Romans 3:19

From all this Paul infers that it is in vain to look for justification by the works of the law, and that it is to be had only by faith, which is the point he has been all along proving, from Rom 1:17, and which he lays down (Rom 3:28) as the summary of his discourse, with a quod erat demonstrandum - which was to be demonstrated. We conclude that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law; not by the deeds of the first law of pure innocence, which left no room for repentance, nor the deeds of the law of nature, how highly soever improved, nor the deeds of the ceremonial law (the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin), nor the deeds of the moral law, which are certainly included, for he speaks of that law by which is the knowledge of sin and those works which might be matter of boasting. Man, in his depraved state, under the power of such corruption, could never, by any works of his own, gain acceptance with God; but it must be resolved purely into the free grace of God, given through Jesus Christ to all true believers that receive it as a free gift. If we had never sinned, our obedience to the law would have been our righteousness: "Do this, and live." But having sinned, and being corrupted, nothing that we can do will atone for our former guilt. It was by their obedience to the moral law that the Pharisees looked for justification, Luk 18:11. Now there are two things from which the apostle here argues: the guiltiness of man, to prove that we cannot be justified by the works of the law, and the glory of God, to prove that we must be justified by faith.

I. He argues from man's guiltiness, to show the folly of expecting justification by the works of the law. The argument is very plain: we can never be justified and saved by the law that we have broken. A convicted traitor can never come off by pleading the statute of 25 Edward III, for that law discovers his crime and condemns him: indeed, if he had never broken it, he might have been justified by it; but now it is past that he has broken it, and there is no way of coming off but by pleading the act of indemnity, upon which he has surrendered and submitted himself, and humbly and penitently claiming the benefit of it and casting himself upon it. Now concerning the guiltiness of man,

1. He fastens it particularly upon the Jews; for they were the men that made their boast of the law, and set up for justification by it. He had quoted several scriptures out of the Old Testament to show this corruption: Now, says he (Rom 3:19), this that the law says, it says to those who are under the law; this conviction belongs to the Jews as well as others, for it is written in their law. The Jews boasted of their being under the law, and placed a great deal of confidence in it: "But," says he, "the law convicts and condemns you - you see it does." That every mouth may be stopped - that all boasting may be silenced. See the method that God takes both in justifying and condemning: he stops every mouth; those that are justified have their mouths stopped by a humble conviction; those that are condemned have their mouths stopped too, for they shall at last be convinced (Jde 1:15), and sent speechless to hell, Mat 22:12. All iniquity shall stop her mouth, Psa 107:42.

2. He extends it in general to all the world: That all the world may become guilty before God. If the world likes in wickedness (Jo1 5:19), to be sure it is guilty. - May become guilty; that is, may be proved guilty, liable to punishment, all by nature children of wrath, Eph 2:3. They must all plead guilty; those that stand most upon their own justification will certainly be cast. Guilty before God is a dreadful word, before an all-seeing God, that is not, nor can be, deceived in his judgment - before a just and righteous judge, who will by no means clear the guilty. All are guilty, and therefore all have need of a righteousness wherein to appear before God. For all have sinned (Rom 3:23); all are sinners by nature, by practice, and have come short of the glory of God - have failed of that which is the chief end of man. Come short, as the archer comes short of the mark, as the runner comes short of the prize; so come short, as not only not to win, but to be great losers. Come short of the glory of God. (1.) Come short of glorifying God. See Rom 1:21, They glorified him not as God. Man was placed at the head of the visible creation, actively to glorify that great Creator whom the inferior creatures could glorify only objectively; but man by sin comes short of this, and, instead of glorifying God, dishonours him. It is a very melancholy consideration, to look upon the children of men, who were made to glorify God, and to think how few there are that do it. (2.) Come short of glorying before God. There is no boasting of innocency: if we go about to glory before God, to boast of any thing we are, or have, or do, this will be an everlasting estoppe - hat we have all sinned, and this will silence us. We may glory before men, who are short-sighted, and cannot search our hearts, - who are corrupt, as we are, and well enough pleased with sin; but there is no glorying before God, who cannot endure to look upon iniquity. (3.) Come short of being glorified by God. Come short of justification, or acceptance with God, which is glory begun - come short of the holiness or sanctification which is the glorious image of God upon man, and have overthrown all hopes and expectations of being glorified with God in heaven by any righteousness of their own. It is impossible now to get to heaven in the way of spotless innocency. That passage is blocked up. There is a cherub and a flaming sword set to keep that way to the tree of life.

3. Further to drive us off from expecting justification by the law, he ascribes this conviction to the law (Rom 3:20): For by the law is the knowledge of sin. That law which convicts and condemns us can never justify us. The law is the straight rule, that rectum which is index sui et obliqui - that which points out the right and the wrong; it is the proper use and intendment of the law to open our wound, and therefore not likely to be the remedy. That which is searching is not sanative. Those that would know sin must get the knowledge of the law in its strictness, extent, and spiritual nature. If we compare our own hearts and lives with the rule, we shall discover wherein we have turned aside. Paul makes this use of the law, Rom 7:9, Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. Observe, (1.) No flesh shall be justified, no man, no corrupted man (Gen 6:3), for that he also is flesh, sinful and depraved; therefore not justified, because we are flesh. The corruption that remains in our nature will for ever obstruct any justification by our own works, which, coming from flesh, must needs taste of the cask, Job 14:4. (2.) Not justified in his sight. He does not deny that justification which was by the deeds of the law in the sight of the church: they were, in their church-estate, as embodied in a polity, a holy people, a nation of priests; but as the conscience stands in relation to God, in his sight, we cannot be justified by the deeds of the law. The apostle refers to Psa 143:2.

II. He argues from God's glory to prove that justification must be expected only by faith in Christ's righteousness. There is no justification by the works of the law. Must guilty man then remain eternally under wrath? Is there no hope? Is the wound become incurable because of transgression? No, blessed be God, it is not (Rom 3:21, Rom 3:22); there is another way laid open for us, the righteousness of God without the law is manifested now under the gospel. Justification may be obtained without the keeping of Moses's law: and this is called the righteousness of God, righteousness of his ordaining, and providing, and accepting, - righteousness which he confers upon us; as the Christian armour is called the armour of God, Eph 6:11.

1. Now concerning this righteousness of God observe, (1.) That it is manifested. The gospel-way of justification is a high-way, a plain way, it is laid open for us: the brazen serpent is lifted up upon the pole; we are not left to grope our way in the dark, but it is manifested to us. (2.) It is without the law. Here he obviates the method of the judaizing Christians, who would needs join Christ and Moses together - owning Christ for the Messiah, and yet too fondly retaining the law, keeping up the ceremonies of it, and imposing it upon the Gentile converts: no, says he, it is without the law. The righteousness that Christ hath brought in is a complete righteousness. (3.) Yet it is witnessed by the law and the prophets; that is, there were types, and prophecies, and promises, in the Old Testament, that pointed at this. The law is so far from justifying us that it directs us to another way of justification, points at Christ as our righteousness, to whom bear all the prophets witness. See Act 10:43. This might recommend it to the Jews, who were so fond of the law and the prophets. (4.) It is by the faith of Jesus Christ, that faith which hath Jesus Christ for its object - an anointed Saviour, so Jesus Christ signifies. Justifying faith respects Christ as a Saviour in all his three anointed offices, as prophet, priest, and king-trusting in him, accepting of him, and adhering to him, in all these. It is by this that we become interested in that righteousness which God has ordained, and which Christ has brought in. (5.) It is to all, and upon all, those that believe. In this expression he inculcates that which he had been often harping upon, that Jews and Gentiles, if they believe, stand upon the same level, and are alike welcome to God through Christ; for there is no difference. Or, it is eis pantas - to all, offered all in general; the gospel excludes none that do not exclude themselves; but it is to epi pantas tous piseuonta, upon all that believe, not only tendered to them, but put upon them as a crown, as a robe; they are, upon their believing, interested in it, and entitled to all the benefits and privileges of it.

2. But now how is this for God's glory?

(1.) It is for the glory of his grace (Rom 3:24): Justified freely by his grace - dōrean tē chariti. It is by his grace, not by the grace wrought in us as the papists say, confounding justification and sanctification, but by the gracious favour of God to us, without any merit in us so much as foreseen. And, to make it the more emphatic, he says it is freely by his grace, to show that it must be understood of grace in the most proper and genuine sense. It is said that Joseph found grace in the sight of his master (Gen 39:4), but there was a reason; he saw that what he did prospered. There was something in Joseph to invite that grace; but the grace of God communicated to us comes freely, freely; it is free grace, mere mercy; nothing in us to deserve such favours: no, it is all through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. It comes freely to us, but Christ bought it, and paid dearly for it, which yet is so ordered as not to derogate from the honour of free grace. Christ's purchase is no bar to the freeness of God's grace; for grace provided and accepted this vicarious satisfaction.

(2.) It is for the glory of his justice and righteousness (Rom 3:25, Rom 3:26): Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, etc. Note, [1.] Jesus Christ is the great propitiation, or propitiatory sacrifice, typified by the hilastērion, or mercy-seat, under the law. He is our throne of grace, in and through whom atonement is made for sin, and our persons and performances are accepted of God, Jo1 2:2. He is all in all in our reconciliation, not only the maker, but the matter of it - our priest, our sacrifice, our altar, our all. God was in Christ as in his mercy-seat, reconciling the world unto himself. [2.] God hath set him forth to be so. God, the party offended, makes the first overtures towards a reconciliation, appoints the days-man; proetheto - fore-ordained him to this, in the counsels of his love from eternity, appointed, anointed him to it, qualified him for it, and has exhibited him to a guilty world as their propitiation. See Mat 3:17, and Mat 17:5. [3.] That by faith in his blood we become interested in this propitiation. Christ is the propitiation; there is the healing plaster provided. Faith is the applying of this plaster to the wounded soul. And this faith in the business of justification hath a special regard to the blood of Christ, as that which made the atonement; for such was the divine appointment that without blood there should be no remission, and no blood but his would do it effectually. Here may be an allusion to the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifices under the law, as Exo 24:8. Faith is the bunch of hyssop, and the blood of Christ is the blood of sprinkling. [4.] That all who by faith are interested in this propitiation have the remission of their sins that are past. It was for this that Christ was set forth to be a propitiation, in order to remission, to which the reprieves of his patience and forbearance were a very encouraging preface. Through the forbearance of God. Divine patience has kept us out of hell, that we might have space to repent, and get to heaven. Some refer the sins that are past to the sins of the Old Testament saints, which were pardoned for the sake of the atonement which Christ in the fulness of time was to make, which looked backward as well as forward. Past through the forbearance of God. It is owing to the divine forbearance that we were not taken in the very act of sin. Several Greek copies make en tēanochē tou Theou - through the forbearance of God, to begin Rom 3:26, and they denote two precious fruits of Christ's merit and God's grace: - Remission: dia tēn paresin - for the remission; and reprieves: the forbearance of God. It is owing to the master's goodness and the dresser's mediation that barren trees are let alone in the vineyard; and in both God's righteousness is declared, in that without a mediator and a propitiation he would not only not pardon, but not so much as forbear, not spare a moment; it is owning to Christ that there is ever a sinner on this side hell. [5.] That God does in all this declare his righteousness. This he insists upon with a great deal of emphasis: To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness. It is repeated, as that which has in it something surprising. He declares his righteousness, First, In the propitiation itself. Never was there such a demonstration of the justice and holiness of God as there was in the death of Christ. It appears that he hates sin, when nothing less than the blood of Christ would satisfy for it. Finding sin, though but imputed, upon his own Son, he did not spare him, because he had made himself sin for us, Co2 5:21. The iniquities of us all being laid upon him, though he was the Son of his love, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, Isa 53:10. Secondly, In the pardon upon that propitiation; so it follows, by way of explication: That he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth. Mercy and truth are so met together, righteousness and peace have so kissed each other, that it is now become not only an act of grace and mercy, but an act of righteousness, in God, to pardon the sins of penitent believers, having accepted the satisfaction that Christ by dying made to his justice for them. It would not comport with his justice to demand the debt of the principal when the surety has paid it and he has accepted that payment in full satisfaction. See Jo1 1:9. He is just, that is, faithful to his word.

