Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 3:31
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
31. Do we then ] This verse stands very much by itself, a sort of brief paragraph. A serious objection (on the part of the Jew) is anticipated and strongly negatived; but the discussion of it is postponed. It springs out of what has gone before, but is not connected closely with the next passage.
make void ] annul, cancel. Same word as Rom 3:3.
the law ] It has been much doubted what exact reference the word bears here. But the previous context seems to fix it to the moral law, and primarily as embodied in the O. T. (See on Rom 3:20.) For we have been just occupied with the contrast between “faith” and “works of the law;” and what St Paul intended by the latter (viz. moral, not ceremonial, obedience) is fully shewn by e.g. Rom 4:4-8. Here in fact is suggested and dismissed the objection which is discussed at length in ch. 6; that Justification by Faith not only annuls Jewish privileges, but seems to repeal the moral law. Alford takes this verse in close connexion with ch. 4; but ch. 4 is not at all occupied with the “ establishment of the law,” in any usual sense of the word “law.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Do we then make void the law – Do we render it vain and useless; do we destroy its moral obligation; and do we prevent obedience to it, by the doctrine of justification by faith? This was an objection which would naturally be made; and which has thousands of times been since made, that the doctrine of justification by faith tends to licentiousness. The word law here, I understand as referring to the moral law, and not merely to the Old Testament. This is evident from Rom 3:20-21, where the apostle shows that no man could be justified by deeds of law, by conformity with the moral law. See the note.
God forbid – By no means. Note, Rom 3:4. This is an explicit denial of any such tendency.
Yea, we establish the law – That is, by the doctrine of justification by faith; by this scheme of treating people as righteous, the moral law is confirmed, its obligation is enforced, obedience to it is secured. This is done in the following manner:
(1) God showed respect to it, in being unwilling to pardon sinners without an atonement. He showed that it could not be violated with impunity; that he was resolved to fulfil its threatenings.
(2) Jesus Christ came to magnify it, and to make it honorable. He showed respect to it in his life; and he died to show that God was determined to inflict its penalty.
(3) The plan of justification by faith leads to an observance of the Law. The sinner sees the evil of transgression. He sees the respect which God has shown to the Law. He gives his heart to God, and yields himself to obey his Law. All the sentiments that arise from the conviction of sin; that flow from gratitude for mercies; that spring from love to God; all his views of the sacredness of the Law, prompt him to yield obedience to it. The fact that Christ endured such sufferings to show the evil of violating the Law, is one of the strongest motives prompting to obedience. We do not easily and readily repeat what overwhelms our best friends in calamity; and we are brought to hate what inflicted such woes on the Saviours soul. The sentiment recorded by Watts is as true as it is beautiful:
Twas for my sins my dearest Lord.
Hung on the cursed tree.
And groand away his dying life,
For thee, my soul, for thee.
O how I hate those lusts of mine.
That crucified my Lord;
Those sins that piercd and naild his flesh.
Fast to the fatal wood.
Yes, my Redeemer, they shall die,
My heart hath so decreed;
Nor will I spare the guilty things.
That made my Saviour bleed.
This is an advantage in moral influence which no cold, abstract law always has over the human mind. And one of the chief glories of the plan of salvation is, that while it justifies the sinner, it brings a new set of influences from heaven, more tender and mighty than can be drawn from any other source, to produce obedience to the Law of God.
(This is indeed a beautiful and just view of the moral influence of the gospel, and especially of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. It may be questioned, however, whether the apostle in this place refers chiefly, or even at all, to the sanctifying tendency of his doctrine. This he does very fully in the 6th Rom.; and therefore, if another and consistent sense can be found, we need not resort to the supposition that he now anticipates what he intended, in a subsequent part of his epistle, more fully to discuss. In what other way, then, does the apostles doctrine establish the Law? How does he vindicate himself from the charge of making it void? In the preceding chapter he had pointed out the true ground of pardon in the righteousness of God. He had explained that none could be justified but they who had by faith received it. Do we then, he asks in conclusion, make void the Law by maintaining thus, that no sinner can be accepted who does not receive a righteousness commensurate with all its demands?. Yea, we establish the law, is the obvious answer. Jesus has died to satisfy its claims, and lives to honor its precepts. Thus, he hath brought in righteousness, which, being imputed to them that believe, forms such a ground of pardon and acceptance, as the Law cannot challenge.
Calvin, in his commentary on the passage, though he does not exclude the idea of sanctification, yet gives prominence to the view now stated. When, says he, we come to Christ, the exact righteousness of the Law is first found in him, which also becomes ours by imputation; in the next place sanctification is acquired, etc.)
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 31. Do we then make void the law through faith?] 1. By law here we may understand the whole of the Mosaic law, in its rites and ceremonies; of which Jesus Christ was the subject and the end. All that law had respect to him; and the doctrine of faith in Christ Jesus, which the Christian religion proclaimed, established the very claims and demands of that law, by showing that all was accomplished in the passion and death of Christ, for, without shedding of blood, the law would allow of no remission; and Jesus was that Lamb of God which was slain from the foundation of the world, in whose blood we have redemption, even the remission of sins. 2. We may understand, also, the moral law, that which relates to the regulation of the manners or conduct of men. This law also was established by the doctrine of salvation by faith; because this faith works by love, and love is the principle of obedience: and whosoever receives salvation through faith in Christ, receives power to live in holy obedience to every moral precept; for such are God’s workmanship, created anew in Christ Jesus, unto good works; in which they find it their duty and their interest incessantly to live.
1. IN the notes on the preceding chapter, I have, in general, followed the plan of Dr. Taylor, and especially in regard to its dialogue form, but I have often differed much from that very learned and judicious man, in the application of many words and doctrines. He cannot allow that the death of Christ should be considered as a price paid down for the salvation of men and, I confess, I cannot understand the apostle in any other way. Nor can I see the weight of many of his observations, nor the force of his conclusions, on any other ground than this, that the passion and death of Christ were an atonement made to Divine justice in the behalf of man; and that it is through the merit of that great sacrifice that God forgives sin. Nor can I see any reason why such great stress should be laid on faith, but as that lays hold on and takes up the sacrifice of Christ as a ransom price for the redemption of the soul from the thraldom and misery of sin and Satan.
2. This chapter contains a fine and striking synopsis of the whole Christian system. The wretched state of man is awfully exhibited, from the 10th to the 18th verse; Ro 3:10-18 and the plan of salvation, in the 24th, 25th, and 26th verses. Ro 3:24-26 A pious writer calls these the Catechism of Christian Righteousness. The following points in this catechism are worthy of high consideration – viz. How is God glorified in us, and we in him? – By his GRACE. What does his grace work in us? – True holiness. Upon what motive? – Because it is pleasing to him. By whom does he give us salvation? – By Jesus Christ. How has Christ obtained this for us? – By redeeming us. What price did he give? – His BLOOD. What does his blood effect? – It reconciles us to God. How is it applied? – By FAITH. Who has given this victim of reconciliation? – God the Father. Why did he choose these means? – To confound the false righteousness of the Gentiles; to abolish the FIGURATIVE righteousness of the Jews; and to establish his own. What does this grace of God perform? – It pardons sin and purifies the heart. For whom is this designed? – For all mankind, both Jews and Gentiles. To whom are these blessings actually communicated? – To all who repent, turn from their sin, and believe on the Lord Jesus. Why did not God make known this grand method of salvation sooner?
(1) To make it the more valued:
(2) To show his fidelity in the performance of his promises: and,
(3) To make known the virtue and efficacy of the blood of Christ, which sanctifies the present, extends its influence to the past, and continues the availing sacrifice and way of salvation to all future ages.
3. On considering this glorious scheme of salvation, there is great danger, lest, while we stand amazed at what was done FOR us, we neglect what must be done IN us. Guilt in the conscience and sin in the heart ruin the man. Pardon in the conscience and Christ in the heart save the soul. Christ has done much to save us, and the way of salvation is made plain; but, unless he justify our conscience from dead works, and purify our hearts from all sin, his passion and death will profit us nothing. While we boast in Christ Jesus, let us see that our rejoicing, , our boasting, be this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have our conversation in the world, 2Co 1:12.
4. We must beware of Antinomianism; that is, of supposing that, because Christ has been obedient unto death, there is no necessity for our obedience to his righteous commandments. If this were so, the grace of Christ would tend to the destruction of the law, and not to its establishment. He only is saved from his sins who has the law of God written in his heart; and he alone has the law written in his heart who lives an innocent, holy, and useful life. Wherever Christ lives he works: and his work of righteousness will appear to his servants, and its effect will be quietness and assurance for ever. The life of God in the soul of man is the principle which saves and preserves eternally.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Do we then make void the law through faith? A very material objection is here to be anticipated and answered, viz. that by establishing justification by faith alone the law is rendered useless, and the obligation thereto destroyed.
God forbid: yea, we establish the law: having rejected this objection, by his usual note of abhorrency, he proceeds to show, that nothing more establishs the law, inasmuch as by faith we attain a perfect righteousness, we are interested in the most complete obedience of Christ to the moral law; and that hereby every type, promise, and prophecy is fulfilled; see Mat 5:17; Luk 16:17; and we ourselves also being enabled thereunto by a gospel spirit, have a more exact conformity to the law, though we cannot reach to a fulfilling of it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
31. Do we then make void the lawthrough faith?“Does this doctrine of justification byfaith, then, dissolve the obligation of the law? If so, it cannot beof God. But away with such a thought, for it does just the reverse.”
God forbid: yea, we establishthe lawIt will be observed here, that, important as was thisobjection, and opening up as it did so noble a field for theillustration of the peculiar glory of the Gospel, the apostle does nomore here than indignantly repel it, intending at a subsequent stageof his argument (Ro 6:1-23)to resume and discuss it at length.
