Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadSpurgeon Verse Expositions - Romans 3:1 - 3:31
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Rom_3:1. What advantage then hath the Jew? Or what profit is there of circumcision?
If, after all, both Jew and Gentiles were under sin, what advantage had the Jew by the covenant under which he lived? Or what was the benefit to him of the circumcision which was his distinctive mark?
Rom_3:2. Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
The Jews were God’s chronicle-keepers. They had to guard the holy Books, “the oracles of God.” They had also to preserve the knowledge of the truth by those divers rites and ceremonies by which God was pleased to reveal himself of old time.
Rom_3:3. For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
Did he not, after all, bless the Jews though among them were unbelievers?
Could it be that their unbelief would turn God from his purpose to bless the chosen people? Would their want of faith affect God’s faithfulness?
Rom_3:4. God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
However faithless men might be, God was still true and faithful. Paul quotes the Septuagint, which thus renders David’s words.
Rom_3:5. But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say?
If it so turns out, that even man’s sin makes the holiness of God the more illustrious, what shall we say?
Rom_3:5. Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)
Paul spoke as a mere carnal man might be supposed to speak. If ever we are obliged, for the sake of argument, to ask a question which is almost blasphemous, let us do it very guardedly, and say something to show that we really do not adopt the language as our own, just as Paul says, “I speak as a man.” If the very sin of man is made to turn to the glory of God, is God unjust in punishing that sin?
Rom_3:6. God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?
God will judge the world; and he does judge the world even now. There are judgments against nations already executed, and recorded on the page of history. If God were unjust, how could he judge the world?
Rom_3:7. For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?
If God has even turned the opposition of evil men to the establishment of his truth, as he has often done; why, then, are men punished for it? These are deep, dark questions, which come out of the proud heart of man, and Paul ventures to answer them.
Rom_3:8. And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? Whose damnation is just.
We never said, we never even thought, that we might do evil that good should come; nay, if all the good in the world could come of a single evil action, we have no right to do it. We must never do evil with the hope of advancing God’s cause. If God chooses to turn evil into good, as he often does, that is no reason why we should do evil; and it is no justification of sin. The murder of Christ at Calvary has brought the greatest possible benefit to us; yet it was a high crime against God, the greatest of all crimes, when man turned deicide, and slew the Son of God.
Rom_3:9-10. What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are under sin; as it is written.
Paul had already proved in the Epistle that both Jews and Gentiles were guilty before God. Now he quotes a set of texts from Israel’s own holy Books, to show the universal depravity of men. Notice how he rings the changes on the words “all” and “none.”
Rom_3:11-12. There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
This is the character of all unregenerate men. It is a true description of the whole race of mankind, whether Jews or Gentiles. In their natural state, “there is non righteous . . . there is none that seeketh after God . . . there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”
Rom_3:13. Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
Paul does not use flattering words, as those preachers do who prate about the dignity of human nature. Man was a noble creature when he was made in the image of God; but sin blotted out all his dignity.
Rom_3:14-19. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law:
The Jews are comprehended here, for they are specially “under the law.” The whole chosen seed of Israel, highly privileged as they were, are described in these terrible words that we have been reading, which Paul quoted from their own sacred Books.
Rom_3:19. That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
That is the true condition of the whole world, “guilty before God.” This is the right attitude for the whole human race, to stand with its finger on its lip, having nothing to say as to why it should not be condemned.
Rom_3:20. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
All the law does, is to show us how sinful we are. Paul has been quoting from the sacred Scriptures; and truly, they shed a lurid light upon the condition of human nature. The light can show us our sin; but it cannot take it away. The law of the Lord is like a looking-glass. Now, a looking-glass is a capital thing for finding out where the spots are on your face; but you cannot wash in a looking-glass, you cannot get rid of the spots by looking in the glass. The law is intended to show a man how much he needs cleansing; but the law cannot cleanse him. “By the law is the knowledge of sin.” The law proves that we are condemned, but it does not bring us our pardon.
Rom_3:21-22. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon them that believe:
We have no righteousness of our own; but God gives us a righteousness through faith in Christ; and he gives that to everyone who believes.
Rom_3:22-23. For there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
There are degrees of guilt; but all men have sinned. There is no difference in that respect, whatever gradations there may be in sinners.
