Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 2:13
(For not the hearers of the law [are] just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
13. for not the hearers ] A parenthesis is usually begun here, and continued to the close of Rom 2:15. We prefer to dispense with it, for reasons to be given there. The present verse is naturally connected with the close of Rom 2:12. “The hearers of the law:” as we too speak of “ hearers of the Gospel,” even now when reading is so vastly prevalent.
before God ] See last note Rom 2:11. The Gr. is the same here.
the doers of the law shall be justified ] See Gal 3:12. For the express citation cp. Lev 18:5: “Ye shall keep my statutes which if a man do, he shall live in them; I am the Lord.” How deep the tendency of the Jew was to build safety upon privilege and knowledge, appears from Mat 3:9; Joh 7:49. See on Rom 2:3, and Appendix A.
shall be justified ] The future tense, perhaps, refers to Lev 18:5 just quoted; “shall live.” Supposing the law kept, this stands in God’s word as the promised result.
The meaning of the verb “to justify” will be fully illustrated as we proceed. Here it is enough to remark that it signifies not amendment, but acquittal; or, rather, a judicial declaration of righteousness. See for an excellent illustration from the O. T., Deu 25:1. (The LXX. there employ the same Gr. word as St Paul’s here). The present verse does not, of course, assert (what would be so clearly contradicted by e.g. Rom 3:20) that the law ever is, or can be, so kept as to justify the keeper. It merely states the conditions of legal justification, whether fulfilled in fact or not.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For not the hearers … – The same sentiment is implied in Jam 1:22; Mat 7:21, Mat 7:24; Luk 6:47. The apostle here doubtless designed to meet an objection of the Jews; to wit, that they had the Law, that they manifested great deference for it, that they heard it read with attention, and professed a willingness to yield themselves to it. To meet this, he states a very plain and obvious principle, that this was insufficient to justify them before God, unless they rendered actual obedience.
Are just – Are justified before God, or are personally holy. Or, in other words, simply hearing the Law is not meeting all its requirements, and making people holy. If they expected to be saved by the Law, it required something more than merely to hear it. It demanded perfect obedience.
But the doers of the law – They who comply entirely with its demands; or who yield to it perfect and perpetual obedience. This was the plain and obvious demand, not only of common sense, but of the Jewish Law itself; Deu 4:1; Lev 18:5; compare Rom 10:9.
Shall be justified – This expression is evidently synonymous with that in Lev 18:5, where it is said that he shall live in them. The meaning is, that it is a maxim or principle of the Law of God, that if a creature will keep it, and obey it entirely, he shall not be condemned, but shall be approved and live forever. This does not affirm that anyone ever has thus lived in this world, but it is an affirmation of a great general principle of law, that if a creature is justified by the Law, the obedience must be entire and perpetual. If such were the case, as there would be no ground of condemnation, man would be saved by the Law. If the Jews, therefore, expected to be saved by their Law, it must be, not by hearing the Law, nor by being called a Jew, but by perfect and unqualified obedience to all its requirements. This passage is designed, doubtless, to meet a very common and pernicious sentiment of the Jewish teachers, that all who became hearers and listeners to the Law would be saved. The inference from the passage is, that no man can be saved by his external privileges, or by an outward respectful deference to the truths and ordinances of religion.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Rom 2:13
For not the hearers of the law are Just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
Hearers
What the apostle says about the Jews is equally applicable to many so-called Christians. Multitudes justify themselves by attendance on a gospel ministry; God only justifies those who practise what they hear. Our congregations are made up of–
I. Those who hear–
1. But do not understand. Often, doubtless, this is the preachers fault, who fails because he is not clear or lacks the power to awaken the dormant intelligence; but it often arises from a want of spiritual perception of, or interest in, the truth by those who hear.
2. Or only admire, the object being in some cases the mere beauty of the truth itself, in others the grace of its setting and the charm of its delivery.
3. Or criticise, the object being the statement in some instances, the method or manner in others.
II. Those who hear and do. Amongst such are those who are–
1. Anxious to understand. They want to know in order that they may do. Hence they bring all their intellectual and spiritual powers to bear upon the message declared. Such seldom go away unsatisfied or become unfruitful hearers.
2. Believe the truth. While not insensible to its intrinsic beauty or to the grace of the form in which it is presented, they regard it as a solemn message from God having a direct bearing on life and destiny. They desire, therefore, not only to understand it, but to assimilate it and make it a power for action.
3. Who reduce the truth to practice. This is the true criterion of hearing which is acceptable to God. Many understand clearly enough, many thoroughly believe as far as intellectual conviction goes–how few do! Let this be a matter of self-examination to thoughtful and orthodox hearers! (Rom 2:17-23).
III. Those who neither hear nor do. One might almost say, Who do not because they do not hear, but for the fact that hearing is not the only source of knowledge. Conclusion:
1. Hearing is a great privilege.
2. As privilege it involves responsibility.
3. For the manner in which we have heard we shall be called into judgment, and judged accordingly. (J. W. Burn.)
Hearing and doing
A consideration–
I. For those seeking salvation by the law. The whole law must be done, not simply heard. Who has, who can do it? Sin has so corrupted our moral nature that we are without strength, and therefore so cannot obtain salvation.
II. For those seeking salvation through an influential gospel. The principle of the text applies much more here. There is no salvation even by the gospel save by acting on its terms–believe, receive, repent, etc.
III. Suggesting the vanity of an evangelical profession without an evangelical life. The gospel has its laws as well as Judaism. (R. Glover.)