Note, (1) It is afundamental requisite of all true religion that it tend to humble thesinner and exalt God; and every system which breedsself-righteousness, or cherishes boasting, bears falsehood on itsface (Rom 3:27; Rom 3:28).(2) The fitness of the Gospel to be a universal religion, beneathwhich the guilty of every name and degree are invited and warrantedto take shelter and repose, is a glorious evidence of its truth(Rom 3:29; Rom 3:30).(3) The glory of God’s law, in its eternal and immutable obligations,is then only fully apprehended by the sinner, and then only is itenthroned in the depths of his soul, when, believing that “Hewas made sin for him who knew no sin,” he sees himself “madethe righteousness of God in Him” (2Co5:21). Thus do we not make void the law through faith: yea, weestablish the law. (4) This chapter, and particularly the latter partof it, “is the proper seat of the Pauline doctrine ofJustification, and the grand proof-passage of the Protestant doctrineof the Imputation of Christ’s righteousness and of Justification noton account of, but through faith alone” [PHILIPPI].To make good this doctrine, and reseat it in the faith and affectionof the Church, was worth all the bloody struggles that it cost ourfathers, and it will be the wisdom and safety, the life and vigor ofthe churches, to “stand fast in this liberty wherewith Christhath made them free, and not be again entangled”in the veryleast degree”with the yoke of bondage” (Ga5:1).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Do we then make void the law through faith?…. Which question is answered by way of detestatation,
God forbid! and by asserting the contrary,
yea, we establish the law. The law is not made void, neither by the grace nor doctrine of faith: not by the grace of faith; for that faith is not right which is not attended with works of righteousness; and those works are not right which do not flow from filth. Such a connection there is between faith and works; and so much do the one depend upon the other. Moreover, none but believers are capable of performing good works aright, and they do them, and they ought to do them: besides, faith, as a grace, looks to Christ, as the end of the law for righteousness, and therefore do not make it void. Nor is it made void by the doctrine of faith, and by the particular doctrine of a sinner’s justification by faith in Christ’s righteousness, which is here more especially intended; for though it is made void by it, as to any use of it for justification by the deeds thereof; yet its use in other respects is not set aside, such as to inform us of the mind and will of God, to discover and convince of sin, to show believers their deformity and imperfection, to render Christ and his righteousness more valuable, and to be a rule of walk and conversation to them; and it still remains a cursing and condemning law to Christless sinners, though justified ones are delivered from it as such: yea, the law is so far from being made void, that it is established by this doctrine; for by it the perpetuity of it is asserted, the spirituality of it is acknowledged, the perfect righteousness of it is secured: according to this doctrine all its demands are answered; whatever it requires it has, such as holiness of nature, perfect obedience to its precepts, and its full penalty borne: it is placed in the best hands, where it will ever remain; and a regard to it is enforced under the best influence, by the best of motives, and from the best of principles. It is indeed abolished as a covenant of works, and in this sense is made void to believers; and it is done away as to the form of administration of it by Moses; and it is destroyed as a yoke of bondage; and the people of God are free from the malediction of it, and condemnation by it, and so from its terror; yet it remains unalterable and unchangeable in the hands of Christ; the matter of it is always the same, and ever obligatory on believers, who, though they are freed from the curse of it, are not exempted from obedience to it: wherefore the law is not made void, so as to be destroyed and abolished in every sense, or to be rendered idle, inactive, useless, and insignificant; but, on the contrary, is made to stand, is placed on a sure basis and firm foundation, as the words used signify.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Nay, we establish the law ( ). Present indicative active of late verb from . This Paul hinted at in verse 21. How he will show in chapter 4 how Abraham himself is an example of faith and in his life illustrates the very point just made. Besides, apart from Christ and the help of the Holy Spirit no one can keep God’s law. The Mosaic law is only workable by faith in Christ.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “Do we then make void the law,” (nomon ou katargoumen) “Do we therefore destroy, invalidate, or make law void?” or do we make void, invalidate, or reject “the principle of right and wrong,” which is eternal law of God? Is our reasoning invalid? Do we abolish it? or annul the law?
2) “Through faith?” (dia tes pisteos); “Through means of the faith?” the body of Divine revelation regarding the means, manner, or method by which a sinner may become righteous, justified before God or Saved in preaching that it is by or through faith in the redeemer and his blood, Rom 3:24-25; Eph 1:7; Rev 5:9.
3) “God forbid;” (me genoito) “May it not be, or exist as true , or it is not true; Such a conclusion is in error. The Gospel of Jesus Christ does not weaken moral and ethical obligations for one to do right, but the doing of moral and ethical and religious right does not obtain or retain salvation for anyone; This is Paul’s concept, See. Eph 2:8-10.
4) “Yea, we establish the law “ (alla nomon histanomen)”But (in direct contrast) we establish law,” the divine principle of right and wrong. The saved live on an higher moral and ethical plane than unsaved and are morally obligated to do so out of gratitude to God for their salvation, not out of fear of losing it, Eph 2:10; Joh 14:15; Joh 15:14; Act 1:8; Luk 6:38; 1Co 16:1; Heb 10:25. As our Lord came not to destroy the law, any law, but to fulfill moral obligations of law, so should his children fulfill every moral and ethical principle of right today, Mat 5:17-18.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
31. Do we then make, etc. When the law is opposed to faith, the flesh immediately suspects that there is some contrariety, as though the one were adverse to the other: and this false notion prevails, especially among those who are imbued with wrong ideas as to the law, and leaving the promises, seek nothing else through it but the righteousness of works. And on this account, not only Paul, but our Lord himself, was evil spoken of by the Jews, as though in all his preaching he aimed at the abrogation of the law. Hence it was that he made this protest, —
“
I came not to undo, but to fulfill the law.” (Mat 5:17.)
And this suspicion regards the moral as well as the ceremonial law; for as the gospel has put an end to the Mosaic ceremonies, it is supposed to have a tendency to destroy the whole dispensation of Moses. And further, as it sweeps away all the righteousness of works, it is believed to be opposed to all those testimonies of the law, by which the Lord has declared, that he has thereby prescribed the way of righteousness and salvation. I therefore take this defense of Paul, not only as to ceremonies, nor as to the commandments which are called moral, but with regard to the whole law universally. (128)
For the moral law is in reality confirmed and established through faith in Christ, inasmuch as it was given for this end — to lead man to Christ by showing him his iniquity; and without this it cannot be fulfilled, and in vain will it require what ought to be done; nor can it do anything but irritate lust more and more, and thus finally increase man’s condemnation; but where there is a coming to Christ, there is first found in him the perfect righteousness of the law, which becomes ours by imputation, and then there is sanctification, by which our hearts are prepared to keep the law; it is indeed imperfectly done, but there is an aiming at the work. Similar is the case with ceremonies, which indeed cease and vanish away when Christ comes, but they are in reality confirmed by him; for when they are viewed in themselves they are vain and shadowy images, and then only do they attain anything real and solid, when their end is regarded. In this then consists their chief confirmation, when they have obtained their accomplishment in Christ. Let us then also bear in mind, so to dispense the gospel that by our mode of teaching the law may be confirmed; but let it be sustained by no other strength than that of faith in Christ.
(128) The law here, no doubt means, the law of which mention is made in the preceding verses — the law by the works of which we cannot be justified — the law that is in this respect opposed to faith. To refer us for its meanng to Rom 3:20 and 21, as is done by [ Stuart ] , “is wholly unwarrantable,” and to say that it means the Old Testament; for this is to separate it from it’s immediate connection without any satisfactory reason. Besides, such an interpretation obliterates an important doctrine, that faith does not render void, or nullify the authority, the use and sanctions of the moral law but on the contrary, sustains and confirms them. Though it does what the law does not, and cannot do, inasmuch as it saves the sinner whom the law condemns; it yet effects this without relaxing or dishonoring the law, but in a way that renders it, if possible, more binding, and more honorable, and more illustrious. It only renders the passage more intricate to include the ceremonial law, (for that has more of faith than of law in it,) to which no reference is made in the context: but there seems to be no objection to include the law of conscience, as well as the written law; for faith confirms both, and the word “law,” is here without the article, though this indeed of itself is not decisive. The moral law, then, as well as the law of conscience, is what is here intended: for the authority of both is confirmed and strengthened by faith. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(31) Do we then make void the law.In opposition to many commentators it seems right to take this as an isolated statement to be worked out afterwards (Rom. 6:1 et seq.) more fully. It cannot, without straining, be connected directly with what follows. The Apostle deals with two objections to his theory of justification by faith: (1) that there ought to be a different rule for the Jew and for the Gentile; (2) that if not, the law is practically abolished. He meets this latter by a contradiction, saying that it is not abolished, but confirmed. This is, however, drawing upon the stock of conclusions in his own mind to which he had come by process of meditation; the detailed proof is reserved.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
31. Make void the law? From the fact that the apostle next proceeds to ground the doctrine of faith in the Old Testament, Alford and others by main force make the word law here to mean, as it means not anywhere else, the Old Testament history. But Paul is here asserting, what he fully maintains in chap. 7, that the doctrine of faith neither abrogates nor dishonours the eternal law. On the contrary, it assumes the absoluteness of that law, which so discloses sin as to make the atonement necessary. It establishes that law as the perfect standard to which the scheme of redemption aspires to raise fallen man.
The apostle has now with complete explicitness stated the Remedy for the Ruin. He will next find that remedy to have been propounded in the Old Testament.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Do we then make the law of none effect through faith? Let it not be. No, we establish the law.’
He now deals with a final objection. Is he not making the law of none effect by making salvation obtainable through faith? And his reply is that, far from that being true, on the contrary he is establishing the Law. For on any other way of salvation the breaking of the law would be being treated as of secondary importance, such breaches having to be overlooked. It would have its teeth drawn. It would be unable to condemn. But salvation by faith gives the law its full status as condemning all who fall short of it. The axe then falls, but it falls on Christ. Furthermore the Law is then also given its true status as being a ‘schoolmaster to lead us to Christ’ (Gal 3:24). In ancient days the Law turned men’s thoughts to the necessity of the sacrificial system though which they could obtain atonement for their failures. Now it is intended to turn their thoughts to Christ’s sacrifice on their behalf.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Rom 3:31. Yea, we establish the law Meaning, through faith. He did not make void law through faith, but, on the contrary, established law through faith. Now this demonstrates that law, in this chapter, is to be understood neither of the ceremonial law; nor of law in the rigorous sense, with the penalty of death annexed for every transgression; for it is certain, the Apostle through faith established law in neither of these senses. Law therefore, in this chapter, must necessarily be understood in that general sense, in which it may be applied both to Jews and Gentiles; or, as it is simply, a rule of obedience, or the law of the Gospel. See on Rom 3:20. Faith, in the apostolic scheme, is the principle of obedience: Gospel faith works by love, and without works is dead, Jam 2:17. We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works: they that believe in God, ought to be careful to maintain good works. The Christian lies under the strongest obligations to righteousness and obedience. This the Apostle urges very strenuously in chap. 6: where he shews at large how he establishes law, or obedience through faith. See “Christ the Mediator,” p. 90, &c.
Inferences.The sad use which those persons have heretofore made of the divine favours, by whose hands they have been conveyed down to us (Rom 3:1.), ought by no means to lessen our gratitude towards God. If it were so great an advantage to the Jews, to have received the oracles of God wrapped up in so many obscure clouds, and as it were sealed up (Rom 3:2); how great is the mercy towards Christians, who have received the interpretation, and the effect of the promises contained in them! But at the same time, what awefu1 judgment may not they expect, who fail to make a good use of this extraordinary privilege!Gratitude and fear ought scarce ever to be separated in reference to this subject; but while we thankfully own the inestimable goodness of God in having favoured us with his sacred oracles, it behoves us to endeavour to improve in the knowledge of them. And, thus instructed, let us be careful to form the most honourable notion of God, as the worthy and universal Judge, who will never fail to do right, without respect of persons.
What a striking reflection does the Apostle suggest in Rom 3:6.!GOD himself, were he unjust, could not be the Judge of the world; and yet man, who is comparatively nothing but injustice,vain, erring man, undertakes boldly to judge of every thing. May these views of God and of ourselves produce in us an abhorrence of every evil thing, of every rash judgment, which must necessarily be displeasing to him: nor let us even allow ourselves to be brought under the influence of those fallacious and pernicious maxims, which would persuade us that, “The goodness of the intention sanctifies the badness of the action;” (see Rom 3:8.) or that the pretended benevolence of the end will justify irregularities in the means.
God’s judgment and decision is final; and the inspired Apostle’s authority is an answer to a thousand subtilties, which might attempt to turn us from the strictest rules of that immutable rectitude, on which it always proceeds.
Who can read the melancholy picture of human nature, Rom 3:10-19 copied by the hand of St. Paul, from the lines first drawn by other inspired writers, without deep humility and lamentation? To such a degree was it sunk, that there was none righteous, no, not one; none disposed to seek after God, or to cultivate his fear:and from this bitter root, the apostacy of our nature, what detestable fruits may not be expected to proceed!The throat like an open sepulchre, ready to consume and devour,the deceitful tongue,the envenomed lips,the malicious heart,the murderous hand! And who can wonder, that such rebels to their heavenly Father should sometimes prove ruffians to their brethren!
