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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Acts 13:39 - 13:39
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And by him every one that believeth is justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses (kai apo pantōn hōn ouk ēdunēthēte en nomōi Mōuseōs dikaiothēnai en toutōi pās ho pisteuōn dikaioutai). This is a characteristic Greek sentence with the principal clause at the end and Pauline to the core. A literal rendering as to the order would be: “And from all the things from (apo not repeated in the Greek, but understood, the ablative case being repeated) which ye were not able to be justified in this one every one who believes is justified.” The climax is at the close and gives us the heart of Paul’s teaching about Christ. “We have here the germ of all that is most characteristic in Paul’s later teaching. It is the argument of the Epistle to Galatians and Romans in a sentence” (Furneaux). The failure of the Mosaic law to bring the kind of righteousness that God demands is stated. This is made possible in and by (en) Christ alone. Paul’s favourite words occur here, pisteuō, believe, with which pistis, faith, is allied, dikaioō, to set right with God on the basis of faith. In Rom 6:7 Paul uses apo also after dikaioō. These are key words (pisteuō and dikaioō) in Paul’s theology and call for prolonged and careful study if one is to grasp the Pauline teaching. Dikaioō primarily means to make righteous, to declare righteous like axioō, to deem worthy (axios). But in the end Paul holds that real righteousness will come (Romans 6-8) to those whom God treats as righteous (Romans 3-5) though both Gentile and Jew fall short without Christ (Romans 1-3). This is the doctrine of grace that will prove a stumbling block to the Jews with their ceremonial works and foolishness to the Greeks with their abstract philosophical ethics (1Co 1:23-25). It is a new and strange doctrine to the people of Antioch.