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The Fundamental Theme
Rom_1:16-17
Rom_1:16. For I am not ashamed [not even in the metropolis of the heathen world.—P. S.]. Evidently, this general declaration refers not merely to Rom_1:15, but also to Rom_1:14. There could be no difficulty to the Apostle to preach to the believers in Rome; but it was difficult to preach to the whole Gentile world, especially to its wise men, who were so much inclined to despise the gospel as foolishness. And finally, it was particularly difficult to preach to the Gentiles in the proud metropolis of Rome, the central seat of the culture and pride of the ancient world. It is plain from Rom_1:15, you that, are at Rome, that he would not confine himself to the congregation of Christians in Rome. The designation of his disposition is exact in relation to that pride of wisdom which everywhere opposed him, as he had experienced particularly in Athens and Corinth. He is not afraid of the threats of the world; he does not avoid the offence of the Jews; nor is he ashamed in view of the contempt of the Greeks and of the wise men. And this is not only expressive of his real joy in general, but of his Christian enthusiasm, by which he could glory in the cross of Christ (Rom_5:2; Gal_6:14). [I am not ashamed, is an answer, by anticipation, to an objection which was readily suggested by the word Rome, with all its associations of idolatry, worldly power, pride, pomp, corruption, decay, and approaching persecution of Christians. Tacitus, the heathen historian, says of Rome, that there cuncta undiquc atrocia aut pudenda confluunt celebranturque (Annal. Rom 15:44). See Chrysostom, Alford, Wordsworth, Hodge in loc. Meyer explains the term more with reference to the past experiences of Paul in other heathen cities, as Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, and to the general character of the religion of the cross (1Co_1:18). It is true that human nature, as such, in its carnal pride, is apt to be ashamed of the gospel. But this carnal pride culminated at the time in Rome, and found a fit expression in the blasphemous worship of the emperors as present deities. That Paul has special reference to Rome, is also evident from his definition of the gospel as a power of God, which puts to shame the world-power of Rome ( ῥþìç , strength). Dealing with the Greeks, who excelled in wisdom, he defines the gospel to be the wisdom of God, which turns the wisdom of this world into folly. When afterwards a prisoner in Rome, Paul was not ashamed of his bonds (2Ti_1:12), in which he felt more free, mighty, and happy than the emperor on the throne.—P. S.].
Of the gospel of Christ. Here, also, we can not separate the concrete unity of the gospel and its promulgation.
For it is a power of God. The for announces the reason: it is the highest manifestation of the power of God—the highest manifestation of the compassionate love and grace of God; it is the blessing of salvation for faith throughout the world. The power of God. This cannot apply to the preaching of the gospel alone, but to the objective gospel itself, which combines with evangelization for complete operation. The question whether there is a metonyme here (see Tholuck), becomes important only when that unity is dissolved. The gospel, in the objective sense, implies: 1. The revelation of God in Christ; 2. redemption by Christ; 3. the victory, the glory, and the kingdom of Christ; 4. the presentation of this salvation through the medium of the Church in word and sacrament, under the operation of the Holy Spirit.
Unto salvation. Both the negative and positive sides of the idea of the óùôçñßá must be elucidated, the former denoting redemption, the latter adoption. The operation of óùôçñßá reaches from the depths of hell to heaven. When man is truly delivered, he is always delivered from the depths of hell, and raised to the heights of heaven; because he is saved from the condemnation of his conscience, and from the judgment of wrath, and is made a participant of salvation through the righteousness of faith which leads to righteousness of life. The expression, blessedness, denotes the highest effect and the highest aim of the óùôçñßá . Comp. Act_4:12; Act_13:26; Rom_10:1. The opposite is ἀðþëåéá , èÜíáôïò , and similar terms.
To every one that believeth. De Wette: “The ðáíôß is opposed to Jewish particularism, and the ðéóôåýïíôé to Jewish legalism.” The highest operation of God’s power is not at all a fatalistic or mechanical operation; it is a personal dealing of love, and presupposes personal relations. For as it cannot be said, on the one hand, that faith completes objective salvation, so we cannot say, on the other, that it is a compulsory operation of salvation. It is the condition of the efficacy of salvation (Joh_3:16, &c.; see Genesis 15), the causa apprehendens.