Let those devoutly bless God, who have been preserved either from falling into such enormities, or from falling by them. It was his grace that restrained us from sinning against him in so aggravated a manner; it is his providence which his guarded us from those, whose feet are swift to shed blood, and whose paths are strewed with destruction and misery.
Above all, we should remember the view in which these instances of corruption were brought; it was to evince this deplorable but undeniable truth, that Jews and Gentiles are all under sin, Rom 3:19. The purpose, therefore, of divine conviction being hereby answered on our hearts, let us humble ourselves before God, as those who stand guilty in his presence, and obnoxious to his judgment.
How should our whole souls rejoice in that glorious display of divine mercy, attempered and harmonized with divine justice, in our redemption by Christ, to which the Apostle bears so noble a testimony! Rom 3:20-21. We are all become guilty before God; so that if he should mark iniquity, no flesh living could be justified before him: what so reasonable, what so indispensably necessary, therefore, as with all reverence to esteem, and with all joy to embrace the righteousness of God, as now attested by the law and the prophets, by Christ and his apostles; and which we have the divine word to assure us, shall be upon all believers, without any difference,humbling ourselves in the presence of God, as those who have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; and seeking to be justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus!
To this mighty Deliverer let us continually look, as the great propitiation of lost man; exercising faith in his Blood, and rejoicing that those, which seemed to our feeble apprehensions the most jarring attributes of the Deity, are now reconciled and glorified;that mercy and truth have met together, that righteousness and peace have kissed each other. And while we readily acknowledge that all boasting is excluded, let us, in the grateful overflowings of our souls, fall down before that throne whence pardon is dispensed; confessing that this act of grace is our only plea, and abasing ourselves before God for ever, in a sense of the demerit of our sins, and of the abundance of his mercy, Rom 3:25-27. It should at all times be noted that the more faith there is in a soul, the less pride is there. Where is boasting then?It is excluded.By what law?the law of faith. Faith humbles man by making him sensible that without Christ he is nothing but falsehood, sin, and unworthiness; and that it is through the merits and grace of his Saviour, that he begins, continues, or completes any thing which is really good.
Jews and Gentiles are bound to unite in thanksgivings to God, and in love to each other, as having been all involved in the same condemnation,all partakers of the same compassion. But Christians are especially called upon to remember, that by this rich display of grace, the Almighty intended not to supersede, but to establish the law. See Rom 3:29-31. May we, therefore, make it our serious concern, that not only the actions of our lives, but the sentiments of our hearts, be directed and determined by that law; which is now peculiarly enforced by more powerful motives, than when it appeared from Sinai in all its unallayed terrors: let it be seen at all times, and in all our conduct, that the love of Christ effectually constrains us to glorify his name, and exalt the honours of our incarnate God,that God, who never shews himself more plainly to be our God, than when he produces sincere love through faith in our hearts.
REFLECTIONS.1st, The Apostle proceeds to answer the objections raised against the doctrine that he had advanced, and to confirm the truth which he had asserted.
1. He answers the objections raised against his positions.
[1.] If the Jews are thus in the same condemnation as the Gentiles, what advantage have they, notwithstanding the peculiar favours shewn them of God, and the divinely instituted rites, particularly circumcision, which he appointed them? The Apostle answers, Much every way: chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. In the law and the prophets they had the most blessed means vouchsafed them to come to the knowledge of the truth, and especially of that Messiah who was the sum and substance of the oracles of God: and it was also their honour to be intrusted with the keeping of these sacred records. Their advantages therefore above the Gentiles were very great and singular. Note; Among our most invaluable blessings we should always reckon our Bibles; for in them we have eternal life revealed to us.
[2.] If it be objected to this, that, though the Jews had the oracles of God, some did not believe; admit it. But what then? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? Shall the promise-keeping God, because of the infidelity of some, fail of fulfilling his promises to Abraham and his faithful spiritual seed, who perseveringly trust upon him according to his word? God forbid! His word must be accomplished, and his promises are sure to every faithful soul. Yea, let God be true, let it be for ever acknowledged that he is so; but let every man, who dares dispute his veracity and truth, know that he must be found a liar. Men are inconstant, deceitful, and vain; no confidence, comparatively speaking, is to be placed in them; but God never can nor will deceive us: as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged; as David acknowledged, Psa 51:4 for, notwithstanding his foul falls and great unfaithfulness, God would not alter the word which was gone out of his mouth concerning that Messiah who should spring from his loins. And he will for ever stand clear of all imputations which foolish men may cast upon him, and be found faithful, and true, though we presumptuously dare arraign his righteousness, or censure his conduct.
[3.] But some perverse Jew may say, whose character I will personate, speaking as such a man, If our righteousness commend the righteousness of God, and he gain glory by our wickedness and unbelief, both glorifying his justice in our punishment, and his grace in calling the Gentile sinners in our stead, and justifying them through the obedience of his Son unto death, what shall we say? Is not God unrighteous, ( , ) who taketh vengeance for that unbelief and unrighteousness, which serves as a foil more eminently to display the lustre of his divine perfections, his truth, holiness, and grace? With abhorrence the Apostle rejects the insinuation. God forbid! for then how shall God judge the world? If he were not infinitely righteous in his nature, he would be unfit for this high office: and if he, by his overruling providence, brings good out of evil, and magnifies his grace more eminently where sin has most abounded, sin has not therefore the less evil or malignity, nor has the sinner aught to plead, since he designs nothing less than the divine glory.
[4.] But the same carnal Jew, whom I have personated before, may farther urge, If the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; and my unbelief which gives the lie to his promises, and my wickedness which gives the lie to my profession, serve to magnify his veracity, why yet am I also judged as a sinner? and punished for transgressions which serve rather to magnify God than to dishonour him? and may we not rather abandon ourselves to evil, in order that good may come, and God’s grace and truth receive greater glory in justifying those who believe on his Son? And such malicious and blasphemous reports are spread by our Jewish enemies, who confidently affirm that this is the doctrine which we as apostles preach, and as Christians believe. But we abhor the suggestion, and declare to such slanderers of us and the truth, and to all who dare thus abuse the holy doctrines of grace, that their damnation is just, and inevitable. Note; (1.) The best of ministers and of men have had the foulest aspersions cast on them, and been charged with holding the most horrid blasphemies. (2.) The injured characters of his ambassadors God will avenge. (3.) They who abuse the doctrines of grace, as arguments for licentiousness, will perish with most aggravated guilt.
2. The Apostle returns, after confuting the Jewish objections, to the main question in debate, Whether Jews, as well as Gentiles, were not all under sin? Are we better than they? No, in no wise: for have before proved at large in the two former chapters, that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin, condemned by the guilt, enslaved by the power, and liable to the eternal wrath which is the wages of sin. And to enforce this truth, the Apostle quotes the Scriptures, which the Jews admitted, as containing the fullest proof of his assertion. God declares, Psa 14:1-3. That there is none righteous, according to the perfect demands of his holy law, no not one: so corrupted is our nature, that there is none that understandeth; the human mind by nature is darkened, and cannot discover or receive the things which be of the Spirit of God; there is none that seeketh after God, no one good disposition remaining in the natural heart, nor desire after communion with God; but evil, and only evil, and that continually. Hence the Psalmist asserts of all mankind, that they are all gone out of the way, following the bent of their native corruption; they are altogether become unprofitable, bringing forth no fruit to God’s glory in that state of nature; there is none that doeth good, no not one. And the foul streams which flow from this polluted fountain are described in other places of the Scripture: their throat is an open sepulchre, voracious and insatiable in the pursuits of their lusts and covetousness; with their tongues they have used deceit, flattering, false, faithless; the poison of asps is under their lips, secretly, artfully, does their tongue drop the malignant venom, to blast the same or destroy the life of their neighbour; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, blaspheming God himself, and shooting out their bitter words of rancour and reviling against the people and the good ways of the Lord; their feet are swift to shed blood, every member of their body is a ready instrument of iniquity; destruction and misery are in their ways, and wherever they go they mark their path with mischief, spreading their wickedness as a plague, pestilential to others, and at last bringing perdition on themselves; and the way of peace have they not known, strangers to whatever would conduce to their own peace and happiness both here and hereafter; disturbing, as far they can, by their malignity and perverseness, the peace of mankind: there is no fear of God before their eyes; destitute of every gracious principle: and as this is the root of all their wickedness, so it is the summit of all their ungodliness,they leave God far above out of their sight. And such being the spirit of God’s description of every man by nature, declared by him who searcheth the heart, and knoweth what is in man, the universal guilt and desperate wickedness of the whole human race, both Jews and Gentiles, cannot but be most evident. While we read the dreadful charge, may we be led to a humbling acknowledgment of the truth, and from the deepest heartfelt conviction be laid in the dust, submitting wholly to the righteousness of God by faith!
2nd, The Apostle proceeds to apply the truths which he had advanced and proved.
1. All the world is become guilty before God, and no flesh can be justified in God’s sight by the deeds of the law, because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, have come short of righteousness, and therefore of heaven. According to the several dispensations under which they have lived, the law speaketh both to Jews and Gentiles, and condemns them as transgressors. The Gentiles have offended against those precepts of the moral law, which God, though more obscurely, has shewed them; and the Jews, against the clearer revelation, which in the Scriptures they have enjoyed; so that every mouth must be stopped, and guilt evident and confessed appear upon every living soul. For by the law is the knowledge of sin; so far from being able to justify any man, it is a glass which can of itself only shew him his deformity, the straight rule to mark his sad deviations from it. Note; (1.) Man in his fallen nature is become flesh, fallen and corrupted; and therefore it is impossible that, in his present ruined state, he should of himself be just before God. (2.) All flesh must plead guilty at God’s bar, and no man can possibly be saved, till he has seen, felt, and owned that he has deserved most justly to be damned.
2. To those who, from the conviction which the law brings to their consciences, are driven to despair of acceptance with God on account of any doings and duties of their own, the Gospel reveals the method of divine grace, appointed and provided for the sinner’s justification before God. But now, since all hope is fled of obtaining favour with God on the footing of our own obedience, the righteousness of God without the law, which the moral law never discovered, is manifested by Jesus Christ, and by the preaching of the Gospel, being witnessed by all the types and figures of the ceremonial law, and by the prophets, Isa 45:24-25. Jer 23:6. Dan 9:24. So that even during the time that the Mosaical dispensation lasted, the Jews were taught to look for a better righteousness than that which they could obtain by the deeds of the law; even the righteousness of God which is now received by faith in our adored Redeemer Jesus Christ, and judicially made over, and reckoned to the account of every soul which, renouncing every other hope, lays hold on this set before him; and it is unto all and upon all them that believe, whether Jew or Gentile, for there is no difference; they alike need it, as having all sinned and come short of God’s glory, and he freely bestows it on them without any regard to the degrees of their guilt. Nor is there the least first-moving cause in any of us to engage God to have respect to us. We lie in one promiscuous mass of corruption, till through grace we repent, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption which is in Jesus Christ, who by his obedience unto death paid down the invaluable price of our redemption, which does not at all affect the riches of the grace respecting us, but rather infinitely enhances it: we owe it to God’s boundless mercy, that he provided, qualified, and accepted our glorious Surety, and freely gave him up for us all.Whom God hath set forth, in the fulness of time sending him in the human nature, to be a propitiation, to be the one great propitiatory sacrifice, that, through faith in his blood, the chief of sinners might boldly approach a throne of grace. And hereby, (1.) The best of blessings is secured to us, even the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. The sacrifices under the law were insufficient to take away sin; the faithful therefore under the Old Testament had recourse to this atoning Blood which in the fulness of time should be shed, and in the view thereof God bore with them, pardoned and accepted them. And we are infinitely indebted to this Blood which speaks before the throne, and to the forbearance of God with us in consequence thereof, that we have not through our repeated provocations been cut off long since, as we have deserved, and been cast into hell for our sins. (2.) Hereby the greatest honour redounds to God; for in this his method of dealing with sinners, he shews and demonstrates his own righteousness, both the glory of his justice in the punishment of sin, and the transcendent excellence and perfection of the Redeemer’s infinite merit, by means of which, consistent with the divine glory, an honourable provision was made for the pardon of sin, and neither God’s truth, justice, nor holiness impeached by the grace extended to the sinner: so that at this time, under the Gospel dispensation, he declares his righteousness, that he may be just, and withal the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Never was God’s displeasure against sin more awefully displayed than when he laid upon his Son the iniquities of us all. (3.) Hereby all boasting is excluded from the sons of men; none can say he is accepted before God on account of any works of righteousness done by him, or foreseen in him; all are excluded. By what law? of works? Nay, but by the law of faith; by that gracious evangelical dispensation, wherein the blood of God our Redeemer is proposed as the only meritorious cause of the sinner’s acceptance. The conclusion then from the above premises is evident, that a man is and can be justified before God in no other way than by faith only, without the deeds of the law.