Rom_3:24. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Dear hearers, are you all justified, that is, made just, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus? You are certainly all guilty in the sight of God; have you all been made righteous by faith in the redemption accomplished on the cross by Christ Jesus our Lord? I beg you to consider this question most seriously; and if you must truthfully answer, “No,” may God make you tremble, and drive you to your knees in penitence to cry to him for pardon!
Rom_3:25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
God holds back the axe which, were it not for his forbearance, would cut down the barren tree. He still forbears, and he is ready to pardon and blot out all the past if you will but believe in his dear Son.
Rom_3:26-27. To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus.Where is boasting then?
Where is it? It is to be found in a great many people. It is common enough; but where ought it to be? Where does it get a footing? It is shut out! There is no room for boasting in the heart that receives Christ. If a man were saved by works, he would have whereof to glory; boasting would not be shut out. But as salvation is all of grace, through faith in Christ, boasting is barred out in the dark, and faith gratefully ascribes all praise to God.
Rom_3:27-31. It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles, also: seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
Whether Jews or Gentiles, there was no salvation for them by the works of the law; the only way in which the circumcised or the uncircumcised could be justified was by faith. This principle does not make void God’s law; on the contrary, it establishes it, and sets it on the only right and solid foundation. The gospel of the grace of God is the best vindication of his law.
Rom_3:1-2. What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way; chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
If it be so that, after all, no outward rite or birth privileges can bestow grace, what advantage did the Jews possess? “Why!” says Paul, “they had this very great privilege, ‘that unto them were committed the oracles of God.’” It is no small blessing to have a revelation from Jehovah, and to have the means of knowing what that revelation really is.
Rom_3:3. For what if some did not believe.?
Many of the seed of Israel did not believe the revelation that was made to them; yet the privilege of hearing it was just as great, even though they slighted it.
Rom_3:3-5. Shall their unbelief made the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance?
Vengeance on a sin which is nevertheless made to turn to his glory?
Rom_3:5-7. (I speak as a man) God forbid.: for then how shall God judge the world? for if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner?
Yet I shall be. If God shall overrule my sin to his own glory, that will make no difference to my responsibility. If I have lied, if I have done wrong in say way, I must be judged and condemned on that account, whatever may be the ultimate result of my sin.
Rom_3:8. And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.
If any man dares to say that, “Since God turns even evil into good, and by the forgiveness of sin brings glory to himself, ‘Let us do evil that good may come,’” he is wrestling truth to his own destruction, and his “ damnation is just.”
Rom_3:9. What then? are we better than they?
Are Jews better than Gentiles? Or, are Gentiles better than Jews?
Rom_3:9. No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
Nobody can read the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, and follow it by reading the second, without seeing how completely Paul has proved “that they are all under sin.”
Rom_3:10. As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
There is not, and there never has been, one of the human race, save our Lord, who also is God, who ever continued to live a righteous life. Adam commenced righteously, but how soon he fell; and all his descendants have both commenced and continued to be sinners: “There is none righteous, no, not one.”
Rom_3:11. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
That is, none do so by nature; those who seek after God are led to do so by a work of grace upon their hearts. Otherwise, men are blind, they do not see the right path; they are willful, and do not seek after God.
Rom_3:12. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
This is God’s verdict upon the whole human race. He has the best opportunity of seeing them, and he has the best capacity for judging them; and this is what he says of all men as they are by nature, “There is none that doeth good, no, not one.”
Rom_3:13. Their throat is an open sepulcher;
A reeking mass of corruption;
Rom_3:13. With their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
They are pleased to say a bad word of their neighbor; they are eager to repeat any slander that they hear, and they are not unwilling even to invent it themselves.
Rom_3:14-15. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood:
And when, by fear of the laws of the land, they are prevented from carrying out their evil purposes, yet their anger is itself murder in intent; and into what human heart has not that sin glanced?
Rom_3:16-19. Destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what tidings soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law:
All these passages, which Paul has put together in this dreadful mosaic, are taken from the Old Testament, so they apply to the Jews; and he had already proved, in the first chapter, the intolerable vice of the Gentiles, so that now he has shown that both Jews and Gentiles are guilty.
Rom_3:19. That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
The nineteenth-century world as well as the world of the first century, all the world, in all time, has “become guilty before God.”
Rom_3:20. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight:
Talk not, therefore, of righteousness by your own works. Dream not of meriting eternal life by any attempt to keep the law; for this is the declaration of God’s Holy Spirit, “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: “
Rom_3:20. For by the law is the knowledge of sin.