Hearing without doing
It is a strange folly in multitudes of us to propound no end in the hearing of the gospel. The merchant sails, not only that he may sail, but for traffic, and traffics that he may be rich. The husbandman ploughs, not only to keep himself busy, but in order to sow, and sows that he may reap with advantage. And shall we do the most excellent and fruitful work fruitlessly?–hear only to hear, and look no further? This is indeed a great vanity and a great misery, to lose that labour which, duly used, would be of all others most gainful; and yet all our meetings are full of this! (T. Leighton.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 13. For not the hearers of the law, c.] It does not follow, because one people are favoured with a Divine revelation, that therefore they shall be saved while the others who have not had that revelation, shall finally perish: this is not God’s procedure; where he has given a law-a Divine revelation, he requires obedience to that law; and only those who have been doers of that law-who have lived according to the light and privileges granted in that revelation, shall be justified-shall be finally acknowledged to be such as are fit for the kingdom of God.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This and the two following verses are included in a parenthesis, and they serve to obviate an objection against what was said, Rom 2:12. The Jews might plead, that they were superior to the Gentiles, and should be exempted or privileged, in judgment, forasmuch as they knew and professed the law of God, which the Gentiles did not. To this he says, that to know and learn the law was not sufficient, unless in all things they yielded obedience to it, which they neither did nor could. The scope of the apostle is not simply to show how sinners are now justified in the sight of God; but to show what is requisite to justification according to the tenor of the law, and that is, to do all that is written therein, and to continue so to do. And if there be any man that can bring such perfect and constant obedience of his own performing, he shall be justified by God; but inasmuch as no man, neither natural nor regenerate, can so fulfil the law, he must seek for justification in some other way. The text, thus expounded, doth no way militate with Rom 3:30, and Gal 3:11, which at first reading it seems to do. And it further shows, that the Jews are comprehended under the general curse, as well as the Gentiles, and are bound to have recourse to the righteousness of God by faith.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13-15. For not the hearers,c.As touching the Jews, in whose ears the written law iscontinually resounding, the condemnation of as many of them as arefound sinners at the last involves no difficulty but even as respectsthe heathen, who are strangers to the law in its positive and writtenformsince they show how deeply it is engraven on their moralnature, which witnesses within them for righteousness and againstiniquity, accusing or condemning them according as they violate orobey its stern dictatestheir condemnation also for all the sin inwhich they live and die will carry its dreadful echo in their ownbreasts.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For not the hearers of the law are just before God,…. The apostle here shows, that the Jews were justly condemned, notwithstanding their having and hearing of the law; since hearing without doing it, will never denominate persons righteous in the sight of God, however it might recommend them in the sight of men: regard seems to be had either to the first delivery of the law by Moses to the people of Israel, when he read it to them, and they hearkened to it, and promised obedience; or rather to the reading and hearing it every sabbath day; and may include a speculative knowledge of it, without a practical obedience to it; and which therefore must fall greatly short of entitling them to a justifying righteousness; since not these,
but the doers of the law, shall be justified; by whom are meant, not such who merely literally and externally fulfil the law, as they imagine; for the law is spiritual, and regards the inward as well as the outward man, and requires internal holiness, as well as external obedience; and the apostle is speaking of justification before God, who sees the heart, and not before men, who judge according to outward appearance: nor are such designed who are imperfect doers of the law; for the law requires a perfect obedience, and what is not perfect is not properly righteousness; nor does it, nor can it consider an imperfect righteousness as a perfect one; for it accuses of, pronounces guilty, curses, and condemns for every transgression of it. But such only can be intended, who are doers of it spiritually, internally, as well as externally, and that perfectly. Adam, in his state of innocence, was a perfect doer of the law; he sinning, and all his posterity in him, none of them are righteous, but all pass under a sentence of condemnation. The best of men, even believers in Christ, are not without sin in themselves; and when any of the saints are said to be perfect, it must be understood in a comparative sense, or as they are considered in Christ. There never was but one since Adam, and that is Christ, who has fulfilled, or could perfectly fulfil the law; the thing is impossible and impracticable for fallen man: hence these words must be understood either hypothetically, thus, not the hearers of the law, but if there were any perfect doers of it, they would be justified before God; or else of such persons who are considered in Christ, by whom the whole perfect righteousness of the law is fulfilled in them, and who may be reckoned as perfect doers of it in him, their substitute, surety, and representative.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Not the hearers–but the doers ( –‘ ). The law was read in the synagogue, but there was no actual virtue in listening. The virtue is in doing. See a like contrast by James between “hearers” and “doers” of the gospel (Jas 1:22-25).
Before God ( ). By God’s side, as God looks at it.
Shall be justified (). Future passive indicative of , to declare righteous, to set right. “Shall be declared righteous.” Like Jas 1:22-25.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Hearers [] . Like the Jews, who heard it regularly in the synagogues. Only here in Paul. Three times in James. It brings out, better than the participle oiJ ajkouontev those that hear, the characteristic feature; those whose business is hearing.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) For not the hearers of the law, (ou gar hoi akroatai nomou) For not those hearing the law, who hear and do not, or fake themselves to be righteous believers when they are inwardly pious hypocrites; Mat 15:7-14; Mat 5:20; Mat 23:3.
2) Are just before God, (dikaioi para (to] theo) Are just with (in comparison with or alongside of) God, or righteous before God; One may obey God in hearing his Word, but to stop there: 1) to neglect to repent, 2) to neglect to believe in or trust Jesus Christ, 3) to neglect to confess Christ does not make one just before him, Rom 10:16; Rom 4:4-5.
3) But the doers of the law, (All hoi poietai nomou) But the doers of law, those who do the moral, ethical, and religious teachings of the law; To do the law was an expression of righteousness; to fake it was an expression of hypocrisy, Mar 7:6-9; Gal 5:6; Jas 1:22; Eph 2:10.
4) Shall be justified, Acquitted or declared to be acquitted from the penalty of eternal condemnation, because of their faith in and obedience to the Redeemer or Messiah as set forth in the law by types, shadows, and object lessons, etc., Mat 7:21; Jas 1:22; Jas 1:25; 1Jn 3:7. The doing of the deeds of the law never saved anyone, nor will the doing of the deeds of the law of Christ save anyone. All are saved at the point of belief or trust in Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, after which they are to shew their faith in worship and service to Jesus Christ thru his church, Act 10:43; Rom 10:9-10; Rom 10:12-13; Rom 1:16; Gal 3:26; Mar 8:36-37; Mat 28:1; Mat 28:20; Eph 3:21; Gal 3:11.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
13. For the hearers of the law, etc. This anticipates an objection which the Jews might have adduced. As they had heard that the law was the rule of righteousness, (Deu 4:1,) they gloried in the mere knowledge of it: to obviate this mistake, he declares that the hearing of the law or any knowledge of it is of no such consequence, that any one should on that account lay claim to righteousness, but that works must be produced, according to this saying, “He who will do these shall live in them.” The import then of this verse is the following, — “That if righteousness be sought from the law, the law must be fulfilled; for the righteousness of the law consists in the perfection of works.” They who pervert this passage for the purpose of building up justification by works, deserve most fully to be laughed at even by children. It is therefore improper and beyond what is needful, to introduce here a long discussion on the subject, with the view of exposing so futile a sophistry: for the Apostle only urges here on the Jews what he had mentioned, the decision of the law, — That by the law they could not be justified, except they fulfilled the law, that if they transgressed it, a curse was instantly pronounced on them. Now we do not deny but that perfect righteousness is prescribed in the law: but as all are convicted of transgression, we say that another righteousness must be sought. Still more, we can prove from this passage that no one is justified by works; for if they alone are justified by the law who fulfill the law, it follows that no one is justified; for no one can be found who can boast of having fulfilled the law. (71)
(71) On the expression “hearers of the law,” [ Stuart ] has these remarks — “The Apostle here speaks of οἱ ἀκροαταὶ τοῦ νόμου, because the Jews were accustomed to hear the Scriptures read in public; but many of them did not individually possess copies of the sacred volume which they could read.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES
Rom. 2:13. Not the hearers of the law.Jewish writers held that no circumcised person goes to hell. St. Paul confutes all vain opinions. The literal meaning of is to make righteous. In this epistle it is used to mean acquittal.