3. This privilege of free justification, through a Redeemer’s blood, is common to the Gentile as well as the Jew. Is God then, in this new dispensation of his grace in the Gospel of his dear Son, the God of the Jews only? or peculiarly? Is he not of the Gentiles also? Yes, of the Gentiles also. It is a common salvation, and both are alike freely invited to partake of it;Seeing it is one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith, both Jews and Gentiles standing exactly on the same footing, without respect of persons, or any difference in the way of their acceptance.
4. He concludes with obviating an objection which some might raise, as if he hereby made void the moral law, the eternal rule of righteousness, as useless and insignificant; but he rejects with detestation the suggestion;God forbid! Yea, so far from making it void, we establish the law. Its true use remains the same as ever, to convince of sin, and to be, not a covenant of life, but a law of obedience; and that faith which shews it manifested in the highest by the perfect obedience of Christ to the death of the cross, as it works by love, is the most powerful principle to engage our hearts to delight in the law of God after the inner man, and to run the way of his commandments, walking in the glorious liberty of the children of God, a liberty not to transgress, but to obey.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rom 3:31 . ] The Apostle infers for himself from his doctrine of justification . just discussed a possible objection and reproach: Do we then make away with the law ( render it invalid ) through faith?
] emphatically put first, and here also to be understood neither of the moral law, nor of every law in general, nor of the entire O. T., but, as is proved by the antithesis between and and the reference as bearing on Rom 3:28 , of the Mosaic law . Comp Act 21:28 , Gal 4:21 f.
.] i.e. thereby , that we assert faith as the condition of justification.
] Not: we let the law stand (Matthias), but: we make it stand , we produce the result that it , so far from being ready to fall, in reality stands upright ( , Theodoret) in its authority, force, and obligation. Comp 1Ma 14:29 ; 1Ma 2:27 ; Sir 44:20-22 . This of the law, whereby there is secured to it stability and authority instead of the , takes place by means of (see ch. 4) the Pauline doctrine demonstrating and making good the fact that, and the mode in which, justification by the grace of God through faith is already taught in the law, so that Paul and his fellow teachers do not come into antagonism with the law, as if they desired to abolish and invalidate it by a new teaching, but, on the contrary, by their agreement with it, and by proving their doctrine from it, secure and confirm it in its position and essential character. [936]
The , however, is so little at variance with the abrogation of the law as an institute of works obligatory in order to the becoming righteous , which has taken place through Christianity (Rom 10:4 ; 2Co 3:7 ; Gal 3 ; Rom 7:4 ; Gal 2:19 ; Col 2:14 ), that, on the contrary, the law had to fall in this aspect, in order that, in another aspect, the same law, so far as it teaches faith as the condition of the , might be by the gospel imperishably confirmed in its authority, and even, according to Mat 5:17 , fulfilled . For in respect of this assertion of the value of faith the law and the gospel appear one.
If the and its relation to the abrogation of the law be defined to mean that “from faith proceeds the new obedience , and the love develops itself, which is the , Rom 13:10 ” (Philippi; comp Rckert, Krehl, Umbreit, Morison), as Augustine, Melancthon, who nevertheless mixes up with it very various elements, Luther, Calvin, Beza, Vatablus, Calovius, and others assumed (comp also Apol. C. A. p. 83, 223), the further detailed illustration of ch. 4 is quite as much opposed to this view, as it is to the interpretations which conceive the law as pedagogically leading to Christ (Grotius, Olshausen), or as fulfilled in respect of its object , which is justification by faith (Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Theophylact, and others [939] ). In the case of the two latter views, faith appears as something added to the law, which is just what Paul combats in ch. 4. On the form , from , see Matthiae, p. 482, Winer, p. 75 [E. T. 93]. Still the , recommended by Griesbach and adopted by Lachmann and Tischendorf, has preponderant attestation (so also *; but ** has ), which is here decisive (in opposition to Fritzsche), especially when we take into account the multitude of other forms in MSS. ( , , , et al [940] ).
[936] Comp. Weiss, Bibl. Theol. p. 333.
[939] , , , , Theophylact.
[940] t al. and others; and other passages; and other editions.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Rom 3:31 to Rom 4:24 . The harmony of the doctrine of justification by faith with the law, illustrated by what is said in the law regarding the justification of Abraham .
The new chapter should have begun with Rom 3:31 , since that verse contains the theme of the following discussion. If we should, with Augustine, Beza, Calvin, Melancthon, Bengel, and many others, including Flatt, Tholuck, Kllner, Rckert, Philippi, van Hengel, Umbreit, and Mehring, assume that at Rom 4:1 there is again introduced something new, so that Paul does not carry further the , v. 31, but in Rom 4:1 ff. treats of a new objection that has occurred to him at the moment, we should then have the extraordinary phenomenon of Paul as it were dictatorially dismissing an objection so extremely important and in fact so very naturally suggesting itself, as . . [932] , merely by an opposite assertion, and then immediately, like one who has not a clear case, leaping away to something else. The more paradoxical in fact after the foregoing, and especially after the apparently antinomistic concluding idea in Rom 3:30 , the assertion must have sounded, the more difficult becomes the assumption that it is merely an anticipatory declaration abruptly interposed (see especially Philippi, who thinks that it is enlarged on at Rom 8:1 ff.); and the less can Rom 3:20 , . . be urged as analogous, since that proposition had really its justification there in what preceded. According to Th. Schott, is not meant to apply to the Mosaic law at all, but to the fact that, according to Rom 3:27 , faith is a , in accordance with which therefore Paul, when making faith a condition of righteousness, ascribes to himself not abrogation of the law, but rather an establishment of it, setting up merely what God Himself had appointed as the method of salvation. The discourse would thus certainly have a conclusion, but by a jugglery [933] with a word ( ) which no reader could, after Rom 3:28 , understand in any other sense than as the Mosaic law. Hofmann explains substantially in the same way as Schott. He thinks that Paul conceives to himself the objection that in the doctrine of faith there might be found a doing away generally of all law , and now in opposition thereto declares that that doctrine does not exclude, but includes, the fact that there is a divine order of human life (?).
[932] . . . .
[933] This objection in no way affects the question , ver. 27 (in opposition to Hofmann’s objection) where the very placed along with it requires the general notion of .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1835
FAITH ESTABLISHES THE LAW
Rom 3:31. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
A GENERAL prejudice obtains against the way of salvation by faith: but it prevailed equally even in the apostolic age. Paul himself saw that his statement of the Gospel did not escape censure. He perceived that it was deemed injurious to the interests of morality; he therefore anticipated and answered this objection.
To bring the subject fully before you, I will propose for your consideration three thingsthe objection madethe objection obviatedthe objection retorted.
I.
The objection made
People suppose we make void the law through faith; but the truth, however clearly we may state it is, for the most part, misapprehended. In explaining salvation by faith we affirm two things concerning the law:
1.
That it has no power either to condemn or to justify a believer
[It cannot condemn him, because Christ has redeemed him from its curse [Note: Gal 3:13.]. It cannot justify him, because he has transgressed it, and its demands of perfect obedience are unalterably the same. Faith in Christ delivers him from the penal sanctions of the law, but does not in any respect lower its demands.]
2.
That his obedience to it makes no part of his justifying righteousness
[Faith and works, as grounds of justification, are opposite to each other [Note: Rom 11:6.]. If our works had any share in our justification we should have a ground of boasting; which is utterly to be excluded [Note: Rom 3:27.]. The smallest reliance on our works makes void all hope by the Gospel [Note: Gal 5:2; Gal 5:4.]. All dependence therefore on the works of the law must be entirely renounced.]
These affirmations evidently exclude morality from the office of justifying. They are therefore supposed to discountenance all practical religion; but this mistake originates in the ignorance of the objectors themselves.
This will be seen, whilst we notice,
II.
The objection obviated
The believer, so far from making void the law, establishes it. The power of the law is twofold; to command obedience, and to condemn for disobedience. The believer establishes the law in each of these respects:
1.
In its commanding power:
[He owns its absolute authority over him as Gods creature; all his hope is in the perfect obedience which Christ paid to it for him; he looks upon his obligations to obey it as increased, rather than vacated, by the death of Christ; he actually desires to obey it as much as if he were to be justified by his obedience to it.]
2.
In its condemning power:
[He acknowledges himself justly condemned by it: he founds his hope in Christ as having borne its curse for him: his own conscience cannot be pacified but by that atonement which satisfied the demands of the law: bereft of a hope in the atonement, he would utterly despair: he flees to Christ continually to bear the iniquity of his holiest actions.]
Thus he magnifies the law, while the objector himself, as I will now prove, makes it void.
To see this more fully, consider,
III.
The objection retorted
The person who objects to salvation by faith alone, is in reality the one who makes void the law. Objections against the doctrine of faith are raised from a pretended regard for the law; but the person who blends faith and works effectually undermines the whole authority of the law. He undermines,
1.
Its commanding power
[He is striving to do something which may serve in part as a ground of his justification; but he can do nothing which is not imperfect; therefore he shews that he considers the law as less rigorous in its demands than it really is: consequently he robs it in a measure of its commanding power.]
2.
Its condemning power
[He never thoroughly feels himself a lost sinner; he does not freely acknowledge that he might he justly cursed even for his most holy actions; he even looks for justification on account of that which in itself deserves nothing but condemnation: and what is this but to lower its condemning power?]
Thus the advocates for the law are, in fact, its greatest enemies; whereas the advocates for the Gospel are the truest friends to the law also
Infer
1.
How absurd is it for persons to decide on religion without ever having studied its doctrines!
[In human sciences men forbear to lay down their dogmas without some previous knowledge of the points on which they decide; but in theology, all, however ignorant, think themselves competent to judge. They indeed, who are taught of God, can judge; but unenlightened reason does not qualify us to determine. Let us beware of indulging prejudices against the truth. Let us seek to be guided into all truth by the Holy Spirit.]
2.
How excellent is the salvation revealed to us in the Gospel!