(3.) It is for God's glory; for boasting is thus excluded, Rom 3:27. God will have the great work of the justification and salvation of sinners carried on from first to last in such a way as to exclude boasting, that no flesh may glory in his presence, Co1 1:29-31. Now, if justification were by the works of the law, boasting would not be excluded. How should it? If we were saved by our own works, we might put the crown upon our own heads. But the law of faith, that is, the way of justification by faith, doth for ever exclude boasting; for faith is a depending, self-emptying, self-denying grace, and casts every crown before the throne; therefore it is most for God's glory that thus we should be justified. Observe, He speaks of the law of faith. Believers are not left lawless: faith is a law, it is a working grace, wherever it is in truth; and yet, because it acts in a strict and close dependence upon Jesus Christ, it excludes boasting.

From all this he draws this conclusion (Rom 3:28): That a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

III. In the close of the chapter he shows the extent of this privilege of justification by faith, and that it is not the peculiar privilege of the Jews, but pertains to the Gentiles also; for he had said (Rom 3:22) that there is no difference: and as to this, 1. He asserts and proves it (Rom 3:29): Is he the God of the Jews only? He argues from the absurdity of such a supposition. Can it be imagined that a God of infinite love and mercy should limit and confine his favours to that little perverse people of the Jews, leaving all the rest of the children of men in a condition eternally desperate? This would by no means agree with the idea we have of the divine goodness, for his tender mercies are over all his works; therefore it is one God of grace that justifies the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith, that is, both in one and the same way. However the Jews, in favour of themselves, will needs fancy a difference, really there is no more difference than between by and through, that is, no difference at all. 2. He obviates an objection (Rom 3:31), as if this doctrine did nullify the law, which they knew came from God: "No," says he, "though we do say that the law will not justify us, yet we do not therefore say that it was given in vain, or is of no use to us; no, we establish the right use of the law, and secure its standing, by fixing it on the right basis. The law is still of use to convince us of what is past, and to direct us for the future; though we cannot be saved by it as a covenant, yet we own it, and submit to it, as a rule in the hand of the Mediator, subordinate to the law of grace; and so are so far from overthrowing that we establish the law." Let those consider this who deny the obligation of the moral law on believers.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Rom_3:19-20

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law.

The law

I. Its claims--are universal.

II. Its teachings--distinct and authoritative.

III. Its effects--condemnation, complete and without exception. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Law and the law

For the most part the word law refers to the general principle Do this and live; the words the law, to the historical and literary form in which this principle took shape in the ears, eyes, and thoughts of the Jews. (Prof. J. A. Beet.)

The convincing Tower of the law

1. The things which the law saith--its holy precepts, solemn sanctions, awful sentences--constitute the instrument of its power. They are the hand which grasps, the arm which conquers the transgressor.

2. The extent of their operation is to all those who are under the law. Are they obedient? Then it is a means of life and peace. Are they disobedient? Then it is the instrument of their condemnation and death.

3. Its convincing power is displayed either in the day of grace to bring to Christ, or in the day of judgment to banish from Him.

4. It is the agency of the Holy Spirit. In His hands it is living and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, but in itself it is a dead letter.

I. The things of which the law is made to convince the sinner. It saith--

1. Do this, and thou shalt live; but whosoever offendeth in one point is guilty of all. The law claims an entire, perpetual, and spotless obedience, and in the exercise of its convincing power it compares the sinners life with the strictness of its demands. It thus brings to view his obliquity by laying down its perfect and unbending rule upon the crookedness of all his conduct. It accuses him of--

(1) Presumptuous sins.

(2) Sins of inadvertence and ignorance.

(3) Secret sins, corrupt thoughts, unholy desires.

(4) Omission of holy duties.

(5) Deficiencies in the spirit which prompts to action.

(6) A corrupt nature in a state of rebellion against God.

2. Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. By this it convinceth the sinner of his exposure to the wrath of God. The condemnation of the ungodly is not future but present. The transgressor is dead already, and though, like a convict in his cell, he has a respite before execution, his case is to be regarded as altogether disposed of. He may be ignorant of his condition, and may deny it; but this is one of the things that the law saith, and its work is to make the sinner believe it, and behold his danger. But though under this operation he groans in anguish, he is no more in condemnation than before. He was asleep, but is now awakened. The lightning which makes a benighted traveller see the precipice in front of him does not make the danger, it only reveals it.

3. Moses describeth the righteousness which is by the law, that the man which doeth these things shall live by them. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. By these things the law convinces of the impossibility of self-justification.

(1) It proposes but two possible methods whereby man shall be just with God: it offers life to those who have perfectly obeyed its precepts; it presents liberty to all who have fully endured its penalties. Under which can there be hope for man?

(a) He can never obtain acceptance by his obedience--for there is imperfection and defilement in every duty.

(b) He cannot be justified by making satisfaction for disobedience, for no satisfaction can be received short of the entire penalty--everlasting death.

(2) The convinced sinner sees this hopeless state, and is compelled to renounce all effort at legal justification. A knowledge of pardon and life must come from the revelation of a Redeemer who, as the sinners surety, has obeyed the precepts and endured the penalty.

II. The persons to which it must be applied. To them that are under the law--the Jew, of course, but all mankind are born under the obligations of the law, and the things it saith, it saith to the whole family of man. And if there be not an individual who is released from the obligation of loving God with all his heart, there is not one who is not justly accused of transgression, and therefore condemned. All have sinned, etc. The proper operation of the law as a convincing power is, therefore, upon every human being.

III. The result to which it leads.

1. That every mouth may be stopped. Unconvinced sinners complain of the unreasonable strictness and severity of the Divine commandments, and invent a thousand excuses for sin and pleas of exemption from punishment. But when the law discharges its convincing office, the justice of God became so apparent, guilt so clear, that they are incapable of complaint or excuse.

2. And all the world become guilty before God--consciously and penitently. (S. H. Tyng, D. D.)

Appeal to the law

The new Collector of the Port of New York is not harassed by disputes as his predecessors were. He has had all the books regulating the customs service placed within his reach, and when appealed to for his decision his clear grey eyes brighten as he replies: The law says so and so about that question, does it not? He is generally answered in the affirmative, and without more ado he dismisses his visitor, saying: The law on the subject was made for me to follow, and follow it I shall. (Christian Herald.)

The authority of the Scriptures

I feel profoundly that that word authority is a vital word in all considerations about the Scriptures. There are controversies about inspiration and its mode, controversies which are legion, but they may circle, like waves around a rock, round the question of authority. That which separates the Bible from all other books, however elevating, is, after all, not so much that it contains such treasures of historic information, of poetic beauty, of moral analysis, as that it contains the authority of God and the certainty of His Word. Yes, it is this, after all. There are other books, for which God be thanked, written in other ages, which have had their influence on the elevation of man, but the difference between them and this Book is, that no conceivable amount of information or influence from them, as such, is binding on the conscience; but we claim for this Book that when we have once ascertained the meaning of it, it binds us. It is not merely attractive and elevating--it is all this--but it is binding upon us; it says in the name of a greater than itself, Believe this, because I say it; do this, because I command it. (H. G. C. Moule, M. A.)

Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified.--

Justification by works impossible

I. The assertion of the text is, that our whole race is incapable of ever being justified on the ground of having kept the requirements of the moral law of God.

1. This may be easily illustrated by a reference to Scripture.

(1) It declares that the moral law, under which we have been created, commands us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and to love our neighbour as ourselves.

(2) It also asserts that man is destitute of that love; and that, in the place of it, he cherishes a spirit of enmity to his Maker; and the constitution of civil society everywhere proceeds upon the assumption that men are selfish, faithless, violent, and cruel, and laws are everywhere made to counteract those hateful tendencies.

(3) It reveals to us that our first parents disobeyed God, and transmitted a sinful taint to their posterity. Thus we see that sin is not an accident to, but a universal fact in, human nature. By one man, sin entered into the world, etc. Such are the declarations of Scripture, and to the truth of them our own consciousness bears undoubted testimony. As soon as any one of us begins to compare himself with the law under which he is created, or even with the imperfect moral standard held forth by his own conscience, he acknowledges himself a sinner, coming short of the praise of God. Nor does anyone find himself alone in this condition. He is surrounded by just such beings, an inhabitant of a world lying in wickedness.

II. But here the question arises, since we cannot be justified on the ground of innocence, may we not by some works of our own? This question, from the beginning, has deeply agitated the human soul.

1. The first expedient, which seems universally to have suggested itself, was the offering of expiatory victims. But such an expedient as this inevitably loses its efficacy as soon as man listens to the voice of his own consciousness. He then feels that guilt is a personal thing, and that he himself is a sinner. It is he, in his own person, that must answer at the bar of offended justice. Guilt cannot be transferred to a brute, nor can it at will be laid upon the conscience of another. Hence the worshipper returned from the sacrifice unsatisfied and unblessed. The Jew confessed that it was not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin. The pagan retired from the flowing libation and the smoking hecatomb bearing about within him a conscience still burdened with the guilt of unpardoned sin.

2. Another expedient has been to offer reparation to the violated law by repentance and reformation. But if this doctrine be true--

(1) It must proceed upon an entire change of the moral law. The law which the Scriptures have revealed is, that the wages of sin is death. To declare, however, that if a man repents, he is entitled to justification, is to introduce another law, and to declare not that sin of itself is deserving of death, but only sin unrepented of. Now, I ask, where do we find the authority for announcing such a law? Revelation does not teach it. No government on earth could be administered upon this principle.

(2) It would lead to new views of Divine justice. If a sinner can claim justification at the hands of God in virtue of repentance, then there would seem but little distinction to exist between innocence and guilt. He who had kept the whole law without fault, and he who had broken every commandment through life, and at last repented, would both stand in the same moral condition before God; both, on the ground of their own doings, being entitled to be treated as innocent.

(3) It would lead us to believe that God Himself entertained no moral displeasure against sin, but only against sin unrepented of. The announcement of His law would seem to be, that holiness and sin repented of were equally lovely in His sight, inasmuch as they were by His law entitled to the same reward. The Deity would thus seem to entertain less abhorrence to sin than the penitent himself.

(4) It would defeat its own object; for, were this the law, repentance would be impossible. Repentance can only arise from a conviction of the moral turpitude of sin; it is an abhorrence of the act purely on account of its moral wrong, But, upon the supposition in question, sin itself is not wrong, or odious in the sight of God, but only sin unrepented of. But, if the act itself be not morally detestable, of what is there for us to repent? We are to be penitent not for the act, but for our impenitence, while penitence itself is impossible, because the act is not in itself worthy of condemnation. To me, then, the Scriptures seem to assert that repentance can offer no atonement for sin. If the law be holy, and just, and good, it is holy, and just, and good, that it be enforced. If a man repent of his sins, this is right; but under a system of law, this can make no reparation for past transgression. The man confesses that the law is just; but this confession does not render it less just. He acknowledges that he deserves to perish; but this does not alter his desert. Therefore, by the deeds of the law can no flesh be justified, etc.

III. The gospel is an offer of universal pardon through the mediation of Christ.

1. To reveal this great and astonishing truth is the great design of revealed religion. Natural religion intimated to us our sin, and dimly foreshadowed our doom. But from natural religion itself no news of reconciliation could proceed. It is the gospel alone that brings life and immortality to light.

2. For the announcement of this great central truth, the whole previous history of our world was one magnificent preparation.

3. Although, then, by the deeds of the law no flesh can be justified, yet we may not despair, for our help is laid upon One that is mighty, One who is able to save to the uttermost everyone that believeth. (F. Wayland, D. D.)

Legal justification impossible because

I. Man is flesh.

1. Depraved by original corruption.

2. Obnoxious by actual transgression.

II. The best obedience to the law that he can perform is imperfect.

III. All that he does or can do is a due debt he owes to the law.

1. He owes all possible obedience to the law as a creature.

2. But by performing all his debts as a creature he can never pay his debts as a transgressor.

3. Christ alone is able to justify him. (W. Burkitt, M. A.)

Works cannot justify

No matter how much he (Luther) studied and prayed, no matter how severely he castigated himself with fasting and watching, he found no peace to his soul. Even when he imagined that he had satisfied the law, he often despaired of getting rid of his sins and of securing the grace of God.

A moralist condemned

Dr. Rogers, of Albany, gives an account of the conversion of a moralist by a dream. The man thought he died, and, coming to the door of heaven, saw over it, None can enter here but those who have led a strictly moral life. He felt perfectly able on that condition, but was stopped by one and another whom in some way he had wronged. He was in despair, till the words over the door gradually faded away, and in their place came, The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. He awoke, and realised that without forgiveness through an atonement there was no hope for man. (Seeds and Sheaves.)

In His sight.

