SIXTH PASSAGE (3:1-8). JEWISH PREROGATIVE DOES NOT IMPLY EXEMPTION FROM JUDGMENT. The order of thought in this piece, one of the most difficult, perhaps, in the Epistle, is as follows: 1. If the Jew is judged absolutely, as the Gentiles are, what advantage has he over them? Answer: The possession... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _What then is the advantage of the Jew? or what is the profit of circumcision? Much every way: foremost_, _in that unto them were committed the oracles of God._ ” It was a thing generally granted that the elect people must have an advantage over the Gentiles; hence the article τό, _the_, before t... [ Continue Reading ]
Though the advantage of the Jew does not consist in exemption from judgment, he has an advantage, nevertheless, and it is very great. The adjective πολύ, which we have translated by _much_, properly signifies _numerous._ As neuter, it is connected with the subject of the first proposition of Romans... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _For what shall we say? If some did not believe, shall their unbelief make void the faithfulness of God? Let it not be: yea, let God be found true, and every man a liar; as it is written: That Thou mightest be justified in Thy sayings, and mightest overcome when Thou comest into judgment._ ” Here... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _But if our unrighteousness establish the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is not God unrighteous when He inflicts wrath? I speak as a man. Let it not be: for then how shall God judge the world?_ ” From the _that_, Romans 3:4, it seemed to follow that God wills the sin of man for His own g... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _For if the truth of God hath abounded through my lie unto His glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? And not, Let us do evil as we are accused of doing, and as some falsely pretend that we teach that good may come? whose condemnation is just._ ” Many commentators (Calvin, Grotius, Philippi)... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _What then? are we sheltered?Certainly not:for we have before proved all men, both Jews and Greeks, that they are under sin._ ” If the words τί οὖν, _what then_, be taken as an independent question, the meaning will be: “ _What, then, is the state of things?_ To what result are we thus brought?”... [ Continue Reading ]
SEVENTH PASSAGE (3:9-20). SCRIPTURE PROCLAIMS THE FACT OF UNIVERSAL CONDEMNATION. After a general declaration, repeating the already demonstrated fact of the condemnation of Jews and Greeks (Romans 3:9), the apostle quotes a series of Scripture sayings which confirm this truth (Romans 3:10-18); the... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become useless; there is none that doeth good, no, not even one._ ” These six sentences are taken from Psalms 14:1-3.... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness._ ” These four propositions refer to the different _organs_ of speech, and show them all exercising their power to hurt, under the dom... [ Continue Reading ]
_ 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 co... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Now we know that what things soever the law saith_, _it speaketh for them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become subject to judgment before God. Seeing that by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the... [ Continue Reading ]
VV. 21, 22 a. “ _But now the righteousness of God is manifested without the law, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ for all and upon all them that believe._ ” The δέ, _but_, is strongly adversative; it contrasts the revelation of right... [ Continue Reading ]
EIGHTH PASSAGE (3:21-26). THE FACT BY WHICH JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH IS ACQUIRED FOR US. We have already proved that Romans 3:21 is directly connected in sense with Romans 1:17 (see p. 99). In the interval from. 18 to Romans 3:20, the apostle has shown that the wrath of God rests on mankind, whence it... [ Continue Reading ]
SECOND SECTION. 3:21-5:11. JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH ACQUIRED FOR THE WHOLE WORLD. In this section, which forms the counterpart of the preceding, three principal ideas are developed. 1. The _historical fact_ by which justification by faith is acquired for the world, Romans 3:21-26. 2. The _harmony_... [ Continue Reading ]
The new righteousness, then, being given without any legal work, what is the means by which it is conferred? Romans 3:22 answers: _faith in Jesus Christ._ Such is the _true_ means opposed to the false. The δέ, _now_, which the translation cannot render, is explanatory, as Romans 9:30; Galatians 2:2;... [ Continue Reading ]
VV. 22 b, 23. “ _For there is no difference: for all have sinned, and are deprived of the glory of God._ ” By denying _all difference_, the apostle means here that there are not two ways by which men can be justified, the one that of works, the other of faith. The first is closed against all, even t... [ Continue Reading ]
This absence of difference in the mode of justification rests on the equality of all in respect of the fact of sin. In the aorist ἥμαρτον, _have committed sin_, no account is taken of the question whether they have done so once or a hundred times. Once suffices to deprive us of the title of righteou... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Being justified as a pure gift by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus._ ” The participle δικαιούμενοι, _being justified_, takes us by surprise. Why give this idea, which is the principal one in the context, a subordinate place, by using a participle to express it? To explain... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Whom He had established beforehand as a means of propitiation through faith,by His blood, for the demonstration of His justice, because of the tolerance shown toward sins done aforetime, during the forbearance of God, for the demonstration of His justice at the present time; that He might be just... [ Continue Reading ]
The first words of this verse: _during the forbearance of God_, depend naturally on the word πάρεσις, _tolerance:_ “the tolerance (shown) during the forbearance of God.” It is less simple to connect this clause with the participle προγεγονότων : “committed formerly during the forbearance of God.” Fo... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Where is the boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay, but by that of faith. For we judge that man is justified by faith without works of law._ ” Οὖν, _then:_ in consequence of the great fact which has been explained, and of the means of justification which it implies (Romans 3:2... [ Continue Reading ]
NINTH PASSAGE (3:27-31). THE HARMONY OF THIS MODE OF JUSTIFICATION WITH THE TRUE MEANING OF THE LAW. The apostle had asserted, Romans 3:21, that _the law_ and _the prophets_ themselves bear witness to the mode of justification revealed in the gospel. This he demonstrates, first generally, from the s... [ Continue Reading ]
The relation between this verse and the preceding rests on the contrast between the two ideas καύχησις and πίστει δικαιοῦσθαι, _boasting_ and _being justified by faith._ “We exclude boasting in proportion as we affirm justification by faith.” Several commentators read οὖν, _then_, after T. R., which... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Or is he the God of the Jews only?is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: seeing it is one God, who shall bring out the justification of the circumcised from faith, and who shall bring about that of the uncircumcised by the faith._ ” The meaning of the ἤ, _or_, when prefixed to... [ Continue Reading ]
The Alex. read εἴπερ : _if truly._ This reading might suffice if the apostle were merely repeating the principle of the unity of God as the basis of the preceding assertion: “ _if indeed_ God is one.” But he goes further; this principle of the unity of God serves him as a point of departure from whi... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Do we then make void the law through faith? That be far from us! Much rather we establish the law._ ” This verse has been misunderstood by most commentators. Some (Aug., Luth., Mel., Calv., Philip., Rück.) apply it to the sanctification which springs from faith, and by which the gospel finally re... [ Continue Reading ]