To the Jew first. This priority is economical, as it rests upon the Old Testament revelation of God, and the faith of Abraham (Rom_4:9); and as such it is: 1. The genetic priority. “Salvation is of the Jews” [Joh_4:22]. 2. The historical priority (Chrysostom, and others). 3. A legal priority (as to form) of the nearest claim to the gospel in accordance with the direction given to the apostles, Act_1:8 (Calov, De Wette, Tholuck). But notwithstanding all this, the Jew had no real right to the gospel, since salvation, 1. is not a product of Judaism, but of free grace; 2. faith is older than Judaism (chap. 4); 3. faith itself is the reality and substance of which Judaism was only the symbol.
And also to the Greek. The Ἔëëçí is here the representative of all who are not Jews. [Jew and Greek here refer not to the national distinction, as Greek and Barbarian, Rom_1:14, but to the religious antagonism of the world at the time, so that Greek is equivalent to Gentile. Ἔëë . ê . ÂÜñâ . is the Greek, Ἰïõä . ê .̓́ Åëë . the Jewish, designation of all mankind; comp. Act_14:1; 1Co_10:32.—P. S.]
Rom_1:17. For therein is the righteousness of God. Proof of the previous proposition. The äí ́ íáìéò èåïῦ åἰò óùôçñßáí is ἀðïêÜëõøéò of the äéêáéïóýíç èåïῦ , &c.
[Preliminary Philological Remarks on äéêáéïóýíç and the Cognate Terms.—These are of primary importance in Paul’s Epistles, especially the Romans and Galatians. Their root, according to Aristotle (Eth. Nic. v. 2), is äß÷á = twofold; hence äéêÜæåéí , to divide into two equal parts, to judge; äéêáóôÞò , judge, dispenser of justice. Others derive them from äßêç (the daughter of Zeus and Themis), custom, right, judgment. At all events, the fundamental idea of äéêáéïóýíç is an even relation between two or more parts where each has its due, or conformity to law and custom, a normal moral condition. According to Homer, he is äéêáéüôáôïò who best fulfils his duties to God and men. Plato develops the idea of righteousness in his Polieia, and identifies it with moral goodness. In the Bible, the will of God, as expressed in the written law, and more fully in the perfect life of Christ, is the standard both of morals and religion, which are always viewed as essentially connected. God Himself is righteous—i.e., absolutely perfect in Himself, and in all His dealings with His creatures, and requires man to aim at this perfection (Mat_5:48). Accordingly, we may define the several terms (referring to the dictionaries and concordances for passages) as follows:
äßêáéïò , öַãּé÷ , conform to the law, inwardly as well as outwardly, holy, perfect. It is used in the absolute sense of God, in a relative sense of man, also of things. Du Cange: “ Äßêáéïò dicitur vel de re vel de persona, in qua nee abundat aliquid nec deficit, quœ muneri suo par est, numeris suis absoluta.”
äéêáéïóýíç , öְøָ÷ָä , justitia, the normal, moral and religious condition. If used of man, it means conformity to the holy will and law of God, godliness, or true piety toward God, and virtue toward man. If used of God, it is one of His moral attributes, essentially identical with His holiness and goodness, as manifested in His dealings with His creatures, especially with men.
äéêáéüù ( ëïãßæåéí åἰò äéêáéïóýíçí ), äִöְãִּé÷ , justificare, to put right with the law, i.e., to declare or pronounce one righteous, and to treat him accordingly. Etymologically, the word ought to mean, to make just (since the verbs in üù , derived from adjectives of the second declension, signify, to make a person or thing what the primitive denotes, as ôõöëüù , äïõëüù , ὀñèüù , öáíåñüù , ôåëåéüù = ôõöëüí , &c., ðïéåῖí ). But in Hebrew and Hellenistic, and often also in classical usage, it has a forensic sense, to which, however, when used of God, the objective state of things, either preceding or succeeding, must correspond, for God’s judgment can never err, and His declaration is always effective. More of this, ad Rom_2:13 and Rom_3:21-31. Now for the particular explanation of äéêáéïóýíç èåïῦ in our passage.
äéêáßùóéò ( ëïãéóìὸò ôῆò äéêáéïóýíçò ) justificatio, the act of putting a man right with the law, or into the state of äéêáéïóýíç .
äéêáßùìá , a righteous decree, judgment, ordinance.—P. S.]
