Romans 3:5-20

But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? I (speak as a man) (6) God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? (7) For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? (8) And not (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.

(NOTE: For Romans 3:5 see end)

But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? I (speak as a man) (6) God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? (7) For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? (8) And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just. (9) What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; (10) As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: (11) There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. (12) They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. (13) Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: (14) Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: (15) Their feet are swift to shed blood: (16) Destruction and misery are in their ways: (17) And the way of peace have they not known: (18) There is no fear of God before their eyes. (19) Now 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 become guilty before God. (20) Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

The Apostle having very fully answered every objection, and shewn, by the plainest and most incontrovertible arguments, that neither Jew nor Gentile could justify themselves before God, both, being in the Adam-state of nature, of original sin, and actual transgression; he now calls upon the Church, to consider their situation, under the Gospel dispensation, and demands whether they thought themselves, as to any external privileges, brought into a better state, so as to be able to contribute anything towards their own justification before God? To which Paul answers, both for himself and them, in declaring the contrary. And, as he had before shewn, that both Jew, and Gentile, were proved to be sinners; so the Church, considered in the Adam-nature of a fallen state, were equally so before God, And, in confirmation of this, the Apostle quotes at large, what the Scriptures bad long before delivered, on this momentous point, which brought in the whole world guilty before God. I earnestly beg the Reader to pause over this subject, and consider its weighty nature. However humbling, yet it is important to be known. For, in proportion to the conviction of it on the mind, so will be, more or less, our real regard to the Lord Jesus Christ, and his salvation. For the words at the end of this paragraph, by the law is the knowledge of sin: See Romans 7:7 and Commentary.

Romans 3:5 But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? I (speak as a man) (6) God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? (7) For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? (8) And not (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.

But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? I (speak as a man) (6) God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? (7) For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? (8) And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.

The Apostle foresaw, how ready the carnal, and ungodly, would be, to take offence at this statement; as if the doctrine led to licentiousness. And moreover, the infidel would go further, and charge God with unrighteousness, while punishing for sin, in one instance, while in another, taking occasion from sin, to magnify and display the riches of his grace. But, the Apostle refutes the unjust charge; and, by the plainest statement shews, that it is but just in God to commend his righteousness in pardoning his people, because, in the Person of their glorious Head, he hath received a full equivalent for their transgression. While, on the other hand, God is not unrighteous, when he takes vengeance on the ungodly, who despise redemption by Christ; for they stand upon the bottom of self-security, and consequently fall in the day of judgment. And, ill respect to the false and malicious slander, thrown upon the Lord's people, as if they should assert what they totally deny, that they may live as they like; this charge is not so directly leveled at the Lord's people, as it is at the Lord himself. It ariseth from the deadly hatred of the Devil, against Christ, and his people. And therefore, he stirs up the minds of carnal men, to be indignant against the sovereignty of Jehovah, and against the glorious doctrine of justification wholly by Christ. It is these precious truths, which are arraigned at man's bar. It is these things, which excite, both the bitterest hatred of Satan, and unawakened sinners, But, to raise the hue and cry against the Lord himself for his dispensations, would be too open and barefaced; and therefore, the charge is brought forward against the Lord's people, as if their doctrines led to licentiousness. Reader! You cannot be a stranger to these things, if you observe what is going on in the present day, among what is called the religious world; for it is precisely the same as it was in the days of the Apostle. Indeed it is a blessed proof, and ought to be regarded as such by the faithful, that the Apostle's faith and practice were the same then, as the faith and practice of the present hour, among the true followers of Christ, since they are subject to the same calumny. We know, and our opposers know, that they who from right principles, profess faith in the sole justification by Christ, cannot lead lives unsuitable to this precious doctrine. The thing is impossible. For they art regenerated by God the Holy Ghost, live thereby in union with Christ, and are followers of God the Father, as dear children. Hence, they may, and they do, challenge the whole neighborhood where they dwell, whether they are not examples of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity, 1 Timothy 4:12. That beautiful Portrait Paul hath drawn in his Epistle to the Philippians, is the character which every child of God seeks for grace to copy after, and to form his life by. Finally, Brethren, (said he), whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things, Philippians 4:8.