
1-8. Jewish objections answered.
Paraphrase. '(1) You may say: If those only are God's people who are so inwardly and spiritually, what advantage is it to be a Jew? (2) I reply: Much; to begin with, God's Word with its precious promises was entrusted to them. (3) And since that is so, will God break His word because some have shown their want of faith by rejecting Christ? (4) Impossible! Whoever be false, God will be found true, His promises will be justified and His conduct vindicated. (5) You may say: If this be so, our sin in rejecting Christ has made God's faithfulness to His promises clear, and it is unjust of Him (humanly speaking) to punish us. (6) I reply: Horrible! On your grounds no sin would be punished. (7) If you plead: This is an exceptional case. My sin has glorified God by showing how He keeps His word: (8) why should I not be accepted by Him equally with the Christians, who say, as I say, let us do evil that good may come? I can only reply: Such a principle is to be condemned, and to impute it to us is slanderous.'
2. Much] cp. Rom_9:4. Oracles] i.e. the utterances of God in the OT.
3. Did not believe] RV 'were without faith.' Unbelief] RV 'want of faith.' Faith] RV 'faithfulness.'
4. God forbid] lit. 'let it not be.' Written] Psa_51:4. Art judged] RV 'comest into judgment.'
5. Taketh vengeance] RV 'visiteth with wrath.' As a man] RV 'after the manner of men,' i.e. speaking of the dealings of God as if they were the dealings of men: cp. Gal_3:15.
7. For] RV 'but.'
8. Evil] St. Paul said, 'We are not justified because of what we do.' His adversaries represented him as saying, 'It does not matter what we do': cp. Rom_3:31, Rom_6:1, Rom_6:15. Whose, etc.] i.e. those who hold such a principle as 'let us do evil,' etc., will be condemned, and that justly. Damnation] RV 'condemnation.'
9-20. Jewish Scriptures testify to Jewish sin.
Paraphrase. '(9) What follows then? We Jews have advantages over the Gentles, but are we better than they? By no means. The charge I laid was against Jew as well as Gentile, that both are under the power of sin. (10-18) The Scriptures make the same charge, Psalmist and Prophet alike speak of universal corruption. (19) Such passages exclude self-justification on the part of the Jews, and prove the guilt of mankind against God. (20) This must always be so; weak, sinful man can never attain to acceptance with God through obedience to law; law, since it is never kept, cannot secure righteousness, it can only convict of sin.'
9. Proved] RV 'laid to the charge.'
10-18. From Psa_5:9; Psa_10:7; Psa_14:1.; Psa_36:1; Psa_140:3; Isa_59:7.
19. Them who are under the law] i.e. the Jews. Become guilty before] RV 'be brought under the judgment of.'
20. Therefore] RV 'because.' The deeds of the law] RM 'works of law,' i.e. done to merit salvation by fulfilling an appointed task: cp. Rom_7:7; Gal_3:19, Gal_3:21. 'Law is a factor in the moral life fitted to acquaint the intellect with the divine standard of conduct, but incapable of bringing the life of man into harmony with its precepts' (Robertson, HDB.). No flesh] cp. Psa_143:2.
21-26. The way of acceptance declared in the Christian message is independent of law (Rom_3:21), a free gift from God through faith in Christ (Rom_3:22-24), and made possible because Christ's death was propitiatory (Rom_3:25-26).
Paraphrase. '(21) We have seen that by obedience to law none can enter into acceptance with God because none have rendered it. Now a way of acceptance has been revealed which has nothing to do with law, to which both Law and Prophets bear witness. (22) God accepts all, without distinction, who have devoted their hearts to Jesus Christ. (23) I say all, and the want is universal. All alike have sinned, and feel far off from God. (24) But God's gracious favour is such, that He accepts them without question of merit, through the deliverance from sin and its penalty which Christ purchased, and which we receive by union with Him. (25) For on the Cross He offered up His life, to restore to the favour of God all who by faith appropriate that offering. In that awful spectacle God manifested His righteous displeasure against sin, forbidding us to attribute to indifference the forbearance by which He passed over, without adequate punishment, sins committed before Christ came. (26) In the death of Christ He so then displayed, I say, His judgment against sin, that now the perfect holiness of His character is vindicated, and He can also accept those who have faith in Jesus.'
