Verses 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 [Psalms 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 [Romans 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” [Psalms 14:1-3].12 “Their throat is an open sepulchre;13 with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps Isaiah 14:0 under their lips” [Psalms 5:9; Psalms 140:3].14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”15[Psalms 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[Isaiah 59:7-8]:16 “There is no fear of God before their eyes” [Psalms 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].
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; Romans 3:25-29. Romans 3:2. 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; Romans 3:1 to Romans 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; Romans 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 (Romans 3:25-29)
Romans 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 Exodus 19:7-8; Deuteronomy 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 (Deuteronomy 10:16; Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 4:4; Colossians 2:11; Acts 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 Romans 3:26; Romans 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 (Romans 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.]
Romans 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., Romans 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; 1 Corinthians 7:19; Galatians 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.
Romans 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. Matthew 12:41-42, where χαταχρίνω is used]. Analogies to this bold word can be found in the Gospels, Matthew 3:9; Matthew 8:11; Matthew 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 Romans 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 Romans 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 (Romans 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.
Romans 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: “Mark 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.
Romans 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 (1 Peter 3:4). Circumcision of the heart; see Deuteronomy 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; Deuteronomy 10:16; Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 4:4; Jer 9:29; Ezekiel 44:9; comp. Colossians 2:11; Philippians 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 Romans 7:6; 2 Corinthians 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, John 5:44; John 12:43. The expression, according to Romans 13:3 and 1 Peter 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, Romans 3:1-8
Romans 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 3:0).
Romans 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 Romans 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, Romans 1:8; 1 Corinthians 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, Acts 7:38; Hebrews 5:12; 1 Peter 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 Galatians 2:7; 1 Corinthians 9:17.—P. S.] They were federally entrusted by the faithfulness of God (πίστις, Romans 3:3) with God’s promises, or were authenticated in their faith in order that they might exercise it with fidelity to faith.
Romans 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 7:0.). 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, John 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.” (2 Timothy 2:13; πιστὸς ὁ Θεός, 1Co 1:9; 1 Corinthians 10:13, &c.)
Romans 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, Psalms 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 2 Timothy 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, 2 Timothy 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 2 Corinthians 1:20; Revelation 3:14; the name Jehovah). All men are liars so far as they are sinners (sin = lie); yet unbelief is emphatically a lie (John 8:44), since, with its rejection of the truth, it becomes obedient to falsehood, and is implicated in the grossest self-contradictions (see Romans 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 (Deuteronomy 32:31, &c.), while all the vibrations, as well as all the breaches of faithfulness, are on the side of men. Also, in Psalms 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 (Psalms 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, Romans 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 Psalms 51:6 (Romans 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 (Exodus 4:21; Exodus 7:3), and at the same time as Pharaoh’s own act and guilt (Exodus 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 Romans 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 Psalms 51:6.—P. S.]
Romans 3:5. But if our unrighteousness, &c. [A new objection which might be suggested by the ὅπως in Romans 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, Romans 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 ; 2 Corinthians 7:11, &c. [also Textual Note8].
What shall we say? Τί ἐροῦμεν. A form which often occurs in Paul (Romans 4:1; Romans 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 (Galatians 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.]
Romans 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).
Romans 3:7-8. But if the truth of God, &c. The objection of Romans 3:7 appears only to repeat that of Romans 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 Romans 3:5 is only continued and established in Romans 3:7; and the words χατὰ ἄνθρωπον λέγω to χόσμος (Romans 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 (Romans 7:25, and Galatians 3:3-4). (2) Meyer: “The ἐπεὶ πῶς χρινεῖ ὁ θεὸς τὸν χόσμον (Romans 3:6) is now confirmed thus: The fact already considered (Romans 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 Romans 3:5 would be treated as untrue. [De Wette, Alford, Hodge, though differing somewhat in detail, likewise regard Romans 3:7-8 as the amplification and confirmation of the answer given in Romans 3:6 to the objection stated in Romans 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 Romans 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 Romans 3:5. Then the Jew has first drawn the conclusion from Romans 3:5. that God is unjust if He punish sins by which He is glorified. Here he would deduce the conclusion, from Romans 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 Romans 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 Romans 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 Romans 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 (Romans 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 Romans 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 Romans 3:5 there was the reverse, the ἀδιχία of man being the agent, and God’s righteousness the object. In Romans 3:7 the question is concerning the predominance or conquest (see Romans 5:20) on the side of the ἀλήθεια for the honor of God; in Romans 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].