In view of the widely divergent explanations, it is necessary to make close distinctions. The righteousness of God, understood absolutely in its complete New Testament revelation, or ἀðïêÜëõøéò , cannot apply immediately to righteousness before God ( ἐíþðéïí ôïῦ èåïῦ ), in which case the genitive is taken objectively in a wider relation (thus Luther, Fritzsche, Baur, Philippi). For this righteousness of faith presupposes justification. Nor can the word of itself denote the act of justification, even if we connect with it the result, the righteousness of faith, the genitive being taken in this case subjectively in this sense: “the rightness which proceeds from God, the right relation in which man is placed by a judicial act of God” (Meyer, after Chrysostom, Bengel, De Wette, and others). For the justification presupposes the atonement (Rom_3:25), and the atonement is founded on the exercise of God’s righteousness. To this exercise the Apostle evidently refers in Rom_3:25-26, and he therefore does it here also in the theme, which, from its very nature, must encompass the whole idea of the Epistle. Absolute righteousness, like absolute grace and truth, is first revealed in Christianity. It is the righteousness which not only institutes the law of the letter, and requires righteousness in man, and, in its character of judge, pronounces sentence and kills, but which at last reveals itself in union with love, or as grace in the form of righteousness, and produces righteousness in man. It accomplishes all this: 1. As law-giving—that is, establishing the right—it institutes the law of the Spirit; that is, it reveals it in the life of Christ as the personal power of the atonement. 2. In the power and suffering of this personal righteousness, it satisfies the demands of the righteousness of the law, and thus changes the symbolical ἱëáóôÞñéïí into a real one. The atonement. 3. It communicates to believers the work and efficacy of Christ’s righteousness, by the spirit of His righteousness, as a gift of grace and principle of the new life in creative, operative justification.
Or briefly: The righteousness of God is the self-communication of the righteousness which proceeds from God, which becomes personal righteousness in the person of Christ, which, in His passion as propitiation, satisfies the righteousness of the law (in harmony with the requirement of conscience), and, by the act of justification, applies the atonement to the believer for the sanctification of his life.
As the äüîá , which avails before God, can be none other than the äüîá , which proceeds from God, and became personal in Christ, so can the righteousness which avails before God be none other than a righteousness which comes from God. It is the äéêáéïóýíç ἐê èåïῦ , in opposition to the äéê . ἡ ἐìÞ , Php_3:9; and therefore the äéêáéïóýíç ἐíþðéïí èåïῦ , Rom_3:21, in opposition to the äéêáéïóýíç ἐê ôïῦ íüìïõ , Rom_10:5. Therefore it is God’s righteousness also in this sense, that man can never make out of it a righteousness of his own, though the Divine justification becomes the principle of his new life. Tholuck likewise allows a combination of the objective and subjective meanings, but decidedly rejects the interpretation of äéêáéïóýíç , as an attribute of God, which he considers incompatible with the prophetic passage adduced. But this quotation does not explain righteousness, but faith. The statement of Tholuck, that Hofmann (Schriftbeweis, i. 625 f.) describes the äéêáéïóýíç èåïῦ as an attribute of God, is not exact; he declares it only as a righteousness existing on the part of God. We go so far as to understand by righteousness here a synthesis of righteousness and of love—a synthesis which, as grace according to its different relations under the supremacy of righteousness, and as the grace that establishes the new and the absolute right of the Spirit, is called righteousness, but which, under the supremacy of love, as the fountain of the new life, is called love. This impartial righteousness is revealed to believers as grace, and to unbelievers as wrath. When Tholuck says that äéê . is not the righteousness of God in fulfilment of the promises (Ambrose), nor retributive justice (Origen), nor the essential righteousness which belongs to God (as Osiander once taught, and recently Hofmann), nor the goodness of God (Morus), nor impartiality toward Jews and Gentiles (Semler), he has collected into one all the disjecta membra of the central idea, that the äéêáéïóýíç (from äß÷á , a relation between two, according to the Aristotelian derivation of the word), establishes, maintains, and restores the relation between the personal God and the personal world according to their respective character (for the protection of personality). The omission of the article does not justify us in reading here, a righteousness of God; being inseparably connected with èåïῦ , it means rather the proper righteousness of God (see Winer’s Gramm.).