Rom. 2:14., by nature, as distinct from or written law.
Rom. 2:15.The evidence that what the law of God requires is inscribed on the minds of the heathen is the testimony of their conscience to such moral precepts. , the conscience, from the word meaning to know with or within oneself. In this passage understanding rather than affection is the predominant thought. Reasonings of a mans mind upon his own actions, habits, and motives.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Rom. 2:13-16
The Gentile conscience.The law as well as the existence of the Creator is written on the heart of man, and he cannot get away from that law. He may make mistakes, but he can get to know the general tenor of that law. He may not have skill to frame a correct ethical system, but he can mark the great broad outlines, and so frame his moral course. The Gentile heart is not a mere blank pageit shows divine handwriting. In its deepest degradation there are obscured traces and marks of moral glory.
I. The Gentiles show the work of the law written in their hearts by their superiority to their gods.The God of the Bible is the one perfect Godperfect in His natural and moral attributes. He is a conception of divinity which declares it is not an unaided conception of humanity. We cannot read of any god fashioned after the same perfect moral order as the God of the Bible. Whether we look at the God of the Old Testament or of the New, we must feel that this is a divinity which the highest human reason has not attained. Not withstanding all that may be said against the biblical God, we affirm that there never has been and is not any other deity unto whom we may liken Him. In the wide worlds Parthenon, in the long muster-roll of deities, there is none to be compared with the Christians God. The highest ideals are but human conceptions and imperfect: the best of them are but one-sided personifications, and represent one cardinal grace or virtue; the worst of them are personifications of some degrading lust. And this gives us a striking view of the divinity working in heathendom, that the worshipper is often superior to the deity adored. Conscience asserts its power, and the devotee rises above the deity before whom he prostrates in devotion. The written law has stronger force than the personified lust or passion. The gods of the heathen worked towards moral destruction; and the legal writing on human hearts was that saving force which interrupted the process and prevented complete moral ruin.
II. The Gentiles show the works of the law written in their hearts by the strivings of the many.Moral darkness has covered the earth; but through that darkness we catch gleams of moral light, and those gleams are the strivings of many of our race after nobler things. If there had not been such strivings, we should have beheld the race sinking deeper and deeper into moral corruption, and bringing upon our planet a catastrophe which the waters of a deluge would not have repaired. We may suppose that the worlds lowest moral state was at the time of the Deluge; but even then a Noah appeared who was not only found striving after righteousness, but had attained to righteousness and was a preacher of the same all his days. Our planet has presented no such miserable moral spectacle, either before or since the period of the Deluge. Men, in spite of lust, passion, pride, and ambition, are found in all countries reaching up above their surroundings towards the pure realm of infinite moralities. The feverish restlessness of humanity speaks to us of a written law in the heart and the workings of a divine conscience. There is an infinite discontent and dissatisfaction in the soul of man which is full of moral significance. It points both inward and upwardinward to the divinely constituted nature of man, and upward to the divine Being whose claims must be met and in whose Son must be realised spiritual repose. Men hear within themselves the voice of conscience, but do not give sufficient attention so as carefully to catch the words that are spoken.
III. The Gentiles show the work of the law in their hearts by the attainments of the few.It could not be argued from the achievements of a Shakespeare that all men might become great poets and dramatists, from the mathematical grasp of a Newton that all might become mathematicians; but surely it is legitimate to infer from the lofty achievements of one master-mind the large possibilities of other minds. The wide expansion of one mind tells of the possibility of development of others. In the heathen world, as also in the Christian world, the men have been comparatively few who have given practical expression to the belief that in the world there is nothing great but man, in man there is nothing great but mind, and in mind there is nothing great but the moral. Still, there have been such men. It will not do for us to lay the flattering unction to our souls that there is no goodness outside the Christian religion. While we believe that Christianity has raised the morality of the world to a higher tone and given the highest example of spiritual perfection in the person of its Founder, we must not lose sight of the noble names of Socrates, Solon, Plato, and Aristotle. Defective, no doubt, they were in many aspects of their characters and their conduct; but they were in advance of their times, and speak of a divine law written in human hearts. It is indeed wonderful how glimpses of moral truth are given by heathen writers; and we can only account for them on the supposition that the divine hand has been writing and that conscience has been working. The Orphic mysteries seem to have contained the assertion of two deep ideasthe immortality of the soul, and impurity of sin, which required expiation. Historical evidence goes to show that the broad distinctions between crime and virtue have always been marked. Homer is not without morality, though it is uninfluenced by a future life. It is noteworthy that Hesiod contains the same figure to represent virtue and vice which was afterwards consecrated in the mouth of Christ: The road to vice may easily be travelled by crowds, for it is smooth, and she dwells close at hand. But the path of virtue is steep and difficult, and the gods have ordained that only by toil can she be reached. It is the steep and difficult pathway of virtue which repels the many from the effort to gain the glorious summit.
IV. The Gentiles show the work of the law written in their hearts by their reception of the divine interpretation and exposition.When the preacher of the divine law goes to the heathen, he finds in their nature a response to his message, and this response may act in different directions. Some of the heathen accept the message because it is the interpretation of the law written in their hearts; or others reject the message, not because the revealed law does not harmonise with the law written in the heart, but because a lower nature asserts an ascendency, and then, either to justify rejection or to fortify in a wrong course, they persecute the messenger and seek to obliterate traces of the revealed law The very wrath of the adherents of false doctrine, when the truth is proclaimed, declares in most cases that the true doctrine is that which correctly interprets the symbolic writing on their hearts. If we hold the truth and are confident that we have the truth, why should rage possess our natures when a messenger comes to upset our beliefs? Our confidence in the truth may cause us to look complacently at the efforts of those who come to change our beliefs.