[Salvation by faith is exactly suited to mans necessities. It is also admirably calculated to advance the honour of God. Every man that is saved magnifies the law, and consequently the lawgiver. The commanding and condemning power of the law are equally glorified by the sinners dependence on the obedience and sufferings of Christ: but in those who are condemned, its sanctions only are honoured. Thus is the law more honoured in the salvation of one, than in the destruction of the whole human race. Let all then admire and embrace this glorious salvation.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
REFLECTIONS
Reader! behold the awful state by nature, both of Jew and Gentile! See, what a portrait to humble our souls to the dust, the Lord the Spirit hath twice drawn, in his sacred pages; once by David, and here by Paul, of our utterly lost, and ruined estate, by nature and by practice; as we stand in ourselves before God. And this we are told, was the result of that enquiry, when the Lord looked down from heaven, to see if there were any that would see k after God. All were gone out of the way. All together become unprofitable. None good, no, not one. And how then could it be otherwise, than while beheld in our Adam-nature, and without being considered in Christ, all the world must become guilty before God?
And, can it need any argument of persuasion, to prompt the heart convinced of this, to look to Jesus; yea, to flee to Him, from the wrath to come? Am I, are you, convinced of these most unquestionable truths, and do we pause, or remain stupid, and senseless, in the view of these vast concerns? Hath god set forth his dear son, as propitiation through faith in his blood; and do we hesitate in the acceptation of it? Is it declared from heaven, that by the deeds of the law, no flesh can be justified in god’ s sight; and are we looking to that quarter, either in whole, or in part , for favor with the lord? Oh! Sir! if at that awful tribunal, when god cometh to judge the world in righteousness, and minister true judgment unto the people, we are found without the righteousness of Jesus, and his propitiation, to be our security; what paleness, what horror, will mark the countenance of every son and daughter of Adam? Precious lord Jesus! be thou my propitiation, my high Priest, my Altar, the lord my righteousness now: and sure I am thou wilt be my everlasting glory then. When law, and justice, in the multitude of breaches I have committed against both, would give in their verdict against me: Thou shalt answer for me, 0 lord my god! Oh! the preciousness of that voice now heard by the ear of faith, and then confirmed with the unalterable determination from the throne: deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
Ver. 31. We establish the law ] Which yet the Antinomians cry down, calling repentance a legal grace, humiliation a backdoor to heaven; grieving that they have grieved so much for their sins, &c., that they have prayed so often, and done other holy duties. Islebius Agricola (the first Antinomian that ever was) and his followers held these unsound opinions; That the law and works belong only to the court of Rome; that as soon as a man begins to think how to live godlily and modestly, he presently wandereth from the gospel; that a man was never truly mortified till he had put out all sense of conscience for sin; that if his conscience troubled him, that was his imperfection, he was not mortified enough; that St Peter understood not Christian liberty when he wrote those words, “Make your calling and election sure;” that good works were perniciosa ad salutatem, destructive to men’s souls; with a deal of such trash. All which, this Islebius afterwards condemned and recanted in a public auditory, and printed his revocation. Yet when Luther was dead, he relapsed into the same error, and hath to this day among us too many disciples. We have need, therefore, to take St Paul’s part, to establish the law, to settle it, now that it is falling (as the Greek word, , signifies), to make it valid, (as some copies have it), sufficient and effectual to those ends for which it was given, viz. to discover transgression and to restrain it, Gal 3:19 ; to humble men for sin, Rom 3:19-20 ; to be a schoolmaster to Christ, and a rule of life, that, according to his royal law, Jas 2:8 , we may live royally above the rank of men, in obedience; while by the gospel, we obtain grace in some measure to fulfil the law; having a counterpart of it in our hearts, and a disposition answerable to it in all things, Heb 8:8-10 cf. 2Co 3:2-3 ; as the lead answers to the mould, as tally answers tally, indenture indenture. That was a good saying of Luther’s, Walk in the heaven of the promise, but in the earth of the law; that in respect of believing, this of obeying. Another of his sayings was, That in the justification of a sinner, Christ and faith were alone tanquam sponsus cum sponsa in thalamo, as the bridegroom and bride in the bed; howbeit it is such a faith as works by love. A third golden saying of his was, He that can rightly distinguish between law and gospel, let him praise God for his skill, and know himself to be a good divine.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
31. ] But again the Jew may object, if this is the case, if Faith be the ground , and Faith the medium , of justification for all, circumcised or uncircumcised, surely the law is set aside and made void . That this is not so, the Apostle both here asserts, and is prepared to shew by working out the proposition of Rom 3:29 , that the law itself belonged to a covenant whose original recipient was justified by faith , and whose main promise was, the reception and blessing of the Gentiles .
, not ‘ law ,’ but the law , as every where in the Epistle. We may safely say that the Apostle never argues of law , abstract, in the sense of a system of precepts , its attributes or its effects, but always of THE LAW, concrete, the law of God given by Moses , when speaking of the Jews, as here: the law of God , in as far as written in their consciences, when speaking of the Gentiles: and when including both, the law of God generally, His written as well as His unwritten will.
Many Commentators have taken this verse (being misled in some cases by its place at the end of the chapter) as standing by itself, and have gone into the abstract grounds why faith does not make void the law (or moral obedience); which, however true, have no place here : the design being to shew that the law itself contained this very doctrine , and was founded in the promise to Abraham on a covenant embracing Jews and Gentiles, and therefore was not degraded from its dignity by the doctrine, but rather established as a part of God’s dealings, consistent with, explaining, and explained by, the Gospel.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Rom 3:31 . ; Do we then annul “law” through the faith we have been discussing? Perhaps if Law were written with a capital letter, it would suggest the true meaning. The Apostle speaks as from the consciousness of a Jewish objector: is all that we have ever called Law the whole Jewish religion that divinely established order, and everything of the same nature made void by faith? God forbid, he answers: on the contrary, Law is set upon a secure footing; for the first time it gets its rights. To prove this was one of the main tasks lying upon the Apostle of the New Covenant. One species of proof is given in chap 4, where he shows that representative saints under the Old Dispensation, like Abraham, were justified by faith. That is the Divine order still, and it is securer than ever under the Gospel. Another kind of proof is given in chaps. 6 8, where the new life of the Christian is unfolded, and we are shown that “the just demands of the law” are fulfilled in believers, and in believers only. The claim which the Apostle makes here, and establishes in these two passages, is the same as that in our Lord’s words: I came not to destroy (the law or the prophets), but to fulfil.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rom 3:31
31Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.
Rom 3:31
NASB”Do we then nullify the Law through faith”
NKJV”Do we then make void the law through faith”
NRSV”Do we then overthrow the law by this faith”
TEV”Does this mean that by this faith we do away with the Law”
NJB”Do we mean that faith makes the Law pointless”
The NT presents the OT in two different ways.
1. it is inspired, God-given revelation that will never pass away (cf. Mat 5:17-19; Rom 7:12; Rom 7:14; Rom 7:16)
2. it is worn out and has passed away (cf. Heb 8:13).
Paul used the term “nullify” at least twenty-five times. It is translated “make null and void,” “render powerless,” and “to make of no effect.” See Special Topic at Rom 3:3. For Paul the Law was a custodian (cf. Gal 3:23) and tutor (cf. Gal 3:24), but could not give eternal life (cf. Gal 2:16; Gal 2:19; Gal 3:19). It is the grounds of man’s condemnation (cf. Gal 3:13; Col 2:14). The Mosaic Law functioned both as revelation and a moral test as did the “Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil.”
There is uncertainty as to what Paul meant by “the Law.”
1. a system of righteous works of Judaism
2. a stage for Gentile believers to pass through to salvation in Christ (Judaizers in Galatians)
3. a standard by which all humans fall short (cf. Rom 1:18 to Rom 3:20; Rom 7:7-25; Gal 3:1-29).
“we establish the Law” In light of the previous phrase, what does this phrase mean? It could indicate that
1. the Law was not a way of salvation but it was a continuing moral guide
2. it testified to the doctrine of “justification by faith,” Rom 3:21; Rom 4:3 (Gen 15:6; Psa 32:1-2; Psa 32:10-11)
3. the Law’s weakness (human rebellion, cf. Romans 7; Galatians 3) was fully satisfied by Christ’s death, Rom 8:3-4
4. the purpose of revelation is to restore the image of God in man
The Law, after forensic righteousness, becomes a guide to true righteousness or Christlikeness. See Special Topic: Paul’s Views of the Mosaic Law at Rom 13:9.
The shocking paradox is that the Law failed to establish God’s righteousness, but through its nullification, by means of God’s gift of grace through faith, the Christian lives a righteous, godly life. The goal of the Law has been met, not by human performance, but by the free gift of the grace of God in Christ! For “establish” see Special Topic: Stand at Rom 5:2.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
make void. Greek. katargeo, as Rom 3:3.
Yea = Nay. Greek. alla.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
31.] But again the Jew may object, if this is the case, if Faith be the ground, and Faith the medium, of justification for all, circumcised or uncircumcised, surely the law is set aside and made void. That this is not so, the Apostle both here asserts, and is prepared to shew by working out the proposition of Rom 3:29, that the law itself belonged to a covenant whose original recipient was justified by faith, and whose main promise was, the reception and blessing of the Gentiles.
, not law, but the law, as every where in the Epistle. We may safely say that the Apostle never argues of law, abstract, in the sense of a system of precepts,-its attributes or its effects,-but always of THE LAW, concrete,-the law of God given by Moses, when speaking of the Jews, as here: the law of God, in as far as written in their consciences, when speaking of the Gentiles: and when including both, the law of God generally, His written as well as His unwritten will.
Many Commentators have taken this verse (being misled in some cases by its place at the end of the chapter) as standing by itself, and have gone into the abstract grounds why faith does not make void the law (or moral obedience); which, however true, have no place here: the design being to shew that the law itself contained this very doctrine, and was founded in the promise to Abraham on a covenant embracing Jews and Gentiles,-and therefore was not degraded from its dignity by the doctrine, but rather established as a part of Gods dealings,-consistent with, explaining, and explained by, the Gospel.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rom 3:31. , the law) This declaration is similar to the declaration of our Lord, Mat 5:17.-, we establish) while we defend [uphold] that which the law witnesseth to, Rom 3:20-21, and while we show, how satisfaction is truly made to the law through Christ.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rom 3:31
Rom 3:31
Do we then make the law of none effect through faith? God forbid:-The end or purpose of the law could never be accomplished without bringing in faith, the gospel, the reign of Christ, to prepare for which the law was given.
nay, we establish the law.-The law of Moses was established in the sense of being fulfilled, completed, and taken out of the way. The law, was intended from the beginning to complete its work when it brought the world to Christ. “What then is the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise hath been made; and it was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator. … So that the law is become our tutor to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith is come, we are no longer under a tutor. (Gal 3:19-25). The law of Moses was never intended to continue in force longer than to the coming of Christ. For the law to fail to bring in the gospel, faith, the promised seed, was for the law to fail. For it to bring in these was to cause it to fulfill its mission and to establish it as of God. To fulfill the law and take it out of the way was to establish it in the fulfillment of its end. So in coming to faith in Christ we establish the law.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Do we then
The sinner establishes the law in its right use and honour by confessing his guilt, and acknowledging that by it he is justly condemned. Christ, on the sinner’s behalf, establishes the law by enduring its penalty, death. Cf. Mat 5:17; Mat 5:18.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
do we: Rom 4:14, Psa 119:126, Jer 8:8, Jer 8:9, Mat 5:17, Mat 15:6, Gal 2:21, Gal 3:17-19
God: , literally, let it not be, and which might be rendered less objectionably, far from it, by no means. Rom 3:4
yea: Rom 7:7-14, Rom 7:22, Rom 7:25, Rom 8:4, Rom 10:4, Rom 13:8-10, Psa 40:8, Isa 42:21, Jer 31:33, Jer 31:34, Mat 3:15, Mat 5:20, 1Co 9:21, Gal 2:19, Gal 5:18-23, Heb 10:15, Heb 10:16, Jam 2:8-12
Reciprocal: 1Ki 21:3 – The Lord Job 15:4 – castest off Psa 111:8 – They Jer 19:7 – I will make Hab 1:4 – the law Mal 4:4 – the law Mat 15:4 – God Mar 7:9 – reject Luk 16:17 – than Rom 6:1 – Shall Rom 7:12 – the law Rom 8:7 – for it 1Co 6:15 – God 1Co 9:8 – or Gal 3:21 – the law 2Ti 1:10 – abolished Heb 7:18 – a disannulling
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
:31
Rom 3:31. In this verse the word faith is also preceded by the article “the” in the original. Paul is saying that the law was not made void nor disrespected by the faith or the Gospel, but rather it is given a high recommendation for being true (is established), because it had predicted the coming in of the Gospel and the new prophet. (See Deu 18:18-20.)