[Upon the whole, I agree with this interpretation. The majority of evangelical commentators restrict the äéêáéïóýíç èåïῦ to God’s justifying righteousness; some even ungrammatically identity it with justification ( äéêáßùóéò ), or God’s “method of justification.” The fundamental idea of the Epistle as set forth in the theme, every expression used in Rom_1:16-17, and the contrast presented in Rom_1:18, point to a more comprehensive meaning, answering to the definition of the gospel as “the power of God unto salvation,” full and final, from “all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” This implies a righteousness imputable as well as imputable, or sanctifying as well as justifying—a righteousness inherent in God, and manifested in Christ, which, by a living union with Christ, is to become the personal property and higher nature of the believer, so that, at the final judgment, no trace of unrighteousness will remain. Wordsworth (an Anglican) and Forbes (a Scotch Presbyterian LL.D.) independently arrive substantially at the same view with Lange. Wordsworth in loco says: “This significant phrase, the righteousness of God, is not to be lowered, weakened, and impaired, so as to mean only the method of justification by which God acquits and justifies mankind. But it is the very righteousness of God Himself, which is both imputed and imparted to men in Jesus Christ ‘the Righteous’ (Joh_2:1), who is ‘the Lord our righteousness’ (Jer_23:6; Jer_33:16), and who, being God from everlasting, and having also taken the nature of man, is made righteousness to us (1Co_1:30), and does effectually, by His incarnation, and by our incorporation into Him, justify us believing on Him, and making Him ours by faith, so that we may not only be acquitted by God, but may become the righteousness of God in Him (2Co_5:21).” Forbes, in a long and able dissertation (Anal. Com., p. 102 ff.), combines here the three Scripture meanings of äéêáéïóýíç , when used of God, viz.: “1. God’s retributive righteousness or justice (now manifested in God’s condemnation of sin, shown in giving His Son to die for man’s sin on the cross—to induce thereby the believer to concur cordially in its condemnation in himself); 2. God’s justifying righteousness (now manifested in Christ’s exhibiting in the character of man a perfect righteousness—imputable to and appropriable by the believer, for his pardon and acceptance with God); 3. God’s sanctifying, righteousness (also manifested in Christ as “the Lord our righteousness,” changing the believer’s heart the moment he is united by faith to Christ, and progressively mortifying within him all sin, and imparting eventually to him universal righteousness—appropriable in like manner through faith by the believer).” For further information, comp. the Exeg. Notes on chaps. Rom_2:13, and Rom_3:21-31; Doctrinal and Ethical on Rom_3:21-31, No. 5; also the following works: Winzer, Progr. de voce. äßêáéïò , äéêáéïóýíç et äéêáéïῦí in P. ad Rom. Ep., Leipzig, 1831; Rauwenhoff, Disquisitio de loco Paulino, qui est de äéêáéþóåé , Lugd. Bat., 1852; Lipsius, Die Paulinische Rechtfertigungslehre, mit Vorwort von Liebner (who differs from Lipsius), Leipzig, 1853 (220 pp.); Schmid, Biblische Theologie, Stuttg., 1853, vol. ii. p. 331 ff.; Wieseler, Com. on Gal_2:16, Gött., 1859, p. 176 ff. (who very learnedly and ably defends the orthodox Protestant view); Hodge, on Romans, 3:20 (new ed., Philad., 1866, p. 126 ff.); Forbes, on Romans (Edinb., 1868), pp. 102–144. The doctrinal treatises on justification by faith will be mentioned below, ad Rom_3:21-31, Doctrinal and Ethical, No. 5, pp. 138 f.—P. S.]
Is revealed [ ἀðïêáëýðôåôáé is being revealed; the present tense marks the continuous, progressive revelation of righteousness.—P. S.]. The áðïêáëýðôåéí is distinguished from the öáíåñïῦí by being God’s revelation, which proceeds from God, and addresses itself to the inward spiritual world (Gal_1:16); while the öáíåñïῦí denotes the same revelation as manifested in the outward life from the inward spiritual world (Joh_2:11). The revelation of wrath is also an ἀðïêÜõøéò (Rom_1:18), although the wrath is revealed in external manifestation; for it is only by the conscience, that the facts connected therewith are first recognized as the phenomena of wrath, and it is only in the light of the New Testament truth that they are recognized completely. ἐí áὐôῷ . The gospel is the medium.
