Romans 3:15-18

Vv. 15-18. “ Their feet are swift to shed blood: oppression and misery are in their ways: the way of peace they have not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes. ”

Of these four propositions the first three are borrowed from Isaiah 59:7-8, in which chapter the prophet confesses the corruption of Israel. The feet, as the emblem of walking, symbolize the whole conduct. Man acts without regard to his neighbor, without fear of compromising his welfare and even his life; a saying taken from Proverbs 1:16. He oppresses (σύντριμμα) his brother, and fills his life with misery (ταλαιπωρία), so that the way marked out by such a course is watered with the tears of others.

No peace can exist either in the heart of such men, or in their neighborhood (Romans 3:17). And this overflow of depravity and suffering arises from a void: the absence of that feeling which should have filled the heart, the fear of God (Romans 3:18). This term is the normal expression for piety in the Old Testament; it is that disposition in man which has always God present in the heart, His will and judgment. The words: before their eyes, show that it belongs to man freely to evoke or suppress this inward view of God, on which his moral conduct depends. This final characteristic is borrowed from Psalms 36:1, which marks the contrast between the faithful and the wicked even in Israel.

The apostle in drawing this picture, which is only a grouping together of strokes of the pencil, made by the hands of psalmists and prophets, does not certainly mean that each of those characteristics is found equally developed in every man, Some, even the most of them, may remain latent in many men; but they all exist in germ in the selfishness and natural pride of the ego, and the least circumstance may cause them to pass into the active state, when the fear of God does not govern the heart. Such is the cause of the divine condemnation which is suspended over the human race.

This is the conclusion which the apostle reaches; but he limits the express statement of it, in Romans 3:19-20, to the Jews; for they only could attempt to protest against it, and put themselves outside this delineation of human corruption. They could object in particular, that many of the sayings quoted referred not to them, but to the Gentiles. Paul foresees this objection, and takes care to set it aside, so that nothing may impair the sweep of the sentence which God pronounces on the state of mankind.