V. The Gentiles show the work of the law written in their hearts by the witness of conscience.A man differs from a machine in this: that the one has a law in itselfis moved, as Aristotle would say, ; the other is moved , has a law both in and for himself. Now conscience, which is more than mere consciousness, testifies to the presence of that law, interprets, and gives it force. Conscience bears witness to the right, gives emphasis to the ought, and leaves without excuse. Conscience existed before philosophies of right and wrong, taught moral lessons, and led to some strivings after propriety of conduct. The pre-existence of conscience is supposed by the post-existence of moral philosophies. Instinctive acts of nobleness arise from the instinctive promptings of conscience. Platos sentence cannot be upheld, that without philosophy there is no morality. The presence and practice of morality declare a philosophic spirit and temperament; but Enoch, Noah, and Abraham, who were highly moral, would not be classed as belonging to any philosophical school. They would not be referred to as authorities on the questions which disturb the schoolsas to the nature of the concrete and the abstract, as to nature or the non-existent, as to whether there can be either not-being or being. Morality arises, not from the scholastic philosophies, but from the deeper philosophy of conscience bearing witness to the work of the law written in the heart. Conscience bears witness to the divine writing in human nature. If the Gentiles had no witnessing conscience, then apostles and missionaries have no ground of appeal.
VI. The Gentiles show the work of the law written in their hearts by their moral reasonings.These reasonings are not exemplifications of any logical method. Their thoughts, their moral reflections, are at one time accusing and at another time excusing. Shall we suppose them engaged in the intricate process of distinguishing between right and wrong? Shall we not rather picture the Gentile nature as a court where moral questions are being discussed? The conscience is both witness and judge. The thoughts are as so many advocates, some pleading for and others pleading against, either accusing or excusing. Shall we not still rather consider that the thoughts of the Gentiles accuse when wrong has been done, and excuse when right has been either attempted or performed? There is such a process going on in human nature. In some the process is carried on with clearness, and in others with a certain vagueness. How sad that accusing voices should have reason most constantly to be heard! Yet sadder still if self-righteousness prevents the accusing voices from being properly heard, and excusing voices, in the sense perhaps not meant by the apostle, only are allowed to make themselves heard!
1. Let us beware lest the heathen rise up in judgment against us. How little was their light! How great is ours!
2. Let us not tamper with conscience, for God knows, and will judge the secrets of men.
3. Let the upbraidings of conscience drive us by repentance and faith unto Jesus Christ.
4. The doers of the law are justified before God. We cannot be justified by the law of the carnal commandment; let us find refuge in the higher law of love.
5. If we fear the approach of the day when God shall judge, let us seek for that perfect love in and by Christ which casteth out all fear.
6. The voice of the law speaks trouble to the conscience. The voice of my gospel, of the gospel of God, speaks peace by Jesus Christ to every believing soul; therefore let us cleave above all things to the gospel.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Rom. 2:13-16
Law written on the heart.The Greek poet Sophocles speaks of the unwritten and indelible laws of the gods in the hearts of men; and the Platonic philosopher Plutarch speaks of a law which is not outwardly written in books, but implanted in the heart of man.
Conversion does not impart new faculties.Bishop Sanderson says that Paul teaches in this verse that every man, however unholy, has a conscience, though depraved; and that at the fall of man conscience itself was not lost, but its rectitude and integrity were impaired; and that, when we are born again in baptism, we do not receive the infusion of another conscience, but our conscience, which was before unclean, is washed by the blood of Christ, and is cleansed by faith and is enlightened by the Holy Spirit, in order that it may please God. In regeneration the man does not receive the infusion of any new qualities. After conversion men possess the same characteristics as they did before the spiritual change had taken place. They obtain new affections, likes, and desires; but they do not receive a power of loving, liking, and desiring which they did not before possess. After conversion they both will and perform the thing which is good: but before conversion the power of volition was present, and also in a degree the power of performance; but it was weakso weak that it could not overcome the counteracting forces. If a man had by some spiritual process to be remade before he could become a Christian, then how could it be possible, in justice, for him to be accounted a responsible agent? The unconverted heathen have a written law and a witnessing conscience and moral reasonings, and they must act up to their light, and by these must they be judged. And what will be their condition in the future it is not for us to determine. The great question is, not what will become of the heathen, but what will become of usare we acting according to our increased light and enlarged opportunities? The Gentiles show the work of the law written in their hearts. This expression may be taken from the fact that the law of the ten commandments was written on tables of stone. It is a proper expression to represent the impression made by the Creator upon the moral nature of the creature. A thing written is impressed. The hand of God writes upon the heart of man as He writes upon the material creation. The writing is symbolical, but its meaning is plain enough for all practical purposes.
An accusing conscience.An accusing conscience tells us for what we were designed, that we were made morally in the image and likeness of God, from what we have fallen, and to what depths of depravity we have sunk. Thus it declares our littleness, as we consider our noble resolves, our lofty purposes, our high-born ambitions; and yet our weak performancesour miserable failures to reach the goal to which our virtuous longings point. How sadly often when we would do good evil is present with us! We fall to the doing of iniquity with fatal propensity. Thus conscience indicates our greatness as we contemplate the strife between good and evil which is being waged in the arena of a mans soul. We are very far from believing the doctrine that the greatest battles are unseen, the mightiest conquests unbloody, and that moral victors are the greatest heroes. Historians make no account of the battle-fields where moral conflicts are waged; but long after the historians busy pen has ceased its wizardry, his powerful brain is blended with the common dust, his thrilling pages have perished as the shrivelled parchment scroll, and his Marathons, Thermopyl, and other scenes of warlike glory have been swept into oblivion, the victories achieved by moral heroes will endure. Soul conflicts are the mightiest, as often they are the severest. Spiritual warfare is the most wonderful, as it is the most mysterious. What a world is that unseen realm where good and evil are engaged in fierce encounter! An accusing conscience is the inward trumpeter that summons the nobler powers to the battle. Alas that ofttimes the trumpet blast falls as it were upon the ears of dead men, and the forces in the town of Mansoul do not muster to the defence! How blessed is it when the trumpet voice is heard and obeyed! Sometimes the believer is depressed as he feels within himself the agony caused by the strife between the good and the evil. He may ask, How is it that there is all this strife, agony, and conflict if my citizenship is in heaven? But strife speaks of life. Dead men do not fight. Dead powers in the soul do not engage in battle. It is as the powers of the soul are awake to the love of the beautiful and the good, and are desirous of being clothed with virtuous qualities, that they contend for the mastery over evil. The more spiritual life there is in the soul, the more feeling will there be in the conscience. The prickings of conscience are painful, but they tell of a living soul. A condemning heart sends agony through the frame, but it declares vitality. A man may even take courage when conscience accuses. All sin brings its punishment in its measure. The wages of sin is death, but not death to the conscience. Sometimes it seems as if the greater the death of the spiritual nature, the greater the life of conscience. Oh, how it darts its awful pangs! How wonderful its constitution! We speak of burying the past; but conscience will not allow the past to be buried. It seems to have lain dormant for years, and then it speaks, and we cannot account for the utterance. No outward circumstances, no laws of association, appear to account for the fact that conscience has spoken to our condemnation. A guilty conscience who can endure? The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear? The Good Physician alone has balm with which to heal the wounded spirit.