From faith to faith. [It is connected with the verb ἀðïêáëýðôåôáé by De Wette, Meyer, Tholuck (ed. 5), Alford; with the noun äéêáéïóýíç (sc. ïὐóá or ãåíïìÝíç ) by Bengel, Philippi, Hodge, Forbes. The former agrees better with the position of the words, and with åἰò ðßóôéí , the latter with ἐê ðßóôåùò , comp. Rom_9:30; Rom_10:6.—P. S.] The idea of faith appears here in accordance with the comprehensive idea of righteousness, and therefore as a hearty, trustful self-surrender (to rest and lean upon, äֶàֱîִéå ), which includes both knowledge and belief, assent and surrender, appropriation and application. [Faith is neither the efficient cause nor the objective ground of justification, but the instrumental cause and subjective condition; as eating is the condition of nourishment. As the nourishing power is in the food, which, however, must be received and digested before it can be of any use, so the saving power is in Christ’s person and work, but becomes personally available, and is made our own, only by the appropriating organ of faith. This appropriation and assimilation must be continually renewed; hence ἐê ðßóôåùò åἰò ðßóôéí .—P. S.] The distinction between from faith and to faith is variously explained. Origen refers it to Old Testament and New Testament faith. Œcumenius [Olshausen, De Wette, Alford, Philippi]: ἀðὀ ðἱóôåùò åἰò ðéóôåýïíôá [for the believer; comp. Rom_3:22, where the äéê . èåïῦ is said to be åἰò ðἀíôáò ôïὺò ðéóôåýïíôáò .—P. S.]. Theophylact, and others: For the promotion of faith. Luther: From weak to strong faith. Baumgarten-Crusius: From faith as conviction to faith as sentiment. De Wette: 1. Faith as conditional; 2. faith as receptive. For other meanings, see Tholuck (also the view of Zwingli, that the second ðßóôéò means the faithfulness of God). [Meyer: The revelation of righteousness proceeds from faith and aims at faith, ut fides habeatur (similarly Fritzsche, Tholuck). Bengel and Hodge connect ἐê ðßóôåùò åἰò ðὶóôéí with äéêáéïóýíç , and take it as intensive, like the phrase, “death unto death,” “life unto life,” so as to mean fidem meram, entirely of faith, without any works. Ewald understands ἐê ðὶóôåùò of Divine faith (?), åἰò ðßóôéí of human faith, which must meet the former.—P. S.] It may be asked, if the key to the passage may not be sought in Rom_3:22, since the second half of that chapter is in general a commentary on this passage. Comp. Heb_12:2 : “The author and finisher of our faith.” At all events, the Apostle acknowledges, like the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the difference between a degree of faith which receives the revelation prophetically and apostolically, in order to proclaim it, and a more general degree of faith, which, through the agency of preaching, extends into the world. Comp. Heb_11:1 ff.
As it is written. The same quotation from Hab_2:4 is found in Gal_3:11 and Heb_10:38. The Apostle will here (as in Rom_1:2 and chaps.4 and 10) prove the harmony of the gospel with the Old Testament. The passage in the Prophet Habakkuk declares: The just shall live by his confidence, his faith (Isa_28:16). Therefore the most of the elder expositors, and some of the recent ones (Philippi, and others), thus explained the maxim of the Apostle: The just shall live by his faith. But according to Beza, Meyer [Hodge], and others, the Apostle’s expression must be construed thus: The man who is justified by faith, shall live. Meyer properly says: Paul had a good reason to put this meaning into the prophetic expression: since the just man, if he would live by faith, must have been justified by faith. We read in Habakkuk two concrete definitions: “Behold, puffed up [ çִðֵּä òֻôְּìָä ], not upright is his soul [his life] within him [ ìֹàÎéָùְׁøָä ðַôְùׁåֹ áּåֹ ]. But the just man, he shall live by his faith.” That is, as the puffed-up soul is puffed up because it is not upright, and has no sound life, so is it the mark of the just man that he acquires his life by faith. The additional profundity which the New Testament gives to this Old Testament expression, does therefore not really change even the expression, much less the sense. [I prefer the connection of ἐê ðßïôåùò with æÞóåôáé , which is more agreeable to the Hebrew (although the other is favored by the Masoretic accentuation), and this is adopted also by Tholuck, De Wette, Philippi, Delitzsch (ad Hab_2:4), Ewald, Forbes. See Textual Note 3above. The sense, however, is not essentially altered. The emphasis lies, at all events, on ðßóôéò , which is, of course, living faith. æÞóåôáé is to be taken in the full sense of the æùὴ áἰþíéïò , as revealed in Christ. The Apostle, as Delitzsch remarks, puts no forced meaning into the words of the prophet, but simply places them into the light of the New Testament. Habakkuk ends where Paul begins.—P. S.]
