---
title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation"
author: "Adam Clarke"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 457 of 769
url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/457/
cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation, section 457. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/457/"
---

# Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation

*Adam Clarke*

Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 2 of 2.

## 457. Romans · 7 of 41

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/457/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/457/#p-N

[¶0] Thus, they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened; and professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. See Madan's Juvenal, vol. ii. p. 53.

[¶1] 4. By all this we see what the world was, and what it would have continued to be had not God sent a Divine revelation of his will, and established a public ministry to proclaim and enforce it. Were man left to the power and influence of his fallen nature he would be, in all places of his dispersion on the earth, what the apostle describes in the 29th, 30th, and 31st verses of this chapter. ([Rom 1:29-31]) Reader, magnify God, who has called thee from such deep darkness, to the marvellous light of the glorious Gospel of his Son; and walk as a child of the light and of the day, in whom there shall be no cause of stumbling.

### Introduction

[¶3] The apostle shows that the Jew, who condemns the Gentiles, and considers them utterly unworthy of the blessings of the Gospel, is inexcusable, because he is guilty of the same crimes; and therefore shalt not escape the righteous judgment of God, [Rom 2:1-3]. It is an awful thing to despise the goodness and long-suffering of God, which lead to repentance, [Rom 2:4], [Rom 2:5]. God, the impartial judge, will render to every man according to his works, [Rom 2:6-11]. The Jews and the Gentiles will be judged according to their respective advantages and disadvantages, [Rom 2:12], [Rom 2:13]. In some cases, the Gentiles, who had no law, have shown a better disposition than the Jews, [Rom 2:14-16]. The Jews, by their unfaithfulness, have been a stumbling-block to the Gentiles, [Rom 2:17-24]. Jewish rites and ceremonies of no advantage, unless productive of change of heart and conduct, [Rom 2:25]. The Gentiles, who attend to the small light which they have received from God, are in a better state than the unfaithful Jews, with all their superior privileges, [Rom 2:26], [Rom 2:27]. What constitutes a real Jew in the sight of God, [Rom 2:28], [Rom 2:29].

[¶4] Dr. Taylor makes the following sensible observations at the commencement of this chapter. "The representation of the moral state of the heathen world, in the foregoing chapter, is a demonstration of the necessity of the Gospel for the reformation and salvation of man. And how rich is the favor wherewith God has visited the world! To have destroyed a race of apostate rebels, who had abused their understandings and every gift of a bountiful Creator, would have been justice; to have spared them would have been lenity and goodness; but to send his only begotten Son from heaven to redeem us from all iniquity and ungodliness by his own blood; to grant us a free pardon for all our sins; to put us in a state of mercy and salvation; to take us into his kingdom and family; to give us an inheritance among his saints; to bless us with immortality and all spiritual blessings in heavenly places; - this is most wonderful and exuberant favor. Rightly is the doctrine which teaches it called the Gospel, or glad tidings. One would think it could not possibly have met with opposition from any part of mankind. But the Jew opposed it! He abhorred the Gentile, and contradicted the grace that honored and saved him. The apostle pleads and defends our cause. His business is to confound the Jew, and to prove that we have as good a right as he to all the blessings of the Messiah's kingdom. And, by his description of the vicious state of the Gentiles, in the former chapter, he has wisely made his advantage of the prejudices of the Jew; for nothing could please him more than the preceding discourse, in which the Gentiles are reduced to so vile and abject a state. Thus the apostle gives him an opportunity to condemn the Gentiles; but he does this that he may the more effectually humble him in this chapter; in which he proves that the Jews, having in an aggravated manner despised the goodness and broken the law of God, were as obnoxious to his wrath as the Gentiles; and if so, how could they, with any conscience or modesty, arrogate all the Divine mercy to themselves, or pretend that others were unworthy of it, when they had done as much or more to forfeit it! Must they not exclude themselves from being the people of God under the Gospel, by the same reason that they would have the Gentiles excluded! But this was an argument highly ungrateful to the Jew; and it would be very difficult to fix any conviction upon his mind. Therefore the apostle addresses him in a covert way: - Thou art therefore inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest; not giving out expressly that he meant the Jew, that the Jew might more calmly attend to his reasoning, while he was not apprehensive that he was the man. This point secured, the apostle, very judiciously and with great force of reasoning, turns his thoughts from his present superior advantages to the awful day of judgment, [Rom 2:5], [Rom 2:6], when God, in the most impartial equity, will render to all mankind, without exception, according to their works. Thus the apostle grounds his following argument, very methodically and solidly, in God's equal regards to all men, in all nations, who uprightly practice truth and godliness; and his disapproving, and at last condemning, all men, in any nation, however privileged, who live wickedly. This was a blow at the root, and demolished, in the most effectual manner, the Jew's prejudices in favor of his own nation, and the unkind thoughts he had entertained of the Gentiles. For, if a Jew could be convinced that a sober, upright heathen might be blessed with eternal salvation, he must be persuaded that it was no absurd matter that believing Gentiles should now be pardoned, and taken into the visible Church. Thus the apostle advances with great skill, insinuating himself, by degrees, into the Jew's conscience. It is reasoning is well adapted to encourage the Gentile, humbled by the dismal representation in the preceding chapter; for he would here see that he was not utterly abandoned of God, but might, upon good grounds, hope for his mercy and kindness."