Man in the Divine judgment

In the judgment of God--an addition of solemn import! The all-searching Eye will try our inward as well as outward acts. None can stand out of Christ the Divine scrutiny. The world may canonise and immortalise, extol and deify her heroes; but God will perceive in a moment their defects, like the artist who, when a piece of marble had been selected as perfectly suitable for his sculpturing, in an instant detected a slight flaw that had escaped all notice, rendering, in his eyes, the block useless; and he refused to employ his time and his tools, his pains and his genius, upon it. (C. Neil, M. A.)

For by the law is the knowledge of sin.--

The knowledge of sin by the law

I. The nature of the law.

1. Sin has no existence but in relation to the law; for where there is no law, there is no transgression. The law may be compared to a straight rule. Sin is the deviation from this rule, and the enormity of the sin may be measured by the degree of obliquity in any act.

2. Laws are of different kinds, according to the nature of their subjects. The universe is under taw, for the Creator is a God of order. But our inquiry relates to the law given to man, as an accountable moral agent. This law was originally written on the human heart, but, as through the prevalence of ignorance and error, this law has been greatly defaced; it pleased God to make a full revelation of it, under two great commandments, enjoining love to God and our neighbour. But as the spiritual and perfect nature of the law was misapprehended by the Jews, and many of the precepts were set aside by false glosses, our Lord gave its true interpretation.

3. Many entertain very inadequate ideas of the nature and obligations of the law.

(1) By some it is believed that its strictness is now relaxed, and that a more indulgent rule has succeeded. But no conclusion is more certain than the immutable nature of the law. It arises from the nature of God, and the relation of man to Him. As God is infinitely holy, He never can require less holiness in His creatures than they are capable of. The idea of bringing down the law to adapt it to the ability of fallen man is absurd.

(2) Antinomians hold, that in consequence of Christs perfect obedience, the law has no demands on those in whose place He obeyed. This is a gross abuse of a cardinal doctrine. And if the thing were true, it would be no privilege, but a real detriment to the believer; for he finds that the keeping of the commandments of God is attended with a great reward.

(3) Others, again, entertain the opinion that the law was altered and improved by our Lord; and they refer to the Sermon on the Mount. But the alteration is not in the law itself, but in the interpretation of the law. Reason dictates that a rational, choosing agent should employ all his faculties, and direct all his actions, to the glory of his Creator; and as this end can in no other way be attained than by obeying the will of God, therefore the manifestation of the Divine will must be the law of all rational creatures.

4. That the law of God requires perfect obedience is self-evident. To suppose that any law could be satisfied by an imperfect obedience involves the absurdity that the law requires something which it does not require. If it should be alleged that uniform perfection of obedience ought not to be insisted on, since man is a fallible, erring creature, I would reply, that if any indulgence to sin be allowed, there can be no limit fixed to which it should be extended. Such a principle would destroy the obligation of the moral law. Again, these frailties belong not to our nature, as it came perfect from the hand of the Creator, but belong to our sinful nature, to which a holy law can show no indulgence. The ground of difficulty is in our depraved nature, which has lost all relish for the service of God. To a soul rightly constituted, the most intense exercise of holy affection is so far from being felt as a burden or task, that it affords the sweetest pleasure of which we ever partake. To be perfectly obedient to the commandments of God is to be completely happy. Surely no one ought to complain of being required to pursue his own greatest happiness.

II. By the law is the knowledge of sin.

1. If our actions had always been conformable to the precepts of God, the closest application of that law would produce no conviction of sin. And that such perfection of obedience is possible to human nature is manifest by the example of Christ.

2. Human nature may be compared to a complicated machine, which has within it powerful springs to keep it in operation. But such a machine requires a balance or regulator, which may preserve all the parts in their proper places, and give due energy and direction to every part. If the balance wheel be taken away, the machine loses none of its power, but its action becomes irregular, and no longer subserves the purpose for which it was put in motion. It moves, it may be, more rapidly than before, but to its own ruin. So it is with man. He is an agent, possessing powers, appetites, affections, and passions which require to be regulated and properly directed; otherwise, their most powerful action will be of a ruinous character. Two things are necessary to give harmony and a right direction to the complex faculties and affections of man. The first is, light; the second, love--an enlightened conscience, and uniform and constant love to God. But when sin was introduced, the mind was blinded, conscience misdirected, and the love of God in the soul was extinct.

3. Although the mind of man has fallen into an awful state of blindness and disorder, yet conscience is not obliterated: as far as it has light, it still remonstrates against sin. Happily some actions are intuitively seen to be morally wrong; but in regard to a large part of sinful acts, or omissions, most men remain ignorant of them, because they know not the extent and spirituality of the law. Mere theoretical knowledge of the law is not sufficient: it requires the convincing light of the Holy Spirit to shine in upon the conscience, and to cause the mind to view itself, as it were, in the mirror of Gods holy law. This conviction by the law is the common preparatory work before mercy is bestowed.

Conclusion:

1. Let us endeavour to get clear views of the extent, spirituality, and purity of the moral law, in order that we may know something of the multitude and malignity of our sins. And, as all true spiritual knowledge is from the Holy Ghost, we should incessantly pray for this inestimable blessing.

2. As the law convicts every man of sin, justification by it is impossible; for even one sin would render it impossible for the transgressor to receive a sentence of acquittal; how much more impossible is it when our sins are literally innumerable!

3. If the law discovers sin of every kind to be a base and odious thing, we should be solicitous to be cleansed from its defilement; and, in order to this, should come often to the fountain for sin and uncleanness, opened by the death of Christ.

4. A spiritual knowledge of the law is the true source of evangelical repentance.

5. The knowledge of sin, produced by the law, will have a tendency to make the true penitent desirous of the perfect holiness of heaven.

6. The most important benefit of the knowledge of sin, by the law, is, that it shows us our absolute need of a better righteousness than our own, and impels us to look for salvation to the Cross of Christ. (A. Alexander, D. D.)

The knowledge of sin by the law

Sin, in the New Testament, means, literally, missing that which is aimed at. A sin done for the sake of happiness never brings happiness; and if mans true aim is the glory of God, certainly no sin ever reaches that mark. Sin is the transgression of the law, for if there were no law, there would be no transgression. Transgression is a stepping over a certain line, and the only line is the law.

I. There are many laws.

1. The natural law of conscience. By this the heathen are governed--for they, having not the law, are a law unto themselves, etc. The transgressors of this law will be beaten with few stripes.

2. The Old Testament law, which is chiefly negative. Do not. This law is higher than the law of nature, more clear, minute, stringent.

3. But above both there is the law of love--the law of the gospel. God loves you, love Him back, and show your love by obedience.

II. As these laws rise in their character, so do they also in their obligation upon us; and the sins committed against them grow in the same proportion. By the higher standard we shall be judged! Now I do not speak of the grosser sins forbidden by the Ten Commandments, but of such as appear, to some, almost to be no sins at all, but which, measured by the law of the gospel, are perhaps most grievous to God. As is the light, so is the shadow; and the comparatively small sin of a son grieves a father more than the greatest sin of a stranger.

From this point of view, then--

1. It must be a sin in a Christian not to be happy. For this must be because you do not trust the Father, who has said that your sins were blotted out.

2. Or, if believing that you love and are loved by God, you are anxious, you not only disobey a command, but question a Fathers care and promise.

3. Or, if your religion is only a religion of fear, obedience without affection, it is in Gods sight worth nothing, for Love is the fulfilling of the law. Therefore it is sin.

4. Or, if you love the world as much as you love God, how can the great God who says, Give Me thy heart--not a part of it--be satisfied? And if He is not satisfied that is a sin.

III. If you would measure sin, calculate it in Eden, or on Mount Calvary. In Eden, one bit of forbidden fruit ruined the world! On Calvary, it needed the death of the Son of God to repair the wreck. Remember this the next time you are tempted to sin. Think--If I do that sin, it will cost the blood of the Son of God to wash it out. That is the law of heaven; and by that law we know sin. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

The office of the law

The wife of a drunkard once found her husband in a filthy condition, with torn clothes, matted hair, bruised face, asleep in the kitchen, having come home from a drunken revel. She sent for a photographer, and had a portrait of him taken in all his wretched appearance, and placed it on the mantel beside another portrait taken at the time of his marriage, which showed him handsome and well dressed, as he had been in other days. When he became sober he saw the two pictures, and awakened to a consciousness of his condition, from which he arose to a better life. Now, the office of the law is not to save men, but to show them their true state as compared with the Divine standard. It is like a glass, in which one seeth what manner of man he is. (D. L. Moody.)

The knowledge of sin by the law

When we are told what we ought to do, we learn that we are not doing as we ought.

1. The faintest spark of natural conscience in a savage bosom serves this end at least, that the barbarians grosser acts of treachery or cruelty seem evil even to himself. The educated conscience of an old Greek or Roman imposed on him a severer standard and made him ashamed of less flagrant crimes. Moses nobler code, given by Jehovah Himself, trained the Hebrew people by degrees to regard as sinful practices which neighbouring nations called innocent, and exalted every instinctive vice of the blood into the express transgression of a recorded statute. The New Testament morality has made the modern conscience quicker than ever to detect, and louder than ever in condemning what is false, dishonourable, impure, and ungenerous. Thus each addition to revealed law widens mens knowledge of what is sinful, and pushes forward the frontier of the forbidden a little nearer to that ideal line which Gods nature prescribes.

2. Again, when a law has succeeded in educating ones conscience to recognise that what is forbidden is in itself evil, that what is commanded is right, there follows a certain desire to keep that law--an effort even after keeping it. We cannot approve what is good and not wish to pursue it. The moral pressure thus put upon a mans natural likings serves, in many an instance, to reveal to himself his moral impotence. The good he fain would do in his better moods he fails to do in the moment of temptation; and when the recoil comes, and desire has burnt itself down to white cold ash, and the law awakes afresh within the conscience to judge the man for that weak and wicked yielding to an improper desire, then comes a new and very bitter knowledge of sin. It is the knowledge of sin as a strong thing, stronger than I am--a hateful, hostile power, an alien despot, that has entrenched itself within my nature, and lords it there over everything that is wholesome in me.

3. Suppose, further, that a man is become so far a creature of the law that through long education he has been trained to walk contentedly within its close fences--he has got used to curb his temper and choke down his passions, and always to wear a smooth decorous face; suppose he is thus all that the law can make him, irreproachable in the presence of society, fair spoken, scrupulous, as touching the law blameless--why then he is only on the road to a still more profound knowledge of Sin. For such a man, if he is honest and thorough, will admit to himself, that deep down beneath this blameless exterior the old passions will not be quenched, nor the old self-will slain. He will admit that in doing violence to his tastes he has not changed them. He has merely drilled himself into outward prosperity, but at the root remains ungodly. Is it unfair to say that such righteousness is little better than a mask, useful in society, but sure to be detected by the judgment of Heaven? that the heart of such men resembles a volcano over which the lava has in the meantime cooled? What a terrific knowledge of sin is here! What a discovery of the incurableness of the hearts evil! What a revelation of the impotence of law and the unattainableness of genuine righteousness under any system of legal repression! Surely by the law, do as you will, there is no path to a satisfying righteousness in the sight of God, but only to a deeper and ever deeper knowledge of sin! (J. Oswald Dykes, D. D.)

The law the standard

When Chicago was a small town it was incorporated and made a city. There was one clause in the new law that no man should be a policeman who was not a certain height--five feet six inches, let us say. When the Commissioners got into power, they advertised for men as candidates, and in the advertisement they stated that no man need apply who could not bring good credentials to recommend him. I remember going past the office one day, and there was a crowd of them waiting to get in. They quite blocked up the side of the street; and they were comparing notes as to their chances of success. One says to another, I have got a good letter of recommendation from the mayor, and one from the supreme judge. Another says, And I have got a good letter from Senator So-and-so. Im sure to get in. The two men come on together, and lay their letters down on the Commissioners desk. Well, says the officials, you have certainly a good many letters, but we wont read them till we measure you. Ah! they forgot all about that. So the first man is measured, and he is only five feet. No chance for you, sir; the law says the men must be five feet six inches, and you dont come up to the standard. The other says, Well, my chance is a good deal better than his. I am a good bit taller than he is. He begins to measure himself by the other man. That is what people are always doing, measuring themselves by others. Measure yourself by the law of God, and if you will do that you will find that you have come short. He goes up to the officers and they measure him. He is five feet five inches and nine-tenths. No good, they tell him; youre not up to the standard. But Im only one-tenth of an inch short, he remonstrates. Its no matter, say they, theres no difference. He goes with the man who was five feet. One comes short six inches, and the other only one tenth of an inch, but the law cannot be changed. And the law of God is, that no man shall go into the kingdom of heaven with one sin on him. He that has broken the least law is guilty of all. (D. L. Moody.)