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rom 3:31. Do we then make void the law through faith? This verse may be regarded either as the proposition of chap. 4, or as the conclusion of the preceding argument. It is both in fact, being a transition from the doctrine of justification by faith to the proof that Abraham was thus justified. The objection to making it begin the next chapter is the form of Rom 3:1 (which see). But we place it in a separate paragraph. The article is wanting with the word law, but the reference to the Mosaic law is unmistakable.
Let it never be. See Rom 3:4. The Apostle indignantly denies that faith abrogates the law, as might be objected.
Nay; or, but on the contrary, we establish the law, cause the law to stand. Not as a ground of justification, but as itself teaching justification by faith, the next chapter giving the historical proof. This is the main point here, although there are many other reasons which might be urged in support of the statement as a general one. The law was never intended as a means of justification; it could not therefore be abrogated as such a means. In its typical character it has fulfilled its purpose; as to its moral contents, as the expression of the holy will of God, as a rule of conduct, it was perfectly fulfilled by Christ and is constantly fulfilled in the holy life of a believer.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Observe here, The wise and holy caution which our apostle uses to take away the calumny and reproach cast upon him, by the adversaries of the doctrine of free justification by faith; as if this would render the law of God void and altogether useless: Do we then make void the law of God? As if he had said, “There may be those that will say so, but untruly; for we establish the law; because we acknowledge, that without exact obedience and conformity to the law, both in our natures and in our lives, as a rule of living, there can be no salvation.”
Learn hence, That the doctrine of justification by faith alone, doth not overthrow but establish the law.
Here note, That it is the moral, not ceremonial law, which the apostle speaks of. The ceremonial law is utterly abolished by the gospel; but the moral law is not abolished, but established by the gospel; or, if abolished, it is only as a covenant, not as a rule. Christ has relaxed the law in point of danger, but not in point of duty; for the law is holy, and just, and good, and is not disannulled, but established by the gospel: Because by the gospel we obtain grace, in some measure, to fulfill the law, and yield a sincere obedience to it; which, for the sake of Christ’s perfect and spotless obedience, shall find a gracious acceptance with God.
Therefore, with the highest elevation of soul, let us bless God for Jesus Christ, and for the gospel revelation, which has so fully discovered, and clearly revealed to us the only way of justification by faith in the Son of God, who hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood. To whom be glory and dominion forever and ever Amen.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Vv. 31. Do we then make void the law through faith? That be far from us! Much rather we establish the law.
This verse has been misunderstood by most commentators. Some (Aug., Luth., Mel., Calv., Philip., Rck.) apply it to the sanctification which springs from faith, and by which the gospel finally realizes the fulfilment of the law. This is the thesis which will be developed in chaps. 6-8. We do not deny that the apostle might defer the full development of a maxim thrown out beforehand, and, as it were, by the way; comp. the sayings, Rom 3:3; Rom 3:20 b. But yet he must have been logically led to such sentences by their necessary connection with the context. Now this is not the case here. What is there at this point to lead the apostle to concern himself with the sanctifying power of faith? Let us remark, further, that Rom 3:31 is connected by then with what precedes, and can only express an inference from the passage, Rom 3:27-30. Finally, how are we to explain the then at the beginning of chap. 4? How does the mode of Abraham’s justification follow from the idea that faith leads to the fulfilment of the law? Hofmann offers substantially the same explanation, only giving to the word law the meaning of moral law in general (instead of the Mosaic law). But the difficulties remain absolutely the same.
Meyer and some others regard Rom 3:31 as the beginning, and, in a manner, the theme of the following chapter. The term law, on this view, refers to the passage of Genesis which the apostle is about to quote, Rom 4:3 : The harmony of justification by faith with the law is about to be explained by what the law says of Abraham’s justification. But it is difficult to believe that Paul, without the slightest indication, would call an isolated passage of the Pentateuch the law. Then, if the relation between Rom 3:31 and Rom 4:1 were as Meyer thinks, it should be expressed logically by for, not by then. Holsten, if we understand him rightly, tries to get rid of these difficulties by applying the term law in our verse to the law of faith (Rom 3:27), in which he sees an absolute rule of righteousness holding good for all men, and consequently for Abraham. One could not imagine a more forced interpretation. Our explanation is already indicated; it follows naturally from the interpretation which we have given of the preceding verses. Paul’s gospel was accused of making void the law by setting aside legal works as a means of justification; and he has just proved to his adversaries that it is his teaching, on the contrary, which harmonizes with the true meaning of the law, while the opposite teaching overturns it, by keeping up the vainglory of man, which the law was meant to destroy, and by violating Monotheism on which it is based. Is it surprising that he concludes such a demonstration with the triumphant affirmation: Do we then overturn the law, as we are accused of doing? On the contrary, we establish it. The true reading is probably ; the most ancient form, which has been replaced by the later form . The verb signifies, not to preserve, maintain, but to cause to stand, to establish. This is what Paul does with regard to the law; he establishes it as it were anew by the righteousness of faith; which, instead of overturning it, as it was accused of doing, faithfully maintains its spirit in the new dispensation, the fact which he had just proved.
This verse forms a true period to the whole passage, Rom 3:21-30. The law had been called to give witness on the subject of the doctrine of universal condemnation; it had borne witness, Rom 3:7-19. It has just been cited again, and now in favor of the new righteousness; its testimony has not been less favorable, Rom 3:27-31.
After demonstrating in a general way the harmony of his teaching with Old Testament revelation, the apostle had only one thing left to desire in the discussion: that was to succeed in finding in the Old Testament itself a saying or an illustrious example which, in the estimation of the Jews, would give the sanction of divine authority to his argument. There was such a saying, and he was fortunate enough to find it. It was written by the hand of the legislator himself, and related to what was in a manner the typical example of justification with the Jews. It therefore combined all the conditions fitted to settle the present question conclusively. Thus it is that Gen 15:6 becomes the text of the admirable development contained in chap. 4. This piece is the counterpart of the scriptural demonstration which had closed the delineation of universal condemnation, Rom 3:9-20. It belongs, therefore, to the exposition of the thesis of Rom 3:21 : the righteousness of faith witnessed by the law and the prophets.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Do we then make the law of none effect through faith? God forbid: nay, we establish the law. [Does the conclusion, proved by my argument, make the law of none effect? God forbid: on the contrary, it establishes the law by clearing it of misunderstanding. It was given to show that no man could attain salvation by self-righteousness, and we establish it by showing that it accomplished the end for which it was framed. We have shown that it was of no service to justify men; but of great service to convict them of sin, and thus lead them to Christ for justification.]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
31. Then do we make void the law through faith? It could not be so, but we establish the law. Here Paul answers the silly objections which I have often heard abused by Satans preachers; i. e., that we who preach the utter non-essentiality of all legal obedience in order to justification, are making void the law, i. e., setting it aside and treating it with contempt. This is simply the bogus pleading of spiritually ignorant people. If we had to be justified by the law we would all be sent to hell, for the simple fact that we are all law-breakers. Hunting in the Bible for justification through legal obedience is like the criminal ransacking the statute book to find his pardon. It is not there, but on the contrary he finds his condemnation boldly written on every page. Not we, but unfallen beings, such as Adam in Eden and the angels in heaven, can possibly be justified by the law. Transgressors can receive nothing but condign punishment. Well does Paul say that instead of nullifying we establish the law, boldly affirming the impossibility of its nullification under the hypothesis of our justification by faith alone without works, from the simple fact that our faith receives and appropriates Christ, who alone in all this world has kept and verified the law, not only by His active obedience to all of its mandates, but by His passive obedience, satisfying the violated law in the vicarious atonement which He made by His substitutionary death in our room and stead. When you seek justification by works, you are depending on your own obedience, which isfilthy rags in the sight of God a miserable and irretrievable breakdown. When we are justified by faith we lay hold of Christ, our glorious substitute, who has perfectly satisfied the law both actively and passively in every respect. Consequently we have victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil, in time and in eternity.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
SECTION 12 JUSTIFICATION THROUGH FAITH RECEIVES SUPPORT FROM THE CASE OF ABRAHAM
CHS. 3:31-4:17
Do we then make law of no effect through faith? Be it not so. Nay, we establish law. What then shall we say that Abraham has found, our forefather according to flesh? For if by (or from) works Abraham was justified, he has a ground of exultation; but not in reference to God. For what says the Scripture? But Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness.
But to him that does work, the reward is not reckoned according to grace but according to debt: but to him that does no work, but believes on Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness. According as also David describes the blessedness of the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works, Blessed are they whose lawlessnesses have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered over. A blessed man is he to whom the Lord will not reckon sin.
This pronouncing-blessed then, is it upon the circumcision, or also upon the uncircumcision? For we say that to Abraham was reckoned his faith for righteousness. How then was it reckoned? While in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received a sign, that of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had in his uncircumcision; that he may be father of all that believe in uncircumcision, that to them also the righteousness may be reckoned; and father of the circumcision, to them not of circumcision only, but also to them who walk in the steps of the faith in uncircumcision of our father Abraham.
For not through law was the promise to Abraham or to his seed that he should be heir of the world, but through a righteousness of faith. For if they of law are heirs, faith has been made vain, and the promise has been made of no effect. For the Law works out anger: but where no law is, neither is there transgression. Because of this, it is by faith, in order that it may be according to grace, in order that the promise may be sure to all the seed, not to that of the Law only but also to that of the faith of Abraham, who is father of us all-according as it is written, Because a father of many nations I have made thee-before God whom he believed, who makes alive the dead ones, and calls the things which are not as though they were.
Rom 3:31. A question suggested by the inference in Rom 3:29-30 that justification through faith shuts out all boasting that God is in a special sense the God of the Jews. This assumption was based on the fact that to them only He gave the Law. Paul asks, Do we, by preaching a doctrine which ignores the distinction of Jew and Gentile, set aside the Law, which created that distinction?
Law: in its usual sense, viz. the Old Testament, viewed in its general character as a declaration of Gods will and as a standard of right and wrong. There is nothing here, as there was in Rom 3:21, to limit the word to the Pentateuch.