### Verse 1

[¶6] That judgest - Ὁ κρινων, the judger; thou assumest the character of a judge, and in that character condemnest others who are less guilty than thyself.

### Verse 2

[¶8] We are sure that the judgment of God, etc. - God is impartial, and will punish sin wheresoever he finds it. Transgression in a Jew is not less criminal than iniquity in a Gentile.

### Verse 4

[¶10] Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness - Wilt thou render of none effect that marked benevolence of God towards thee which has given so many superior advantages, and that forbearance which has tolerated thy many miscarriages, and that long-suffering which, after repeated provocations, still continues to bear with thee?

[¶11] Not knowing - Αγνοων, not acknowledging that this goodness of God, which has so long manifested itself in forbearance and long-suffering, leadeth thee to repentance - was designed to accomplish this blessed end; which thy want of consideration and acknowledgment has rendered, hitherto, ineffectual. This was a maxim among the Jews themselves; for, in Synopsis Sohar, it is said: - The holy blessed God delays his anger against the wicked, to the end that they may repent and be converted.

### Verse 5

[¶13] But after thy hardness - Occasioned by thy long course of iniquity. And impenitent heart-produced by thy hardness, through which thou art callous to the calls and expostulations of conscience. Treasurest up - continuest to increase thy debt to the Divine justice, which will infallibly inflict wrath - punishment in the day of wrath - the judgment day, in which he will render to every man according to his works. The word treasure the Hebrew uses to express any kind of store or collection: - Treasure or plenty of rain. [Deu 28:12] : The Lord shall open unto thee his good Treasure, to give the Rain unto thy land. Treasure of punishment. [Deu 32:34], [Deu 32:35] : Is not this sealed up among my Treasures? To me belongeth Vengeance and Recompense. Treasures of mines, i.e. abundance of minerals. [Deu 33:19] : They shall suck of the Abundance of the seas, and of Treasures hid in the sand. So treasures of gold, silver, corn, wine, oil, etc., mean collections or an abundance of such things: the word is used by the Greek writers precisely in the same sense. By wrath we are to understand punishment, as in [Rom 1:18]; and it is used so by the very best Greek writers. See Kypke.

[¶14] The treasure of wrath, in this verse, is opposed to the riches of goodness, in the preceding. As surely as thou despisest, or neglectest to improve the Riches of God's Goodness, so surely thou shalt share in the Treasures of his Wrath. The punishment shall be proportioned to the mercy thou hast abused.

### Verse 6

[¶16] Who will render - Who, in the day of judgment, will reward and punish every man according as his life and conversation have been.

### Verse 7

[¶18] To them, etc. - In this manner will God, in the great day, dispense punishments and rewards:

[¶19] 1. He will give eternal life to them who, in all the trials and difficulties of the present state, have persevered in well doing - seeking for and expecting glory, honor, and immortality.

### Verse 8

[¶21] But unto them, etc. -

[¶22] 2. He will manifest his indignation, and inflict wrath - punishment, on all who are contentious - who obstinately dispute against the truth, and obey unrighteousness - who act under the influence of the principle of sin, and not under the influence of the Spirit of God.