O conscience! into what abyss of fears
And horrors hast thou driven me; out of which
I find no way, from deep to deeper plunged!
Milton.
Darwin himself admits that, of all the differences between man and the lower animals, the moral sense or conscience is by far the most important.
Self-conscious personality of man.The bearing of this upon conscience is clear. The Scripture doctrine of man first of all affirms that view of his physical and ethical nature which we have been endeavouring to show is the only one borne out by facts. The self-conscious and self-determining personality of man is an essential part of the divine nature in man. As Dr. Pope says, this element is essential and indestructible, while there is a sense in which the image of God in its moral lineaments was accidental and a missible, lost in the Fall, and not utterly lost only because redemption intervened. Such a being, however, it is clear, possesses moral capacity, being raised above the circle of nature, and moving in the region of self-consciousness and self-government, and he is prepared by the very constitution of his nature to know good and evil, not only after the tempters way, through disobedience and yielding to evil, but after Gods way, through free choice of the good. In this brief but significant description of mans original nature lies the germ of the whole Scripture doctrine of conscience.W. T. Davidson.
In the Gentile heart a real judgment hall.How can one help admiring here, on the one hand, the subtle analysis whereby the apostle discloses in the Gentile heart a real judgment hall where witnesses are heard for and against, then the sentence of the judge; and, on the other hand, that largeness of heart with which, alter drawing so revolting a picture of the moral deformities of Gentile life, he brings into view in as striking a way the indestructible moral elements, the evidences of which are sometimes irresistibly presented here by this so deeply sunken life!Godet.
Two principles of justification.Here we are assured that the doers of the law shall be justified; and yet, in the subsequent part of the epistle, it is proved in the most convincing manner that by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified. It is obvious that these different passages must refer to different things, otherwise the one would be contradictory of the other. And that they refer to two different principles of justificationthe one held by the Jews and heathen, the other laid down in the gospelcannot be doubted by any person who considers the argument. In the passage before us the apostle speaks of men being justified on the Christian principle, not by a perfect obedience, entitling them to it as matter of justice, but by the righteousness of faith, which God will of His own free mercy accept, and in virtue of the atoning death of Christ follow with everlasting life. When he says that by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified, he speaks of the principle of justification implied in the law of nature and relied on by all who rejected the gospela justification depending entirely on mens own actions, requiring an unvarying obedience to the whole law without the least failure, and thus entitling a man to be justified as a matter of right, the conditions being fulfilled on which the attainment of it was originally made to depend. It is this species of justification which he tells us no flesh living can attaina truth which no person who considers the matter can doubt. These passages, therefore, are entirely compatible with one another; but they relate to different things, and each of them states with perfect correctness the truth in relation to the subject to which it applies. This passage teaches us, first, that in the great day of the Lord our most secret thoughts and actions will be judged by Him who is appointed Judge of the quick and dead. And if we should be afraid or ashamed to have some passages of our life laid open, let this incite us to watch with more circumspection over our dispositions and conduct. It teaches us further that they are not the hearers but the doers of the law who shall be justified. Now we enjoy the knowledge of the divine law in as perfect a degree as it can be enjoyed by man. Does our conduct correspond with our knowledge? This is the important and trying question which it becomes all of us to investigate with the most rigid impartiality. And if we find, as unquestionably will be the case, that our conduct has been in many respects unsuitable to our knowledge, let the discovery incite us to redouble our diligence in the work of the Lord, that so being justified by faith we may have peace with God and the hope of obtaining eternal life.Ritchie.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2
Rom. 2:13. Caracci, the famous artist.Caracci, the famous artist, while discoursing on the splendours of the ancient sculptures, and especially of the Laocoon, reproached his brother because he did not appear to be paying the slightest attention. When he had finished his description, his brother took a piece of charcoal and drew the statue as if it had been before him. Caracci in astonishment confessed that his brother had taken the most effectual way to show the beauties of the famous sculpture. Poets paint with words, and the painter with works, was the reply. The Christian must be a doer as well as hearer of the word.
Rom. 2:13. Ariosto and his house.Ariosto built himself a small house, and on being asked by a friend how he, who had described palaces in Orlando, could be content with so humble a dwelling, replied, Words are cheaper than stones. God does not want fictitious words, but living stones, holy deeds.
Rom. 2:13. The conscience ring.How beautifully was the office of conscience set forth in the ring which, according to an Eastern tale, a great magician presented to his prince! The gift was of inestimable value, not for the diamonds and rubies and pearls that gemmed it, but for a rare and mystic property in the metal. It sat easily enough in ordinary circumstances, but so soon as its wearer formed a bad thought or wish, designed or concocted a bad action, the ring became a monitor. Suddenly contracting, it pressed painfully on the finger, warning him of sin. The ring of that fable is just that conscience which is the voice of God within us, which is His law written on the fleshly tablets of the heart. We all know that the word conscience comes from con and scie; but what does that con intend? Conscience is not merely that which I know, but that which I know with some other; for this prefix cannot, as I think, be esteemed superfluous, or taken to imply merely that which I know with or to myself. That other knower whom the word implies is God.
Rom. 2:14-15. Conscience the oracle of God.Joseph Cook says that conscience is the compass of the unknown. Epigrams are apt to be misleading. Can it be said that conscience is the compass of God? Does He require a method of measurement? May it not rather be said that conscience is our compass, if it be enlightened by the Holy Spirit and the word of God. The Gentiles have a conscience, but it is not always a properly regulated instrument of measurement. It points out a wrong and a right, but does not always say correctly which is wrong and which is right. It is the voice of God, but requires tuning.