21. Now] i.e. under the gospel. The righteousness, etc.] RV 'apart from the law a righteousness of God hath been manifested': cp. Rom_1:17. 'A righteousness of God,' i.e. a way of acceptance which God has provided. Manifested] i.e. in the Person and work of Christ: cp. 2Ti_1:10. Witnessed] i.e. by types and promises.
22. Faith of] RV 'faith in': cp. Gal_2:16. This further defines the 'righteousness' spoken of. The means by which it is received is faith in Christ, and it is given to all who have such faith. Faith is 'man's trustful acceptance of God's gift, rising to absolute self-surrender, culminating in personal union with Christ, working within.. as a spirit of new life' (Farrar, 'St. Paul,' p. 473). Difference] RV 'distinction.'
23. Come short] The Gk. word, which means 'to feel one's need,' is that used in Luk_15:14 of the Prodigal. Glory of God] i.e. the divine perfection, which is manifested in Christ (cp. 2Co_4:6), and which shines upon man and transfigures him into the likeness of Christ, partially now, and completely hereafter: cp. Luk_8:18; 2Co_3:18; 1Jn_3:2.
24. Justified] i.e. declared or accounted righteous, as by a judge; accepted: refers to 'them that believe,' Rom_3:22. God can justly declare a sinner righteous who has faith in Christ because his face is turned to the light; he is in sympathy with Christ, and desires to follow His example. Grace] see on Rom_1:5. Redemption] 'Redemption' means, (1) deliverance from bondage by payment of ransom: cp. Lev_25:48; (2) deliverance in general, as of Israel from Egypt: cp. Exo_6:6. Christ redeemed us from sin and its penalties: cp. Rom_8:23; Eph_1:7; Col_1:14. The ransom was His life, not considered as paid to any one, but as the price which it cost Him to procure our deliverance (cp. Mar_10:45; 1Ti_2:6) and to restore us to God: cp. 1Co_6:20; 1Co_7:22. In Christ Jesus] see paraphrase. The form 'Christ Jesus' (not 'Jesus Christ') always refers to the glorified Christ.
25. Propitiation] i.e. that which makes it possible for God to be propitious, or favourable to man. In his blood] RV 'by his blood,' i.e. Christ became a propitiation by shedding His blood. Declare] RV 'shew,' for, otherwise, it might have been doubted. For the remission, etc.] RV 'because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime': cp. Act_17:30. 'Passing over,' i.e. temporary suspension of punishment (Sanday and Headlam).
Forbearance] i.e. temporary suspension of anger.
27-31. Since salvation is by faith, it follows that no claim can be made on the ground of human merit (Rom_3:27-28), that Jew and Gentile are on the same footing (Rom_3:29-30), and that law becomes fulfilled at last (Rom_3:31).
Paraphrase. '(27) It is plain that the gospel way of salvation by faith leaves no room for reliance upon privilege or merits, (28) for man is accepted through reliance upon his Saviour, not upon himself. (29) It is also plain that Jew and Gentile are on the same footing before God, (30) for there is one God for all, and He accepts all men on the same condition, viz. faith. (31) Some say that by preaching salvation through faith alone we abolish law. On the contrary, we set the principle that God's will must be done on a firmer basis.'
27. Boasting] cp. Rom_2:1, Rom_2:23. The law] RV 'a law,' i.e. system.
28. Therefore] RM 'for.'
Without] RV 'apart from.'
30. Circumcision] i.e. Jews. Uncircumcision] i.e. Gentiles.
By.. through] The Judaistic Christians seem to have held that they were justified on account of ('by') circumcision and obedience to the Law, if they had faith ('through faith'); but that Gentiles were justified on account of ('by') faith, if, in addition, they were circumcised and obeyed the Law ('through law'). St. Paul rejoins that justification depends on faith alone; Jew and Gentile alike are justified both 'by' and 'through' faith: cp. Rom_3:28, Gal_2:16.
31. The law] RM 'law.' God's will is brought out more fully in the gospel (cp. Mat_5:17.), and the believer is enabled to fulfil it: cp. 6, Rom_8:4; Gal_2:19.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv1–23 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what is…
What advantage then hath the Jew? or what is the profit of circumcision? [Paul's argument was well calculated to astonish the Jews. If some notable Christian should argue conclusively that the Christian and the infidel stood on an equal footing before God, his argument would not be more startling to the church than was that of Paul to the Jews of his day. They naturally asked the two questions found in this first verse, so Paul places the questions before his readers that he may answer them.]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 19, 20, 21, 23 in the spirit
in the spirit
(See Scofield "Rom 7:6").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On vv1, 21 1. Objections and Their Answers. (Rom 3:1-8.)