The knowledge of sin only by the law

All that the law does is to show us how sinful we are. Paul has been quoting from the sacred Scriptures; and truly they shed a lurid light upon the condition of human nature. This light can show us our sin; but it cannot take it away. The law of the Lord is like a looking glass. Now, a looking glass is a capital thing for finding out where the spots are on your face; but you cannot wash in a looking glass, you cannot get rid of the spots by looking in the glass. The law is intended to show a man how much he needs cleansing; but the law cannot cleanse him. The law proves that we are condemned, but it does not bring us our pardon. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom 3:19-20. Now what things soever the law saith — That is, the Old Testament, for these quotations are not made from any part of the five books of Moses, but from the Psalms and Prophets; it saith to them that are under the law — That is, to those who own its authority, to the Jews, and not to the Gentiles. The apostle quoted no scripture against them, knowing it would have answered no end to do so, as they did not acknowledge the authority of the Scriptures; but he pleaded with them only from the light of nature; that every mouth — Full of cursing and bitterness: Rom 3:14, and yet of boasting, Rom 3:27, may be stopped — And have nothing to plead; and the whole world — Not only the Gentiles, but the Jews also; may become guilty — May be fully convicted as guilty, and evidently liable to most just condemnation. These things were written of old, and were quoted by Paul, not to make men guilty, but to prove them so. Therefore by the deeds of the law — By works of complete obedience to the law of God, whether natural or revealed; there shall no flesh be justified — Or pronounced righteous. That the word law must here be taken in this extent, appears evidently from the conclusion which the apostle here draws, and from the whole tenor of his subsequent argument; which would have had very little weight, if there had been room for any to object: Though we cannot be justified by our obedience to the law of Moses, we may be justified by our obedience to God’s natural law. And nothing can be more evident, than that the premises from which this conclusion is drawn refer to the Gentiles as well as the Jews; and consequently that law has here, and in many subsequent passages, that general sense. “Every one failing,” says Locke, “of an exact conformity of his actions to the immutable rectitude of that eternal rule of right, mentioned Rom 1:32, will be found unrighteous, and so incur the penalty of the law. That this is the meaning of the expression here used, εργα νομου, works of law, is evident, because the apostle’s declaration is concerning πασα σαρξ, all flesh. But we know the heathen world were not under the law of Moses.” For by the law — By that written on man’s heart, as well as by that revealed, is the knowledge of sin — Of our sinfulness and guilt, of our weakness and wretchedness. This strongly implies the broken and disordered state of human nature; in consequence of which, the precepts which God gives us, even the moral precepts, serve only, or at least chiefly, to convict us of guilt, and not to produce an obedience by which we can finally be acquitted and accepted. Whereas, were we not fallen and depraved creatures, by his holy law we should have the knowledge of our being righteous; for when weighed in the balance of it, we should not be found wanting.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Romans

WORLD-WIDE SIN AND WORLD-WIDE REDEMPTION

Rom 3:19 - Rom 3:26.

Let us note in general terms the large truths which this passage contains. We may mass these under four heads:

I. Paul’s view of the purpose of the law.

He has been quoting a mosaic of Old Testament passages from the Psalms and Isaiah. He regards these as part of ‘the law,’ which term, therefore, in his view, here includes the whole previous revelation, considered as making known God’s will as to man’s conduct. Every word of God, whether promise, or doctrine, or specific command, has in it some element bearing on conduct. God reveals nothing only in order that we may know, but all that, knowing, we may do and be what is pleasing in His sight. All His words are law.

But Paul sets forth another view of its purpose here; namely, to drive home to men’s consciences the conviction of sin. That is not the only purpose, for God reveals duty primarily in order that men may do it, and His law is meant to be obeyed. But, failing obedience, this second purpose comes into action, and His law is a swift witness against sin. The more clearly we know our duty, the more poignant will be our consciousness of failure. The light which shines to show the path of right, shines to show our deviations from it. And that conviction of sin, which it was the very purpose of all the previous Revelation to produce, is a merciful gift; for, as the Apostle implies, it is the prerequisite to the faith which saves.

As a matter of fact, there was a far profounder and more inward conviction of sin among the Jews than in any heathen nation. Contrast the wailings of many a psalm with the tone in Greek or Roman literature. No doubt there is a law written on men’s hearts which evokes a lower measure of the same consciousness of sin. There are prayers among the Assyrian and Babylonian tablets which might almost stand beside the Fifty-first Psalm; but, on the whole, the deep sense of sin was the product of the revealed law. The best use of our consciousness of what we ought to be, is when it rouses conscience to feel the discordance with it of what we are, and so drives us to Christ. Law, whether in the Old Testament, or as written in our hearts by their very make, is the slave whose task is to bring us to Christ, who will give us power to keep God’s commandments.

Another purpose of the law is stated in Rom 3:21, as being to bear witness, in conjunction with the prophets, to a future more perfect revelation of God’s righteousness. Much of the law was symbolic and prophetic. The ideal it set forth could not always remain unfulfilled. The whole attitude of that system was one of forward-looking expectancy. There is much danger lest, in modern investigations as to the authorship, date, and genesis of the Old Testament revelation, its central characteristic should be lost sight of; namely, its pointing onwards to a more perfect revelation which should supersede it.

II. Paul’s view of universal sinfulness.

He states that twice in this passage {Rom 3:20 - Rom 3:24}, and it underlies his view of the purpose of law. In Rom 3:20 he asserts that ‘by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified,’ and in Rom 3:23 he advances from that negative statement to the positive assertion that all have sinned. The impossibility of justification by the works of the law may be shown from two considerations: one, that, as a matter of fact, no flesh has ever done them all with absolute completeness and purity; and, second, that, even if they had ever been so done, they would not have availed to secure acquittal at a tribunal where motive counts for more than deed. The former is the main point with Paul.

In Rom 3:23 the same fact of universal experience is contemplated as both positive sin and negative falling short of the ‘glory’ {which here seems to mean, as in Joh 5:44, Joh 12:43, approbation from God}. ‘There is no distinction,’ but all varieties of condition, character, attainment, are alike in this, that the fatal taint is upon them all. ‘We have, all of us, one human heart.’ We are alike in physical necessities, in primal instincts, and, most tragically of all, in the common experience of sinfulness.

Paul does not mean to bring all varieties of character down to one dead level, but he does mean to assert that none is free from the taint. A man need only be honest in self-examination to endorse the statement, so far as he himself is concerned. The Gospel would be better understood if the fact of universal sinfulness were more deeply felt. Its superiority to all schemes for making everybody happy by rearrangements of property, or increase of culture, would be seen through; and the only cure for human misery would be discerned to be what cures universal sinfulness.

III. So we have next Paul’s view of the remedy for man’s sin.

That is stated in general terms in Rom 3:21 - Rom 3:22. Into a world of sinful men comes streaming the light of a ‘righteousness of God.’ That expression is here used to mean a moral state of conformity with God’s will, imparted by God. The great, joyful message, which Paul felt himself sent to proclaim, is that the true way to reach the state of conformity which law requires, and which the unsophisticated, universal conscience acknowledges not to have been reached, is the way of faith.

The message is so familiar to us that we may easily fail to realise its essential greatness and wonderfulness when first proclaimed. That God should give righteousness, that it should be ‘of God,’ not only as coming from Him, but as, in some real way, being kindred with His own perfection; that it should be brought to men by Jesus Christ, as ancient legends told that a beneficent Titan brought from heaven, in a hollow cane, the gift of fire; and that it should become ours by the simple process of trusting in Jesus Christ, are truths which custom has largely robbed of their wonderfulness. Let us meditate more on them till they regain, by our own experience of their power, some of the celestial light which belongs to them.

Observe that in Rom 3:22 the universality of the redemption which is in Christ is deduced from the universality of sin. The remedy must reach as far as the disease. If there is no difference in regard to sin, there can be none in regard to the sweep of redemption. The doleful universality of the covering spread over all nations, has corresponding to it the blessed universality of the light which is sent forth to flood them all. Sin’s empire cannot stretch farther than Christ’s kingdom.

IV. Paul’s view of what makes the Gospel the remedy.

In Rom 3:21 - Rom 3:22 it was stated generally that Christ was the channel, and faith the condition, of righteousness. The personal object of faith was declared, but not the special thing in Christ which was to be trusted in. That is fully set forth in Rom 3:24. We cannot attempt to discuss the great words in these verses, each of which would want a volume. But we may note that ‘justified’ here means to be accounted or declared righteous, as a judicial act; and that justification is traced in its ultimate source to God’s ‘grace,’-His own loving disposition-which bends to unworthy and lowly creatures, and is regarded as having for the medium of its bestowal the ‘redemption’ that is in Christ Jesus. That is the channel through which grace comes from God.

‘Redemption’ implies captivity, liberation, and a price paid. The metaphor of slaves set free by ransom is exchanged in Rom 3:25 for a sacrificial reference. A propitiatory sacrifice averts punishment from the offerer. The death of the victim procures the life of the worshipper. So, a propitiatory or atoning sacrifice is offered by Christ’s blood, or death. That sacrifice is the ransom-price through which our captivity is ended, and our liberty assured. As His redemption is the channel ‘through’ which God’s grace comes to men, so faith is the condition ‘through’ which {Rom 3:25} we make that grace ours.

Note, then, that Paul does not merely point to Jesus Christ as Saviour, but to His death as the saving power. We are to have faith in Jesus Christ {Rom 3:22}. But that is not a complete statement. It must be faith in His propitiation, if it is to bring us into living contact with His redemption. A gospel which says much of Christ, but little of His Cross, or which dilates on the beauty of His life, but stammers when it begins to speak of the sacrifice in His death, is not Paul’s Gospel, and it will have little power to deal with the universal sickness of sin.

The last verses of the passage set forth another purpose attained by Christ’s sacrifice; namely, the vindication of God’s righteousness in forbearing to inflict punishment on sins committed before the advent of Jesus. That Cross rayed out its power in all directions-to the heights of the heavens; to the depths of Hades {Col 1:20}; to the ages that were to come, and to those that were past. The suspension of punishment through all generations, from the beginning till that day when the Cross was reared on Calvary, was due to that Cross having been present to the divine mind from the beginning. ‘The judge is condemned when the guilty is acquitted,’ or left unpunished. There would be a blot on God’s government, not because it was so severe, but because it was so forbearing, unless His justice was vindicated, and the fatal consequences of sin shown in the sacrifice of Christ. God could not have shown Himself just, in view either of age-long forbearance, or of now justifying the sinner, unless the Cross had shown that He was not immorally indulgent toward sin.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19. “We know that so many things as the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world become guilty before God.” So long as Adam the First is on hand, you are under the law, because he broke it. The only way for you to be exonerated before the law is to satisfy it, which you can only do by having the man of sin executed. Then the law has no more quarrel with you. Your Christ has paid the penalty and gives you grace to live in harmony with the divine administration, after the penalty has been executed against the sin principle in your heart by exterminating it. We have now traversed the sin-side of the Pauline argument, and with the next verse enter upon the grace-side of this wonderful exposition of the redemptive scheme. You see now why Paul got a thrashing wherever he went. If he had contented himself simply to preach love and mercy, like the modern clergy, he might have saved his body from flagellations and stonings. But that is not the divine order. A man will never take bitter, caustic medicines till he finds that he is sick, and it is medicate or die. Under the delusions of Satan, none think they are sick till it is too late, unless they receive the light of the Holy Ghost in a radical conviction. This comes under the preaching of the Sinai Gospel, which uncaps hell and shakes the people over it. What an awfully unpopular introduction is this, holding all the starchy church people, as well as outsiders, right over an open hell and shaking with a strong arm, warning them that they will drop in with all their water baptism, sacraments, church rites, loyalty, and good works, if they do not come to God individually and cry for mercy till he saves them of His own free grace and power! Let a man come into a popular church and preach to them the utter futility of all their boasted righteousness, and tell them they are all on their way to hell right along with the slummites, and see how quickly they will run him out. We cry aloud to the people, holding up the panacea all in vain, because they do not think they need it. No intelligent physician ever administers medicine till he diagnoses the patient and becomes acquainted with the disease. If the preachers would begin, like Paul, on the sin-side and go down to the bottom, revealing the hidden things of darkness, holding the big church officers and the influential women out over an open hell day after day, they would raise a row just as Paul did. Sanctification thirty years ago made me a red-hot preacher of the Sinai Gospel. I have been pelted with rocks, dirt, eggs, potatoes, apples, run off frequently, hauled away, and threatened with immediate death. Why is it not so now with you? I am no longer physically equal to the evangelistic work. God is now using me as a teacher, helping the saints into better experiences and a more thorough understanding of the precious Word. If I were young again, I certainly, like Paul, would preach the Sinai Gospel more courageously than ever. Beginning with Rom 3:19, Paul evolves the longest argument in the Bible confirmatory of justification by the free grace of God in Christ, received and appropriated by faith alone without deeds of law. This wonderful and unanswerable argument runs through the remainder of chapter 3 and all of chapters 4 and 5, winding up with that grand a fortiori argument on the “much-mores.”