Yet still there whispers the small voice within,
Heard through Gods silences, and oer glorys din:
Whatever creed be taught, or land be trod,
Mans conscience is the oracle of God.
Byron.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(13) For not the hearers of the law.The parenthesis should not be placed here (as usually in the Authorised version), but at the beginning of the next verse. The present verse is explanatory of that which precedes. Judged, I say, by the Law; for they must not suppose that the mere fact of their being under the Law will exempt them from this judgment. The only exemption will be that which is given to those who have kept the Law, and not merely had the privilege of hearing it. And, the argument followsthe Apostle digressing for a moment to pursue this point to its conclusionthis exemption, may apply quite as much to Gentile as to Jew.
Hearers of the law.Strictly (as above), hearers of lawi.e., those who have a law to which they can listen, and by which they may be guided. (Comp. Act. 13:27; Act. 15:21, Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath; and for the opposition between hearing and doing, Jas. 1:22-23; Jas. 1:25.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13. Hearers of the law No possessing, or hearing, or learning the law avails to the Jew without obedience to it.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified,’
And this is because the question is not whether men have been willing to hear and listen to the Law being read out, thus being ‘hearers of the Law’, and have nodded their approval. That makes no man in the right before God. (Many Jews foolishly thought that it did, as indeed do some nominal Christians with regards to the Bible). What matters is whether they are ‘doers of the Law’ in other words are those who have done what the Law says. In mind here may be Lev 18:5, ‘you will keep my statutes and my judgments, which of a man DO he will live in them’, and Deu 27:26, ‘cursed be he who confirms not the words of this Law to DO them’. So it will only be the ‘doers of the Law’ who will be seen as ‘in the right’. They alone can and will be judged as righteous. The phrase ‘doers of the Law’ is also found at Qumran in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The principle of needing to ‘do the Law’ was therefore acknowledged by many contemporary Jews. But they still failed to do it.
So Paul points out that having the Law and hearing it read does not put people right in the sight of God. Many Jews assumed that it did. They thought that somehow it put them in a better position. Surely God would take into account the fact that they trusted in His Law? Paul rather, therefore, underlines the fact that what is important is actually being a DOER of the Law. He is saying, ‘What is the use of trusting in it if you do not obey it?’
Of course, as Paul will bring out later, that is the problem. No one has ever actually succeeded in a full ‘doing’ of the Law. He had made the attempt himself and had failed. Thus these words condemn all men and women as sinners. All are exposed as coming short of being ‘doers of the Law’. For as James would elsewhere remind us, we only have to come short on one point in order to be deemed a Law-breaker and therefore as guilty of breaking the whole Law (Jas 2:10).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Rom 2:13. For not the hearers, &c. This, and Rom 2:14-15 are a comment upon the 20th verse. In Rom 2:13 he remarks upon the latter part of the 12th, that enjoying the advantages of revelation will not save us, unless we dulyimprove them. Rom 2:14-15 he remarks upon the former part of the 12th, and proves that the Gentiles, who have no revelation, are yet condemnable for their wickedness, because they transgress against the light of their dispensation.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rom 2:13 proves the correctness of the proposition, so much at variance with the fancy of the Jews, , .
The placing of Rom 2:13-15 in a parenthesis , as after Beza’s example is done by Grotius, Griesbach, and others, also by Reiche and Winer, is to be rejected, because Rom 2:13 , which cannot be placed in a parenthesis alone (as Koppe and Mehring do), is closely joined with what immediately precedes, and it is only in Rom 2:14 that an intervening thought is introduced by way of illustration. The parenthesis is (with Baumgarten-Crusius) to be limited to Rom 2:14-15 , as is done also by Lachmann. See on Rom 2:16 .
] A reference to the public reading of the Thorah on the Sabbath. Comp Act 15:21 ; 2Co 3:14 ; Joh 12:34 ; Josephus, Antt. v. 1, 26, v. 2, 7. The substantive brings out more forcibly than the participial form of expression would have done the characteristic feature: those , whose business is hearing . Compare Theile, a [639] Jac. i. 22, p. 76.
] Rom 3:20 , according to God’s judgment . 1Co 3:9 ; 2Th 1:6 ; Winer, p. 369 [E. T. 492].
.] They shall be declared as righteous, normal . See on Rom 1:17 . This is the general fundamental law of God who judges with righteousness (Gal 3:12 ); a fundamental law which required to be urged here in proof of the previous assertion , . . Compare Weiss, bibl. Theol. 87. How in the event of its being impossible for a man to be a true (Rom 3:9 ff.) faith comes in and furnishes a , and then how man, by means of the (Rom 6:4 ) attained through faith, must and can fulfil (Rom 8:4 ) the law completed by Christ (the , Rom 8:2 ), were topics not belonging to the present discussion. Compare on Rom 2:6 . “Haec descriptio est justitia legis, quae nihil impedit alia dicta de justitia fidei,” Melancthon.
[639] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
13 (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
Ver. 13. But the doers of the law ] The Scriptures are verba vivenda non legenda, as Egidins, Abbot of Nuremberg, said of the 119th Psalm. Boni Catholici sunt qui et fidem integram sequunfur, et bones mores. (Aug.) Lessons of music must be practised, and a copy not read only but acted. Divinity must be done as well as known.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
13. ] This is to explain to the Jew the fact, that not his mere hearing of the law read in the synagogue (= his being by birth and privilege a Jew) will justify him before God, but (still keeping to general principles and not touching as yet on the impossibility of being thus justified ) the doing of the law.
has been apparently inserted in both cases in the later MSS. from seeing that was indisputably the law of Moses, and stumbling at the unusual expression . But the in both cases is generic , and – , – (almost as one word in each case), ‘a hearer-of-the-law ,’ a ‘ doer-of-the-law .’ So that the correct English for is hearers of the law , and for , doers of the law . It is obvious, that with the omission of the in both places, the whole elaborate and ingenious criticism built by Bp. Middleton on its use , falls to the ground. (See Middleton, Gr. Art. in loc.) His dictum, that such an expression as is inadmissible , will hardly in our day be considered as deciding the matter.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Rom 2:13 . This is the principle of judgment, for not the hearers of law (the Mosaic or any other) are just with God, but the law doers shall be justified. tends to mean “pupils,” constant hearers, who are educated in the law: see Rom 2:10 . But no degree of familiarity with the law avails if it is not done. The forensic sense of is apparent in this verse, where it is synonymous with : the latter obviously being the opposite of “to be condemned”. Whether there are persons who perfectly keep the law, is a question not raised here. The futures , , all refer to the day of final judgment.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
hearers. Greek. akroates. Only here and Jam 1:22, Jam 1:23, Jam 1:25. Compare Act 25:23.