[2. St. Bernard: Justus ex fide sua vivet, utique si vivat et ipsa: aliter quomodo vitam dabit, si ipsa sit mortua (The just man shall live by his faith, if his faith itself live; otherwise how shall that which is itself death, give life?).—P. S.]
[3. “If the subject of the Epistle is to be stated in few words, these should be chosen: ôὸ åὐáããÝëéïí , äýíáìéò Èåïῦ åἰò óùôçñßáí ðáíôὶ ôῷ ðéóôåýïíôé . This expresses it better than merely ‘justification by faith,’ which is, in fact, only a subordinate part of the great theme—only the condition necessitated by man’s sinfulness for his entering the state of salvation: whereas the argument extends beyond this, to the death unto sin and life unto God and carrying forward of the sanctifying work of the Spirit, from its first fruits even to its completion;” Alford. Forbes (Anal. Com., p. 7.) likewise denies that justification by faith, especially if presented in a bare, forensic form, is the leading doctrine of the Epistle. “The grand truth here enunciated is the warm, living reality of a personal union with Christ (contrasted with the previous union with Adam), by which, in place of the sin unto death communicated by the first head of humanity, Christ’s righteousness and life are communicated to the believer, and become the inward quickening mover of every thought, feeling, and action. Thus is the distinction preserved, yet the indissoluble connection clearly evinced, between justification and sanctification, as being but two aspects of one and the same union of the believer with Christ—just as the dying branch ingrafted into the living vine is then only reckoned, and may justly be declared to be, a sound, living branch, when the union has taken place—because the assurance is then given of its being made so finally and fully, the vital juices of the vine having already begun to circulate within it.”—P. S.]
Luther: The power of God is such a force as to elevate man from sin to righteousness, from death to life, from hell to heaven, from the kingdom of the devil to the kingdom of God; and gives him eternal salvation.
Starke: As the gospel is a power of God, he denies it who constantly appeals to his weakness, and presents it in opposition to the gospel.—Though the gospel is the power of God, no one will be compelled to be saved, but every one possesses his own freedom to resist, and is therefore responsible.—Hedinger: Who would be ashamed of medicine when he is sick? or of light when he is blind, and would like to see? Wo to those who are ashamed of the words and office of Christ!
Lange: Many a person is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; but yet, if he is ashamed to follow Christ, he is in reality ashamed of the gospel itself in its true application and appropriation.—Faith is like a bucket, by which we draw grace for grace from that fulness of Jesus which contains the gospel.
Spener: Faith in Christ, confidence in the grace of God in Christ, is the beginning of our salvation, and will remain its instrument to the end. Therefore, faith must always endure and increase, and will thus grow from faith to faith—from one degree of light and power to another.
Bengel: No one need be ashamed of what is mighty and Divine (Rom_1:16).
Gerlach: There is something in the gospel of which the natural man is ashamed; therefore the Apostle confesses that this shame is conquered in his own case.—The effective power of God is not merely in the gospel, but it is the gospel itself. It is not merely a strength, from God, but it is His own strength. He works in and through the gospel.
Lisco: The gospel is a power of God; that is, a power in which He operates Himself. Therefore it is a holy, mighty, creative force, capable of saving all who believe it. On our part, faith is the condition that we must fulfil, the way to which we must conform, in order to obtain real salvation and deliverance from temporal and eternal destruction by the gospel.
Heubner: The danger of being ashamed of the gospel is easily incurred. Yet it is a shame which is very reprehensible; for, 1. It is a miserable weakness and want of principle to be ashamed of what is best; 2. It is the grossest contempt of God to place the world higher and fear it more than Him; and, 3. it is the meanest ingratitude toward God.
Fr. A. Wolff: The more the world boasts of its unbelief, the less should true Christians be ashamed of their faith. This is required: 1. For the honor of the truth; 2. the conversion of unbelievers; 3. the salvation of our own souls.