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3:19 Paul speaks of the entire Old Testament as the law (see also 1 Cor 9:8, 9; 14:21, 34; Gal 4:21). • Those to whom it was given (literally those in the law) were the Jews, who were given the Scriptures. • How can Paul conclude that the entire world is guilty before God on the basis of evidence from the Old Testament that Jews are sinful? He argues from the greater to the lesser, a standard Jewish rhetorical technique: If the law shows that the Jews, God’s own people, are guilty, then how much more are the Gentiles, who have not had the benefit of God’s instruction, also guilty.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Rom 3:19. Ὄσα) whatsoever. He has just now accumulated many testimonies from the law.—νόμος, the law) Therefore the testimony, Rom 3:10, etc., brought forward from the Psalms, arraigns [strikes] the Jews; nor ought they to think, that the accusations therein contained are against the Gentiles. Paul has brought no declaration of Scripture against the Gentiles, but has dealt with them by arguments drawn from the light of nature.—νόμος—νόμῳ) An instance of Δεινοτης,[36] [impressive vehemence in words]—ἹΝΑ, that) He presses this home to the Jews.—στόμα) mouth, bitter, Rom 3:14, and yet given to boasting, Rom 3:27. The Jews are chiefly intended here, as the Gentiles by the term world.—γένηται, may be made) [become] The world is always guilty, but it is made guilty, when the law accuses and condemns it.—πᾶς, all) not even excepting the Jews. The guilt of the Gentiles, as being manifest, is presupposed; the Jews are prosecuted to condemnation by arguments out of the law. These are guilty; and their condemnation completes the condemnation of the whole world as guilty.

[36] See Appendix.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom_3:19. The preceding quotations (in quibus magna est verborum atrocitas, Melancthon) were intended to prove that Jews and Gentiles are collectively under the dominion of sin (Rom_3:9); but how easily might it be imagined on the part of the conceited Jews (see especially Eisenmengers entdecktes Judenthum, I. p. 568 ff.) that the above passages of Scripture (of which those in Rom_3:10-12, taken from Psalms 14, really refer originally to the Gentiles, to Babylon), however they might affect the Gentiles, could have no application to themselves, the Jews, who had no need therefore to take them to themselves, as if they also were included in the same condemnation. Such a distinction, however, which could only promote a self-exaltation and self-justification at variance with the divine purpose in those declarations of His word, they were to forego, seeing that everything that the Scripture says has its bearing for the Jews. The Apostle therefore now continues, and that with very emphatic bringing out of the ὅσα in the first half of the verse and of the πᾶν and πᾶς in the second: we know however (as in Rom_2:2) that whatsoever the law saith, it speaketh to those that are in the law, consequently that the Jews may not except themselves from the reference of any saying in Scripture.

ὅσα] whatsoever, therefore also what is expressed in such condemnatory passages as the above, without exception.

ὁ νόμος] in accordance with its reference to Rom_3:10-18, is necessarily to be taken here as designation of the O. T. generally (comp 1Co_14:21; Joh_10:34; Joh_12:34; Joh_15:25; 2Ma_2:18); not, with Hunnius, Calovius, Balduin, and Sebastian Schmid, of the law in the dogmatic sense (comp Matthias); or of the Mosaic law, as Ammon and Glöckler, Th. Schott and Hofmann take it, confusing in various ways the connection.[785] So also van Hengel, who quite gratuitously wishes to assume an enthymeme with a minor premiss to be understood (but the law condemns all those sinners). The designation of the O. T. by ὁ νόμος, which forms the first, and for Israel most important, portion of it, was here occasioned by ΤΟῖς ἘΝ Τῷ ΝΌΜῼ, i.e. those who are in the law as their sphere of life.

λέγει.… λαλεῖ] All that the law says (materially, or respecting its contents, all λόγοι of the law), it speaks (speaks out, of the outward act which makes the λόγοι be heard, makes known through speech) to those who, etc. Comp on Joh_8:43; Mar_1:34; 1Co_9:8; 1Co_12:3. The dative denotes those to whom the ΛΑΛΕῖΝ applies (Krüger, § 48, 7, 13). Those who have their state of life within the sphere of the law are to regard whatsoever the law says as addressed to themselves, whether it was meant primarily for Jews or Gentiles. How this solemnly emphatic quaecunque heaps upon the Jews the Divine sentence of guilty, and cuts off from them every refuge, as if this or that declaration did not apply to or concern them!

ἵνα πᾶν στόμα Κ.Τ.Λ[787]] in order that every mouth (therefore also the Jew) may be stopped (Heb_11:33; Psa_107:42; Job_5:16; and see Wetstein), etc. This, viz. that no one shall be able to bring forward anything for his justification, is represented in ἵναwhich is not ita utas intended by the speaking law, i.e. by God speaking in the law. Reiche unjustly characterises this thought as absurd in every view and from every standpoint; the ἵνα πᾶν κ.τ.λ[788] does not announce itself as the sole and exclusive end, but on the contrary, without negativing other and higher ends, merely expresses one single and special teleological point, which is however the very point which the connection here required to be cited. The time to be mentally supplied for φραγῇ and ΓΈΝΗΤΑΙ is the future generally reckoned from the present of λαλεῖ, not that of the final judgment, which does not harmonise with the thought in Rom_3:9 to which the series of Scripture testimonies in Rom_3:10-18 is appended.

ὑπόδικος] punishable, κατάκριτος, ἀπαῤῥησίαστος, Theophylact; frequently used by classic writers, but elsewhere neither in the N. T. nor in the LXX. or Apocrypha.

Τῷ ΘΕῷ] belongs, not to ΦΡΑΓῇ (Matthias), but, after the manner of the more closely defining parallelism, merely to ὙΠΌΔΙΚ. ΓΈΝΗΤΑΙ: to God, as the Being to whom the penalty is to be paid. The opposite is ἀναίτιος ἀθανάτοισιν, Hesiod, ἜΡΓ. 825, and ΘΕΟῖς ἈΝΑΜΠΛΆΚΗΤΟς, Aesch. Agam. 352. Comp Plat. Legg. viii. p. 816 B: ὑπόδικος ἔστω τῷ βλαφθέντι, p. 868 D, 11, p. 932; Dem. 518, 3 a[790].

ΓΈΝΗΤΑΙ] The result which is to manifest itself, as in Rom_3:4.

Πᾶς Ὁ ΚΌΣΜΟς] quite generally (Rom_3:9); comp Eph_2:3. And if Paul has described[792] this generality (comp also Rom_3:23) thus insigni figura et verborum emphasi (Melancthon), the result extending to all humanity is not contradicted by the virtue of individuals, such as the patriarchs; for from the ideal, but at the same time legally true (comp Gal_3:10), standpoint of the Apostle this virtuousness is still no ΔΙΚΑΙΟΣΎΝΗ (but only a minor degree of the want of it), and does not therefore form an exception from the category of the ὙΠΌΔΙΚΟΝ ΕἾΝΑΙ Τῷ ΘΕῷ. See Rom_3:20. Though different as respects degree, yet all are affected and condemned by the declarations quoted; every one has a share in this corruption.[795]

[785] According to Hofmann (compare his Schriftbeweis, I. p. 623 f.; so too, in substance, Th. Schott) the train of thought is: after ver. 9 ff. the only further question that could be put is, whether anything is given to Christians that exempts them from the general guilt and punishment. The law possibly? No, they know that this law has absolutely (ὅσα) no other tenor than that which it presents to those who belong to its domain, for this purpose, that the whole world, in the same extent in which it is under sin, must in its own time (this idea being conveyed by the aorists φραγῇ and γένηται), when it comes to stand before God its Judge, be dumb before Him and recognise the justice of His condemning sentence. This interpretation, obscuring with a far-fetched ingenuity the plain sense of the words, and wringing out of it a tenor of thought to which it is a stranger, is a further result of Hofmanns having misunderstood the προέχομεθα in ver. 9, and having referred it, as also the subsequent προῃτιασάμεθα, to the Christians as subject, an error which necessarily deranged and dislocated for him the entire course of argument in vv. 920. At the same time it would not be even historically true that the law has absolutely no other tenor, etc.

[787] .τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

[788] .τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

[790] l and others; and other passages; and other editions.

[792] From the poetic tenor of the passage ἵνα πᾶν κ.τ.λ. Ewald conjectures that it reproduces a passage from the O. T. that is now lost. But how readily may it be conceived that Paul, who was himself of a deeply poetic nature, should, in the vein of higher feeling into which he had been brought by the accumulated words of psalm and prophecy, spontaneously express himself as he has done! That ὑπόδικος does not again occur in his writings, matters not; ἔνδικος also in ver. 8 is not again used.

[795] Compare Ernesti, Urspr. d. Sünde, II. p. 152 f.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom 3:19 . At this point the first great division of the epistle closes, that which began with chap. Rom 1:18 , and has been occupied with asserting the universal prevalence of sin. “We know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are in the law,” i.e. , to the Jews. For the distinction of λέγειν (in which the object is the main thing) and λαλεῖν (in which the speaker and the mode of utterance are made prominent), see Trench, Synonyms , § lxxvi., and commentary on Joh 8:43 . It is most natural to suppose that by “the things the law says” Paul means the words he has just quoted from the O.T. These words cannot be evaded by the very persons to whom the O.T. was given, and who have in it, so to speak, the spiritual environment of their life. In this case, ὁ νόμος is used in the wider sense of the old revelation generally, not specifically the Pentateuch, or even the statutory part of Scripture. For this use of the word, cf. 1Co 14:21 , where ἐν τῷ νόμῳ introduces a quotation from Isa 28:11 : and Joh 10:34 ( your law), Rom 15:25 ( their law), both prefacing quotations from Psalms (Psa 82:6 , Psa 35:19 ). At first sight there seems a disparity between the two parts of the verse. How does the fact that those who are under the law are impeached and condemned by such utterances of the law as those just quoted subserve the Divine intention to stop every mouth and make all the world answerable to God? We must suppose that all other men that is, the Gentiles, who are not under the law are convicted already; and that what is needed to prepare the way for the universal Gospel of grace is that those who have been under law should admit concerning themselves, what they are prompt enough to assert of all others (“sinners of the Gentiles”: Gal 2:15 ), that they have not a word to say, and are liable to God’s judgment. ὑπόδικος is a classical word, found here only in the N.T. Sanday and Headlam remark its “forensic” character.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom_3:19

Now we know; it is a thing plain in itself, and universally conceded, that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law. The word νόμος means that which binds, that to which we are bound to be conformed. It is that which binds the reason, the conscience, the heart, and the life, whether it be revealed in the constitution of our nature, or in the decalogue, or in the law of Moses, or in the Scriptures. It is the word or revelation of the will of God, considered as the norm or rule to which men are to conform their faith and practice. It depends on the context, under what aspect this rule is in any particular case contemplated. It may be the rule as written on the heart, Rom_2:14, or the law of Moses, or the whole Scriptures, as Joh_10:34. In this passage it obviously means the whole Old Testament, for the quotations given above are taken from the Psalm and the Prophets. In every instance the principle applies, that what the law says it says to those who have the law. Those to whom any revelation of the divine will is made are bound to be conformed to it. What the law written in the heart say, it says to those who have that law; and what the law as written in the Scripture says, it says to those who have the Scriptures. The declarations therefore contained in the Old Testament, which was the revelation of Gods will made to the Jews, were the norm or rule to which they were obliged to conform their judgments and conduct. If the Old Testament declared that all men are under sin, that there is none righteous, no not one, the Jews could not deny the truth of this universal declaration in its application to themselves. These passages speak not of heathen as heathen, but of fallen men as such, and therefore are to be understood of all men, of the Jews as well as of the Gentiles. That every mouth may be stopped. The word is ἵνα in order that. That is, the design of God in these general declarations was, that every mouth should be stopped; that all men should be reduced to silence under the conviction that they had nothing to say against the charge of sin. This idea is expressed in another form in the following clause: That the whole world (πᾶς ὁ κόσμος), all mankind, Jews and Gentiles, should become (γένηταις, in their own conviction, guilty before God. That is, that all men should be convinced of guilt. Guilt here, as always in theological language, means liability or exposure to punishment on account of sin. It is not to be confounded either with moral pollution or with mere demerit. It may exist where neither pollution nor personal demerit is to be found. And it may be removed where both remain. Christ is said to have born the guilt of our sins, although immaculate and without personal demerit; and justification removes the guilt (or just exposure to punishment) of the sinner, but it does not change his inward character. This is the proper meaning of ὑπόδικος; (ἔνοχος δίκης), guilty, satisfactionem alteri debens, obnoxious to punishment. Before God, τῷ Θεῷ, in relation to God, as it is to him that satisfaction for sin is due. It is he whom we have offended, and under whose sentence we lie. There are three things involved in the consciousness of sin; sense of moral turpitude, sense of demerit or of ill-desert, and the conviction that we ought to be punished. This last element is often most clearly revealed; so that a criminal often voluntarily gives himself up to justice. It is this that is denominated guilt, the obligation to suffer punishment; so that the guilty are not merely those who may be punished, but those whom justice (or moral rectitude) demands should be punished. It is this that stops the sinners mouth; and it is this which is met by satisfaction, so that although in the justified believer a sense of pollution and of ill-desert remains, there is no longer this dreadful conviction that God is bound to punish him. The conclusion to which the apostles argument, from experience and Scripture, has thus far led is, that all men are guilty in the sight of God; and if guilty, they cannot be justified on the ground of their personal character or conduct. To justify is to declare not guilty; and therefore the guilty cannot, on the ground of character, be justified.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He proveth that this grievous accusation which is uttered by David and Isaiah, doth properly concern the Jews.