The law is a looking-glass; you see your spots as you gaze into it. But no man ever washed his face in a looking-glass; it shows the spots, but it cannot remove them. The law is the indicator and the revealer of sin; but it has no power whatever to put away sin.
Rom_3:21-24. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
That is a very wonderful verse, every word of it is full of meaning. “Justified”; — that is, accounted just, made to be righteous in the sight of God. “Justified freely”; — without any merit or purchase money. “Freely by laic grace”; — not an act of justice, but an act of mercy has made sinners just in the sight of God. “Through the redemption”;— there is the foundation of it all, we are redeemed by precious blood: “Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
Rom_3:25-27. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then?
Boasting is sure to be somewhere handy, ready to creep in if it can, for we are all prone to it; it is the common sin of our race: “Where is boasting then?”
Rom_3:27. It is excluded. By what law?
It is shut out; but by what law is it shut out?
Rom_3:27. Of works?
No; for, whenever we think that we have been performing any good works, we begin to boast at once.
Rom_3:27. Nay: but by the law of faith.
For if we are saved by believing, if we are justified freely by God’s grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, then there is no room for boasting.
Rom_3:28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
“We conclude” — we are shut up to this belief, “that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.”
Rom_3:29. Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:
He saved Abraham by faith, and he saves us by faith. The same saving principle is applicable to all parts of the human race.
Rom_3:30-31. Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Do we then malice void the law through faith?
Some will be sure to say so; but it is not true.
Rom_3:31. God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
There is no one who so much loves the law of God, and delights in it after the inward man, as the one who is justified by faith. There is nothing that so honours the law as “the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ.” It establishes for ever the law, even as Christ said to his disciples, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”
Rom_3:1-2. What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
The Jews of old had a great advantage, for they had the truth when other men had not. The voice of God spake to them clearly, when only here and there, to a few chosen ones beside, was the voice of God delivered at all.
Rom_3:3. For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
It was a privilege to belong to the Jewish people, even though some, and many through their unbelief, did not avail themselves of the privilege.
Rom_3:4-7. God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory: why yet am I also judged as a sinner?
Here is another objection; if it be so that, somehow or other, the sin of man is over-ruled to magnify the grace of God, why am I then blameworthy? But the Apostle stamps this out as an evil Suggestion and a very moral disease.
Rom_3:8-11. And not rather (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just. What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
The whole human race has sinned against the Most High, and has become alienated in mind from the great and good Creator.
Rom_3:12. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable: there is none that doeth good, no not one.
What can be more expressive, what can be more plain than this? The whole race estranged from God and given up to sin.
Rom_3:13-18. Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Here is a description of all men. If some say, “Well, my feet were never swift to shed blood,” you probably have not been put into circumstances which would evoke that cruel passion. So we thought till lately: we thought we were all so civilized that we were to have war no more. Believe me, let the trumpet be sounded and cannon be heard, and there is a devil in our humanity which would not soon be awakened, and we, too. might become as fierce as any other nation. It is still true of men.
Rom_3:19-20. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
It is like a looking-glass that shows us our blots, but it does not wash them away. The law is the standard which shows us how short we are of God’s glory; but it does not make up our shortcomings. It is a killing, not a saving thing. By the law, no man ever was, or ever will be, saved. By the law, we guilty ones are condemned.
Rom_3:21-22. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets: Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference-
No difference first of all in the sin; we are all guilty and all condemned —no difference in the way of salvation. Whoever believes in Jesus is justified by faith in Jesus — there is no difference.
Rom_3:23-26. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God: To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
“Where is boasting then? It is excluded.” It is shut out. If men be saved not at all by works, but altogether by the free grace of God through the merits of Christ, then boasting hath the gate shut in its face. But by what law is boasting shut out?
Rom_3:27. Where is boasting then?
“By works?” Nay: but by the law of faith.
Rom_3:27. It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
If we were to say God justified man on the ground of law without their perfectly keeping it, we should, make void the law; but when we teach glint God justifies men of his free grace and mercy on account of Christ’s having kept the law and having fulfilled its fullest demands, we do not make void the law, but we establish the law.
This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 110; Rom_2:25-29; Romans 3.
Rom_3:1-2. What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
It was a great thing to be a Jew in those old times. When all the rest of the world was in the dark, the Jews had the light: “Unto them were committed the oracles of God.”
Rom_3:3. For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
That is to say, if they did not believe God, did that make him untrue?