Romans 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 (Romans 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. Romans 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, Romans 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.
Romans 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 [Romans 3:2, πολὺ χατὰ πάντα τρόπον, which seems to conflict with οὐπάντως, Romans 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 1 Corinthians 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, 1 Corinthians 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 1 Corinthians 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; Romans 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.
Romans 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 Psalms 14:1-3, from Romans 3:10 to Romans 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 Psalms 5:9; Psalms 140:3 and Psalms 10:7, in Romans 3:13-14, as a description of sins of the tongue. Then Isaiah 59:7-8, quoted in Romans 3:16-17, as a delineation of sins of commission. Finally, Psalms 36:1, in Romans 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 Romans 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 14:0 the general application is most obvious, and hence it is quoted first.—P. S.]
Romans 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 14:0.
Romans 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.]
Romans 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.]
Romans 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,” Jeremiah 5:16—i.e., destructive (also Calvin, and others). But thus Romans 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.
Romans 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 Romans 3:13.—P. S.]
Romans 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 Isaiah 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 (Jeremiah 4:22).
[Romans 3:18. This quotation from Psalms 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.]
Romans 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; John 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 (Psalms 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 Romans 1:20; Romans 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.]
Romans 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; Romans 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 (Romans 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 (Hebrews 6:1); the νόμος cannot ζωοποιῆσαι [Galatians 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 (Romans 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 James 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 Luke 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, Romans 3:6.—P. S.]
[On the meaning of διχαιόω, to justify, comp. the Exeg. Notes on Romans 1:17; Romans 2:13; Romans 3:24. It is perfectly plain that here, and in the parallel passage, Galatians 2:16, it can only mean, to declare or judicially pronounce just, not, to make just. This appears (1) from Psalms 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” (Romans 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, Galatians 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 Romans 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 Daniel 12:3; Isaiah 53:11.
“Even so διχαιοῦν, in the Septuagint, frequently signifies, to declare righteous judicially; Psalms 82:3; Exodus 23:7; Deuteronomy 25:1; 1 Kings 8:32; and in common life also, to acknowledge as righteous, or, to represent as righteous; Ezekiel 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; Psalms 73:13; Isaiah 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 Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:29; Luke 7:35; Luke 10:29; Romans 3:4; 1 Timothy 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 (Galatians 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.Romans 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 Galatians 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 (Exodus 20:8 ff.). But it is likewise a religious and liturgical, or Levitical command on worship (according to Leviticus 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 Romans 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 (Exodus 4:25; Joshua 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 Romans 2:7-8, nor the degrees on both sides.
4. On Romans 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.Romans 3:4. For our construction of the passage in Psalms 51:4 f., see the Exeg. Notes on Romans 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 Romans 3:4.
7. On Romans 3:20. By the law is the knowledge of sin (see Galatians 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 Matthew 19:17; Romans 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 Romans 2:25 to Romans 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 (Romans 3:25).—It is not the external possession of a saving means that produces blessings, but faithfulness in its application (Romans 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 (Romans 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 (Romans 3:27).—Inner life in religion; already the principal thing in Judaism, and much more in Christianity (Romans 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? (Romans 3:29).—The praise of men and the praise of God (Romans 3:29).
What advantage have the Jews? This question, and its answer, exhibit to us the infinitely great blessing of Christianity (Romans 3:1-4).—How Paul never ignores the historical significance of his people, but triumphantly defends it against every charge (comp. Romans 9:4-5).—The historical feeling of the Apostle Paul (Romans 3:1-4).
On Romans 3:2. God has shown His word to Jacob, his statutes and judgments unto Israel (Psalms 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 (Romans 3:3-4).