The law of Moses.

A conclusion of all the former disputation, from verse 8 of the first Chapter. Therefore saith the Apostle, No man can hope to be justified by any Law, whether it be that general Law, or the particular Law of Moses, and therefore to be saved: seeing it appeareth (as we have already proved) by comparing the Law and man’s life together, that all men are sinners, and therefore worthy of condemnation in the sight of God.

Be found guilty before God.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Now we know that what . . . the law--that is, the Scriptures, considered as a law of duty.

saith, it saith to them that are under the law--of course, therefore, to the Jews.

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.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 19. What things soever the law saith] That the word law, here, does not mean the pentateuch, is evident from the preceding quotations, not one of which is taken from that work. Either the term law must here mean the Jewish writings in general, or that rule of moral conduct which God had given to both Jews and Gentiles: to the former in their own Scriptures; to the latter in that law written in their hearts by his own Spirit, and acknowledged in their written codes, and in their pleadings in every civil case. Now, according to this great law, this rule of moral conduct, whether given in a written revelation, as to the Jews, or by the secret inspiration of his Spirit, as in certain cases to the Gentiles, every mouth must be stopped, and the whole world, πας ο κοσμος, both Jews and Gentiles, stand convicted before God: for all mankind have sinned against this law.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

19. Now we know, etc. Leaving the Gentiles, he distinctly addresses his words to the Jews; for he had a much more difficult work in subduing them, because they, though no less destitute of true righteousness than the Gentiles, yet covered themselves with the cloak of God’s covenant, as though it was a sufficient holiness to them to have been separated from the rest of the world by the election of God. And he indeed mentions those evasions which he well understood the Jews were ready to bring forward; for whatever was said in the law unfavorably of mankind, they usually applied to the Gentiles, as though they were exempt from the common condition of men, and no doubt they would have been so, had they not fallen from their own dignity. Hence, that no false conceit as to their own worthiness should be a hinderance to them, and that they might not confine to the Gentiles alone what applied to them in common with others, Paul here anticipates them, and shows, from what Scripture declares, that they were not only blended with the multitude, but that condemnation was peculiarly denounced on them. And we indeed see the discretion of the Apostle in undertaking to refute these objections; for to whom but to the Jews had the law been given, and to whose instruction but theirs ought it to have served? What then it states respecting others is as it were accidental; or as they say, παρεργον, an appendage; but it applies its teaching mainly to its own disciples.

Under the law He says that the Jews were those to whom the law was destined, it hence follows, that it especially regards them; and under the word law he includes also the Prophets, and so the whole of the Old Testament — That every mouth may be stopped, etc.; that is, that every evasion may be cut off, and every occasion for excuse. It is a metaphor taken from courts of law, where the accused, if he has anything to plead as a lawful defense, demands leave to speak, that he might clear himself from the things laid to his charge; but if he is convicted by his own conscience, he is silent, and without saying a word waits for his condemnation, being even already by his own silence condemned. Of the same meaning is this saying in Job 40:4, “I will lay my hand on my mouth.” He indeed says, that though he was not altogether without some kind of excuse, he would yet cease to justify himself, and submit to the sentence of God. The next clause contains the explanation; for his mouth is stopped, who is so fast held by the sentence of condemnation, that he can by no means escape. According to another sense, to be silent before the Lord is to tremble at his majesty, and to stand mute, being astonished at his brightness.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(19) In order to bring home this testimony of Scripture more directly to the Jews, and to prevent any subterfuge by which they might attempt to shift the reference from themselves on to the Gentiles, the Apostle calls attention to the fact that the Law—i.e., the Old Testament, from which he has been quoting—speaks especially to those to whom it was given.

Saith . . . saith.—Different words are here used in the Greek; the first is applicable as much to the matter as to the utterance of that which is spoken, the second refers specially to the outward act by which it is enunciated or promulgated; this is addressed to certain persons.

Guilty before God.—Rather, guilty to God; the dative expresses the person to whom the penalty is due.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19. the law] Here not the Pentateuch, but the O. T. as a whole. So Joh_10:34; Joh_15:25. The O. T. does indeed predict and reveal much of redeeming mercy; but its main characteristic work (apart from prophecy) is to reveal the preceptive will of God and the sin of man.

under the law] Lit. in the law; within its precincts, its dominion. These persons are here the Jews, the primary objects of the O. T. message. The Gentiles are otherwise convicted; and the Jews being now also thus convicted (from the very title-deeds of their privileges) both of sin and of exposure to its doom, “the whole world is found guilty.” We must remember that the Apostle has had in view the Pharisaic prejudice that the only really endangered sinners were the “sinners of the Gentiles.” See Appendix A.

guilty] The original word occurs here only in N. T. A common classical meaning is “liable to legal process, actionable.” Every human soul owes to God the awful forfeit for sin. Strong, indeed, is the language of this verse, but no conscience that ever really awoke to the holiness of God thought it at last too strong.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For all have sinned,.... This is the general character of all mankind; all have sinned in Adam, are guilty by his sin, polluted with it, and condemned for it; all are sinners in themselves, and by their own actual transgressions; this is the case of the whole world, and of all the men in it; not only of the Gentiles, but of the Jews, and the more righteous among them: hence there is no difference in the state and condition of men by nature; nor is there any reason from and in themselves, why God saves one and not another; nor any room to despair of the grace and righteousness of Christ, on account of persons being, in their own view, the worst of sinners:

and hence it is, that they are all

come short of the glory of God; either of glorifying of God; man was made for this purpose, and was capable of it, though now through sin incapable; and it is only by the grace of God that he is enabled to do it: or of glorying: before him; sin has made him infamous, and is his shame; by it he has forfeited all external favours, and has nothing of his own to glory in; his moral righteousness is no foundation for boasting, especially before God: or of having glory from God; the most pure and perfect creature does not of itself deserve any glory and praise from God; good men, in a way of grace, will have praise of God; but sinners can never expect any on their own account: or of the glorious grace of God, as sanctifying and pardoning grace, and particularly the grace of a justifying righteousness; man has no righteousness, nor can he work out one; nor will his own avail, he wants a better than that: or of eternal glory; which may be called the glory of God, because it is of his preparing, what he calls persons to by his grace, and which of his own free grace he bestows upon them, and will chiefly lie in the enjoyment of him; now this is represented sometimes as a prize, which is run for, and pressed after; but men, through sinning, come short of it, and must of themselves do so for ever: or rather of the image of God in man, who is called "the image and glory of God", Co1 11:7, which consisted externally in government over the creatures; internally, in righteousness and holiness, in wisdom and knowledge, in the bias of his mind to that which is good, and in power to perform it; of all which he is come short, or deprived by sinning.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

Ver. 19. Guilty] Culpable, and such as cannot plead their own cause without an advocate. (Chrysos.)

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Now we know - We all admit. It is a conceded plain point.

What things soever - Whether given as precepts, or recorded as historical facts. Whatever things are found in the Law. “The law saith.” This means here evidently the Old Testament. From that the apostle had been drawing his arguments, and his train of thought requires us here to understand the whole of the Old Testament by this. The same principle applies, however, to all law, that it speaks only to those to whom it is expressly given.

It saith to them ... - It speaks to them for whom it was expressly intended; to them for whom the Law was made. The apostle makes this remark in order to prevent the Jew from evading the force of his conclusion. He had brought proofs from their own acknowledged laws, from writings given expressly for them, and which recorded their own history, and which they admitted to be divinely inspired. These proofs, therefore, they could not evade.

That every mouth may be stopped - This is perhaps, a proverbial expression, Job 5:15; Psa 107:42. It denotes that they would be thoroughly convinced; that the argument would be so conclusive as that they would have nothing to reply; that all objections would be silenced. Here it denotes that the argument for the depravity of the Jews from the Old Testament was so clear and satisfactory, that nothing could be alleged in reply. This may be regarded as the conclusion of his whole argument, and the expressions may refer not to the Jews only, but to all the world. Its meaning may, perhaps, be thus expressed, “The Gentiles are proved guilty by their own deeds, and by a violation of the laws of nature. They sin against their own conscience; and have thus been shown to be guilty before God Rom. 1. The Jews have also been shown to be guilty; all their objections have been silenced by an independent train of remark; by appeals to their own Law; by arguments drawn from the authority which they admit. Thus, the mouths of both are stopped. Thus, the whole world becomes guilty before God.” I regard, therefore, the word “that” here ἵνα hina as referring, not particularly to the argument from the Law of the Jews, but to the whole previous train of argument, embracing both Jews and Gentiles. His conclusion is thus general or universal, drawn from arguments adapted to the two great divisions of mankind.

And all the world - Both Jews and Gentiles, for so the strain of the argument shows. That is, all by nature; all who are out of Christ; all who are not pardoned. All are guilty where there is not some scheme contemplating forgiveness, and which is not applied to purify them. The apostle in all this argument speaks of what man is, and ever would be, without some plan of justification appointed by God.

May become - May “be.” They are not made guilty by the Law; but the argument from the Law, and from fact, proves that they are guilty.

Guilty before God - ὑπόδικος τῷ Θεῷ hupodikos tō Theō. Margin, “subject to the judgment of God.” The phrase is taken from courts of justice. It is applied to a man who has not vindicated or defended himself; against whom therefore the charge or the indictment is found true; and who is in consequence subject to punishment. The idea is that of subjection to punishment; but always because the man personally deserves it, and because being unable to vindicate himself, he ought to be punished. It is never used to denote simply an obligation to punishment, but with reference to the fact that the punishment is personally deserved.” This word, rendered “guilty,” is not used elsewhere in the New Testament, nor is it found in the Septuagint. The argument of the apostle here shows,

That in order to guilt, there must be a law, either that of nature or by revelation Rom. 1; 2; 3; and, That in order to guilt, there must be a violation of that law which may be charged on them as individuals, and for which they are to be held personally responsible.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

And all the world may be made subject to God. That is, God permitted these sins in all men, that sanctification and salvation might be from Christ only, the Redeemer of all men, so that neither Jew nor Gentile should be justified, but by the free and liberal gift of his grace. See St. John Chrysostom.[2] (Witham)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Ut subditus fiat omnis mundus Deo, Greek: upodikos genetai. o upodikos kurios legetai, o me dunameos archein eauto pros apologian, alla tes eterou deomenos boethei.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Another anticipation of an objection, to this purpose: All these testimonies (might the Jews say) do not concern us, they concern the impure and Gentile world only, unless possibly some profane wretches amongst ourselves also. But to this the apostle says; We know (which some think hath the force of an asseveration) that whatsoever the law of God, more especially the Mosaical law, or more generally all that is contained in the Scripture, saith of the wickedness and defection of mankind, it saith to the Jews more particularly, to whom the law was given, and who are under the conduct of it; much the same with that phrase, Rom 2:12; see Rom 6:15; 1Co 9:20.

