Book II.
We have already said, that the holy apostle was desirous of showing the necessity of the incarnation of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ; on which account he began by speaking of those, who were strangers to, as well as those also who were under, the law, and convicted the former of having transgressed the natural, and the latter the Mosaic, law, and become worthy of the deepest punishment. Herein does he imitate a skilful physician, who first points out to his patients the virulent nature of their disorder, and then so offers the assistance of his healing remedies. For this he also does; having exhibited the sin of both parties, |234 and proved them deserving of, and obnoxious to, punishment, he next produces his medicine of faith, and sets forth the loving-kindness of the divine dispensation, and says, 9. In what then are we better than they? for we have proved before both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin: 10. As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God . 12. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues have they used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15. Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16. Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17. And the way of peace have they not known: 18. There is no fear of God before their eyes.
In the part above explained, where he was comparing the case of the circumcision with that of the uncircumcision, he subjoined, "What more then had the Jew?" and here, wishing to show the pre-eminence of the grace of the gospel, he says, In what then are we better than they? for we have demonstrated that those without the law, and those within it, have both gone astray , and he adds the testimony of David as exactly adapted to the matter in hand; and he does so, as being particularly studious of brevity, since otherwise he might have called in all the prophets to the condemnation of the Jews, who allege the same, and even worse, things against them; whence he goes on, 19. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law . He words this with the greatest accuracy of expression, in that he puts it not "concerning" those who are under the law, but to those who are under the law; for it speaks much concerning the Babylonians, and Persians, and Medes, and Egyptians, and many other nations, but, nevertheless, even these predictions concerning them it addresses to the Jews. That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God . And again, he employs the word that according to his favourite idiom, (or use of it,) for the God of all did not therefore bestow laws, and send forth His exhortations among men, in order that He might render them obnoxious to punishment, but consulting for their salvation has He done this; themselves it is who, by pursuing an opposite course, have drawn this vengeance on themselves.
Being now about to enter on the privileges of faith, he first demonstrates that all have need of it, and especially, above others, those who boasted in the law: 20. Because that by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight . Some of the injunctions of the Mosaic law agreed with the knowledge of nature, such as, "Thou shalt not commit adultery;" "Thou shalt do no murder;" "Thou shalt not steal;" "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour;" "Honour thy father and mother and others of this kind: for they who had never received that law, were yet fully aware that each of these was deserving not only of condemnation, but of punishment likewise. And some, again, the Lawgiver imposed on the Jews as suitable to them for that present time only; such, I mean, as circumcision, and the sabbath, and sacrifices, and sprinklings, and the rites respecting the leper, and the seminally unclean, and such-like; which are the symbols of other things, and when fulfilled, are not in themselves sufficient to make the doer just. |235 Wherefore the holy apostle says, therefore by the works of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight ; and then, lest any one should suppose that he was passing a censure on the law, he adds, For by the law is the knowledge of sin . The law, says he, has given to man a more accurate discrimination of sin, and made the condemnation lying on it the heavier; but for the establishment of virtue it is not competent to be sufficient for men.
Having thus shown that the law was only the teacher of good, he proceeds to exhibit the power of grace: 21. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets . Who can sufficiently admire the power of the apostle's wisdom, who shows at once that the law had come to an end, and that it consented to (the covenant of ) grace. And aptly does he say manifested , for it has now laid clearly before all the hidden mystery of the dispensation; while in this comparison between grace and the law , by proving that both the law and the prophets were witnesses to the former, he exhibits the greatness of its conquest over the latter: 22. Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe . What had been before put down is here repeated, that what was wanting might be added; for having said the righteousness of God is manifested , and then interrupted the sentence to speak of its character, it was necessary that he should resume the phrase again, and show that it was by faith in the Lord Christ that all who desired to do so enjoyed it, whether Jews or Greeks; the unto all refers to the Jews, the upon all to the other nations; and this he goes on to set forth more clearly— For there is no difference : 23. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God . He briefly shows that all are guilty , and need (the covenant of) grace: 24. Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus . For by bringing faith alone, we have received remission of our sins, in that the Lord Christ has offered up His own body for us, to be, as it were, the price of redemption.
25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiatory, through faith in His blood . The propitiatory was a golden plate, which lay over the ark, having at either end the figure of a cherub, (Exod. xxv.) and from thence the mercy of God was manifested to the high priest in his ministrations. The holy apostle here then teaches, that the Lord Christ was the true propitiatory, for that ancient one was but a type of this. This name, however, is applied to Him as man, and not as God; for as God He Himself speaks from the propitiatory; while as man He receives this appellation even as others, such as "sheep" and "lamb," and |236 "sin" and "curse," and the like. (See John i. 29, 36. Acts viii. 32. 2 Cor. v. 21. Gal. iii. 13.) And the ancient propitiatory was bloodless in itself, inasmuch as it was also inanimate, and received only the sprinklings of the blood of the victims; but the Lord is God, and propitiatory, and high priest, and lamb, arid in His own blood hath worked out our salvation, demanding faith only from us.— To declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past: 25. Through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness . God has both exhibited His own mercy in so long bearing with sinners, and has made manifest His righteousness to all men; for that it was not without any further view that He thus bore with sinners, but as preparing for them this mean of salvation, the next sentence shows— that He might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus . For both these things should we learn from hence, that the God of all has ordered His dispensations concerning ourselves with justice equally as with mercy; and that whosoever believes in the Lord Christ is made partaker of the righteousness which is by faith.
Thus briefly having stated the free gifts conferred by (the covenant of) grace, he returns to his discourse respecting the law, and shows that it yielded the victory to grace. 27. Where is boasting then ? This must be read interrogatively, and then comes the answer, It is excluded . He says not destroyed, but excluded ; that is, has no longer any place. By boasting he means the haughty self-esteem of the Jews, who exalted themselves as the only possessors of God's favour; while now, divine grace having appeared abroad, and been shed among all nations, this arrogance had been put out of the question, in that God had given to man a short and easy mean of salvation in faith; for this the apostle continues to show forth in the following sentences also, By what law ? of works? Nay, but by the law of faith . He calls faith here a law , not from inconsideration, but as recollecting the prophecy of Jeremiah (xxxi. 31, 32,) "For in those days, saith the Lord, and at that time, I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers."
If then the Mosaic law is thus styled a covenant, and the new covenant again bears also the same name, and faith in Christ be the law it enacts, in strict accordance with the phraseology of the prophet does the holy apostle here apply the name of the law to faith. And then he subjoins the conclusion concerning faith: 28. We conclude therefore that a man is justified by faith, without the works of the law . By law here he means that of Moses; but at the same time he says not, we conclude that by faith a Jew is justified , but a man , the common name of the whole human race; as he goes on to reason, 29. Is He the God of the Jews only; is He not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also . And then, as a position which cannot be disputed, he confirms it by the assertion, 30. Seeing that it is one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith. It is one God, who is the God of all; one, who is the Maker of all; nor is it possible that He should be careful for some, and leave others uncared for; wherefore |237 He extends His salvation to all that believe. By circumcision he means the Jews, by uncircumcision the Gentiles. And he next resolves the objection which might be raised, 31. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law . For of old both the law and the prophets prophesied of the things concerning the faith, and in receiving therefore the faith we confirm the law . He then brings forward evidences of all this, and, while having it in his power to adduce a vast variety of testimonies from the prophets, prefers going at once to the very root of the Jews, and demonstrates that the righteousness of the patriarch Abraham himself was that which is of faith. |291