J. P. Lange: How sad the contrast between the false shame of Christians and the boldness and shamelessness of the world.—Who should be ashamed of the gospel? i.e., 1. Of God’s power and honor; 2. of the deliverance of men for their final salvation; 3. of the grand task of uniting Jews and Greeks (the law and culture) into a higher life.—The twofold confirmatory power of the gospel: 1. The first for: its Divine operation (Rom_1:16); 2. the second for: its Divine import (Rom_1:17).—The threefold for (Rom_1:16-17), or the three grounds of joyous, evangelizing activity.—The righteousness of faith: 1. Very old (Habakkuk); 2. eternally new (Paul, Luther); 3. always confirmed by true life.
[Burkitt: The power of the gospel is not from the preachers of the gospel; therefore do not idolize them. But they are God’s instruments, and their words are the organ of the Spirit’s power; therefore do not think meanly of them—A justified man lives a more holy, useful, and excellent life than all others; but the life that a justified man lives is always one of faith.—Henry (condensed): The reason why the Apostle made such a bold profession was, that sinners might be saved and believers edified.—Macknight: The Apostle insinuates with great propriety that the gospel is not an institution like the heathen mysteries, which were concealed from all but the initiated. The precepts of the gospel, being honorable in themselves and beneficial to society, cannot be too openly published.—Hodge: The salvation of men, including the pardon of their sins and the moral renovation of their hearts, can be effected by the gospel alone.—The power of the gospel does not lie in its pure theism, or perfect moral code, but in the cross—in the doctrine of justification by faith in a crucified Redeemer.—Whether we be wise or unwise, orthodox or heterodox, unless we are believers, and receive “the righteousness which is of God” as the ground of acceptance, we have no share in the salvation of the gospel.—Sermons on Rom_1:16, by B. Whichcote, John Owen, Bishop Ward, G. Esty, J. Erskine, Bishop Gilbert, Isaac Watts, Bishop Stillingfleet, Zollikofer, E. Brackenbury, Geo. Burder, W. E. Channing, R. McCheyne, and Thomas Arnold.—J. F. H.]
Footnotes:
[58]Rom_1:16.—The Codd, A. B. C. D., &c., read ôὸ åὐáããÝëéïí without the addition of ôïῦ ×ñéóôïῦ . [Cod. Sin. likewise omits ôïῦ ×ñéóôïῦ , as do nearly all the critical editors, Mill, Bengel, Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Wordsworth, &c. The words are found in the Complutensian Text and in Elzevir, and are defended by Wetstoin and Matthaei.—P. S.]
[59]Rom_1:17.—The ðñῶôïí is left out by Codd. B. and G. [not A., as Lange has it]; probably because it had an offensive appearance. [MSS. à . A. C. D. K. L. have it Tischendorf, Meyer, Alford, and others retain it. Lachmann puts it in brackets.—P. S.]
[60]Rom_1:17.—[This is a free translation of the Hebrew (Hab_2:4): åְöַãִּé÷ áֶּàֶîåּðָÎå ̇ éִçְéֶä , lit., the righteous shall live in (by) his faithfulness. The Masoretic accentuation, however, connects the first two words: The righteous in his faith, shall live. The Hebrew àֶîåּðָä and the Christian ðßóôéò both rest on the fundamental idea of trust in God. Paul follows in his rendering the Septuagint, but properly omits the ìïõ which these insert: ὁ äßêáéïò ìïõ ἐê ðßóôåùòæÞóåôáé . Vulgate: justus in fide sua vivet. Most commentators connect ἐê ðßóôåùò with the verb æÞóåôáé . But Dr. Lange, with Beza and Meyer, connects ἐê ðßóôåùò with ὁ äßêáéïò , and translates: He that righteous by faith, shall live. See the Exeg. Notes.—P. S.]
[61][To äýíáìéò èåïῦ , comp. 1Co_1:24, where Christ is called èåïῦ äýíáìéò and èåïῦ óïÖßá .—P. S.]
[62][i.e., here rei per instrumentum effectæ pro instrumento, as if we say, the knife cuts, while it is the hand of man that cuts with the knife. So it is the Holy Spirit that operates through the gospel as the instrumentality.—P. S.]