That every mouth may be stopped; i.e. hindered from boasting, to which the Jews were so prone; or rather, that conscience might so press them, that they should silently, or as it were speechless, expect their own damnation. without being able to frame any excuse: see Psa 63:11; Eze 16:63; Mat 22:12.

And all the world may become guilty before God; that Jews and Gentiles and all mankind, as depraved, might be obnoxious to the judgment and condemnation of God: see Rom 3:9, and Joh 3:18.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

19. Under the law—The Jew cannot claim that these passages describe Gentilism alone; their actual application is to the Jews, and the conclusive authority is their own Old Testament.

Every mouth may be stopped— Scripture, like a gag, suppresses all contradiction from Jewish lips.

All the world—So that the Jew is compelled to take rank with the Gentile on the common footing of universal ruin before God. The Jew is now silenced, but reappears again in the ninth chapter. Yet repressive as is the hand, and often severe as is the tone, of the apostle upon the Jew, how expansive and progressive are his views! So far as God is concerned, to him are attributed a divine impartiality over all our race. So far as the Jew is concerned, he is emancipated from a burdensome ritual, and brought into equal brotherhood with his brother man. So far as Christianity is concerned, it breaks the shell of narrow Judaism, and spreads its wings over all the races of mankind.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 19, 20. Now we know that what things soever the Law (o nomov here for the Old Testament generally as the embodiment and exponent of the Law) saith, it speaketh to them that are under the Law (not to the world outside, but to those within its own sphere): that every mouth (the Jew"s as well as the Gentile"s) may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Because by works of law (nomov here suitably without the article; see on Rom_2:13) shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for through law is knowledge of sin. In this concluding verse the apostle briefly intimates the reason of law"s inefficacy for justification, anticipating, after a manner usual with him, what is afterwards to be more fully set forth, as especially in Ro 7. The reason is that law in itself only defines sin and makes it sinful, but does not emancipate from it.

Vers. 19, 20. The purpose of Law.

Although it is the main intention of the apostle, in speaking of the Law, to show its insufficiency for the purpose with which its introduction and publication were commonly credited, his teaching would be misunderstood were he supposed to disparage it; for St. Paul held the Law of God in the highest reverence, although he did not attribute to it all with which it was connected in the mind of the unchristian Jew.

I THE PRIMARY PURPOSE OF THE LAW. This was unquestionably the revelation of the Divine character, attributes, and will. God is not only the perfectly holy Being; he is also the perfectly righteous Ruler. Truth declares what he is; Law declares what he will have his subjects to be. Accordingly, revelation takes the form, not only of the indicative, but of the imperative. Law is the expression of God"s justice, and of his will that all the subjects of his moral government should partake of his holiness, and, in their relations to one another and to him, should do those things that please him. His commandments, statutes, ordinances, are the utterance of his judgment as to what is good, what is best, for his intelligent creatures.

II THE SECONDARY PURPOSE OF THE LAW. It is upon this that the inspired apostle lays stress in the passage now before us.

1. The Law reveals sin. It is a standard beside which the deficiencies and errors of men"s conduct become plainly manifest.

2. The Law condemns the sinner. It is not simply a declaration of what is right; it exposes and censures what is wrong. It speaks the sentence against the violators of its rules.

3. The Law silences the sinner. It leaves him without justification, apology, or excuse.

III THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE OF THE LAW. This is unquestionably, in the case of our humanity, to prepare the way for the gospel. The Law is the pedagogue, the slave who attends and conducts the pupil, and it leads unto Christ. "By the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified in God"s sight." Yet we cannot believe that a merciful God publishes the Law simply for the condemnation of men. It does reveal the heinousness of sin, making it appear exceedingly sinful. It does reveal the helplessness of the sinner. But all this is preparatory to a remedial and redemptive intervention. What the Law could not do, God does by the gift of his Son, who obeyed and magnified the Law in his own Person, and at the same time secured for sinful men, upon compliance with the conditions of faith and repentance, their exemption from the Law"s penalties, and their enjoyment of the Divine favour, participation in the Divine nature and life, and inheritance in the Divine and eternal blessedness. Thus that which appeared the instrument of wrath has been converted into the occasion of salvation.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Whatsoever the law - The Old Testament. Saith, it saith to them that are under the law - That is, to those who own its authority; to the Jews, and not the gentiles. St. Paul quoted no scripture against them, but pleaded with them only from the light of nature. Every mouth - Full of bitterness, ver. 14, and yet of boasting, ver. 27. May become guilty - May be fully convicted, and apparently liable to most just condemnation. These things were written of old, and were quoted by St. Paul, not to make men criminal, but to prove them so.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

become

be brought under the judgment of God.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A special word to the Jews:

v. 19. Now we know that what things so ever the Law saith it saith to them who are under the Law, that every mouth maybe stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.

v. 20. Therefore, by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for by the Law is the knowledge of sin.

In the previous passage the apostle had spoken of men in general, both Jews and Gentiles, giving a full and detailed description of their natural condition. He now applies the thought to the Jews in particular, to those that were under the Law in a special sense. So we know, it is a fact generally conceded, it is a statement which may be assumed at once, without further proof. Whatever things, all the things which the Law tells, it speaks with reference to the Lawgiver and to the purpose of His will, to them that are under the Law, who made their boast of the Mosaic Law, whose entire life, down to the minutest details, was regulated by its provisions. But the purpose of the Law and of all instruction in the Law is that every mouth should be silenced, and that the entire world should become guilty before God. In the case of the heathen the deeds of their depravity were evidently culpable. But the Jews, in whose case the vices and transgressions were often covered with a certain external righteousness and show of sanctity, were equally guilty before the Law of God. Not one mouth can be opened in a plea of innocence and righteousness, but the whole world, regardless of race and nationality, should stand convicted of guilt, be liable to punishment on account of sin. And why will all the world become guilty before God? Because by the deeds of the Law will no flesh be justified before Him. It is impossible for any person, by means of the works which are demanded by the Law, to stand before God, to be accepted by Him, as a just person; no sinner can fulfill the Law in its real requirements, actually keep all its demands in regard to omission and commission. For through the Law, by the Law, is the knowledge of sin. The Law convicts us of sin; it shows us our manifold transgressions; it condemns us by bringing home the fact that our sin deserves the wrath of God; and this knowledge is full and accurate. "Through the Law my conscience grows and fills me with wrath against the Law and against God that has given the Law, the sin thus becoming exceedingly sinful through the commandment. " (Luther.) To justify a sinner, to pronounce him just in the sight of God, that is not the purpose of the Law; for that it was never intended. Note: This purpose of the Law is utilized by the Christians every day in examining their lives; for, as in a mirror, it reveals the sins and shortcomings of man, it convinces him of his guilt and damnation.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Observe here, Lest the Jews should think to elude or evade the force of the foregoing testimonies concerning man’s corruption and depravation, as not belonging to them, but to the Gentiles only; he tells them, that what the law, that is, the books of the Old Testament, do thus say, it says to those that are under the law; that is, to those that are subjects of it, and obliged by it; to such as are under the instruction and direction of it, as the Jews are known to be; and if so, then every mouth must be stopped; Jew and Gentile both must own themselves before God, obnoxious to his wrath, without being able to say anything for themselves.

Learn hence, that the holy law of God brings such plain evidence and conviction with it, that no man can have a word to speak against it: When God spreads before men the purity of his laws, and the impiety of their own lives, every man must sit down silent, and lay his hand upon his mouth, not having one word to object why sentence should not be executed, because they have all transgressed.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law [i. e., to the Jews]; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God :

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

19–26. Whatsoever the law saith, etc. The law of Moses was written for the Jews especially, and whatsoever it saith, it saith to those under it, to the Jews; just as the United States law is addressed to the people of the United States. That every mouth may be stopped. It has just been seen that even the mouth of the Jew is stopped, since “none are righteous, no, not one;” hence all the world, Jew as well as Gentile, are guilty before God.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

whatever the law says, it speaks to

Paul speaks of the law here as if it were alive and had its own voice. AT: "everything that the law says people should do is for" or "all the commands that Moses wrote in the law are for" (See: Personification)

the ones who are under the law

"those who must obey the law"

in order that every mouth may be shut

Here "mouth" is a synecdoche that means the words people speak. You can translate this in an active form. AT: "so that no people will be able to say anything valid to defend themselves" (See: Synecdoche and Active or Passive)

the whole world held accountable to God

Here "world" is a synecdoche that represents all the people who live in the world. AT: "that God can declare everyone in the world guilty" (See: Synecdoche)

flesh

Here "flesh" refers to all human beings.

For

Possible meanings are 1) "Therefore" or 2) "This is because"

through the law comes the knowledge of sin

"when someone knows God's law, he realizes that he has sinned"

translationWords

law

world

God

flesh

just

works

sin

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

19. οἴδαμεν δὲ. What is the connexion? The disadvantage of the Jew has been shown not to be complete—Scripture being adduced to support the statement that all are under sin. So far Jew and Gentile are equal. But the Jew is brought more signally and definitely under GOD’s judgment, just because of his possession of the law: the utterance of the law is in a special degree addressed to him; and he is less able, consequently, even than the Gentile to maintain any plea against GOD. These verses, then, explain the qualification contained in οὐ πάντως. In a certain sense he is at a disadvantage as compared with the Gentile. Greater privilege involves greater responsibility. (So with Gifford, practically, though not in detail.) We may say then, also, that we have here the final answer to τί τὸ περισσὸν τοῦ Ἰ. (Rom 3:1). It was a true advantage to have fuller light, even though it brought greater condemnation (cf. ἐν δὲ φάει καὶ ὄλεσσον).

οἴδαμεν δὲ. δὲ carries us back to Rom 3:9, οὐ πάντως.

οἴδαμεν. Almost = of course.

ὁ νόμος. Not = τὰ λόγια, Rom 3:2, but in its common sense ‘the Mosaic law.’ S. Paul presses the point that the injunctions of the law are meant for those who receive them, and by them the Jew is condemned, as against the plea of the Jew that his privileged position exempts him from judgment. Cf. Gifford, ad lo[108]. and on Rom 2:3.

[108] ad loc ad locum

φραγῇ. 2Co 11:10, Heb 11:33 only. ἐμφράττειν more common w. στόμα; cf. Wetst.

ὑπόδικος. Only here in N.T.; = liable to an action. The dative seems always to be used of the person injured, not of the judge. The metaphor, then, suggests a trial as between GOD and His people.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19.] He proves the applicability of these texts to the Jews by their being found in the Jewish Scriptures: not in any Gentile representation, which might exclude Jews, but spoken universally, in those very books which were the cherished possession of the Jews themselves.

ὁ νόμος] Here, the whole O. T., the law, prophets, and Psalms: see Joh 10:34, where our Lord cites a Psalm as in ‘the law.’

τοῖς ἐν τῷ ν. λαλεῖ] it speaks (not says,—λαλέω is not ‘to say,’ see Joh 8:25, note) to (or for, dat. commodi: i.e. its language belongs to, is true of, when not otherwise specified) those who are in (under) the law. So that the Jews cannot plead exemption from this description or its consequences.

ἵνα in order that—not ‘so that:’ the bringing in all the world guilty before God is an especial and direct aim of the revelation of God’s justice in the law,—that His grace by faith in Christ may come on all who abandon self-righteousness and believe the gospel.

πᾶν στόμα φραγῇ] If the Jew’s mouth is shut, and his vaunting in the law taken away, then much more the Gentile’s, and the whole world (see above ver. 6) becomes (subjective, as γίνεσθω ver. 4) guilty before God.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19. What is the meaning of this verse? Does it mean that the passages just quoted are addressed to Jews (ὁ νόμος = O. T.; νόμον τὴν παλαιὰν γραφὴν ὀνομάζει, ἧς μέρος τὰ προφητικά Euthym.-Zig.), and therefore they are as much guilty before God as the Gentiles? So most commentators. Or does it mean that the guilt of the Jews being now proved, as they sinned they must also expect punishment, the Law (ὁ νόμος = the Pentateuch) affirming the connexion between sin and punishment. So Gif. Both interpretations give a good sense. [For though (i) does not strictly prove that all men are guilty but only that the Jews are guilty, this was really the main point which needed proving, because the Jews were apt to explain away the passages which condemned them, and held that—whatever happened to the Gentiles—they would escape.] The question really turns upon the meaning of ὁ νόμος. It is urged, (i) that there is only a single passage in St. Paul where ὁ νόμος clearly = O. T. (1Co 14:21, a quotation of Isa 28:11): compare however Joh 10:34 (= Psa 82:6), 15:25 (= Psa 35:19); (ii) that in the corresponding clause, τοῖς ἐν τῷ νόμῳ must = the Law, in the narrower sense; (iii) that in ver. 21 the Law is expressly distinguished from the Prophets.