Of-no-effect: as in Rom 3:3; cp. Mat 15:6. It might seem that Paul, who preaches faith without reference to circumcision or previous obedience to law, denied the authority of the Old Testament. For there the favour of God depends on obedience to precepts, and circumcision is commanded as a sign of Gods special covenant with Abrahams children. Now, to the Jews, the Old Testament was the authoritative standard of right and wrong. Does not the doctrine of justification through faith discredit, not only Jewish boasting, but those sacred books which were to the Jews the ground of moral obligation? If so, two bad results will follow. Pauls teaching will weaken, in those who receive it, the authority of the Scriptures, and thus weaken the moral obligations therein embodied; and the Gospel will be rejected by others whose conscience tells them that the voice of Sinai, which still speaks from the pages of the Old Testament, is the voice of God. Cp. Act 6:13.
We establish law: by preaching faith as the condition of justification, we give additional proof of the divine authority of the sacred books.
So serious and so plausible is the above objection that we cannot conceive Paul, who is so careful to prove everything, meeting it by a mere assertion, viz. that contained in this verse. A full proof of this assertion, we shall find in his exposition, in Romans 4, of the faith of Abraham. Even the narratives of the O.T. are included in the Law: for they announce the principles of Gods government. For another example of a narrative in Genesis quoted as law, see Gal 4:21.
Rom 4:1. What shall we say? what shall we infer? as in Rom 3:5. If we defend the authority of the O.T., how shall we explain its teaching about Abraham?
Our forefather: speaking as a Jew to Jews.
According to flesh: in contrast to the spiritual fatherhood of Rom 4:11.
Rom 4:2. Reason for introducing the case of Abraham. Gods covenant with him proves that he found favour with God, and was in this sense justified. Now, if this justification was derived from works, he has a ground-of-exultation. This last word is cognate to, and recalls, those in Rom 3:27; Rom 2:17; Rom 2:23. Paul proclaims a Gospel which shuts out all boasting; and he now introduces the case of Abraham in order to test by it the objection that, by overturning Jewish boasting, the Gospel overturns the ancient law.
But not in reference to God: his exultation would be, not an exultation in God, like that in Rom 5:11, but something infinitely inferior. If from works done in obedience to law Abraham had obtained the favour and covenant of God, God would be to him, not the free Giver of every good, but only a master who pays according to work done; and Abrahams confidence would rest upon, and his expectation be measured by, his own morality. Cp. Gal 6:4. The Gospel gives us that nobler joy which arises from confidence in God. This better exultation, a justification derived from works could not give, to Abraham or to us.
Rom 4:3. By introducing Abraham after saying that the Gospel confirms the Law, by admitting that justification from works would give him a boasting which Paul has proved that no man can have, and that it would deprive him of the only well-grounded exultation, Paul has implied clearly that Abrahams justification was derived from a source other than works. This he now proceeds to prove: for what says the Scripture? This last word denotes a single passage. The whole collection is called Scriptures, as in Rom 1:2; Rom 15:4; Rom 16:26.
Paul quotes Gen 15:6, perhaps the most important verse of the Old Testament. In Rom 12:1; Rom 12:7; Rom 13:14, we read of Gods promises to Abraham and of Abrahams conduct on receiving them; but from Rom 15:3-4 we learn that the promise had not been fully believed. In Rom 15:5, God solemnly repeats it. And now, for the first time in the Bible, we are told the effect produced in mans heart by the word of God: He believed in Jehovah, i.e. he was fully assured that Gods promise of posterity as numerous as the stars will be fulfilled. See under Rom 4:18. These words are the more conspicuous because of the purely outward character of nearly all Bible narratives. Equally remarkable are the words following.
Righteousness: fulfilment of a condition, inward or outward, on which God is pleased to bestow blessing, spiritual or temporal: see under Rom 1:17. God reckoned Abrahams faith to be a fulfilment of the only condition required; and, because he believed, gave to him the blessing promised. God commanded him to offer sacrifice; and in that sacrifice again revealed Himself. In the same day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram:
Gen 15:9; Gen 15:18. Of that covenant, circumcision was afterwards appointed to be the sign: Gen 17:10. Thus Abrahams faith put him in a new relation to God.
Reckon: as in Rom 2:26; Rom 8:36; Gen 31:15; Pro 17:28, etc.
Reckon for righteousness: an important parallel in Psa 106:31, which is a comment on Num 25:10-13. God graciously reckoned the loyal act of Phineas as something which He will reward with an eternal priesthood. Similarly, in Deu 24:13, He promised to reward the return of a pledged garment; and, in Deu 6:25, general obedience to His commands. Same phrase in 1 Macc. ii. 52, expounding Gen 22:16-18. Hence, in Jas 2:21, Abraham is said to have been justified by offering Isaac. The two phrases are practically equivalent. The reckoning may be spoken of as the mental act of God; and justification as the formal declaration of it.
Thus the Book of the Law declares that Abraham obtained the favour and covenant of God by belief of a promise. And, of that covenant, all the blessings which afterwards came to Israel were a result. Whatever distinguished the sacred nation from the rest of mankind, their deliverance from Egypt, the Law, the possession of Canaan, and the voice of the prophets, was given because of Abrahams faith: so Exo 2:24; Deu 9:5. The question in Rom 4:1 is answered. Abraham found justification through faith. Consequently, the preaching of faith is in unexpected harmony with the Old Testament; and thus confirms the divine authority of the Law.
Gen 15:6 is quoted also in Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23; and ten times in the works of Philo, an older Jewish contemporary of Paul.
The rest of 12 expounds Gen 15:6. In Rom 4:4-5, Paul will show that it implies justification apart from works, which in Rom 4:6-8 he will confirm from Psa 32:1-2; and justification without circumcision, of which rite he will in Rom 4:9-12 explain the purpose. He will show in Rom 4:13-15 why the promise was given to Abraham apart from law; and (Rom 4:16-17) on the simple condition of faith. He will thus show that the Law is in harmony, not only with the Gospel proclaimed in 10, but with the levelling of Jew and Gentile which was to the Jews so serious an objection to it.
Rom 4:4-5. Proof, from Gen 15:6, that Abraham was justified apart from works, and had therefore no ground of exultation. Rom 3:4 describes the case of one whose claim rests on works, and Rom 4:5 that of another who has no works on which to base a claim. It is then evident that Abraham belongs, not to the former, but to the latter, class. Paul assumes that there is no merit in faith, that it does not lay God under the least obligation to reward us. Consequently, whatever follows faith comes, not by necessary moral sequence, but by the undeserved favour of God: so Rom 4:16. Therefore, that Abraham obtained the covenant through faith, proves that he had done no work to merit so great reward. For we cannot give a man as a mark grace, i.e. undeserved favour, what we already owe him as a debt. Consequently, the recorded faith of Abraham puts him apart from those who obtain blessing by good works.
The reward: or pay for work done.
Rom 4:5. The opposite class, to which Abraham does belong. That a mans faith is reckoned for righteousness, and thus put in place of works, proves that he does no good work which fulfils the required condition.
Ungodly: as in Rom 1:18. That Abraham was such, we need not infer: and his obedience to Gods call proves his fear of God. Paul states a general principle, in a form which applies to his readers rather than to Abraham. He obtained by faith a numerous posterity, and through the promised seed a fulfilment of the earlier promise that in him should all families of the earth be blessed. The promise made to us is escape from the wrath of God, and eternal life. To make this dependent on faith, implies that all men are exposed to punishment: and to expect justification through faith is an acknowledgment of ungodliness, and a reliance upon Him who justifies the ungodly. By thus turning from Abraham to the sinner, Paul prepares a way for the quotation in the next verse.
Thus Gen 15:6, which asserts that Abraham was justified through faith, implies also that he was justified apart from works. Therefore he has no ground of self-exultation, but a good ground of exultation in view of God. Consequently, Paul, by proclaiming a new law which shuts out all boasting on the ground of works, does not overthrow, but supports, the authority of the Old Covenant and of the Jewish Scriptures.
Rom 4:6-8. A quotation from Psa 32:1-2, in harmony with the foregoing.
David: as in Rom 11:9 from Psa 69:22-23. The name is found (Heb. and LXX.) in the heading of each Psalm. But to this we cannot give any critical value. Paul quotes the O.T. as he found it. See further in Diss. iii.
Blessedness: the highest form of happiness, found only under the smile of God: so Mat 5:3-11. This sacred sense is not absent in Act 26:2, 1Co 7:40. So Aristotle, Nic. Ethics bk. x. 8. 8: To the gods, the whole of life is blessed; to men, so far as it is some likeness to divine activity: cp. 1Ti 1:11, the blessed God, 1Ti 6:15.
David is quoted to support, not faith reckoned for righteousness, but righteousness apart from works. Here we have a man guilty of acts of lawlessness and of sins. But they are forgiven and covered-over: cp. Jas 5:20.
To reckon sin, is practically to inflict punishment: so 2Ti 4:16; 2Co 5:19; Phm 1:18. We have in Psalms 32 the joyful song of a pardoned man. Breaches of law have been forgiven, and a veil cast over sins. Consequently, in the future God will not reckon the man a sinner.
The Lord: see under Rom 9:29. In Psa 32:5, the Psalmist confesses his sin, and rejoices in forgiveness. He finds in God a refuge from trouble, and bids others rejoice in Him: Psa 32:7; Psa 32:11. We have here a clear case of righteousness without works, of a man on whom, in spite of past sins, God smiles with forgiving grace. Thus the negative side of Pauls teaching is proved to be in harmony with the ancient Scriptures. Although Psalms 32 is not quoted in proof of justification through faith, we notice Psa 32:10, He that trusts in Jehovah, mercy shall compass him about.
Psalms 32 is quoted only in passing: and Paul returns at once to Gen 15:6. As the words quoted do not mention faith, they were probably not quoted to prove expressly that the preaching of faith supports the Law. But, as we learn from Rom 3:19, they have the authority of law. And, by supporting an inference following necessarily from justification through faith, viz. justification without works, they point to another harmony of the Law and the Gospel; and thus confirm the divine origin of both.
Rom 4:9-12. Further evidence, from the historic origin of circumcision, in support of the Gospel which announces righteousness apart from it, followed by an exposition of the purpose of the rite.
Rom 4:9-10. This announcement-of-blessedness: in Psa 32:1-2. Is it for the circumcision as such, or also for the uncircumcision? abstract for the concrete, as in Rom 2:26; Rom 3:30.
For we say etc.: reason for Pauls question, in which he takes his readers along with him, and for the tone of triumph in which he asks it. Paul and they have now learnt from Gen 15:6 that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. He asks, How then was it reckoned? While in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? To this last question, there is only one answer. For fourteen years, Abraham was in covenant with God before he was circumcised. Consequently, the rite is not needful for the validity of faith or for a covenant relation with God. All the distinguishing blessings of the Jewish race were a reward of the faith of an uncircumcised man. Pauls answer is an emphatic repetition of his own question.
Rom 4:11-12. An explanation of the purpose of the rite, supplementing and strengthening the foregoing argument.
Sign of: Mat 24:30; Luk 11:29.
Circumcision was enjoined as a visible mark or token of the covenant of God with Abraham in the day when he believed: Gen 17:11; Gen 15:18.
A Seal: a solemn and formal attestation of that to which it is annexed. So 2Co 1:22; Eph 1:13; 2Ti 2:19. Specially appropriate to circumcision, this being a visible and permanent attestation. The sign of the covenant, ordained by God in the day when Abraham believed, was a divinely-erected monument of the covenant and of the validity of faith even apart from circumcision.
