that every mouth--opened in self-justification.
may be stopped, and all the world may become--that is, be seen to be, and own itself.
guilty--and so condemned
before God.
20. Therefore by the deeds of--obedience to
the law there shall no flesh be justified--that is, be held and treated as righteous; as is plain from the whole scope and strain of the argument.
in his sight--at His bar ([Psa 143:2]).
for by the law is the knowledge of sin--(See on [Ro 4:15]; [Ro 7:7]; and [1Jo 3:4]).
Note, How broad and deep does the apostle in this section lay the foundations of his great doctrine of Justification by free grace--in the disorder of man's whole nature, the consequent universality of human guilt, the condemnation, by reason of the breach of divine law, of the whole world, and the impossibility of justification before God by obedience to that violated law! Only when these humiliating conclusions are accepted and felt, are we in a condition to appreciate and embrace the grace of the Gospel, next to be opened up.
Ro 3:21-26. God's Justifying Righteousness through Faith in Jesus Christ, Alike Adapted to Our Necessities and Worthy of Himself
21-23. But now the righteousness of God--(See on [Ro 1:17]).
without the law--that is, a righteousness to which our obedience to the law contributes nothing whatever ([Ro 3:28]; [Ga 2:16]).
is manifested, being witnessed--attested.
by the law and the prophets--the Old Testament Scriptures. Thus this justifying righteousness, though new, as only now fully disclosed, is an old righteousness, predicted and foreshadowed in the Old Testament.
24. justified freely--without anything done on our part to deserve.
by his grace--His free love.
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus--a most important clause; teaching us that though justification is quite gratuitous, it is not a mere fiat of the divine will, but based on a "Redemption," that is, "the payment of a Ransom," in Christ's death. That this is the sense of the word "redemption," when applied to Christ's death, will appear clear to any impartial student of the passages where it occurs.
25-26. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation--or "propitiatory sacrifice."
through faith in his blood--Some of the best interpreters, observing that "faith upon" is the usual phrase in Greek, not "faith in" Christ, would place a "comma" after "faith," and understand the words as if written thus: "to be a propitiation, in His blood, through faith." But "faith in Christ" is used in [Ga 3:26] and [Ep 1:15]; and "faith in His blood" is the natural and appropriate meaning here.
to declare his righteousness for the remission--rather, "pretermission" or "passing by."
of sins--"the sins."
that are past--not the sins committed by the believer before he embraces Christ, but the sins committed under the old economy, before Christ came to "put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself."
through the forbearance of God--God not remitting but only forbearing to punish them, or passing them by, until an adequate atonement for them should be made. In thus not imputing them, God was righteous, but He was not seen to be so; there was no "manifestation of His righteousness" in doing so under the ancient economy. But now that God can "set forth" Christ as a "propitiation for sin through faith in His blood," the righteousness of His procedure in passing by the sins of believers before, and in now remitting them, is "manifested," declared, brought fully out to the view of the whole world. (Our translators have unfortunately missed this glorious truth, taking "the sins that are past" to mean the past sins of believers--committed before faith--and rendering, by the word "remission," what means only a "passing by"; thus making it appear that "remission of sins" is "through the forbearance of God," which it certainly is not).
27-28. Where is boasting then? ... excluded. By what law?--on what principle or scheme?.
of works? Nay; but by the law of faith.
29. Is he the God of the Jews only? &c.--The way of salvation must be one equally suited to the whole family of fallen man: but the doctrine of justification by faith is the only one that lays the basis of a Universal Religion; this therefore is another mark of its truth.
30. it is one God who shall justify--"has unchangeably fixed that He shall justify."
the circumcision by--"of"
faith, and the uncircumcision through faith--probably this is but a varied statement of the same truth for greater emphasis (see [Ro 3:22]); though Bengel thinks that the justification of the Jews, as the born heirs of the promise, may be here purposely said to be "of faith," while that of the Gentiles, previously "strangers to the covenants of promise," may be said to be "through faith," as thus admitted into a new family.
Objection:
31. Do we then make void the law through faith?--"Does this doctrine of justification by faith, then, dissolve the obligation of the law? If so, it cannot be of God. But away with such a thought, for it does just the reverse."
God forbid: yea, we establish the law--It will be observed here, that, important as was this objection, and opening up as it did so noble a field for the illustration of the peculiar glory of the Gospel, the apostle does no more here than indignantly repel it, intending at a subsequent stage of his argument ([Ro 6:1-23]) to resume and discuss it at length.
Note, (1) It is a fundamental requisite of all true religion that it tend to humble the sinner and exalt God; and every system which breeds self-righteousness, or cherishes boasting, bears falsehood on its face ([Ro 3:27], ). () The fitness of the Gospel to be a universal religion, beneath which the guilty of every name and degree are invited and warranted to take shelter and repose, is a glorious evidence of its truth ([Ro 3:29], ). () The glory of God's law, in its eternal and immutable obligations, is then only fully apprehended by the sinner, and then only is it enthroned in the depths of his soul, when, believing that "He was made sin for him who knew no sin," he sees himself "made the righteousness of God in Him" ([2Co 5:21]). Thus do we not make void the law through faith: yea, we establish the law. (4) This chapter, and particularly the latter part of it, "is the proper seat of the Pauline doctrine of Justification, and the grand proof-passage of the Protestant doctrine of the Imputation of Christ's righteousness and of Justification not on account of, but through faith alone" [Philippi]. To make good this doctrine, and reseat it in the faith and affection of the Church, was worth all the bloody struggles that it cost our fathers, and it will be the wisdom and safety, the life and vigor of the churches, to "stand fast in this liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free, and not be again entangled"--in the very least degree--"with the yoke of bondage" ([Ga 5:1]).
Chapter 4
Ro 4:1-25. The Foregoing Doctrine of Justification by Faith Illustrated from the Old Testament
First: Abraham was justified by faith.
1-3. What shall we say then that Abraham, our father as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?--that is, (as the order in the original shows), "hath found, as pertaining to ('according to,' or 'through') the flesh"; meaning, "by all his natural efforts or legal obedience."
4-5. Now to him that worketh--as a servant for wages.
is the reward not reckoned of grace--as a matter of favor.
but of debt--as a matter of right.
6-8. David also describeth--"speaketh," "pronounceth."
the blessedness of the man unto whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works--whom, though void of all good works, He, nevertheless, regards and treats as righteous.
9-12. Cometh this blessedness then, &c.--that is, "Say not, All this is spoken of the circumcised, and is therefore no evidence of God's general way of justifying men; for Abraham's justification took place long before he was circumcised, and so could have no dependence upon that rite: nay, 'the sign of circumcision' was given to Abraham as 'a seal' (or token) of the (justifying) righteousness which he had before he was circumcised; in order that he might stand forth to every age as the parent believer--the model man of justification by faith--after whose type, as the first public example of it, all were to be moulded, whether Jew or Gentile, who should thereafter believe to life everlasting."
13-15. For the promise, &c.--This is merely an enlargement of the foregoing reasoning, applying to the law what had just been said of circumcision.
that he should be the heir of the world--or, that "all the families of the earth should be blessed in him."