Yet these arguments are hardly decisive: for (i) the evidence is sufficient to show that St. Paul might have used ὁ νόμος in the wider sense; for this one instance is as good as many; and (ii) we must not suppose that St. Paul always rigidly distinguished which sense he was using; the use of the word in one sense would call up the other (cf. Note on ὁ θάνατος in ch. 5:12).

Oltr. also goes a way of his own, but makes ὁ νόμος = Law in the abstract (covering at once for the Gentile the law of conscience, and for the Jew the law of Moses), which is contrary to the use of ὁ νόμος.

λέγει … λαλεῖ: λέγειν calls attention to the substance of what is spoken, λαλεῖν to the outward utterance; cf. esp. McClellan, Gospels, p. 383 ff.

φραγῇ: cf. ἀναπολόγητος 1:20, 2:1; the idea comes up at each step in the argument.

ὑπόδικο: not exactly ‘guilty before God,’ but ‘answerable to God.’ ὑπόδικος takes gen. of the penalty; dat. of the person injured to whom satisfaction is due (τῶν διπλασίων ὑπόδικος ἔστω τῷ βλαφθέντι Plato, Legg. 846 B). So here: all mankind has offended against God, and owes Him satisfaction. Note the use of a forensic term.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

We know. Often in Paul, of a thing generally conceded.

Saith - speaketh [λεγει - λαλει] . See on Mt 28:18. The former contemplates the substance, the latter the expression of the law.

May be stopped [φραγη] . Lit., fenced up. The effect of overwhelming evidence upon an accused party in court.

May become guilty before God [υποδικος γενηται τω θεω] . Rev., brought under the judgment of God.

Upodikov under judgment, occurs only here. In classical Greek it signifies brought to trial or liable to be tried. So Plato, "Laws," 846, of a magistrate imposing unjust penalties. "Let him be liable to pay double to the injured party." Id., 879, "The freeman who conspired with the slave shall be liable to be made a slave." The rendering brought under judgment regards God as the judge; but He is rather to be regarded as the injured party. Not God 's judgments, but His rights are referred to. The better rendering is liable to pay penalty to God. 28

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vv. 19, 20. “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it speaketh for them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become subject to judgment before God. Seeing that by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

By his we know, Paul appeals to the common sense of his readers. It is obvious, indeed, that the Old Testament, while depicting to the Jews the wickedness of the Gentiles, did not at all mean to embitter them against the latter, but to put them on their guard against the same sins, and preserve them from the same judgments; a proof that God saw in their hearts the same germs of corruption, and foresaw their inevitable development if the Jews did not remain faithful to Him. Thus, while none of the sayings quoted might refer to them, they were nevertheless all uttered for them.

The law here denotes the whole Old Testament, as being throughout the rule for Israelitish life; comp. Joh 10:34; 1Co 14:21, etc.

The difference of meaning between the words λέγειν, to say, and λαλεῖν, to speak, comes out clearly in this passage—the first referring to the contents of the saying, the second to the fact of its utterance.

There is no reason for weakening the sense of the conjunction ἵνα, in order that, and making it signify so that. The object of all those declarations given forth by Scripture regarding the wickedness of the natural man, was really to close his mouth against all vainglory, as that to which a man filled with self-satisfaction gives himself up. Every mouth, even the Jews’. Καί: and that thus. All the world: all mankind, Jew and Gentile; ὑπόδικος, placed under the stroke of justice, like one whom the judge has declared guilty, and who owes satisfaction to the law he has violated. The word is frequently used in this sense in the classics; it is a judicial term, corresponding to the word Paul had used to denote the accusation (αἴτιᾶσθαι, Rom 3:9). The last word: to God, is full of solemnity; it is into the hands of His justice that the whole guilty world falls.

The all the is so true that the only possible exception, that of the Jewish people, is excluded (Rom 3:20). This people, indeed, could have alleged a host of ritualistic and moral works performed daily in obedience to the divine law. Did not such works establish in their case special merit and right to God’s favor? The apostle sets aside such a claim, Διότι: for the reason that. No flesh: no human creature (see on Rom 1:3).

Here for the first time we meet with the expression ἔργα νόμου, works of the law, one of the important terms in the apostle’s vocabulary. It is found, however, only in the Epistles to the Romans (Rom 3:28, Rom 9:32) and to the Galatians (Rom 2:16; Rom 3:2; Rom 3:5; Rom 3:10). But, nevertheless, it expresses one of the ideas which lie at the root of his experience and of his view of Christian truth. It sums up the first part of his life. It may be understood in two ways. A work of law may mean: a work exactly conformed to the law, corresponding to all the law prescribes (Hodge, Morison, etc.); or it may mean: such a work as man can accomplish under the dispensation of the law, and with such means only as are available under this dispensation. In the first sense it is certainly unnecessary to explain the impossibility of man’s finding his righteousness in those works by an imperfection inherent in the moral ideal traced by the law. For Paul himself says, Rom 7:14, that “the law is spiritual;” Rom 7:12, that “the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, just, and good;” Rom 8:4, that “the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer consists in fulfilling what the law has determined to be righteous.” Much more, he goes the length of affirming positively, with Moses himself (Lev 18:5), that if any one exactly fulfilled the law he would live by his obedience (Rom 10:5; Gal 3:12). Taking this meaning, then, why cannot the works of the law justify? It can only be man’s powerlessness to do them. St. Paul would then say: “No man will be justified by the works of the law, because works really conformed to the spirit of the law are beyond his power to realize.” Thus the kind of works referred to in the declaration: “not being justified by the works of the law,” would be ideal and not real. This meaning is far from natural. From Paul’s way of speaking of the works of the law, we cannot help thinking that he has a fact in view—that he is reckoning with a real and not a fictitious value. We must therefore come to the second meaning: works such as man can do when he has no other help than the law—that is to say, in fact, in his own strength. The law is perfect in itself. But it does not provide fallen man with the means of meeting its demands. Paul explains himself clearly enough on this head, Gal 3:21 : “If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.” In other words, the law does not communicate the Spirit of God, and through Him the life of love, which is the fulfilling of the law (Rom 13:10). Works wrought in this state, notwithstanding their external conformity to the letter of the law, are not therefore its real fulfilment. Though agreeable to the legal statute, they are destitute of the moral disposition which would give them value in the eyes of God. Paul himself had groaned till the time of his conversion over the grievous contrast in his works which he constantly discerned between the appearance and the reality; comp. the opposition between the state which he calls, Rom 7:6, oldness of the letter and newness of spirit. He gives his estimate of the works of the law when, after saying of himself before his conversion, Php 3:6 : “As to the righteousness which is under the law, blameless,” he adds, Rom 3:7 : “But what things were gain to me (all this from the human point of view blameless righteousness), these I counted loss for Christ’s sake.”

There remains one question to be examined. Is it true, as Theodoret, Pelagius, and many modern critics have thought, that Paul is speaking here only of ceremonial works imposed by the law, and not of works implying moral obedience? The meaning of the verse would then be this: “The whole world is condemned; for the Jews themselves cannot be justified by the observance of the ceremonies which their law prescribes.” But such a distinction between two kinds of works is opposed to the context; for the apostle does not contrast work with work—he contrasts work with faith. Then how could he add immediately, that by the law is the knowledge of sin? From Rom 7:7-8, it appears that this saying applies above all to the moral law. For it was the tenth commandment which led the apostle to discern covetousness in his heart, and it was this discovery of covetousness which convinced him of sin. Hence it appears that the last words of our verse refer to the moral, and not the ceremonial law, which decides the meaning of the term: the works of the law. Besides, the expression all flesh, which evidently embraces the Gentiles, could not be applied to them if the law were here taken as the ceremonial law, for in this sense they have never had it. In general, the distinction between the ritual and the moral elements of the law is foreign to the Jewish conscience, which takes the law as a divine unity.

It follows from this saying of the apostle, that man ought never to attempt to put any work whatever between God and himself as establishing a right to salvation, whether a work wrought before his conversion proceeding from his natural ability, for it will lack the spirit of love which alone would render it good in God’s sight; or even a work posterior to regeneration and truly good (ἔργον ἀγαθόν, Eph 2:10), for as such it is the fruit of the Spirit, and cannot be transformed into a merit of man.

The declarative meaning of the verb δικαιοῦν, to justify, appears clearly here from the two subordinate clauses: by the works of the law, and before him (see on Rom 1:17).

By a short proposition (Rom 3:20 b) the apostle justifies the principle affirmed Rom 3:20 a. Far from having been given to sinful man to furnish him with a means of justification, the law was rather given to help him in discerning the sin which reigns over him; ἐπίγνωσις, discernment, proof.

This thought is only indicated here; it will be developed afterward. Indeed, Paul throughout the whole of this piece is treating of sin as guilt, forming the ground of condemnation. Not till chap. 7 will he consider sin as a power, in its relation to the law, and in this new connection; then will be the time for examining the idea with which he closes this whole passage.

Judaism was living under a great illusion, which holds it to this very hour, to wit, that it is called to save the Gentile world by communicating to it the legal dispensation which it received through Moses. “Propagate the law,” says the apostle, “and you will have given to the world not the means of purifying itself, but the means of seeing better its real corruption.” These for us are commonplaces, but they are become so through our Epistle itself. At the time when it was written, these commonplaces were rising on the horizon like divine beams which were to make a new day dawn on the world.

On the order of ideas in this first section, according to Hofmann and Volkmar.

Hofmann finds the principal division of this section between Rom 3:4-5. Up to Rom 3:4, the apostle is proving that God’s wrath rests on mankind, whether Gentile (Rom 1:18 to Rom 2:8) or Jewish (Rom 2:9 to Rom 3:4); but from that point all the apostle says applies specially to Christians, thus: “As we are not ignorant, we Christians (Rom 3:5), that man’s sin, even when God is glorified by it, can be justly judged (Rom 3:5-7), and as we do not teach, as we are accused of doing, that the good which God extracts fron evil excuses it (Rom 3:8), we bow, with all other men, before the Scripture declarations which attest the common sin, and we apply to ourselves the sentence of condemnation which the law pronounces on the whole world. Only (Rom 3:21 et seq.) we do not rest there; for we have the happiness of knowing that there is a righteousness of faith through which we escape from wrath.”

This construction is refuted, we think, by three principal facts

1. The man who judges, Rom 2:1, is necessarily the Jew (see the exegesis).

2. The objection, Rom 3:5, is closely connected with the quotation from Psalms 51, and cannot be the beginning of a wholly new development.

3. The question: “What then? have we a shelter?” (Rom 3:9), is too plainly a reference to that of Rom 3:1 (“what then is the advantage of the Jew?”) to be applied otherwise than specially to the Jew. This is confirmed by the end of Rom 3:9, in which the apostle gives the reason for the first proposition in this general sentence: “For we have proved both Jews and Greeks.” It is clear, therefore, that as chap. 1 from Rom 3:18 describes the wrath of God displayed on the Gentiles, chap. 2 describes and demonstrates the wrath of God as accumulating over the Jewish world, and that the passage Rom 3:1-8 is simply intended to set aside the objection which the Jew might draw from his exceptional superiority. Rom 3:9-20 are the scriptural resumé and demonstration of this double condemnation of Jews and Gentiles.

According to Volkmar, chap. 1 from Rom 3:18 describes the wrath of God against all sin, and chap. 2 that same wrath against all sinners, even against the Jew, notwithstanding his excuses (Rom 2:1-16) and his advantages, which he is unable to turn to moral account (Rom 3:17-29), and finally, notwithstanding the greatest of his privileges, the possession of the Messianic promises (Rom 3:1-8). Here, Rom 3:9, Volkmar places the beginning of the new section, that of the righteousness of faith. “Since the whole world is perishing, Rom 3:9-20, God saves the world by the righteousness of faith, which is confirmed by the example both of Abraham and Adam, the type of Christ.” This construction differs from ours only in two points, which are not to its advantage, as it appears to me—(1) The antithesis between all sins (chap. 1.) and all sinners (chap. 2), which is too artificial to be apostolical; (2) The line of demarkation between the preceding and the new section fixed at Rom 3:9 (instead of Rom 3:21), a division which awkwardly separates the section on wrath in its entirety (Rom 1:18 to Rom 3:8) from its scriptural summary (Rom 3:9-20).

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.