[63][ äýíáìéò èåïῦ is not to be resolved into divine power (Jowett), but the gospel is a power in and through which God Himself works efficaciously, i.e., so as to save the sinner by rousing him to repentance, faith, and obedience. èåïῦ is gen. autoris or rather possessivus. Comp. 1Co_1:18. Alford explains: “The bare substantive äýíáìéò hero (and 1Co_1:24) carries a superlative sense: the highest and holiest vehicle of the divine power, the äýíáìéò êáô ̓ ὲîï÷Þí .” Umbreit remarks that the law is never called God’s power, but a light or teaching, in which man must walk.—P. S.]
[64][Or rather: every one, implies the universality; that believeth, the subjective condition, of the gospel salvation; faith being the apprehending and appropriating organ. Paul says not: to every one who is circumcised, or baptized, or obeys the law, but, to every one that believeth. Without faith, sacraments and good works avail nothing. But true saving faith is of course a living faith, including knowledge of the truth, assent to the truth, and trust or confidence in Christ; it submits to all the ordinances of Christ, and necessarily produces good works.—P. S.]
[65][Alford: “Not that the Jew had any preference under the gospel; only he inherits and has a precedence.” Wordsworth: “First, in having a prior claim, as the covenanted people of God: first, therefore, in the season of its offer, but not in the condition of its recipients after its acceptance.” Dr. Hodge refers ðñῶôïí merely to the priority in time, which is not sufficient.—P. S.]
[66][Or as genitive of origin and procession. See Meyer.—P. S.]
[67][So also Alford: “God’s righteousness—not His attribute of righteousness, ‘the righteousness of God,’ but righteousness flowing from and acceptable to Him.” He then subjoins De Wette’s note. Hodge: “The righteousness which God gives, and which He approves.” He also quotes the remark of De Wette: “All interpretations which overlook the idea of imputation, as is done in the explanations given by the Romanists, and also in that of Grotius, are false.” M. Stuart confounds äéêáéïóýíç with äéêáßùóéò , and explains: “ äéêáéïóýíç èåïῦ is the justification which God bestows, or the justification of which God is the author.”—P. S.]
[68][Hofmann says, l. c., p. Rom 626: “Einerseits bezeichnet äéêáéïóýíç èåïῦ eine Gerechtigkeit, welche Gottes ist; andererseits muss nach dem Zusammenhange etwas gemeint sein, das uns zu Theil wird.” He takes the word to mean, not an attribute of God, but a righteousness which God has established, and which constitutes the subject of the gospel preaching, and makes it a power of God unto salvation to every believer. Hence the apostolic office is called ὴ äéáêïíéá ôῆò äéêáéïóýíçò . in opposition to the äéáêïíßá ôῆò êáôáêñßóåùò , 2Co_3:9.—P. S.]
[69][Seventh ed. by Lünemann, § 19, No. 26, p. 118. The article is often omitted before such substantives as are followed by a genitive of possession, e.g., åἰò åὐáããÝëéïí èåïῦ , Rom_1:20; ἐðὶ ðñüóùðïí áýôῶí , Mat_17:6; íïῦí êõñßïõ , 1Co_2:16, &c.—P. S.]
[70][Lipsius says, p. 22, without proof: “The general Greek significance of the word äéêáéüù remains justum facere, and must therefore have the preference before justum habere.” To this Dr. Liebner, and Wieseler, on Gal_2:16, p. 179, justly object. Lipsius admits, however, that äéêáéüù in Paul means justum habere, only not always, nor exclusively.—P. S.]
[71][So also Chrysostom and Theodoret. A modification of this view is Tertullian’s: Ex fide legis in fidem evangelii.—P. S.]
[72][This is only a modification of the preceding explanation, and is substantially held also by Erasmus, Melanchthon, Calvin, Beza, Wordsworth, Forbes. The sense is: Beginning and ending with faith from one degree of faith to another; faith is a vital principle and constant growth, receiving grace for grace, going from strength to strength, till it is transformed from glory to glory. Development is the law of spiritual as well as physical life; but in all the stages of growth of Christian life, the vital principle is the same; hence ἐê ðßóôåùò åὶò ðßóôéí , from or out of faith as the root, unto faith as the blossom and fruit; faith, as Bengel says, the prora et puppis, the fore-deck and hind-deck of a ship—i.e., all in all. Comp. ἀðὸ äüîçò åὶò äüîáí , “from glory to glory,” 2Co_3:18, and “from strength to strength,” Psa_84:7.—P. S.]