TEXT.

written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

5 But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous, who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)

6 God forbid! for then, how shall God judge the world?

7 For, if the truth of God hath more abounded, through my lye, unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?

PARAPHRASE.

tain such a thought; yea, let God be acknowledged to be true, and every man a liar, as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

5 But you will say farther, if it be so, that our sinfulness commendeth the righteousness of God, shown in keeping his word given to our forefathers, what shall I say, is it not injustice in God to punish us for it, and cast us off? (I must be understood to say this, in the person of a car6 nal man, pleading for himself) God forbid! For if God 7 be unrighteous, how shall he judge the world? For,

NOTES.

5 That, by "the righteousness of God," St. Paul here intends God's faithfulness, in keeping his promise of saving believers, gentiles as well as jews, by righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ, is plain, ver. 4, 7, 26. St. Paul's great design here, and all through the eleven first chapters of this epistle, being to convince the Romans, that God purposed, and in the Old Testament declared, that he would receive and save the gentiles, by faith in the Messias, which was the only way, whereby jews, or gentiles (they being all sinners, and equally destitute of righteousness by works) were to be saved.

This was a doctrine which the jews could not bear, and therefore the apostle here, in the person of a jew, urges, and, in his own person, answers their objections against it, confirming to the Romans the vei acity and faithfulness of God, on whom they might, with all assurance, depend, for the performance of whatever he said.

6 4 This, which is an argument in the mouth of Abraham, Gen. xviii. 25, St. Paul very appositely makes use of, to stop the mouths of the blasphemous jews.

verse, to

7e "For." This particle plainly joins what follows, in this and the next vengeance, in the fifth verse, and shows it to be, as it is, a continuation of the objection begun in that verse; why St. Paul broke it into pieces, by intruding the 6th verse into the middle of it, there is a very plain reas. In the objection there were two things to be corrected; first, the charging God with unrighteousness, which as soon as mentioned, it was a becoming interruption of St Paul, to quash immediately, and to stop the jews mouths, with the words of Abraham. 2dly, The other thing, in the objection, was a false

TEXT.

S And not rather (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say) " Let us do evil, that good may come?" whose damnation is just.

9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both jews and gentiles, that they are all under

sin:

PARAPHRASE.

if the truth and veracity of God hath the more appeared to his glory, by reason of my lyef, i.e. my sin, why yet 8 am I condemned for a sinner, and punished for it? Why rather should not this be thought a right consequence, and a just excuse? Let us do evil that good may come of it, that glory may come to God by it. This some maticiously and slanderously report us christians to say, for which they deserve, and will from God receive, punishment, as they deserve.

9 Are we jews, then, in any whit a better condition than the gentiles? Not at all. For I have already brought a

NOTES.

calumny upon the christians, as if they, preaching justification by free grace, said, "Let us do evil that good may come of it." To which the apostle's answer was the more distinct, being subjoined to that branch, separated from the other.

f" Lye." The sense of the place makes it plain, that St. Paul, by lye, here means sin in general, but seeins to have used the word lye, as having a more forcible and graceful antithesis to the truth of God, which the objection pretends to be thereby illustrated.

8 g "Some." It is past doubt that these were the jews. But St. Paul, always tender towards his own nation, forbears to name them, when he pronounces this sentence, that their casting-off and destruction now at hand, for this scandal and other opposition to the christian religion, was just.

9 h Having, in the six foregoing verses, justified the truth of God, notwithstanding his casting off the jews, and vindicated the doctrine of grace, against the cavils of the jews, which two objections of theirs came naturally in his way, the apostle takes up here again, the jews question proposed, ver. 1, and argues it home to the case in hand. Τί ἐν προεχόμεθα; being but the same with Τί ἦν τὸ περισσὺν τῷ Ἰυδαίο; ver. 1. "Have jevs, then, any preference "in the kingdom of the Messias?" To which he answers, "No, not at all.” That this is the meaning, is visible from the whole chapter, where he lays both jews and gentiles in an equal state, in reference to justification.

i "Already," viz. chap. ii. 3, where St. Paul, under the gentler compellation of, “O man," charges the jews to be sinners, as well as the gentiles: and ver. 17-24, shows, that, by having the law, they were no more kept from being sinners, than the gentiles were, without the law. And this charge against them, that they were sinners, he here proves against them, from the testimony of their own sacred books, contained in the Old Testament.

TEXT.

10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no not one:

11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable, there is none that doeth good, no not one.

13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips;

14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

15 Their feet are swift to shed blood.

16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:

17 And the way of peace have they not known.

18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.

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

PARAPHRASE.

charge of guilt and sin, both against jews and gentiles, and urged that there is not one of them clear, which I 10 shall prove now against you jews; For it is written, 11 There is none righteous, no not one: There is none that

understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable, there is none that doth good, no, not 13 one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their

tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is un14 der their lips; Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruc17 tion and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace 18 have they not known. There is no fear of God before 19 their eyes This is all said in the sacred book of our

law; and what is said there, we know is said to the jews, who are under the law, that the mouth of every

NOTE.