### Verse 9

[¶24] Tribulation and anguish - Misery of all descriptions, without the possibility of escape, will this righteous Judge inflict upon every impenitent sinner. The Jew first, as possessing greater privileges, and having abused greater mercies; and also on the Gentile, who, though he had not the same advantages, had what God saw was sufficient for his state; and, having sinned against them, shall have punishment proportioned to his demerit.

### Verse 10

[¶26] But glory, honor, and peace - While the finally impenitent Jew and Gentile shall experience the fullest effects of the righteous indignation of the supreme Judge, even man that worketh good - that lives in a conscientious obedience to the known will of God, whether he be Jew or Gentile, shall have glory, honor, and peace; i.e. eternal blessedness.

### Verse 11

[¶28] For there is no respect of persons with God - The righteous Judge will not act according to any principle of partiality; the character and conduct, alone of the persons shall weigh with him. He will take no wicked man to glory, let his nation or advantages be what they may; and he will send no righteous man to perdition, though brought up in the very bosom of Gentilism. And as he will judge in that day according to character and conduct, so his judgment will proceed on the ground of the graces, privileges, and blessings which they had received, improved or abused. And as there is no respect of persons with God in judgment, so there can be none in the previous administration of his saving blessings. He that will be condemned for his unrighteousness, will be condemned on the ground that he had sufficient grace afforded him for the salvation of his soul; and his condemnation will rest on the simple principle, that he abused the grace which was sufficient to save him, by acting in opposition to its dictates and influence. No man, in that great day, shall be brought to heaven through any partiality of the Judge; and no man sent to hell because God did not afford him sufficient grace, or because he had made a decree which rendered even his use of it ineffectual to his salvation. In reference to the great design of God, in the salvation of man, it shall be said, - in time, at the day of judgment, and throughout eternity, - There Is No Respect of Persons with God.

### Verse 12

[¶30] For as many as have sinned without law, etc. - They, viz. the Gentiles, who shall be found to have transgressed against the mere light of nature, or rather, that true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world, [Joh 1:9], shall not come under the same rule with those, the Jews, who have in addition to this enjoyed an extraordinary revelation; but they shall be dealt with according to the inferior dispensation, under which they lived: while those, the Jews, who have sinned against the law - the positive Divine revelation granted to them, shall be judged by that law, and punished proportionably to the abuse of such an extraordinary advantage.

### Verse 13

[¶32] For not the hearers of the law, etc. - It does not follow, because one people are favored with a Divine revelation, that therefore they shall be saved; while the others who have not had that revelation, shall finally perish: this is not God's procedure; where he has given a law - a Divine revelation, he requires obedience to that law; and only those who have been doers of that law - who have lived according to the light and privileges granted in that revelation, shall be justified - shall be finally acknowledged to be such as are fit for the kingdom of God.

### Verse 14

[¶34] For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, etc. - Nor does it follow that the Gentiles who have not had a Divine revelation, shall either perish, because they had it not; or their unrighteous conduct pass unpunished, because not having this revelation might be considered as an excuse for their sins.

[¶35] Do by nature the things contained in the law - Do, without this Divine revelation, through that light which God imparts to every man, the things contained in the law - act according to justice, mercy, temperance and truth, the practice of which the revealed law so powerfully enjoins; these are a law unto themselves - they are not accountable to any other law, and are not to be judged by any dispensation different from that under which they live.

[¶36] Rabbi Tanchum brings in the Supreme Being as saying: When I decreed any thing against the Gentiles, to whom I have not given laws and statutes, and they know what I have decreed; immediately they repent; but the Israelites do not so. Tanchum, fol. 43. 2.

### Verse 15

[¶38] Which show the work of the law - In acting according to justice, mercy, temperance, and truth, they show that the great object of the law, which was to bring men from injustice, cruelty, intemperance, and falsity, is accomplished so far in them: their conscience also bearing witness - that faculty of the soul, where that Divine light dwells and works, shows them that they are right; and thus they have a comfortable testimony in their own souls of their own integrity: their thoughts, the mean while, accusing, or else excusing one another; or rather, their reasonings between one another accusing or answering for themselves. As if the apostle had said: - And this point, that they have a law and act according to it, is farther proved from their conduct in civil affairs; and from that correct sense which they have of natural justice in their debates, either in their courts of law, or in their treatises on morality. All these are ample proofs that God has not left them without light; and that, seeing they have such correct notions of right and wrong, they are accountable to God for their conduct in reference to these notions and principles. These seems to be the true meaning of this difficult clause. See below.