On Romans 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 (Genesis 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 Romans 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 Romans 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 (Romans 2:29).—“God is a sure support; but he who trusts in man will want” (Romans 3:4).—David says (Psalms 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 (Romans 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; 1 Peter 3:21 (Romans 2:29).—In worldly courts, injustice often rules; but God will judge the world in the justest manner (Romans 3:6).—When our misery is properly uncovered, compassion is near; and when we are truly compassionate ourselves, compassion is not far from us (Romans 3:12).—The way to grace is open when we stand dumb before God (Romans 3:19).—There is only one way to salvation, by which men, before, at the time of, and after Moses, can be saved (Romans 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! (Romans 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 (Romans 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 (Romans 8:2).—Here stands the pillar of the evangelical Church, the test and corner-stone of the pure, saving gospel (Romans 3:20).—Quesnel: A strong proof of original sin, because no one who comes into the world is righteous, or without sin (Romans 3:10).—Let love be in the heart, then will loveliness be also in the mouth (Romans 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 (Romans 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 (Romans 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 (Romans 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 (Romans 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 (Romans 3:4).—Those who boast of their righteousness before God, know neither God’s will nor themselves (Romans 3:19).
Gerlach: The usefulness of the covenant of grace extends on all sides and encompasses all the relations of life (Romans 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 (Romans 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 (Romans 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 (Romans 3:20).
Lisco: The Christian is aided by the sacraments only when he lives in faith (Romans 2:25).—On what the moral worth of man before God depends (Romans 3:25-26).—Israel’s advantages (Romans 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 (Romans 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 (Romans 2:25).[45]—The great difference between outward and inward Christianity. True Christianity is internal (Romans 2:28).—The true worshipper of God is inward, is concealed from the world, and is known only to God (Romans 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 (Romans 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), Romans 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 (Romans 3:4).—God’s righteousness becomes the more apparent in proportion to the manifestation of man’s unrighteousness (Romans 3:5).—Every feeling of hatred is the root for a willingness to shed blood (Romans 3:15).—Every man is guilty before God, and subject to His punishment; but he should also know and confess it (Romans 3:19).—The law requires obedience to all its commands (Romans 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 (Romans 3:8).
Besser: Circumcision of the heart is real circumcision (Romans 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 (Romans 3:4).
Lange, on Romans 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.
Romans 3:25-29. Comparison of this passage with Matthew 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.—Romans 3:1-8. To have an advantage, and yet not to have one.—The testimonies of Scripture on the sinful depravity of man.
Romans 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) Romans 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.—Romans 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!—Romans 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.—Romans 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 (Romans 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 (Romans 2:25; Romans 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 (Romans 3:4-5).—There is no better evidence against the truth of any doctrine, than that its tendency is immoral (Romans 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 (Romans 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 Romans 2:29, see Wesley’s sermon The Circumcision of the Heart ; on Romans 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 Romans 3:4, see Dwight’s sermon on God to be Believed rather than Man ; and C. J. Vaughan’s on The One Necessity. On Romans 3:9-19, see Chalmers’ sermon on The Importance of Civil Government to Society.—J. F. H.]
Footnotes:
Romans 3:2; Romans 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, Romans 1:8. To avoid the anacoluthon, Calvin translates: præcipue; Beza: primarium illud est. So also the E. V. and Dr. Lange.—P. S.]
Romans 3:3; Romans 3:3.—[Τί γάρ; a phrase used to start an objection for the purpose of answering it, or to vindicate a previous assertion; comp. Philippians 1:18.—P. S.]
Romans 3:3; Romans 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.]
Romans 3:4; Romans 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 (Genesis 44:17; Joshua 22:29; 1 Samuel 20:2), and occurs fourteen times in Paul’s Epistles—ten times in Romans (Romans 3:4; Romans 3:6; Romans 3:31; Romans 6:2; Romans 6:15; Romans 7:7; Romans 7:13; Romans 9:14; Romans 11:1; Romans 11:11), three times in Galatians (Romans 2:17; Romans 3:21; Romans 6:14), and once in 1 Corinthians 6:15; but elsewhere in the N. T. only Luke 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, Matthew 5:31.—P. S.]