CHAPTER 3:1-20
1. Objections and Their Answers. (Rom 3:1-8.)
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2. The Whole World Under Sin. (Rom 3:9-20.)
Rom 3:1-8
A number of objections are next raised and answered. “What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?” Such would be the natural question of the Jew after reading the argument that the Jew is on the same level with the Gentile. This objection is stated here for the first time. It is important, for the Jews are God’s chosen people and as the Apostle states later, to them belongs “the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God and the promises” (Rom 9:4). If God puts Jews and Gentiles upon the same footing, what then becomes of all these peculiar blessings promised to the Jews? And in chapter 11 the question comes up again. “I say then hath God cast away His people?” What superiority then hath the Jew” This question of a supposed objection is at once answered. The advantage of the Jew is “much every way.” The chief advantage is stated “unto them were committed the oracles of God.” They possessed what the Gentiles did not have, the Holy Scriptures, the Word of God. What we call now the Old Testament is therefore the Word of God, in which God spoke to His covenant people. And in these oracles of God are found the great promises for that race, which await their glorious fulfillment in the day of their national restoration.
Another objection comes next. And this is also met and answered (Rom 3:3-4). All did not believe, but that does not make the faithfulness of God void for those who do believe. God does not fail those who put their trust in Him, because others did not believe. Part of the answer is from David’s penitential Psalm (Psa 51:4). David justified God, declared that He was true and then condemned himself. In the day of judgment it will be found that God is true and every man a liar. But this second objection leads to still another one, which is also answered by the Apostle (Rom 3:5-6). But if our unrighteousness commend God’s righteousness, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicteth wrath? If that were true, that He needs our sins for the praise of His righteousness “then how shall God judge the world?” But more than that. They had accused the Apostle and others of saying, “Let us do evil, that good may come.” If it were true that our unrighteousness commends God’s righteousness, then this slanderous statement would be perfectly right. For if our sins help to glorify God, why should we be judged for them? But the Apostle brands it as utterly false. For those who sin on such a principle awaits a damnation (judgment) which is just.
Rom 3:9-20
We have seen that the previous verses considered possible objections to the arguments of the preceding chapter. Rom 3:1-8 have therefore a parenthetical character. And now we come to the summary. Gentiles and Jews were proved to be absolutely unrighteous and therefore guilty and lost. The judgment wrath of a righteous God is upon them who had no law and upon them who possessed the law. The verdict of the Oracles of God is given. The following Scripture passages are quoted to confirm all that has been said: Psa 14:1-3; Psa 53:1-3; Psa 5:9; Psa 140:3; Psa 10:7; Isa 59:7-8; Psa 36:1. The whole human race is proved to be negatively and positively bad; nothing good and everything bad is in man. Read carefully these positive statements. We need to be reminded of them in a day when almost universally the truth of man’s lost condition is disbelieved, and when religious teachers constantly speak of “a better self,” “a divine spark,” “the germ of good”; when thousands follow the unscriptural teaching of a Fatherhood of God apart from true and saving faith in the Lord Jesus. Therefore read what God saith about the condition of his fallen creature. “There is none righteous, no, not one”;--”There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God”;--”there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” How positive are these statements. And it is blessed to read in the Scriptures that God knows all the depths of sin into which we have been plunged. God knows all, and here He shows us the true picture of ourselves. “Wherefore by works of law shall no flesh be justified before Him; for through law is knowledge of sin.” Men try to do something to meet God’s requirements, but they cannot do that. All human efforts in doing good works are futile. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. And they that are in the flesh cannot please God. By deeds of law, all kinds of religious observances and good works, no flesh shall be justified before Him. Thus ends the revelation concerning man guilty and lost. The whole world is proved under sin. Man cannot save himself. If there is salvation, it must come from God. Upon this dark, dreary background a righteous God now flashes forth the wonderful story of redeeming love.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 9, 19, 21 Man’s Guilt and God’s Righteousness.
Man’s Guilt and God’s Righteousness.
The advantage of the Jew:
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v. 1. What advantage, then, hath the Jew, or what profit is there of circumcision?
v. 2. Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
v. 3. For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
v. 4. God forbid! Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That Thou mightest be justified in Thy sayings, and mightest overcome when Thou art judged.