Rom_3:4. God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
Whatever men did under the old law, however faithless they might be. God was true and faithful still.
Rom_3:5-6. But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?
Whenever anybody insinuates that God is not just, Paul protests against such an idea. “No,” says he, “he must of necessity be just because he is God; for how could he judge the world if he were unrighteous?”
Rom_3:7-8. For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner? And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.
No Christian man ever did say, “Let us do evil that good may come.” If anybody else ever does say it, his condemnation is most just. Albeit that God, in infinite wisdom, does cause even the sin of man to illustrate the greatness of his grace, yet that by no means excuses his sin, but leaves it an abominable evil, most hateful in the sight of the thrice-holy Jehovah.
Rom_3:9. What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
Read the earlier chapters of this Epistle, chapters that are enough to make the heart sick to read them, and to make the head ache with the memory of them, and when you have read them, you will say that Paul has proved that both Jews and Gentiles are under sin.
Rom_3:10. As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
Note in the passage we are going to read how Paul rings the changes upon those two words, “All” and “none.” He begins with the word “none.”
Rom_3:11-12. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Yet men come and talk to us about the righteous heathen whose virtues they extol, the imaginary good people, for there are none such actually in existence. Here the Lord himself is speaking, and the Spirit of God is quoting from passages of the Old Testament, which he puts together to describe the character of humanity. How sweeping are all the terms! “There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”
Rom_3:13-16. Their throat is an open sepulcher, with their tongues they have used deceit, the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways:
How true that last verse is of many today! Their sins are destroying them, the lusts of the flesh destroy the body, drunkenness and such like sin are destructive habits, and they make those who practice them to be miserable: “Destruction and misery are in their ways.” What miserable persons, what miserable families, what miserable countries, are made by indulgence in sin! There is no true happiness without holiness.
Rom_3:17. And the way of peace have they not known:
Quietness, happiness, and rest are not known by sinful men. They are not in the way of finding peace.
Rom_3:18. There is no fear of God before their eyes,
How true is this terrible accusation, especially of this present age! Men seem to be casting off all fear of God. Anyone who reads human history will, I think, detect that the present condition of society in our country, religiously, is wonderfully like the condition of France before the great Revolution, which brought so much bloodshed with it. Everything seems loosening, and broadening, and tending downwards; and especially “there is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Rom_3:19. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all, the world may become guilty before God.
Every man by nature tries to open his mouth, and say the best he can for himself, but it is the object of God’s law to shut every man’s mouth; and when we come to that condition, then there is hope for us. When we have nothing to say for ourselves, then the Lord Jesus will open his mouth for the dumb, and plead for the guilty in the courts of God.
Rom_3:20. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin,
All the law can do is to show us our sin. The law is a mirror, and looking in it you can see your spots; but you cannot wash in a looking-glass. If you want to be cleansed from your stains, you must go somewhere else. The object of the law of God is not to cleanse us, but to show us how much cleansing we need; to reveal our disease, not to find a remedy for it.
Rom_3:21-22. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe:
You see, we cannot become righteous by the law. Paul says that there is no one who has ever obtained righteousness in that way. We, on the contrary, have so sinned that we never can become righteous through the law; but there is a new way of righteousness, the way of the righteousness of God; and God’s righteousness is much better than the best human righteousness can ever be conceived to be. There is a righteousness which comes to us by faith in Jesus Christ, not by doing, but by believing, a righteousness which is freely bestowed upon all them that believe.
Rom_3:22-24. For there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
I have heard persons ask, “Why do you say, ‘free grace’? If it is grace, it must be free.” Well, we say “free grace”, because the Scripture says, “freely by his grace”; and as the Lord never uses superfluous words, we conceive that we are not guilty of tautology when we say “free grace,”
Rom_3:25-26. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Not of him who works for salvation, but of him who believes; not of him who merits, but of him who trusts. This is God’s way of righteousness, and we are sent to declare it. Oh, that the Spirit of God may be given to make the declaration acceptable to your hearts!
Rom_3:27. Where is boasting then? It is excluded.
Shut out, done with.
Rom_3:27. By what law? of works?
No, no, the law of works would have allowed us to boast. We should have merited whatever we earned by our own excellence, and we might have gloried in it.
Rom_3:27-31. Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yea, of the Gentiles also: seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
This exposition consisted of readings from Romans 3, and Rom_4:16-25.