### Verse 16

[¶40] In the day when God shall judge - And all this shall be farther exemplified and proved in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ; which judgment shall be according to my Gospel - according to what I am now laying down before you, relative to the impartiality of God, and his righteous procedure in judging men, not according to their opinions or prejudices, not according to revelations which they never possessed, but according to the various advantages or disadvantages of their political, religious, or domestic situation in life.

[¶41] Much stress has been laid on the word, φυσει, by nature, in [Rom 2:14], as if the apostle designed to intimate that nature, independently of the influence of Divine grace, possessed such principles as were sufficient to guide a man to glory. But certainly the term cannot be so understood here. I rather think that the sense given to it in Suicer's Thesaurus, vol ii. col. 1475, reipsa, revera, Certainly, Truly, is its sense here: for when the Gentiles, which have not the law, φυσει ποιῃ, Truly, or in effect, Do the things contained in the law, etc. This seems to be its sense in [Gal 4:8] : When ye knew not God, ye did service to them which φυσει, Certainly are no gods; i.e. are false gods. Suicer quotes Cyril of Alexandria, (sub Anathematismo iii. in Actis Ephesinis, p. 212), speaking of the union of the two natures in Christ; he calls this union φυσικην, natural; that is, says he, αληθη, true, or real. He adds, that the word should be thus understood in [Eph 2:3] : We were by nature, φυσει, children of wrath; and says, φυσει αντι του αληθως· φυσει is here used for αληθως, Truly; We were Truly, Incontestably, the children of wrath, even as others. That is, like the rest of mankind, we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God, and, consequently are exposed to punishment. Some think that this text refers to the natural corruption of man; but, although it is true that man comes into the world corrupt, and that all men, since the fall, are very far gone from original righteousness, yet it is not clear that the text in [Eph 2:3], speaks of any other thing than the effects of this degeneracy.

[¶42] I prefer this sense, in the passage in question, to that which says the light of nature, or natural instinct, is here meant; for I know of no light in nature that is not kindled there by the grace of God. But I have no objection to this sense: "When the Gentiles, which have not the law, do, by the influence of God upon their hearts, the things contained in the law, they are a law unto themselves; that light and influence serving instead of a Divine revelation." That the Gentiles did really do the things contained in the law, in reference to what is termed natural justice, and made the wisest distinctions relative to the great principles of the doctrine of civil Rights and Wrongs, every man conversant with their writings will admit. And in reference to this the word φυσει may be legitimately understood thus - they incontestably did the things contained in the law, etc.

[¶43] The passage in [Rom 2:15], Their thoughts - accusing or excusing one another, certainly does not refer to any expostulations or operations of conscience; for this is referred to in the preceding clause. The words accusing, κατηγορουντων, and excusing, απολογουμενων, answering or defending one another, μεταζυ αλληλων, among themselves, are all forensic or law terms, and refer to the mode of conducting suits of law in courts of justice, where one is plaintiff, who produces his accusation; another is defendant, who rebuts the charge and defends himself; and then the business is argued before the judges. This process shows that they have a law of their own, and that to this law it belongs to adjust differences - to right those who have suffered wrong, and to punish the guilty.

[¶44] As to the phrase written in their hearts, it is here opposed to the Jewish laws, which were written on tables of stone. The Jews drew the maxims by which their conduct was regulated from a Divine revelation: the Gentiles theirs from what God, in the course of his providence and gracious influence, had shown them to be right, useful, and necessary. And with them this law was well known and affectionately regarded; for this is one meaning of the phrase, written in the heart. It was from this true light, enlightening the Gentiles, that they had so many wise and wholesome laws; laws which had been among them from time immemorial, and of which they did not know the origin. Thus Sophocles, in the noble speech which he puts in the mouth of Antigone: - Ου γαρ τι νυν γε κὐχθες, αλλ' αει ποτε Ζη ταυτα, κοὑδεις οιδεν εξ ὁτου φανη "Not now, nor yesterday, but evermore