the. The texts omit.
just. See Rom 1:17.
before. Greek. para. App-104.
justified. Greek. dikaioo. App-191.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
13.] This is to explain to the Jew the fact, that not his mere hearing of the law read in the synagogue (= his being by birth and privilege a Jew) will justify him before God, but (still keeping to general principles and not touching as yet on the impossibility of being thus justified) the doing of the law.
has been apparently inserted in both cases in the later MSS. from seeing that was indisputably the law of Moses, and stumbling at the unusual expression . But the in both cases is generic, and -, – (almost as one word in each case), a hearer-of-the-law, a doer-of-the-law. So that the correct English for is hearers of the law, and for , doers of the law. It is obvious, that with the omission of the in both places, the whole elaborate and ingenious criticism built by Bp. Middleton on its use, falls to the ground. (See Middleton, Gr. Art. in loc.) His dictum, that such an expression as is inadmissible, will hardly in our day be considered as deciding the matter.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rom 2:13. , for not) A Proposition [Statement of Subject] clearly standing forth, the words of which have respect also to the Gentiles, but are particularly adapted to the Jews; concerning the former, Rom 2:14, etc. treats; concerning the latter, Rom 2:17, etc.; wherefore, also, Rom 2:16 depends on Rom 2:15, not on Rom 2:12. They have caused much confusion, who enclosed within a parenthesis the passage beginning at the 14th, nay, rather at the 13th verse, and ending with the 15.- , hearers), inactive, however sedulous [in hearing] they may be.- , before [with] God) Rom 2:2.-, doers) namely, if men have shown themselves to be doers, ch. Rom 10:5. They may do things pertaining to the law, but they cannot prove [warrant] themselves to be the doers of the whole law.-, shall be justified) This verb, in contradistinction to the noun , which denotes men actually righteous, involves a condition, which is to be performed, and then [the condition being fulfilled] the declaration of their being righteous, as about to follow [as the consequence] in the day of the divine judgment.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rom 2:13
Rom 2:13
for not the hearers of the law are just before God,-The Jews heard the law, but did not obey it. Hearing the law will not help a man unless he obeys it. For a man to hear the law and refuse to do it renders him less excusable and more worthy of stripes. And that servant, who knew his lords will, and made not ready, nor did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. (Luk 12:47).
but the doers of the law shall be justified;-Only those who do the law will be justified by the law.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
the law a law.
The statement is general, true of “a law,” any law.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
For not: Rom 2:25, Deu 4:1, Deu 5:1, Deu 6:3, Deu 30:12-14, Eze 20:11, Eze 33:30-33, Mat 7:21-27, Luk 8:21, Jam 1:22-25, 1Jo 2:29, 1Jo 3:7
but the: Rom 3:20, Rom 3:23, Rom 10:5, Luk 10:25-29, Gal 3:11, Gal 3:12
justified: Rom 3:30, Rom 4:2-5, Psa 143:2, Luk 18:14, Act 13:39, Gal 2:16, Gal 5:4, Jam 2:21-25
Reciprocal: Gen 6:11 – before Exo 35:1 – do them 1Ki 8:32 – justifying Psa 25:10 – keep Jer 11:6 – Hear Joh 7:19 – yet Act 10:35 – in Rom 4:15 – where Gal 3:19 – It was added Jam 4:11 – a doer
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
:13
Rom 2:13. The principle set forth in this verse applies to whatever law the people lived under, whether they were Jews or Gentiles.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rom 2:13. For. This introduces the proof of the latter part of Rom 2:12. The parenthesis of the E. V. is not only unnecessary, but misleading; for it improperly connects Rom 2:16 (which see) with Rom 2:12, and places the important proof of this verse in a subordinate position. The Jewish mistake was that the possession of the law of itself gave them an advantage in the judgment. They practically denied that those who sinned under the law would be judged by the law. Now the Apostles object is to prove the Jews guilty before God and in need of righteousness by faith; this verse, therefore, is an important link in the chain of his reasoning, and not a parenthetical statement.
The hearers of the law. The best authorities omit the article before law in both clauses; but the phrases are equivalent to law-hearers and law-doers, evidently referring here to the Mosaic law, however correct the more general application may be.
Are righteous before God. That Gods verdict is meant, so that the righteous before God are those who are justified, is perfectly clear from the whole sweep of the argument.
But the doers, etc. This form of the general principle of Rom 2:6 opposes the Jewish error, and it is not at all in opposition to the principle of justification by faith (see in Rom 2:6). How in the event of its being impossible for a man to be a true doer of the law (Rom 3:9 ff.) faith comes in and furnishes a righteousness by faith, and then how man, by means of the newness of life (Rom 6:4) attained through faith, must and can fulfil (Rom 8:4) the law fulfilled by Christ (the law of the Spirit of life, Rom 8:2), were topics not belonging to the present discussion (Meyer).
Shall be justified. Hence this phrase means, shall be accounted righteous. (See Excursus on Galatians, chap. 2, and below, under chap. 3. It is especially unfortunate here, where the adjective righteous occurs, that we have no corresponding verb, of the same derivation, to express the sense of justify.) This is the theoretical effect of law, and is the practical effect when by faith one is made, as the result of justification, a doer of the law. (Comp. note on Rom 2:6.)
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
That is, not the bare hearers of the law shall, upon that account, be just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified; that is, accepted of God, as acting suitable to their holy profession. It is notoriously known, that Jews gloried in, and rested upon, their outward privleges for salvation, because they were Abraham’s seed, because they were circumcised, because they were employed in reading and hearing of the law; they concluded this sufficient to render them acceptable with God; therefore, says the apostle, not the hearers, but the doers of the law shall be justified; that is, the persons whom God will accept and account righteous for the sake of Christ.