[5] Romans 3:4.—[Or, in Thy judging, when Thou judgest, as the E. V. has it in Psalms 51:4. The active rendering of ἐν τῷ κρίνεσθαι (middle, in the sense of litigare) corresponds to the Hebrew בְּשָׁפְטֶךָ, Psalms 51:4 (comp. LXX.; Job 13:19; Isaiah 43:26; Jeremiah 2:35; Matthew 5:40; 1 Corinthians 6:1; 1 Corinthians 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 חָטָאתִייְהָרַע בְּעֵינֶיךָ עָשִׂיתִילְמַעַן תִּצְדַּק בְּדָבְרֶךָתִּזְכֶּה 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.]
Romans 3:5; Romans 3:5.—[Συνίστημι, to make stand with, to place together (constituo, colloco); and thence of persons, to introduce, to commend by letter (Romans 16:1; 2 Corinthians 3:1); trop., to set forth, to make conspicuous, to prove; so here, and Romans 5:8, συνίστησι τὴν ... ἀγάπην; 2 Corinthians 6:4, συνιστῶντες ἑαυτοὺς ὡς θεοῦ διάκονοι; Galatians 2:18, παραβάτην συνίστημι, and often in Polybius, Philo, and Josephus.—P. S.]
Romans 3:5; Romans 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.]
Romans 3:7; Romans 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.]
Romans 3:8; Romans 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 Romans 3:7, and assume an irregularity of construction. Ποιήσωμεν, then, instead of being connected with καὶ (τί μή at the beginning of Romans 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 ) may come?’—whose judgment is just.”—P. S.]
Romans 3:8; Romans 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 Romans 13:2 (“shall receive to themselves judgment,” i.e., here temporal punishment by the magistrate) and 1 Corinthians 11:29 (“eateth and drinketh judgment to himself”).—P. S.]
Romans 3:9; Romans 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] Romans 3:10-12.—[Literal version of Psalms 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 heavensHath 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] Romans 3:13.—[Psalms 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] Romans 3:13.—[Psalms 140:3 in Hebrew:
“They have sharpened their tongues as a serpent;Poison of an adder is under their lips.”—P. S.]
[15] Romans 3:14.—[Psalms 10:7 :
“His mouth is foil of oaths,And deceit, and fraud.”—P. S.]
[16] Romans 3:15-17.—[From Isaiah 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] Romans 3:18.—[Psalms 36:1 :
“The transgression of the wickedIs affirming within my heart:‘Fear of God is not before his eyes.’ ”—P. S.]
Romans 3:20; Romans 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 Romans 1:19.—P. S.]
Romans 3:20; Romans 3:20.—[ἐξ ἕργων νόμου οὐ δικαιωθήσεται πᾶσα σὰρξ ἐπιον αὐτοῦ, probably in allusion to Psalms 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. Matthew 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 3:0): “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, John 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 Romans 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 Romans 3:29 the predicate is wanting, and must be inferred from Romans 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 Romans 3:29) differs from this only in form, by supplying Ἰουδαῖος as predicate after ἀλλά. But Fritzsche and Meyer make Romans 3:29 strictly parallel with Romans 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 2 Timothy 2:13, and from the sense of ἀπιστία, in Hebrews 3:12; Hebrews 3:19, and of ἄπιστος, in Luke 12:46; Revelation 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 Luke 15:6, συγκαλεῖ τοὺς φίλους; Romans 3:9, συγκαλεῖται τὰς φίλας (according to Lachmann; while Tischendorf reads the active); James 4:2 f., αἰτεῖτε and αἰτεῖσθε; Acts 16:16, παρεῖχε; Acts 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, Titus 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 (Romans 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. Romans 3:11; Matthew 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. 1 Peter 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 8:0 : “Nec audiunt quod legunt: ‘quia non justificabitur ex lege omnis caro coram Deo’ (Romans 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’ (Romans 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 (Romans 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 2 Timothy 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.]
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