19 The law here signifies the whole Old Testament, which containing revelations from God, in the time of the law, and being, to those under the law, of divine authority, and a rule, as well as the law itself, it is sometimes in the New Testament called the law and so our Saviour himself uses the term law, John x. 54 The meaning of St. Paul here is, that the declarations of God, 'which he had cited out of the Old Testament, were spoken of the jews, who were under the dispensation of the Old Testament, and were, by the word of God to them, all of them pronounced sinners.

TEXT.

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. 21 But now the righteousness of God, without the law, is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

PARAPHRASE.

m

jew, that would justify himself, might be stopped, and all the world, jews as well as gentiles, may be forced to 20 acknowledge themselves guilty before God. From whence it is evident, that by his own performances, in obedience to a law', no man can attain to an exact conformity to the rule of right, so as to be righteous in the sight of God. For by law, which is the publishing the rule with a penalty, we are not delivered from the power of sin, nor can it help men to righteousness", but by law we come experimentally to know sin, in the force and power of it, since we find it prevail upon us, notwithstanding the punishment of death is, by the law, 21 annexed to it. But the righteousness of God, that righteousness which he intended, and will accept, and is a righteousness not within the rule and rigour of law, is now made manifest, and confirmed by the testimony of the law and the prophets, which bear witness of this truth, that Jesus is the Messias, and that it is according

NOTES.

66 no

20 E pyar rope, I should render, "by deeds of law," i.e. by actions of conformity to a law requiring the performance of the dixalupa O, the right rule of God (mentioned, chap. i. 32) with a penalty annexed, "flesh can be justified:" but every one, failing of an exact conformity of his actions to the immutable rectitude of that eternal rule of right, will be found unrighteous, and so incur the penalty of the law. That this is the meaning of pya voue, is evident, because the apostle's declaration here is concerning all men, waoa cáp. But we know the heathen world were not under the law of Moses: and accordingly St. Paul does not say, yw Te vous," by the deeds "of the law," but is you, "by deeds of law." Though in the foregoing and following verse, where he would specify the law of Moses, he uses the article with 6 three times.

"No man." St Paul uses here the word flesh, for man, emphatically, as that wherein the force of sin is seated. Vid. chap. vii. 14, 18, and viii. 13.

The law cannot help men to righteousness. This, which is but implied here, he is large and express in, chap. vii. and is said expressly, chap. viii. 3, Gal. iii. 21.

TEXT.

22 Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all, and upon all them that believe; for there is no differ

ence:

23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ:

25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in

PARAPHRASE.

22 to his purpose and promise, That the righteousness of God, by faith in Jesus the Messias, is extended to, and bestowed on all who believe in him", (for there is no dif23 ference between them. They have all, both jews and gentiles, sinned, and fail of attaining that glory which 24 God hath appointed for the righteous) Being made righ

teous gratis, by the favour of God, through the redemp25 tion' which is by Jesus Christ; Whom God hath set

NOTES.

22 Vid. chap. x. 12, Gal. iii. 22-28.

23 q Here the glory, that comes from God, or by his appointment, is called, the glory of God," as the righteousness, which comes from him, or by his appointment, is called, "the righteousness of God," chap. i. 17, and the rule of moral rectitude, which has God for its author, or is appointed by him, is called dixoiapa Ote, chap. i. 32. That this is the glory here meant, vid. chap. ii. 7, 10. In the same sense the glory of God is used, chap. v. 2.

24 Redemption signifies deliverance, but not deliverance from every thing, but deliverance from that, to which a man is in subjection, or bondage. Nor does redemption by Jesus Christ import, there was any compensation made to God, by paying what was of equal value, in consideration whereof they were delivered; for that is inconsistent with what St. Paul expressly says here, viz. that sinners are justified by God gratis, and of his free bounty. What this redemption is, St. Paul tells us, Eph. i. 7, Col. i. 14, even the forgiveness of sins. But if St. Paul had not been so express in defining what he means by redemption, they yet would be thought to lay too much stress upon the criticism of a word, in the translation, who would thereby force from the word, in the original, a necessary sense, which it is plain it hath not. That redeeming, in the sacred scripture language, signifies not precisely paying an equivalent, is so clear, that nothing can be more. I shall refer my reader to three or four places amongst a great number, Exod. vi. 6, Deut. vii. 8, and xv. 12, and xxiv. 18. But if any one will, from the literal signification of the word in English, persist in it, against St. Paul's declarations, that it necessarily implies an equivalent price paid, I desire him to consider to whom: and that, if we will strictly adhere to the metaphor, it must be to those, whom the redeemed are in bondage to, and from whom we are redeemed, viz. sin and Satan. If he will not believe his own system for this, let him believe St. Paul's words, Tit. ii. 14, "Who gave himself for us, that he mig t redeem us from all "iniquity." Nor could the price be paid to God, in strictness of justice (for that is made the argument here;) unless the same person ought, by that strict