The apostle had last shown that the mere outward possession of the Law did not exempt the Jews from judgment and condemnation, since God demands a keeping of the Law and is not satisfied with a mere hearing; he had argued, furthermore, that circumcision in the flesh, though it be the seal of the covenant of God and the pledge of His promises, could be of value only if it was accompanied by a circumcision of the heart. But the Jewish reader might now answer that these statements were inconsistent with the acknowledged superiority and privileges of his nation. This objection the apostle here meets. In consequence of what has just been set forth: What, then, is the advantage, the preeminence, the superiority, of the Jew, or what is the benefit, the value, the profit, of circumcision? The two questions have the same thought, for by circumcision the descendant of Abraham became a member of the Jewish nation. The answer is: Much, in every way, in every respect. The superiority of the Jews was evident in all conditions of life. But Paul here mentions only the chief prerogative: First, the most outstanding and unmistakable advantage, because or that they have been entrusted with the oracles, the special sayings, of God, the revelations of God as included in the Old Testament writings, both Law and Gospel. By the deposit of this treasure in their midst God granted to the Jews a distinction above all other nations; He placed almost unlimited trust in them, and expected a proportional measure of faithfulness from them.
The apostle now finds it necessary to vindicate himself against a further possible objection: For what is the situation? If some were unfaithful, surely their unfaithfulness will not render the faithfulness of God inefficient! The Jews, the majority of the Jews, had been unfaithful; they had not shown the proper appreciation of, and reverence for, the divine revelations; they had not believed the promises of God. And therefore one might conclude that, since they had broken their trust and had not been obedient to the Law of God, God’s part of the covenant had also been annulled. But Paul answers with an emphatic: Indeed not! By no means! The very idea seems to the apostle to savor of blasphemy; the thought that the faith of God has been rendered inefficient, His trust has been withdrawn, is no fair inference from his teaching. There is "no breach of the promises of God involved in the condemnation of the wicked Jews. " The situation rather is this: Let God be true, but every man a liar. God will always be found faithful in keeping His part of the covenant, and He must be seen and acknowledged as true. That will be the final result and consequence of the drift of matters: God will stand before the whole world as the Faithful One, that adhered strictly to His promises, but the Jews as liars, that have abandoned the Word of God. But Paul purposely speaks in general terms. All men, in comparison with God, in their relation toward God, are liars, Psa 116:11. To all of them God has revealed Himself, though not in the same degree; and all of them have turned from Him to vanity and lies. This statement the apostle substantiates with a Scripture-passage, Psa 51:4: In order that Thou mayest be justified in Thy sayings and overcome, remain victorious, when Thou art judged. In the final analysis, God will always be found just and truthful, the case will and must be decided in His favor, if not before, then most assuredly on, the last day. The evidence will demonstrate that God showed only kindness and mercy to men, but that they offended Him and broke the covenant of trust at all times. And so the very transgressions of men will serve to bring out the unchanging faithfulness of God all the more strongly. Note: The words of Paul in this instance should be the very strongest incentive to every Christian to prove faithful to Him at all times, and not to rely upon a mere conventional form of religious observation.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 19, 21, 23 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Paul proclaims the advantage that Jews have because God gave them his law.
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Then what advantage does the Jew have? And what is the benefit of circumcision?
Paul presents ideas that people might have after they hear what he wrote in chapter 2. He does this in order to respond to them in verse 2. AT: "Some people might say, 'Then what advantage does the Jew have? And what is the benefit of circumcision?'" or "Some people might say, 'If that is true, then the Jews do not have any advantage, and there is no benefit in being circumcised.'" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information and Rhetorical Question)
It is great in every way
Paul now responds to the concerns brought up in verse 1. Here "It" refers to being a member of the Jewish people. AT: "But there is great advantage to being a Jew" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
First of all
Possible meanings are 1) "First in order of time" or 2) "Most certainly" or 3) "Most importantly."
the Jews were entrusted with revelation from God
Here "revelation" refers to God's words and promises. You can translate this in an active form. AT: "God gave his words that contain his promises to the Jews" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
translationWords
Jew
circumcise
reveal
God
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 13, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21 3:1 what’s the advantage of being a Jew? Paul…
3:1 what’s the advantage of being a Jew? Paul moves his argument along by raising questions. After preaching the Good News for over twenty years, he knew what questions people would ask when they heard a particular teaching. His emphasis on the equality of Jews and Gentiles before God (ch 2) inevitably led people to ask whether he was eliminating all Jewish privileges. The question-and-answer style follows the pattern of the diatribe (see study note on 2:1-5).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.