TEXT. 8 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. hath the more appeared to his glory, by reason of my lie, i. e. my sin, why yet am I condemned for a sinner, and punished 8 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 maliciously 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 charge of guilt and sin, both against Jews and Gentiles, and urged that there is not one of them clear, which I shall prove NOTES. words of Abraham. 2dly, The other thing, in the objection, was a false 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"Lie." The sense of the place makes it plain, that St. Paul, by lie, here means sin in general, but seems to have used the word lie, as having a more forcible and graceful antithesis to the truth of God, which the objection pretends to be thereby illustrated. 8 "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 destructiou now at hand, for this scandal and other opposition to the Christian religion, was just. 9h 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 οὖν προεχόμεθα ; being but the same with Τί οὖν τὸ περισσὸν τοῦ Ἰουδαίου; ver. 1. "Have Jews 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 T. 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. 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. PARAPHRASE. 10 now against you Jews; For it is written, There is none right11 eous, no not one: There is none that understandeth, there is 12 none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that 13 doth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre ; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps 14 is under their lips; Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitter15 ness. Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and 17 misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they 18 not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. 19 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 Jew, that would justify himself, might be stopped, and all the world, Jews as well as Gentiles, may be forced to acknowledge themselves guilty before God. 20 From whence it is evident, that by his own performances, in NOTES. against them, that they were sinners, he here proves against them, from the testimony of their own sacred books contained in the Old Testament. 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. 34. 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. 21 But now the righteousness of God, without the law, is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 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 difference: 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: PARAPHRASE. obedience to a law', m 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 21 death is, by the law, 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 to his purpose and 22 promise, That the righteousness of God, by faith in Jesus the Messias, is extended to, and bestowed on, all who believe in 23 him ", (for there is no difference between them. They have all, both Jews and Gentiles, sinned, and fail of attaining that 24 glory which God hath appointed for the righteous) Being NOTES. 20 1'E§ ̋pywv vóμou, I should render, "by deeds of law,” i. e. by actions of conformity to a law requiring the performance of the Sixalwμa o, the right rule of God (mentioned, chap. i. 32,) with a penalty annexed, "no 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 ïpya vóμov, is evident, because the apostle's declaration here is concerning all men, wãoɑ σáp§. But we know the heathen world were not under the law of Moses: and accordingly St. Paul does not say, i§ ïpywv Toû vóμov, "by the deeds of the law,” but i1⁄2 ïpywv vóμou, “by deeds of law." Though in the foregoing and following verse, where he would specify the law of Moses, he uses the article with vóμos three times. m "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. Chap. vii. 13. 22 Vid. chap. x. 12. Gal. iii. 22-28. 23 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 TEXT. 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; PARAPHRASE. made righteous gratis by the favour of God, through the 25 redemption' which is by Jesus Christ; Whom God hath set forth to be the propitiatory or mercy-seat in his own blood', NOTES. called dixolμα o, 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 might 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 justice, to have both the thing redeemed, and the price paid for its redemption. For it is to God we are redeemed, by the death of Christ, Rev. v. 9, "Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood. 25 hapo, signifies propitiatory, or mercy-seat, and not propitiation, as Mr. Mede has rightly observed upon this place, in his Discourse on God's House, § 1. The Alexandrine copy omits the words dià wisews, by faith" which seems conformable to the sense of the apostle here: he says, that God hath set forth Christ to be the propitiatory in his blood. The atonement, under the law, was made by blood, sprinkled on the propitiatory or mercy-seat, Lev. xvi. 14. Christ, says St. Paul here, is now set out, and shown by God, to be the real propitiatory, or mercy-seat, in his own blood; see Heb. ix. 25, 26, where the sacrifice of himself is opposed to the blood of others. God hath set him out to be so, to declare his righteousness; the mercy-seat being the place wherein God spake and declared his pleasure, Exod. xxv. 22. Numb. xvii. 8, 9. And it was there where God always appeared, Lev. xvi. 2. It was the place of his presence, and therefore he is said to dwell between the cherubims, Psal. lxxx. 1. 2 Kings xix. 15. For between the cherubims was the mercy-seat. In all which respects our Saviour, who was the antitype, is properly called the propitiatory. TEXT. 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness; that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. W PARAPHRASE. for the manifestation of his [God's] righteousness", by passing over their transgressions, formerly committed, which he hath borne with hitherto, so as to withhold his hand from casting off 26 the nation of the Jews, as their past sins deserved. For the manifesting of his righteousness at this time, that he might be just, in keeping his promise, and be the justifier of every one, not who is of the Jewish nation or extraction, but of the X NOTES. "Aixα10σ, "righteousness," seems to be used here, in the same sense it is ver. 5, for "the righteousness of God," in keeping his word with the nation of the Jews, notwithstanding their provocations. And indeed, with the following words of this verse, contains in it a farther answer to the Jews' insinuation, of God's being hard to their nation, by showing that God had been very favourable to them, in not casting them off, as they had deserved, till, according to his promise, he had sent them the Messias, and they had rejected him. và bà Tân Tậpov, “ by passing over, I do not remember any place where Tápis signifies remission, or forgiveness, but passing by, or passing over, as our translation has it in the margin, i. e. overlooking, or, as it were, not minding; in which sense it cannot be applied to the past sins of private persons, for God neither remits, nor passes them by, so as not to take notice of them. But this πάρεσις τῶν προγεγονότων ἁμαρτημάτων, passing over past sins, is spoken nationally, in respect of the people of the Jews; who, though they were a very sinful nation, as appears by the places here brought against them by St. Paul, yet God passed by all that, and would not be hindered by their past sinfulness from being just, in keeping his promise, in exhibiting to them Christ, the propitiatory. But, though he would not be provoked by their past sins, so as to cast them off from being his people, before he had sent them the promised Messias, to be their Saviour; yet, after that, when, at the due time, he had manifested his righteousness to them, "that he might be just, and the justifier of those who believe in Jesus," he no longer bore with their sinful obstinacy; but, when they rejected the Saviour (whom he had sent, according to his promise) from being their King, God rejected them from being his people, and took the Gentiles into his church, and made them his people, jointly and equally with the few believing Jews. This is plainly the sense of the apostle here, where he is discoursing of the nation of the Jews and their state, in comparison with the Gentiles; not of the state of private persons. Let any one without prepossession attentively read the context, and he will find it to be so. 26 × Aixaιoobyns autoυ, “his righteousness," is here to be understood in both senses in which St. Paul had used it before in this chapter, viz. ver. 5 and 22, as it is manifested by St. Paul's explaining of it himself, in these words immediately following: "that he might be just, and the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus," which are the two senses wherein the righteousness of God is used. “At this time,” viz. The fulness of time, according to his promise, |