Note here, That the doers of the law or word of God, are the best hearers, yea, the only hearers in the account of God. Hearing is good, but it must not be rested in; a great understanding may a man have by much reading the word and law of God; but a good understanding only have they that do the word and will of God; the praise and fruit of that endureth forever. Psa 111:10
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Rom 2:13. For not the hearers of the law Those who are only hearers; are Even now; just , righteous, that is, accounted and dealt with as righteous persons; before God Here the apostle condemns the folly of the Jews, who thought themselves sure of eternal life, because God had favoured them with a revelation of his will: as Dr. Whitby has shown by many important quotations, in a note on this verse. But the doers of the law Whether natural or revealed, that is, they who walk according to the light of the dispensation they are under, who steadily and universally, in the tenor of their lives, act agreeably to its precepts; they, and they only, shall be justified [acquitted and rewarded] In the day of final audit and account; whether their knowledge of it were more or less express. So Doddridge. A most sure and important truth this, which respects the Gentiles also, though principally the Jews. The apostle speaks of the former, Rom 2:14, &c.; of the latter, Rom 2:17, &c. It must be observed, however, that the apostle does not speak of a perfect, unsinning obedience, either to the law of nature, or to any revealed law, whether patriarchal, Jewish, or Christian; but of that obedience of faith, productive of holiness, or that sincere obedience to the dispensation men are under, which, on the ground of the covenant of grace, established for all mankind immediately after the fall, God is pleased graciously to accept instead of that unsinning obedience, which to man, in his fallen state, is impossible. This obedience of faith, with regard to the heathen, implies their believing that God is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him; and on the ground of this faith, coming to him in prayer for his favour and blessing, and with praise for his benefits, and diligently seeking an acquaintance with him, and with his will concerning them. And with respect to Jews and Christians, it implies a true and lively faith in, and sincere obedience to, the truths, precepts, and promises of the dispensation they are under. The reader must observe, therefore, that merited justification, whether of Jews or heathen, spoken of Rom 3:20; Gal 2:16; or, justification according to the tenor of the law, by performing all the deeds or works enjoined thereby, without the least failure, is not here intended; but a gratuitous justification, founded, not on the accused persons innocence, or righteousness, but proceeding merely from the mercy of his Judge, who is pleased, out of pure favour, to accept of his faith, producing sincere love and obedience, in the place of perfect righteousness, and to reward it as if it were that righteousness, and all for the sake of Christ.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vv. 13. For not the hearers of the law are just before God; but the doers of the law, they shall be justified. Why hearers rather than possessors or readers? To describe the position of the Jews who heard the reading of the law in the synagogue every Sabbath, and who for the most part knew it only in this way (Luk 4:16 et seq.; Act 13:15; Act 15:21).
Before God, says Paul; for before men it was otherwise, the Jews ascribing righteousness to one another on account of their common possession of the law. If such a claim were well founded, the impartiality of God would be destroyed, for the fact of knowing the law is a hereditary advantage, and not the fruit of moral action. The judicial force of the term , to be justified, in Paul’s writings, comes out forcibly in this passage, since in the day of judgment no one is made righteous morally speaking, and can only be recognized and declared such. This declarative sense appears likewise in the use of the preposition (before God), which necessarily refers to an act of God as judge (see on Rom 1:17). The article before , law, in the two propositions, is found only in the Byz. Mjj.; it ought to be expunged: the hearers, the doers of a law. No doubt it is the Mosaic law which is referred to, but as law, and not as Mosaic. Some think that this idea of justification by the fulfilment of the law is enunciated here in a purely hypothetical manner, and can never be realized (Rom 3:19-20). Paul, it is said, is indicating the abstract standard of judgment, which, in consequence of man’s sin, will never admit of rigorous application. But how in this case explain the future shall be justified? Comp. also the phrase of Rom 2:27 : uncircumcision when it fulfils the law, words which certainly refer to concrete cases, and the passage Rom 8:4, in which the apostle asserts that the , what the law declares righteous, is fulfilled in the believer’s life. It will certainly, therefore, be required of us that we be righteous in the day of judgment if God is to recognize and declare us to be such; imputed righteousness is the beginning of the work of salvation, the means of entrance into the state of grace. But this initial justification, by restoring communion between God and man, should guide the latter to the actual possession of righteousnessthat is to say, to the fulfilment of the law; otherwise, this first justification would not stand in the judgment (see on Rom 2:6). And hence it is in keeping with Paul’s views, whatever may be said by an antinomian and unsound tendency, to distinguish two justifications, the one initial, founded exclusively on faith, the other final, founded on faith and its fruits.Divine imputation beforehand, in order to be true, must necessarily become truethat is to say, be converted into the recognition of a real righteousness. But if the maxim of Rom 2:13 is the rule of the divine judgment, this rule threatens again to overturn the principle of divine impartiality; for how can the Gentiles fulfil the law which they do not possess? Vv.14 and 15 contain the answer to this objection.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified [Of course, the Jew had a great advantage over the Gentile in that he possessed the law–Paul himself concedes this (Rom 3:1-2); but this mere possession of the law, and this privilege of hearing and knowing the will of God, by no means justified the sinner. Jews and Gentiles alike had to seek justification through perfect obedience to their respective laws, and no one of either class had ever been able to render such obedience. The Jew had the advantage of the Gentile in that he had a clear knowledge of the Lord’s will, and a fair warning of the dire consequences of disobedience. The Gentile, however, had advantages which offset those of the Jews, thus making the judgments of God wholly impartial. If the law which directed him was less clear, it was also less onerous. In a parenthesis the apostle now sets forth the nature of the law under which the Gentiles lived; he evidently does this that he may meet a supposed Jewish objection, as though some one said, “Since what you say applies to those who have a divine law given to them, it can not apply to the Gentiles, since they possess no law at all.” It is to this anticipated objection that Paul replies];
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
13. For not the hearers of the law shall be just with God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. This does not teach legal justification, but the fact that Gods true people are always obedient. A beautiful emphasis is here laid on doing, confirmatory of the significant fact that obedience to the law of God is the normal fruit of true faith in every case, invariably as the shadow follows the substance. Make the tree good and the fruit will be good; make the tree evil and the fruit will be evil (Jesus).
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 13
The hearers of the law; that is, those to whom the written law of God was communicated, viz., the Jewish nation. The meaning is, that the Jews must not, as they were prone to do, depend upon their acceptance with God, on the ground of their being the favored people, to whom were committed the written records of his will.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
2:13 {5} (For not the hearers of the law [are] just before God, but the doers of the law shall be {h} justified.
(5) He prevents an objection which might be made by the Jews whom the law does not excuse, but condemn, because it is not the hearing of the law that justifies, but rather the keeping of it.
(h) Will be pronounced just before God’s judgment seat: which is true indeed if any one could be found that had fulfilled the law: but seeing that Abraham was not justified by the law, but by faith, it follows that no man can be justified by works.