That he may be etc.: purpose of this sign and seal, viz. that the faith of Abraham, thus made prominent, may lead many others to a similar faith, and that thus he may be father of a great family of believers; and that all who believe, even without circumcision, may be able to call Abraham their father, and to claim the inheritance of sons. The meaning of father is explained by heirs in Rom 4:14 : cp. Gal 3:9; Gal 3:29, also Gen 4:20-21.
That to them also etc.: further purpose of the rite. Gods purpose was, by leading both Jews and Gentiles to a similar faith, to make them partakers of the righteousness which comes through faith.
Father of circumcision: suggested by also in Rom 4:11, which implies that Gods purpose embraced others besides Gentiles. Even among those who bear in their bodies the sign of the covenant, Abraham was to have a spiritual posterity. But his true children are those only who imitate the faith of their father, which was earlier and nobler than circumcision.
Walk: go along a line: so Gal 5:25; Gal 6:16; Php 3:16; Act 21:24. Cp. Rom 6:4; Rom 8:4; Rom 13:13; Rom 14:15. Every act is a step forward in some direction.
Faith in uncircumcision: emphatic repetition of the point of the argument in Rom 4:9-12.
Rom 4:13. Not through law; about which as little was said as about circumcision when God made the covenant with Abraham.
The promise: as stated in Gen 12:1-3; Gen 12:7; Gen 15:18; Gen 22:17. In these passages nothing was said about law, in reference either to Abraham or to his seed. The fulfilment of the promise was not conditioned by obedience to a prescribed rule of conduct.
That he should be heir of the world: the promise described, not in the form given to Abraham, but as we, taught by the Gospel, now understand it. Abrahams children, i.e. those who imitate his faith, will one day possess a new earth and heaven: and this, because given to his spiritual children, will be the reward of his faith. Of this greater gift, Canaan was but an earnest. It will be obtained, not through law, but through a righteousness of faith, i.e. a state which the judge approves and which comes through faith. On the historic independence of the promise to Abraham and the Mosaic Law, see Gal 3:17.
Rom 4:14-15. Reason why the promise was given apart from law.
They of law: who make law their starting-point in seeking life, and whose claim is derived from law: so Gal 3:10; cp. Rom 2:8; Rom 3:26; Gal 3:7; Gal 3:9.
Heirs: who receive the blessing in virtue of their imitation of, and therefore spiritual descent from, Abraham.
Is-made-vain, or empty: same word in 1Co 1:17; 1Co 9:15; Php 2:7.
Made-of-no-effect: as in Rom 3:3; Rom 3:31; Gal 3:17. These two words are practically equivalent. Of the statement in Rom 4:14-15 is a proof.
Works-out anger: brings men under the anger of God. For none can obey the Law as it claims to be obeyed: and God is angry with all who disobey.
But where no law is, there are no prescribed limits, and therefore no transgression or overstepping of limits: same word in Rom 2:23; Rom 5:14. Before the Law, there was sin, but it did not assume the form of transgression. If when God gave the promises, He had annexed the Law as their condition, He would have made fulfilment impossible. For none can keep the Law as it needs to be kept. Therefore He said nothing about law. He thus winked at or passed over the sinfulness of those to whom He spoke; in view of the propitiation afterwards provided: cp. Rom 3:25.
Notice here another summary of DIV. I. The causes which made justification from works impossible to us made it impossible to Abraham. The constant recurrence of this teaching reveals its importance in Pauls theology.
Rom 4:16. Because of this: viz. that the Law works out anger, and would if it were the condition of fulfilment make the promise without result. Therefore the inheritance is by faith. According to grace: God fixed faith as its condition in order that it might be in proportion, not to mans merit, but to Gods undeserved favour. As in Rom 4:4, Paul assumes that there is no merit in faith.
Sure: a firm basis for confident reliance. God made faith the condition of the promise, in order that all the seed, not only Jews but Gentiles also, may have a firm ground for expectation of fulfilment, and this measured not by their works but by Gods grace. Had obedience to law been its condition, they could have looked forward to nothing except His anger.
Who is father etc.: actual fulfilment of the purpose stated in Rom 4:11.
Of us all: including Jews and Gentiles.
Rom 4:17. According as I have made thee: a parenthesis asserting that the foregoing is in harmony with a promise of God to Abraham (Gen 17:5) at the time of the change of his name. Israel was not many nations but one nation: and the sons of Hagar and Keturah were not heirs of the covenant. To what then did this promise refer?
To something important: for it was embodied in a change of name. The only adequate explanation of it is that it refers to Abrahams spiritual children. Jew and Greek, Englishman and German, call him to-day their father. Thus the Gospel again confirms the divine origin of the Law by affording an explanation and fulfilment of a prophecy therein contained and otherwise unexplained.
Before God etc.: completing the sentence interrupted by the parenthesis. Abraham stands before God whom he believed, who, as we shall see under Rom 4:19, makes alive the dead, and calls, i.e. summons to His service and disposes of as He will, the things which are not as though they were. This description of God calls to our mind those elements of His nature on which Abrahams faith rested. Cp. Gen 17:1 : I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be thou perfect. God speaks to men and things not yet existing, and they come into being, and dispose themselves at His command. These words refer to the many nations whom, before they existed, God gave to Abraham to be his children. Before Him whose voice is heard and obeyed by nations unborn, to whom the decay of natural powers, even when amounting practically to death, was no obstacle, Abraham stood; and believed. And, because he believed, he stood in that day before God as the father of the whole family of believers of every nation and age.
REVIEW. We shall best understand this section by attempting to rebuild Pauls argument from the materials he used. In Gen 12:2; Gen 12:7; Gen 13:16, God promised to make of Abraham a great nation, to give to his children the land of Canaan, and to make them numerous as the dust of the earth. In obedience to God, Abraham left his fatherland. But in Gen 15:1-3 we find him in fear and unbelief. It is night; and there is darkness around and within. Although God has promised him a numerous posterity, Abraham speaks of a servant as his heir. God brings him out from the tent in which the lonely man nurses his loneliness, directs him away from the darkness around to the everlasting brightness above, and declares that his children shall be numerous as the stars. Abraham stands before Him who made the stars and calls them by their names, who is the Author of life, whom even death cannot withstand, who controls even men and things not yet existing. He hears the promise, believes it. and looks forward with confidence to his children unborn. His faith is recorded in the Book of the Law, where, in Gen 15:6, we read for the first time the effect upon the heart of man of the word of God. We also read that God accepted Abrahams belief of the promise as a fulfilment of the divinely-appointed condition of fulfilment. In that hour he stood before God as father of unnumbered children. The words of Gen 15:6 are soon explained by the act of God. Sacrifices are slain; and in the presence of shed blood God makes in that day a covenant with Abraham. Of this covenant, the birth of Isaac, the deliverance from Egypt, the giving of the Law, the possession of Canaan, and all the distinctive privileges of Israel, were a fulfilment; We see then that the blessings of the Old Covenant were obtained by Abraham, for himself and for his children, by faith.
Again, since Abraham obtained the covenant by believing a promise, it is evident that he had performed no works of which it was a due reward; else it would have been given him as a debt. The words of Gen 15:6 remove him from those who earn something by work and put him among those who know that they are sinners and believe the word of Him who justifies the ungodly. Consequently, Abraham was justified without works. Therefore, though he may well exult in view of the grace of God, he can exult no more than we in view of his own works. Justification without works is also taught by David, who calls himself a sinner and rejoices in a pardoning God. Again, when Abraham believed, he was uncircumcised: and nothing was said about the rite till fourteen years after he received the covenant. Therefore, circumcision is not essential to the validity of faith, or to the favour and covenant of God. What then is the use of circumcision?
It was a sign of Gods covenant with Abraham: Gen 17:11. And, since the covenant was obtained through faith, circumcision, the visible and divinely ordained sign of it, was a solemn and public attestation by God that faith, even without circumcision, is sufficient to obtain the favour of God. In our days, God has announced justification for all men on the one condition of faith. Therefore, remembering that the Old Covenant was preparatory to the New, we cannot doubt that the rite of circumcision was ordained in order to call attention to Abrahams faith, and thus to lead his children to similar faith. And, since the Gospel proclaims salvation for Jew and Gentile alike, we cannot doubt that circumcision was delayed in order to teach the believing Gentiles of future ages that they may claim Abraham as their father and the righteousness of faith as their inheritance.
We are prepared for this levelling of Jew and Gentile by the fact that, at the time of Abrahams faith, as little was said about the Law as about circumcision. The reason is evident. If the promises had been conditional on obedience to law, they would have been practically useless, and Abrahams faith an illusion. For neither he nor his children could keep the Law. The only result would have been disobedience and punishment. We therefore infer that nothing was said about law in order that sin, although existing, might not be a breach of the covenant; and that faith was chosen as its condition because God was minded to bestow the blessing as a gift of pure favour, and in order that believers, both Jews and Gentiles, might look forward with certainty to a fulfilment of the promise. In the Christian Church, we see fulfilled the purpose for which circumcision was ordained, and the promise that Abraham should be a father of many nations. He stands to-day in actual fact, as he stood then in the purpose and foresight of God, as the father of us all.
In 11, Paul proved that the Gospel breaks down the barrier hitherto existing between Jew and Gentile. Now this barrier was erected by the Law. To break it down, seemed to be a denial of the divine origin and authority of those Sacred Books which were to Israel the ground of moral obligation. But now Paul has proved from these Books that the covenant which was to the Jews the source of all their instinctive privileges was obtained by Abraham through faith and apart from circumcision and from law. An inference from this, viz. justification without works, has been confirmed from another part of the Holy Scriptures. This unexpected harmony confirms both Law and Gospel, for it reveals their common source. Consequently, the Gospel, which by the resurrection of Christ is itself proved to be divine, affords proof of the divine origin of the Law. If therefore, after saying that the Gospel confirms the Law, we are asked what benefits Abraham obtained for himself and his descendants, our reply is, justification through faith, without works and without circumcision.
In this section, Paul has touched one of the strongest internal proofs of the divine origin of the revelations recorded in the Bible, viz. the profound harmony which, amid a great variety of outward form breathes through the whole.
Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament
3:31 {13} Do we then make {h} void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we {i} establish the law.
(13) The taking away of an objection: yet the law is not therefore taken away, but is rather established, as it will be declared in its proper place.
(h) Vain, void, to no purpose, and of no power.
(i) We make the law effectual and strong.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Paul was not saying that the Law is valueless. The absence of the definite article "the" before the first occurrence of "Law" in this verse in the Greek text does not indicate that Paul was only thinking of law in general, as the context makes clear. Even though he believed in salvation by faith Paul saw the Law as having an important function. [Note: See Femi Adeyemi, "Paul’s ’Positive’ Statements about the Mosaic Law," Bibliotheca Sacra 164:653 (January-March 2007):49-58.] Probably he meant that its function is to convict people of their inability to gain acceptance with God by their own works (Rom 3:19-20). Another view is that Paul meant the Old Testament (law) testifies to justification by faith. [Note: Godet, pp. 166-67; Henry Alford, The Greek Testament, 2:346; Cranfield, 1:224; et al.] A third view is that faith provides the complete fulfillment of God’s demands in His Law. [Note: Moo, pp. 254-55; et al.] The Law is not something God has given people to obey so they can obtain righteousness. Man’s inability to save himself required the provision of a Savior from God. The Law in a sense made Jesus Christ’s death necessary (Rom 3:24-25).
The point of Rom 3:27-31 is that justification must come to all people by faith alone. Paul clarified here that this fact excludes boasting (Rom 3:27-28). It is also logical in view of the sovereignty of God (Rom 3:29-30), and it does not vitiate the Mosaic Law (Rom 3:31).